Category Archives: News

Parents Newsletter 29^th January 2021

Dear Parents,

Many thanks for completing our Home Learning questionnaire and for your overwhelmingly positive responses! It is very encouraging to see how much you appreciate what staff are doing, particularly the videos, which actually take a long time and lots of technical skills to create!

We are now looking at ways to act upon your suggestions and concerns and are planning ways to increase live interaction for your children with staff. We will let you know about new opportunities for this very soon.

Teams Meeting for Parents!

If any parents would like to join a live Teams meeting with me to discuss issues further, on Tuesday afternoon at 3pm, would you please let me know and I will set up invitations for you. Please email me on HewittC23@hwbcymru.net.

I would like to invite any of you who want to, to contact me on this address, which is my direct email. Please get in touch if you want to let me know about anything, to raise any concerns or to discuss remote learning. I would also like to remind you that I am available in school Monday to Thursday 8am – 5pm if you would like to call me. Alternatively you can call Mrs Davies on Fridays.

Return to School

We are expecting  further announcements regarding a return to school sometime next week. Probably on Friday. I will keep you informed as best I can.

Remote Learning

Many of your children are engaging really well in remote learning but we do understand that this is easier for some of you than others. Please just do what you can, even if it’s only a little every day. It is important that you let us know if you are struggling, for whatever reason, so please stay in touch with your child’s class teacher who will be supportive and helpful and never judgemental.

For those of you whose children are keen for more learning opportunities look out for suggestions from their teachers on what additional tasks children can do.

Staff have been busy uploading stories to the website. We hope you will direct your children to these if you think they will enjoy seeing familiar staff read stories to them.

Emergency Childcare

As our childcare is now becoming quite full we would ask you to remember that the safest place for your child is at home. While we will always be there for your child where there is no alternative and you need our help, we would ask you to consider carefully whether there are days and times when they can be safely supervised at home instead.

Half term is 15^th – 19^th February and will be a break for both children and staff so Emergency Childcare will not be available and no work will be set (which I know will be a relief to some families!)

Pupil of the month

Our pupil of the month assembly will be posted on the school website later today. Well done to all those children who have been recognised by the staff! They had a difficult job this month as there were so many to choose from.

Flexi-Fridays!

We hope you like our Flexi-Fridays when no new work will be set so that you can catch up and also allow your children to pursue new interests. This is not a ‘day off’ for children or staff and children can continue to send in work which they have finished off. We would also love to see anything new skills which your children are trying out on these days! They can also talk about this at their Teams meetings.

Chromebooks

Just a reminder that any Chromebooks lent out should be used to engage in school work. If they are not being used I will be asking for them back this week. Please let us know if you need any support with accessing remote learning as we may now be in a position to offer to lend more devices.

Please let me know if you would like to join the parents’ discussion on Tuesday so that I can send you an invitation. I look forward to meeting with you!

Best wishes,

C M Hewitt

Friday 15^th January 2021

Dear Parents and Carers,

I would like to thank you all for everything you are doing to support your children’s remote learning during this difficult time for all of us. We have tried to personalise our communication with you during these last two weeks and you should all have had a phone call from your child’s class teacher. Please be assured we are not phoning you to put pressure on you but to check on your child’s and your family’s well-being.

We realise that some of you are under immense pressure trying to work from home and manage your child’s learning, and in some cases, their behaviour! We have agreed to give the children three tasks per day as some are keen and able to do this. However, if you are not in a position to do this much home learning we totally understand and are happy for you just to do as much as you can. We will be sending out a questionnaire this week to get some feedback from you as well as a quick well-being questionnaire for your child to alert us to any difficulties.

Please be assured that teachers do understand how hard it is as many of them also have children and are trying to manage the same challenges.

We have further plans to give even more personalised feedback to your child and we hope this will help them, and you, to feel their efforts are valued. We will also be meeting as a staff, remotely of course, to review how things are going.

Well done to everyone who managed to join a Class Catch Up on Teams this week. We had a fabulous turn out and it was lovely to see the children on screen, each isolated at home but all together as a class. I know some children found this quite overwhelming and I can understand this as I felt quite emotional myself at times when joining classes!

