Happy New Year and Happy New Term!
2012 will be a busy year at Maes Yr Haul, we have much planned and will be embracing national and world events as well as our own 10th anniversary celebrations - yes we are 10 years old! To mark this milestone there are many activities planned, the week of March 19th is going to be our official BIRTHDAY WEEK with a party planned for Friday March 23rd to which you are all invited!
I have received an update from Bridgend Foodbank which helps individuals and families in times of need. They are currently requesting that donations be dropped into their premises at 79a Nolton Street on Mondays,Tuesdays or Fridays between 10am and 2pm. I f you are able to help they are currently in need of the following : UHT Milk, Orange Juice, Biscuits, Cereal, Rice Pudding, Custard,
Small Coffee and Small Sugar - thank you!
From time to time we see crazes come into school whether it be children collecting stickers and cards or playing games and activities. Currently many of our playtimes and lunchtimes are being spoiled because of boys playing games which are becoming very physical and resulting in children getting hurt. It seems that many of our boys are basing their playtime activities on a computer game they are playing at home. I have made some enquiries and am surprised that the game causing our playtime problems is rated as suitable for 18 years and over. I would urge parents to monitor what their children are playing at home as I will have to introduce sanctions should these games continue.
Some dates for you to note - teacher training event on February 3rd, school will be closed. The half term holiday is February 13th - 17th. Parents meetings with teachers February 22nd and 23rd.
May I remind you that in the event of snow you should log on to the BCBC website www.bridgend.gov.uk which has a link on the homepage to check if school is open.

Autumn term 2011 is almost ended - we have had another great term at Maes Yr Haul with so many events, excitement, successes and GOOD LEARNING taking place!
We are currently in the middle of Christmas concerts with Nursery and Reception classes having performed to grandparents, parents and friends and Years 1 and 2 all rehearsed and ready to go!
When I am out and about and hear people comment that , 'It doesn't feel like Christmas' , I know that those people do not work in schools. At Maes Yr Haul we are celebrating the festive season in a variety of ways. As mentioned we have Foundation Phase concerts ( 12 in all ) and last Friday the Parent and Friends Association organised a hugely successful Christmas Fayre which made a profit of over £900. Well done and thank you to Mrs O'Roche, chairperson of the PFA and her committee who work tirelessly to support the school and offer lots of fun experiences for our children. This year the PFA had more parents than usual volunteering to help out - THANK YOU SO MUCH, your involvement made a real difference. If you would like to help in future events just let Mrs Roche know - the more volunteers the better! The PFA discos this week were enjoyed by all, the children all looked fantastic!
I was in St David's church Laleston tonight, the school choir were performing a repertoire of Christmas songs in the Bridgend Rotary annual carol concert. The quality of the contribution made by our choir was excellent, well done boys and girls and of course well done Miss Jones and Mrs Kenifick - I was definitely the proudest headteacher in BCBC tonight. Next Monday, December 12th, at 3.30pm our junior children are holding a Carols and Christmas Hats event on the junior playground - please come along and support them and join in the singalong - weather permitting it should be a fun half hour.
On Friday December 9th we have another cycling event in school but with a Christmas twist - 'Bling Your Bike To School' will see our Key Stage 2 pupils come to school with decorated bikes, there will be prizes for the best decorated bikes and presentations will be made by invited guests First Minister Carwyn Jones and director of SusTrans Wales.
Over 470 children enjoyed a traditional Christmas dinner today - thank you to our kitchen staff who worked so hard to make sure it was a Christmas dinner to remember.
Many of our Foundation Phase children are out on trips next week and on Thursday Santa and his little helpers are in Maes Yr Haul with gifts for all those boys, girls, gentlemen and ladies who have been good all year, I hope we will all be lucky!
The last day of autumn term is Friday 16th December and spring term 2012 starts for children on January 4th. Two training days for teachers are already booked for next term, school will be closed on January 3rd and February 3rd. Next term we will be celebrating Maes Yr Haul's 10th birthday, we are having a birthday party towards the end of the spring term - watch out for your invitation.
Finally may I thank you all sincerely for the support you have shown me and my staff during 2011, it has been another successful year for our school. Merry Christmas, have a wonderful time with your families and friends and may the season of peace, joy and goodwill be enjoyed by all residents of Broadlands. Happy New Year, I look forward to welcoming you back to our school community in 2012.

