Category: Gwenfo Primary School

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

What’s Coming Up

 

Well, what a busy and fun packed term this has been! It hardly seems any time since we came back in September to begin the new school year!

Our pupils really did themselves and us proud during their recent school concerts! Key Stage 2 pupils put on a wonderful performance of "Scrooge", with Oliver Brownhill Jenkins playing the role beautifully. The singing was glorious and the acting first class. Our Foundation Phase pupils acted out the Nativity play, "A Little Bird Told Me". Both the choir and Nursery children put in special performances, which were very well received indeed. Thanks really must go to: all the parents and carers, for providing such fantastic costumes; to the PTFA, who worked tirelessly to organise the raffles; to all the staff for working with the children to produce such super performances; to Mrs Sian Jones for her hard work and commitment to working with our school choirs; finally, to our pupils for working so hard and making us all so proud.

Next week, the entire school are visiting the Sherman Theatre to see The Wind In The Willows. We are all very excited and this is the first time we have gone to the theatre as a whole school! As it is a matinee performance, it means we come home in the dark, which makes it extra special and magical!

We also have a Christingle service for Foundation Phase children next week. This is always very special and thanks really must go to Mrs Claire James for her hard work in leading and organising the service.

Next week is also party week. Father Christmas visits our younger children and our Junior pupils are wonderfully entertained by Mr Bradley, with a disco and games.

We really would like to say a special thank you to our amazing PTFA, who work tirelessly to raise funds for school – it is so much appreciated and makes such a huge difference.

We would like to wish you all a very happy Christmas and all good wishes for 2018!

 

 

October Report

 

Our new children are well and truly settled now and we can’t believe that we are fast approaching half term! Before we know it, we will be well into the swing of practising for Christmas concerts!

School is looking absolutely lovely, with bright and stimulating displays all around. We feel so fortunate to work and learn in such a beautiful environment.

We have enjoyed some fun activities in the past few weeks: to mark Mental Health Day, staff and children alike dressed in yellow and £187 was raised for the charity Young Minds. A big thank you to all!

All children received sport taster sessions from the out of school club, Superstars and a wonderful time was had by all!

Our PFTA works tirelessly to raise funds for the children; they have a number of fun activities planned, including cinema nights for Infant and Junior aged children. The children benefit enormously from funds raised. We really can’t thank them enough for their hard work, dedication and commitment.

Best wishes from the Gwenfo Team!

 

 

 

Back In School

 

It has hard to believe that we have already been back in school for 3 weeks!

Our new children are settling in beautifully into Nursery and Reception and we have also welcomed new families into our school community.

We were very pleased indeed with our ESTYN and Church School reports and the way in which the hard work, dedication and commitment of all stakeholders was recognised; the ethos of our school and the care and nurture provided to our pupils was recognised as being excellent.

We are looking forward to another school year, with lots of fun and exciting times ahead.

 

 

 

The New School Year

 

 

We start the new school year by reflecting on the achievements of pupils, their families and staff over the last year. School year 2016-17 was a busy year for Gwenfô! The Nursery, Reception indoor classroom and Year 1 classroom were completed and pupils have enjoyed using their bright new learning spaces. Two new Nursery classes now complement the learning in the rest of the school. Working alongside Wenvoe playgroup we have been able to offer wraparound care to our youngest pupils and their families ensuring a great start to their schooling.

Learning activities were planned by a dedicated team of teaching and support staff enabling all pupils to learn in a style that suits them, while being challenged to do of their very best. Pupils benefitted by visiting local attractions such as Barry Island, Cosmeston Lakes, the Sherman Theatre, Cardiff Airport and Western Leisure centre. Years 4,5 and 6 all experienced a residential overnight trip and all pupils made good use of the village facilities regularly visiting St Mary’s Church, working alongside Wenvoe wildlife group and visiting the library.

At Gwenfô we aim to prepare children for life outside the school gates both academically and socially. We pride ourselves on our strong Christian family ethos and were thrilled when we had our Section 50 (Church) inspection in July, to receive the very highest grading ‘Excellent’. Currently the school is graded as excellent with prospects to improve as excellent also. We were also visited by Estyn the Welsh Government inspection team and at the time of writing the report has not yet been made public so we cannot share their judgements at yet. If you would like a copy of either report please pop into the school office or email gwenfops@valeofglamorgan.gov.uk and we can make them available to you.

Thank you to everyone who supported us last year, our volunteer team helped children with their reading, planted the outside spaces and supported us in so many ways. We would love members of our community to be involved in the life of the school so please, if you think you could help us in any way please pop in and have a chat. Watch out for community events over the year, we’d love for you to be involved.

Looking forward to the new academic year we are excited to welcome many new families to the school, have planned lots of great learning experiences and look forward to learning and growing together in a Christian way.

