Latest News | Croesty Primary School

School Update 24/04/20

Fri 24 Apr 2020 School

Dear Parents /Carers

Update from Croesty Primary School 24/04/2020

We at Croesty Primary School hope you are all well and managing with the many difficulties faced by families in this period of lockdown. In many ways the coronavirus crisis can seem so very remote and unreal. Then suddenly, there is the news that someone nearby has lost a loved one to this awful disease and this reminds us why social distancing, the washing of hands and staying at home are all so important. In many ways I think this period has brought people together – there is that marvellous ten minutes every Thursday evening when we all go out to clap hands and bang saucepan lids for the NHS. I’ve never seen so many people going out for a walk, a run or riding a bicycle and there is a wonderful calm in the evenings when the traffic has at last died away for the night.

Continuous learning is the focus for this update. It has been five whole weeks now since our school was closed on Friday 20^th March. Straight away, we set to work so that our online classrooms were ready to use the following Wednesday, so that continuity in learning for our children could be secured. We accept that for both parents and children this form of learning brings many challenges and that it cannot replace the learning experience your children have when they are in school. Those parents who have had children with us for many years will remember when Hwb was first introduced and how awkward and clunky it was. Things have moved on and the children of Wales now all benefit from a National, Government backed digital learning system which is safe and reliable.

Schools in Wales are expected to provide a comprehensive learning programme for their children over the lockdown period. This is to be achieved through Hwb and we have been asked to take all reasonable steps to ensure that our children engage and continue with their learning. We have therefore been providing four learning activities each school day to develop skills in literacy, numeracy and the wider curriculum. This is being delivered through our digital classrooms to you our families at home. You can be flexible with these activities; your children can complete these at a time and day of your choosing. A daily routine is good but will simply not be possible for some families. Handing in completed work can be quite a challenge. Some of our year 6 children are experts at this and their teachers are able to give them regular marking feedback. Handing in work, however, is not so easy a task especially with younger children and we applaud the tremendous efforts some of you have made to share your child’s learning with us. We are exploring ways to make handing in easier for everyone.

At this stage we are now asking for some feedback from you and your child about how you feel the online classrooms are working. Your feedback might help us to improve our programmes, but we may not be able to please everyone. What might be too little work for some children might be far too much for others – we’ve got to try and strike a balance and by completing our online questionnaire you can help us to achieve this.

You can access our questionnaire using the link bellow:

https://forms.gle/NJmVGD584QSutviF7

We would be very grateful if you could complete this for us by 12:00 next Thursday (30/04/20). The survey is very short, and we think it can be completed easily in five minutes.

We look forward to hearing from you

Kind regards

Mr M Kaye Headteacher

World Earth Day Wednesday 22nd April

Sun 19 Apr 2020 School

Welcome to the Summer Term 2020 at Croesty Primary School

Sun 19 Apr 2020 School

I hope that you have all enjoyed a bit of time over Easter and that everyone has remained safe and well.

You will be aware that all schools in the UK will remain closed for at least the next three weeks. We will be re-opening our digital classrooms for each class from 10:00 am on Monday 20th April. A range of new learning activities for your child will then be added to each classroom for every weekday.

This Wednesday is Earth Day (22.04.20) and many of our activities on Wednesday will be linked this. Every Friday we intend to set up a practical science and technology (STEM) activity for families to take part in.

Don't forget, if your child is receiving additional learning support Mrs Williams has a classroom with learning activities which are specifically designed for your child.

Whereas a great many families and children are engaging very well with our digital classrooms some of you have not as yet engaged. If you are having difficulties accessing your child's digital classroom, please have a look at the information below as this may well help:

If your problem is related to finding and accessing your child's classroom on line help is available at:

hub.gov.uk Find the section - Distance Learning Through Hwb and click on this. The page opens up and you will see the contents in blue on the left hand side. Click on the Parents/Carers link

At the bottom of this sort section you will see the following menu in blue. You need to click on the G Suite link

Hwb Office 365 Minecraft:EE G Suite Just2easy

We are running our digital classrooms through G Suite and when you open up this link you will find a range of excellent videos that will help you access your child's digital classroom.

You will need your child's hub email and hub password to enter your child's classroom. If you don't have these, you do need to request them from us via admin.croesty@bridgend.gov.uk Please remember that the passwords as case sensitive. Once successful asking your computer or device to remember the password is worthwhile.

If having gone through the above steps or if your problem is not related to the above please contact us on admin.croesty@bridgend.gov.uk stating your difficulty and we will try and help. Please allow 5 working days for us to get back to you.

Finally please continue to check our website: www.croestyprimaryschool.co.uk and your emails for any updates from Croesty Primary School

Essential Childcare Applications for Key Workers

Thu 09 Apr 2020 Croesty

Essential Childcare Applications for Key Workers After the Easter Break

If you are a key worker and need to make an application for emergency childcare after Easter you can do so from the bridgend.gov.uk website. Applications must be made by Wednesday 15th April.