Change of address – Just a reminder if you move house, please bring in proof of your new address to the school office. Thank you

Nursery & Reception – the children had a rainbow day today, where the children either dressed up in clothes with rainbows on them or in one of the colours of the rainbow, to celebrate the end of their topic on the weather. They looked very colourful 🙂

Packed Lunches – If you child has a yoghurt for lunch, please remember to give them a teaspoon to eat it with. If any of our teaspoons have come home with your child, please can we have them back. Thank you

KS2 Pencil cases  – Over half term, please can you restock your child’s pencil case with pens, pencils, pink & green highlighters, eraser, sharpener and a gluestick. Thank you

Rags 2 Riches – We are again collecting old clothes for the Rags 2 Riches scheme which raises money for the school, collection bags are being sent home today, please fill and return to the school from Friday 8th March, ready for the collection on Tuesday 12th March. Thank you.

Personalised Assessments – Welsh government are introducing new online personalised assessments for all learners  from Year 2 to Year 6 over time. This year, the current paper based assessment for procedural will be replaced. During the next half term pupils in these year groups will have to opportunity to try out and become more familiar with the new personalised assessments. A copy of FAQs and an animated short introduction to personalised assessments is available. Please click on the following link.

St David’s Day Competition -Foundation Phase Children are asked to draw or make a model of a castle. KS2 children can either draw or make a model of a lovespoon, or design a £5.00 note depicting a famous Welsh person. Please can we have entries in by  Monday 4th March. Diolch!

We are going cashless! In line with other schools, and following on from the success of going cashless for school dinners, we are rolling this out for trips and offers.  We will implement this from Monday 4th March.  Please contact the school office if you need any help with registering, or have any other queries. Thank you.

Whats on after half term?

Monday – Deadline for the St David’s Day Competition.

Tuesday 5th March – St David’s Day Concert for School – please can children wear Welsh Costume, Welsh Rugby/Football top, or a red T Shirt/jumper on both Tuesday 5th & Wednesday 6th March.

Wednesday 6th March – St David’s Day Concert for Parents – Classes taking part = Y3/4J, LFPR ( Reception & AM Nursery), Y1/2B, Y1/2H, Y5/6D, Y5/6E.

Thursday – Football

 

We hope you all have a lovely half term break, and see you on Monday 4th March.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Year 6 Leavers – A couple of mums have kindly offered to organise the hoodies for the Y6 leavers, they are available in a variety of sizes and colours, and cost £13.70 for child sizes and £18.20 for adult sizes. If you would like one, you can order and pay on sQuid. Please return the form that requests your consent to include your child’s name incorporated into the design for the hoodie and for the Leavers Mug.

What’s on next week?

Monday – Cross Country Competition

Wednesday – Cross Country

Thursday – Football

Friday – Y5/6M Class Assembly

Friday – Installment for Y5/6 Residential (please ensure you have paid at least £140.00 by this point). The remaining £20.00 is due by the end of March.

Half  Term  Holiday- Monday 25th February to Friday 1st March

Tues 5th March – St David’s Day Concert for School (please can children wear Welsh Costume, Welsh Rugby Top, or a red tshirt or Jumper)

Wed 6th March – St David’s Day Concert for Parents please can children wear Welsh Costume, Welsh Rugby Top, or a red tshirt or Jumper) Classes taking part are Y3/4J, Y1/2L, LFPR, Y1/2B, Y5/6D, Y5/6E

Senedd Visit – Representatives from the school went to the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff this week. They reported back to the rest of the school today, and explained what they had learnt. Please keep an eye on our Pupil Voice pages on the website for more information.

 

Please see below for an extract from a local authority communication sent to schools

1. The School Run: Briefing Note

Whether you’re a parent or driver, it’s important that you take extra care on the roads and encourage your children to do the same. With that in mind, here are a few simple tips to make the morning and evening commute that little bit safer.

Using the car

• Check that your child is correctly restrained. If you’re planning to carry any extra children make sure that you have the age-appropriate child seat. Please see RoSPA’s dedicated website childcarseats.org.uk for more advice.
• Choose a safe place to drop your child off near to the school. Aim for somewhere you won’t cause congestion and danger to those walking or cycling to school.
• Talk to your children about road safety on your way to school, stress the importance of wearing a seatbelt.

Walking to school

• If you are planning to let your child walk to school on their own for the first time, talk to them about the route they will use and the dangers they may encounter. Watch your child so that you can judge whether they have the ability to cross roads safely on their route to school.
• Children learn by watching adults. If walking your child to school, talk to them about how they can keep themselves safe and always try to set a good example when crossing the road

For drivers:

• Be extra observant and keep a watchful eye for children walking and cycling to school, they might be distracted and excited.
• Reduce your speed where you see lots of children, especially near to schools. If you are driving at 30mph and a child runs out, your stopping distance will be at least 23 metres.
• Rushing causes accidents – give yourself more time for your journey and never be tempted to speed!

