Friday December 2nd

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas at Waunarlwydd with the start of our concert rehearsals (you’re in for a treat) and decorations all round. A big thanks to the team at ALDI Gorseinon for donating 3 Christmas trees to the school. We are all excited for the long awaited return of our Christmas Fair next week, we hope you can make it!

Elsewhere, there has been lots to get excited about with the week ending with 2 days of rugby coaching sessions delivered by Joe and Tom from Waunarlwydd rugby club. A huge thanks to both for the time and effort they put in to ensure all the children enjoyed the experience!

There have been lots of other highlights across the school this week! I had the pleasure of joining Nursery on their trip to the farm this week. A massive thanks to Ella’s mum Danielle and farmer Paul for ensuring that the children (and staff) enjoyed a wonderful time learning about life on the farm! Reception have been having fun practising writing simple words in our phonics sessions. Using Numicon, we have been making up lots of number stories about some of the children in class, adding together 2 numbers up to 10. They had gym outside this week with a fun mini obstacle course, jumping, hopping and running as well as giant skittles! They ended the week with excitement as Archie the Elf arrived with a box full of decorations for class which they put up together whilst listening to Christmas music!

Mrs Wallace and Mrs Howells’ class have been using their imagination to think of different uses for a stick (just like how stick man was used). They were very inventive and thought of a toilet plunger, hair curlers and a candle! They enjoyed acting it out and taking pictures of it. Of course, the high point was decorating our class Christmas tree and opening our Julia Donaldson advent calendar! Miss Tyrrell’s class have been developing their skills when using the JIT program to create pictures. They selected a colour, used the fill tool, changed the brush size and chose from a selection of pictures. They have also been very creative when using clay to make Diva lamps for the Christmas Fair. What an exciting week in Mrs Evans and Mrs Thomas’ class with the highlights being their rugby skills session, telling the time games, their Stickman challenges and, of course, concert practice! Mr Reid’s class thoroughly enjoyed their fantastic George’s Marvellous Medicine retelling using super writing skills while their amazing step by step BFG drawings were another big hit!

Mr Jenkins class have loved learning about ‘The Trapper’ this week and hearing all about the lives of children during Victorian times, while they also loved finishing their incredible craft ready for the Christmas fair. In Year 5 and 6, the children loved exploring the water cycle in many different science experiments. They watched clouds form in a jar and saw how it rained using shaving foam!  Dance music this week has been pumping through our classrooms and the children have started rehearsing Cinderella Rockerfella this week. They are working so hard and doing themselves proud!

Digital Advice for parents

Dates for the calendar

Wednesday 7th December – Christmas Fair

Thursday 8th December – Christmas Jumper Day

Tuesday 13th December – Nursery / Reception concert (morning), Year 1, 2 and 3 concert (afternoon)

Wednesday 14th December – Year 4, 5 and 6 concert (afternoon), Year 1, 2 and 3 concert (evening)

Thursday 15th December – Year 4, 5 and 6 concert (evening)

Tuesday 20th December – Special visitor

Wednesday 21st December – Christmas Party Day

Thursday 22nd December – Christmas Lunch

As always, if you have any questions or concerns don’t hesitate in getting in touch!

Have a great weekend!

Mr Jamie Evans

Deputy Headteacher

Friday November 25th

Well, it’s been a sea of red at school today as we’ve celebrated Wales’ participation in the football World Cup after a long wait of 64 years! The result didn’t quite go to plan but no-one can say that Waunarlwydd didn’t give their all to supporting the team! We wish Wales and all the teams the best for the rest of the World Cup!

Parent/carer voice

Unfortunately, we cannot work together to address any concerns raised in parent social media groups. We feel strongly about our open door policy and if you have any concerns regarding the school, please make contact in person or via email/telephone. In addition, just a reminder that you have been sent a short form allowing you to identify areas that you feel are a strength to build on within our school and also any areas you feel that we can improve! Thanks to those that have already completed! It helps us plan, moving forward! This form will remain open for one more week. Please follow the link below!

