After School Rugby League

Some of our year 5 and 6 pupils went along to Merthyr FC's ground on Thursday to take part in the Merthyr Schools rugby league. They played two games, winning the first game beating a very tough Ysgol y Graig team 1-0 and they then narrowly lost their second game 7-6 to a strong Ysgol Santes Tydfil team. The team played extremely well - especially considering many hadn't played any rugby since before Christmas! Mr.Bevan was very proud of their performance and how they represented the school.

Snow Procedures

With the onset of snow we would like to remind parents of our school closure procedures.

Our aim is for the school to remain open during snowy periods unless weather conditions make it unsafe for children, parents and/or staff to travel to and from the school. 

If the school is to be closed on any given day this website will be updated immediately. 
Decisions will be made before 7:30am.

School closures will also be updated on the official Merthyr Schools Closures Website here.

Please take extra care when approaching the school either on foot or in cars during icy conditions.

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Joseph

Amazing Technicolor Dreamshow

This week, children in the Junior Department are presenting their production of
Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat."
Rehearsals have gone very well - children are excited about the official premier tonight!
Break a Leg!

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A "Way" in a Manger

Infant Concert 2014

If you click on the slide show you will be taken to a folder where the photos are stored and you will be able to download them from there.

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OUR WHOLE SCHOOL "SMILEY FACE"

Thanks again to the Police Helicopter Service!

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Police Helicopter -Takes "Show and Tell" to New Heights

Children were thrilled today to see the police helicopter land in the school field. The visit had been arranged with PC Stephen (one of our Dads) who works on the helicopter. Children from nursery right through to year 6 were able to get up close to the helicopter and ask the crew questions about the vehicle and their job.

This was a fantastic visit. The children (and staff) were really excited and have gained a valuable insight in to another strand of police work.

On behalf of the whole school a HUGE

THANK YOU

to the crew of the South and East Wales Police Air Support Unit.

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Children In Need 2014

Children in need has been a great success again this year. Huge thanks to class 7 and 8  (and Miss Greening and Mr Bevan) for organising lots of fun activities in the hall to raise funds for this year's appeal. As ALWAYS... a MASSIVE 

THANK YOU!

to parents again, for your support and contributions! We have had a really fun day for a great cause!

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 - Non Uniform Day -
Fundraising for Argentina Children's Home

A huge thank you to all children and staff who came to school last Friday to raise money for a children's home in Argentina. The school managed to raise £412 to send to support the work of the home which curently cares for 26 children who have been hurt or mistreated.

Click here to see our video questions and replies from Argentina

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School Council Deliver our Harvest collection to the Foodbank

Today our School Councillors visited the foodbank in the Gurnos to deliver our harvest collection.
The council helped to weigh, unpack and sort through some of the food we collected. We found out how the foodbank works and how people can receive help. Volunteers asked again that we would pass on our thank to everyone who made a contribution to this appeal! THANK YOU!

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Harvest Assembly

Today in school we had our annual harvest assembly. Children perfromed and songs to give thanks for all of our food.

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Crazy Golf 

Every Monday afternoon this year Class 7 and 8 (Years 5+6) are receiving taster sessions
for a variety of different sports provided through our links with Communities First. So far they have had street dance, WRU Tag Rugby, Squash and this week they have enjoyed crazy golf!  

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Pupil Deprivation Plans 2014/15

As part of the conditions for receiving the Pupil Deprivation Grant each school has to publish
its plans for the coming year on the school website.

Our plans can be found here.

Abercanaid PDG Plans 2014/15

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Foodbank Harvest

Friday 24th October

Our Harvest Celebration is on the last day of this half term. 

As a school we will be remembering again how fortunate we are and being thankful for the good things we have.

Again this year we are partnering with The Trussell Trust Foodbank to meet genuine needs of people in Merthyr who find themsleves in need of emergency support.

This appeal has been hugely successful in previous years and we hope, with your help to repeat our success this year!

The shopping list on the right gives some idea of what the foodbank looks for. The main thing is that food is in date and preferably with a long shelf life.

We are starting our collection on Monday 20th October - please could children bring all donations to Mrs Morgan's Room (PPA Teacher). 

Thanks in advance for your help and support with this appeal.

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***Strike Cancelled***

The Unison Strike for next Tuesday (14th October) has been cancelled. We can now confirm that the school will be open for all children as usual. Thank you.

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Sponsored Walk 2014

Last Friday the school hosted its annual sponsored walk. We will update final figures when all monies are in. THANK YOU as always for your support!

