As the days are getting colder and the early morning dark starts are upon us it is time to think about our Harvest celebrations.
A reminder to you that our services take part on Wednesday October 16th in the school hall and that families are more than welcome to join us.

The infant service starts at 9.30 and the junior at 10.15. Each service is due to last about 20-30 minutes and you're more than welcome to wait in the hall in between if you are staying for both. The children have started their preparations and we have lots of Harvest songs and poems to share with you. 

This year, again, we are collecting donations for the local Food bank. If you would like to contribute by sending in tins and dried goods, they would be gratefully received. We are accepting donations from tomorrow for the next week. Please give them to the class teacher or hand them in at the office.
Diolch 

The sun was shining again as we said goodbye this evening and hopefully it will continue through the weekend!

Next week is shaping up to be busy as the diary is filling up with visits, visitors and sporting events.

Firstly congratulations to Y5 Aleks who has become our new pupil governor and to the 12 pupils who have taken on roles working with staff to improve the school.
Interviews for the Office Junior jobs are Monday pm.
Tuesday is Meet the Teacher day 3.30-4.30.
The library van is due a visit this Wednesday so please make sure you return your books if you borrowed them last term.

Sporting Competitions - Year 5 and 6 Pupils
You may have already received a Form 4 visit letter with a covering note. To further explain, during the course of the school year we enter approximately 30 sporting activities organised by Dragon Sports and also various Football and Netball tournaments organised locally. In the past we have asked for a Form 4 (detailing medical conditions, place of visit and consent) for each separate event. This year we are requesting that parents fill in one form at the start of the year and that is then used if your child is attending a sporting event. We aim to give every child who wants to represent the school a chance to do so, especially in events that are non-competitive festivals that put the child under no pressure to win but instead to enjoy trying something new , for example the upcoming Table Tennis Festival. 
Parents will be informed of the date, time and place of the sporting event and will have the opportunity to give consent on notice slips. This will hopefully cut down on paper waste and mean fewer lost letters and frantic phone calls to gain consent on the morning of events. 
Please fill in the form even if your child is adamant they will not want to take part in any sports as we never know what weird and wonderful activities and festivals the guys at dragon Sports will organise next.


Mobile Phones
It may seem strange that we should be talking about these at primary school...however....
Over the last few years, the age at which children are given their first mobile or smart phone has got younger and younger. Parents are allowing children to bring their phones to school so they  may be contactable if a child is walking home alone for example.We understand and respect the parent's wishes her, however we have found that the lure of the phone is too much for some pupils and that if they are not handed in some pupils are leaving class 'to go to the toilet' but they are in fact checking their phones for messages or in some cases using their phones to play games. 
We have a policy at school that phones are handed into teaching staff at the beginning of the day if they are brought in. Can we ask that you support us by letting us know if you child will be bringing a phone in and asking your child to hand it in for safekeeping? That would help us greatly. 

*Spoiler alert...this may be a long post

One full week back in school and it feels like we have never been away! The children have all settled into their new classes well and are adjusting to their new routines. I have some dates for your diary and some information about how we are organising things this term to share with you. I will try and keep things brief.

Term Dates 
2nd September until 24th October (25th October is an INSET day-staff are in but pupils are not).
4th November until 20th December.
6th January until 14th February
24th February until 3rd April
20th April until 22nd May (Friday 8th May - Bank Holiday)
4th June until 17th July (1st, 2nd and 3rd of June are INSET days as is Monday 20th July)
Please be aware we have been told that the Welsh Government is planning for us to have one further INSET day to help prepare for the new curriculum but as yet we don't know when this will be. As soon as we know I will inform parents. 

Class organisation
We have named our classes this year. It is taking a bit of getting used to but we will get there
Glasbrennau - Mrs Hiller (Nursery)
Dosbarth Onnen - Mrs Lloyd and Mrs Hughes (Reception)
Dosbarth Helyg - Miss Williams (1/2)
Dosbarth Ffawydd - Mrs Pearce/Miss Parry (1/2)
Dosbarth Bedw - Miss Jones (1/2)
Dosbarth Masarn - Mrs Roberts (3)
Dosbarth Gwern - Mr Woodcock (4)
Dosbarth Llwyfen - Mr Oldfield (5)
Dosbarth Derw- Miss Cross (6)
Dosbarth Ywen - Mr Williams 
You will find the class twitter accounts under those names.

Assemblies and Performances
Class Assemblies take place at 2pm on the following Fridays
Nov 8th  Llwyfen (5)
Nov 22nd Gwern (4)
Jan 24th Masarn (3)
June 12th Onnen (Reception)
June 26th Ffawydd, Helyg a Bedw (1/2)
July 17th Time to be confirmed Derw (6)
Nursery will hold a come and share session Wednesday 15th July time to be confirmed.

