Friday March 20th

We managed to hold our school Eisteddfod on the last day of ‘normal’ school Friday March 20th. Only 78% of pupils were in but it was a fantastic way for the pupils to finish. 'Newsmats' below show highlights from across the whole school from September 2019 to March 2020.

We designed our home learning resource using google drive, (click on the button above to view). We placed a link on our school website to a shared folder on google drive, within this folder are sub-folders for classes, Big Maths resources, challenges (such as Mr Lewis' Reading Challenge), general resources etc. This is where teachers are uploading the majority of the work and hyperlinks for their classes. We update these class folders fortnightly. Within class folders there are also hyperlinks to lots of different activities related to physical and mental wellbeing for our pupils and their parents to try out - such as :-

PE with Joe, cosmic yoga kids, just dance, Andys wild workouts, BBC teach supermovers, imoves, Zumba kids, koo koo kangaroo, Gonoodle, THRIVE activities, encouraging parents and children to play games that involve the senses, take part in cooking activities, gardening, mindfulness colouring etc.

On a Wednesday we run a helpline from school. If parents would prefer paper packs they ring the school – these are then created and distributed by a small team of support staff on a Wednesday afternoon.

Running alongside our home learning folder we are using google classroom for our older pupils in Years 5 & 6. Teachers are using this very effectively and take-up by pupils is now 92%. Google classroom is used by our teachers to post pre-recorded video lessons, communicate with learners and respond to pupil work, these classes are also holding google hangout sessions weekly for pupils to see each other and catch up - albeit virtually. (see photograph)

Our younger pupils parents and teachers are communicating with each other through a variety of channels - mainly over the phone, email, twitter and text.

As one of our teachers (Miss Boast) has been off work following an operation, Mrs. Rudall, Mrs. Cox and myself have worked together to help ensure there is work and support available for these pupils and their families. Miss Boast will take up the management of the class and their online learning from June 8th. I have been in weekly contact with Miss Boast since her operation on March 5th and would like to wish her well in both her recovery and return to work.

Tasks for teaching and support staff

Tasks for both teaching and support staff to complete while working from home were shared online. Activities included studying the New Curriculum, conducting a SWOT analysis of the 6 AOLE’s, carrying out online training, writing pupil reports etc.

11th May

I have organised our staffing structure and class numbers for next academic year. This may have to change in order to facilitate social distancing measures and WG advice. The main staff changes for next academic year - Emma Phillips appointed for September Level 4 TA with responsibility for Nursery. This was following an internal job advertisement, letter of interest and interview. There is also a slight change to Natalie Godwin's contract from 20 hours level 1 TA to 30 hours SNSA as a 1:1 for a pupil who will be in Reception class in September. Since I created this document we have had another 8 pupils register for our Nursery class which takes the cohort total to 28.

Keep Smiling

Before the Easter break staff created a ‘Wellbeing video’ for pupils and families to let them know that they were being missed and to put a smile on their faces during lockdown.

Year 6 Transition

Mrs Rudall with the help of a number of ex pupils created a transition Video for Year 6. At the moment their usual visits to Bryn Celynnog won’t be happening so it was lovely to have some of their questions and worries answered by some of our ex pupils.

We have a few plans for our year 6 leavers as we won't be able to hold the traditional Year 6 leavers assembly. Hoodies have been ordered as well as key rings and memory pens for the pupils to have as part of a 'leavers gift box'.

We have also managed to refund our parents in full for the year 6 residential trip which was due to take place during the first week of July.