Virtual Balloon Race

 

Virtual Balloon Race - 14th February 2021

Welcome to our first virtual PTA balloon race! 

The link to purchase a balloon: https://ecoracing.co/user/page/1321

Covid has had an impact on the way we would normally fundraise for the PTA so we are having to find fun alternatives instead. We are currently fundraising for the school to refresh the allotment, create a story telling area in the woods and to have a bike rack fitted on the school grounds which will help make outdoor learning more enjoyable for the children and to encourage cycling to and from school.

The valentines day balloon race will replace the valentines day disco and help us raise much needed funds towards these projects. The virtual balloons will launch on February 14th from the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the children can track their balloons using real time weather conditions to determine how far the balloons have travelled.

The children (and adults!) can choose the shape, colour and pattern of their balloons and even decide the weight depending on how much helium is put into each one. Messages and names can also be written on the balloons allowing you to gift balloons to friends and families and having your own race within the race!

At £3 a balloon this is a great way to have a bit of fun with your friends and family and something different for the children to get involved in and enjoy seeing how far their balloon travels over a 7 day period. Where in the world will it end up??

100% eco friendly fun!

Diolch

Mrs Evans

Using Xbox or Playstation to access Hwb

 

Troubleshooting Hwb, TEAMS, j2message and j2Launch.

                                       

This is what we expect from you when using TEAMS, J2message and Hwb.

1. Log on to Hwb at 9am every day and go to J2message to register with an emoji only. DO NOT TYPE ANYTHING ELSE PLEASE WE JUST WANT TO SEE YOUR SMILEY FACES AT 9AM. If you have not registered then we will send your parents a text message to enquire how you are.

2. Check your Hwb email account and accept any invitations for TEAMS meetings from your teacher. Once you have clicked RSVP the email will disappear but the meeting will be in your TEAMS calendar for you to join. Your teacher would have already let you know on j2message or via text when your meetings are so remember the dates and check your TEAMS calendar to attend live lessons.

3. Every day check j2homework and see what tasks you need to do. YOU DO NOT NEED TO TELL YOUR TEACHER WHEN YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE TASKS ON J2MESSAGE. Your teacher will know what you have done because the work will be in your files. You are in Juniors and we trust you to work through the tasks set.

4. Do not upload any pictures of you doing the task unless your teacher has asked for it. It takes teachers a great deal of time to search through your files looking for work to mark if there are a huge amount of files to search through.

5. Organise your HWB files into folders on J2files. You can easily do this by creating a folder by clicking the folder icon on the right of the screen in my files. Have a folder for remote learning and drag all your work in there. You can even add sub folders for the day, for example it could be named by date.

6. DO NOT message your teacher on TEAMS. We are unable to reply and keep up with messages from too many platforms. If you need to contact us then please email us and use j2message only for serious messages. If you want to chat to your friends then send them emails instead. 

7. Please ensure that your camera is on when you are on a live lesson with your teacher. Your microphone must be on mute unless your teacher asks you to put it on.

8. Remember that nearly all the children in Wales are using HWB and J2Launch during remote learning. It is inevitable that things will go wrong, crash and not work from time to time. Please be patient and try and log on throughout the day to check regularly if this is an issue. The Hwb team work very hard to try and sort things out as quickly as possible. If you can't log on then the teachers are having the same problems too. If you are unsure whether the issue is a national one or a problem with your login details then please contact us via our admin email Admin.PenygawsiPrimary@rctcbc.gov.uk

Thank you for helping us to make things easier to manage. This is new to us all and we will get used to it if we follow these simple rules.

From all the KS 2 Staff.

Using Teams and Attending Live Lessons.

 Using Teams and Attending Live Lessons.

Please watch the video below as a guide to attending live lessons on Microsoft TEAMS. You can email me on Hwb if you have any questions. 

Over the next few days you'll receive an email with a link to join our class on TEAMS so please keep an eye on your Hwb email accounts so that you can join the class successfully.

There are rules for attending the live lessons. Please read the infographic below and make sure that you know what the rules are. I look forward to seeing you all this week on TEAMS.

 Registration information below.

Hello everyone, 

Whilst you are at home you are required to register every morning in your class j2message chat area on j2launch, Hwb.

You do not need to write anything but just use an emoji to show how you are feeling and that you are online ready for learning.

This is called 'Mood Day Registration' and it shows your teacher how you are feeling on that day.

If you are able to post one of the emoji's then great but if you are on a device that doesn't allow you to upload an emoji then you can just type an emoji face instead. Use the keyboard keys to make the faces as I have shown you below.

