It has been another fun-filled week at Waunarlwydd! The week started with our girls’ football team competing in a tournament in which they did themselves proud! It was wonderful to see a school sporting team represented after such a long time. We look forward to taking part in many more sporting events after half term and during the summer term. 

 Our younger pupils have loved their ‘Supertato’ topic and were so excited to show their ‘Super Vegetables’ to the class and explain their superpowers.  They were all amazing so thankyou grown-ups for all your help! Highlights linked to ‘Supertato’ have been weighing vegetables (including some giant potatoes), measuring superheroes, squashing the army of playdough peas with mashers and capturing peas in Numicon using tweezers. Creating their own heroes to include in their story writing was another highlight while the children also loved their ramp investigation and predicting which surface the superhero car would travel the furthest on – carpet, wood or concrete. It’s been all about ‘George’s Marvellous Medicine’ in year 3 with the children thoroughly enjoying their experiments and designing explosion art including onomatopoeia inspired by Roy Lichstenstein. Year 4 have travelled back in time this week and thoroughly enjoyed learning about the Egyptians and the Bronze Age. Another highlight has been working outdoors, making willow fences and weaving baskets. In Year 5 and 6 this week, the highlight was writing poetry from the perspective of a refugee with awesome results. Such strong and emotive language choices were used throughout. They also enjoyed learning about the five pillars of Islam, while time telling skills have improved enormously.

**Clubs will resume after half term. You will be sent an online form next week to allow staff to prepare for numbers. Please complete the form by Thursday 17^th February.

 INSET DAYS and extra Bank Holiday 

Spring term INSET – Friday 8^th April

Summer Term INSETs – Friday June 24^th and Monday June 27^th

Bank holiday (Queen’s Jubilee) – Friday April 29^th

Dates for the diary

Tuesday March 1^st – St David’s Day (Children can wear Welsh costumes, colours or kits)

Thursday March 3^rd – World Book Day (Children can dress up as their favourite character)

Thursady March 10^th – Year 3 and 4 Techniquest trip

Thursday 10^th March and Thursday 17^th March – Year 5/6 Circus Eruption 

Friday 18^th March – Comic Relief (non-uniform day)

Fortnight beginning 28^th March – Teacher/ parent meetings (We are hopeful that these will be face to face)

(We will update you with any further dates regarding trips and events as soon as possible!)

As the outlook regarding COVID and schools looks far more positive, we would like to thank you again for your support in getting us to this point. We will update you with any post half-term changes next week!

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 January 28th

It’s been another great week at Waunarlwydd Primary School with lots of learning and laughter. As always, it’s been a pleasure to witness the quality of learning and positive relationships provided by pupils and staff alike.

We would like to give our very best to the many staff and families that have been affected by COVID recently and we wish everyone a healthy return to school as soon as possible. As a school, we have faced a very challenging few weeks with regards to staffing levels and it is testament to the commitment of every member of staff, particularly our wonderful TAs, that we have been able to get through it, while keeping every class open. Lets hope for a more settled time as we move forward! With regards to current processes, in line with guidance, we will not be making any changes at present. We look forward to resuming our after school activities after half term.

As always, if you have any queries or concerns, please don’t hesitate in getting in touch with us!

As a result of a substantial donation from Admiral Insurance Services (£800) we have been able to purchase a shelter for our Foundation Phase outdoor learning area. A big “thank you” to Tegan and Lewis’ dad for securing this for us. Thank you as well to Freya and Theo’s mum for her continued fund raising efforts with TerraCycle and for the latest contribution secured: £200.

As might have been expected, this week has seen a rise in the number of COVID infections amongst staff as well as pupils. As we’ve already said, our main aims are to keep everyone safe and to retain face to face learning as far as we possibly can. Thank you for the help and support you’ve supplied so far and as we go into next week please can I remind you of the following:

• adults need to wear face coverings whilst on site (unless exemptions apply)
• if your child has any of the symptoms associated with any of the prevailing variants (high temperature, cough, loss of sense of smell or taste, headache, tiredness, general aches and pains usually associated with ‘flu) they should  not attend school until in receipt of a negative PCR.
• If your child is identified as a close contact they may still attend school but will need to take a lateral flow test every day for 7 days.

Please find attached an ‘information for parents’ pack issued by the local authority to help with any further questions you may still have.

As I say, thank you for the help and support you’re already providing to help get us through this particularly challenging time.

Have a good weekend.

http://d6vsczyu1rky0.cloudfront.net/31916_b/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Schools-Covid-Update-for-Parents-v1.docx

Schools Covid Update for Parents v1

Happy New Year – Tuesday 4th January 2022

Firstly, we’d like to wish you all a Happy New Year! We hope that all our families are well and were able to enjoy a happy and healthy Christmas. For any pupils or families that are experiencing illness, we wish you a speedy recovery. We are all looking forward to welcoming our wonderful children back to school on Thursday 6th January, with loads of very exciting plans in place!

With schools now placed on very high alert with regards to the Omicron variant, we have updated our risk assessments. No changes have been made regarding drop off and pick up times. However, we do ask that you support our whole school community effort by:

• wearing a face covering and keeping your distance when on site
• letting us know if your child is unwell
• checking this website regularly for warn / inform notices which may relate to your child’s class.

Like you, we want to retain face-to-face learning this term as far as it is possible to do so, and so ask you to help us by complying with these measures.

As always thanks for your ongoing support and, if you have any queries or concerns, don’t hesitate in getting in touch with us!