We have the highest number of pupils from any school in both the Bridgend district rugby and football squads, well done to the successful rugby players : Kalafi Molitika, Harry Ridge, Megan Webb, Sion Jansen and Ed Biebrach and to the succesful football players Robbie Regan, Rhydian Jenkins, Alex Upham and Daniel Adair. We are really proud of their success. Congratulations to all cross country runners who attended the first meeting of the season, a good result for Maes Yr Haul, we need your continued support to ensure we have as successful a season as last year.
The new style parents evenings were well attended and I have received very positive feedback, the only change we need to make for next year is to ensure that all classes hold the meetings on the same night , this will make it easier for parents with more than one child in the school. Thank you to all who made the effort to come in, the staff were very positive following your attendance and the children loved being the 'tour guides'.
We will be holding an information evening for parents of Nursery and Reception children during November to explain the new process of assessing pupils on entry to school. Assessments are already completed and we now have to report the outcomes, we will be sending individual assessment reports home and then inviting all parents in to have the new system explained - you will then have an opportunity to meet with staff should you wish to do so.
Our newly elected school council are welcoming Madeline Moon MP to school tomorrow, Mrs Moon will be touring the school, meeting year 5 and 6 pupils and joining a school council meeting.
Sustrans is a leading UK charity enabling people to travel by foot, bike or public transport for more of the journeys we make every day. We are fortunate to be part of a Sustrans Cymru project and are holding a Bike To School day tomorrow. Years 3-6 who cycle to school tomorow have the chance of winning some great prizes - cycle helmets must be worn.
Finally another reminder of our next school closure day - January 3rd 2012.
Mrs Lugg

Parents are invited into school next week to meet teachers and visit their children's classrooms and see the work that has begun this term, the style of meeting is different to previous years and we hope to see all parents in school. There will be no set appointments but rather an open classroom where children's work will be on display and we are asking children to come with their parents and show their parents what they have been learning this term. Letters giving details for each class have already gone out but if you are unsure of times please contact the school. I hope the new style meetings this term will be popular with everyone. The spring term meetings will be individual appointments offering full progress reports.
This Saturday October 1st is the first meeting of the Bridgend Primary Schools Cross Country league. This is an inter-school competition for children in Years 3- 6, last year was Maes Yr Haul's first year in the league and we were delighted to achieve 3rd place overall at the end of the season. Cross Country is a team rather than an individual event and we need as many runners as possible to ensure us a chance of doing as well as last year - we would really like to maintain or even improve on our position. The first race is at 10 o clock and we ask all runners to be at the event by quarter to ten. The event is usually finished by 10.45am. The first meeting this Saturday is at Coleg Cymynedol Y Dderwen - the old Ynysawdre comprehensive school site in Tondu. Please support your child if they wish to join in.
There has been an 'unofficial' one way system working successfully for the last few years in the shopping precinct at the front of the school. Cars entering the shopping area all turn left on entry, drive through the shops car parking area, then turn right to drive in front of the school and follow the road to the right behind the shops. This ensures that traffic congestion is kept to a minimum. I have received a few calls to say that many parents are not using the system and traffic problems are occurring. Could I ask that we adopt the one way system to ensure trouble free motoring in that area.
Last Saturday the school choir helped raise over £800 for cancer research in a concert in Maesteg - their performance and behaviour was magnificent!
This week over 90 children were presented with certificates for taking part in Bridgend libraries summer reading event - well done!
Our older pupils are currently taking part in trials in rugby and football to qualify for the Bridgend district schools teams, I will keep you updated once I have news of any successes. Inter school matches are starting this week in rugby and netball, please support us if you can.
Don't forget school is closed next week on Thursday and Friday October 6th and 7th for staff in service training.
Mrs Lugg

Welcome back to you all! We had a great start to the autumn term on September 1st and have been 'full steam ahead' since then. School numbers are the highest ever with 553 pupils and over 90 staff. This school year 2011-2012 will be a busy one with lots going on including celebrations for our 10th anniversary - yes Maes Yr Haul is ten years old and we will be marking this milestone with some special events - more news about this later in the term.
I would like to pass on special congratulations to Mrs White, (year 1 classteacher), and Ms Ekman ( nursery learning support officer) on the birth of their baby sons Charlie and Louis.
You should all have received a newsletter from your child's class teacher with autumn term information and dates for the term. You will also have received our new Home/School Reading Diaries which as well as recording your child's reading progress, offers you ideas to support your child when reading at home. We are really pleased with the diaries and hope you will take time to use them to help your child. Reading is an important focus for us this year and a target in our School Development and Improvement Plan.
The wet start to the term has created some traffic problems at the start and end of the day. If you can walk to school or car share please try and do so - it makes things a lot easier for everyone. The car park at the rear of the school is for staff only so please do not park there and please remember to allow coaches to park in the lay by when returning children back to school from trips, sporting events and other activities.
We organise a fruit and vegetable co-op in school called Fruitique. This is run by some of our Year 5 pupils who work hard and relish the responsibility. The children take orders, phone the supplier, receive the produce, bag it and deliver on the school playground. The success of the children's efforts rely on parents buying the bags of fruit and vegetables which are available every week for £2.50 a bag. Orders can be placed every Thursday, please look out for the Fruitique pupils and support them - I have been buying from them myself and can recommend the quality and value for money.
Our Text Messaging service will continue this year so please remember to inform us if your mobile number changes.
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY:
School Council Elections - September 22nd
Parents meetings with teachers - October 4th and 5th
Inset training ( school closed) - October 6th and 7th
Harvest - October 12th
Half Term - October 24th
Last day of autumn term - December 16th
Spring term starts - January 3rd 2012

