https://youtu.be/fP-CciOULsY

Cookie Mix
 
Ingredients 
100g Plain Flour
50g Corn Flour
50g Caster Sugar
100g Butter or Margarine 
(25g of Cocoa and Cornflour for chocolate cookies) 
 
Method:
1: Preheat the oven to 180’C or Gas Mark 4
2: Tip the flour and cornflour into a bowl. Add the sugar and butter. Using just your fingertips rub the mixture together to make crumbs.
3: Dust your hands with flour and squeeze the crumbs together to make a ball.
4: Gather up any crumbly bits from the bowl and knead them in.
5: Dust a clean work surface and roll out the dough thinly  and cut out the cookies.
6: Place on a baking tray and bake for 10-15 minutes until pale golden.
7: Allow to cool and decorate.


Competition Rules

1: Decorate your cookie to say thank you to our Key Workers (Key worker of your choice)
2: Send a photo of your decorated cookie to homelearning@abercarnprimary.org by midday on Monday 13^th July  (No entries accepted after midday)
3: Two winners will be chosen – one for Foundation Phase and one for Key Stage 2
4: Voucher will be emailed to the winners.



Hello everyone! It has been lovely to see many of you again this week. School has re-opened and lots of you have seen that it is slightly different. All the new routines and procedures appear to be working really well – thank you for your patience and for following the new procedures in place. The children and staff really enjoyed their time together and there’s been lots of smiling faces at the end of each day.

It was my intention to upload photographs during the day so you could see how things were going but unfortunately, we have been experiencing significant network issues following a planned LA upgrade that actually had the opposite effect. The issue with the school bus is now resolved and for those that have registered will be collected in the morning to drop off at the school at 8.45am and will leave school at 2.30pm. All children are now being provided with a fruit snack during the day rather than a cereal bar as we were provided with products that contained nuts.

It’s been a very positive and lovely first week back to “check in, catch up and prepare”. I am in no doubt this has really helped with your child’s well-being and although in a small “bubble” all children have enjoyed catching up with friends and their teacher. I really hope parents feel that our school building, the procedures in place and everything we’ve done is working well.  

What will be happening in September?

We have yet to have any guidance from the Welsh Government regarding their plans for September but we are hoping to receive something shortly. There are many options ranging from:

• Everyone being back in as normal
• Continuing with groups of 8 children on certain days with distance learning running alongside
• Decreased social distancing resulting in more children in school with distance learning running alongside
• Attending school in larger cohorts so increased contact days alongside distance learning

And many more…

When I have received guidance from Welsh Government, I will of course let everyone know how things will work in September. Whatever the plan, we must be prepared for distance learning to be continuing in some way and also be ready should there be a second wave of COVID-19.

We have listened to your feedback regarding what worked well and what you would like to see improved from the survey sent out a number of weeks ago. We have also consulted with children during their contact days and they are happy with the platforms we use and happy with the feedback provided from teachers.

Seesaw and Google Classroom is well established and is effective alongside Abacus and Oxford Owl. We will be continuing with these platforms as part of our Distance Learning Strategy should we need to from September and / or in the future. It is therefore really important you know and keep safe:

• Your login to Seesaw
• Your child’s log in details for Google that will allow them to access GMail and Google Classroom.

(Your child’s login for Google is easy… it is firstname.surname@abercarnprimary.org  - Lots of you have accessed this to claim our Amazon gift vouchers and also accessed your child’s school report in their email. Should you need the password you can email homelearning@abercarnprimary.org

Following feedback from you in the survey, we are currently trialling with some children who have returned to school in Y5/6P and Y5/6Y the “live Streaming” of lessons. This will form part of our Distance Learning Strategy for Year 3, Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6 children. We will be using Google Meet for live streaming and it can be accessed on any device by clicking a link sent to pupils’ email by their class teacher. You do not need to have any special software or apps – simply click the link.

