STEM Fortnight @ Ysgol y Ddraig

Monday 5^th March – Friday 16^th March 2017

is

STEM fortnight

(Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths)

at Ysgol-y-Ddraig Primary School.

Your home learning task is to make a marble run.

Entries will be judged on:

• It must be no more than 1m high
• Length of time the rolling marble takes to reach the ground
• It must not be a pre–bought marble run

 

 

All marble runs to be in school by Monday 12^th March so all entries can be exhibited, judged and tested.

The winner and runner up from Foundation Phase and Key Stage 2 will go to Romilly Primary School for the battle of the 5 schools’ competition.

Good Luck!

 

Be sure to visit the Ysgol y Ddraig website by clicking here. On the homepage you will find weekly school and class newsletters and lots more!

Quick guide to the YYD Website

Are you still having trouble finding or accessing our weekly online school and class newsletters? Then follow this quick guide!

Our website’s homepage can be accessed by clicking here.

Safer Internet Day

Last Friday following Safer Internet Day, our E-Cadets and DigiDragons held a fayre in the hall for classes to attend. Our E-Cadets and Digi Dragons represented their classes and shared some of the important activities that they have been completing to understand and raise awareness of internet safety. 

Da iawn pawb!

 

 

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Maths in Construction

Newsletter, 13th January 2017

We have had a very busy first full week back in school!

Please support our school by following us on Twitter, subscribing to our Youtube channel and subscribing to our newsletter. Please see class teacher for further details.

This week saw our classes getting involved with lots of activities inside and outside of school.

Col Huw (Nursery) had a very ‘Royal Party’ to develop learning linked to our new topic ‘Did Dragons exist?’ Children also played a range of Royal games in the hall and participated in some welsh folk dancing.

Ogwr and Hensol started their new topic “will you read me a story?” They focused on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs this week and were even lucky enough to meet her!

Thaw and Fonmon began their new topic ‘Memory Box’ by welcoming a 7-week old baby and a 17-month old toddler to their class to find out about different stages of development.

Rheidol and Coch kicked off their topic by creating their own maps of their classroom. They also used online sources including google maps to find their homes and known locations.

Caernafron and Taf have been focusing their week around fractions and applying their new learning to work out fractions of amounts and fractions of a shape.

Cleddau and Penfro went on a very special trip to Bristol Aquarium to investigate as they started their new topic “Blue Abyss” They also learnt how to make cupcakes and even made a video tutorial, see our Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWc9K9zX4r4-nFoY7bbs5aw

Teifi and Caerdydd introduced their topic of Beast craeator by searching the school grounds to find any bugs or creatures. They also gathered resources from the school grounds to begin the build of their own bug hotels. Reptile Dave also came to visit to show us some amazing reptiles, bugs and creatures.

Hafren and Carefilli also had a busy week by starting their topic of blood heart. They started off by asking themselves what they already knew about the heart and what they wished to find out. They then drew a picture of a heart including labelling of the heart. They were also very creative by making hearts made of Lego.

After School Clubs

All after school clubs are now returned. Please see class teacher if your child wishes to attend an after school club

 

Welsh Phrase of the week

Lwcus – Lucky

The Nurturing Programme

The Nurturing Progamme builds on exisiting parenting skill and helps parents think about:

• Why children behave as they do.
• The feelings behind behaviour (ours and theirs).
• Different approaches to discipline.
• Developing co-operation and self-discipline in
• The importance of looking after ourselves.
• The Nurturing Programme has a positive impact on the whole family!
• Duration: 10 weekly sessions, 2 hours per session
• Starting Friday, 13th January 2017 1.00pm – 3.00pm
• Free Crèche provided.
• Please book your place with Mrs Rees/Mrs Jones on 01446 792368.

 Spring Term Key Dates

February

7^th Safer Internet Day

20^th – 24^th February Half Term

 

Star of The Week

Dosbarth Ogwr  – Amelia Baldwin

Dosbarth Hensol – Hallie Darby

Dosbarth Thaw – Orla Payne

Dosbarth Fonmon – Ellis Wilkinson

Dosbarth Rheidol – Riley Havard

Dosbarth Coch – Oliver Keil

Dosbarth Taf – Natalia Witkowska

Dosbarth Caernarfon – Nicole Jeziorska

Dosbarth Cleddau –Davyn-James Burch

Dosbarth Penfro– Alice Ferrier-Thomas

Dosbarth Teifi – Harley Williams

Dosbarth Caerdydd – Kieran Richardson

Dosbarth Hafren – Cameron Carroll

Dosbarth Caerffili – Skye Bateman

Not long now!

