Dear Parent/Guardian

Our topics this term (in line with our school target of developing the children as ethically informed citizens) involve issues surrounding conservation.  With Australia Day, approaching we thought that we would grab this opportunity, as a Rights Respecting School, to encourage every learner to become more aware of global issues and their role within the world.  With the devastation and destruction that has been headline news, as a school we decided that we could do our bit in being a part of a global appeal. We are planning to begin various fund raising projects to support the bush fire appeal and animal relocation efforts.

All learners from across the school will be creating ‘coin art’ in the form of Australian animals and we encourage the children to bring in any spare coins they have to help populate our animals over the next few weeks. Our aim is to complete all six animals to kick start our fund raising campaign in school. In addition to this, each class in KS2 will then continue to organise and promote their own fund raising projects throughout the next few weeks as part of their rich task topics.  All funds raised will be pooled together and donated to good causes in Australia.

Thank you for your support!

As a school we would like to extend our sincere thank you to everyone who donated towards our festive Blessing Bag campaign.  In total we collected almost 80 bags and each bag was filled with essential supplies that will be truly appreciated by the less fortunate over the Christmas season.

I have often thought of the saying “Not all super heroes wear capes’” and because of the  overwhelming success of this year’s Blessing bag campaign we were fortunate enough to help two very important charitable drives who provide the homeless people of Neath and Swansea with essentials over the festive season.

In Neath there will be a Christmas party on Friday, 20^th December 2019 where the homeless and needy will be invited and presented with their special bags after having a warm hearty meal served to them by volunteers.  The second load of our donations will be distributed by hand to the homeless and needy within the Swansea area.  Two brothers from Glynneath spend each Christmas Eve in Swansea town centre distributing vital supplies kindly donated to them by residents and this year they have the added joy of gifting people with a present as well.

Both causes were truly grateful for each and every donation that we brought them and couldn’t believe how generous we had been as a school.

So, on behalf of them, and on behalf of our school council we would truly like to thank you for every item that was picked, packed and labelled with such care, love and thought.  Your generosity and kindness is truly appreciated.

God Bless over this festive season.

Each child has been sent home a letter titled “ParentPay Activation Letter”.

In an attempt to remove all cash and cheques from school, we are asking all parents to only use our e-payment method to pay for dinner money and school trips.  This can be done online using a very secure website called ParentPay.

If you already have a ParentPay account (e.g. with another school such as Ysgol Bae Baglan or Ysgol Cwm Brombil), you can simply log in to that account and add your other children via a “add a child” button on your home page.

You will need a specific username and password in order to set up your account or add an additional child to an existing account.  Your individual username and password is printed on the letter which has been sent home.  Please check that the letter you have is correctly addressed to the child you need an account for.

You will require an email address to activate your account.

If you have two or more children at Blaenbaglan Primary, you only need one active account to create your main account and then add your other children using the “add a child” button on your home page.

ParentPay holds an electronic record for your payments to view at a later date.  Once you have activated your account, you can make online payments straight away.

Please do not hesitate to contact the school office if you need assistance.  Your support in using ParentPay will help the school enormously, thank you.

Mr D. Burrows

Headteacher

Dear Parents/Guardians

As we start to prepare for the upcoming festive season, we would like to ask you to just pause and think about families and individuals that may find this particular time of year very difficult.

Therefore, due to the success of last year’s “Blessing Bag” campaign we are once again asking each family at Blaenbaglan to make up and gift a Christmas gift for the homeless and needy within our local communities.

This year we are asking that you make up a Christmas gift bag filled with items selected from our suggestion list which you will find below.  We also ask that these are returned to school by the second week in December so that all the bags can be collected in time for gifting.

The families and individuals who received your very generous donations last year were extremely touched and blessed by their gifts and we hope that this year we can replicate that generosity at this very special time of year.

Please find a list of suggested items below:

We know that each and every family at Blaenbaglan consistently supports our charity drives and we look forward to being able to make a difference in our local community by gifting the needy with presents that will surely help them enjoy this 2019 festive season.

Yours sincerely

Blaenbaglan School Council

What a wonderful leavers assembly it was this week.  We will be very sad to see this fantastic group of children leave us for pastures new!  We wish you all the very best in your comprehensive schools.

