Friday 30th September

This week saw our final ‘meet the teacher’ to start the term. It has been great to see so many parents attending and we can look forward to holding more face to face events throughout the year.

Nursery have enjoyed their first of ‘Sound of the Week’ activities. They enjoyed searching for ants on the field, pretending to be astronauts, athletes and acrobats in gym and especially making apple crumble today. This week in Reception, the children have been retelling the story of Little Red Riding Hood, writing shopping lists for Little Red and drawing a map of her journey through the woods. They even got to meet Little Red Riding Hood when she came into class and asked her lots of interesting questions! Other highlights have been going on a number hunt and practising writing numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 using our number rhymes. It’s been another week of exciting Gruffalo activities in Year 1. The children loved our Gruffalo puppet show, which they chose during their EPIC session. The children came up with some super describing words when talking about the Gruffalo and were able to match rhyming words from the story. The most exciting part of the week, however, has to be making delicious Gruffalo crumble! There has been some wonderful creative writing in Mrs Horseman and Mrs Wallace’s class this week with the children really challenging themselves with their vocabulary choices. In PE, the children thoroughly enjoyed moving like the different characters they have got to know from The Gruffalo! 

Mrs Thomas and Mrs Evans’ highlight was also making Gruffalo crumble, while children have also been thinking about how we can all be kind and a good friend like the ‘Smartest Giant in Town’ and they thoroughly enjoyed drawing and writing their ideas in our giant outline. Mr Reid’s class loved testing out wormy spaghetti as an introduction to ‘The Twits’ and another highlight has been generating and developing their use of adjectives by drawing and describing the Twits in groups.

Highlights in Year 4 have included playing tennis games and learning different balances in Gym. Singing sessions have also started which have been great fun. Literacy tasks have focused on writing extended sentences, while in numeracy children have been further developing their addition skills. Another big hit has been enjoying apples and honey in their learning about Rosh Hashanah and the Jewish New Year. Exciting times in Year 5 and 6 as the children received an unusual phone call from Dr. Griffin, our Egyptologist friend. He informed them that there was a tomb in Waunarlwydd. The children ‘discovered’ the tomb and used torches to look around inside for clues. They have also enjoyed reading a story set in Egypt called the Quest, which will help us write our own stories over the next few weeks. 

Extra-curricular clubs

We will begin our after school activity clubs from next week. You should have received consent forms. If you wish your child to attend, please complete by Monday to allow staff to prepare.

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

Friday 23rd September

Another week of learning and laughter in Waunarlwydd with the children settling in really well to their new classes!

The Nursery have had a week of firsts. Their first Welly Wednesday was a success, playing listening games and pretending to be some of the characters from the story “The Gingerbread Man”. On Thursday they had their first gym lesson, and enjoyed hopping like bunnies, balancing like flamingos and being very careful jumping off the blocks. Reception have had fun with Nursery rhymes this week. From finding ways to send Incy Wincy spider down the spout in the water tray to strengthening their finger muscles by hopping the Little Speckled frogs into the pond. We have also been singing lots of number rhymes and met Fred the Frog who played some word and sound games with us. Miss Tyrrell’s class have loved retelling the Gruffalo story this week. They were able to sequence pictures from the story and showed superb perseverance and determination when making a split pin gruffalo independently.  They have also worked together to create a class Gruffalo collage.

Mrs Horseman and Mrs Wallace’s class have really enjoyed making gruffalo crumble, especially the purple prickles and poisonous warts! They’ve enjoyed making school motto posters and are excited to see the winners while another hit has been making split pin gruffalos, with moving arms and legs. Mrs Thomas and Mrs Evans’ class have thoroughly enjoyed writing about the story and characters from the Gruffalo. Other highlights have been their motto competition and making theatre snack bar charts using Jit as their digital challenge. It’s been all about ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’ in Mr Reid’s class and the children have loved developing their painting skills this week when painting Fantastic Mr Fox as well as improving team work skills and creativity when making a marble run for Mr Fox to escape.

Year 4 have loved writing out accounts of their ‘Giant Tales’ story and have been using partition skills to help them add this week. They have also had lots of fun playing tennis games and learning new gymnastic shapes in Gym. Mrs Cornish has helped them learn about the similarities and differences between a church and a synagogue and they enjoyed making a Sukkah outside. It’s been a busy week in Year 5 and 6 this week with the children applying to become Egyptologists, describing how their skills will assist Howard Carter on his expedition. They’ve also loved exploring coding on scratch, learning about the three kingdoms of Egypt and carrying out a sand-drag experiment learning about levers and pulleys. Netball and Real PE lessons have also been a highlight this week. 

