Welcome to Chestnut Class. This information letter will hopefully answer lots of questions you may have about the class routines this year. Apologies if your child is in Year 3 or 4 as most of this will be familiar to you already.
Drop off and pick up: Children will come in and leave via the gate near the kitchen. Times as usual- 8:55am and at 3:20pm. All Y2 children to be accompanied by an adult.
Your child will come home with a new Seesaw code for this academic year. We will be using this app as always as a means of communication to send messages and reminders to parents so please connect to your child’s account as soon as possible and check it regularly. Each year they will have a new account/class to join. Joining Seesaw allows you to see what your child gets up to during the school day and lets you see the progress they are making when they share work that they are proud of with you. When you download the app you will get a notification when your child posts a photo of their work for you to see. You can like or comment on these if you wish. You can access Seesaw on a tablet, phone, laptop or PC. If you have any questions or queries you can message us using the app and we will get back to you as soon as we can. It also enables us to send messages back and fore if you have any questions/concerns. It’s invaluable to us in school.
Social Media – Follow us on twitter or Instagram to see some of the lovely things we do in school and for up to date news and events @CymerPrimary.
Name tags: Please make sure all of your children’s items are labelled. (Jumpers, cardigans, t-shirts, water bottles, lunch bags, wellies etc.) It is so much easier for your child (and us) to find lost items if they have their names on each item. We have lots of nameless jumpers in class from last year. The children cannot always tell their own jumpers if they are not labelled.
Reading Books: If your child had a reading book last year they will continue to go home with your child on Fridays. Please could you ensure they are back in school by the following Thursday so they can be listened to and changed ready to go back out. Some children have not yet had a reading book and these will be going out once we are confident that your child is ready to have a go. Every child develops differently and is ready to read at different ages, please don’t panic. If your child does not have a reading book they will instead have flash cards with sounds on them. Please play pairs matching, shouting out sounds, finding the sounds in books, magazines etc to encourage your child to read them confidently in preparation for a reading book. Any questions please send a seesaw message or pop in at the end of the day.
There is a great free website: www.oxfordowls.co.uk to promote reading. Every little bit of additional help will make a massive difference to your child’s reading.
Children will continue to be grouped for Read, Write Inc and White Rose Maths so will see a variety of staff during the school day. Groups can change throughout the year as the children progress.
P.E: Thursday
Children will need to wear their P.E kit to school on a Thursday. They can wear joggers/leggings and trainers with their school uniform on top. Please no skirts or tights on P.E days and make sure your child has their water bottle in school every day but especially on a Thursday.
There will be some Thursdays when we have a forest schools session instead of PE. (when the weather is kind to us). On these days the children will need similar clothes to PE days, suitable waterproof coat and old trainers/wellies. We also have a selection of waterproofs in school the children can use. We will let you know of these days via seesaw.
Swimming sessions: Every other Tuesday we will go swimming, starting on 17th September. Children will need a towel, a swimming costume and googles. The swimming pool are no longer loaning goggles for the sessions I’m afraid. Please can you ensure your child is confident in dressing and undressing themselves in preparation for this. We walk up the pool and back so suitable coats will be needed. Also we need to rely on volunteers to help us walk up and back from the pool this year to ensure we have the correct adult to child ratios. We leave school around 1.10pm and walk back down around 2.20pm. If you are able to help with the walk up and back (no need to stay) can you please pop me a seesaw or give Mrs Casey a ring in the office. Any help would be hugely appreciated as without it we will struggle to go swimming, which I know the children love.
Dinner: Don’t forget all school dinners are free for our pupils due to Welsh Government funding. You can find out what’s for lunch each week by accessing Neath Port Talbot’s Broccoli Bob Website.
Water bottles: It is important that children drink plenty of water to help them concentrate and learn in school. Please make sure your child has a water bottle with them every day with their name clearly labelled.
Parent Meetings: We are proud to operate an open door policy at Cymer Afan primary. The best way to contact us if you have any concerns/worries or questions is to pop us a message on Seesaw, or ring the school and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
HWB: HWB is a digital platform you can access on a smartphone, tablet or computer. We use HWB in a variety of ways in school. Children will now be expected to log in independently, so please can you practise this at home regularly? Log in details are attached to this letter.
Sumdog: Sumdog is a maths website we will be using to practise maths skills in a fun and enjoyable way. We would like children to practise logging on and playing a few fun math games. Please find attached their Sumdog log in details.
Snack: Children are welcome to bring in a piece of fruit/vegetables for a healthy playtime snack.
Text Service- Please make sure we have your current mobile phone number as the school uses this service to keep you updated on an school events or important and urgent notices. (E.g. school closure due to snow etc.)
We look forward to working with your children this year,
Mrs Jones and Mrs Pryce.
