Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.

• Amber again? Your questions answered.

  Wed 15 Feb 2017 Mr Saunders and Mrs Robbins

  Welsh Government's Categorisation of Schools

   

  School's are given a colour rating based on a number of factors. The ratings are explained below:

  Green - highly effective schools

  Yellow - effective

  Amber - in need of improvement

  Red - in need of greatest improvement

   

  The rating a school gets, also reflects how much support the school is entitled to from the local authority and the school's advisor.

  Green - 4 days

  Yellow- 10 days

  Amber - 15 days

  Red - 26 days

   

   

  We have been rated as amber - in need of improvement. This rating is based on two key areas. The first is on the data of the school and the second is based on the school's capacity to improve.

   

  The school's data is always very tricky. We are compared with other schools across Wales. However, most other schools we are compared with don't have a Special Needs Resource Base. Our data will always be lower than other schools, therefore it is not really a fair comparison.

   

  However, we have made considerable improvements in our data. For example at the end of the Juniors the % of children reaching the expected level in 2015 was 78% and at the end of this year we are on track for 83%. This is a real improvement, although we would like the figure to be 88% next academic year.

   

  Our advisor in his categorisation report is really pleased with the improvements we have made over the last 2 years as a school and has said,

  "This school now feels like a yellow school and I'm sure it will be in the next round of categorisation."

   

  The amber rating acknowledges that we still have improvements to make but we are certainly on track and going in the right direction.

   

  We have included some sections from our advisor's report about the categorisation that we hope you will find encouraging.

   

  • Leadership at the school has developed into a strong partnership. The Head and Deputy have a clear vision and strategy for improvement and work effectively to achieve these aims. This vision is shared by staff and governors.

  • Staff have clear expectations and all are now responding to the greater challenge.

  • The school has comprehensive monitoring procedures in place to support effective self-evaluation. There is a clear monitoring timetable in place which is closely adhered to. Issues identified through the monitoring process are followed up to ensure a direct impact upon teaching and learning.

  • The monitoring of teaching is effective and has been externally verified. Teaching staff have improved practice and nearly all teaching is at least good.

   

   

  If you have any further questions about the categorisation please don't hesitate to come and ask us.

   

  Mr Saunders and Mrs Robbins

• Our Attendance is improving!

  Wed 15 Feb 2017 Mrs Robbins

  We are really pleased to share with you that due to all the hard work on attendance, working with you as parents,  we have raised our whole school attendance to 95%! This is a huge improvement on our previous attendance figure and we would like to say a big thank you for helping us with this. We know that now we have better attendance the children will make more progress with their learning. If we could just raise attendance by 1 more % to 96% we would then be in line with the local authority target

  We really hope we can keep this figure at 95% and even improve to 96% as we go into the Summer term. Attendance in school is so important.

  Thank you very much!

• French Club Cancelled

  Mon 23 Jan 2017

  There will be no French club on Wednesday January 25th as I  have to go to a meeting in another school.

  Thanks very much,

  Mrs Robbins

• Facebook

  Thu 24 Nov 2016

  Please can we ask all parents and guardians to be respectful with their use of social media and especially Facebook?

   

  Whilst these sites have many things that are great about them, they can also cause a large amount of damage.

   

  As a school we will not be prepared to tolerate any personal comments about members of staff on these sites. These will be referred to our Chair of Governors in order to consider how they should be dealt with.

   

  If you have any concerns or complaints please come and see us. We also have a Complaints Policy and Procedure which can be found on this website or a copy requested from the school office.

   

  Thank you.

• No Rugby/Cross Country on Thursday

  Thu 03 Nov 2016
  There will be no after school clubs on Thursday November 3rd because of the Halloween Disco. This effects Rugby and Cross Country.

• No After School Clubs

  Thu 06 Oct 2016
  There will be no after school clubs from October 10th -14th as we are holding Parent Consultations.

• End of the Day

  Tue 27 Sep 2016

  Can we please ask you to help us at the end of the day?

  Over the last few weeks we have been receiving a large number of phone calls at the end of the day from parents, asking Mrs Reardon to pass messages onto children about who they should go home with. Can we ask that you tell your children what is happening at the end of the day before you bring them to school and only ring us to change plans in an emergency? This is taking Mrs Reardon away from the office at the end of the day, when it is very busy. Thank you!

• Before School

  Thu 15 Sep 2016

  Please could you note that children should not be using the quad or the climbing walls before school. This is because we are not covered on our insurance until the start of the school day.

  We would really appreciate your help with this matter.

  School starts at 9am and Infant Classrooms are open to receive children from 8.50.

  Thank you!

• Dates until Christmas are out!

  Sun 11 Sep 2016
  We have taken on board feedback from parents saying they would like more notice of dates. On our training days in September we set all our important dates up to Christmas. These were sent home in a newsletter last week and the calendar on here has also been updated. We really hope you find, s this helpful. Schools are really busy places, as you know,  so although we can't guarantee 100% there will be no changes we will do our upmost to stick to the dates agreed.

• New Teacher in Y1/2

  Mon 05 Sep 2016

  Monday September 5^th

  Dear Parents/Guardians,

   

  We know that you were expecting your children to have Mrs Hatchley as their class teacher this year. Mrs Hatchley had been considering retirement and during the summer holiday she was offered the opportunity to, and decided to take early retirement. We wish her a really happy and healthy retirement and I’m sure you would want to join me in thanking her for her 26 years of working at Cwmcarn Primary School. She will certainly be missed!

   

  Your child’s new teacher will be Mr Dean Regulski, who may be known to some of you as he was previously Head of Y10 at Cwmcarn High. Mr Regulski has been wanting to work in a Primary School for some time and is very excited about  joining our staff team. We are extremely pleased to welcome him as we know he is an exceptional teacher and has a lot to offer our school community. During this year Mr Regulski will work alongside Miss Colyer in the classroom, who is a very experienced higher level teaching assistant. All of our staff in Foundation Phase are supported by our Senior Leadership Team including myself and Mrs Robbins.

   

  Should you have any further questions, both Mrs Robbins and myself have an open door policy so please don’t hesitate to come and see us.