:0) semi colon, zero, closed bracket  for a smiley face

:0/ semi colon, zero, forward slash for an O.K face

:0(   semi colon, zero, open brackets for a sad face

Just take a look at the infographic above to see the emoji's you're allowed to use. DO NOT add any other emoji's please. 

I look forward to seeing all your smiley faces.

Final week of school 2020

 Shwmae all,

I am sorry to say it that this will be my final blog to you all. Firstly, I would like to thank you all for the very generous gift that was shared with me last week. I was quite overwhelmed to be honest so if you contributed I am very, very grateful. Mrs Ball will gladly steer me to spend it on baby related items no doubt! Also the lovely digital Moon Pig card was superb with kind messages from the children, diolch!

It is with mixed emotions that I say goodbye to you all. I am excited to start a new venture and be able to spend more parenting time with my own children but equally it has been an enjoyable experience working with the children for the second occasion. I am sure the children will testify that there is 'never a dull moment' in our class and challenging although the last year has been we have done our best to make the most of it by trying to have some fun alongside our daily working routines.

All schools posses different challenges but I think one of the most challenging things is when parents are difficult to engage with. This is certainly not the case at Penygawsi - You all care very much about the education and welfare of your children and it has been a pleasure to work with you to help them progress.

I hope everyone had a fun final day together on Friday, including a surprise visit from Mr Thomas. The children were very excited to meet him and are looking forward to working with him in January - I have one more game that I will share with everyone tomorrow. 

We had a surprise visit from father Christmas who gave us some gifts and we sang him part of our Christmas production song to say thank you:

See the link below for Santa's visit outside our class room.

A visit from santa

Work this week:

I understand that we are going to have significantly reduced numbers in class this week for the two days that we are in school as families begin to prepare for Christmas and are prioritising the safety of their families. It has been emphasised that you will not be penalised for keeping children at home over the next two days but you can still come to school as normal if that suits you best as a family.

We will communicate with the children at home via Teams at 9.15am after I have taken morning registration and the lunch register. We will duplicate the tasks we are doing in class and at home.

We are excited to announce that the 2020 Christmas concert is ready and we are going to share it online tomorrow. The children in school will be watching it in class after lunch and those home learning can do the same.

Tuesday - there will be some creative tasks in the morning and then we will be having a Christmas film (as the other classes) had their film afternoon last week.

Wed - Fri - will be to finish the learning task I will set you to complete by the end of the week.

Once again thank you for you support in working with me alongside the children over this term and in Year 3. I wish the children the best of luck as they make their final preparations for Year 6 and hope things return to normal so that the children can enjoy some class trips and other activities that we haven't been able to carry out this term.

Best wishes to you and your families and I hope you are able to make the most of the festive season whatever you decide to do.

Mr Ball

Wythnos: 8/12/2020

 Shwmae all,

 

Diolch yn fawr for the effort from everybody to engage last week to keep the children learning. Some fabulous work has been shared and I am working my way through your J2E folders and will add to the Learning conversation when I have reviewed the work.

 

Looking forward to seeing everybody again tomorrow. For those who don’t have a sibling in another year group if you would like to donate a luxury hamper prize please bring it in tomorrow and I will leave a box outside class for the items on entrance.

 

Tues: Introduction day with Mr Thomas working with us in class. You will also have a Fit for Fun session with Mitch while I meet with him as well so please wear your PE kit please. Also flu jabs in school as well.

 

Wed: Street dance today – wear PE kit. Can you also bring in your Christmas jumper /outfit in a bag to change into as we will record our class item for the school production as well. We will have our fayre games on Friday – see below:

 

Fri: As we are celebrating Save the Children Christmas jumper day today we will use that as our Fayre games day so wear your jumpers and bring in a £3 donation to pay for your craft and the prizes for the class games and treats for us to have in class. School will contribute a donation to Save the children. The school Christmas concert should be available to view online today if we can get the editing completed – there is no charge to parents to view the concert this year.

 

Thank you all for your continued support,

 

Mr Ball

 

Wythnos - 30/11/2020

Shwmae,

I hope everyone is safe and well. I trust everyone received a text from school about having to isolate from tomorrow. We are hopeful that the children will be able to return at some point this week but are just waiting to hear back from Public Health Wales to confirm this. 

Reminder that you do not need to get tested unless you or your child has been displaying any of the symptoms identified in the letter.

I'm sure the children told you that we have confirmed my replacement will be Mr R Thomas - who was due to visit us on Tuesday to meet me and the children. Unfortunately we have had to postpone the visit for this week but will aim to invite Mr Thomas in next week.