Please remember we are here to help so please call in to discuss any concerns - don't let a worry become a problem!
Mrs Lugg

I am writing my blog on an August day, it is the middle of the school summer holiday. Sadly I am not sitting in my garden enjoying the sunshine, in fact I am looking at my garden through a rain splashed window! It is a wet Welsh summer!
The summer holiday for headteachers is a time to relax, refresh, recharge and reflect. As I reflect back on school year 2010-2011 I am reminded of a host of 'greats'. The end of the school year is busy with many deadlines to meet, many of which are target related but at Maes Yr Haul we do not forget that the end of the summer term is importantly a time to say goodbye and good luck to pupils leaving us and a time to say hello and welcome to the children and their families who will be joining us in September. It is a time to recognise and celebrate the achievements of the school year.
Our Year 6 pupils had a wonderful end of term with an emotional last week, the Leavers' Assembly recognised their many talents and the Year 6 prom was a huge success, ( as the pictures on the website home page confirm). There was a massive sense of achievement permeating our Nursery Graduation ceremony, the pride of children, parents and staff was HUGE, there were also lots of tears but only from parents and staff!!!!!
Meetings for the parents of September 2011's Nursery, Reception and Year 3 were well attended and confirmed the excellent partnership we have with parents.
Twenty children did not miss one day of school last year and were presented with 100% attendance certificates and gift vouchers - well done!
Our performance data for this year is most encouraging with Year 2 and Year 6 pupils attaining well. Congratulations to all pupils and staff. The expected level for Year 2 is level 2 and the expected level for Year 6 is level 4.
94% of our Year 2 children attained level 2 or above in English with 96% attaining level 2 or above in both maths and science. 95% of our Year 6 children attained level 4 or above in English with 94% attaining level 4 or above in maths and 97% attaining level 4 or above in science.
My plans for the new school year are to continue to develop and improve Maes Yr Haul for everyone. Our 2011-2012 School Development and Improvement Plan has six targets which will endeavour to ensure all pupils will learn and achieve and be confident, self reliant individuals.
I am excited in anticipation of the new term and look forward to welcoming children back to school on the 1st of September. I sincerely hope the last two weeks of our summer holiday will offer us some sunshine!

On Sunday July 10th Maes Yr Haul competed in Bridgend County's first ever primary school choir competition. Six schools reached the final, the standard was very high and I am delighted to announce that we were victorious! Well done to Miss Jones, Mrs Kenefick and of course to the children of the choir who performed so well. The prize of £500 worth of music vouchers now have to be spent! Sincere thanks to so many of our parents who supported us at the competition in Maesteg.
We have also been competing in several sporting tournamments and have achieved well. Our football team won the Litchard World Cup tournament; our netball team entered the same tournament and came second on goal difference. Well done to Robbie Regan Year 5 who was player of the tournament.The basketball team were second in the Bridgend Blitz tournament.
Sports Week was a huge success, the weather was kind to us especially during Colin Jackson's visit and on Sports Day, which was fantastic - well done to all competitors and congratulations to Yellow and Red houses who took the Foundation Phase and Key Stage 2 trophies respectively. The Sportsmanship awards this year went to Ryan Teesdale and Emma Robinson. A special Thank You to Miss Crutch for co-ordinating Sports Week and ensuring it was successful.
The sun continued to shine for our annual summer fete, what a great day we had! There were a record number of stalls this year and you all helped to ensure a healthy profit was made for PFA funds. The PFA use all profits to support the school in many ways.
Welcome meetings have been held for September 2011 Nursery and Reception parents , they were well attended and we look forward to working in continued partnership with you all.
Our Year 2 children are singing at Bryntirion Comprehensive Schol in a Gamanfa Ganu on Monday July 18th at 6pm, this is an annual event involving all the associate primary schools. Parents welcome!
We are holding a non uniform day on the last day of term, Thursday July 21st, children and staff are asked to pay £1 to wear their own choice of clothes to school, all donations will be supporting a group of Year 3 fathers who are doing a sponsored bike ride in aid of the Tuberous Sclerosis association , one of our Y3 pupils has this condition.
Good luck to all of our swimmers taking part in the Bridgend schools gala next Sunday at Ynysawdre pool.
Finally I would like to promote the Year 5 Fruitique - our pupils take orders every week for fruit, vegetable and salad bags. They liaise with the suppliers, receive the produce, pack the bags up and deliver them. I have only just begun supporting this and I am really impressed with the way the children operate this activity. Orders are taken on Tuesday and bags delivered on Thursday, the produce is of high quality and excellent value for money at £2.50 per bag. Please try and support the Fruitique next term.

