Drayton Manor Park Summer Trip

Due to the success and positive feedback received from parents last year we have decided to run another whole school summer trip to Drayton Manor / Thomas Land.
We have provisionally booked four 70 seater luxury coaches for Friday 22nd June 2012. Parental feedback from last year's trip requested this.
The cost of the trip is estimated to be no more than £20 per child and £25 per adult. This price will be revised when we know exact numbers.
Primarily the trip will be open to all pupils in the school. Infant children must be accompanied by an adult. Adults can also accompany children from Year 3 if they wish. All junior children will be supervised in small groups by a member of staff. Babies or younger children from the ages of 0-2years will have free entry to the park but will be required to pay for the bus.
Similar to last year if there are places still available then these will be offered at a' first come first served' basis to family and friends of all pupils.
If you would like to secure your place please could you fill in the form sent home by pupil post and return with a non refundable £5 deposit for each person by Friday 2nd March. We will then require further payments to be paid by certain dates when the prices have been confirmed.

Pupils achieve targets and put their goals in the back of the net

Great news! Four pupils from Dosbarth 5 have reached their goal and are placeing their target on a football which is now being placed in the Gelli Goal. Alfie, Lowri, Katie and Ieuan have all achieved an improvement in handwriting, Mr Jones, the head teacher, gave them a special white house point for this achievement. Da iawn blant. Well done.

New pages published on the School website

Two new pages have been added to the school website. Ckick on the links below to see the pages.

Breakfast Club and Lunchtime Supervisors

Site management and Cleaning Services Staff

More pages will be added in due course.

Follow us on Twitter

Gelli Primary School encourages the responsible use of social networking sites as a means of communication in the 21st Century. We have a policy that reflects our vision in creating responsible learners of the future who use this media in a positive environment.

Please conduct yourself responsibly on these sites as any inappropriate comments will be deleted and passed on to the site managers for appropriate action to betaken.

Please also remember that we are all ambassadors for the school and need to be good role models for our pupils so that they can learn how to use this media in a sensitive and proper manner in the future.

Information posted on twitter will be generic and non personal and be appropriate to the audience. It will duplicate messages posted om the blog, website, pupil post and sent via text message and is intended as another form of communication with parents, and aimed at those who find this form of communication best suited to their needs. 

School Photographer

The school photographer will visit us on Wednesday March 14^th. Individual and group photographs will be taken of pupils in the morning and family group photographs in the afternoon. I regret that we will not be able to arrange a time for these afternoon sittings and it will be done a first come first served basis. The photographer will begin the afternoon session at 1.15 p.m. Further details will be circulated nearer the photograph shoot

Treorchy Male Choir Young Musician of The Year

Congratulations to Poppy Davies and Lauren Lewis who won the vocal and instrumental category respectively in our school heat before half term and will now advance to the semi final stage of the competition. We will inform you of the arrangements for the semi final should anyone wish to attend and support our pupils.

World Book Day Friday March 2nd 2012

World Book Day is being celebrated at Gelli Primary School on Friday 2^nd March this year. Children in will celebrate World Book Day by undertaking literacy activities in class. Those who wish to may dress up as their favourite fictional character from a book, film or television series.

St. David’s Day arrangements this year

This year we are going to change the arrangements for celebrating St. David’s Day on Thursday March 1st. Most schools in the cluster have followed our Comprehensive School in holding an Eisteddfod where each year group split into houses and compete in various competitions with the winning house being presented with an Eisteddfod Cup. This year we are going to change to this format. There is one drawback; we will be unable to invite any parents as the size of the hall will prevent us from having an audience. I am sure that this will disappoint many of you who have been accustomed to attending in the past and have enjoyed the children’s performances. We will, of course, video the performances and I am looking to publish them on our Moodle site along with other videos of concerts and performances we have in our Video vault.  

At last a new website

I am very pleased to announce that after major technical difficulties over the past six months I have finally managed to reslove the major issues that I have encountered updating our school website.

Some of the pages are live at the moment, however, I am constantly updating it and ironing out all the bugs and other broken links. I hope that it will be updated regularly and that some of the old features like the newslettes can be published and downloaded.

I have had to completely redesign the site but am now using a far superior set of applications that will see this site improve in quality and improve our home school communication.

Please be patient. I will send out updates by text message and via this blog when they are available.  If you have forgotten the link visit http://www.gelliprimaryschool.org.uk/

St David's Day Photographs

The Rhondda Leader photographer will be in school next week to take a photograph of the children wearing their Welsh Costumes. If you wish your child to be included in this photograph, please send them in appropriate Welsh costume / Red clothing for that day. If your child does not wish to be in this photograph they can wear school uniform. There is no requirement to purchase clothing for this specific occasion.

Parents Evening appointments

You will have received a letter on Friday February 3rd confirming your appointment to discuss your child's progress with our staff members.
During the meeting staff will ask you to sign our Home / School agreement; discuss your child's attendance and punctuality, talk  the latest assessment results and any other issues that have arisen throughout the year so far.

Here are the arrangements for our parent evenings.

• You are invited to report to the school main hall FIVE MINUTES prior to your appointment where you will be taken to meet your child’s teacher by one of our Year 6 pupils.
• The bell will ring after each ten minute appointment.
• Please will you complete a parental response form after your appointment commenting on your child’s achievements and progress to date.

I look forward to welcoming you to what is always an enjoyable experience where we celebrate your child's successes and achievements with us.

Possible inclement weather

The weather forecast for the next week is unsettled and if any inclement weather forces the school to either close during the school day or disruption due to overnight snow or ice we will use of text messageing service to alert parents of the closure.
We will also inform the snow lines on Radio Wales and Real Radio that will be broadcasting during their Breakfast shows. We will also update the Friends Facebook page and this Blog. You can also check for update status for all schools in Rhondda Cynon Taff by clicking on http://www.rctcbc.gov.uk/EN/EducationLearning/SchoolsColleges/School-closures/SchoolClosures.aspx

As you are aware closing school on health and safety grounds is done as a last resort.in order to minimise disruption to pupils learning. Please ensure that we have your currant mobile phone number so that you can receive these messages.