Dear Parents and Carers / Annwyl Rieni a Gwarchodwyr,

As we cross the Easter finish line it’s wonderful to reflect on a positive and productive spring term. I’m so proud of the children of Rhos St and how they fully embrace and immerse themselves in all the opportunities offered to them. I’m sure that all the children, and definitely the staff, are more than ready for some time to recharge the batteries and enjoy some well-earned rest and recreation. Have a very happy Easter, from all of the staff at Rhos St School. See you all on April 28th.

Reading Buddies with Ysgol Pen Barras
A big thank you to our friends at Ysgol Pen Barras who came over to Rhos St School this week for the latest instalment of our Welsh Reading Buddies initiative. It was wonderful to see the children from both schools working so well together and a great opportunity for our children to practise and develop their Welsh language skills.

Lockdown Drill
We had a very successful lockdown drill on Wednesday, in conjunction with Ysgol Pen Barras. All of the children responded brilliantly and were in their classrooms and behind locked doors in under a minute. Our next lockdown drill is scheduled for the summer term.

Smartphone Free Childhood
As I’m sure you have seen in the media recently there is increasing concern around the impact that some modern technologies are having on many children’s mental health and wellbeing. The campaign group Smartphone Free Childhood, whose mission is: To provide solidarity, support and solutions to parents who are struggling with what’s become one of the defining parenting challenges of our time. Using the voice of our community to push for more support from the government in the battle to reclaim childhood from Big Tech’s addictive algorithms and devices. Follow this link to find out more about Smartphone Free Childhood: https://smartphonefreechildhood.co.uk/about

Cricket Sessions
We had the first of two cricket sessions for Yrs. 4, 5 & 6 yesterday with Cricket Wales coach Sam Painter. The children worked on their fielding and bowling skills with Sam and will be moving on to batting in the next session on April 29th. We have some forthcoming cricket festivals that we are very keen to participate in and have had the kind offer from Sam of delivering a further series of eight cricket sessions in the autumn term.

Unaffiliated Social Media
We have unfortunately had some instances this week of children being upset by others’ use of social media, unaffiliated to the school. The use of unaffiliated social-media platforms is of great concern to us here at Rhos St as their misuse can often cause upset and distress which then leads to ongoing issues at school. I would request that parents and carers closely monitor their child’s social media use to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future. If your child receives inappropriate messages or images through these platforms, from another pupil at school, we strongly recommend taking screen shots of the material and sharing with your child’s class teacher, who will then be able to investigate the incident and seek advice through our Police Liaison Officer, should that be necessary. Inappropriate use should also be reported to the platform (https://faq.whatsapp.com/1142481766359885/?cms_platform=web) or North Wales Police, if of a serious enough nature. Information and advice from the NSPCC on the dangers of WhatsApp, particularly for children, under the recommended-usage age of 13+, can be found by following this link: https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/online-safety-blog/2023-01-12-is-whatsapp-safe-for-my-child/ Frequently asked questions around the use of WhatsApp can be found by following this link:
https://faq.whatsapp.com/695318248185629
Many thanks for your help and support regarding this extremely important issue.

Yr. 5 Living Classroom

Yr. 5 did brilliantly on Wednesday successfully completing ‘Operation Teamwork’. They used ciphers to decode secret missions & locate essential supplies. The Yr. 5 ‘recruits’ enjoyed some well-earned rations after assembling their shelters in record time.

Weekly Wellbeing
This week’s wellbeing quote, capturing the real and more superficial essence of Easter, is from Charles Monroe “Sparky” Schulz, the American cartoonist, and creator of the comic strip Peanuts which features his two best-known characters, Charlie Brown and Snoopy.

“All I really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt!”
– Charles M. Schulz, Peanuts

Achievers
This week’s talented achievers are: Joe, Darcie, Nancy, Finley, Ted, Isaac, Niamh, Alfie and Rose.
Ollie and Amelia shared their Gwybor Cymraeg certificates and Kalani shared her Taekwondo belt. Well done to all our fantastic achievers.

Tri-County String Ensemble
The very talented Amelia Hughes, shown at her recital on Saturday at the Daniel Owen Centre in Mold, has been selected to join the Denbighshire Music Cooperative -Tri-County String Ensemble. We are so proud of her fantastic
achievements.