Dear Parent/Carer,

Happy New Year!

I hope that you had a really good Christmas break!

This week in school is World Week, which is a lovely way to find out lots about the world we live in, in a fun way, by doing research and by listening to others. Please chat with your child about what they have been finding out.

The chosen countries for this year are:

RD – China

RH – France

1 D/J – Italy

1/2 VS – Mexico

2 MS – USA

3/4M – Portugal

3/4J – Ireland

4/5B – United Arab Emirates

5/6P – Italy

5/6W – Greece

If you are from one of these countries, or have visited them, and would like to talk to children or share any artefacts, please let us know.

Nursery has admitted Rising Threes this week and several children have had baby brothers or sisters over the holiday, so they are going to focus on “Babies”. They will have a World Week later in the term.

Clubs will all start next week.

Cookery and Creative Clubs work on a rotation basis so that lots of children have the chance to take part. Some clubs have smaller number limits so that pupils can have a better share of adult support. We always welcome any adults who would like to help with a club on a regular basis. This could mean, in some cases, that we could offer additional spaces. Please let us know if you are able to help with any club.

Pori Drwy Stori

On Thursday of this week, Miss Spray is running a training session for teachers in the afternoon. As part of this, we would like to invite Reception Parents to come at 2.45pm to listen to their children singing Welsh songs at the end of the Pori Drwy Stori event.

Diary Dates Sheet

The Diary Dates sheet and a termly Class Topic Letter will come out next Monday. Although most of this term’s events are on there, there may be extra activities for your child throughout the term because we always like to take advantage of any opportunities that we can.

This sheet is always on the front doors and in the notice board under the shelter and spare copies are always available from the office. You can also see our newsletter on our website every week (www.stwoolosprimary.org.uk).

Please note that INSET days are always on the Diary Dates sheet and also on several newsletters beforehand so that you are always kept up to date. Our next INSET day is on Monday 26th February, straight after half term and the focus of that will be Maths.

No Parent courses have been finalised for this term yet and we very much want to run courses that will be especially helpful to you, so if there is an area that you would like to know more about, please let us know at any time.

We hope to run a Reading Café for an occasional session this term and there will also be opportunities for parents to volunteer and make some resources. We will let you know more soon.

Christmas Card Competition

Please send in as many Christmas cards as you can for our Card Recycling Competition. This is run every year by Newport Wastesavers and the results are judged on the average number of cards collected by each pupil so we have a good chance of doing very well if we are focussed.

Please count your cards with your child, then put them in  a bag, labelled with the amount of cards on each. These should then be given to class teachers because each class is also trying to win a school competition between themselves (see Twitter @StWoolosPrimary). Classes will keep a running total of cards collected which will be given to the Eco Team. The final day is Wednesday 17th January. Please ask as many friends or family as you can to help us with this. Thank you!

Dinner Money

There are still many parents who are not crediting their child’s Parentpay/Paypoint account with enough funds to cover their school meals (meals are £2.10 per day). If your child has insufficient funds on their account then they may be refused a school meal and you will have to bring them in a packed lunch. Please all check your child’s account and pay off any outstanding amounts.

Attendance

Thank you for helping us to work towards our target of 95%. This term is a vital one for all children so please do everything you can to help us to achieve or exceed our target by the end of the school year. Thank you for your continued support with this! Congratualtions to Aliza Abidi (RD) and Jaideep Bhullar (3/4) who were the lucky winners of our Half Term Attendance Draw. Each receive a £5 gift card.

Bonus Ball

There is a roll over this week.

Yours sincerely,

H L Vaughan

Headteacher