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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!

Dear Parent/Guardian,

Nursery, Reception and LSC1 are taking part in the Giant Wiggle for Action for Children. On Friday 14^th June, we’re inviting pupils to join us on a fundraising walk themed around The Very Hungry Caterpillar ^TM.

We’re asking everyone who takes part to make a £1 donation, so we can help vulnerable children in the UK build happy futures.

We’ve set up an online fundraising page for our Giant Wiggle event, please share it far and wide! You can donate online using this link: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/blaenbaglanprimary. Alternatively, you can also bring donations into school.

We’re really looking forward to our Giant Wiggle event. And to make the most of the wiggle-y fun, we’ll take part in crafting activities during the lead up to our event including making caterpillar and butterfly crowns/masks. If your child would like to dress up like The Very Hungry Caterpillar ^TM, all they need to do is wear a green top or pop some butterfly wings on if you have some.

This year we’re celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Very Hungry Caterpillar ^TM so we want the celebrations to be bigger than ever before. The money we raise together will go to Action for Children, to help disadvantaged, disabled and vulnerable children and families in the UK. If you’d like to find out more about the Giant Wiggle go to actionforchildren.org.uk/giantwiggle.”

Thank you for your support. Now let’s get our wiggle on for Action for Children!

Wiggle-y wishes,

Miss Kennedy

(Nursery Teacher)

Our Key Stage 2 classes will be studying “Mean Machines” this term.

This exciting topic will cover areas such as rollercoasters and robots.  One of the main focuses of our topic will be our “Rich Task” which involves lower KS2 planning a trip to a theme park and upper KS2 designing their own theme park.  This project will cover lots of different literacy and numeracy skills, with a strong focus on money and budgeting.

Homework for this term consists of three parts:

1.  Design a theme park attraction
2. Create a 3D theme park attraction
3.  Persuade people to ride your attraction

Homework can be handed in the week beginning 1st July 2019 and no later than Monday 8th July 2019.

For more details, please read our Mean Machines Homework.  If you are stuck and need some inspiration, click here.

Your child has undertaken a short, online personalised assessment for Numeracy (Procedural) and their feedback is now available for you to view.

The purpose of personalised assessments is to help all children progress, through understanding what they can do, the things they need to work on, and their next steps.

What is Numeracy (Procedural)?
Numeracy (Procedural) focuses on numerical facts and procedures – the numerical ‘tools’ that are needed to apply numeracy within a range of contexts.

How does the assessment work?
The questions are chosen from a large ‘bank’ designed for Years 2 to 9. Each question is selected based on the answer given to the previous question. If pupils get a question right they are given a slightly harder question next. If they cannot answer a question, or answer incorrectly, they receive a slightly easier one. All pupils will get some questions right and some questions wrong, as this gathers information on the limits of what each pupil can do at that particular time. This means all
pupils will receive an assessment that is unique to them.

What does the feedback tell me?
This feedback represents a snapshot of your child‘s skills at the time the assessment was taken. It provides just one source of information on your child’s overall knowledge and understanding. Your child’s teacher will consider this feedback, alongside other information they have on your child’s skills in numeracy work in the classroom, in order to plan their learning.

• The first section ‘The hardest questions I got right were on these skills:’ lists the areas in which your child gave correct answers for the most challenging questions.
• The second section ‘I may need to work on:’ relates to the questions answered incorrectly and the areas they may need to focus on.
• The final two sections ‘Most pupils with similar skills are able to … and are likely to move on to:’ relate to your child’s overall performance in the assessment and provide an overview of the sort of skills that pupils with a similar pattern of answers are able to achieve or are working
  towards.

Reports to parents and carers will be provided at the end of the school year, showing progress over time, based on a standardised score.  These will take the form of previous National Test reports.

Accessing Test Feedback

1.  Your child will need to log on to http://hwb.gov.wales using their HWB username and password

 

2.  Click on “HWB Tools” in the black banner at the top of the page.  Then select “Personalised assessments”

 

3.  Click on “Learner feedback”

 

4.  Click on “Numeracy (Procedural)

 

5.  Click on “Sample question (PDF)” to view an example of the type of question answered