Thank you to all the parents and carers who attended Year 2’s Big Art Sale. It was lovely to see how many turned up to make a donation for year 2’s chosen charities – WWF and the Size of Wales. We also used the opportunity to share a Welsh poem and all the work that we had completed in the lead up to this event. Look out for further information about how much we raised altogether.

Following on from St David’s Day the children continued to learn about Wales’ heritage during Welsh Week. During this time the pupils learnt traditional stories, investigated national emblems, appraised music written by Welsh composers and there was even a smell of cawl and Welsh cakes in the air! We all really enjoyed.

Even more Welsh has been going on last week with Shwmae Day! During the morning event Criw Cymraeg shared useful Welsh apps with the guests as well as running a range of competitions. Learn Welsh Swansea Bay shared information on Welsh courses and our school’s orchestra and choir thrilled us all with their performances. Our guests also enjoyed rain forest alliance refreshments and a biscuit or too all served in ‘compostable’ cups. Thank you to all those who were able to attend and support the school.

The pupils had a wonderful time during our school’s Eisteddfod back before half term. The standards seen across the competitions were staggering! What talented pupils we have in our school. It was fantastic to see such a mixture of talents on display from singing, playing instruments, art and design, photography, performing, dancing and many, many more. The best dressed leek competition was as strong as ever with many creative and funny entries. Criw Cymraeg led the events brilliantly and were a credit to the school. It was also fantastic to see all the other pupils reveling in the success of their peers. What a proud member of staff I was! A big thank you to all those involved namely Criw Cymraeg, Mrs Norbury, Mr Jeffereies, Mr Mayhew, Miss Longman, Mr Davies and, of course, Mrs Davies.

PARKLAND SCHOOL HAS WON £10 000 funding from AVIVA!

Thank you to everyone for helping us with the bid – we cannot wait to use this money to transform the quads in KS1. We intend to use it to create exciting new areas of learning for our pupils.

An extra big thank you goes to Louise Brown, Lydia Fasham, Louise Rengozzi and Samuel Dredge. Without your ideas, hard-work and enthusiasm we would never ever have got this far.

Please check out our video to see everyone’s excitement at the news!

Thank you to our wonderful PPA for all their hard work.

 

Dyslexia training

Sarah Davies is running a Dyslexia training course for parents at Parkland Primary school every Wednesday evening 6-8pm. Staff who also attended found the first session extremely informative and will be sharing their learning with colleagues across the school. If you wish to attend please contact Mrs Alison Hughes at Parkland Primary for more information.

Community

The Parents’ Association held the annual Christmas Fayre, which was, once again, a tremendous success; £3,580.00 was raised. A huge thank you to everyone who organised and supported the event, whether here to help on the day, before or afterwards. Whatever you did to assist, it is greatly appreciated and will benefit the children within Parkland.

The choir have been visiting people and venues in the community, spreading Christmas cheer. They have sung Christmas songs for the residents of Laugharne Court and Hazel Court and for the patients in Singleton Hospital. The choir sang beautifully and made us very proud of them, as always.

Y5 and 6 played rugby against Ysgol Llwynderw and were fierceless, well done to all members of the team. Fixtures have been organised against Pontlliw and Gowerton in the New Year. Look out for updates following the planned fixtures.

Y6 have undertaken yoga with Jane Thomas, a local yoga instructor. Big thanks to Mrs Thomas for leading the activity with the children.

 

Celebrations

We held our annual Christmas concerts throughout December this year. All the children were a credit to the school and their families, they sang, danced, chorally spoke, played musical instruments and acted fantastically. Thank you all for your kind donations on the door. This raised almost £1,000.00. We will be using the money, coupled with the money the children raised last year during the enterprise activities to buy playground equipment, following consultation with the children, regarding what they would like.

 

Staffing

Following a request from Estyn, governors agreed that I can go on secondment from January 8th until April 4th. The remit of my secondment will include undertaking inspections, working on the development of the new curriculum and working with the Organisation for Economic Development and Collaboration (OECD) on what makes an effective school. Miss Poole and Mrs Leahy, deputy head teachers will share the headteacher role until my return. Miss Rees who has been working in the Year 3 and 4 indie room will cover Miss Poole’s and Mrs Leahy’s absence and Miss Hall who worked in Parkland last year will assume the position in the indie room.

 

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support and to wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. I hope you have a very enjoyable break and look forward to seeing the children back in school on 7th January.

 

Dear All,

Staffing

The new teachers employed to work flexibly across the years 1 & 2, 3 & 4 and 5 & 6 have settled into Parkland well. The children seem to thoroughly be enjoying their time working independently within the indie rooms, planning their learning and selecting their tasks to embed and develop their learning. This enables the children to work in smaller groups and the teachers are enjoying this aspect also!

 

Community

The Parents’ Association held a disco on Friday 28^th September. It was extremely well attended and raised £537.24.  A very big thank you to everyone who helped and gave up their time to make the event such a success. Our Christmas Fayre is planned for Friday, December 7^th. Please come and enjoy the atmosphere and some refreshments.

A big thank you to Swansea Uplands Rugby Club who have raised and donated £78 towards new rubgy kit and equipment for the school and also to Mr Fan who raised £445.71 over the last two years, which we plan to use to purchase outdoor play equipment, following consultation with the children.

 

Celebrations

The children will be preparing for their Christmas concerts during the coming weeks. We hope you are able to come and enjoy their performances. Look on the school website for dates if you have not seen these on the Dojo messenger system.

 

Christmas dinner is planned for Thursday, December 20^th. We will soon be asking for clarification regarding numbers for the celebration.

