Dydd Gwyl Dewi Hapus!
Thank you to all the parents who supported with homework for St David's Day and well done to the children - we've had some amazing work completed. Criw Cymraeg and Miss Davies led both our Eisteddfods this morning, awarding certificates for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place for homework, art and handwriting. Each class performed a song that they learned with Coach Sham from On the Beat. Our violinists performed this afternoon too. Staff are putting together photos and video and we'll upload this to Google Classroom as soon as it's ready which should be some time next week - we'll text when it's ready. In the meantime, I'm sure there will be some photos on X (formerly Twitter) - please see @PontPrimary
Nursery held a Stay & Play - thank you to everyone who attended. It sounds like you had a fantastic morning!
World Book Day
A reminder that we don't dress up for World Book Day as it's so close to St David's Day and therefore unfair to expect parents to buy / make costumes. However we do mark the event and will be doing story swaps (where teachers visit each others' classes) next week.
Maths Open Day
Thank you to everyone who attended - the feedback was very positive and we are delighted that parents found it useful. The Parent Forum have suggested that we run a similar event with a focus on Reading next. Hopefully this will be next term.
Easter
As you will be aware from previous newsletters, school fund is running low and therefore we are unable to fund an end of term gift this term as we have done in the past (normally an Easter Egg). However, our PTFA have kindly offered to step into the breach for which we are very grateful. They will be running a competition at the end of term - more information to follow.
Parents Evenings 19th & 20th March
The booking link will go out this afternoon for mainstream classes Coch - Porffor. We are aware, however, that Teachers2Parents are running a programme of maintenance today and over the weekend which may mean it is temporarily unavailable at some points. Normal service should be resumed by Monday.
Miss Rooke will be available to speak to parents in the Junior Hall during Parents Evenings, demonstrating some of the digital learning that we do in school and offering advice on Internet Safety and also helping parents with using Google Classroom, Hwb etc.
Caerphilly Catering will also be welcoming parents into the canteen to sample the lunch menu and answer questions.
Parent Survey - Trips & Workshops
A huge thank you to everyone who completed the questionnaire. Responses were shared and discussed with the Parent Forum on Thursday and will be discussed further with staff. We plan to continue providing 2-3 trips a year at approximately £15 per head, however, the nature of these trips is under review and we intend to be more strategic about it so that we provide children with a broader range of activity as they move through the school. The pantomime trip and trips to play centres are under review as many parents felt that this is something that they can do as a family. From next term we will begin to ask for donations towards transport to sporting activities and ask for a greater donation towards the cost of swimming. A full response to the survey is planned once staff have looked at the range of activities we might include, and we hope to share this with parents before the end of term.
Class Organisation 24/25
At our last Governors meeting we reviewed our policy for the organisation of mixed age classes again (we do this annually). Our updated policy is now available on the website and parents are asked to read it. Please see link here. In Pontllanfraith we have to reorganise classes every year because of pupil numbers. Parents are asked to communicate anything they would like to be taken into consideration to their child's current class teacher by 31st May. We do not announce classes for next year until the last week of the summer term. This is not disorganisation on our part. It is because we need to ensure that classes do not exceed 30 on the 1st of September. If we were to announce the classes and then need to admit another child before the end of term it would have the potential to cause further upset if we had to rearrange.
Swimming
This year we have successfully booked lessons for Years 3 & 4, therefore from this year forward swimming will be a Year 3 activity (all schools have been trying to catch up where we were unable to provide lessons during the pandemic - we have ensured that no cohort has left without having lessons). Swimming will take place everyday the three weeks after May half term. Unfortunately, in order to do this, we have had to accept a lunchtime slot which is not ideal. We will give parents more information about how we will accommodate this nearer the time.
Finally, a reminder that there are no clubs except Cardiff City next week as staff will be attending a Governors meeting.