Dear Parents and Carers / Annwyl Rieni a Gwarchodwyr,

The oft misquoted and mis-attributed phrase: ‘May you live in interesting times.’ has seemed to be particularly pertinent in recent weeks, with last week’s snow and now the industrial action by the NEU union, being the most-recent iteration. I would like to thank the school community, as a whole, for their understanding in relation to the industrial action, about which I have no doubt people hold differing viewpoints, but have consistently maintained the positive, respectful interactions that we are so fortunate to experience every day here at the school.

Raising Standards in Reading
As you may be aware the School Development Plan is a document approved and monitored by the Governing Body to hold the Headteacher and Senior Leadership Team to account on set targets. One of the targets this academic year is to raise standards in reading. With this in mind the Governing Body are announcing a new project aimed at improving our school library. Via the online store Bookshop.org teachers have been creating a ‘Wish List’ of books that they know the children will love to read. The whole school community are invited to purchase any of these books and donate them to school. Bookshop.org are committed to financially supporting independent bookshops with every book sale and over £2.6 million has already been generated for those stores through this scheme.
The Rhos Street School Wish List is available by clicking the link below. This will take you to a login screen that you will need to sign up to first.
https://uk.bookshop.org/wishlists/a1b9668a49371a 33c9566c2c6dfee815a3081262

Year 3 Music Session
The Yr. 3 children had a fantastic session on Tuesday working with Denbighshire Music Coorporative. There was singing and dancing aplenty and as you can see from the pictures a great time was had by all.

Message from Giggles Daycare
Dear Parents/Carers,
I am writing to inform you that we are planning to increase the prices at Giggles Daycare. As a charity we too have been affected by the rising costs, energy, minimum wage increases and general cost of living have unfortunately pushed us to look at our charges.
We have tried our very best to keep the price increase as low as possible.
The price increase that will be taking effect from the week beginning Tuesday 28th February.
There will continue to be a £2.00 deduction in fees per sibling attending a full session until 5.30pm.
Giggles Daycare Preschool After School Provision
8.30am-11.30am- £12.50 3.15pm- 4.30pm- £6.00
11.30am-3.15pm- £15.00 4.30pm- 5.30pm- £12.00
8.30am-3.15pm- £27.50 5.30pm- 6.00pm- £18.00

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Thank you for your understanding, and your continued support.
Yours Sincerely,
Anna Edwards, Giggles Daycare Manager

NEU Industrial Action
Following the completion of a risk assessment, Rhos St school will be closed to pupils from the Nursery, Reception, Yr. 1, Yr. 2, Yr.3, Yr.4, Yr.5 and Yr.6 classes on Wednesday 1st of February due to industrial action by members of the National Education Union (NEU).
Although there is no legal requirement to do so, all NEU members at the school have informed me of their intention to take industrial action in order to give parents and carers the greatest possible period of notice to organise alternative childcare provision on this date. NEU members are taking strike action because of their concern that cuts to teacher’s pay and lack of funding for schools is causing a crisis in education. Please see attached information from the NEU union outlining the reasons why their members feel that this industrial action is necessary.
Breakfast Club will be open, as usual, from 8:00am, but any children accessing the breakfast club provision must be collected by 9:00am as there will be no ongoing provision available for them after this time. In order to organise appropriate staffing levels, can I please request that any parents and carers, wishing their child to access the breakfast club provision on February 1st, notify breakfast club staff no later than January 31st .
After-School Club will be available from 3:30pm – 6:00pm as usual, with parents and carers requested to book this provision, in the standard manner, if required. Giggles Day Care will be open, as normal on February 1st, but will be unable, due to Unison union guidance, to accept any children who would usually be attending the Rhos St Nursery class from 9:00am to 11:30am. The school office will be open for any enquires or administrative matters, as per normal operation, on the day of the industrial action.
The decision has been made by Denbighshire County Council that no payments will be made for universal free school meals (UFSM) or free school meals (FSM) on the day of the industrial action, provision of keyworker childcare will also not be provided by Denbighsire schools, similar to the position should schools be closed due to poor weather. I will update you directly should I receive any additional information regarding any of these aspects.

Achievers
This week’s fabulous achievers are: Jasmine, Ellie, Ted, Elianna, Finley, Billy, Elsie, Eliza, Ruben, Adriel, Riley and Tyler.

Yours sincerely / Yn gywir,

Andrew Davis, Headteacher / Pennaeth