Trailer for archeological dig

Celebrating 50 Years of Croesty Primary School

 

Croesty Primary School was officially opened on 26th June 1970 although the school was actually open and taking children before the official opening date.

We'll be celebrating our 50th Birthday on Friday 26th June 2020 but unfortunately this year due to the Coved -19 Pandemic Crisis  we will not be open as a school. So we have decided to embrace the latest advances in digital technology and mark our celebration online instead.

Please check out our Children Section on this website and you'll find the pages dedicated to celebrating 50 years of Croesty Primary School.

Dear Parent/Carer

 

I would like to begin my note by thanking you for your support and patience over the past ten weeks. I am also grateful to you all for the work you have done to support your child’s learning at home since schools closed in March. 

 

Following the Minister for Education’s announcement yesterday, and although local authorities in Wales are awaiting further detail, I am sure that you are keen to know what the next few weeks will look like as far as schools in Bridgend are concerned.

 

We now know that some learners will be back in schools from 29 June and the school term will be extended by one week until 27 July. The Minister also announced that the autumn half-term break (October holidays) will be extended to two weeks.  Whether this extra week will be the week commencing 19 October or 2 November is yet to be determined.

 

When schools reopen, they will not operate in the same way as they have done in the past. There will be far fewer learners in each classroom and, much in the same way as your child has accessed work over the past few months, schools will continue to provide personalised online learning opportunities for all learners.

 

Over the next two weeks, your child’s school will contact you to let you know how learners will return to school. It is important to note that learners will return to school on a ‘phased return’. This means that not all learners will return at once and, when they do return, the school day might start and end at different times for different learners. This may include different arrangements for siblings of different ages, attending the same school.

 

I appreciate that the thought of returning to school and the preparation required might be challenging for learners and parents alike. I anticipate that many parents and learners will be anxious. Please be assured that this is an entirely natural reaction to the current situation. With this in mind, I am keen to do everything possible to assure you of the local authority’s support in ensuring the emotional and physical wellbeing of learners is prioritised.  Therefore, please be reassured that the local authority is working closely with schools and its partners to ensure that support is in place to assist your child’s return to school.

 

Thank you, once again, for your patience and support at this challenging time.

 

Best wishes

 

 

 

 

 

Lindsay Iorwerth Harvey (Mr)

 

Corporate Director – Education and Family Support/Cyfarwyddwr Corfforaethol – Addysg a Chymorth i Deuluoedd

Bridgend County Borough Council         

Annwyl Rhienni /Dear Parents

 

Update for Croesty 01/06/2020

 

We do hope that everyone is well and that you are managing to safely enjoy the sunshine. Our digital classrooms will open up again for the children tomorrow from 10am. Don't forget if your child is having additional support at school Mrs Williams is running several classrooms with learning activities that will be specifically tailored to meet your child's needs.

 

We have set aside two 'Catch Up' Fridays in June. They are Friday 5th and Friday 19th when we won't be posting any new learning activities on our classrooms.

 

Once again we'd like to thank all of our families for the hard work both children and parents are putting in to the online classrooms as we fully accept that this isn't always easy.

 

Please continue to check our website and your emails for updates from us. This month we have an Eco Week and a 50th Anniversary Week planned. There may also be announcements from Kirsty Williams and Welsh Government about the reopening of schools in Wales. We will provide updates on our website and via emails for you. It may also be worthwhile you checking the Bridgend.gov.uk website for updates about lockdown and schools reopening as announcements are made to understand how these might translate into actions more locally.

 

Stay safe and keep well

 

Cofion Cynnes / Kind regards

 

Mr Kaye

Our Digital Classrooms will be closing for the half term break. They will reopen again on Monday1st June.

 

Instrumental Music Lessons at School

 

If you're having music lessons in school you can now access a digital classroom through Hwb which will help you further with your learning and improve your performance skills.

Type the following address into your web browser search bar and use your Hwb login to access the digital classroom for strings (Violin & Cello)

 

https://hwb.gov.wales/go/4qqa8d

 

Type the following address into your web browser search bar and use your Hwb login to access the digital classroom for Brass.

 

https://hwb.gov.wales/go/915dyg

 

Please be aware that we will be making no charges for any on line music lessons over the summer term

 

 

On Friday there is a special Bank Holiday to mark the 75th Anniversary of VE (Victory in Europe) Day. I'm marking the event on our website by sharing the images that can be found on the new edition of stamps from the Royal Mail. These stamps will be released to mark this very important anniversary, The images are from events at the time and I think they give a very real impression of what it was like for everyone seventy five years ago. Do have a look - they'll pop up as a slide show for you.

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

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