 Parent/Carer voice

It’s been another fabulous week full of highlights! The Nursery were very excited on Tuesday, when they found huge footprints in their playground. They followed them to discover 3 frozen eggs with baby dinosaurs inside. They investigated different ways to melt the ice and helped the babies escape. The Mummy dinosaur sent a letter thanking the children for helping her babies. Reception have loved learning about the story of Swansea Jack and thinking of words that describe him. They have been measuring dogs, building simple 3 letter words to match the dog kennels and sorting pictures of Swansea from now and a long time ago.

Miss Tyrrell’s class have been busy writing a recount of the story of Rama and Sita and demonstrating their super creative skills when making diva lamps out of play doh. During their waterproof investigation they made sensible predictions and explanations about which materials they thought would be waterproof or not. Mrs Wallace and Mrs Howells’ class have thoroughly enjoyed creating their own versions of Stick man using their wonderful writing skills while beginning to learn songs for their concert has been very exciting.

Mrs Evans and Mrs Thomas’ class have loved their story writing tasks this week, applying all their learning to their own epic tales. No surprises for guessing the highlight for our Year 3 children this week! The children had an awesome time on their trip to Techniquest and returned full of excitement! Other high points in Mr. Reid’s class have been designing a giant for their BFG focus and using J2e to design posters to support teams at the World Cup.

Of course, a highlight for the whole school has been the wonderful assembly delivered so professionally by Mr. Jenkins’ class. However, it was another easy choice for their class highlight with their outstanding day at Big Pit. The weather didn’t stop the children having a great time both over and underground. Year 5 and 6 have enjoyed their ‘Big Maths beat that’ challenges this week but, after looking at a quest story a few weeks ago, the highlight has been planning and writing their own quest stories independently. The Y5/6 teachers are beyond proud of the improvement in their writing, especially vocabulary choices and sentence structures. 

Digital Advice for parents

This week’s advice for parents and carers centres around ‘What you need to know about Tik Tok.’

Criw Cymraeg

As mentioned a few weeks ago our amazing Criw Cymraeg been working with some past pupils from Gowerton Comprehensive School to research and film a short video all about Waunarlwydd Rugby club, which you can now view using the link below! Another big thanks to the club for being so welcoming! 

The History of Waunarlwydd Rugby Club

Book Fair – Diolch!

A big thanks for supporting the book fair this week. We have been able to raise £94 to buy books for children at school!

Dates for the calendar

Wednesday 7th December – Christmas Fair

Thursday 8th December – Christmas Jumper Day

Tuesday 13th December – Nursery / Reception concert (morning), Year 1, 2 and 3 concert (afternoon)

Wednesday 14th December – Year 4, 5 and 6 concert (afternoon), Year 1, 2 and 3 concert (evening)

Thursday 15th December – Year 4, 5 and 6 concert (evening)

Tuesday 20th December – Special visitor

Wednesday 21st December – Christmas Party Day

Thursday 22nd December – Christmas Lunch

(Any dates for events involving specific classes/year groups will be sent out separately)

As always, if you have any questions or concerns don’t hesitate in getting in touch!

Have a great weekend!

Mr Jamie Evans

Deputy Headteacher

Friday November 18th

This week has been anti-bullying week! Thanks to Ms Tyrrell and our Healthy Heroes Senedd group for organising a great week of activities. The key messages have been around kindness, being a good friend and reaching out!

The Nursery had a very exciting morning on Tuesday when all the parents and carers came to spend the morning in the classroom. They helped the children play in the Farm Shop, paint, make a 5 Speckled Frogs picture, make castles with flags and lots of other activities. The children were so proud to show off their classroom and had a great time. We hope the adults enjoyed too! Reception have written some fabulous Autumn poems, dancing around like Autumn leaves and have also enjoyed counting and adding with conkers and numicon. Miss Tyrrell’s class have been discussing the importance of being kind. They thought of lots of different ways they could be kind to their friends and made a kindness promise. Learning about light and dark has been lots of fun, exploring with torches and making shadows in their dark tent, as well as learning about light sources. Mrs Wallace and Mrs Howells’ class enjoyed writing an act of kindness on each of their painted hand prints to make a class flower. They also enjoyed listening to Night Monkey, Day Monkey and writing adjectives to describe what they look like on the outside and how they feel on the inside. 

