Dear Parents and Carers,
We have made it to the end of the Autumn term! This term has been a very challenging term for so many reasons but we have all worked together as the Derwendeg family to support each other and I am very grateful to work in such a supportive school and community.
Our children have been remarkable once again this term, they never fail to amaze us with their resilience, hard work and kindness; we are so proud of each and every one of them and you should be very proud of them as parents and carers too.
As you will have seen from my message on Dojo earlier today, there has been an announcement from Welsh Government that schools will have 2 planning days at the start of the Spring term in January to adjust our risk assessments and health and safety procedures in line with new covid guidance for the omicron variant. This now means our children will return to school on Friday, 7th January. I will be issuing a further letter tomorrow morning to give you more detail about this.
I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and you are able to find the time to relax over the holidays and breathe in the wonder of the season. We’ll look forward to welcoming our children back on the 7th of January to start a fresh Spring term together.
Take care everyone,
Nadolig Llawen, Merry Christmas!
Mrs Wangiel
This half term’s value is: KINDNESS
Criw Cymreig: Brawddeg yr Wythnos (Phrase of the Week): Nadolig Llawen! Merry Christmas!
Heroes of the Week
This week’s heroes are:
Dosbarth Coch: Alfie and Bessie
Dosbarth Oren: Shayan and Olivia
Dosbarth Melyn: Bear and Erin
Dosbarth Glas: Sofia and Ashley
Dosbarth Porffor: Ruby and Max
Dosbarth Enfys: Seren. A and Mason. H
We’d also like to say a huge well done to those children receiving a Headteacher certificate. Well done to all of our certificate winners, we are very proud of you all!
Thank you PTA and Gelligaer Community Council
Thank you to our fantastic PTA for organising our lovely Christmas activities over the last few weeks and for providing a Christmas gift for our children. We haven’t been able to hold our Christmas activities in the usual way, but our PTA have worked incredibly hard in the difficult circumstances to host some festive fun for our children. Thank you to each and every member of our PTA and a big welcome to our new members too! If you’re interested in joining our PTA, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Thank you also to Gelligaer Community Council for providing our children with a lovely selection box each, they were very excited to receive them!
Cymraeg Campus Award
We are very pleased to announce that the school was awarded with the Bronze Cymraeg Campus award this half term. The award assesses how well the school provides an education for the learning of Welsh and the learning about Wales. All staff have worked incredibly hard towards the award, especially Mr Phillips, who is our Welsh co-ordinator. Thank you to Mr Phillips, and to all of our staff and pupils for their hard work and effort. We are very proud!
Easy Fundraising
Online Christmas shopping? Please sign up to Easyfundraising to earn us money as you shop. Don’t fear, we don’t know where you shopped, how much you spent or what you bought! We just get given money – for free! Log on to Easyfundraising, make an account then visit the online shop of your choice through the website. You buy, they give us money – for free! Sign up today: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/derwendegprimaryschoolpta/
Online Safety
I’m sure Santa will be delivering lots of new devices over the holidays. Remember to check the settings carefully and set up parental controls to help keep the children safe online. The guide below gives more information about how to do this: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/blog/parents-ultimate-guide-to-parental-controls?j=8703821&sfmc_sub=229032038&l=2048712_HTML&u=185862953&mid=6409703&jb=28011&utm_source=edu_nl_2021.12.14&utm_medium=email
Big Talk (Please discuss with your children)
This week’s topic is… What can we be grateful for this Christmas?
Upcoming Dates
Friday 7th January – Children Return to School
2021-22 INSET Dates
Thursday, 6th January
Friday, 18th February
Friday, 24th June
Friday, 17th December – Bank Holiday in lieu of Queen’s Jubilee