Nadolig Llawen!
Diolch!
Thank you to all parents for your support, the concerts have been a tremendous success. We’ve been very appreciative of the kind comments we’ve received. I hope we’ve spread a bit of Christmas Spirit.
A huge thank you to Pastor Dave, our Chair of Governors, and all at River Church, who kindly allowed us to host our concerts at the church. We are very grateful and we know so many of you enjoyed visiting River Church - it made the concerts held there extra special.
Thank you as well to all our PTFA who went above and beyond this Christmas, selling refreshments at he concert as well as organising a fantastic raffle.
School fund is now looking a lot healthier thanks to their support! The money raised over Christmas does not go into the school budget. It pays for treats such as the gifts that the children receive from us (e.g. books at Christmas & mementos when we've had events like the coronation), it also subsidises the infant fruit money and the cost of school trips & transport over the year.
The PTFA have very kindly offered to provide all children going to the pantomime with a drink & packet of sweets and they will also pay for the Christmas party on Thursday - all children will have a cracker to have at lunchtime and a drink, packet of crisps, sweets & chocolate at the party in the afternoon.
What to wear
Pantomime Trip Tomorrow - school uniform and Christmas jumpers
Party Day - non uniform (but no high heels, or jewellery - the children still need to be safe when out to play)
Community links
Well done and thank you to the children from Dosbarth Porffor who have been to Millbrook Care Home this term to take part in silent discos with the residents - it has been very much appreciated!
On Wednesday morning some of the children from Glas & Porffor will also be carol singing in Blackwood for the HCT charity.
Google Classroom
Don't forget to check your child's Google Classroom on Friday to see some festive photos and videos taken over the last couple of weeks. Please remember that this is for personal use only - please do not upload to social media. There are children included who we have permission to photograph in this circumstance but not to go on social media.
Also uploaded will also be a short presentation, telling you all about what they have been doing in their topic work this term. We started making these presentations last year and they take a fair bit of work so we'd really like your feedback as to whether they are worth continuing - we're not sure if they are being looked at or whether they are valued. We'll send a link for a feedback on Friday.
Please remember that if you have any questions for teachers these should be sent via email and not as a comment or message on Google Classroom. This is so that staff and parents only have to monitor email for communication and not multiple channels.
Attendance
A huge well done to all those children who have 95%+ attendance - certificates will go out on Friday. If your child's attendance is below 95% a Callio letter will be sent instead. Our attendance is gradually improving although we have some way to go to return to pre-pandemic levels. Please remember Callio is a regional initiative and no offence is intended to those parents whose children have had medical conditions. Similarly, we understand that there is an element of luck in achieving 100% so all rewards are a token (this term a chocolate bar). Please read the additional information, linked here, if you have any questions. We will be contacting parents of children whose attendance is of significant concern individually.
Clubs
There will be no clubs the first week back. We will review the club lists and announce any changes by the end of the first week back. Once clubs are in place the calendar on our website will be updated so that you can check when clubs are on and off. It is extremely rare for us to cancel a club but we do not hold clubs on weeks when there are additional demands on staff (e.g. meetings with Governors, PTFA events, parents evenings or staff twilight training).
New telephone system
If you've rung the school in the last couple of weeks you will have found that we are in the process of moving over to a new phone system. It's not yet complete - not all of the extensions are yet in place.
Please help Mrs East and Mrs Presley in the office by pressing one to leave a message to report your child absent rather than four to speak to the office. Similarly, ordering lunches in advance, checking the website to see if clubs are on and avoiding being late except in an emergency or by prior arrangement are all greatly appreciated.
Snow
I really hope we can get through this winter without any disruption. Should snow fall, the procedure is that if a decision is taken to close we publicise this on the Caerphilly website, update our twitter page and send a text to parents. We always do our best to give parents as much notice as possible but sometimes a decision has to be made on the morning. Please assume that if we do not announce a closure, then school will be open. Our ‘Snow Procedures’ are linked from our school website here.
INSET
Both the smainstream & satellite classes will be closed for staff training on Monday 6th January.
The satellite classes will also be closed this Friday but the mainstream classes open as normal. We will finish at 3:30pm as normal.
We look forward to welcoming everyone back on Tuesday 7th January.