Mrs Evans and Mrs Thomas’ class are really getting to grips with their pbuzz instruments and have even managed to learn jingle bells this week! Other highlights have been thinking about being a good friend and showing how far they’ve come with their time telling skills. Mr Reid’s class have loved their discussions about their favourite music and beginning to play their pbuzz instruments. Their creative tasks have linked to anti-bullying week, designing a hand with ideas about how to reach out and help others.

Mr Jenkins’ class have had a great week developing ideas for their adventure stories and learning about Victorian inventors. They have also been busy working on their assembly ready for next week and also enjoyed investigating area in their numeracy work. Highlights in Year 5 and 6 have included learning more about multiplication, successfully identifying primes, factors, square and cube numbers. They used two different written methods (grid and compact) and decided which they preferred. Learning about the different Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt and making a booklet was another high point, while hockey and dance lessons have produced many smiles and a few sweaty faces! Rock music has gone down very well as the genre of the week!

Digital advice

Last week we introduced digital advice to our weekly newsletters. Up until Christmas, we will be focusing on online-safety. Each weekly newsletter will include a poster to support children and families in remaining safe online. This week’s advice centres on ‘Loneliness Online.’ See below:

Parent/carer voice

This form will close next week! Thanks to those that have already responded! We would appreciate you taking the time to complete this short form to identify areas that you feel are a strength to build on and any areas you feel that we can improve! Diolch! Please follow the link! Parent/Carer voice

Dates for the calendar

W/C Monday 21st November – Book Fair in school

Wednesday 7th December – Christmas Fair

Thursday 8th December – Christmas Jumper Day

Tuesday 13th December – Nursery / Reception concert (morning), Year 1, 2 and 3 concert (afternoon)

Wednesday 14th December – Year 4, 5 and 6 concert (afternoon), Year 1, 2 and 3 concert (evening)

Thursday 15th December – Year 4, 5 and 6 concert (evening)

Tuesday 20th December – Special visitor

Wednesday 21st December – Christmas Party Day

Thursday 22nd December – Christmas Lunch

(Any dates for events involving specific classes/year groups will be sent out separately)

As always, if you have any questions or concerns don’t hesitate in getting in touch!

Have a great weekend!

Mr Jamie Evans

Deputy Headteacher

Friday November 11th

We have ended another great week in thoughtful mood as all the children showed huge respect in honouring Remembrance Day. Some pupils joined me at Gowerton Comprehensive for a service and we held a whole school assembly to commemorate the day! Well done all!

This week has been all about learning the wonders of Science during our whole school Science week. Thanks to Mr Reid and our Super Science Senedd group for organising a great week of activities. Nursery really enjoyed the balloon experiments and learning about solids and liquids when melting chocolate for their edible sparklers. Reception children had lots of fun experimenting with balloons, making them pop, inflating them with fizz and using a balloon to make a mini water fountain! Rainbow skittles, exploding balloons, lava lamps and magic milk were the highlights in Miss Tyrrell’s class with the children making some super predictions and giving some very sensible explanations. Fireworks in a jar and ‘grow your own rainbow’ were big hits in Mrs Wallace and Mrs Howells’ class. Investigating reversible and irreversible change was the highlight for Mrs Evans and Mrs Thomas’ class while Mr Reid’s class loved their slinky sound experiment. Mr Jenkins’ class really enjoyed investigating rumours e.g. Are children faster the longer their legs? Do people who have longer arms throw further? They’ve had great fun learning! Favourites in Year 5 and 6 were investigating surface tension with straws and bubbles as well as learning about force using eggs. It’s been a super Science week for everyone!

