It's hard to believe that we've already come to the end of our first half-term of the year. It's been fun-filled with loads of learning and laughter. The end of half-term is always a time for thanks. As always, a big thanks to parents and families for your support and communication as we continue to promote the message that this is 'Our School'. A massive thanks to all the staff, an incredible group, never giving less than 100% for the children. Enjoy a well-earned break with your families and friends over half-term. Another huge thanks to our wonderful PTA, your efforts are hugely appreciated, and we were able to end the half-term in style with a wonderful 'Monsters Ball.' Finally, and most importantly, thanks to our superstar pupils. You've started the year superbly, and I have no doubt that you will continue to dazzle us all as the year goes on. Next half-term is always a busy one with lots of exciting events to plan for, and we're sure that by working together as a whole school community we can make it one to remember!

Exciting news hot off the press. Mrs Melen and our awesome Criw Cymraeg have been leading our pursuit of the Siarter Iaith Bronze award, awarded to schools in recognition of their commitment to inspire children and young people to use Welsh in all aspects of their lives. Today, judges were given a detailed insight into Welsh provision at Waunarlwydd, with all pupils and staff contributing fully. We are proud to say that we have been successful! Llongyfarchiadau pawb, gwaith adderchog!

This year we will be competing in the North Gower Partnership Cluster Cup in multiple sports, including football, rugby, netball, cross-country and cricket. Schools will gain points at each event with the overall winner at the end of the school year being declared Cluster Cup Champions. This week saw the first event as our Year 6 boys took part in a football tournament in Elba. The boys played superbly, winning 2 out of 3 games but, most importantly, showed amazing teamwork, sportsmanship and a great attitude. Gwaith Wych!

Our focus value of the first half-term has been 'KINDNESS'. Next half-term we will be focusing on the school value of 'HONESTY' and the children, as well as the whole school community, will be learning about the importance of honesty in many aspects of life, both in and out of school.

 

What a brilliant half term our Nursery have had. They settled in so quickly and have done so many exciting activities. They have loved Welly Wednesdays; hunting for ants, going on a bear hunt, jumping off logs and jumping in puddles. They made apple crumble and tasted crumpets, porridge and avocado for snack as part of the 'Sound of the Week'. Baby Thea came to visit the class and had a bath, and they played looking after babies in the role-play area afterwards. They have done lots of creative activities; printing with apples, painting bees and making butterfly prints. The experiment finding the 'super car' was great fun, and they enjoyed playing with the car ramp afterwards and looking at number plates in the car park. The children are amazing at Welsh already and are enjoying singing the Falala songs every morning. This half-term Reception have focused on settling into our new classroom and our new rules and routines, from choosing our dinner in the morning, to being independent with our coats, going out to play with the older children and eating our lunch in school. We have met Fred the Frog who has started to teach us our sounds, what they look like, what they sound like and how to 'Fred Talk' to make simple words like 'mop', 'pig', 'sad' and 'tap'. We have had lots of stories and have particularly enjoyed 'Goldilocks and the 3 Bears', we talked about whether Goldilocks should have gone into the 3 Bears house and how they all felt. We also loved the story of the '3 Little Pigs', we have used different classroom objects to print a straw house, a stick house and a brick house and have made our own story map. For Harvest we talked about healthy foods and drew pictures of the fruit and vegetables that we are thankful for and had a great time visiting St Barnabas Church singing all of our favourite Harvest songs. We have had lots of fun with maths and have been matching different objects such as buttons and bears, created patterns and practised matching, subitising, counting and writing numbers 1-3. What a busy half term!

As part of our topic 'Tell me a story' topic, Year 1 have been looking at the author Julia Donaldson. First they retold the story of the Gruffalo 'Pie Corbett' style and looked at rhyming and describing words. They followed instructions on how to draw a Gruffalo and used the colour mixing technique to paint him. Room on the Broom has been a firm favourite this week and the children have absolutely loved our witches' kitchen role play area where they have been busy making magic potions and spells. They have also retold the story and sequenced pictures in the correct order.  1 more, 1 less and number bonds to 10 have been some of the topics in maths this term as-well as making spider addition sums.  This half-term, Year 2 delved into the enchanting world of Julia Donaldson, exploring some of her most beloved stories, including 'The Gruffalo', 'The Scarecrow's Wedding' and 'Room on the Broom'.  We have written character descriptions and setting descriptions. Children have sequenced the main events of a story and when looking at written instructions have written their own spells for a good friend. The focus has been on place value, tens and units, and addition and subtraction in maths so far this term.  They have practised number bonds to 10, odd and even numbers and counting in 2s, 5s and 10s on a daily basis. Children loved celebrating Harvest at St. Barnabas' Church and wrote a Harvest prayer, to say thank you for the farmers and food we have. The children loved being creative in music using movements based on the Julia Donaldson stories and loved making their own Gruffalo woodland scene, using a variety of art techniques. When using IT, the class enjoyed creating their own charts based on the types of houses they live in and enjoyed making 'Shwmae' videos on Seesaw. Year 3 have been diving into the imaginative world of Roald Dahl and have been enjoying Fantastic Mr Fox, The Twits and George's Marvellous medicine this half-term. In particular, we've loved creative activities such as designing a new tail for Mr Fox using collage materials, painting Roald Dahl characters and developing our sketching techniques. We've been learning our place value to numbers to 1000 and beyond and have used these to put the events of Roald Dahl's life in chronological order. In literacy, we have been developing our creative writing by learning about commas, question marks as well as different word classes and have used our skills to write character descriptions of The Twits as well as a set of instructions for a marvellous medicine. We have completed a simple science investigation but are looking forward to more science after half-term too!

Year 4 and 5 have had a wonderful half-term learning about 'The Explorer' and The Amazon Rainforest. Research into artists such as Jane Tomlinson and Abel Rodriguez brought about some wonderful results and children have learnt how to sketch tropical leaves and rainforest animals. The children then applied these skills when presenting their descriptive poems. They look amazing and will be on display during our Cafi Cynefin sessions. The visit from Size of Wales was really informative, and the children learnt a lot about climate change and deforestation. We thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Sketty Mosque and Parklands church! The children have also been building on their musical talents in our BandAlong sessions every Monday morning. Another big hit has been our Gymnastics sessions in PE. This half-term, Year 6 have enjoyed the new responsibilities that Year 6 brings. They have engaged really well with all their learning. In Literacy, they have enjoyed finding the writing tricks and techniques for writing suspense stories - after half-term, they will have a go at writing their own. In Welsh, they have been learning how to describe themselves. Ms Williams has been very impressed with the effort and enthusiasm they bring to all their maths lessons. In one of our Health and Wellbeing lessons, the class listened to a story from No Outsiders ' King of the Sky' and thought of the wider story of the emotions of the two characters. As always, PE is a highlight in Y6. This half-term, they have developed as swimmers and netball players.  They really enjoyed showing their parents their learning in our class assembly.

Some key dates for next half-term (we'll let you know of any additions at the earliest opportunity)

Remember, as always, if you have any queries, concerns or ideas, don’t hesitate in making contact! Have a wonderful half-term! See you all on Monday November 4th!

Diolch pawb!

Mr Jamie Evans

Headteacher