Head teacher; Mrs C M Sanderson Chair of Governors; Mr R Thomas
Friday 22nd May 2015
Dear Parents and Carers,
Please take a minute or two to read this end of half term newsletter as it contains lots of good news and important information. This has been another busy half term during which your children have done you proud, enjoying lots of lovely experiences along the way!
Competition News
Our Girls’ football team have had a triumphant half term, winning both the Small Schools league and the Plate! They played two nights at St Helen’s, displaying both confidence and excellent sportsmanship. Well done to all of them and thank you to Mr Jones for being such an excellent coach!
Our Year 6 Maths Team won the local primary school cup at Penyrheol school with their quick thinking and mathematical brains! Well done to them!
Rainy Day Cancellations!
Sorry about all the match and trip cancellations this half term due to bad weather! Let’s hope for better weather next half term as we have so many outdoor activities planned, including our Sports Days.
Interest Groups
Tre Uchaf is a hive of activity every Friday afternoon with our talented team of Teaching Assistants running an impressive range of Interest Groups for our Year 2 – 6 children, including our new Community Café. Do come along and support the café from 2pm every Friday!
Interest Groups are provided as a reward for good behaviour and commitment to learning and every week almost every child in years 2 – 6 participates. However, we are finding that a small minority of children are persistently failing to bring a PE kit to school or to do their homework and we now need to take action to make children understand that this is not acceptable. From now on children who fail to bring in their PE kit or homework will miss their Interest Group and will work with me instead. I have a strong feeling that this will motivate them to get organised!
Community Growing Project
A small group has been formed to instigate a Community Growing Project on our school field. This group will be working with school to develop a small area of school land for growing trees and vegetables alongside a Community Garden. We do, however, need young people such as yourselves to get involved in the practical aspects of this. I will let you know when the next meeting is and what we need people to do.
Goodbye for a while Mrs Glass!
Mrs Glass’ baby is due very soon and she finishes school today to take maternity leave. I am sure you would join me in thanking her for working so hard so far into her pregnancy to get everything in place before her absence. I am delighted that Miss Morgan will be teaching the nursery for the remainder of this school year and I know she is very much looking forward to her new role. We will be appointing a temporary teacher for September’s Nursery class very soon and I will be inviting parents in to meet the new teacher well before the end of the school year.
In the meantime we wish Mrs Glass well and look forward to a visit from her and her new little one!
Punctuality
Many thanks to the vast majority of parents who make sure their children arrive in school on time every day. This ensures they have a calm and stress free start to the school day. When children arrive late in class this can be unsettling for them and also for the class. May I remind you that you must allow our teaching assistant on duty to take late children to class as teachers will not have time to speak to you at the beginning for the school day. If you need to speak to your child’s class teacher please do this at 3pm.
Violin Lessons
Many of our children are benefiting from free violin lessons in school and it is good to see how many children have now kept this up for three or four years! We are committed to giving our children this opportunity which we hope will lay the foundations for life-long love of music. In these times of budget cuts some schools are withdrawing this provision. However we have managed to fund this and hopefully always will. With this in mind it can be disappointing to see a few children leaving their violins lying around for days at a time when they should have been taken home to practice! Please encourage your child to take care of their instrument and to practise regularly.
Farewell to Miss Bailey and Mrs Roberts
We have already said good bye to Miss Bailey who has worked with many of your children over the last five years both in class and in Kids Club and Breakfast Club. We wish her well in her new job and thank her for her contribution to the life of Tre Uchaf.
Mrs Roberts will be retiring at the end of term after ten years in Tre Uchaf. Mrs Roberts has supported many, many children who have needed additional support with their learning. Her skills and caring nature will be missed by all. We wish her well in her retirement and hope she will remember us fondly.
Parents' Focus Group
Life has been so busy at Tre Uchaf that I haven’t got around to organising a Parents’ Focus Group meeting for a long time! I do value these meetings and hope that you will consider joining us on Thursday 4th June at 6.30pm. These meetings are for anyone who like to help us improve the way we do things in school. Anyone is welcome to come along and tell us what we are getting right and what we can do better!
On the back of this letter you will find a list of important dates for you and your children. Please keep this safe so that your child doesn’t miss out on anything! These dates can also be found on our website and on the weekly newsletters!
We hope your children will enjoy the half term break and we look forward to welcoming them back on Monday 1st June.
Yours faithfully
C M Sanderson
Dates for your Diary
Monday 1st JuneYear 5 taster morning at Penyrheol
Tuesday 2nd JuneYear 5 and 6 Residential
Wednesday 3rd JuneMeeting for Y6 parents re; Leaves Party
6.30pm The Globe
Thursday 4th June6.30pm Parents’ Focus Group
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Monday 8th JuneClass Photographs
Wednesday 10th JuneFootball v Townhill
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Tuesday 16th JuneNursery Sports Day
Wednesday 17th JuneFoundation Phase (Infants) Sports Day
Football v Pennard
Thursday 18th JuneKey Stage 2 (Juniors) Sports Day
PTA Ladies’ Pamper Night
Friday 19th JuneSTFs to Gnoll Challenge
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Monday 22nd JuneReserve Key Stage 2 Sports Day
Tuesday 23rd JuneReserve Foundation Phase Sports Day
Wednesday 24th JuneGrand Theatre Performance – details to follow
Thursday 25th JuneChoir Competition at St Catherine’s Church
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Friday 3rd JulyPTA Summer Fayre
Saturday 4th JulyParc William Fun Day – choir
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Monday 6th JulyYear 6 Taster Day at Penyrheol
Tuesday 7th JulyYear 6 Taster Day at Penyrheol
Wednesday 8th JulyFoundation Phase (Nursery and Infants) Concert
PTA Summer Disco
Thursday 9th JulyNursery Trip to Pembrey
Friday 10th JulyReports and new classes out
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Tuesday 13th JulyKey Stage 2 (Juniors) and Leavers’ Concert 6pm
Wednesday 14th JulyGorseinon Youth Choir Festival of Song
Rehearsals at Penyrheol 10am–2pm Concert 6pm
Thursday 15th JulyLast day of term for afternoon Nursery
Friday 17th July9am Leavers’ Assembly for Y6 parents and Attendance Awards 1pm Finish – last day of term!