This week at Ysgol y Ddraig has been a very busy one! With only 1 more week to go we have so much to do. We have been practicing long and hard to remember our parts in our Christmas play. We can’t wait for you all to see us!

The whole school visited the National Ice Rink in Cardiff to see a performance of the Nutcracker.

We got involved with Taekwondo!

Year 1 used lego to create some amazing ideas including castles and theme parks.

Year 4 used Pablo Picasso as inspiration to create their own masterpieces.

We even had a chance to do some shopping with our amazing Elves R Us store in school thanks to the school’s PTA.

We have a very exciting week ahead of us next week!

 

 

 

 

Year 4’s trip to Manor Adventure!

Year 4 have had a very exciting trip this week visiting Manor Adventure for lots of exciting activities.

We had lots of excited faces on the bus!

Once we arrived we jumped straight into some activities including making our own rafts.

After a busy day of travelling and activities we relaxed in front of a film before bed time.

You can’t start a day full of activities without a big breakfast!

We then dove straight into the obstacle course!

And then even got to absail!

A favourite of ours was giving fencing a go

After a busy day, sleeping lions was a good choice to help relax.

Our first week in school

Take a look at what our journalists think of their first week in the new school.

DJ:
Woohoo!! Our first week in our new school completed!! It has been so much fun exploring our new school and getting used to it! My favourite part has been our new classroom with our touch screen computer, wobbly seats and our own tables! 

I love wearing my awesomely awesome slippers and it is fun sliding around the school. Our school hall is massive and the corridors and stairs are brightly coloured! We have lots of new things including things in our classrooms as well as a lab with high tech computers and a studio for dance and green screen projects. 

We’ve played maths and literacy games on the touch screen whiteboard and had a competition on a connectives game, Boys Vs Girls. Girls won! We are learning about the history of remembrance day and poppies, and then making posters about it to raise awareness. We are also selling snap bands and wrist bands and badges to raise money for poppy appeal! 

I love our new school and cannot wait for more learning and activities across the school. 

 

MR:
The first week of school was amazing.It has been so much fun going around the school and wearing slippers in class.It will take some getting used to knowing where everything is but I’m sure I will get it.My favourite place in the school is the hall because it is so big and i like going down the stairs to get to it.There are no radiators in the school because its all got underfloor heating so it will be warm when we sit on the floor.The school has a lot of cool things including touch screens in every classroom we have a lab and a studio and apple computers in the lab.We have been raising money for poppy appeal from the 9th November to the 11th November which included selling poppy appeal slap bands, poppy appeal wrist bands, poppy appeal bracelets and poppy shaped reflectors.In class we have got apple computers and wobble stools witch is really fun to sit on.In maths we have been doing BODMAS which is exciting and in literacy we have been doing a story about a child getting evacuated and thats really fun too.

 

MB:
Welcome to Ysgol y Ddraig this is only week one in the new school and its been filled with really fun activities. I still cant get used to climbing stairs but before we moved in we got a tour of the school we got to bring slippers in because we don’t want our brand new carpet and since we have slippers it is lush because we have got underfloor heating #cosy. This week has been amazing we have played maths and literacy and welsh games in maths we have been learning about perimeter, area, angels, algebra and BODMAS. In literacy we have been learning about really good connectives and on Thursday the 10th of November Dosbath Carfilli wrote a story about an Evacue’s problems when they got to there foster parents and some stories were a little bit dark. And we have been playing a connectives game boys v girls at 1st break DJ and CU have been selling fruit tuck to children who bring in 20p so the teachers know that the children in ysgol y ddraig are having a healthy snack because we are a healthy eating school and also this week AL and EP are selling poppys snap bands and wrist bands. We have had reverend Hibbard in to tell us a story out of the bible and we have also had our very first stars assembly and LJ earned the lunch time award and that rounds up our first week in our new school in Ysgol Y Ddraig by MB.

 

Sounds like they have had lots of fun in the new building and can’t wait to explore new opportunities in school.

Day 1 at our new Dragons Den!

Today marked the day that all of the pupils and staff of Ysgol Y Ddraig had been looking forward to for over a year and a half. We finally opened the doors to our brand new school!

Lots of excited faces packed the school playgrounds in anticipation of seeing their new classroom.

Then they got to open their very own classroom!

The children then got to spend time in their new classrooms with their teachers.

The children got to a take a tour of the very big school! Exploring all the new rooms and areas.

Then it was time for assembly where we all got together for the very first time to celebrate Day 1 of our new school.

We even got to use the new technology in our classrooms, using our promethean smart boards and Apple Macs.

