Dear Parent/Carer,
Croeso n’ol / Welcome Back.
Here we are at the start of another brand new academic year, I hope you all had a peaceful and enjoyable summer break. I know that the staff are all feeling recharged, ready for the term ahead. The children have made an amazing start to term. Their behaviour, application to learning and enthusiasm has been first class. I look forward to working with you to ensure your children get the best education and support within our amazing community. A huge focus this year will be on attendance and lateness. The children have missed so much school over the past two years due to the pandemic. It is so important to spend as much time in school as they can to catch up. I’m sure you will join in supporting me with this. Our children only get one chance in life and good attendance is essential for this.
Throughout the holidays we have had work done to improve the school environment. All the Foundation Phase Classrooms and Rainbow Rooms have been decorated. We’ve also bought further benches and outdoor equipment.
I am delighted to welcome all our new staff, pupils and parents to our wonderful school.
Due to class sizes we have reduced our Foundation Phase classes to five instead of six. Reception are now one class but wil have two areas and the required staffing for this year.. Mrs Gibbon was successful in becoming the seconded Deputy Headteacher at LLangiwg Primary School, Pontardawe. Miss Mogford is now the acting Foundation Phase leader with responsibility for Wellbeing at the school. Miss Blackman continues to lead all of Key Stage 2, with Mrs Parfitt responsible for Innovative Curriculum.
Additional Learning Needs Coordinator roles have also changed. We continue to have a team of Coordinators. Mrs S. Coleman is ALNCo for Foundation Phase, Mrs Davies is ALNCo for Key Stage 2 and Mrs Trollope is ALNCo for our Rainbow Rooms. My thanks to Mrs Fielding for her dedication, commitment and hard work over the past few years as the KS2 ALNCo in the school. Mrs Fielding, Mrs Coleman and Mrs Trollope have been instrumental in setting up the systems at the school
‘Meet the teacher’ Event:
As always, we have planned for an opportunity to meet your child’s teacher who will share some useful information including the new curriculum. See below for the dates.
Read Write Inc (RWI) is a phonics complete literacy programme which helps all children learn to read fluently and at speed so they can focus on developing their skills in comprehension, vocabulary and spelling. The programme is designed for children aged 4-7. However, at Gnoll Primary we begin to expose children in Nursery to skills that will help them access the taught programme in Reception. We continue teaching RWI to children beyond the age of 7, as we use a stage not age approach.
RWI was developed by Ruth Miskin and more information on this can be found at https://ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/parents/.
Books Amnesty
We are reviewing our reading scheme of work and have noticed that many books are missing. Could you please have a rummage around at home and see whether there are school reading books tucked away somewhere. We desperately need them back.
White Rose Maths
The White Rose Maths curriculum is designed to provide students with a solid foundation in mathematics. Students will gain a deep understanding of mathematics and enjoy solving mathematical problems with this course. The primary curriculum puts a significant emphasis on mathematical skills, curriculum content has to be well sequenced in order to promote a depth of understanding. Many schools don’t have the time to develop the learning resources to fill the learning gaps. Developing maths learning materials like any other subject requires a lot of time the schools don’t always have. The White Rose resources are well suited to curriculum integration. The program comes with a plethora of problem-solving questions and randomly generated questions that are designed to really stretch pupils abilities.
This program is not just about teaching maths, it is about developing mathematical thinking skills. The aim of this program is to ensure that students are able to think mathematically and solve problems with confidence.
“Our aim is for young mathematicians to become:
- Confident and able to recall and apply mathematical knowledge in different contexts
- Able to explain their methods and thinking processes and apply skills in context
- Fluent in different areas of maths
- Efficient in applying problem-solving and reasoning skills
- Independent thinkers
- Making number work fun Maths
- Aware of the Maths/ concepts/ process they are doing”
Both styles of teaching and learning will go ahead in the morning sessions.
Below are lists of important dates for your diaries.
5th September 2022 – Whole School Start of New Academic Year (Inset day)
6th September 2022 – Whole School INSET Day (RWInc Training)
7th September 2022 – Whole School First Day back at school for the pupils
9th September 2022 – Rainbow Room 2 Neath Fair Visit (Cancelled due to the bad weather)
20th September 2022 – Year 1 & Year 2 Parents Meeting (Mrs Coleman, Miss Evans and Miss Mogford)
21st September 2022 – Year 3 Parents Meeting (Miss Jones & Mrs Harcombe)
22nd September 2022 – Year 6 Music Service Road Show @ Cefn Saeson Comprehensive
22nd September 2022 – Year 5 & 6 ` Parents Meeting (Miss Blackman, Mrs Fielding & Mrs Daniels)
27th September 2022 – Year 4 & 5 Parents Meeting (Mrs Parfitt, Miss Newbury)
23rd September 2022 – Whole School Colorfoto Family & Individual Photographs
26th October 2022 – Whole School PTA “Halloween” Disco
31st Oct – 4th Nov – HALF TERM WEEK
13th December 2022 – Nursery & Reception Christmas Concert 9:30am
10th December 2022 – Nursery & Reception Christmas Concert 10am
10th December 2022 – Year 1 & Year 2 Christmas Concert 1:30pm
11th December 2022 – Year 1 & Year 2 Christmas Concert 1:30pm
23rd December 2022 – End of Autumn Term
9th January 2023 – Start of Spring Term
NB dates will be added to this list as and when they are organised.
