In light of current circumstances and steps taken by other local schools, we have decided to postpone parents’ meetings scheduled for the week beginning 16th March, as well as all class assemblies, until further notice.  Tiddywinks playgroup will be cancelled until after Easter.  All after school clubs, including Baglan Buddies, are also cancelled for the forseeable future.  Please ensure you have Schoop installed on your mobile device in order to receive updates from the school.  Updates will also be provided via Twitter pages.  If you do not have a Twitter account, you are able to view class Twitter accounts via the class pages on the website.

Government Advice

The government has stated that we’ve now entered the “delay” phase of the Coronavirus outbreak.  This means that the following steps should be taken:

• Stay at home for 14 days if you, or anyone in your household, has either a new continuous cough or high temperature
• Only contact 111 if your condition worsens considerably

Further details can be found on the Public Health Wales website which is continuously being updated: https://phw.nhs.wales/

If your child is off school for any reason, please ring the school office on 01639 769775 so that their absence can be logged appropriately.

What are we doing as a school?

We have explained to pupils the importance of washing their hands with soap and water regularly.  Government advice is to wash hands for at least the length of time it takes to sing Happy Birthday twice.   Pupils are being encouraged to do this whenever they do wash their hands.  Children are being encouraged to cough or sneeze into a tissue which is then discarded.  If they are not able to do so, they are encouraged to cough or sneeze into their elbow (in a “dab” motion).

Water fountains are currently closed.  Children are asked to bring in their own personal water bottle to enable them to drink throughout the school day.

Older pupils are having regular discussions about the virus with their teachers in order to keep them informed.  We know some children have been feeling anxious about things they have heard in the media so staff are working with pupils to put them at ease and to learn the key facts.  We have subscribed to First News (a children’s newspaper) who explain the situation in a child-friendly manner and pupils are able to read these articles and discuss them with their teacher.

Cleaning staff are working hard to ensure surfaces and communal areas are sprayed and wiped down as much as possible.  Shared resources such as iPads and Chromebooks are also being cleaned more regularly.

Antibacterial hand gel is available at the sign-in desk at the school reception for all visitors to use upon entry to the school.

We will be closely monitoring children’s health.  If a child is considered to be exhibiting a high temperature and/or a new continuous cough, we will contact parents to collect them as a precaution.

If your child does need to self-isolate, there are lots of things they are able to do to continue their learning at home.  Please read our “Learning at Home” post for more details: https://blaenbaglan-primary-school.j2bloggy.com/blog/learning-at-home/

What Is Schoop?

Our “Texts to Parents” service has now come to an end.  Parents will therefore no longer receive text updates from the school.  We have now signed up to a service called “Schoop”.  This will allow us to send out notifications and reminders straight away to any families who have downloaded and installed the app onto their phone in a safe way.

It will help us and families to have an improved communication system which is current and up to date. Families can choose which groups  (classes) that they would like to receive notifications from so the information received is relevant to them.

Schoop will work in many different languages so all our families will be able to access and use the app. A calendar facility will help you stay up to date with events etc. Eventually, it is intended that consent forms will be able to be completed electronically through this service.

 

How Do I Get Schoop?

The app can be download from the Apple App store or the Google Play store. Once downloaded, you will need to enter the school’s unique Schoop code (the school has previously sent a text to parents containing the code.  If you do not have it, please contact the school).

Please fill in your details, including your child’s name.

You are able to select the class(es) you wish to receive notifications for.

To ensure you receive our notifications, please go into the app settings and allow “Show Notifications”.

 

I’m Stuck – What Can I Do?

For any families who need some help setting up the Schoop app, please contact the school where a member of staff will be happy to assist you.

 

For more information about Schoop, please visit https://www.schoop.co.uk/

Learners in maintained schools in Wales are able to download and install the latest Microsoft Office tools including Word, Excel and PowerPoint as well as Minecraft: Education Edition at no cost on up to 15 devices – through Hwb.

Click on the link for a short video of how to upload Office 365 to your devices.

https://hwb.gov.wales/microsoft

Safe Routes to School

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:

Female	Male
Toothpaste/toothbrush	Toothpaste/toothbrush
Soap/shower gel	Soap/shower gel
Roll on deodorant / hairbrush	Roll on deodorant
Sanitary towels	Hairbrush
Flannels/face wipes/lip balm/tissues	Flannels/lip balm/shaving cream
Sachets of hot chocolate/coffee/cappuccino	Sachets of hot chocolate/coffee/cappuccino
Chocolates/biscuits/brunch bars	Chocolates/biscuits/brunch bars
Mini hot water bottles/hand warmers	Mini hot water bottles/hand warmers
Socks/gloves/hat/scarf	Socks/gloves/hat/scarf
First aid supplies & nail clippers (plasters/dressings /alcohol hand wipes & chewable vitamins)
Reusable water bottles

 

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

Our attendance for October is 96.45%.  This is our best attendance figure for 12 months! Da iawn pawb!

Click on the link below to read lots of suggestions on how to make lunchboxes healthier!

It includes tips for cutting down on fat, sugar and salt as well as suggested lunch ideas and food combinations.

Healthier Lunchboxes Leaflet