I have set up a brand new class group in TEAMS which pupils have to access through their HWB Office365 accounts.

We will use this platform to communicate whilst we are in isolation as the chat on J2E is used for more informal discussions between the class.

Please only post on our new thread if you have a direct question or point linked to work. No random posts eg 'hi guys what are you doing?' as it will take up to much room on the thread and I might miss an important question!

I will do a welcome to the class on Teams at 9.15am to explain the work for tomorrow. We can't do a live feed for safeguarding reasons and also I would need everyone to mute their mics and we wouldn't know if people were having difficulty hearing or not connected - so communication will mostly be via written messages on the TEAMS thread and I may post some tutorial videos / links if needed.

If you can tonight please respond the intial message I posted in TEAMS just to check I added you to the group correctly. Email me via your HWB if you can't see it for any reason. At the time of posting this blog Toby, Phoebe, Kai, Rosie-Mai and William had already responded so if you can just continue to reply underneath them (not write a new post) that would be great.

Speak to you all (online) in the morning,

Mr B

Wythnos: 23/11/20

  Shwmae,

The Christmas photo samples and order form is on the main blog page - please take a look.

This week PE will be on Wednesday again. New homework (mathematics task) will be set.

PTA Christmas raffle - Please support he PTA by selling your raffle tickets. As we cannot have a normal on site fair this year we will be creating extra luxury hampers instead of the tombola raffle.

Diolch,

Mr Ball

COVID safety poster competition

 As discussed in class here are the details of the competition. Please return your poster tomorrow in the poly pocket:

Dear Colleague

 

I think it would be really helpful to produce some child friendly posters to reinforce the need for parents/carers to display COVID safe behaviours. These should ideally encourage parents/carers to wear masks if possible, to socially distance, to drop off and leave swiftly, to park sensibly near schools and/or any other key message you think would be helpful to reinforce.   These will need to be colourful and have clear messaging that is easy to read.

 

The 5 best posters will be reproduced and shared around our schools in Rhondda Cynon Taf. Can you please ask children in years 5 and 6 to produce A3 posters using felt tips if at all possible. 

 

Many thanks

 

Gaynor  Davies

Notification to parents and carers: 16/11/2020

Dear parent/carer,

You may already be aware that Mr Ball will sadly be leaving Penygawsi at the end of the Autumn term 2020. He told the children today so they may have come home from school with the news. He has decided to explore another career and will be leaving the teaching profession.

  

Mr Ball has worked in Penygawsi for the past five years. He has played a key role in working with the PTA and being a big part of its success; giving his time freely for meetings, after school events and all the work that goes on behind the scenes to ensure events are successful. The children have benefited from a great teacher who knows every child as an individual and has their wellbeing at the heart of everything.

 

I am sure you will join us in thanking Mr. Ball for his hard work and commitment to our school and wish him the very best for the future. He will be very much missed by us all at Penygawsi.

 

We are currently in the process of recruiting a teacher who will begin teaching the class in January 2020. As soon as the governing body have made an appointment I will inform you and the children.

 

Kind regards,

 

Mrs Harries

Wythnos:16/11/2020

Shwmae,

It was good to catch up with parents over the last couple of weeks to discuss the year ahead.

PE - for the remainder of this term PE will be taking place on a Wednesday instead of Thursday.

Friday - please remember to bring in your Christmas  jumper / accessory in a bag for our class photo.

Please read teh following article about our new clothes recycling scheme:

Dragon Bags

Did you know that 95% of discarded clothing can be recycled or upcycled and that the carbon footprint of one new t-shirt is greater than driving a car for 35 miles? Here in Penygawsi we are proud of our eco school status and are working towards gaining our Silver Rights Respecting Schools Award. As part of this we believe “children and young people should be able to live in a way that helps them reach their full physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social potential” (UNCRC Article 27) and felt Dragon Bags was the perfect scheme to link these notions together.

The Dragon bags scheme is designed to develop pupils’ awareness of textile recycling and become more environmentally responsible. It also provides us with a platform to generate much needed funds for our school whilst reducing the amount of textiles that reach landfill within the UK.

Once collected the clothes will be distributed to provide affordable clothing to people who need it the most. We now have a clothing bank on school grounds and are keen to get our families and community involved. We ask for your help by bringing in any of the clothing/textiles listed below. These donations can be either left in the school reception or with your class teacher. We welcome any donations from friends and families if you are happy to collect and bring in on their behalf.

This is Daffi the Dragon, the mascot for the scheme