Other highlights for the week have been going out in the pouring rain on Welly Wednesday, to investigate muddy puddles, in Nursery. The only way to do a true investigation was to jump and splash in them as many times as they could! Reception loved creating fireworks pictures and writing their names in the sparks. Thinking of wow words to make their sentences more interesting when writing their bonfire senses poems independently was a hit in Miss Tyrrell’s and Mrs Wallace and Mrs Howells’ classes. It was the long awaited introduction to pbuzz in Mrs Evans and Mrs Thomas’ class and the class band have made a great start to their learning. Creating i-movies was another favourite in Mr Reid’s class, while Mr Jenkins’ class have enjoyed planning their creative stories and drawing super pictures in charcoal of miners in the past. Dance lessons and listening to music from the punk genre have been other standout moments in year 5 and 6! Wow, a very busy and exciting week to start the new half term!

Criw Cymraeg have had a productive week working with some past pupils from Gowerton Comprehensive School to research and film a short video all about Waunarlwydd Rugby club. They’ll be posting the video for you to see once it is complete! A big thanks to the club for being so welcoming! 

Digital advice

We are adding digital advice to our weekly newsletters. Up until Christmas, we will be focusing on online-safety. Each weekly newsletter will include a poster to support children and families in remaining safe online. This week’s advice centres on ‘How to combat online bullying.’ See below:

Parent/carer voice

We welcome the reformed curriculum for Wales and are fully committed to providing the best possible education and learning environment for our wonderful children! Your opinions matter to us! Thanks to those that have already responded! We would appreciate you taking the time to complete this short form to identify areas that you feel are a strength to build on and any areas you feel that we can improve! Diolch! Please follow the link! Parent/Carer voice

Teacher/Parent meetings

Parents’ evenings will take place next week. SQUID appointments have now closed but, if you have missed the deadline, please email or phone the school to arrange. If you would prefer to speak with the teacher over the phone, please let us know!

Dates for the calendar

W/C Monday 14th November – National Anti-Bullying Week

W/C Monday 14th November – Teacher / Parent Meetings

Friday 18th November – Children in Need Day (Non uniform day)

W/C Monday 21st November – Book Fair in school

Wednesday 7th December – Christmas Fair

Thursday 8th December – Christmas Jumper Day

Tuesday 13th December – Nursery / Reception concert (morning), Year 1, 2 and 3 concert (afternoon)

Wednesday 14th December – Year 4, 5 and 6 concert (afternoon), Year 1, 2 and 3 concert (evening)

Thursday 15th December – Year 4, 5 and 6 concert (evening)

Tuesday 20th December – Special visitor

Wednesday 21st December – Christmas Party Day

Thursday 22nd December – Christmas Lunch

(Any dates for events involving specific classes/year groups will be sent out separately)

As always, if you have any questions or concerns don’t hesitate in getting in touch!

Have a great weekend!

Mr Jamie Evans

Deputy Headteacher

Friday October 28th

Wow, the end of the first half term of the year already! Thanks for all your support throughout! What a great half term it’s been and a busy week to end on! Year 5 and 6 all thoroughly enjoyed their trip to the Egypt Centre and Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 have ended the week with a wonderful trip to Margam Park! Thanks to all the staff for organising and to all the families for their financial contributions during challenging economic times! There are more trips to look forward to after half term with Nursery’s farm visit, Year 3 heading to Techniquest and Year 4 making the trip to Big Pit! These experiences are not possible without your financial contributions so, again, a big thankyou in advance!

Parent/carer voice

We welcome the reformed curriculum for Wales and are fully committed to providing the best possible education and learning environment for our wonderful children! Your opinions matter to us! Thanks to those that have already responded! We would appreciate you taking the time to complete this short form to identify areas that you feel are a strength to build on and any areas you feel that we can improve! Diolch! Please follow the link! Parent/Carer voice

Teacher/Parent meetings

Parents’ evenings will take place during the week of 14th November. You will be able to make an appointment in the first week after half term using SQUID. If you would prefer to speak with the teacher over the phone, please phone the office to arrange!

