December News at Ysgol Gymraeg Cwmbrân:

It has been another exceptionally busy but successful half term at Ysgol Gymraeg Cwmbrân and we would like to bring to your attention some of the highlights!

Years 3 and 4 visited the Blaenavon Museum during October and November to learn more about life during World War 2 and to reinforce the work they have undertaken in class on this theme.

Helen Rogers and Rhian James visited on the 4th October to speak to the Year 6 pupils during the first of many transition meetings and activities which will take place this year.

As part of the Roald Dahl celebrations, ‘Mewn Cymeriad’ visited Key Stage 2 pupils and pupils were entertained by several of Dahl’s characters.

Year 6 pupils travelled to Cardiff on the 12th October to be part of a pilot television show produced by Boom Cymru called ‘Piga dy drwyn’. This will be televised in January.

29 Pupils visited the Royal Albert Hall on the 16th November to take part in the Music for Youth Junior Proms and they performed with several schools from the region. Many parents accompanied the children and rave reviews were received upon their return.

Another successful Values week was held in November. Many family members came along and the week coincided with the anti-bullying week.

Year 4 pupils visited the Millenium Centre in Cardiff on the 14th November to take part in the Urdd Jambori.
Years 1 and 2 thoroughly enjoyed a visit and workshop by the Ronnie the T-Rex and his keeper Chris. During the workshops, the children discovered more about a range of dinosaurs.
The choir performed at the ‘Sul yr Urdd’ in Pontypool on the 20th November alongside pupils from Panteg, Bryn Onnen and the Cylch Meithrin.

Several members of the Urdd took part in the regional swimming gala on the 17th November. Two pupils have made it through to the National Urdd Gala which will take place in the National Olympic Pool in Cardiff in January.

The rugby team played a friendly game against Henllys Church in Wales School. The Urdd Rugby and Netball Tournament has been rescheduled for February.

Mewn Cymeriad visited years 5 and 6 to perform a drama about life in Swansea during the Blitz and provided a further insight into what life was like for children during the Second World War.

We are now a ‘Sustrans’ affiliated school and are eager for as many children as possible to walk, scooter or cycle to school. Hamish from Sustrans has visited the school during the term and the children enjoyed taking part in the ‘Be Bright Day’.

The Reception classes thoroughly enjoyed their trip to see the Cyw roadshow in Cardiff.

We were all extremely proud of Travis Carter in Year 4. His design was the winning entry in a competition to design the First Minister’s Christmas card for 2016. The First Minister, Carwyn Jones, visited the school to present Travis with a framed copy of the card. The pupils had an opportunity to perform songs from their concerts and this special occasion was televised on ‘Heno’ on S4C.

Another extremely successful Christmas Fayre was held on the 2nd December with over a £1000 being raised for the school. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Mrs Laura Keenan for all her hard work and dedication over the last few years as she steps down from the PTA.

Five extremely successful school concerts took place at the end of term. We were immensely proud of each and every pupil who took part.

We send our congratulations to Miss Wena Williams and family following the birth of Osian Michael and to Miss Holly Norman and family following the safe arrival of Ivy-Rose.

At the moment, our school attendance stands at 95.5%. Our attendance target for the year is 95.6%. Mrs Dalgeish and Mr Bridson’s classes have both won attendance of the month so far this year and enjoyed wearing their own clothes to school. Please make every effort to ensure that your child arrives in school by 8:55am in order to start the school day promptly at 9:00am. Children who are persistently late miss out on a vital part of the school day and their late arrival can also be disruptive to their peers.

We would like to thank Miss Enfys Owen for all her hard work in Ysgol Gymraeg Cwmbrân over the past few years, especially her work with the Eco-committee. Unfortunately, Miss Owen will be leaving us at the end of the week and she will be travelling to Lesotho to teach there for a few months. We wish her the very best of luck; she will be missed by everyone. Diolch yn fawr iawn, Miss Owen.

Christmas cards: The Eco-committee members have decided to recycle Christmas cards and a competition will be held between the schools in Torfaen to see who can recycle the most. We’re asking you to send any unwanted cards into school in January.
In order to keep you up to date with events in school, we now have a Twitter account and you can follow us @ygcwmbran.

Thank you very much for all your support this year. We look forward to welcoming the pupils back to school on Wednesday 4th January 2017. WE WOULD LIKE TO WISH YOU ALL A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Diolch yn fawr.

Remember:

SCHOOP ID: 10319 /
Twitter: @ygcwmbran