The school year is drawing to a close and we are already seeing 'the last' of some events. The last cross country meeting will be on Saturday June 25th at Ynysawdre school. The last meeting is always a celebration of the season where schools and individual runners are recognised for their achievements. The results of the season have already been totalled and I am delighted to announce that Maes Yr Haul are 3rd overall - a great result for our first season! To stay in the top 3 next season we will have to work hard to increase the size of our team so we need more children to take part and most importantly to do their best to attend throughout the season. Cross country events are once a month on Saturday mornings and meetings last less than an hour, if your child is interested I encourage you to support them and come along.
I attended Year 2's wedding celebration today at St Davids Church Laleston followed by a party back at school. Thank you to everyone who made the day such a success, I am sure you will be able to see more of the wedding on the Y2 class blogs before the end of term.
Congratulations to the members of our Super Quizzical and Road Safety Challenge teams who recently competeted in the inter school competitions, we were placed 3rd in both events with scores being very close, only 3 points between 1st and 3rd place in the Road Safety Challenge!
The school has once again been recognised as an Investor In People, reflecting the commitment made to staff development.
Sports Day on June 28th is part of our Sports Week. I hope as many parents and other friends and family members will attend to make the day a success, fingers crossed for good weather! We are being supported by Lloyds TSB bank as part of their National School Sports Week and have many sports activities planned. We are having our own school olympics with an opening ceremony, activities every day and a closing ceremony. We will be asking children to come to school dressed for sports activities in their house colours all week. On Monday of Sports Week olympic silver medallist, undefeated European champion for 12 years and 3 times world champion Colin Jackson will be in school sharing his sporting experiences with us and offering a master class for our pupils.
So much happening and so much to look forward to!

The summer term is definitely here, the summer weather is definitely not!!!!
The few weeks since Easter have offered a wide variety of events and activities which have been really well supported by our parents - a very big and sincere thank you from everyone at Maes Yr Haul.
The PFA football tournament was a great success, thank you to all who entered a team, it was a great day - well supported and lots of fun.
Our Indian partners from Jamshedpur enjoyed their visit to Wales. We held a concert at Maes Yr Haul where the four Welsh schools involved in the UKIERI project entertained with a range of performances including singing, drama, public speaking and clog dancing. I was very proud to host a concert of such quality.
Year 6 are running their own business once again this year and were very pleased with the attendance at the art exhibition held last week where thier work was on sale - thanks to all who supported them.
In a previous blog I mentioned that Anna Davies, a Year 6 pupil, was representing the school in the Bridgend Rotary's public speaking competition for primary schools. The event was a huge success, well represented and of a very good standard. Anna demonstrated the high quality required with her topic choice, her research and most importantly her delivery. She carried off first place to win a magnificent trophy and the title of Junior Youth Speaks champion - well deserved Anna!
All these events make Maes Yr Haul what it is - a school which offers plenty of opportunities for all pupils. I will endeavour to ensure this range of experiences continue and am grateful to the staff who show such committment and energy and really are prepared to go all out for the children. Thank you to all my staff - classroom, administration and premises.
I hope the weather improves for half term next week and will be kind to us for the remainder of the summer term - especially on June 28th.....SPORTS DAY!
Finally CONGRATULATIONS to two of my teaching staff who have had babies recently, Mrs Whitcombe has a beautiful daughter Lili and Mrs Tamarua has a gorgeous son. Good luck also to Mrs White who leaves us on Friday to start her maternity leave.