Extra-curricular clubs

We will begin our after school activity clubs from the week beginning October 3rd. We will be sending out consent forms next week!

School photographer Friday 30th September

A reminder from Roz and Kirsty, the school photographers:

‘The link giving consent must be completed by 23rd September please. No consent, no photo!’

https://schools.rozandkirsty.co.uk/add_consent/6?pin=1170

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

Friday 16th September

It’s been a great first full week back at school with lots of highlights!

The Nursery staff are delighted with how well all the children have settled into morning Nursery. 7 new children have been welcomed to the class and we are enjoying making new friends. Children have had a great time playing on the bikes and cars this week and have all painted portraits with Mrs Hellier. This week has been very exciting for Reception as they have had their lunch in school and stayed all day! In class they have been getting to know their new indoor and outdoor classroom as well as drawing and painting fantastic self portraits. 

Miss Tyrrell’s class have had a great start to their new topic ‘Tell me a story’ by acting out the Julia Donaldson story of ‘A Squash and a Squeeze.’ They loved learning how to colour mix when creating their super paintings and they completed 2 challenges all by themselves. The mud kitchen, football goal, fairies, dinosaurs and dolls prams were all firm favourites when playing in their garden. 

Highlights in Mrs Horseman and Mrs Wallace’ class have been painting pictures and using their colour mixing skills inspired by ‘A Squash and a Squeeze’ story. They’ve also enjoyed counting and ordering numbers to 20 using spaghetti, cheerios, plasticine and numicon to help! Another big hit has been voting for a class story, getting very excited to see what the new stories will be each day.

Mrs Evans and Mrs Thomas’ class have thoroughly enjoyed reading stories by Julia Donaldson and learning actions to retell ‘A squash and a squeeze’. They loved their first welly walk, making new friends and getting to know their class.

Mr Reid’s class highlights have been celebrating Roald Dahl Day on Tuesday as we started our new topic ‘Tell Me a story’ where we will be enjoying reading some of Roald Dahl’s best children’s books. The children also loved meeting Simba on Monday who demonstrated that not only Fantastic Mr Fox has an exceptional sense of smell! A great start to the year!

Children in year 4 have been learning about where Wales is in the UK and capitals. They have also started to read ‘The Giant Tales of Wales’ book as our class reader, finding out about how Ritta stole the other giants’ beards to keep warm on Snowdon. Children loved learning basic shapes in gym and have started to learn to play mini tennis activities. In creative lessons they have started to build on their drawing skills and have made their first line portraits. In numeracy lessons we have recounted our times tables facts, worked on place value and completed Mymaths challenges. Interactive welsh games have also been a big hit!

There has been lots of excitement in Years 5 and 6 as they got to meet and ask questions of an Egyptologist. He gave them lots of information to help with their Tomb Raiders topic. They have also enjoyed their maths lessons on partitioning; their PE lessons on ball skills and using our Chrome books for research. This year, children are also listening to a different piece of music every day – this week it’s been R and B and last week they listened to Ska music. A super week!

School photographer Friday 30th September

A reminder from Roz and Kirsty, the school photographers:

‘The link giving consent must be completed by 23rd September please. No consent, no photo!’

https://schools.rozandkirsty.co.uk/add_consent/6?pin=1170

Meet the teachers

A reminder that during the week beginning the 19th September you will have the opportunity to meet you child’s teacher and find out about topics, routines and plans for the year (Please note that meetings are in year groups and not classes). These meetings will take place at 14.50 in the school hall and will end in time for pick up. If you cannot make a meeting we will post information on the website or send it home. We will send out plans for a Nursery event later in the term!

Tuesday 20th September – Year 1

Wednesday 21st September – Reception

Thursday 22nd September – Year 4

Friday 23rd September – Year 2 and Year 3

Monday 26th September – Year 5 and Year 6 (Please note change of date)

INSET DAYS

Friday December 23rd

Monday January 9th

(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

Friday September 9th

On behalf of all the staff at Waunarlwydd Primary School, we want to express our sadness on hearing the news of the death of Her Majesty The Queen. The children should be commended for the respect they showed as we marked the occasion today!

The funeral is expected to be held at Westminster Abbey in about ten or 11 days time, with the date to be confirmed by Buckingham Palace. It may be declared a bank holiday, but this will be confirmed by the palace and government. If a bank holiday is declared, schools will be closed and we will keep you updated. 

