Category: Kids

CIRCUS SKILLS WORKSHOP

 

Did you know 2018 celebrates the 250th anniversary of circus? Join in and be part of the celebrations, come and have a go and learn circus skills together in a safe and friendly environment. We’ll be juggling, spinning plates, learning tricks on the diabolo and flower sticks, hula hooping, balancing skills, riding trick bikes, building human pyramids and more… See you there!

Cost of each session – £8 for a Parent/Guardian plus one child. Extra sibling £4

The workshops are designed for children aged 5 – 11 years and parent / guardian

Circus Skills Workshops

Children have to be accompanied by an adult

Wenvoe Village Hall

Thursday 28th June 6.30 to 7.30pm

Thursday 5th July 6.30 to 7.30pm

Thursday 12th July 6.30 to 7.30pm

More information and tickets can be booked at http://www.valeofglamorgan.gov.uk/en/working/Rural-Communities/Date-Days.aspx

 

 

Mischief Makers

 

 

 

Wenvoe Community Library would like children aged 4 to 11 to have fun reading six library books during the long summer holiday. Children receive special rewards each time they finish a book and there's a certificate for everyone who completes the Challenge.

The Summer Reading Challenge 2018 is called Mischief Makers, inspired by the much-loved children's title Beano, which celebrates its 80th anniversary.

Children will explore a map of Beanotown to find the mysterious buried treasure and become ultimate mischief-makers! Dennis, Gnasher and friends will help them solve clues and collect stickers, having lots of fun and adventures along the way!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Community Orchard Visit

 

Most recently our afternoon group visited the Community Orchard. We walked over the foot bridge near to the Playgroup and on into Monkton house as I know it (some of you may know it as the tennis courts or football field) and down to the bottom into the Orchard. The children enjoyed investigating the area and I must say what a great area it is to visit with the Children and right on our doorstep.

The children found the pond most interesting and on return some children drew a picture of the pond and the green grass, however, I’m not so sure the pond was as blue as their pictures. We walked back to the Playgroup via the tunnel into Vennwood Close taking many photos along the way to display in our group.

Children of all ages will love the area I’m sure, so next time you are wondering what to do with the children for an hour or two, why not pop across the bridge and see it for yourselves. We hope to walk our morning members across soon.

We are always looking for new ways to support families with care for preschool children and as you are aware we now offer support to those children who attend Gwenfo Nursery. We most recently held a drop in session in May, which we did try to advertise in May What’s On, however, the article was lost in transit somehow, so apologies if you missed this.

 

 

May News and Events

 

The month of May opened with the feast day of St. Philip and St James, known to many as the feast of “Phil and Jim”, and May Day brings to mind the young maidens of the village dancing around the May Pole. How things have changed, with May Day being associated with parades, gatherings of working people to air their grievances and demand better working conditions, and the Bank Holiday transferred to the first Monday of the month. This year the weather was glorious and many a picnic or barbeque was organised to take advantage of warm sunny days after the long cold winter.

The good weather continued until Messy Church on the 5th May was held in the Gwenfo School grounds, when the theme of the afternoon was the Exodus of the Isrealites from Egypt to the “Promised Land”. Much fun was had in the children’s painted footprints being printed on a roll of paper symbolising the long trek all those years ago, and the inners of toilet rolls were made into representations of Moses who led the people out of slavery into freedom. The session ended with food and toasted marshmallows around the camp fire. All in all, once again a good gathering of parents and children who would not normally attend the more formal services in church.

Early in the month, Jude Billingham, gave a presentation in church, to introduce the Christian Aid appeal this month, featuring the building of homes in Haiti and other islands devastated by hurricanes and storms, which are strong enough to withstand the force of the winds and rain. We heard how one such house sheltered over 50 people during the storm, when their flimsy houses were destroyed, saving their lives and keeping them safe while the storm raged. These are simple houses that can be built quickly for around £50.00, and the appeal is focused on provided as many of these homes as quickly as possible. The house to house collection took place in the week commencing the 13th May and the result will not be known until mid June. This year the planned Big Brekkie did not take place, but the school has arranged a Big Breakfast at Lunch time and a no uniform day on Friday 18th May to raise money for the appeal, plus the money raised at the Lent Lunches and Agape supper there was also a collecting box in the local shop, the end result could be greater than last year.

