Well the end of another year has arrived very rapidly! Before we break up, I thought I would draw your attention to a few changes that will be taking place after the summer break.
As you may already be aware, the school will be undergoing some major refurbishment over the holidays. As more of the foundation phase aged children (3-7) move into our junior building, the existing year 1 (Mrs Bailey) and year 2/3 (Mr Brown) classrooms along with the ICT suite will be remodelled into a learning environment suitable for the children that will be using it next year (Year 1 – Mrs Bailey and Year 2 – Mrs Howells). Part of this process will involve the creation of separate boys’ and girls’ toilets within each area of the building resulting in a self-contained unit for the Year 1 and Year 2 classes. From September, Year 1 should be dropped/picked up at the back of the school where Mrs Bailey's current outside door is located. Year 2 should line up on the junior yard in front of the ramp.
In addition to this work, the two junior classrooms and hall will be repainted, the infant building is to be completely rewired and a new shelter and trim trail will be installed adjacent to the year 1 classroom. As you can imagine, it’s going to be a very hectic 6 weeks and we hope you bear with us as we put the classrooms back in order in September.
School will reopen to children on Thursday 8th September as on Monday 5th and Tuesday 6th all staff will be trained in a new approach to teaching reading (details to follow in September). The school will remain closed to children on Wednesday 7th as staff complete the majority of the reorganisation of classrooms following building works. These days will be taken from the compulsory annual training days, they are not in addition.
There will also be some important changes to the curriculum next year including our new reading programme – Read Write Inc. More details of these will be sent out next term along with an invitation to an open evening.
Finally, we have decided to drop the numbers as class names from next year as they no longer match the year or age groups (e.g. Year 1 would have been Class 3). To replace this, staff have decided to follow an ‘animals around the world’ theme which we hope will contribute to the curriculum, give greater consistency between classes and be a little more fun. Each phase has chosen a country and within that country each class has been given an animal title. Children will write class mission statements and ‘chants’ based on their animal and have been encouraged to undertake research over the summer holidays. A full overview of the new class structure can be found below.
All that is left for me to say is have a wonderful summer holiday! I have had a thoroughly enjoyable first year at Ffynnon Taf and have enjoyed getting to know the children, staff and parents. It’s a great school community and I look forward to working with everyone on the future development of the school next year! Enjoy the break!
