REMINDER: Friday 23rd May 2014 - Closure Day - Staff Training

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NEXT WEEK - National Walk to School Week!

Next week we are encouraging all children at Abercanaid to walk, scoot or ride their bike to school as part of National Walk to School Week. This term we are learning a lot about health and fitness, keeping safe and the environment. Walking to school links in with all of these areas of the school curriculum. 

We understand that some of our children live some distance away from the school, if you are unable to walk all of the way perhaps you could park further away from the school and walk some of the way to enable your children to take part. This week will count towards the schools bid to be recognised as a

"BIKE IT" (Scoot IT, Walk IT)  school.

Junior Children will be using the week to record data to see if we can make a real impact! 

As always... thank you for your support!  

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School Visit to Sennedd

On Wednesday of this week Y6 and members of the school council visit the Welsh Assembly Government in Cardiff Bay. Children were guests of Mr Huw Lewis (Merthyr AM, and Education Minister) - who gave them a tour of the Senedd and answered all of their questions.  Pupils were pleased also to return the hospitality and Welcome Mr Lewis to the school for a Q+A session this morning. 

We would like to thank Mr Lewis for taking time out of his schedule to give our pupils a real insight in to the workings of the Government of Wales. 

National Tests

This week children in Years 2 to 6 have taken part in National Reading and Numeracy tests.

All the children have work hard to apply the skills that they have been learning this year. Results from these tests will be reported to parents next half term. We will keep you posted.

Year 6 - National Cycle Training

This week children in Year 6 have also received cycle training from Mr Lyndon Bridges and Mr Owen Clay. The scheme is a joint venture between The Fire and Rescue Service and Merthyr Road Safety.

All children who have taken part in the training have achieved Level 1 and most have completed Level 2.

Rain stopped play on Thursday but we are hoping to arrange a date in the next few weeks to allow everyone to complete the course. A huge thank you to Mr Bridges and Mr Clay for their input this week.

School Nurse and Police Visits

The school nurses (Rob Trailor and Gaynor Barkhouse) visited again this week to deliver Stay Healthy Lessons.

Nursery - have had a lesson from Dirty Bertie - Catch it, Bin it, Kill it

Year 1 - have learnt about the importance of  Hygiene

Year 3 - have learnt about Fats and Sugars and the 5 a day Message

Pc Rogers has also worked with Year 4 children on Internet Safety.

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Abercanaid Community School is awarded ICT Mark

Congratulations to Pupils and Staff  at our school, for gaining the Naace ICT Mark for the second time.

Use of ICT continues to play a key role in supporting and extending teaching, learning and communication at our school. 

We are delighted to receive the ICT Mark for the second time, which again acknowledges that ICT is a strength at the school.  

Gwaith Da Pawb!

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Easter Holiday & Inset Dates

  

Spring Term ends Friday 11th April and Summer Term starts Wednesday 30th April.  Two training/closure days are linked to the holiday period 28th & 29th April and one other training/closure day will be held on Friday 23rd May.

Easter Bonnets and Egg Hunt in Nursery

Science Week

During March we held our first annual Science week. 

Every class took part and explored lots of different areas of science. 

We made fizzes, pops, bangs, smells. We explored areas of chemistry, biology and physics. 

We asked lots of questions, made predictions and carried out experiments to help us understand the world around us. Here are some photos of some of the things we got up to...

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Potential Strike Action Update

Monday March 24th - 3pm

At this stage we understand that strike action will go ahead on Wednesday 26th March. 

The only classes open will be:

Class 1 - (Nursery) Mrs J Richards

Class 3 - Miss D Matthews

Class 6 - Miss E Morgan

We apologise for this unavoidable inconvenience.

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POTENTIAL for School Closure on Wednesday 26th March, 2014

Dear Parents / Carers,

We have today sent out a letter regarding possible strike action by member of the NUT union next week.

The only classes who will be unaffected by this action will be:

Class 1 - Nursery -     Mrs J. Richards’ class
Class 3 - Infants   -     Miss D Matthews’ class
Class 6 - Juniors   -     Miss E. Morgan class

At this stage we are unable to confirm that strike action will definitely go ahead. 

We will update this Blog as soon as we can confirm the situation either way.

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Parents Questionnaire Results and Response

At the end of last term we asked parents and carers to complete a survey

to share their views about our school. Below please find a link to the results of the survey

and the school's response. 

A big thank you to all parents who took time to complete and return the survey

your views have helped staff to celebrate what we do well and have also highlighted 

some areas in which can can improve. 

Click here  >  Parents Survey Results and Response

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Class 3 are the proud parents of our new cutest arrivals at Abercanaid. 

Well done for looking after the eggs Class 3... more photos to follow soon on the Class 3 Blog.

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Eisteddfod  2014 - Bendegedig!

Congratulations to Ty Melyn (Yellow House) who have won the over all Eisteddfod competition this year. Well done to all of the children who took part. It has been an excellent competition - we have seen some beautiful art work, read some excellent legends and enjoyed recitations, plays and singing throughout the day. 

REMINDER: Friday 7th March - Eisteddfod Showcase for Parents

There will be 2 performances: 1:30pm and 2:30pm.

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World Book Day - Great Success!
Well done today to everyone who brought in their favourite book to share. 

Some excellent costumes!  Da Iawn!

We thought you might like to see some photos of our books worms...

Have a great half term... happy reading!

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St David Day Photos

Thank you to everyone for sending your children to school today dressed in their Welsh and Rugby Costumes
- the photographs look fantastic and will be in the Merthyr Express in March.

New Vicar Visits School

Father Mark Prevett visited the school this morning to take assembly. 

Our school welcomes him to the community and we look forward to working with him in the coming years. 

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Parent Email - Service Launched
Our new Parent Email was launched on Monday of this week.

A big thank you to all of the parents who have already signed up! We look forward to

using this service for our letters and updates.

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New Blog Site - Goes Live!

Welcome to our new school blog.

This is part of our drive to update an improve our communication with parents and friends of the school. 

You can still reach our MOODLE website from the link above, and find your way from the MOODLE back here. In the coming weeks we hope to update and refresh lots of the website. 

Call back here for updates... follow us on twitter... and sign up to the Parent Mail above!

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School Launches TWITTER feed

This week our school has started to tweet for the very first time! 

We have sent home new consent letters to make sure that we have permission to use your children's photos on twitter and also on this new blog.

This will be an excellent way for us to share what is going on in the classroom - instantly with you!

The aim is for each class to tweet something every week 

(though at the moment the children are keen to tweet everyday!)

You can follow us on twitter by searching for...

@abercanaid_sch

We will also tweet to let you know that the blog has been updated.

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BIKE IT!

Today the school was visited by Hamish Belding from Sustrans to launch the new "Bike It" initiative. Over the next 2 terms the children are being challenged to cycle, scoot or walk to school - so that our school can succeed at becoming a "bike it" school. 

The benefits of this program inlcude:

• Exercise - on the way to and from school
• Road safety awareness! Hamish will be back to lead lessons at the school
• Reduction of traffic around the school!
• Reduction of polution from cars around the school