16 12 21 Letter to parents and carers FINAL

Thursday December 16th

As you may have seen in the media today, schools across Wales have been directed by the Minister for Education to put in place 2 planning days ( Tuesday January 4^th and Wednesday January 5^th) to assess staffing capacity and to put necessary measures in place to support the safe return of learners. This will result in pupils returning to school on Thursday 6th January. At this point we have no plans to reintroduce staggered start and finish times. Face coverings will need to be worn on school premises. As always, we will keep you informed of any further updates as we receive them. 

 As we come to the end of the Autumn term (one which has not been without challenges), a huge thankyou to all staff, families and most importantly our wonderful children, for helping to make the Autumn term at Waunarlwydd a success!

We wish you all a safe and very happy Christmas and New Year! 

Mr Jamie Evans (Deputy Headteacher)

Friday 10th December

What a week! Christmas has well and truly arrived at Waunarlwydd! The beginning of the week was full of epic dance moves at our Christmas Discos. A huge thanks to DJ Dan’s Disco for providing such wonderful entertainment. The parties continued in the classrooms with party food and lots of Christmas games. All the children have loved learning their Christmas songs and can’t wait to show you! There’s also been some really creative Christmas craft and Christmas themed learning during an incredibly busy but exciting week! The week ended with Christmas Jumper Day raising money for ‘Save the Children.’ A big thanks for all your donations. We’ll let you know how much we’ve raised next week!

What’s on next week

The biggest news for next week is the expected visit on Tuesday from a very, very special guest who will be visiting the children of Waunarlwydd during his busiest time of the year!

Non-uniform – We have seen some wonderful Christmas jumpers on show today. To make sure we get plenty of wear out of them, children will not be expected to wear uniform next week!

Reminders 

Friday 17th December is an INSET DAY so the children’s last day is Thursday 16th December.

Tuesday 4th January 2022 is an INSET DAY so children will return to school on Wednesday January 5th 2022.

Congratulations

A huge congratulations to Malky Mackay on his selection for Swansea Schoolboys Under 11s. Good luck for the season ahead Malky!

As always thanks for your ongoing support and, if you have any queries or concerns, don’t hesitate in getting in touch with us!

Have a great weekend!

Mr Jamie Evans (Deputy Headteacher)

During the next 2 weeks the children will take part in lots of fun activities in their class bubbles.

 We have organised class parties and we will be providing all the food. Please could you send an extra drink on your child’s party day. (You will be informed by text of the party day for your child)

 DJ Dan’s disco will visit the school to hold class discos in the hall which will involve lots of favourite songs and disco games.

 Last year we had a very special visitor who came to our woodland walk. I wonder if he will make an appearance this year?

 We have also planned a Christmas trail around the school grounds.

 Lastly, the children have been working very hard making their Christmas crafts in class, which they will soon bring home.

 As we are unable to hold our annual fundraising Christmas Fair event again this year, we would be very grateful if you could make a £2 contribution towards all the above activities. This can be made payable via SQUID or the children can bring the money into school in a sealed envelope.

Thank you for your continued support

Friday November 26th

Another great week in Waunarlwydd! Wednesday was a very exciting day in Nursery. They discovered giant footprints in the playground which led them to 2 frozen eggs. They experimented with lots of ways to melt the eggs and found 2 baby dinosaurs. The children loved making a cosy nest for them and are looking after them until they find out where they have come from. If anyone has any information, please let us know! This week in Reception, children have been learning all about time. They have enjoyed sequencing their day, talking about what we do at different times of the day, learning how to tell the time to o’clock and making our very own clocks which we can use at home. They also had fun exploring the ice that appeared at the bottom of our slide on a cold frosty morning, and watching it melt and turn back to water when we brought it into our classroom.  Miss Tyrrell’s class have enjoyed using super descriptive words to describe Herb and Meathook’s appearance and personality during their role on the wall session. They also loved learning about the different parts of a castle. Their wonderful creative skills were also demonstrated when using different 2D shapes to make a dragon independently. The smell of fresh bread could be found in Mrs Horseman and Mrs Tucker’s class this week. The children have thoroughly enjoyed making their own bread, just like the bakery in the Great fire of London. They have also written some fantastic diary entries and enjoyed making bonfires with sticks and leaves in outdoor learning. Christmas has been in the air in Mrs Evans and Mrs Thomas’ class this week and the children have started to learn their Christmas songs. You’re in for a treat! Other highlights include some awesome numeracy work using odd and even numbers and the creation of their own electrical circuits.

The highlight in Year 3 has been learning all about the local pirate wreckers on the Gower peninsula. The children loved using this as the stimulus for their Talk for Writing. Another big highpoint has been the huge progress all the children have made using column subtraction. Year 4 have thoroughly enjoyed creating their own giant reports to make top trump games. As the festive season approaches, they have loved learning their Christmas songs too, while in numeracy lessons they have started to learn division facts and methods to share. Great work! It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Year 5 and 6 with the children starting to learn their songs. Other highlights have included another great ‘Bouncing Back’ session with Action for Children and using their colour mixing skills to paint the sea on their sea scape work. They’ve also loved finishing off and typing up their flashback stories as well as circuit training in PE. A busy week all round!

December comes upon us next week and we are busy planning events to make the festive period as special as possible for the children of Waunarlwydd School. Children have begun practising their Christmas songs and are looking forward to sharing their videos with you. Party planning is underway and excitement is building nicely!

Please follow the link for latest information