Please bear with us while we iron out the challenges of these meetings. This is a new venture for all of us and we are already discussing ways to make these sessions feel less ‘chaotic’! We think you will see a difference next week so do join us again if you can.

Remote learning will continue until at least the end of January and possibly beyond so it is important that we get this right. We are open to feedback and will do our best to keep your children learning and happy. I will be in school all day from Monday to Thursday and Mrs Davies will be in on Friday. Please don’t hesitate to call us if you want to discuss anything. We are here to listen and to try to help.

Above anything else, please stay safe and look after yourselves.

Best wishes,

C M Hewitt 

18 12 20 Letter to parent carer FINAL

End of Christmas Term Letter

Friday 18^th December 2020

Dear Parents and Carers,

End of Autumn Term Newsletter

As we come to the end of another very strange term in Tre Uchaf I am writing to thank you for your continued support for our new routines and rules which have no doubt helped to keep our local community as safe as possible.

Your children have been an absolute credit to you, accepting new routines with cheerfulness and positivity. They are clearly happy to be in school and must have been disappointed to miss out on this week’s planned parties, pantomime and talent contest! I am so sorry for the short notice on this week’s change to remote learning and understand the inconvenience to our working parents. This was a Local Authority last minute decision which was taken out of our hands. However, it was probably for the best. Well done to all those children who have worked so hard to complete this week’s home learning tasks!

Fortunately, we were able to get our Christmas film recorded in time, with just one week’s practice and one week to film everyone! The film footage is very long and has now been edited by our talented teaching staff. It consists of by a Makaton Song performed by each individual class and a story about Christmas Past, Present and Future. We have now sent this out by email to those of you who have sQuid accounts. If you do not receive it this way please let your child’s class teacher know and they will send it via Class Dojo or email. We will not be able to copy it onto DVDs before Christmas I’m afraid. We will be asking you if you would like a DVD as a keepsake after Christmas when we will be able to make them for you.

May I remind you that you agreed not to share any part of the video on social media as some parents have not given permission for this. This is the reason why we will not be putting the video on the school website.

We were delighted that nearly every child had the opportunity to dress up and perform although some unavoidable absences did mean that certain children sadly missed out. Thank you for providing costumes for your children and for sending them in wearing the correct costumes on the correct day!

This really helped to create the normal excitement of Christmas in school for our lovely children!

Spring Term 2021

We have been informed just this morning that Swansea schools will now be closed to children on 4^th and 5^th January so that schools can plan logistics for the term ahead, in the light of any further challenges linked to the spread of COVID 19. We are planning for all children to return on Wednesday 6^th January but will let you know if anything changes by text, DoJo, website and e-mail. Staggered start and finish times and rules and routines will remain the same.

May I take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy and healthy Christmas! And let’s hope for some return to normality in 2021!

Yours faithfully

C M Hewitt

Dear Parents

Yesterday came as a surprise to us all, to be moving to remote learning from next week.  We had so many lovely things planned for the children including Christmas parties and an online pantomime. However, they’ve had a fun filled day in class today completing crafts, wearing their Christmas jumpers, enjoying Christmas lunch, Christmas films and other festivities!

From Monday class teachers will provide activities for your child to complete at home. Some of these activities will involve online learning through Hwb, Mathletics/Maths seeds or Reading eggs. Other tasks will be more practical tasks related to Christmas. Children from Nursery to Year 4 will have activities communicated through class dojo and children in Year 5 and 6 will access their activities through the school website or by email. School is open next week for children of critical workers and children identified as vulnerable by social services. Staff will be on hand to answer any queries you may have about the activities if you need help and support. Please contact us through class dojo or by telephoning the school office. All children have been given log in details or passwords if they are needed.

As we move into this next phase of remote learning, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your continued support. You have accepted our new systems and rules, different ways of working and our ‘new normal‘ with kindness and a smile and we are all extremely grateful.  We will continue to post new messages on the news page of our website so please keep checking for any new information. Who knows what will happen next!