16th October Harvest Service at school 9.45 - 10.15 infants 10.30 - 11 Juniors. Donations of tins and/or dried goods will be gratefully received and donated to the local food bank. 

Christmas Concerts
Junior Pantomime 
Monday 9th December 1.30pm
Tuesday 10th December 6pm
Wednesday 11th December 6pm

Infant Carol Concert and Nativity
Wednesday 11th December 1.30pm

Parent Meetings
Tuesday 17th September Meet the Teacher  Pop in to say hello if you have time 3.30 - 4.30
Wednesday 23rd October Parents' Evening 3.30- 6.30

And if I have managed to complete all that without making any mistakes, I will be very pleased with myself. Remember to follow us on Twitter and to provide us with an email address as we are trying not to send out paper copies of letters and information unless absolutely necessary.

The Governors' Annual Report to Parents is being emailed to parents today. I will also make every effort to post it on the website, but I might need a little time working out how to do that particular magic! If you would like a paper copy, please pop into the office and Mrs Smith will sort it out for you. Many thanks

Please look out for the Welsh National Test information (Year 2 to 6 only) that will be coming home with your child today.

This year the Welsh Government has introduced Personalised Adaptive Online Assessment for the Procedural maths test.
This means that the children were able to take the assessments at any point in the school year (after they went live in the Spring) rather than just in test week. The assessments work by having an age and ability appropriate starting question presented on line. The response your child gives, how long it takes to answer and how accurate the answer was, determines the next question and so on. For most children the assessments lasted about 20 minutes but for some children they went on for up to 45 minutes. The system had a few flaws, for example some Y2 children were asked to calculate interest on a sum of money - not something your average year 2 might be asked to do, but in general the assessment was less traumatic than the written paper has proved to be in the past. The results of the online assessments appear differently to those of the other tests and don't have a comparative element as this is the first year of testing in this way so they can't be fairly compared with the tests that have gone before. Most pupils only took this assessment once this year, but some year six parents will see two results on their child's progress sheet. This is because a group of 6 pupils were my guinea pigs and took the test early in the term to help me refine the system we eventually used to get the assessments done efficiently in school. Year 2 pupils did not take the test until July, because of this the progress sheets will not be available until September, the same is true for anyone else in the juniors who missed the original assessment date in June and instead took them in a catch up session in July.  So if you do not see a Procedural Maths Progress sheet, do not panic it will come to you when they are released in September. 

The Reading and Reasoning Tests went ahead with paper versions as per the previous years. That means they had to be delivered within a test week window in May. The progress reports for these two tests will also be sent out today.

The online assessments will continue to be rolled out over the next two school years with Reading Assessments Online as of this September and Reasoning Assessments Online as of September 2020. 

Moving forward we intend to carry out online assessments early in the Autumn Term and again towards the end of the school year. The advantage of the new system for schools is that the detailed information regarding exactly which area of the curriculum your child needs extra help with will inform our planning far more effectively than the current diagnostic tool and will help to tailor teaching more to the individual child's needs. It also has the massive advantage that the children are enjoying doing their 'quizzes' on the computer and it takes away much of the stress of the old system. 

If you would like to discuss any of the information above or if you have any questions regarding the progress sheets you receive today, please feel free to call or come into school for a chat. 

Another crazy busy week here with staff organising class services, trips and school reports. 
As always happens technology lets you down just when you need it and we currently have 7/9 classes with reports printed and ready to go on Tuesday (9th). That leaves two teachers who have been desperately trying to get their work printed after school today with the printers and computers not talking to each other. With any luck the system will reboot after the weekend and we will have everything sorted and on time!

Miss Jones' class did a fantastic job of their service today and we were all very proud of them. The junior staff are very much looking forward to having such an enthusiastic and creative bunch of individuals joining them!

We had some exciting news in recognition of the work the staff and pupils have done to help the pollinator population by creating wildflower beds in the garden; we have been awarded the Holywell Town in Bloom  competition winners! Many thanks to Mrs W Hughes and the gardening club, Mr Williams and Mrs Roberts and the classes that planted the lavender garden and to Mrs Hiller and all those staff and parents who have helped to transform the nursery garden area.

It always amuses anyone who works in a school when people say 'you must be winding down for summer now' as July starts, because of course, we are not! Football, more school trips and more visitors looking at the amazing work our staff and pupils have been doing are all in the diary for next week. We might be on a count down, but we are really not on a slow down.

The weather looks good for the weekend so I hope you all get to enjoy it! 

16 More school days to the end of term and it is safe to say pupils and staff alike are flagging...but I am not going to complain about the heat making it worse!!
Busy week last week, many thanks to all who came to the Carnival. We are still collecting some payments but it looks like we raised over £500. I will get back to you with the exact figure when I have it. Many thanks to the 'Friends of Maesglas' who helped organise the event. I think it is fair to say we are looking forward to the next one and already thinking of what we would like to do to improve it.
We have had lots going on with week especially transition events, both in our school and for our Year 6s. I walked in on the year 6 service practice the other day- may have been a bit weepy- and it is all starting to feel very real!