Croeso n’ol

It has been wonderful to welcome our pupils back this week. The smiles and laughter around the school, as staff and children got to know their new classes, has been a pleasure to see! We are sure that we can look forward to a great year together as a whole school community!

Meet the teachers

During the week beginning the 19th September you will have the opportunity to hear more about Curriculum reform in Wales and what that means in Waunarlwydd, meet you child’s teacher and find out about topics, routines and plans for the year. These meetings will take place at 14.50 in the school hall and will end in time for pick up. If you cannot make a meeting we will post information on the website or send it home. We will send out plans for a Nursery event later in the term!

Monday 19th September – Year 5 and Year 6

Tuesday 20th September – Year 1

Wednesday 21st September – Reception

Thursday 22nd September – Year 4

Friday 23rd September – Year 2 and Year 3

School photographer

The school photographer will be in school on 30th September.

INSET DAYS

Friday December 23rd

Monday January 9th

(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

Well, we’ve reached the end of another fantastic year at Waunarlwydd! It has not been without it’s challenges but as a whole school community we have worked together and, as always, our children have been incredible, ensuring the school year has been full of learning and laughter! As a school, we’d like to thank all staff for their unquestionable commitment to the children and all families for your ongoing support!

We say goodbye to our wonderful Year 6 pupils today knowing that they will prove to be a huge asset to their Comprehensive Schools. They certainly showed us what a super group they are with an awesome Leavers’ concert this week! They leave us full of happy memories and we are sure they will be back to visit and share their success. Good luck!

Our ice-cream and lolly sales on a Friday have proved to be a success with just under £500 raised already. These funds will be shared across the classes. Thanks for your support!

Finally, a reminder that children return to school for the new year on Wednesday 7th September (Monday 5th and Tuesday 6th are INSET Days)

It just leaves us to wish all our pupils and families a wonderful Summer and we look forward to seeing you all again in September!

All staff at Waunarlwydd

Firstly, a reminder that the last day in school for pupils is Friday 22nd July.

Unfortunately, due to an extreme heat warning, and in line with local authority and Public Health Wales advice, we have had to cancel our Sports Day for Years 4, 5 and 6 on Monday!

As we head towards the end of the school year, we’ve enjoyed a wonderful week full of sunshine, fun and laughter. We began with our Sports Day for Reception and Years 1, 2 and 3 on Monday and it was amazing to welcome so many of our families onto the sun-soaked field to enjoy the fun activities. The week has ended with trips to the beach for some classes, a pirate picnic and a visit to Waunarlwydd Park. Year 5 have loved having the yard to themselves as our awesome Year 6 pupils have enjoyed a successful 4 days of transition at Gowerton Comprehensive School. It’s hard to believe that next week will be their last at Waunarlwydd. We are looking forward to enjoying their Leavers concert next week. Teachers are planning a fun week to end our term and details for each class will be sent out on Monday.

End of year Reports

End of year reports will be coming home with the children on Monday 18th July along with details of their next class (pupils will also be meeting their new teachers during Monday 18th July).

You can now access results from your child’s personalised assessments by logging onto their Hwb account. Please remember that these were not used as “tests” or have any form of high accountability stakes for pupils or the school.  They do, however, provide us with some information about what your child can do well, and needs to do next.

INSET DAYS

Monday September 5th 2022 and Tuesday September 6th 2022

Children will return to school after the summer break on Wednesday September 7th.

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

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mr Jamie Evans

Deputy Headteacher

It has been wonderful to welcome our families back into school for parent workshops this week. After such a long time it is great to be able to host whole school community events and we look forward to planning many more in the future. Thanks to all those that were able to make it. Staff and children thoroughly enjoyed hosting and we hope that you could sense the warm, caring and safe environment that the children and staff have created at our school. The forecast looks good for next week and our Sports Day for Reception and Years 1, 2 and 3 (Monday 11th July). Let’s hope the sun stays around for Years 4, 5 and 6 Sports Day the following week (Monday 18th July).

Our awesome Year 6 children will be heading off to Gowerton Comprehensive next week for their transition week and we have no doubt they will show the teachers at Gowerton what a wonderful group of children they will be welcoming in September!

INSET DAYS

Monday September 5th 2022 and Tuesday September 6th 2022

Children will return to school after the summer break on Wednesday September 7th.

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

Have a wonderful weekend!