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Davies

An Important Safety Reminder to Parents!

With an increase in COVID19 cases in our area we would like to remind you of a couple of important rules which will help your families, our school and our wider community to stay safe.

We are becoming concerned that some of our children appear to be spending time in multiple households.

Extended Households (Bubbles)

Families should not mix with other families in their homes or gardens unless they are members of an extended household (bubble). Your household should only form a bubble with one other household.

Essential childcare is one of the exceptions to this rule.

Self-isolation

If anyone in your household or extended household (bubble) has symptoms and is awaiting test results the whole household should self-isolate until a negative test result is received. In these circumstances all children in the household should not attend school.

If someone in your household or extended household (bubble) tests positive, everyone, including children, needs to self-isolate in line with advice from Track and Trace. This means staying at home, not attending school and keeping a safe distance from the infected person, without any contact with other households.

School One Way System

We have noticed a few families entering the school yards through the wrong gates, increasing the risk of coming into close contact with other families. I would like to remind you that all parents and children must follow the school one way system at all times.

Many thanks to the vast majority of families who follow these rules all the time. You are helping to ensure that everyone enjoys the best possible Christmas!

C M Hewitt

Tre Uchaf Primary School

Newsletter for Parents Week Beginning 7^th December

Dear Parents,

Thank you all for continuing to follow our safety rules on school arrival and departure. May I remind you that the North Road entrance leading to the junior yard is now open and I would urge you to use this entry point to the premises if this is convenient for you as it is currently used by very few families. Please ignore the ‘One Way’ signs which have been mistakenly put up along this path. This is a two way route which should have ‘Keep Left’ signs! I will get this put right asap.

Christmas

Just a couple of festive reminders;

• We will be breaking up for the Christmas holiday on Friday 18^th December at 3pm.
• If children would like to bring Christmas cards in, we ask that they just bring ONE for the whole class. These will be displayed in the classroom.
• Thank you for sending in a huge number of donations for our Christmas wrapping stall! The wrapping is underway as I write!
• You will have received a letter letting you know about your child’s contribution to the Tre Uchaf Christmas Movie. Please send your child to school in their costume on their filming day next week so that we can avoid too much close contact while helping them to change. It is very important that you sign the consent form to allow your child to take part as we are not allowed to film your child without this. We will be editing the film next week and will let you know soon how you can buy the DVD or view the film another way.
• We now have two outdoor Christmas trees. Thank you for your donations of decorations!
• Christmas Jumper and Christmas Dinner Day will be on Friday 11^th December. The dinner will be a turkey roll and party food delivered in a special Christmas Party Bag. The cost of the dinner is £2.40 per child and there will be no charge for children entitled to free school meals. If you want your child to have a Christmas party bag it is essential that your sQuid account is in credit.
• You will have received a text letting you know that in order to reduce the risk of anyone in our school community having to isolate over Christmas we will now be finishing on Friday 18^th December.
• Parties will now be on;
  • Monday 14^th December Juniors
  • Tuesday 15^th December Infants

Please send in a small plate or box of food for your child, ensuring that everything is fully sealed or ready wrapped. There will be no sharing of food. The child can wear party clothes on that day.

sQuid Accounts

We will be audited very soon and our sQuid accounts will be looked at to check that everyone is in credit. Please ensure your account is  always in credit.

Christmas present stall

Thank you all so much for the donations for the Christmas present stall today. I’m sure you will all be delighted with the gifts your children have chosen for you! We have raised a whopping £356! The children are already planning to use it to develop our Solar shack in the Key stage 2 yard and also to purchase playground boxes for each class. Thank you to all children, parents and staff for your help in organising this lovely Christmas event for the children.

Accessing Home Learning

The Local Authority have asked us to send you a questionnaire regarding your child’s access to digital learning. The link to the questionnaire is here. We will also send it to you by text. Please complete this important survey as we may be able to help you out if you need it should your child’s class have to close due to the pandemic.

https://forms.gle/ZVZvpALvVnbsVfWUA

Piano Lessons

We are able to offer piano lessons here in school and some child are accessing this already. This is a private arrangement between you and the piano teacher and unlike violin lessons, which are paid for by school, there is a charge for this. If you like would to know more please let us know and we will send the information home with your child.