Work started on digging the “French Drains” on the South side of the church, which means digging down at least a metre in depth. Archeologists were on hand to supervise the excavations for any artefacts and bones that might be found in the trenches. A new “soakaway” was also constructed under the path to the porch, to drain the rain water from the roof. This work was carried out by Mike who also dug the other drains last year. This work in necessary to eliminate damp creeping up the walls of the Nave, and is being funded from our Building Fund, using money received from the appeals made from time to time to top up this fund. St Mary’s is a

Grade 2 listed building in constant need of work to keep it in good order. Contributions toward future work will always be acceptable.

The Feast of Pentecost was celebrated on May 20th, this is commonly known as the “Birthday of the Church” when the Holy Spirit descended on the Disciples gathered in the Upper Room and is 50 days after Easter. A week later Trinity Sunday began the long season of “Sundays after Pentecost” lasting until The Kingdom Season” in the Autumn.

The three parishes have been responding to the appeal for Helen Ormrod SRN to raise money for her to be on The Mercy Ship which provides health care to impoverished place around the world. Helen has to raise £3000 to be able to be part of the team on board. Already there was the “Guess the Weight of the Simnel Cake” and “How many mini eggs was in the jar” and on the evening of Friday 25th May an “Evening of Entertainment with Johnny Tudor and Olwen Rees” was held in the Wenvoe Community Centre to help swell the fund.

St. Mary’s needs a new Gift Aid Secretary. Allen Oliver and Lynn are retiring after 16 years in office. This post is very important to St. Mary’s and St. Lythan’s churches to enable tax rebates to be collected from HM Customs on gift aid donations. At the Annual Vestry Meeting Allen and Lynn were thanked for the contribution they have made over the years. Now we seek a replacement Gift Aid Secretary to continue this work, for without the tax rebates our church finances would be not be as healthy as they are.

Thank you for taking the time to read this

Parry Edwards

 

 

March and April Activities

 

Well, here we are at the start of the Summer Term already! The time really is going by so quickly.

Just before we broke up for Easter, the children in our Foundation Phase took part in an Easter Bonnet parade! The bonnets were, without exception, delightful! The parade took place in our school playground and was well supported by parents, grandparents, carers and friends. Our judges were Oliver Fulthorpe (Head Boy and Millie Jorna (Head Girl). Thanks go to all our families for such amazing efforts in making the bonnets and, of course, to our PFTA, who provided the prizes.

Thank you again to the PFTA who arranged an Easter egg hunt for all the children on the afternoon we broke up for Easter. This is always hugely enjoyed by the children.

Year 1 attended a multi skills festival at Barry Leisure Centre, enjoying taking part in activities such a karate and tennis. They were very well behaved and a real credit to school.

Year 1 also led worship towards the end of term– speaking and singing beautifully. Very well done, Year 1!

The children all took part in the Sport Relief Mile; this was a great success, with circuits of the playground mounting up magnificently!

We were delighted to have been invited to the Memorial Hall, Barry, to showcase the work the children in Year 2 have been undertaking in their Creative Writing. The children have been working with our hugely talented, Mrs Michelle Briscombe: Mrs Briscombe is a published author and has been developing the skill of story writing in the Foundation Phase. Miss Starke and Mrs Briscombe presented this to a wide audience of school leaders from across the Vale of Glamorgan.

We are engaging in a partnership with Cardiff Metropolitan University; this saw us welcome 13 student teachers for a day in March; the students were investigating what effective teaching learning looks like in practice. The trainee teachers visited all classes as part of their observations; thanks really must go to all the teaching and support staff and to the pupils, who created such a good impression. Feedback received was very positive indeed. Later this week, we will be welcoming the students again, when we will be facilitating opportunities for them to learn about cross- curricular learning.

We are looking forward to the warmer weather and with that, the lovely opportunity to play on our school field. We really do count ourselves blessed to have such a wonderful and stimulating environment.

 

 

 

London Visit

 

Gwenfo Pupils visit to Westminster Abbey and 10 Downing Street.