PLEASE NOTE THAT AFTER SCHOOL CLUBS WILL RESUME THE WEEK BEGINNING 21st NOVEMBER FOLLOWING PARENTS’ WEEK!

On Thursday, our football teams made the short journey to the Elba to take on our neighbours from Gowerton Primary School. The boys and girls represented the school superbly in some well fought matches! Diolch pawb!

We gave Mrs Horseman a great send off this week as she left to begin her maternity leave. Mrs Kathryn Howells will be joining our team and job sharing with Mrs Wallace after half term and it has been great to welcome her this week to meet the children.

Defibrillator on site

Prior to the COVID pandemic, we were raising funds to have a defibrillator installed at school! A big thankyou to Kellie Phillips who previously managed to raise £500 towards the cost. We are now pleased to say that we are in a position to go ahead with the purchase and we are hoping that the installation and required training can take place prior to Christmas!

The Nursery had a very exciting end to ‘d’ week with a class dog show. They all brought a toy dog to school and did lots of dog related activities, including cooking a bone cookie, making a dotty dog and doing an obstacle course outside. When the children went for snack the naughty dogs went and hid all around the classroom! Mrs Davies came to judge and every dog won a certificate. This week in Reception, children have been making pumpkin patterns, building homes for pumpkins and creating orange and black shape pictures. They have also had fun blending simple 3 letter words on pumpkins and matching pumpkin numbers to Numicon shapes to complete simple number problems.

To celebrate black history month the children in Miss Tyrell’s class have been discussing how we are all different and what makes us special and unique. They asked questions with a talk partner to find out information about each other such as hair and eye colour, favourite food, hobbies and number of pets etc. There was super independent learning skills and co-operation on show when the children worked together with a partner to complete a dice game challenge. Mrs Wallace and Mrs Horseman’s class have had a great week writing instructions of how to make the perfect potion, problem solving using their addition and subtraction skills and completing their poly print trees for the background of their Gruffalo pictures. Mrs Thomas and Mrs Evans’ class came up with some super instructions on how to be a good friend, thoroughly enjoyed making broomsticks in forest school, while layering, marbling and drawing to create their Gruffalo artwork was another big hit. George’s Marvellous medicine has been the focus in Mr Reid’s class with some great story sequencing and zoo art being the highlights.

It’s been a busy week in Mr Jenkins’ class with the children finishing their wonderful stories and awesome art work on the Giant of Preseli Hills. They have also really enjoyed investigating Victorian schools and how children worked in coal mines in Wales in the the past. Some highlights in Year 5 and 6 have been using their digital skills to create an Adobe Sparks about Black Leaders and writing explanation texts about the process of mummification. However, the biggest hit of the week was easily their amazing trip to the Egypt Centre.

Dates for the calendar

W/C Monday 7th November – Science Week

Friday 11th November – Remembrance Day

W/C Monday 14th November – National Anti-Bullying Week

W/C Monday 14th November – Teacher / Parent Meetings

Friday 18th November – Children in Need Day (Non uniform day) ‘Be spotacular’ theme.

W/C Monday 21st November – Book Fair in school

Thursday 8th December – Christmas Jumper Day

(Any dates for events involving specific classes/year groups will be sent out separately)

As always, if you have any questions or concerns don’t hesitate in getting in touch!

Have a great half-term! See you on Monday November 7th

Mr Jamie Evans

Deputy Headteacher

Friday 21st October

It’s been another busy and fruitful week at Waunarlwydd. On Tuesday our Rights Ambassadors visited Penclawdd Primary school to meet and work with the ‘Children’s Commissioner for Wales’ Rocio Cifuentes. The children represented the school wonderfully and brought back lots of ideas to support the school’s continuing belief in the importance of children’s rights. Well done Aneurin and Lola!