All staff at Waunarlwydd Primary

It’s hard to believe that we are entering July as our final term of the year continues. It was wonderful to welcome all our nursery families to school this week for sports day. We were all disappointed to have to postpone 2 of our sports days this week as we looked forward to our first whole school community events in a long while. We have now managed to rearrange Sports Day dates (Rec, Y1, Y2 and Y3 on Monday 11th July and Y4, Y5, Y6 on Monday 18th July). We are also looking forward to welcoming those parents that can make it to our workshops next Thursday and Friday.

This term has seen the long awaited return of sporting fixtures. Last week was the turn of our beach rugby team and the children involved enjoyed a great time (and even a Joe’s ice cream from Mr Jenkins). This week has seen our athletics team compete at Swansea University where all the children were outstanding. As always, we were extremely proud of the way our pupils represented our school. Before the end of term both Year 3 and Year 4 will be taking part in Basketball festivals.

As we enter our last 3 weeks of term there is a lot to look forward to and I’m sure there will be plenty of highlights for the children. This week, morning and afternoon Nursery had a great time taking part in their sports day on Tuesday. The rain held off for them in the morning, but didn’t spoil the afternoon as everything was re-located to the hall. It was lovely to see so many adults in the school again after the last 2 years. The children loved all the activities, but the water race was a definite favourite in the morning and the hurdles in the afternoon.  Approaching the end of their minibeasts topic, Reception have been drawing their own butterfly life cycles, looking at symmetry in butterflies, sorting pictures of different minibeasts according to their own chosen criteria and creating their own ‘guess who?’ – writing clues based on their chosen minibeast. As a special treat on Wednesday after Sports Day was postponed, the children were very lucky to have a fitness disco from DJ Dan which was lots of fun!

The highlight of the week in Year 1 has got to be the new ‘Siop Hufen ia’ role play area. The children have been asking for different flavoured ice creams in Welsh and practising paying for them using the correct coins. They have also loved programming a bee bot robotic toy to travel in different directions and have been learning lots of interesting facts about bees this week and how important they are to us. We learned how they make honey and had honey on toast as a treat! Yummy!

The big news in Year 1/2 has been the emergence of the first butterfly from it’s chrysalis. Very exciting! The children have also been learning about why we need money and have written a super recount of ‘The very hungry caterpillar.’ Year 2 shared the butterfly excitement as some of their caterpillars have also emerged from their chrysalis. The children have also thoroughly enjoyed giving directions to beebot and tasting the peas and strawberries that they have grown themselves in their garden from seeds. The highlight in Year 3 has been developing and building on their ICT skills using Minecraft education. The children also enjoyed using trial and error to try the correct amount to make a can balance at an angle applying both numeracy and scientific skills.

Children in Year 4 have been learning about the water cycle and how weather affects our planet. They have also been drafting their air quality emails and letters to Mr Drakeford and Mr Johnson to tell them how concerned we are with the pollution caused by fossil fuels and how we can reduce our dependence on them. We have all now completed our Air Quality Posters to be sent off to TASK to be judged. Finally they have been practising our Basketball skills for the tournament next week!

All Year 5 and 6 have been exploring different shapes, making nets and 3D shapes. Year 5 enjoyed a great day of activities at Gowerton Comprehensive School while they also loved their afternoon learning First Aid skills with Mrs Cornish. Practice for the Year 6 Leavers production of ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ is in full swing and the children are thoroughly enjoying. Parents and families are in for a treat in a few weeks!

Dates for the diary

There is alot planned between now and the end of term. We will notify you by text of any activities and dates that involve your children’s class.

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

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mr Jamie Evans

Deputy Headteacher

Friday 17th June

It is great to have the sun shining so brightly as we end another week. There have certainly been lots of highlights!

Morning Nursery had a creative day on Wednesday all about rainbows. They made natural rainbows from things they found in the woodland, used chalk to draw their own, and finger painted rainbows to make a picture. Afternoon Nursery have had great fun playing outside in the sunshine and have welcomed 3 new friends to their class. Friday was an exciting day for both classes when some children helped to cook and everyone had a rock cake to take home. Continuing their work on ladybirds, Derbyn (Reception) have created a fact file on ladybirds, sorted facts about ladybirds and spiders and written simple sentences about the animals in the story ‘What the Ladybird Heard’. Their Welsh focus has been ‘bwyd a diod’ and the children have loved learning and singing the song ‘Beth sy yn y fasged?’ Making the most of the weather, the week ended with planting and decorating their outdoor area using your fantastic contributions so far – diolch!