Next week is also set to be busy for the year 6s with four high schools having their induction days.

We also have nursery and reception having their school trips, year 2 class service (2pm Friday in the hall) and the year 5s going to Greenfield Valley for a mindfulness workshop.

In addition to that, Mrs Hughes and Miss Williams are presenting at a conference for 'Ethically Informed Citizens about the One World Project we are part of. Miss Williams has some videos of the children describing our Genius Hour approach that she will share with you on Twitter later in the week.

Have a lovely weekend all.

Not quite sure how it got to Friday already but here we are...
We have some very important dates for your diary to share - I am going to start backwards and work my way through it!

Monday July 22nd is our last day of term. The school closes at 2pm. If you have pupils in Holywell Childcare we can accommodate them until child care starts. Year 6 Leavers' Service and prize giving starts at 1pm. The children and staff are already working hard to get their 'show' organised. Always a bittersweet day for us.

Monday July 15th - Nursery 'Come and Share' session. Parents are invited to come and see the work the pupils have been doing. 10am in the school hall.

Friday July 12th is our moving up session. Children will spend some time with their new class teacher.

Tuesday July 9th - Year 1 and 2 Trip. End of Term Reports will be sent home. We have changed the format this year and moved away from the report writing tool we usually use. Hopefully you will find them more personal to your child and more relevant to you. We would welcome feedback on the format once you have seen them.

Friday July 5th - Reception Trip and Year 2 Class Assembly 2pm

Friday June 28th - Year 1 Class Assembly 2pm

Wednesday June 26th Information Evening for new Nursery and Reception at 5.30pm and Information Evening for Year 2 Parents who are moving to Year 3 at 6pm

Friday 21st June - Reception Assembly 2pm

​Monday June 17th -Year 1 and 2 Jamboree Trip

In addition we have our 'Greenfield Carnival' organised by Friends of Maesglas on Saturday 22nd June 10am - 4pm.
If you are able to help out on the day or to donate for the raffle prize then get in touch with the committee via Twitter or Facebook.

Hope you all have a great weekend, fingers crossed that is the end of the rain and that the sun continues to shine.

Another busy week at Maesglas!
Our Health Week has been a great success with lots of activities and learning about keeping ourselves fit and healthy. Year 3 enjoyed the challenge of Glanllyn and their first residential visit and Year Six had a quick march up to the Science labs at Ysgol Treffynnon for some transition work. 
We were lucky that the rain kept off for the junior Sports Day in the end and the children were superstars. 
The week ended with Mr Cass coming to visit with a robot cat - but that's a story for another day!
Just some reminders for your diary for next week.
Monday 20th May - Year 6 have a science workshop in the school hall from 1-3. Year 6 parents are welcome to attend.
Tuesday 21st May - Infant Sports Day from 10 am
Tuesday 21st May - Year 4 Bright Sparks trip to Techniquest
Wednesday 22nd May - Elwyn Owen Five-a-Side competition in Deeside Leisure centre
Wednesday 22nd May - Bags to School are being collected. Please bring your filled bags to be recycled to the front office first thing in the morning. You can use ordinary bin bags if yours is filled or lost!
Thursday 23rd May - Cross Country Competition at Holywell Town Football Club
Thursday 23rd May - Flintshire Music Service is visiting the school to perform and concert for year 3 and 4 pupils.
Friday 24th May - Our Leavers' Assembly for Mrs Pilkington and Miss Duffen. Remember to drop a written message into the office if you would like it included in the Thank You books we have prepared for them.
Friday 24th May - Hannah Blythyn AM for Delyn will be visiting the school to look at the work our One World group are doing and to listen to our pupils who are part of our governors and thematic learning teams. 
And then we can all take a breath and relax!!

So proud of the way the children have dealt with their 'quizzes' this week and a big thank you for all the support we have had keeping the children settled and happy. 
Next week is our health week. Each class has different activities such as looking at healthy eating, different ways to keep fit (this includes cricket coaching for years 1,2 and 3), hygiene and the changes that happen to our body as we get older. Year 5 and 6 puberty talk is scheduled for Tuesday. We will also be using the NSPCC Pants resource.
Class teachers have also asked for help to get the school raised beds cleared and planted with healthy crops for the summer. Check with your class teacher for the day you can volunteer. 
We will also be having our class and team photos taken on Wednesday so can I ask anyone who still has any school kit to return it to school by Monday.
Friday is Sports Day, as long as the weather is with us. Infants will aim to start at 10am and Juniors at 1.15. 
And of course Mrs Roberts, Mrs Cowling and Mrs Norton are taking the year 3 pupils to Glanllyn. The highlight of Mrs R's year!
Hope you all have a lovely relaxing weekend - Looks like BBQ weather maybe?