Autumn Term 2012

As the holidays come to an end, this is to confirm that school reopens after the summer holidays for all pupils on Tuesday 4th September. Breakfast Club will be open from 8 a.m.
Term dates, including details of INSET days are available on the new Moodle site by clicking on the Calendar icon on the right hand side of the page.

Home, safe, sound ..... and tired

Our Year Six pupils have returned from a wonderful weekend away from their parents in the Abernant Lake Hotel near Llanwrtyd Wells in Powys. 23 pupils accompanied Miss Hatch, Miss Owen and Colin spent from Friday lunchtime until after school this afternoon undertaking some of the outdoor activities on offer at the complex. We hope that each year pupild from Gelli Primary will be able to experience a similar time each year enjoying themselves and being excellent role models for the school. Visit their blog over the next few days to see the hundreds of photographs and videos they took on the trip.

End of Spring term 2012 Newsletter

A newsletter was distributed by pupil post on Friday 30th April 2012.

School Photographs
The photographs taken by the photographer are now available from the school office for you to purchase. Packs are priced at £10. Please pay for your photographs before taking them.

Dinner Money
Please will all dinner money and any arrears owing for dinners this term be brought to school as soon as possible. Mrs. Thomas has assured me that any credits will roll over to the next term. Any parents in arrears will be contacted by the Local Authority. I hope that we can avoid any embarrassment in this instance.

Treorchy Male Choir Young Musician of the Year
Congratulations to Lauren Lewis who performed so well in the Grand Final of this competition last Tuesday evening. She was an excellent ambassador for the school and we are very proud of their achievements. Lauren and a number of other pupils from Year 6 also participated in the Cluster transition concert at Treorchy Comprehensive School last night. It was a great showcase for the musical talent we have in the Upper Rhondda and I hope that our pupils will continue to develop their creative talents in the future.

Easter and end of term arrangements
Easter Disco
We are holding an Easter Disco as part of our Entrepreneurship activities on Tuesday 3rd April. The play leaders have identified some more equipment to fund raise towards and this is part of our plan to upgrade our play facilities in the yard.
The Foundation Phase Disco will take place from 3.30 to 4.25. Pupils can wear normal clothes to school that day and all pupils must be accompanied by an adult.
The Junior Disco takes place between 4.30 and 5.30. They can also wear normal clothes to school that day.
Entry is a £1

Easter Bonnet Parade
Pupils are invited to participate in our annual Easter Bonnet parade on the morning of Wednesday 4th April. It will take place after lunch so will parents please bring them into class when they bring pupils to school.

Easter Service
The pastor and his wife from Mount Zion Chapel will conduct an Easter Assembly in school on Wednesday morning at 10.00 a.m.

Easter Holidays
School breaks up at 3.00 p.m. on Thursday 5th April for the Easter holidays. Friday 6th is Good Friday and a national bank holiday.

INSET days
As we did not close the school this year due to any inclement weather, the Minister of Education has granted school two additional INSET days to the Five we usually have. These will be taken during the Summer term. Monday 23rd April 2012 will be the 5th designated and I propose to close on Tuesday 24th April in order that the staff are able to undertake two consecutive days training on the use of ICT in class and to develop our PESS programme. School will re-open on WEDNESDAY 26th APRIL for all pupils with Breakfast Club open at 8 00 a.m. as usual.
Our final INSET day will take place on Friday 1st June when the staff and Governors will undertake a self evaluation of the school’s performance. School will break up for the half term on Thursday 31st May 2012 at 3.00 p.m.
Details will be posted on the school blog, calendar and we will use our text messaging service to remind you

Website and other electronic forms of communication
The redesign of the School website in under way and more and more items are being added daily. In addition for those who use Twitter we shall be tweeting information via that platform. You can follow us on @gellipri. The Friends of Gelli Primary Facebook page has been mothballed and those of you who have not reapplied for membership will need to do so to be kept in touch with posts. I hope that this amount of home school communication helps you keep abreast with developments at school.

The Treorchy Comprehensive School Cluster Transition Concert

Gelli Primary pupils rehearsing for a performance of The Circle of Life as part of the Transition Concert.

On Thursday 28th March some of our Year 6 pupils along with others from the 20 Primary Schools that feed into Treorchy joined the pupils from the music department to perform a joint concert. Elicia and Charley played the violin with  the Junior Orchestra, Charley and Catherine played Cornet and joined in with the Junior Brass Band while Alyx, Amy, Megan, Katerina, Katie and Josh sang with the 250 strong combind choir to perform the Circle of Life from The Lion King. Lauren also sang and accompanied herself on the piano singing "Somebody like me.
It was very pleasing to see such an array of talent from all the Primary Schools performing with pupils from the Comprehensive. The event was co-ordinated by the Head of Music, Mr. Davies with help from the staff of the music department and visiting peripetetic staff from the Music Service. Mr. Jones, the Head teacher spoke very highly of the achievements and looked forward to welcoming the new intake to Treorchy in September.

Final arrangements for the Residential weekend

Here is the arrangements for those attending the residential weekend and those pupils who will remain in school.
Pupils attending the residential weekend • Pupils are expected to be in school at the usual time on Friday morning. Pupils can attend Breakfast Club if they wish to do so
• Please will luggage be placed in the back of the Hall ready for departure later that morning
• The bus is expected to leave Pontygwaith Primary at 11.30 a.m. and we expect it any time after that. Parents wishing to wave their children goodbye can meet them at the school entrance at this time. You can bring luggage with you at this time if you wish.
Please do not park in front of the school lay by as the bus will need to use this space
• Pupils will be having an early school dinner and packed lunch before they leave.

Pupils remaining in school.
• Friday 30th March and Monday April 2nd will be normal days for pupils. Miss Bruce will expect all pupils who are not going on the residential trip to be in school for normal lessons. Any absences will be marked down as unauthorised unless supported by a medical certificate. There is a Golf Day experience for pupils on Monday at the Pentre Astroturf.

Additional information for the weekend.
We have decided that we do not wish to allow pupils to take mobile phones with them on the weekend. We will use our text2parents system to send messages to you at times during the weekend. We also have a list of your emergency contact numbers should we need to contact you. The contact number for the Abernant Hotel is listed in the handout I distributed to pupils earlier this term. These details will be posted on the school blog.
We would also ask pupils not to bring iPods, mp3 players or any other electronic devise such games machines as the staff cannot be held responsible for them and we would wish you to respect our request to avoid any
Please can we remember that we set a limit of £5.00 spending money for the weekend and that this needs to be in change.
As the weather will be very hot can I ask you to provide your child with a hat and sunscrean to avoid sunburn.
I hope that this clarifies some points for you and I am confident that the pupils will enjoy the experience.

Gelli Primary support Sport Relief on Friday 23rd March 2012

Gelli Primary School will be supporting Sport Relief this year on Friday 23rd March 2012.

Pupils can dress up as their favourite sportsman or sportswoman, although this is optional. We will be taking a coin collection and you are welcome to make a donation of your choice in aid of the BBC Sport Relief appeal. 

We will be celebrating the London 2012 Olympics next term

More pupils achieve targets and score into the Gelli Goals

Pupils from Dosbarth 4 have been working with Mrs Fraser on achieving their Gelli Goals. Liam, Kia, Jay, Ocean, Alfie, Jake, Cory, Kian, Degan and Katie each presented their achievements to their fellow pupils in this afternoon's assembly. Well done everyone. Da iawn blant.