Dolygaer 2014

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Dolygaer - Class 8

Class 8 were fortunate enough to visit Dolygaer Outdoor Activity Centre this week and had an amazing time! The children behaved superbly well and it was great to see them trying new activities and throwing themselves (sometimes literally!) into new experiences! We were able to enjoy orienteering, gorge walking, canoeing, den-building, rock climbing and abseiling through the week; a snapshot of which can be seen in the photos below:

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Science Sleuths - The Mystery of Dragon Castle!

How safe is your food?

Today the Food Standards Agency visited The Infant children to perform The Mystery of Dragon Castle. The play and workshop focused on how to prepare food safely in the kitchen, and how to prevent upset tummies!

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Children Present Patchwork Masterpiece 
to Greenhill Manor

Yesterday children from our after school knitting club visited Greenhill Manor in Pentrebach to present their handiwork to the residents, who were thrilled with their gift. Children have worked with Mrs Marion Price both after school and in Breakfast club to complete this beautiful patchwork quilt. Mrs Price has said that she will be running another knitting club this year... watch this space!

Macmillan Coffee Morning Great Success.

This morning children throughout the school have enjoyed extra breakfast in school in aid of Macmillan Cancer Research. As always thanks to everyone who has supported this fundraising event. Especially the ladies who served the toast and juice!

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Estyn Inspection

Dear Parent/Guardian,

The Estyn Report after this summers Inspection is on line today at the Estyn website www.estyn.gov.uk. or download from this direct link Click Here. As you will see this very comprehensive report is very pleasing with all major aspects of the schools provision being judged as Good. The two main areas reviewed are:

The school’s current performance	Good
The school’s prospects for improvement	Good

On behalf of the Governors and Staff of the school I would like to thank you all for your help and support leading up to the Inspection. As you will see from the Report the responses to both the children’s and the parent’s questionnaires and meetings were overwhelmingly supportive of the school. Personally I would like to pay special thanks to our Governors, under the leadership of our Chair Cllr Harvey Jones who have provided the bedrock of support and direction that has led to our Fourth successful Inspection.

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SCHOOL STARTS BACK TUESDAY NEXT WEEK

Hello everyone. Hope you had a great summer holiday!  Just wanted to remind you that there is a teacher training day on Monday. School opens for children on Tuesday 2nd September.

Breakfast club will be open from the first day back.

See you then!

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Reminder - Abercanaid Community School is Closed Tomorrow - Thursday 10th July

Due to industrial action.

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Sports Day... New Date

Unfortunately due to the Unison industrial action planned for 10th of July 

we have to postpone the Infant and Junior Sports Days.

New dates are:

Nursery Sports -Wednesday 9^th July    9.30 to 12 noon

Infant Sports – Monday 14^th July  9.30 to 12 noon

Junior Sports - Monday 14^th July         1.00 to 3 p.m

Apologies for any inconvenience caused, and thank you for your understanding.

The Sun has got his hat on... 

Don't forget to wear yours!

We have been forecast some good weather over the next few weeks. 

Please can we remind all children to bring sunhats to school and parents to apply sunscreen to children

before coming to school so that we can enjoy the summer sun safely!

As always water is available for children to drink throughout the day. 

Children are encouraged to bring water bottles to school to drink through the day

  - but please can we remind everyone that this is to be water not squash or sugary drinks. 

Thank you.

REMINDER: Estyn Inspection 30th June - 3rd July 2014 - Parents Meeting Monday 30th @ 3:45pm

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LONDON TRIP 2014

Last week Year 6 had a fantastic trip to London! Went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at

the Theatre Royal Drury Lane (which was AMAZING!), but we also managed to visit Buckingham Palace, Downing Street, Horse Guards Parade,
Big Ben, London Eye, Trafalgar Square, Wembley and The Science Museum!
Hope you enjoy our pictures!



Class 4 Pond Dipping  - Dare Valley Country Park
Also last week...Class 4 had an excellent time pond dipping in Dare Valley Country Park.
Mini-beasts are awesome!

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Estyn Inspection

The school has been informed that we will receive a whole school Inspection from Estyn

Monday 30th June - Thursday 3rd July 2014.

Information booklets have been sent home with children this evening to outline the inspection process for you and your child.  In the centre of the booklet there is a parent/carer questionnaire.  We would very much appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to share your views of the school with inspectors. 

Forms need to be returned to the school by 11th June. 

Alternatively you can complete the questionnaire on line here:

Estyn Parent Questionnaire

Further to this there will be an opportunity for parents to meet with the inspectors
on Monday 30th June at 3:45pm
in the school hall to share your views.

Many Thanks.

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