Attendance and Punctuality
Please ensure your child arrives at school on time – the school day starts at 8.50am and teaching and learning begins immediately. I must remind you that holidays taken during term time are not authorised by the school and you may face a fixed penalty notice if they are taken. If your child is off school for more than one day could you please inform us on the first day of the absence and every day after as it helps to keep our registers up to date. If we do not hear from you by 9.15am on the first day of absence, school will contact you to find out why your child is off.
We work very closely with our Education Welfare Officer. We will monitor families very closely as lateness and unauthorised absences have a hugely negative impact on child development. Please ensure your child arrives on time and attends school regularly. Please be mindful of picking your child early as this impedes on quality curriculum time. You are expected to contact school on 01639 642938 to report your child’s absence by 9:30am. Unauthorised absences and latecomers are reported to the EWO.
Every school’s Welsh Assembly Government target is 95%
The attendance for 2021/2022 was: 87%
Authorised sickness 10%
Un Authorised Sickness 3%
If your child’s attendance falls below 95%, their progress could be seriously affected. Colour coded attendance letters will be issued termly so that you are fully aware of your child’s attendance percentage.
GOOD ATTENDERS = GOOD ACHIEVERS!
Breakfast Club
Breakfast Club pupils are admitted at 8.15am. Pupils must not arrive any later than 8.30am. Please ensure your children are fully supervised when waiting for doors to open.
Thank you for your understanding in this matter.
Dinner Money
Dinner money continues to be £2.35 per day. School has sent home letters regarding ParentPay with details of how to register so that you are able you to pay for school meals online. Please let us know if you experience any difficulties with this. If your child is eligible for free school meals, school will add these details to ParentPay on your behalf.
Contact Details
School regularly sends important pieces of information via our Text2Parents service and on occasions we may need to contact you in an emergency. It is therefore vital we hold up-to- date contact details for you. Please inform the school office if you have any changes to telephone numbers or emails.
Collection of Pupils
Children must be collected by a responsible adult (i.e. a person who has officially left school) and is on the pink form. If anyone different is collecting a child for whatever reason at the end of the day, the class teacher must be informed in the morning.
School Uniform:
It is wonderful to see the children return to school dressed smartly in their new school uniform. My thanks to all parents for the support on this matter. The children have a sense of pride in their appearance. I recently received a letter from the Minister of Education asking schools to help families as much as possible during this difficult time. We have collected various polo shirts, jumpers, trousers and skirts form parents whose children have left us or whose clothes have grown too small for them. These are in very good condition and we are happy for parents to come and see us regarding having the clothes for their children. Hopefully this will help with the expense of buying new uniform.
Please could I remind you that if you require new uniform, Sportec or Macron store in Neath are the supplier that have our school badge . They also have school book bags and water bottles. Please ensure that all uniform items are clearly labelled with your child’s name.
PE Clothing and the wearing of Jewellery
For health and safety reasons, may I ask that pupils with long hair keep it tied back whilst in school and that on the days they have PE. Could all pierced earrings be removed for that day unless they are able to remove them independently before the start of the lesson. Wearing jewellery to school is also discouraged for safety reasons and to avoid items getting lost / damaged.
The last few years we have been been allowing pupils to attend school in various PE clothing. This is something I would like some feedback on. The children have been dressing in PE clothing coming to school on their PE Days. This is something I wish to continue, however, the cost of football jerseys and some children wearing inappropriate PE clothing and footwear needs addressing. Again I am happy to support families through having a “Swap Shop” of sports clothing but I would also like to pursue the buying of plain white t’ shirt which we could then look to provide families with sticker school badges. I’m told this is cheaper than buying the latest football/rugby jersey. This is something I am looking at and not enforcing on families. I wish to support families not increase their expenditure. If you have ideas on this matter please come and speak to us at school.
Bright hair dyes and extreme haircuts must also be avoided for school as they do not comply with the school’s policy.
After school clubs
Clubs start back the week starting Monday 26th September. The teachers are currently finalising these and I’m sure will be in touch with you imminently for you to book places.
Parking
I’m sure you agree that keeping our children safe is of paramount importance to us all. Therefore, can I politely ask that adults delivering or collecting children by car please ensure that they do not park in any unauthorised areas, drive into the staff parking area or double park across the bays. Consideration should also be paid to local residents in and around the school’s locality. With the start of a new school year, this is a perfect opportunity to start walking, cycling or scootering to school. As we know, this is better for physical health and the environment too!
Free School Meals
Primary School Meals
click here to see the latest Menus
Pupil Development Grant https://www.npt.gov.uk/1316
Or contact the Schools and Family Support Team on 01639 763515 or email: fsm@npt.gov.uk
School Admissions
https://www.npt.gov.uk/6573 If you have any queries please contact the School Admissions team on 01639 763580/ 763730 or email admissions@npt.gov.uk
There are policies and procedures on our school website on a number of different aspects of school life, if you need further information about the school they can be accessed at any time. We also hold key information on the school website about coronavirus from Public Health Wales.
School Uniform
Macron Store, in Neath have also become a school uniform supplier. They are in the process of adding the school uniform to their list. Please click on the link to visit the site. They have also informed us that all Welsh Rugby Union merchandise is now half price.
Thank you for your continued support and I hope we can build on this in this academic year.
Warm Regards,
Rhys Harris
Headteacher
School Email: School Website: Twitter:
gnoll@school.net Gnoll.Primary.School @GnollPrimary