Half Term News:

• Year 2 children (Miss Hughes’ class) have enjoyed receiving violin lessons every Friday morning. These lessons will continue next half term and Mrs Dalgleish’s class will receive lessons before the end of the year.

• Year 5 pupils in Miss Faulknall’s class have been receiving fortnightly football training sessions from Newport Football Club. Mr Bridson and Miss Passmore’s classes will also be receiving training sessions this year.

• Year 6 pupils have been receiving weekly hockey lessons every Friday from John Burrows, who is responsible for hockey in Gwent.

• The Nursery, Reception and Year 1 children have enjoyed a six week course of musical and creative classes from ‘Ffa La La’ company.

• The pupils enjoyed dressing up for Roald Dahl day in September and Key Stage 2 pupils enjoyed a Roald Dahl show by ‘Mewn Cymeriad’ Theatre Company earlier in the month.

• Year 3 and 4 classes have enjoyed their trips to Pontypool Museum to learn about the Second World War. Year 5 and 5 pupils will watch a drama on the history of the Blitz in November.

• Year 6 pupils travelled to the Enfys Studios in Cardiff early one morning to take part in a new television programme called ‘Piga dy drwyn’. The programme will be on S4C in January.

• Key Stage 2 pupils took part in a handwriting competition which was judged by Miss Evans. The task was to write the poem ‘The Evacuee’ in their best handwriting. Congratulations to the winners from each class.

• Year 1 to 6 pupils have received log in details for ‘Purple Mash’. The pupils now have log in details for Sumdog, Purplemash and HWB and are all enjoying using these learning platforms at home and in school.

• The choir has been busy practising for the concert in the Royal Albert Hall in November. The pupils and their parents / guardians will be travelling to London with ‘Gwent Music’ to perform with other school from the local area.

• 54 pupils from years 5 and 6 enjoyed a weekend away at the Urdd camp in Llangrannog at the beginning of October. The pupils and staff all enjoyed the weekend. So far this year, more than 105 pupils from Key Stage 2 have become members of the Urdd.

• The transition process between Year 6 and the secondary school has already started with a visit from Miss Rhian James a Miss Helen Rogers from Ysgol Gyfun Gwynllyw. Parents and guardians of Year 6 pupils are invited to a meeting at Gwynllyw on Tuesday, November 8th.

• Pupils from Miss Broad’s class have been receiving weekly swimming lessons on a Thursday morning. The lessons will continue for the rest of the term.

• Charities: A lot of fundraising work has taken place for different charities already this year, including:
Macmillan Cancer support: £585 was raised during our coffee morning in September.

Over 1 000 food tins were collected for our harvest assembly. These were donated to the food bank in the Salvation Army who were very thankful for the donation.
Our charity for the year, which has been chosen by the school council is the ‘Noah’s Ark appeal’.

• Elections were held to appoint our school prefects, School Council and Eco-Committee. These teams, along with our digital leaders, have been very busy already this year. The School Council is very much looking forward to holding a meeting in County Hall in November.

• After school clubs have started for the year and many pupils attend these clubs each week. These clubs include:
Tuesday: Miss Hughes’ class cooking club / Choir practice
Wednesday: Urdd club / Creative writing for years 5 and 6
Thursday: Digital leaders / Fitness club / Rugby club
Friday: HWB Club during lunch time
A reading club, gardening club and chess club will be starting after half term.

• At the moment, our school attendance stands at 95.78%. Our attendance target for the year is 95.6%. Miss Hughes and Mrs Dalgleish’s classes have both won attendance of the month so far this year and enjoyed wearing their own clothes to school.

• Some year 5 and 6 pupils took part in a football competition at Cwmbrân Stadium this week. They all played very well and reached the semi-final.

• An e-safety workshop was run by PC Thomas with year 6 pupils. Parents / guardians were invited in for an e-safety meeting after school and PC Thomas will also be present in our Christmas Fayre.

• Coleg Gwent have been providing weekly Welsh lessons in the school. They take place on Wednesday between 9-11 am in the school library.

• P.T.A: The P.T.A members have been working hard and have raised £91 in the Bake sale and £279 in the school disco last night. The P.T.A has also contributed £1 000 towards new group reading books for the Foundation Phase children. Thank you to all the members for all their hard work for the school. The P.T.A’s Annual General Meeting will take place on Thursday, November 3rd at 3:30 in the school library. A warm welcome is extended to everyone.

Thank you very much for all your support so far this year. We look forward to welcoming the pupils back to school on Monday, October 31st.
Diolch yn fawr.

Remember:
SCHOOP ID: 10319
School website: www.ysgolgymraegcwmbran.co.uk