The current tragedy in Ukraine will be in the hearts and minds of many of our children, families and staff. It will also be very sensitive for anyone who have loved ones in this part of the world. When critical events occur in our world, we have a responsibility to be aware of the events and recognise how these may impact everyone’s emotional health.

On Friday 25th March we will be holding a day of reflection to support children in school with any worries or concerns they may have and show our solidarity for the people of Ukraine.

We have decided to work in collaboration with The Priory Church of St Mary’s, Usk to support Ukrainian charities through monetary donations and Reverend Sally will be in school on the 25th March to work within our school family. We would be very grateful if you could support our collection for those in a great need because of the crisis. Please donate via ParentPay using this link - https://app.parentpay.com/PPManager4W3/PaymentItems/Item/?pi=2675164. The donation window is open until Thursday 31st March, and you can donate anything from £1 to £25.

We also have Comic Relief on Friday 18th March and have asked for a donations for this day too. If you are unable to support both days, please do not feel you have to. Please just support whichever charity you feel you’d like to and are able to.

Having conversations with children about tragic global events can be challenging to navigate appropriately. Still, our children depend on the adults in their lives to make sense of these events to feel safe. Children of different ages and maturity will have different levels of understanding and capacity for processing the information unfolding in Ukraine.  We have added some suggestions for your consideration, resources  and web links to our school website that you may find useful - Talking about the events in Ukraine | Usk Church in Wales Primary School (uskciwprimary.co.uk)

The emotional safety of our children is always a priority and will be at the forefront of teachers’ minds as they navigate their way through supporting learners during the tragedy in an age appropriate and sensitive way.

It is safe to say, we are all affected by the images seen in the media. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families in Ukraine, and those affected directly or indirectly worldwide by this tragedy.

The Parents' Evening Booking System has now gone live and can be accessed by following this link - https://usk.schoolcloud.co.uk/
You will need your name, email, child's name and date of birth to log in.
If you are experiencing difficulties please contact the school office.
For more information on the system can be found on our website - www.uskciwprimary.co.uk/parent-teacher-communication-meetings/

The school works closely with our community to ensure that issues that may affect our local residents are discussed and resolved to a mutually beneficial level.

It is imperative that when parents visit our school either to drop off or pick up their children that they do so with due care and attention and do not put others at risk. They should also give consideration to our local community and park safely and in appropriate areas. It may result in parents parking a small distance away from school and walking into the school grounds to drop off or collect their children. It is important to our school that positive relations with our local community remain in place and do not diminish due to inconsiderate, dangerous parking by our parents or visitors or abusive behaviour to local residents.

I have been informed that Police and the Civil Enforcement Officers will be making regular trips to the area at the beginning and end of the school day to monitor the situation.

Whilst writing, I would like to remind parents of the following:

• The speed limit in the school front car park is 5 MPH. This speed is set in the interest of the safety of all those using our car park.
• Parents dropping off or collecting their children are NOT permitted to drive into or park in the school grounds after 8.30am unless they have prior agreement of the school. Even when this agreement has been made, if there are no available car parking spaces, please park outside the school grounds and walk into school to collect your child(ren).
• Calling into the school office with a query at the start or end of the school day is not an excuse for you to park in the school grounds. This is being monitored.
• Please do not block cars already parked or double park your car as this is a hazard to other vehicles entering and exiting our car park and therefore could endanger our pupils when they are exiting our school.
• We have a number of mini buses that use our parking facilities and therefore in the interest of safety other vehicles should not use the car park until after 4.00 pm.

We would also like to ask parents collecting their children to support the school in three other ways and so reinforce what we tell the pupils:

• Please use the pavements around the car park and do not take a short cut.
• Please use the pedestrian gate opposite the crossing
• Please cross at the pedestrian crossing if you have to cross Monmouth Road.
• Please show respectful behaviour to our neighbours.

We appreciate your continued support in this matter.

As you've arrived at this page you probably already know that our new school website has been launched. 
We are still in the process of updating all our information so that you can be confident that everything you are reading is as current as possible.

We will be adding more content to the pages over the next couple of weeks.
We hope you find it as informative and accessible as we intended. We would really welcome your comments both positive and constructive for a way forward. Please complete our ongoing feedback form at - https://forms.office.com/r/vhppeBGBrp with your thoughts.
The website has been designed using the latest technology and browser so if you are having trouble viewing the website or notice any links not working please do get in touch to let us know. We are aware of the broken link from the Quick Learning Links page and are waiting for our developers to fix this

We are proud to work in collaboration with Cardiff Metropolitan University, a progressive values-driven university with an outstanding reputation for high quality initial teacher education. 

As a member of the Cardiff Partnership we offer a blend of academic and school-based teacher training.

Today we welcome 3 new post graduate student teachers to our school; Miss Cross working with Mr Gregory in Dosbarth Sycamore, Miss Schwank working with Mrs Roach-Rooke in Dosbarth Oak and Mr Seddon working with Mr Beckett in Dosbarth Silver Birch. 

We have once again signed up to the Rags To Riches Schools recycling scheme, to raise money and help others around the world benefit from our good quality unwanted clothes and shoes. We get 40p for every kilo we collect of reusable items and would be most grateful if you could help us.

We have a collection booked on 9th February 2022 so please keep good clothing to donate to us on this date.

Clean and reusable items that can be donated:

• Good quality clothes and accessories.
• Adults, children’s and babies clothing such as jackets, jumpers, hoodies, trousers, skirts, scarves, gloves, belts, handbags, paired shoes and other footwear etc.

They cannot reuse the following items:

• Worn out shoes or clothes, clothes that are wet or have holes in.
• Curtains, pillows or duvets, bric-a-brac or books.
• Personalised items.
• Work uniform, branded school uniform or team sports kit

If it isn’t something you’d wear out and about yourself or pass to a friend, then no-one else will want to buy and wear it so unfortunately, it’s not reusable and can’t go in the bag.

Donated clothes and accessories are sent to Europe, Africa and even further away to be sold at market stalls as affordable items for those in real need of clothing.

Thank you in advance for your support.

As half term fast approaches, so too does our Eisteddfod for the whole school which will be held on St. David’s day, March 1st. 

An Eisteddfod is a celebration of Welsh language and culture and on the day we will ask all the children to dress up in something red or green, or something ‘Welsh’ e.g. a Welsh football or rugby kit or a traditional Welsh costume. On the day we will sing Welsh songs and present certificates for competitions completed in school before the holidays. We would also like to ask that children from Reception to Year 6 complete a Home Entry, to be brought into school no later than Monday 28th February. To tie in with our topic ‘Trash to Treasure’ we ask that the children make a 3D junk model of a Dragon. It can be as elaborate or as simple as you wish, but we ask that it be made as independently as possible. We ask that the Dragon be no bigger than 30cms. 

Pob lwc (good luck) and we look forward to seeing your child’s dragon.