We have been assessed and successfully gained our second Eco Schools International Green Flag. This award recognises high achievement and performance in Education for Sustainable Development. Well done to the Eco committee and Miss Williams-Jones. During our Estyn inspection in January the inspector who was responsible for inspecting pupil participation said Maes Yr Haul’s Eco committee was the best he’d ever met!!!!
Many class blogs show the fun we had on Red Nose Day – please have a look! Our next fundraising event is on April 15th when we will be having a non uniform day. We are asking for a £1 donation from every child to support Alopecia UK. One of our pupils is currently suffering from alopecia and receiving a lot of support from friends at school. We are also currently selling Easter chicks and eggs in support of Velindre hospital’s annual appeal.
Spending time with pupils is important to me, I take four assemblies a week and try and get into a few classes every day. I also listen to readers once a week, children are selected at random from the register to read to me on Friday mornings. Children who are chosen have an ‘I read to Mrs Lugg today’ sticker to take home.
Anna Davies one of our year 6 pupils is representing Maes Yr Haul in the Bridgend primary schools’ public speaking competition Junior Youth Speaks on April 11th – pob lwc Anna!

Happy New Year! The term has started well with regard to children and staff settling back to learning, it is a shame the weather has not been as positive! Wet weather means no outside learning or play, something we are used to in Bridgend but nevertheless a feature we do not enjoy.
During the Christmas holiday our new audio visual equipment was fitted. Both our halls now have super sized screens and a projection and sound system as good as the cinema ( almost! ) The equipment will make a huge difference to lessons taught in the halls and to our morning assemblies, I think the PFA will have some exciting plans to use the new equipment too.
I hope the parents who attended the information evening I held last week on the new system of school inspections found the meeting worthwhile, the new inspection framework is quite different to the old process. A team of inspectors are visiting Maes Yr Haul next week and will be holding a meeting for parents on Monday the 17th at 6.00pm, please try and attend if you can.
You will have all received a spring term newsletter with details of events going on this term. An important event for your calendars are the parent consultation meetings with teachers to be held during the week of February 7th, all classes will have sent out full details by the end of this week. You have also had advance notice that we are inviting children to wear something funny or silly to school on March 18th to support Comic Relief and we will be celebrating St David's Day in school on March 1st and ask children to wear traditional Welsh costume or to wear their house colour ( Nursery children will be allocated their houses soon )
Following the inspection I intend to develop the information for parents section of the website, I have a few ideas for this and many of you made great suggestions regarding improved communication through the questionnaire that was on the website last term.
Finally, those parents of our cross country runners - the next meeting is on Saturday January 29th at Pencoed comprehensive school, first race 10 o clock.

Our school rules had been in place since the school opened in 2001 and therefore it was time to review them - this was a job for the whole school and the children were ready for the task! I presented the existing rules in foundation phase and key stage 2 assemblies and following much discussion a way forward was decided...........Every class would consider what changes were needed and would share their ideas through the school council ( every class is represented on the council )
The school council met and the new revised school rules were agreed, all classes were in agreement and then I was presented with the revised rules. The ten old rules had been re-vamped and were now Maes Yr Haul's Seven Rules To Secure Success.
The process we went through to change our rules could not have been more successful - we now have school rules which are relevant, meaningful and important to the people who matter - our pupils.
All that was left was for me to present the new rules to the whole school, this was once again done in my headteacher assemblies. The foundation phase assembly turned out to be very special as it was the first one that our nursery children attended. Both nursery classes had enjoyed participating in discussions to establish our new rules and at their request they came to assembly, (ususally nursery classes don't attend whole foundation phase assemblies until the spring term)
I hope you agree with me that the new rules reflect our school and what is important to us.

MAES YR HAUL’S SEVEN RULES TO SECURE SUCCESS

1. Healthy food, healthy bodies, healthy minds.

2. Be a good friend by respecting each other’s property and sharing.

3. Set a good example to others at all times by respecting our school values.

4. Always try to do the best that you can.

5. Be smart and respectful by being polite and showing good manners.

6. Appreciate everyone within the school.

7. Continue to make our school eco friendly.

Our website is an excellent vehicle to communicate with parents and others who are interested in our school. We are currently changing the look of the website and are regularly adding new features. Our intention is that the website becomes a useful source of information and will offer guidance for parents on how best to support your child in his/her learning.
To find out the thoughts and opinions of parents we are currently undertaking a survey which takes the form of a questionnaire. I hope you will all complete the parental questionnaire which is currently on the website ( paper copies available from the school office) This will confirm what we are doing well and what we need to do to develop and improve. Questionnaire closes midnight Wednesday December 8th 2010.