 

Visits and Visitors

Year 4 have visited and participated in Bikability at Dunvant Rugby Club in September and year 6 have been undertaking their Cycling Proficiency this week. Years 5 and 6 visited Swansea Museum and watched a production by Theatre Na’Nog, reception visited the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery in October. Year 3 and 4 are visiting the Grand Theatre over the next two weeks. Year 3 are going to watch the Awful Aunty production and both year groups are having a theatre tour. On December 5^th we are having a whole school pantomime in school, as part of the Christmas term topic and as part of our Christmas celebrations. Children from key stage two are participating in the Urdd swimming galas today, good luck to all the pupils participating, we hope they enjoy the experience. I will update you on progress regarding this in my next entry.

 

The Year 6 children returned from a week in Carreg Adventure, Gower just before half term. It proved to be busy week, enjoyed by children and staff alike. Many thanks to all the staff who gave up their time and well done to the children who took part in the activities with gusto.

 

Premises

The new rooms attached to the reception and year 1 classes are proving extremely useful in enhancing the learning environment; providing quiet areas for the children.  Over the half term holidays new fencing was erected by the side entrance to the school and a new gate was erected to replace the smaller gate at the side of the nursery building. These measures have further improved school security.

 

School Dinners

Please take care not to allow your school dinner payments to fall into arrears. The school meals service is run by the local authority and they now have a no debts policy. There must be sufficient funds within your child’s account to purchase meals.  If anyone is experiencing ay difficulties, please do not hesitate to contact me, we are here to help, whenever we can.

 

Flu Vaccinations

On Thursday, November 15^th flu vaccinations will take place in school for all children for whom we have received parental consent.

 

 

 

 

 

Dear all,

Welcome to my first blog! It’s out with the old and in with the new; out with the newsletters and in with the blog!

I will update my blog on a regular basis and the notifications which I used to put on my newsletters will be stored on this new website instead.

Goodbyes

We say goodbye to a number of special people this year. Our wonderful Year 6 pupils leave to begin the next phase of their school careers in secondary schools. Mrs Fender is leaving to pursue a more relaxed approach to life. Mrs Evans has left to develop her own business. Mr Lloyd has left to undertake a Master’s Degree in Psychology.

Celebrations

During the summer holidays Miss Davies will be returning to school in September as Mrs Hellier, as she is getting married. We wish Miss Davies the very best of luck and look forward to greeting Mrs Hellier next term.

Questionnaires

The link to the questionnaires to gather parents’ and carers’ views has been sent out on dojo. It will close on July 31^st, please take ten minutes to complete this, your views are used to help us improve the school. The link is https:/myvoice.swansea.education/

Fund Raising

The Parents’ Association has once again been working very hard to raise funds to develop the quads which the infant children use for their learning. Thanks to their hard work this term over £4,000.00 has been raised. What an amazing achievement. A big thanks to everyone who helped and supported in all the events.

Mrs Bewley-Taylor braved the shave this afternoon and looked as beautiful with cropped hair as she did with long hair. Well done to Mrs Bewley Taylor for being so brave. She has raised over £2,000.00 for MacMillan Cancer and has donated her hair to the The Little Princess Trust for it to be made into a wig.

Premises

Once again this summer we will be having building work undertaken within the school and the grounds. A ramp for push chair and disables access is being placed between the junior and infant areas. The path outside the junior classrooms, as you come down the steps, is being widened. The reception and year one toilets are being refurbished and remodeled to create additional teaching and learning spaces. We are continuing with the window replacement and the nursery window is being replaced. The computer suite and library s being remodeled to provide an additional teaching and learning space in the junior area. The additional teaching and learning areas will be used as creative teaching and learning areas for classes to use for independent learning, focusing on challenges

I would like to thank you all for your continued support, which is always received very gratefully. I wish you all a very happy summer break and hope you are able to have some wonderful family time and look forward to seeing you on Tuesday September 4th 2018.

Welcome to our website. Parkland Primary School is a happy, hard-working and well ordered community in which children are able to develop to their potential academically, socially, spiritually and creatively.

We are privileged to have wonderful caring children, supportive parents, a committed governing body and staff whose efforts are underpinned by the drive to see every child achieve success in a supportive and stimulating environment.

We strive to instil a love of learning in all our children through motivating them by providing engaging quality learning experiences. High expectations underpin all we do and children are supported in the challenges to meet them, developing resilience and learning from mistakes as they progress. At the centre of learning is a broad, balanced, relevant and engaging curriculum, which ensures every child is able to achieve in their talents.

Thinking and the growth of self-esteem and worth is central to developing independent learners and responsible citizens and we encourage reflection and problem solving within the children to extend and challenge them to achieve the highest standards possible.

Mutual respect forms the basis for all our learning and the partnerships we have with parents/carers and the community enables us to achieve the standards which are hallmarks of the school.

Pupil voice is established through the pupil participation groups which input into school evaluation and improvement. We place a huge emphasis on children’s views and opinions and believe in empowering children to become independent and active citizens through having input into decisions about their school and learning.

We are fortunate to receive tremendous support from our parents and carers. The home / school partnership is crucial to the learning process. We value and appreciate the support we receive, which enables us to offer the children activities which extend and enrich their learning and the environment we can provide.

As part of the partnership the school and home work together in the Parkland Parent Association (PPA) which is run by parents, with school staff input. The PPA work tirelessly to raise funds which benefit the children by subsiding trips and purchasing resources and equipment for the children to use.

I hope you enjoy finding out about us. If you are not a parent and would like to visit, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Mrs Anne Lloyd