Children will now return to school on Monday 4^th January as they will have had the full two weeks off with the slightly earlier finish. Apologies for any confusion due to date changes!!

Best wishes,

Mrs Hewitt

Tre Uchaf Primary School

Newsletter for Parents Week Beginning 30^th November

Dear Parents,

I hope you and your children will enjoy this little two day break from school while the staff carry out important work planning for the Welsh New Curriculum.

Thank you all for continuing to follow our safety rules on school arrival and departure. You have been brilliant this week! May I remind you that the North Road entrance leading to the junior yard is now open and I would urge you to use this entry point to the premises if this is convenient for you. There is plenty of short term parking on North Road and older children can be dropped off safely at the gate and walk safely straight to the yard.

There is now no need to put your children at risk by crossing the open area on Cwrt Yr Ysgol so please do not use the little gate to the estate.  Please do not park in residents parking in Cwrt Yr Ysgol as this is causing considerable stress to our neighbours. There is a strong possibility that if this continues fines will be used by the estate management.

Getting Christmassy!

As we move into December we are busy planning to make this a really lovely Christmas time in school! We are planning to make the best of all the challenges we are facing and you might like to help us out with this as follows;

• We ask your children not to bring in lots of Christmas cards this year as this presents a risk of cross-contamination between many households. Instead, we invite your children to bring in one card to the whole class if they want to. This can be a homemade card or a bought one and should be given straight to a member of the class staff. Your child can write a message to their whole class and their card will be displayed prominently in the classroom. We hope you think this is a suitably festive and risk free option!
• In the absence of a Christmas Fayre we would like to continue the ‘Christmas Wrapping’ stall idea as it is always very popular. We need you to send in gifts which would be suitable for children to choose from to give to a parent or grandparent. Please send in donations of new or unused items suitable for adults eg unwanted presents you have received, chocolates, gift sets and ‘smellies’. Please send them in on Monday 30^th November so that they can be ‘quarantined’ for at least 72 hours. On Friday 4^th December children can bring in £2 to choose an item from the donations and staff will wrap it for them to take home as a Christmas present. Staff will adhere to strict hygiene, sanitising everything between wrappings. This will also raise money to buy something nice for our children.
• We will begin rehearsals for our virtual Christmas Production next week which will be filmed for you to enjoy. We will be asking for your permission to include your child and we can find a way to conceal the identity of any children who must not be filmed for safeguarding reasons. We will let you know what costumes your child needs very soon. The whole school will be involved in the production which will be filmed a class at a time before being edited to create one single production.
• We will be having a school outdoor Christmas Tree which we would like everyone to help to decorate. We invite every child to bring in a decoration to put on the tree. Please send them in early next week so they can be ‘quarantined’ for 72 hours before we handle them to place them on the tree. We hope you and your children will enjoy seeing our festive tree!
• Christmas Jumper and Christmas Dinner Day will be on Friday 11^th December. The dinner will be a turkey roll and party food delivered in a special Christmas Party Bag. The cost of the dinner is £2.40 per child and there will be no chare for children entitled to free school meals. We will be asking you soon to decide whether you want your children to have a Christmas Party Bag. If you pay for your child’s meals please ensure your sQuid account is in credit, to avoid disappointment.
• Monday 21^st December will be our final day and will be Class Party Day. We invite you to send in a small plate of party food on that day for your child as it will not be possible to share food.

We are really looking forward to the Christmas season in school which, although it won’t be the same as usual, will hopefully be one to remember!

Best wishes,

Mrs Hewitt

Tre Uchaf Primary School Weekly Newsletter

Week Beginning 23^rd  November

Dear Parents,

Thank you again for your kind donations to the Foodbank on Children in Need Day. The people at the Foodbank were astonished by your generosity!