Parking enforcement can help to tackle problem parking in Swansea. The launch of a parking enforcement camera car in Swansea has been hailed a success in changing motorists parking habits. The Council launched the camera enforcement car in 2015 in a bid to tackle parking issues outside schools and in bus stops. Civil Enforcement Officers (CEO’s) may issue Penalty Charge Notices for numerous offences which contravene to parking restrictions for on and off street parking. The current penalty charge is either £70 for high rate contraventions, or £50 for low rate contraventions. This is reduced by 50% if the penalty is paid within 14 days, or increased by 50% if the penalty is outstanding after the 28 day payment period.

Do not:

• park on yellow lines
• cause an obstruction
• park on bus stop or clearways even to drop people off
• park on zig zag lines
• park or wait in taxi ranks. Tow away zones apply to all taxi ranks.

 

 

 

Thank you to those who came to our first Parent Workshop on Wed 6th Feb. The Digital Leaders did a fantastic job sharing the E Safety Policy, Acceptable Use Guidance and information on Social Media. I think the information we shared on what we teach was also well received.

It was great to share opinions and concerns about Social Media the effect of too much screen time. We would urge all parents to engage with their children about some of the use of social media, including WhatsApp, TikTok and Instagram, where we hear of issues around privacy and poor choices being made. I will post further materials from the workshop in due course within the E Safety menu.

The ages of consent are as follows:

Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat – 13 years.

WhatsApp – 16yrs.

 

Internet Safety Day assembly (1) – presentation from the workshop

 

The school’s response to social media issues:

“Whilst we are duty bound to pass on any offensive material that is shared with us, our role is not to police the use of Social Media amongst pupils outside school.​​

The school asserts the following guidance:​
​

• WhatsApp’s age has recently been upgraded to 16.​
  ​
• Pupils should NOT be adding contacts and creating groups for the purposes of sharing offensive posts with pupils.​
  ​
• Passing on offensive material is considered legally to be on a par with initiating it.​
  ​
• Making multiple groups/ multiple Admins is inadvisable at best.​
  ​
• Should parents feel that their child is emotionally responsible enough to use apps such as WhatsApp despite being considerably underage, we advise that you discuss this with your child and agree boundaries. 

 

Please be assured that your child’s emotional well being is important to us and we are keen to work in partnership with parents on a range of E Safety concerns. With this in mind please follow this link for further guidance.​
​
https://parentzone.org.uk/article/whatsapp”​

St David’s Day Competition -Foundation Phase Children are asked to draw or make a model of a castle. KS2 children can either draw or make a model of a lovespoon, or design a £5.00 note depicting a famous Welsh person. Please can we have entries in by  Monday 4th March. Diolch!

Red Noses – We are selling red noses for the forthcoming Red Nose Day in March, they will be on sale at break time in the dining hall for £1.25 cash, or you can pay £1.30 on sQuid (this includes a small transaction fee which would normally be deducted from the amount, so that the charity can receive the full amount).

Eco Club – Monday until 4pm, making Eco Crafts and planning the forthcoming plastic free day in school.(Ks2 only)

Medical Appointments – Please can you make any routine medical or dental appointments for after school time, or during school holidays. If this is not possible, please could you make them after 2.30, as we would prefer your child to be picked up early rather than arrive late for school. Thank you

Free money – well almost!

We currently have two schemes running that can raise free money for little or no effort. If you do any online shopping please sign up with Easyfundraising.org.uk, and the school will receive a small amount for every purchase from shops such as Amazon, John Lewis, ebay, M&S, Argos, Booking.com, Debenhams, Next, Sainsburys, Just Eat etc.

We are one of the chosen charities for the Co-op, so if you doing any shopping at the Co-op please become a member and choose our school as your chosen charity.

Any money raised from these two schemes will go towards purchasing new playground equipment for the school.

Thank you

What’s on next Week

Monday – Y3/4 Sports Session in the LC, please can children wear sports clothes, and bring a packed lunch and a labelled bottle of water. We are asking for £3.00 voluntary contribution towards the cost of the transport to and from the LC.

Monday – Eco club until 4pm (KS2 only)

Wed – Brynmill Senedd trip to the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff, children will need a packed lunch, and £4.00 contribution towards transport. Please can all children wear school uniform, thank you.