Please enjoy our Year 6 Leavers Video!

That’s a wrap!  What a fantastic pantomime Key Stage 2 put on this week.  All children looked amazing in their costumes and the acting, singing and dancing was excellent.  An extra-special well done to our main cast who have worked so hard over the last seven months preparing for these shows.

A DVD of our dress rehearsal is available to purchase costing £4 per copy.  Please see Mrs Bristowe if you would like to order a copy.

All proceeds from ticket and DVD sales is being put back into improving Blaenbaglan’s expressive arts and we intend to purchase musical instruments – watch this space!

We’d also like to thank our VIP special guest, Michael Sheen, for showing his support during our final concert.  The children (and the staff!) were thrilled.

We were absolutely blown away by the excellent effort put into our Mean Machines homework this term.  Pupils were asked to create a fairground ride with a moving part and we had, amongst others, chairoplanes, rollercoasters, ferris wheels, helterskelters, drop rides and pirate ships!  All our creations were put on display for a parental viewing.

Thank you again for all your support!

This year, our Summer fete is being held on Thursday 20th June and the PTA are looking for donations for our rainbow stall.

Each year group has been assigned a colour.  We would be grateful if you are able to donate a prize for the stall.

Nursery/Reception – Red

Year 1 – Green

Year 2 – Blue/Purple

Year 3 – Gold/Yellow

Year 4 – Silver/White

Year 5 – Black/Grey

Year 6 – Multicoloured

Any help before or during the school fete will be very much appreciated.  Thank you for your continued commitment and support to our fundraising activities.

Costumes

Key Stage 2 will be putting on several performances of their show, Panto Pandemonium, this July (see our events calendar for more details).  We would be grateful if you could arrange for your child to bring into school a costume for their role in the show.  We would like costumes to be brought into school by the end of June, clearly labelled with your child’s name.

Your child has been given a letter detailing their role in the show and the type of costume required.  Children in Year 5 & 6 who are members of the after-school drama club will take on the lead roles and have been given letters specific to their role.  All other Key Stage 2 children will take on the following roles and require the following costumes:

• Year 3 = party people (Hawaiian party clothes e.g. grass skirts, bermuda shorts, Hawaiian shirts, leis, sunglasses etc.)
• Year 4 = pirates (any pirate-type costume and any associated accessories e.g. peg-legs, parrots on the shoulder, eye patch etc.)
• Year 5 & 6 girls = baddies (any villain-type costumes e.g. witches)
• Year 5 & 6 boys = jailed convicts (e.g. stripy top/trousers, plain black clothes and any associated accessories e.g. ball and chain.  They will be singing and dancing as part of their role and therefore can also bring in blow-up saxophones, guitars, microphones etc.)

If you have any questions, please speak to your child’s teacher or Mrs Bristowe.

Songs & Lyrics

As part of their role in the show, your child will be required to sing a song.  Your child will have lots of opportunities to practise their song in school over the next few weeks.  However, should your child wish to practise at home, the lyrics and tunes to their songs has been shared with your child in J2E (part of their HWB account).  In order to access these, your child will need to:

1.  Log into HWB
2.  Open j2e
3.  Open “Shared Files”
4.  Click on “Blaenbaglan Primary School”
5.  Open the “Panto Pandemonium” folder

Each year group will be singing a different song:

• All children = Goodbye (lyrics and tune in J2E)
• Year 3 = Agadoo (lyrics only in J2E, the song can be found on YouTube)
• Year 4 = What Shall We Do With Captain Hook (lyrics and tune can be found on J2E however the example song is “What Shall We Do With Long John Silver”.  The tune is exactly the same, just “Long John Silver” will be replaced with “Captain Hook” for our performance, as per the lyric sheet)
• Year 5 & 6 girls = Let’s Hear It For The Baddies (lyrics and tune in J2E)
• Year 5 & 6 boys = Jailhouse Rock (lyrics only in J2E, the song can be found on YouTube)

A huge congratulations to our rugby and netball teams, who won the TATA Steel cup and plate respectively this week.  Both teams have worked very hard all season and the trophies are thoroughly deserved.  Llongyfarchiadau to all involved!