On Thursday, it was the turn of our boys’ football team to take part in a tournament, finishing with an admirable won 2, lost 2 record but, most importantly, showing great teamwork and sportsmanship throughout! Da iawn bechgyn!

Thanks to those parents that were able to make the PTA meeting this week to begin discussions over fundraising events (more info to follow). If you would like to be involved, please let us know!

Elsewhere around the school, there’s been the usual mix of learning and laughter. The Nursery have enjoyed ‘The Hungry Caterpillar’ story this week and have made edible caterpillars with strawberry laces and Cheerios. They looked for colours in the environment on Welly Wednesday and helped their chameleons to change colour. Their new busy boards, with lots of latches and catches, were a big hit. Reception have continued with their story ‘The 3 Little Pigs’ this week and have enjoyed more retelling of the story, making repeating patterns using pictures from the story, creating wonderful shape pigs, creating pig pictures on JiT using their tablets and having lots of fun trying to make their own houses using bricks, straw and sticks, then trying to blow them all down!

After reading the story of ‘Room on the Broom’, Miss Tyrrell’s class decided to have a witches kitchen role play area. They have been busy writing their own magic spell recipes and making them in their cauldrons. The maths problem of the week was thinking of ways to make a spell recipe that had 10 legs. How many different combinations of creatures could they use? Mrs Wallace and Mrs Horseman’s class have also enjoyed telling the story of the Room on the Broom, using characters and objects from their story sack and finding out which material was the strongest to build a Gruffalo’s house in their Science experiment. Another hit was playing ‘Is there room on the broom for a word like me’, to help learn how to spell tricky words and writing sentences to match pictures. The children sounded out the words they weren’t sure of and wrote sentences to be really proud of. Mrs Evans and Mrs Thomas’ class have been getting really creative this week with their highlights being magnificent Autumn leaf rubbings and their awesome Gruffalo art collages. Another favourite has been making toast to provide stimulus for their instruction writing. Developing digital skills have been the highlight in Mr Reid’s class this week particularly making a pic collage on ipads using freeze frame in drama to recreate scenes from George’s Marvellous Medicine. Another favourite was designing labels for George’s Marvellous Medicine on the chrome books.

Mr Jenkins’ class have had a busy week full of highlights! Children have learnt about how schools were set up in Victorian times and how teachers used to discipline naughty children. They have been busy making Christmas Card designs and drawing, painting and making clay models of the Giant from Preseli. They have completed their sentence improvements on their Giant descriptions and have started to look at how they can break up stories into different parts using a story mountain. In Gym they have enjoyed sequencing body shapes, balances and jumps, even learning how to do forward rolls, while in tennis, Oliver continues to win at cassette player! There has been a lot of great learning happening in Year 5 and 6 this week. Children have loved exploring the process of mummification – researching, writing instructions and explaining why the Ancient Egyptians used mummification. They have enjoyed working on their time skills in maths, trying out different clay techniques and learning an explanation text using Talk for Writing. PE remains a favourite part of the week, while this week’s music genre has been Brit Pop with a mix of Oasis, Blur and Stone Roses.

Teacher/Parent meetings

We have decided to hold this term’s parents’ evenings later than previously due to the ‘Meet the Teacher’ events at the end of September and to give the children a full half term in their classes. Parents’ evening will take place during the week of 14th November. We will send out details on how to make an appointment in the first week after half term.

Next week will be Mrs Horseman’s last week in school for a while as she begins her maternity leave. We wish Mrs Horseman and her family all the very best as they look forward to welcoming a new addition! Mrs Howells has been appointed to work alongside Mrs Wallace and will be in school next week to meet the children.

Dates for the calendar

Thursday 27th October – PC Anthony assembly (Halloween/Bonfire safety)

Friday 28th October – Ms Williams’ class assembly

W/C Monday 31st October – Half Term

W/C Monday 7th November – Science Week

W/C Monday 14th November – National Anti-Bullying Week

W/C Monday 14th November – Teacher / Parent Meetings

Friday 18th November – Children in Need Day

W/C Monday 21st November – Book Fair in school

After a tough 3 years, we are excited to be able to confirm the return of our Christmas concerts. Dates will be sent out to you so that you can put them in your diaries! You’re in for a treat!