Wed – FBP Valentines Disco, please see the posters around school, or the FBP facebook page for more information.

Wed – Cross Country

Thursday – Football Club

Attendance – Congratulations to Y1/2B with 95.8% and to Y3/4N with 97.7% attendance this week. Llongyfarchiadau!

Congratulations to Y1/2H with 95.8% and to Y3/4D with 97.6% attendance this week. Llongyfarchiadau!

After School Clubs next week – Thursday – Football

Y3/4 Overnight Trip to Urdd Cardiff – Please can we have any outstanding consent/medical forms on Monday. Thank you.

Y3/4 Trip to the LC for a Sports Session (Mon 11th Feb), please can we have any outstanding voluntary contributions of £3.00, and please remember to request a school packed lunch if you require one by this Monday, as we need one week’s notice for the kitchen.

Y3/4 have a street dance lesson on Tuesday, please can you make sure they have their PE kits in school.

Cake Sale– A big thank you to everyone who participated, we raised £120.00 for Welsh Resources.

Reminder  – We are happy to help children celebrate their birthdays with their classmates, but please remember we are only able to distribute any individual small cakes that you may have provided, we are not able to cut up a large cake,  light candles, or give out party bags.

St David’s Day – Advance notice, we would like children to wear either a Welsh Costume, a Welsh rugby top, or a red t-shirt or jumper for our St David’s Day Concerts on Tuesday 5th March and Wednesday 6th March.

Eco Club – Our Eco club recycles batteries, and battery collection boxes will be distributed next week, please collect your used batteries, and send them into school for recycling. We also recycle used pens, markers and highlighters. Please put any in the recycling box in the foyer.  Thank you.

Y5/6 Residential. An installment was due yesterday, so please check that you have paid at least £120.00 of the £160.00 for the trip. The next installment of at least £20.00 is due by 28th February, with the remaining £20.00 due by the 15th March.

We are going cashless! In line with other schools and following on from the success of going cashless for school dinners, we are rolling this out for trips and offers.  We will implement this from Monday 4th March, which will give parents who are not already using it, plenty of time to register. Please contact the school office if you need any help with registering, or have any other queries. Thank you.

 

 

 

 

 

Attendance – Congratulations to Y1/2H who achieved 94.7% and to Y3/4J with 98.1% attendance this week. Da iawn!

Y1/2H – We are very pleased that Mrs Howard will be returning to work next week on phased return. For the next two weeks Y1/2H will be taught  by either Mrs Howard or Mrs Timaeus.

Cake sale – Our Criw Cymraeg have their cake sale on Monday to raise money for Welsh Resources. We would be grateful for donations of cakes on the day, and children are invited to bring a small amount of money to buy the cakes (suggested amount 50p to £1.00)

Y5/6 Residential Trip – Reminder that the next installment of at least £50.00 is due next Thursday 31st January.

Y1/2H Class Assembly – Friday 1st February at 9.00am – All Welcome.

Y3/4 Cardiff Urdd Trip – Following this week’s meeting, paperwork has been sent home, please complete and return the Health form as soon as possible.

Parent Workshops – Following Mr Davies’ recent questionnaire, parent workshops have been organised for 5.00pm on Wednesday 6th Feb. Please follow the link for the questionnaire.  https://sway.office.com/nQ53BlzwdFbTht4g?ref=Link

Y3/4 LC Trip – Please can we have voluntary contributions towards the Y3/4Trip to the LC for a sports session with the UWTSD. Please remember to let us know if you would like to have a school packed lunch so that we can order it.

Parents Meetings -we have changed the dates of the parents meetings with teachers. They will now be the week of Monday 18th March, more information to follow.

Events – Please remember to have a look at our events page, for dates of Class Assemblies, Inset Days etc. https://brynmill-primary-school1.j2bloggy.com/en_GB/events/

After School Activities next week – Monday – Football Match, Wednesday – Cross Country. Please note even though Mrs Howard will be coming back to work next week, there will be no Choir for the next few weeks.

PTA Disco – Valentines Disco – Wednesday 13th February  – Look out for the posters for more information

School Equipment –  Just a little reminder that children should not be playing with any of the outside equipment before or after school, this refers to the activity trail, as well as items in the Foundation Phase yards. Thank you

 

 

After School Clubs next week – Cross Country on Wednesday, Football on Thursday.

Children late for school – We are being monitored by the local authority for the quantity & frequency of late pupils. Please ensure that your child is either in the yard at 8.40am ready for the bell at 8.50am or in our early Bird/ Breakfast Club. Our Education Welfare Officer will be doing spot checks on late pupils.

