Dear Parents and Carers,
The term is flying by and we are at half term already. Most pupils (Y2-Y6) have completed their first Welsh Government Personal Assessments on line and we will be releasing the reports to you via Hwb after half term. Don't worry Mr G and Mr D will help and support you all with this. Please can I reiterate that these are not "tests" and they to not carry high stakes. They are merely another piece of information that we can use to plan the next steps for your child. Assessment has changed greatly in Wales, and we are no longer asked to submit numerical data to the Welsh Government. This is replaced with the expectation to "use" data in a way that supports progression. We do this well in Llanrhidian and we are constantly drawing on a range of information, including talking to your child, to plan their next steps. We welcome this change in mindset in Wales, and we hope you do too. Remember we have developed a useful page on the website to support you with the personalised assessments. This can be accessed here. Here are this week's headlines:-
School Volunteers - As we are opening up the school for events and trips, it is always useful to have volunteers to help the staff. However, the school has to follow "safe recruitment" processes for all volunteers which involves an enhanced DBS check, two references and completion of a volunteer application form. If you are interested in being a school volunteer, please contact the office.
Parent Questionnaire Reminder - Firstly thank you for supporting our journey through yet another challenging year. As always we welcome your views on many aspects of our school. These will feed into our self evaluations and help us to formulate our priorities for next year. Please be assured that your responses will be kept anonymous. Click here or paste the following into your browser. https://forms.office.com/r/HDbyj305TM
Weekly Premises Plea and Update - Over the Summer holidays we hope to have a new roof over Pod PryCop; new decking over the old sandpit; new windows in Pod PryCop; new internal fire doors and corridor walls repaired and painted. Much of this is grant funded, and we are excited to be replacing some "very old and worn" aspects of our school. Big thank you to those fabulous dads who are helping us with the polytunnel, raised flower beds, and much more - you know who you are and we are really grateful! This week we need:-
1. Decking planks (New floor for the Pengwin house)
2. Soil, plants and outside planters (To improve our gardens and fill our new raised beds)
3. We need bark chippings for our paths - does anyone know any landscape gardeners or tree surgeons who could sump their chippings in our field?
4. Good quality toys eg lego, cars, role play etc for Pengwins and Pili Pala
5. Artificial plants to soften our indoor environment
Summer Raffle - As always we are are running a termly raffle to raise money for pod resources. These will be sent home with your child soon. Please sell as many as you can as every £1 helps us to provide our pupils with the little extras that make their life in Llanrhidian memorable. We will be making up hampers from smaller donations and larger items will be stand alone prizes. We are asking for donations of the following prizes. If you know any local business who can help, please let them know that we will always "Tweet" a thank you. We are collecting:-
- Sweets, biscuits, chocolates, wine, summer toys etc for hampers
- Bottles of champagne, liquor, spirits, vouchers, etc for stand alone prizes
Nursery Pupils 2022-23 - If you have a child due to start nursery in the next academic year, please ensure you have contacted the office staff who can help you with your application. It is vital that we are aware of forthcoming applications to plan for staffing. Please also pass this information on to families you may know.
Please remember to check out our website calendar for key dates this term.
Have a great weekend
Mrs Caswell