We then headed to the hall for some lunch!

Our head boy and girl even vlogged their whole day at school!

We love our new school!

 

What’s going on in Dosbarth Teifi?

This week we take a look at Dosbarth Teifi! They have been up to a lot recently, let’s take a look at what exciting things they have been up to.

This week we have been up to a lot including visiting Atlantic College. While there we got to take part in some team building games, we used different techniques to solve lots of challenges, all while becoming a better team.

Meanwhile inside the classroom we have focused our learning on our maths. We have become so good at it recently that we even came out in front of the class to describe how to multiply or divide by 10 or 100 using decimals.

We have also been very lucky to have some visitors come into school. We have had some student teachers from Cardiff Met University come into class and help us create classroom based projects. One of the projects this week was to create dream catchers using different materials in school. We had so much fun making them and can’t wait for the next project.

Thanks for reading the blog!

We hope you enjoyed reading about Dosbarth Teifi.

What’s going on in Dosbarth Hafren

This week we take a look at Dosbarth Hafren! They have been up to so much recently with lots of roarsome experiences!

This week we had a special visitor, PC Pernell. He came into our classroom to discuss drugs. He asked us about what we knew about drugs and staying safe. We played different games to find out more about drugs and the dangers that are involved.

Nick Toulson came in to talk about our new school building, we took part in a construction workshop and got to find out a little bit more about the building and how its being made.

We also had a roarsome trip to Cardiff Bay. We got to take part in the Wondercrump workshop, which involved us making up imaginary words and giving them a definition as well as touring the Wondercrump museum which had all things Roald Dahl inside including giant peaches, monkey eating giants and lunch absorbing vitamin D!

Come back soon to find out what roarsome things another class is getting up to in Ysgol Y Ddraig!

Thanks for reading!

From

The Media Team

Litter pick with Ash Cymru

Today some of our pupils visited Llantwit Major beach along with Keep Wales tidy to help litter pick. Keep Wales tidy and their eco schools programme are trying to raise awareness to create smoke free and litter free beaches.

The children helped to collect as much rubbish as they could that will then be created into a mosaic. The mosaic will then be presented on Tuesday (27th September) at the Pier Head at 12:30pm. Welsh media will also be in attendance.

The children found that most of the rubbish was cigarette buds and realised how important it is to try and make the beach a smoke free area.

We can’t wait to see the mosaic on Tuesday!

 

What’s going on in Dosbarth Caerffili?

A lot has been going on in Dosbarth Caerfilli since we started life as year 6 pupils!

We jumped straight into action by going on a residential trip to Braeside. We did loads of activities including canoeing, jumping the leap of faith as well as making our own beds to sleep in. While on our trip we took part in the Dragon’s quest! The quest lasted 3 days including lots of walking (sometimes in thunder and lightening!) however we reached our destination and got to eat lots of our food. The teacher’s were being very sneaky and watching us to see if any of us could take on some important roles at school. We would later find out which roles our class mates would take on back at school.

 

Our new topic in is currently World War 2. We had to write a list of what we know and what we want to know at the beginning of the year. And we’re reading ‘Goodnight Mr Tom’, but we’re only two chapters in! We can’t wait to find out more about William and his adventures with Mr Tom.

Recently we have gone Roald Dahl crazy! Last week in dosbarth  Caerffili we were learning about Roald Dahl  and we were reading boy tales of childhood its an autobiography of the author. The whole school dressed as characters from Roald Dahls books! Everyone looked fantastic including Fantastic Mr Fox, Willy Wonka and even some Matilda’s.

It has been a busy first few weeks of term and we cannot wait for more roarsome learning!

Thanks for reading!

from The media team!

Learner Voice

Learner Voice is an important aspect of all schools. It is vital that our children are able to be involved in reflecting upon, evaluating and improving our school. Learner Voice at Ysgol Y Ddraig has a number of elements including; –

SCHOOL COUNCIL

SUPER AMBASSADORS

ECO-SQUAD

DIGITAL LEADERS

CRIW CONSTRUCTION

This page will be updated shortly with the members of each of the above groups and further information about their roles and action plans.

Our Roarsome Spooky Disco

The children had a wonderful time and looked wonderfully scary in their costumes and make up at the Halloween Disco last night. We would like to thank all the PTA, volunteer parents and staff members who helped make it such a success. Everyone worked very hard with the preparations, stalls and ensuring all the children had a spook-tastic and rearmost time. Mr Golding & Miss Cadman were extremely impressed with the huge effort that had clearly gone into all the costumes and make up. 