As always, if you have any questions or concerns don’t hesitate in getting in touch!

Have a great weekend!

Mr Jamie Evans

Deputy Headteacher

Friday October 14th

SHWMAE PAWB! It’s been a sea of red, white and green across the school today as we’ve celebrated ‘Shwmae day’ in style! The videos sent in from home were particularly impressive with some awesome appearances from family members!

Shwmae day ended another brilliant week! We began the week on Monday with ‘World Mental Health Day’ focusing on being kind to ourselves and each other as well as reflection. The Nursery had great fun splashing in the water, going through long grass and squelching in the mud on their bear hunt on Welly Wednesday. They made friends with the bear and he has come to live in the classroom. They have played on the bikes, practised their ball skills in gym and enjoyed bagels with butter for snack. Reception have been learning through the story of the 3 Little Pigs. They have been retelling the story in pictures, counting and matching numbers and piggies and printing using different materials to be straw, sticks and hay. They have also had fun trying to huff and puff and blow away different natural materials. At the end of the week, the children watched the 3 Little Raptors and the Big Bad Rex and created their own innovations by thinking of a different setting and characters.

Miss Tyrrell’s class have loved using stick puppets to retell their story. They wrote Harvest thank you prayers and thought of some super wow words to describe autumn and harvest items. The children have also thought very carefully about their feelings, what makes them happy, sad, scared and angry. Mrs Wallace and Mrs Horseman’s class have been on a ‘bike adventure’ and also loved practising skipping, galloping and hopping. Other hits have been learning to draw their own Gruffalo and making their own scarecrow out of 2D shapes. Highlights in Mrs Evans and Mrs Thomas’ class this week have been learning different words to describe their emotions and making things from the Scarecrow’s wedding story in forest school, while craft making was also a firm favourite. Mr Reid’s class enjoyed their mini Science experiments to start their George’s Marvellous Medicine mini topic and also created some wonderful word art bottle designs.

Year 4 have continued to look at maps of Wales and how Waunarlwydd looked in Victorian times. The children have started to work on taking away and exchanging tens. In art they have tried to make their own giants in clay and started to draw some Victorian Artefacts. Tennis skills are also continuing to improve – they hardly ever miss now! With Mrs Cornish we made thanks for all that is good in our lives and created an Acrostic Poem. It’s been a week of solving mysteries in Years 5 and 6. Children have been decoding hieroglyphs to translate a message; using chromatography to uncover who wrote them the message; learning about number puzzles and algebra in mathematics and writing our own quest stories with our heroes escaping from tombs and pyramids. Fabulous learning as always. 

Harvest Thanks

A big thankyou for your Harvest donations! We’ll be delivering the items to our friends at ‘Matthew’s House’ next week. If you still wish to donate, please bring any items in on Monday morning! Diolch!

Reminder (PTA)

We are hoping to re-establish the school PTA after a difficult period. We are holding a meeting at 2.45 on Tuesday 18th October! All welcome!

Attendance

Following several challenging years maintaining attendance levels in light of the pandemic, the City and County of Swansea have issued schools with a pathway to follow if concerns rise due to a pupil’s low attendance, including the involvement of Education Welfare Officers (EWOs). There are clearly many genuine reasons for absence and, first and foremost, communication is crucial. Please continue to inform us of the reason behind your child’s absence as soon as possible! If you have any concerns or require any support regarding your child’s attendance, please don’t hesitate in contacting us!

INSET DAYS

Friday December 23rd

Please note that January 9th WILL NOT be an INSET Day and children will return after Christmas on Monday 9th January! (Apologies for any inconvenience). We will confirm further INSET days as soon as possible.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns don’t hesitate in getting in touch!

Have a great weekend!