Eight lucky Y6 pupils accompanied by Miss Starke (Acting Headteacher) and Mrs Gordon (Acting Assistant Head Teacher) travelled to London on Monday 12th March to attend the inaugural Big Commonwealth Lunch held at 10 Downing Street. Unfortunately, the Prime Minster was called away to the House of Commons, but we met Damian Hinds MP and Ainsley Harriot the infamous TV chef who helped us learn about how sharing food with each other can help build communities. After a delicious lunch we walked down the famous spiral staircase and left via the black door (opened from inside by a Police Officer!) We walked through the rain to Westminster Abbey where we spotted lots of famous faces entering the Abbey. We enjoyed seeing the Royal family arrive and stood to welcome Her Majesty the Queen with a trumpet fanfare. We enjoyed the service, the beautiful singing of the choristers and just sitting in such a magnificent building. We listened to the Commonwealth message of looking towards a common future and loved listening to Maori singers, Gospel singers and even Liam Payne from Direction. We also enjoyed spotting iconic London landmarks such as the Houses of Parliament, the London Eye and red London buses!

If you would like to hold your own community big lunch please pop in for details or go to www.commonwealthbiglunches.com for more information.

 

 

February Playgroup News

 

I recently attended a meeting with regard to the Governments 30-hour Childcare offer which they propose to roll out across Wales by 2020.

It will be offered for 48 weeks of the year for all children the term after their 3rd Birthday until the September after their 4th Birthday (Nursery age).

To be eligible, both parents in the household need to work a minimum of 16 hours per week at the National Minimum Wage (NMW). If you are a single parent family the 16-hour rule applies at the NMW.

The 30 hours will be split between education and childcare provider e.g. 15 at Nursery and 15 with a Childcare Provider.

Although Nursery School offer term time only which is 39 weeks per year, we have been advised that the extra 9 weeks at 30 hours can be claimed with a childcare provider.

This is very exciting news for Playgroup with the wraparound that we provide alongside Gwenfo Nursery. We can now start to plan a way forward and gather information to support the Community with their Childcare needs to be ready in time for 2020.

We will keep you up-to-date with the latest information as and when we receive it.

Playgroup numbers are continuing to rise, with the wrap around care facility most popular.

Children may be left in our care from 9am with their packed lunch from home and walked across to Gwenfo Nursery for 1pm for £16 each morning Monday to Friday.

We pick up everyday from Gwenfo Nursery at 11:20 and on into Playgroup until 12:45pm for a cost of £8 per child. On a Wednesday, children may be collected from Nursery and stay with us until 3:15pm for a cost of £16 per child. A packed lunch is provided from home to eat at 12 noon.

We care for children from the age of 2 years and 4 months and support their care and development until reception age. If you would like more information on any of the above then please email me wenvoeplaygroup@btinternet.com or telephone 20597494 between 9 and 12 noon Monday to Friday.

Sandra

 

Half Term Report

 

 

Well, the past half term has passed by in a flash!

The children have engaged in various activities; some have been playing African drums with specialist teacher, Mr Rees. Pupils in Lower Key Stage 2 have thoroughly enjoyed taking part in a Creative Schools project and have been learning how to screen print; the finished results are truly beautiful. Pupils are also benefiting greatly from learning how to create computer code.

Years 3 and 5 have both led worship this past half term. Parents are welcomed into school to join with their child’s class worship and are invited to stay for a coffee and biscuits afterwards; this is always a special time. Well done to the children and thank you also their class teachers for their very hard work in the planning and facilitation of the class assemblies.

The week before breaking up was Arts Week; the children have been very busy in their preparations for Saint David’s Day, including art work and story writing. They will, no doubt, also be enjoying being creative over half term, making items for the home entries. All entries receive House Points. We have four Houses in school, named after local farms: Ballas; Greaves; Whitehall; Wrinstone. On entry into school, pupils are placed in one of these Houses. House Points are also earned throughout the year, with the winning House presented with an engraved trophy, on an annual basis.

We are looking forward to next half term, with Saint David’s Day celebrations and also the run up to Easter, which is always a very special time in school.

 

 

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