  

Parents @ Ysgol Y Ddraig

As our second week draws to a close we have lots of exciting things to share and look forward to over the forthcoming term.

This week saw the first meeting of our newly amalgamated PTA. Elections for roles within the PTA were held and we are please to announce that our new Chair is Mrs K Patterson, our new Treasurer is Mrs N McDonagh and our new Secretary will be Mr G Sparkes. The PTA discussed planned events for the year ahead and we also explored how the PTA could support the school throughout this year. Thank you to all those who were able to attend. If you are interested in supporting or joining the PTA please contact either school.

On the 28^th and 29^th of September we will be holding parent talks for any parents wishing to come along, meet the team and find out a little more about the way we are organizing learning this year. It is also an opportunity to discuss and look ahead to the national assessments that children partake in each Summer term. We are offering two talks per day – the first at 915am and the other at 5pm. Monday 28^th will be for Foundation Phase at the Foundation Phase main hall and the 29^th will be for Key Stage 2 parents, to be held in the main hall at the Key Stage 2 site.

Parent Evenings will be held during the last week of half term for Foundation Phase and during the first week back for Key Stage 2. We are hoping to pilot a new booking system whereby parents will be able to book their own appointments online; enabling parents to have greater input into times that suit best.

After half term we will be looking for opportunities to invite parents into some Stars Assemblies so that we are able to share and celebrate the successes of the children.

Thank you to all those parents who applied for a role as a parent governor and congratulations to our five successful parents who are: Mr James Emery, Mrs Claire Millar, Mrs Rachel Hillier, Mr Phillip Hibbert and Mr Nathan Mullet.

All of our classes had a chance to visit the new build site before any of the major works start. We were all able to see the outline of the building, look at the most recent plans and spend some time talking with the contractors. Our next step is to select our Construction Crew who will be the ambassadors for the duration of the building project. We would also like to offer an opportunity for parents to see the outline of our new build, meet with the site management team and visit the site. There will be an opportunity for parents to come along and visit the site between 2.30pm -3.30pm on Monday 12^th and Tuesday 13^th. All Welcome!

New Term – New School

Our first week back has been a very busy one indeed. Our classes have enjoyed their time with their new teachers, friends and beginning to get used to the new routines. The children have been fantastic and look exceptionally smart in our new uniform. We will be sending out a weekly newsletter with news, updates and reminders for parents. It is our ambition to become a paperless school and we request that all parents provide the school with an email address so that we are able to email the newsletters. This not only improves efficiency, is more eco-friendly but also ensures that the newsletters reach parents. Needless to say there may be a few questions as we all get used to the new systems. We are still using our ysgolyddraig@gmail.com email address for general enquiries but if you have any specific questions about Foundation Phase please contact Miss Cadman at ddraigfp@valeofglamorgan.gov.uk or call the Foundation Phase site on 01446 792755. Equally for Key Stage 2 please contact Mr Golding at ddraigks2@valeofglamorgan.gov.uk or contact the school on 01446 792368.

We have had our very first Stars Assemblies and our winners are on our first newsletter. Every week a ‘Star’ from each class will be chosen by the class teacher and presented with a certificate. In addition to our stars we will also be rewarding our children’s positive behaviour with our Golden Book and a Golden Ticket draw.

Before too much longer the much awaited building work will begin on our new school. Please follow it’s progress and updates on this blog.

Ysgol Y Ddraig – Frequently Asked Questions

Our FAQ is being developed as an outcome of…

• Our Joint School Council meeting
• School Councillors have begun collecting questions
• Staff meeting
• Mr Golding visiting classes

How big will our playgrounds be?

During the building phase those at the LLanilltud Fawr Site will have temporary playground spaces made by the builders and those at the Eagleswell site will have full use of the extensive grounds. In our new school each Foundation phase class will have it’s own outdoor area, we will have several hard playground areas, an enclosed football/basketball court, timber trails, open green and planted areas. In addition to all this we will have access to the Llantwit Learning Community facilities that are available across the whole site.

Will we have more PE equipment?

Firstly, we need to find out what we already have. After this we need to work with the children to investigate what we would like and then we can start planning what equipment we need to get.

What colour will the classrooms be?

We don’t know yet but will make sure they are bright and stimulating learning environments. 

Can we have after school and breakfast clubs?

Yes. We will have both breakfast and after-school clubs during the build and wen we move into our new building. 

Will the school dinners be nice?

Yes. It is important that Mr Golding keeps working with the School Council so that they can discuss the things they would like to change, develop and improve. This doesn’t necessarily need to be about school dinners but is important for lots of aspects of our new school.  

