Dear Parent,
Thank you very much for supporting two charity collections last week!
Our Jeans for Genes collection raised £ 149.10
We were also pleased to welcome Councillor Charles Ferris, who was visiting us on behalf of Newport Rotary Club, to receive stationery items which you and children had donated, to be sent to schools in St Vincent, in the Caribbean.
Thank you for returning the Contact Detail cards. The winners of the draw were Imaan Zeenat and Isaac Kalter.
Our elections for House and Vice Captains were held last Thursday and we were so proud of the way the children conducted themselves and spoke so eloquently about the characteristics needed to do these roles well. Where there weren’t enough Y6 children in house then Year 5 children were eligible to stand.
We held a secret ballot and the children chosen were:
|
HOUSE |
CAPTAIN |
VICE CAPTAIN |
|
USK (Yellow) |
Barney Guest, Miral Hammoud |
Mubarram Idrees, Tawassul Zahra |
|
EBBW (Green) |
Zakariyya Khan, Mollie Bowen |
Ramin Islam, Isra Mujahid |
|
WYE (Red) |
Mahmood Hail, Khadijah Manjang |
Ezra Uzoma, Fadime Sen |
|
SEVERN (Blue) |
Joel Stacey, Janavi Padilha |
Kieron Leonard, Mischa Butcher |
We began the day today with some rugby themed activities because of the start of the Rugby World Cup.
This afternoon we held a Pupil Consultation Afternoon and also ran a Parent Consultation event. Thank you if you were able to attend and join us for coffee and cake. We like to take as many views into consideration when we plan the year ahead and so this afternoon has helped us with that.
I’m aware that not all parents were able to attend so I plan to consult with those also. We set up a new Google system at the end of last term and will now able to send questionnaires via our Schoop service. Please sign up for it as quickly as you can, if you haven’t yet joined yet. You are able to download a free app and the code number can be obtained from the office.
Our Reception Reading meeting takes place on Wednesday at 2.45pm and I hope that you will be able to join us for that. It is an important introduction to the way we teach reading and will also give you suggestions for ways to help your child at home. You will be given some items to take home with you.
On Wednesday and Thursday we will be joined by local naturalist and scientist Tom Moloney, who joined us for our amazing Bee Friendly project last term. He will be working on a creative project with Year 3/4 classes on Wednesday and Year 5/6 classes on Thursday.
There are meetings on Thursday for any parents and grandparents who are interested in helping with fund-raising with The Friends of St Woolos. They are at 2.45pm and 5pm. I hope that you can join us for one of those if you are able to.
Year 5/6 classes have their Immersion Day on Friday.
ATTENDANCE
Our final attendance total for 2018-19 was 92.3% which fell short of or 93.7% target.
Our attendance isn’t good enough and, quite rightly, we are under close scrutiny from Newport City Council and the Welsh Government. It is only because our results in other areas are strong, that this attendance figure hasn’t affected our categorization. However, if it gets worse, then it may do.
Our new target for 2019-20 is 94% and it is vitally important that we reach it this year.
Mrs Baron, our Educational Welfare Officer, will be meeting with Miss Sweet on a fortnightly basis and she will also be contacting, and meeting with, parents.
We have a Governors’ meeting on Wednesday and our attendance will be discussed there.
FAMILY LEARNING
The first of our Family Learning Workshops takes place next week, on Thursday 3rd October from 9.00-10.30am and I’m pleased to say that Mrs Couch will be running these for us this year. She will be providing follow-on sessions from last year’s workshops and also doing some new ones. Next week’s is focusing on reading strategies.
DINNER MONEY
Can I remind parents again that Parentpay accounts should be in credit. You should only be ordering meals for your child if you have already credited their account. Please pay off outstanding dinner money immediately.
FUTURE DATES
Spare copies of the Diary Dates sheet are available from the office.
We have an INSET Day on Friday 10th October when the school and nursery will be closed.
BEE FRIENDLY STATUS
We’re really thrilled that we received confirmation at the end of last term that we have achieved Bee Friendly status! Well done to children and families in Year 3/4 classes last summer for working so hard to achieve this. Special thanks to Mr Benjamin who helped us with the making of the bee houses.
Congratulations also to Seren Marshall who was one of twelve national winners in a Beeswax Food Wrap competition!
Yours sincerely,
H Vaughan
Headteacher