Dear Parent/Carer,
I’m sorry about you not receiving a newsletter last week.
This Week
Our new Samba sessions with Year 3/4 classes started really well last week. They are run by Gwent Music and children are enjoying them very much. The final session of eight will take place in the week beginning Monday 11th March, which also coincides with the Y4 Swimming Course. We’d like to have a small concert for you to showcase what the children have learned in that week, and so we plan to rearrange the Samba session time to allow for this to take place. I’ll let you know more when I can.
Tomorrow morning, Mr Paul Thompson, the head of Maths at The John Frost School, is visiting Class 5/6P and Class 5/6G to meet the children and chat about their learning. He also visited Class 5/6B before Christmas. This visit is part of our Y6 transition process and also helps all Y5/6 children to get to know some John Frost School staff.
The Stow Hill Pantry is still running on a Wednesday from 3.15-3.45pm. However, it has been postponed until Thursday of this week.
In order to ensure that we can distribute food fairly, all parents are asked to register for a food bag of basic items.
Feminine hygiene products are also available. If you didn’t attend land register last week, but would like to, just see Mrs Webber at the Pantry, who will be able to help you.
On Friday we are marking Holocaust Memorial Day (which takes place on Saturday 27th January) by attending the Holocaust Memorial Service at Newport Cathedral. Ms Bowden and I will be taking House Captain with us, to represent our school. This is always such a moving service and the day is shared with pupils in the school.
Dates
Although you have received Class Topic Letters, I’m sorry that the Diary Sheets haven’t yet come out to you. We’ve had to await confirmation of some final dates but it will be with you before the end of this week, rather than make you wait any longer.
Some Key Dates:
Thursday 1st February – First Family Learning session – 9.00-10.30am – Reception Reading Activities (Your child will join you for part of this session.)
Friday 9th February – Break up for half term (Monday to Friday) Monday 19th February – School and Nursery closed – INSET day.
Behaviour For Learning
Our School Council presented our new Behaviour For Learning process in our assembly last week. They gave a really good explanation about the steps that everyone took part in to come up with a new set of Golden Rules, which support the behaviours that we expect and also sit alongside our values. These are shown below.
Another change to the process is that we will no longer use red and yellow cards but are putting into place a system based on a restorative justice approach. This allows children to reflect on what they’re done, to understand the impact on others and to do tasks, where appropriate, to ‘restore’ or put right actions.
In the vast majority of cases these will be dealt with by the child’s calls teacher or year group leader, and they will keep you fully informed.
| In our school we behave with integrity and are the best St Woolos Primary School representative we can be. | ||
| OUR GOLDEN RULES | ||
| VALUE | RULE | WHAT IT MEANS |
| Kind | Use kind words and actions | We value and care about each other. We aren’t physically or verbally unkind to anyone. We keep ourselves and others safe. We walk safely indoors. |
| Fair | Treat everyone with respect and compassion at all times | We listen to everyone’s opinions and beliefs. We treat everyone equally. We’re accountable for our actions and words. We’re honest. |
| Curious | Get ready for new learning | We have a growth mindset. We are resilient. We follow the COMIT rules. (Good sitting/Good listening/Good waiting) |
| Aspirational | Aspire to be the best person you can be | We relish challenge. We’re willing to try new things. We strive to achieve our own dreams and goals. |
| We stick to these rules inside and out of school. | ||
The Welsh Government’s Whole School Approach to Wellbeing
We are taking part in The Welsh Government’s Whole School Approach to Wellbeing process and a starting point for this
is the completion of surveys by pupils, parents, staff and Governors which will be done over the next two weeks.
Below is a link to a brief survey for parents which school across Wales are using if that are taking part in the process. If you could make time (less that five minutes) to help with this please, it would inform our direction for the next two years for wellbeing. The survey is anonymous but gives you a chance to have a say in what happens in school for your child.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/19xpVHBKB0I5DlBlTa63MvbgA8TLydovk/edit#heading=h.gjdgxs
This newsletter and link will also be shared on Schoop. Thank you in advance for your help.
Nursery Start Times
In order to make the morning and afternoon start times as helpful and safe as they can be, we’re changing the system slightly.
At the start of each session, please line up on North Street as before. We will open the gates five minutes earlier before the start times of 9.00am and 12.00pm and will let children in from 8.55am or 12.25pm. The gates will be open for we five minute slot until 9.00am or 12.30pm, which are the Nursery session start times. This means that it will save you waiting too long in the morning if you have other children in school, and will ensure that it’s easier for you to keep your child safely with you. This should also help in the case of extreme weather.
I hope that this revised system is helpful for you.
Very kind regards,
H L Vaughan
Headteacher