Friday February 3rd
It’s been another week full of highlights at Waunarlwydd! The Nursery have been looking at houses as part of H Week. What an exciting morning they had going on a walk around Waunarlwydd! They saw lots of different types of house, both old and new, learnt lots of history from Mrs Howells and waved to all the buses. We are extremely proud of how well behaved everyone was. 4000 steps is a lot for little legs! This week Reception have been finding out all about how people celebrate Chinese New Year. They have learned about the ‘Great Race’ and used puppets, masks and small world animals to explore the story, found out which year we were all born in and talked about the similarities and differences between our celebrations and Chinese New Year as well as performing their own dragon dance. To end the week they had fun tasting Chinese food – yum! Gong hei fat choi!
Chinese New Year has also been the highlight in Miss Tyrrell’s class. The children tasted Chinese food which was a real treat and they even used chop sticks! Painting numbers and their name in Chinese was fun and so was finding out what year of the Chinese zodiac they were born in. Some super shapes were created when they moved like a dragon and firecrackers during our music and movement session. To end the week they thought of similarities in the Chinese New Year celebration compared to celebrations of their own. Mrs Wallace and Mrs Howells’ class have loved being scientists and investigating ice this week. They made predictions on what would make the ice melt the fasted and what would make the ice melt the slowest and also learnt the importance of a fair test. It’s been a creative week in Mrs Evans and Mrs Thomas’ class with the highlights being their art work with some incredible winter paintings using hot and and cold colour mixing. Other big hits have been their work on climate change and their brilliant dividing skills. Art was also a big hit in Mr Reid’s class with the use of water colours to paint one of the 7 wonders of the world. They have also enjoyed completing their information booklets on a chosen country and presenting them to their classmates this morning.
Another busy week in Mr Jenkins’ class. Children have been learning their times tables facts and linking this to sharing. They have continued to write reports for their up coming presentations and have been linking this to their art work and water colour paintings. They have also enjoyed looking at food labels and keeping a diary of the different food types we eat each week. In science and technology we have combined our ideas and have made a large parachute. All we need to do now is test this with our eggy friend and hope they don’t crack! What a busy week in Year 5 and 6! The Moki bands have been used to record our exercise, which has inspired more activity during break and lunch times. As always, PE has been a hit – dodge ball this week with some excellent tactics on show. In maths, the children have been learning about mathematical expressions and equations and by the end of the week, they were having a go at solving them. In Literacy, via pictures and video, the children have been transported to Pandora. Their setting descriptions were amazing, using many different sentence structures and fabulous language choices. Ms Williams’ shoes even got a work out being dragged across the table top to investigate friction. A great week!
Family support – Early help hub linking with school
We have linked with the City and County of Swansea to enhance understanding and engagement with early Help Hubs. Our school’s senior lead worker will be based at our school weekly to offer support to families, children and parents in a variety of ways. We will be holding a coffee morning on Friday 17th February (9am) where the senior lead worker will be on hand to give more details on the service and answer any questions.
Who will the Early Help Hubs work with?
Children, young people and their families where there are identified wellbeing needs that the family need assistance to achieve. It is really important that we think about what outcomes the child and family want to achieve by talking to an EHH member of staff.
How can family’s access support directly from the Early Help Hub?
Children, young people and their families can access support from requesting an appointment via the school to speak to the EHH confidentially at the school about what matters to the family. This will be the start of the referral process to identify the right service at the right time to help families live happy, healthy and safe lives.
What will Early Help Hubs do?
As part of the referral EHH will provide information about our services and other services that may be of help to the family. We provide advice in relation to how we or other services can support them and also provide assistance if the services we provide are the right ones to help the family achieve their wellbeing goals.
- One to one appointment
- Advice and Guidance
- Information about what other services can help you
- Support with children’s behaviour, emotional health & wellbeing, money, housing, ALN group work, ASD Awareness group, Under 11’s family lives group, understanding adolescents group, healthy relationship work and much more.
Parent workshops
Friday 10th February – Today’s workshop focused on ‘Managing Anger’. This workshop is in 2 parts with the second part being delivered next Friday (10th February). If you would like to attend, just arrive at school for a 14.25 start.
Digital Advice for parents
This week’s advice for parents and carers centres around ‘Encouraging open discussions about digital lives.‘
Dates for the calendar
Wednesday 1st February – School closed to pupils (Industrial action)
Friday 10th February – Parent workshop – ‘Managing Anger‘ part 2 (14.25 in school hall)
Tuesday February 7th – Safer Internet Day
Wednesday February 15th – School Discos
Friday 17th February – Early Help Hub coffee morning
Friday 17th February – Break up for half term
Wednesday March 1st – St David’s Day (children can wear Welsh colours, kits or costumes)
Thursday March 2nd – World Book Day (children can dress up as their favourite book character)
Week beginning 20th March – Teacher / parent meetings
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