Our policy, rules and guides will be provided shortly. Parents must read the policy and provide consent for pupils to be involved in “live” lessons and all pupils must follow the rules. It is important for you to know your children’s login for Google (firstname.surname@abercarnprimary.org ) in order to access the link. We will of course provide some helpful guides / videos over the coming days to help support live streaming – available in the “home learning” section of our website (http://homelearning.abercarnprimary.com). Please remember that you must give consent to be involved with live streaming. This will hopefully be sent via text message over the coming days. When you receive the text message - follow the link, read the policy and complete the consent form.

Don’t forget there is also a dedicated “Home Learning” section on our website with everything you need to continue home learning both now and in the future. This section will be updated with our Distance Learning Strategy for September when we know more details from the Welsh Government. I will communicate more to you when I know myself. The “Home Learning” section of the website will contain everything you need and will be updated regularly. Don’t forget the home learning email address homelearning@abercarnprimary.org . This will email address will provide as much support as you need.

We look forward to seeing you all again next week. Please don’t forget

• Please drop off and collect at your allocated time. Do not ender the site until it is your time.
• Siblings can be dropped off and collected together.
• Don’t bring / send your child to school if they are unwell and under no circumstances enter the premises if you have any Coronavirus symptoms.
• Please bring back medication boxes e.g. Epi Pens and check they are in date.
• A packed lunch is required - nothing else is to be brought into school (except a coat of course)
• Wear clean machine washable clothes – preferably uniform (if not uniform - sensible clothes)
• Respect social distancing – keep 2m between you and others.
• Please respect and listen to staff that will be around to help.
• Please understand things are different and may take a little longer.
• Please watch our tour videos - http://covid19.abercarnprimary.com
• If you are unsure of anything – ring us on 01495 244566 – no question is a silly question.

TRANSITION / NEW CLASSES IN SEPTEMBER

We will be sending out details of new classes from September next week. Unfortunately, due to the current circumstances your child will not be able to meet their new teacher before September

However, our transition page on the school website has welcome videos from staff along with handbooks / prospectus etc. It will be updated with further information over the coming weeks - please take a look – http://transition.abercarnprimary.com . We will be arranging September over the next few days and will keep you updated. Please bear with us – our main priority has been reopening school safely. I promise we will keep you updated. I will be sending text messages to each individual parent telling you who your child’s class teacher will be within the next few days and will also post a “New Classes” letter detailing members of staff and procedures etc.

YEAR 6

Year 6 – The Class of 2020. Lots of videos have been created with our Year 6 children as they come to the end of their time with us and move onto Secondary School. There will be a range of videos and photos available on our website – https://Leavers.abercarnprimary.com  At the moment the “When I Grow Up” video is available to view and download. You will be able to download all the videos as they become available and keep them as a lovely memory of their time at Abercarn Primary School.  Throw Back Friday Photos are also available here. The final videos will be released “Live” on Friday 17^th July 2020.

PASSWORDS
Please can you remind pupils NOT to change their passwords. We need to help etc. throughout the day and need the pupils to keep the passwords to those we have set. Many Thanks.

Well Being

All the information regarding Health and Well Being is now available on our school website. Lots of useful websites and contact details of organisations that can provide help and advice – Please check it out.
wellbeing.abercarnprimary.com

COOKING WITH MRS WATSON

Sponge cake and Fairy Cakes this week with Mrs. Watson. The video is available on our Social Media and YouTube channel for you to try at home! Mrs. Watson does a video every week! A big Thank You to Mrs. Watson and her family for filming!! 

GETTING IN TOUCH WITH SCHOOL
Don’t forget, you can contact the school office on 01495 244566. If you need any help setting things up, either give us a ring or drop an email to homelearning@abercarnpriamry.org. These are difficult times and we totally understand!  We really want as many children as possible to engage with us.  

PUPIL OF THE WEEK

Well done everyone!

WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
Our weekly newsletter will continue. It will be posted on our Website, Social Media, My School App and emailed to pupil Google accounts every week.
Please take a few minutes to read the newsletter. As well as important information it will share things like pupil of the week, useful websites and challenges etc.
If you would like the newsletter emailed to your own email address – please sign up by using this link.
https://newsletter.abercarnprimary.com/

This assembly is to show that it’s possible to remain faithful in difficult times. By Mrs Pardoe