Dear Parents/guardians,
It has been another lovely week in school and pupils have settled back into learning well.
ADHD Course
Every Tuesday afternoon for the next six weeks between 13:00 and 15:00, Michael Mcateer is going to be running a course on ADHD at Hook School. It is a course packed with useful information. Michael says:
"Our course is designed to give parents information about ADHD. We have a session given by Dr. Jayasingh, community paediatrician, who will give the medical model of ADHD as well as medication and diagnosis. We hope to have a session given by behaviour support teachers, who will explain what support the schools can offer to a child with ADHD. On top of that we have strategies and suggestions to help work at home with a child with ADHD in order to get the best outcomes we can. We will explore executive functions, melt downs and triggers how to spot and how to avoid these".
If you would like to attend, please register your interest here.
Outdoor Learning
On Tuesday we are going to be holding an outdoor learning morning. At the moment, the weather forecast if fantastic and we look forward to an exciting morning of learning.
In other outdoor learning news, we have also been successful in winning a Keep Wales Tidy package to continue to enhance our outdoor learning space. We will soon receive a delivery of tools, habitat boxes, plants and a bench!
Site Renovations
In a few weeks I am planning to hold a Saturday working morning at school to try to improve the outdoor learning areas. Weather permitting, I am aiming for Saturday 28th September. I am starting to create a list of jobs which includes things such as: trimming plants, painting, fixing up black boards, cleaning gutters etc.
If you are interested in helping for a few hours, please complete this form:
As ever, if there is anything that I can help with, my email address is Williamsr1688@hwbcymru.net
Kind regards,
Mr Williams.
Information from the Music Service
School Development Plan:
During the summer holidays, I have been busy reviewing progress made last year and formulating our new school development plan.
Areas for development this year:
- Further raise standards in teaching and learning. Focus on Retrieval Practice.
- Refine the provision for independent learning across the school to ensure there is appropriate challenge for all pupils
- Develop the use of Welsh throughout the school in order to improve pupils’ skills in speaking Welsh
- Continue to refine our curriculum to ensure the principles of progression support planning, learning and teaching.
- Develop quality outdoor learning and experiences for all pupils to develop into healthy, confident learners.
I will add our school development plan to the school website when I have finished consulting stakeholders.
Attendance
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, school attendance across Wales has been severely impacted. Our attendance last year finished at 93.8%. Our target is 95%.
We are under increasing pressure to improve our attendance. It became apparent last year that attendance on Fridays in some asymmetric schools was significantly lower than attendance Monday to Thursday. We will continue to monitor attendance on Fridays separately with aim of improving this. We are going to be enhancing our attendance rewards and children with attendance over 95% at the end of the autumn term will receive a special treat.
Thank you for your continued support.
Inset days for 2024-2025
- Monday 2nd September 2024 - Focus: Direct Instruction and Teacher Modeling.
- Wednesday 9th October 2024 - Focus: Oracy, independence and continuous and enhanced provision.
- Thursday 21st November - Focus: Cluster Working.
- Friday 10th January - Focus: Welsh Language.
- Monday 23rd June - Cluster Day Two
- Day Six will be taken as twilight sessions.
Headteacher's Coffee Afternoon
On Tuesday 17th September I will hold a headteacher's coffee session at 15:30. The meeting will be held in Mrs. Makepeace's class. This will be an opportunity for an informal chat about anything that parents would like to discuss - be it something that you think we are doing well, something which you think I might have missed, or an area of concern. All parents are welcome.