Attendance – Congratulations to Y1/2H with 97.2% attendance, and to Y5/6M with 97.9% attendance. Both classes are above our 96% attendance target. Llongyfarchiadau !

Techniquest – Unfortunately we did not receive enough voluntary contributions to cover the cost of the recent Techniquest Workshop, which jeopardises further trips and visits. If you were intending on contributing, but have forgotten, we would be grateful for your contribution. If you can’t remember whether you have paid or not, we are happy to check. Some people have indicated that they will pay on sQuid, but unfortunately we have not received payment, please check your sQuid account to ensure the payment has gone through. Thank you.

We are going cashless! In line with other schools and following on from the success of going cashless for school dinners, we are rolling this out for trips and offers.  We will implement this from Monday 4th March, which will give parents who are not already using it, plenty of time to register. Please contact the school office if you need any help with registering, or have any other queries. Thank you.

Cake Sale – Our Criw Cymraeg are organising a cake sale on Monday 28th Jan to raise money for Welsh resources. We would be grateful for donations of cakes on the day, and please could children bring a small amount of money to enable them to buy cakes. (Suggested donation 50p – £1.00) Diolch!

 

Y5/6 Residential – Just a reminder that the next installment of at least £50.00 for the Y5/6 Residential Trip is due by Thurs 31st January.

Y3/4 – Overnight Trip to Cardiff. There is brief meeting next Wednesday (23rd) at 3.30pm for parents of Y3/4 children going on the overnight trip. If you are unable to make the meeting, we will send home any information. Please ensure that you have paid for the trip in full as the deadline was today. Diolch.

Happy New Year and welcome to the Spring Term.

Please have a look at our Events page which has been updated with forthcoming events such as Class Assemblies, PTA events etc.

A message from Friends of Brynmill Primary  about ways to raise free cash for the school.

Wow! I just wanted to say a massive thank you again to everyone who is supporting easyfundraising or has linked the PTA as their Co-op community cause!

Donations are still being added to easyfundraising every day as the less efficient Christmas retailers start adding in their pennies. While I completely appreciate that nobody has much money in January, please remember to keep completing any online purchases you do make through the app. Interestingly, you also receive donations for paying your utilities online, or booking holidays through Expedia etc, so please always check before hitting the Buy Now button! We’re now up to £112.35 in donations- a fantastic effort and will help to buy some much needed IT resources for the school.

Wow, what a busy week with concerts, School Christmas Dinner, and Christmas Jumper Day!

A big thank you to everyone who supported the Christmas Concerts, we hope you enjoyed them as much as we did.

The Christmas Hamper Raffle has been drawn, and winners contacted. Thank you for buying a ticket.

A big thank you to our hardworking PTA members who as well as serving refreshments at the concerts this week, have supplied crackers for each child to have with their Christmas Dinner or Packed lunch today.

Dangerous Driving – Following an incident a couple of weeks ago, when a parent parked on double yellow lines/zigzags drove into another parent on purpose, we would like to remind you  that we take incidents like this very seriously, and the matter was promptly reported to the police. The car driver has been traced and has had to attend the police station. Thankfully the second parent was not seriously injured, and the matter has been settled via restorative justice.

Applying for holidays during Term Time.In line with National, Welsh Government and Local Authority guidance we actively discourage taking holidays during term time, and would like to remind you of the link between attainment and attendance, and that there is no automatic right to withdraw your child from school during term time. Any request for authorised term time absence will be judged on merit and may not be authorised.

Please complete the Notification of Absence, and return to the school at least 10 school days before the holiday. This allows time for the School Attendance Officer and Headteacher to consider the merits of any application. Any forms submitted less than 10 school days  will  not be considered and will automatically be unauthorised.

For holidays of 10 school days or less the School Attendance Officer and Headteacher will consider the merits of the application.

For holidays of over 10 school days, or if the application will bring the pupil’s attendance below 90%, we will notify the schools Education Welfare Officer.

For holidays of over 20 school days, or if the pupil does not return on the agreed date the pupil will be taken off roll, and the parent will have to reapply. Please note we cannot guarantee that a place will be available on your return.

The Local Authority may (depending on circumstances) issue a fixed penalty notice or commence formal prosecution for failing to secure regular attendance at school.

Y3/4D – Sadly Mr McCoy will be leaving us at the end of the term, as he has got a job in another school, we wish him all the best. Y3/4D will be taught by Mrs Jordan for the first couple of weeks, while we sort out a replacement.

Y1/2H – Mrs Howard popped in to see us this week, and we are very pleased that she is on the mend, unfortunately she is not well enough to return just yet, so her class will continue to be taught by Mrs Timaeus for the next few weeks.