Can we have a rugby team? Where will we play?

Definitely. We can train in our own playgrounds, use the LLC pitches when available and hopefully attend tournaments at other schools and sites too. 

Will there be a First Aid person?

Yes. There are a number of adults who are currently trained in First Aid and Mr Golding would also like to ensure that children have opportunities to be involved in appropriate First Aid training themselves too.

Will we still see our friends?

Yes. Even if you are not with all your friends in your new class you will have many opportunities to meet up with them during the day. This may includes breaks, lunch, group activities, joint class learning, clubs and trips. 

How many children in each class?

We will have a no more than 30 children in each class. This means we have space for 60 in each year group.

Will we have teachers we haven’t met before?

Yes and no. Yes you could have teachers that you may not have met yet but there will be chances to meet your new teacher and get to know them a little better during this Summer term, before you move classes for September. 

Will the way we are taught change?

Many of the ways you learn already will be the same and I am sure that there will also be some new and exciting activities and ways of learning ahead. 

Can we have new computers?

Yes. We don’t know what they will be yet but we will be looking to develop technology in our new school. We won’t have a computer suite but every class will have access to technology so that it can be integrated into all of your learning.

Will the year groups be mixed up?

Yes. We will be mixing the children from both schools into new classes. We will try our very best to ensure that you have a balance of old friends in your new class as well as those who will become your new friends.

Will we have more Art equipment?

Yes. It is important that we give all children the right resources and opportunities to be creative (not just in Art but in Music, Dance and other art forms too) and learn both thought creativity and learn about creativity. There is a new curriculum being developed for Wales and it looks very likely that it will have a large focus on learning with and through ‘The Arts’. 

Please keep following our FAQ as it will be added to when new questions arise. Diolch.

Our Joint School Council & their Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Both school councils have recently met as a joint School Council to look at the changes ahead, share their ideas about transition into our new school and collect any questions about next year and beyond. the activities we divided into smaller mixed groups. The first activity involved us mind-mapping and discussing key words and phrases that sprang to mind when we thought about the new school and the changes we faced. There were lots of interesting conversations during the mind-mapping and some of those discussed include: – 

• Changes
• Nervous
• Excited
• Emotion
• Independence
• Uniting
• Appearances
• Joining
• New Friends
• Old Friends
• Teachers
• Rules

After reflecting upon these main areas around change the groups then developed questions that they and their friends thought were important. Once back in school they were then going to collect more questions from their classes. There was a wide range of questions that the children felt were important to ask. These ranged from questions about the learning, classroom layouts and the technology to questions about the size of the new build and types of new clubs.

For the third and final task was an opportunity for the groups to come up with ideas that they thought would help us get to know each other and ensure that we work together both before and once we are in our new school. These ideas were: – 

• Joint sports activities
• Cake Sale
• BBQ
• Trips
• Discos
• Art Festival
• Performing plays
• Skyping
• Meeting new teachers and children
• Joint playtimes
• Fun-days
• Writing pen portraits for future classmates

The next steps were to go back to school and collect questions from children and adults so that we can add them to our FAQ page.  

Ysgol Y DDraig – 2015/16

It is the decision of the Governing Body and the Headteacher that from September 2015 the school will organised as:

•  Foundation Phase at the Eagleswell site
•  Key Stage 2 at the Llanilltud Fawr site

As an outcome of feedback and discussions with parents we have decided that we will continue with the existing Nursery provision at both sites. In some cases existing parents may want to move their child to the alternative Nursery site in order to help with their family arrangements. In the first instance, moving location is an option for parents currently on roll and then on a priority and capacity basis for new admissions from September. As you will understand there is a vast amount of organising that needs to be put in place for September and there is a maximum capacity in each of the Nursery settings, as such we would very much appreciate it if you could contact Mr Golding (ysgolyddraig@gmail.com) with your requests to switch Nursery sites before Friday 8^th May and we will make every effort to accommodate

There will be a staggered start times between the two sites and we are currently working out the exact timings to ensure that it is as convenient as possible for parents who will have children at both sites. We are also looking at the most suitable way to provide transport for children and between the sites. This will enable parents to drop off and collect children conveniently at one of our sites regardless of which Key Stage they are in.

All of the staff are extremely supportive and determined to ensure our new school has the very best start in September in order for us to provide an excellent education for all of the children in our care.

We would like to thank everyone for their comments, questions and ideas on the process so far and are all looking forward to the next steps in our journey.

We will share the specific timings of the school day, wrap around care and transport options very soon. We would like to thank all parents for their comments and for sharing their concerns throughout this process