New Routines Ahead!

Now that routines are in place and everyone knows the rules, from Monday we will no longer be ‘checking you in’ on arrival each day. You have all been sent a link to a form which we need you to complete before Monday. Thanks for the 114 forms which have been completed already! This asks you to confirm that you understand all our rules and will comply with them. You only need to complete the form once and I will monitor how this goes next week.

The North Road gate will now finally open again from Monday!  This means that those of you who live nearer to the North Road area can enter and exit the junior yard safely and conveniently without having to walk around to  Heol Cae Ty Newydd or cross the Cwrt Yr Ysgol car park area. (Parents with Infant children will need to do a little detour in order to follow the one way system by exiting the junior yard by the side gate before coming back in through the main gate). Please KEEP LEFT and keep 2m away from others when using this path at all times. Hopefully this will ease the congestion in the carpark because we are still receiving complaints from residents in Cwrt yr Ysgol and urge you to be respectful of other people, their parking spaces and driveways. Some residents are returning home to find they cannot access their driveway or parking space because a small minority of our parents are occupying their space.  If possible please use the North road entrance, St David’s close and park legally along Heol Cae Ty Newydd.

INSET Days

This is a final reminder that we will be closed for training on Thursday 26^th and Friday 27^th November.

Christmas Dinner!

There won’t be a traditional Christmas Dinner in Swansea schools this year. Instead the children will have a ‘Christmas Party Bag’ with a turkey roll and other party food! Christmas Dinner and Christmas Jumper Day will be on Friday 11^th December. The cost per meal is £2.40 and we will be asking you nearer the time if your child would like one.

C M Hewitt

Dear Parents,

Many thanks to everyone who has sent in donations to the local food bank and to Children in Need. The people at the food bank are delighted by the amount of food donated and especially because the idea came from one of our children in Year 3. The children have enjoyed their ‘non uniform’ day today and once again showed positive behaviour and respect for the charity they were raising money for. We have raised £270 and this will be sent off as soon as possible. Well done everyone!

New Routines Ahead!

Now that routine are in place and everyone knows the rules, from Monday 23rd November we will no longer be ‘checking you in’ on arrival each day. Instead we will send a form to your email during this next week to ask you to confirm that you will only send your children into school if they, and everyone else in your household is free of covid symptoms. You only need to complete this once.

To ensure things run safely and smoothly, may I remind you of our rules;

· Arrive with your child as close as possible to your child’s start time. Children arriving early without an adult will be unsupervised.

· Wear a face covering on school premises at all times

· Children should not be allowed to mix with children from other classes while waiting in the yards

· Remain at least 2m apart from other families while waiting to enter the premises and in the yards

· Use the one way system at all times and never enter through the exit gates, even if you are late

· Never drive beyond the barrier, even if it is open, are you are in danger of crossing the path of children

I am pleased to be able to tell you that the North Road gate will now finally open again from Monday 23rd November! This means that those of you who live nearer to the North Road area can enter and exit the junior yard safely and conveniently without having to walk around to Cae Ty Newydd or cross the Cwrt Yr Ysgol car park area. (Parents with Infant children will need to do a little detour in order to follow the one way system by exiting the junior yard by the side gate before coming back in through the main gate)

INSET Days

Another reminder that we have INSET Days on Thursday 26th and Friday 27th November.

School Uniform and Gym Days!

Your children have been coming to school in their gym clothes on PE days as requested and this is fine as it reduces changing time and mixing of clothing. Where possible would you please send your children into school with their uniform jumper over the gym tee-shirt rather something completely different! Gym days are starting to look like dressing up days which is a pity as our children look such a good team in their uniforms!

Christmas!

It is almost certain that there will be no live Christmas performances for parents allowed in school this year! However, we are planning to create something involving the whole school which will be filmed for you to enjoy. The children will get to dress up, sing, dance, play music and have fun and I’m sure they will make you very proud!

We will do our very best to ensure the children don’t feel they are missing out on anything this Christmas. There will be decorations, celebrations and parties galore!!

C M Hewitt