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.

Countdown to London 2012

This year our Cluster PESS Co-ordinators are planning to mark the

London 2012 Olympic and Paraolympic Games with some special

activities that our pupils will be able to participate in. Catch up on these

in the PESS Blog soon