Nicola Starke

Acting Head Teacher

 

 

 

Term End Report

 

Well, here we are, almost at the end of this academic year and what a fantastic year it has been!

Our Year 6 pupils led a super Leavers Assembly last Friday, sharing their memories of their time in Gwenfo. They were each presented with a memory stick containing photographs of their Gwenfo School life. Following their assembly, they then headed off to Porthkerry Park for a barbecue.

Years 1 and 2 have a planned trip to Margam Park – this is always a firm favourite, with all enjoying a ride on the land train, a visit to the play park and adventures in Fairy Tale Land. Years 3 and 4 also had a wonderful time in Cosmeston Park.

Our Nursery children led an assembly for their families and friends; this was such a wonderful occasion. It is hard to believe that our Nursery has been open for a year and that the older children will be moving up to the Reception class in September.

All the children will be running a Gwenfo Race For life this week; this is always a fun activity whilst raising money for Cancer Research UK.

Our Netball team have enjoyed wonderful successes in a tournament in Kent and also at home in the Irene Butcher Memorial Tournament. A massive well done to you all and also a big thank you to Mrs Plevey and Mrs Eltringham for all their hard work and dedication in running the netball team.

We wish you all a relaxing summer – with lots of lovely sunshine and happy memories!

 

 

 

June Activities

 

We are all enjoying this glorious weather here in school. It is always so lovely when the children are able to play on the field in their break times. We really are very fortunate to have such beautiful school grounds and surroundings.

We have been operating a scheme known as 'Family Dining'; this is when parents join their children for school dinner. Our cooks, Sian and Mandy, really do cook the most delicious dinners! It is incredibly enjoyable for the children to be joined by their parents for lunch.

The children are all busy practising for Sports Day next week…we are keeping our fingers crossed for this glorious weather to continue!

We can't believe that we are now in the final half term and how quickly this school year is going! We are looking forward to the last few weeks with lots of fun activities planned.

 

 

 

School News for May

 

It is hard to believe that we are coming towards the end of another half term……and that when we return to school, we will be in the final half term of the school year! Time does literally fly when you are having fun!

This morning, we held a hugely successful open morning; we were delighted to welcome so many parents, grandparents and friends to school. Our children were absolutely amazing, as always! It was lovely to be show our visitors the new nursery class and Year 1 classroom. We also celebrated Gwenfo Book Day today – this is our variation of World Book day which was earlier in the year – and the children enjoyed dressing up as their favourite book characters. Thank you to all our parents and carers for providing such wonderful costumes and for helping to make the day so special and memorable. A very special highlight of the day was the opening of the Infant Writing Shed; it was officially opened by our very own published author, Mrs Briscombe and was such a lovely celebration of the joy of writing, imagination and creativity.

Some of the children on the Communication Group have put together an overview of their learning and the activities they have been involved in.

Luey Maunder – Year 3. We really enjoyed visiting Cardiff Airport with Year 4.

In our class, we have been learning about thrust, weight, lift and drag – it has been good fun.

Mali Robinson – Year 4. Years 3 and 4 went on a school trip to Cardiff Airport; we went in little groups.

First, my group went to watch planes taking off and landing. Next we went into a building called Aeros. Where we met a man named Benjamin. He talked to us about the planes and then we went in a real training plane which was awesome

Rhys Hill and Milly Jorna – Year 5. On April 5th, Year 5 went on a residential trip to Tregoyd House. We did all sorts of fun activities, such as problem solving, zip wiring and abseiling.

On May 18th, we had a Book Day and we dressed up as many characters, such as Gareth Bale and Mary Poppins.

As part of our topic work, we enjoyed making George’s Marvellous Medicine using Evan’s Equipment.

School News

 

 

As always, school life is so busy and enjoyable.

St David’s Day was a wonderful celebration for us – the children looked fantastic in their Welsh national costumes, with a mixture of Welsh shirts and traditional dress. All pupils entered various competitions, including story writing and art. There was also a home competition to decorate a wooden spoon – there really were many wonderful and indeed, innovative entries- a massive well done and thank you to all the entrants. Our Bard was Georgia Iles – Georgia wrote a wonderful poem about The Blitz; congratulations, Georgia.

Children in Foundation Phase were also treated to a visit by Braces bakery, who demonstrated how Welsh cakes are made. Our infant pupils were all given a packet of Welsh cakes to take home – they were truly delicious!

Reception children are presently enjoying a series of African Drumming sessions; previously this term, Years 1 and 2 have also enjoyed learning to play the African drums.

Vicar Jon led us in school Eucharist and Year 5 pupils also visited St Mary’s Church for the Eucharist Service. Vicar Jon visits school every Wednesday and leads us in worship – the children (and staff) thoroughly enjoy his assemblies and hearing about Goldie’s (the puppet’s) adventures!

We are looking forward to another busy few weeks, with Easter fast approaching!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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