Year 1 have enjoyed listening to the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, discussing what happens in the beginning, middle and end of the story. They used super recount vocabulary when writing about the life cycle of a butterfly and explored different musical instruments and the sounds they make, matching them to different mini beasts.  They enjoyed completing caterpillar number problems and using a ruler to measure caterpillars – not real ones! Other highlights in Year 1 and Year 2 have included writing wonderful caterpillar diaries. Children also loved having the opportunity to taste honey from Ireland. Another big hit this week was building caterpillars and butterflies out of knex. Year 3 have had a busy week with lots of highlights. The children loved practising their oracy skills in maths by putting their pens away and explaining their thinking process for solving problems! They also enjoyed refining their sketching and shading skills with their pollution pictures.

It’s been all about air quality in Year 4 and the children have loved learning about air quality and using the TASK digital device to find which areas of the school have the best air quality. They have also written a persuasive piece of writing to explain why we should walk more and leave the car at home to improve the air quality where we live. On Thursday they had a visit from Catherine from Think Air who showed us how we can use the Task device to measure our air quality over time in our science experiments. To cap off a great week the children entered a poster competition to create a poster to promote Clean Air for Clean Air Day 2022!

It’s been another fantastic week in Year 5 and 6 with one highlight being their research into making the perfect smoothie. Word problems were the focus in number work and the children have also been looking into currency exchange. The children enjoyed developing their skills in literacy, using a dictionary to find words for a glossary. On Thursday some Year 5 pupils did a wonderful job representing the school at Penclawdd Primary School’s Diversity Day. A big well done to our 3 football teams this week who played with great skill and a positive attitude, coming away with a full set of victories at Gowerton Primary School.

Dates for the diary

Friday June 24th – INSET DAY

Monday June 27th – INSET DAY

Tuesday 28th June – Nursery sports day

Wednesday 29th June – Reception, Y1,Y2, Y3 Sports Day (pm)

Thursday 30th June – Y4, Y5, Y6 Sports Day (pm)

Thursday July 7th and Friday July 8th – Pupil/parent workshops (Details to follow)

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

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mr Jamie Evans

Deputy Headteacher

It has been great to welcome everyone back to a very busy final half term of the year! We hope you all enjoyed some Jubilee celebrations!

Morning and Afternoon Nursery had great fun on Tuesday celebrating the Jubilee. They made crowns and flags, had lots of party food and played games. Their story for the week was “The Queen’s Knickers” and they enjoyed designing a pair of knickers for the Queen.

Reception have enjoyed learning about ladybirds – starting with the story of ‘The Bad Tempered Ladybird’ discussing what sort of things make us feel cross or angry and the strategies we can use to feel better again. They used clocks to match the times the ladybird met different animals in the story. They had lots of fun finding ‘doubles’ up to 10 using marbles, Numicon and ladybird templates and have created some super shape bad tempered ladybirds! To end the week they read the story ‘What the Ladybird Heard’ and created their own maps of the farm.

Miss Tyrrell’s class have loved learning lots of interesting facts about spiders and snails and using the JIT program to enter mini-beast data onto a pictogram. Other highlights have been solving mini-beast money problems and using natural materials to create spiral environmental art during forest school. Year 1/2 have enjoyed being scientists this week, completing their science investigation into how plants grow best. Another highlight has been learning about money, how to add amounts and give change. There could only be one highlight in Year 2 with the long awaited arrival of their class caterpillars. The children can’t wait to observe the life cycle first-hand and have enjoyed writing caterpillar fact files. The highlight in Year 3 has been their use of i-pad apps to support their learning. They loved using Shadow Puppet to make informational videos about continents and using Stop Frame Animation to explore how the continents have changed over time.

Year 4 have been learning about mathematical terms (Mean, Mode, Median and Range) and applying these to data they have collected. They have enjoyed learning a little about the human body (skeleton and teeth functions). Another highlight has been using the TASK device to measure air quality, temperature, humidity, sound and light around the school and recording their work on HWB. Year 5 and 6 have had a very healthy week, tasting different fruits from around the world while the publishing of their wonderful legends has been another big hit.

Dates for the diary

Friday June 24th – INSET DAY

Monday June 27th – INSET DAY

Tuesday 28th June – Nursery sports day

Wednesday 29th June – Reception, Y1,Y2, Y3 Sports Day (pm)

Thursday 30th June – Y4, Y5, Y6 Sports Day (pm)

Thursday July 7th and Friday July 8th – Pupil/parent workshops (Details to follow)

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

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mr Jamie Evans

Deputy Headteacher