Mr Jamie Evans

Deputy Headteacher

Friday October 7th

Firstly, a big thankyou to Reverend Alex Pye for welcoming all our classes from Reception to Year 6 to St Barnabus on Monday for a Harvest celebration. Thanks also to Ann Tinkler and Mary Taylor for their support on the day! All the children and staff thoroughly enjoyed their visit!

It’s been another busy week of learning and laughter at Waunarlwydd! The Nursery had a very exciting start to ‘B’ week when baby Eliza, who was 8 weeks old, came to visit. They saw her mum give her a bath and her bottle. They have enjoyed playing with the baby dolls in our classroom and have been thinking about the differences between themselves and a baby. This week in Reception, children have been learning through the story of Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. They have been sorting by size, feeling materials to find out if they are hard or soft and exploring the characters, setting and plot in the story. In gym they told the story in movement, focusing on facial expressions and have ended the week making yummy flapjacks using porridge oats! Year 1 have been very busy making Gruffalo masks this week and are super excited to wear them home. They enjoyed learning about why we celebrate Harvest, and sang their harvest songs beautifully during our visit to St Barnabas church. Finding odd and even numbers has been the number focus for the week and the children were very proud of themselves for working out if some really big numbers were odd or even. Highlights in Mrs Evans and Mrs Thomas’ class have included the Harvest trip to the church, some incredible Gruffalo art and rhyming word fun involving ‘The Smartest Giant in Town’. The week ended with a special visit from Flopsy and Lucky! Science has been the big hit this week in Mr Reid’s class, particularly their investigation linked to the Twits about air pressure and how air moves. They also enjoyed developing their fine motor skills by making Mr Twit’s messy beard using tissue paper.

Mr Jenkins’ class have enjoyed looking at maps of Waunarlwydd this week, finding geographical features and some even found their own houses using aerial photographs. They have continued to read lots of legends, bible stories and even some of Aesop’s fables this week and have begun to recognize the characteristics of different characters. In numeracy they have continued to develop some amazing addition skills while in tennis they are making real progress in hitting the ball while playing their catching games. Year 5 and 6 have been developing some awesome creative skills this week and, after looking at the work of Andy Warhol last week, the children have started to create a collage of themselves as a Pharaoh using some of his ideas. They have also thoroughly enjoyed exploring co-ordinates this week, both in their numeracy lessons and outdoor learning lesson. Other big hits have been making a chase game using Scratch and listening to their music genre of the week which has been boy bands.

A big well done to our girls’ football team! They played in their first festival of the year on Thursday and were a credit to the school, playing with great spirit, sportsmanship and always smiling! Diolch!

Congratulations

A big well done to all the boys that took part in the Swansea schoolboys rugby trials recently and congratulations to Zac Lloyd, Caden Phillips-Evans and Jac Evans on their selection for the Swansea Schoolboys squad this year.

Harvest

We will be celebrating Harvest next week and, as in previous years, will be making a donation to our friends at Matthew’s House. If you would like to send in a donation, the list of items requested is found below. Diolch!

Reminder

Next Friday (14th October) we will be celebrating Shwmae Day at school. All children are welcome to wear Welsh colours or kits to celebrate.

Attendance

Following several challenging years maintaining attendance levels in light of the pandemic, the City and County of Swansea have issued schools with a pathway to follow if concerns rise due to a pupil’s low attendance, including the involvement of Education Welfare Officers (EWOs). There are clearly many genuine reasons for absence and, first and foremost, communication is crucial. Please continue to inform us of the reason behind your child’s absence as soon as possible! If you have any concerns or require any support regarding your child’s attendance, please don’t hesitate in contacting us!

INSET DAYS

Friday December 23rd

Please note that January 9th WILL NOT be an INSET Day and children will return after Christmas on Monday 9th January! (Apologies for any inconvenience). We will confirm further INSET days as soon as possible.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns don’t hesitate in getting in touch!

Have a great weekend!

Mr Jamie Evans

Deputy Headteacher

Work Hard, Aim High, Share and Care