Dear Parents and Carers / Annwyl Rieni a Gwarchodwyr,
It has felt like proper summer this week with children practising for their sports day and classes heading off on their summer-term visits. We have more visits scheduled for next week as well as, weather permitting, our Rhos St sports day on our school field on Tuesday. I’m hoping that we will have a benign, greyish sort of a day for our sports, not too hot and not too cold… just right, but as we all know- The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men, Gang aft agley.
Free school meals / school essentials grant
Children whose families are on lower incomes and qualify for certain benefits can apply for a grant of:
£225 per learner
£300 for learners entering year 7 (to help with increased costs associated with starting secondary school)
All compulsory school years from reception to year 11 are now eligible.
All looked after children qualify for the grant, whether they receive free school meals or not. Learners who receive free school meals due to transitional protection arrangements do not qualify. Families are only entitled to claim once per child, per school year. The 2022 to 2023 scheme is now open and will close on 30 June 2023. The above amount includes an extra payment of £100 for this year only.
To apply for this grant please contact your local authority or follow this link: https://www.denbighshire.gov.uk/en/education-and-schools/grants-and-funding/school-uniform-grant.aspx
2023/2024 School year
Denbighshire County Council are not currently accepting applications for the 2023/2024 school year. Applying for free school meals / school essentials grant during the 2023/2024 school year opens from 1 July 2023.
Sports Day
Our Foundation Learners’ and Juniors’ sports day is scheduled for Tuesday the 27th of June and will be held, for the first time, on our shared-school field. The Foundation Learners’ event will begin at 9.30am and the Juniors’ event at 1.30pm. I am hoping for a not-too hot and not-too wet / cold scenario on the day, but rarely get what I want, so there is a hot-weather contingency of splitting both events into two sections: The Foundation Learners would be: Giggles, Nursery and Reception first followed by Yrs. 1 and 2. The Junior event would be split into: Yrs. 3 and 4 followed by Yrs. 5 and 6. This is to reduce the amount of time that pupils would spend in the sun. Could I please request that all children have sun-cream applied at home in the morning if the forecast is for sun and have a hat and a drink with them. The wet weather contingency is a reserve Sports-Day date on Tuesday 4th of July. This year we are requesting that parents bring a deckchair, camping chair or picnic blanket with them and will be able to choose a suitable viewing area on the bank, adjacent to the running track. Refreshments will be available in the wooden shelter and we request that spectators use the hall door for entry / exit.
Nursery Class Family Service
We were treated to a lovely performance form the Nursery children this morning they spoke and sang beautifully and have clearly learned so much, they did themselves, and us all proud. A huge thank you to Miss. Pugh and her team for all their hard work in preparing the children for their performance so well – dinosaur wrangling was, as ever, on-point!
New Directions – Life-Saving Skills & Introduction to Sign Language
We were fortunate to have two free training session for the Yr. 6 and Yrs. 5 and 6 pupils on Thursday, sponsored by New Directions the teaching-supply agency. In the morning Yr. 6 had an incredibly valuable session learning life-saving skills and in the afternoon Yrs. 5 & 6 were treated to a brilliant session with Del Davies who introduced the children to sign language. They finished their session with a lovely version, along will all the signs, of Everything’s Gonna Be Alright by Bob Marley. A huge thank you to New Directions for sponsoring the training sessions.
Telephone Issues
We still unfortunately do not have a working telephone line at school. There have been several visits to school from Denbighshire Council and BT Openreach engineers to try to rectify the problem, which I am informed was due to a lightning strike on the line, but at present the issue stubbornly remains. We are hoping to have some mobile phones provided on Monday, which will enable us to restore our telephone communication while the fault with the line is fixed. The mobile phones will be linked to the familiar school number: 01824 702565. I will update you all when I have any additional information.
Yrs. 3 & 4 Trip to Explore Science
The Yrs. 3 and 4 pupils had a fantastic time on their trip on Thursday to Xplore Science in Wrexham. They got to build robots and create code for them to operate as well as lots of other exciting science-based activities.
Ruthin Carnival
Join Rhos St PTA, this Sunday 25th June, to take part in our fun, free, walking-float event! We’ll meet at Park Road car park at 10:45am and make our way in the parade over to Ruthin School. Dig out your superhero costumes or wear blue! We can’t wait to see you all.
Ruthin Festival
On Saturday July 1st Rhos St have been invited to perform at the Ruthin Festival – ‘Top of Town’ event at 1.00pm. Children from the Junior classes will be performing musical pieces that they have been practicing in their music lessons at school. We have pianists, guitarists, cellists and flautists perfoming from 1.00pm.
PC Llinos
Our fab Police Liaison Officer, PC Llinos, came in to school on Tuesday to work with the Nursery, Reception, Yr. 3 and Yr. 6 classes. The foundation Learners had a lovely introduction to PC Llinos and learned how to call 999 for help in an emergency and the Yrs. 3 and 6 pupils learned all about keeping safe online. PC Llinos will be returning to Rhos St in the autumn term.
Yours sincerely /Yn gywir
Andrew Davis, Headteacher / Pennaeth