Dear Parent/Carer,
Thank you for your understanding and patience last week.
Year 2 absolutely loved their visit to Rest Bay last Friday and I know that they’ll be doing some amazing writing about it which you’ll be able to see in our Consultations after half term.
Thank you for your positive feedback about last week’s Family Learning sessions with Mrs Couch. I’m glad that you found it helpful.
This Week
This week is Children’s Mental Health Week and the theme is ‘Let’s Connect’. Children will be doing several activities this week to help them develop strategies to help them talk about their feelings and cope with changes.
We plan to update our website to include links to services that could help you so if you have any requests or information, please let us know.
Our assessment for our Eco Platinum Award took place today and I’m really pleased to say that we have kept our renewal! Congratulations to Mrs Hayes and the Eco Team!
The Eco Team have given us this week’s Eco Tip (see below).
This is Week 2 of the three week Swimming Course for Year 4 pupils. They are doing really well at settling into the routines and challenges of this course and we’re really pleased with them.
Also today, Gwent Fire Service officers, based at Malpas Road Fire Station, came to talk to Year 2 and Year 5/6 children about fire safety.
Tuesday is Safer Internet Day. This is a national event which takes place every year but we also have a termly focus on this in the Autumn and Summer, so that children are well-informed about this.
The theme this year is: ‘Want to talk about it? Safe space for conversations online’
There are a variety of resources available to help you as parents on the Welsh Government Hwb website and the following link will take you directly to the Internet Safety section:
https://hwb.gov.wales/zones/keeping-safe-online/
The Stow Hill Pantry is open from 3.15-4.00pm in the Family Room near the Nursery entrance this Thursday.
Don’t forget your token. If you haven’t registered with us before, and would like to, please come along and we can give you a form to complete which is for school use only.
Thank you to staff and parents who responded to our request for some additional toiletries last week.
Thank you also to the four parents who have volunteered to go on a rota to help sort out the food items. Your help is very much appreciated.
Behaviour Survey Feedback- Parent Meeting
Following the second meeting that we offered as an additional session, I’ve summarized your responses to the Behaviour for Learning survey, which were very helpful. (You will need to look at the PDF for the diagrams).
| What kind of behaviours should your child know about? | Sharing and caring for others Obeying Respect for diversity, compassion and ownership Being a good person Knowing school rules and routines Apologising and acknowledging another’s apology Taking turns Empathy Confidence Accepting someone else’s no |
| What rewards for good behaviour does your child really like and respond to? (In school and at home) | Stickers, teachers’ appreciation, praise, rewards, verbal praise, house points, certificates, dojos, sweet |
| As a parent, what do you think helps your child most to learn about positive behaviour in school? | Group working and teachers teaching good behaviours Story, real-life examples Good education and practice Positive traits from teachers/adults Seeing how others behave and how they get rewarded |
| Are there any behaviour approaches that we use in school that you also use at home with your child? | Appreciating my child when they do something good Reward system Maintain routines Show empathy and respect |
| Any other comments about behaviour? | Please make children aware of healthy behaviours such as exercise and food, less screen time, bad impacts of smoking Children’s behaviour reflects their upbringing House points/dojos – something to work together as a team, rather than individual competing The behaviours of some children with conditions such as autism aren’t always understood. |
To give you a little more information on this, class dojos are individual points to help with Golden Time which is 30 minutes of an activity chosen by children on a Friday afternoon. Children also belong to one of four houses – Usk, Ebbw, Severn and Wye – and are part of house competitions for our Eisteddfod and Sports’ Days.
To follow up on this, the School Council will also be looking at healthy eating as part of their action plan based on the HAPPEN survey (Wellbeing- Swansea University) that children in classes from Y4 -Y6 took part in, last term.
Food
A few children have brought items such as burgers or cold chips in their packed lunch recently.
These are not permitted in school. We are part of the Healthy Schools’ Network and we are teaching children to make healthy choices about food.
Lunch boxes should contain sandwiches/wraps or rice/pasta etc and an item of fruit. You may send in crisps, small cake or biscuit but no bars of chocolate or sweets are permitted. Water is available during the day, but you may send in a carton fruit juice etc to drink if you wish. No cans with fizzy drinks in, glass bottles or Prime (even the junior version) are permitted.
Also, because we are trying to protect our children with nut allergies, please do not send in any nuts, items with nuts in, or use Nutella spread. You are able to get chocolate spread alternatives that don’t have nut in them that would be ok.
Thank you very much for helping with this.
Please remember that all children from Reception and up to and including Year 2 are able to have a free school dinner if you’d like them to.
Dates
A revised copy of the Diary Dates sheet will be sent out after this newsletter and a paper copy will come out tomorrow.
Please note that one of the days for Nursery and Class 3/4MP consultations has changed.
Advance reminder of some dates this half term:
Tues 14th Feb – Proposed industrial action (More information will follow once it’s available)
Fri 17th Feb – Schoop booking form for Parental Consultation released
Fri 24th Feb – Last day for booking a date for Consultations
School breaks up for half term until Monday 27th Feb
Cars on North Street
Following on from my earlier Schoop, please take the greatest of care at the back of the school, on North Street, at the beginning and end of the day.
A parent contacted me on Friday saying about how dangerous the situation on North Street has been recently with cars driving up North Street, instead of along Jones Street, turning in the road and blocking the pathway.
I’ve since had a report about another dangerous situation that happened when a handbrake slipped on a car earlier in the week.
All of our children are too precious to take risks with on the road.
Please follow the points below to keep everyone safe:
- Drive along Jones Street and down North Street to keep a constant flow of traffic
- Do not leave a child unattended in a parked vehicle
- Keep the dipped kerb space by the Nursery entrance clear
- Keep the disabled space and safety rail clear by the Y1/2 entrance
- Check the road between cars before walking across
There are a number of spare parking spaces in the roads through the lane opposite the school and you might find these helpful.
I haven’t had to send a reminder about traffic for a while and I’d really appreciate it if we could all work together with this to avoid any possible future accidents.
I hope to meet after half term with parents who may want to help with this, when we have looked at some possible solutions.
I hope that this information is helpful.
Very kind regards,
H L Vaughan
Headteacher