Pupils in year 6 have been working hard creating landscapes.


Click here to see the Maes Yr Haul Little Workers Gallery in a separate window.

A signed rugby shirt from Cardiff Blues team has been donated for Cancer Research. The shirt will be raffled during the school's sports day, Friday 25th June.

Click below to see the shirt in higher resolution:

School is closed due to the snow and ice conditions.

School is closed due to the snow and ice conditions.

School is closed again due to the snow and ice conditions

 

School is closed due to snow

 

I was tidying my desk drawers recently, (an unusual occurrence as my staff will tell you), and came across a luminous pink cardboard star of the kind that is used to price goods in a shop. It was rather tattered and had my name on it. I was about to throw it into the recycling bin when I realised that this was the badge that I had worn on the opening day of the school in September 2001, when every member of staff needed a badge to be identified and every child was given a badge on which to write their name, as we were all coming together with no prior knowledge of each other to become founder members of a newly created school. It was a surreal experience at the time. I watched the building grow breeze block by metal girder as I acquired the necessary resources, including 10,000 toilet rolls as I unwittingly put a few extra noughts on the order form! The governing body and I interviewed, deliberated and appointed staff. I had been able to create and expound my vision for the school, but at that stage I could only project it and hopefully convince and enlist parents, pupils, staff and the wider community to support us and take me at my word. I realised I needed everyone to accept this vision and trust us to deliver it with and through them and try to anticipate every eventuality along the way. We had no road to follow; we had to build our own, testing it as we went along. At that time Local Authorities were concerned about protecting small schools, and despite being very supportive, there was no planning in place for developing large ones.

We had so much fun in the early days getting to know each other, creating opportunities to do things as a whole school and to create and consolidate our own identity reflecting not just the vision, but the aspirations of the community we serve. It was challenging too, we’ve had to work hard to prove ourselves and earn the trust of others. Pupils and staff created a name, a logo, our own ideas of the kind of school we wanted to be. All our parents came with differing experiences of previous schools or what they wanted from us, the community was new, parents didn’t know each other and there were few support networks in place for isolated parents.

Gradually and steadily with some very hard teamwork the school has grown and become established. Each development consolidated our sense of achievement and identity. Our first inspection said we were “A successful new school”, we looked to external frameworks such as the Basic Skills Quality Mark, Investors in People, Inclusion Quality Mark,( first school in Wales) International Schools Award,(first school in Bridgend), ICT Quality Mark for verification as an increasingly expanding school. We’ve had many highlights such as attending the Odeon Leicester Square to receive the First Light Award for an animation, (shaking hands with Peter O’Tool) winning the McArthur Glen schools’ choir competition, receiving the best whole school award for excellence in ICT in Wales from BECTA, (Lenny Henry in Sheffield), receiving the International Schools Award,( John Alargaia, London), not to mention our links with Australia, Japan, India and America with all the wonderful friends we’ve made along the way and our increasingly strong links with local churches, the Mid Glamorgan Education Business Partnership, Bridgend College, Trinity College, Carmarthen and the Broadlands Residents Association. Within all these organisations and across the world, we have very good friends.

We’ve made friends too among our parents with a hard working Parents and Friends Association who help bring the community together supporting us all the way helping us all the time to build on the trust and friendships that enhance the life of the school.

I get such a thrill from walking around the school, talking to the pupils, looking at their work, feeling the energy and enthusiasm for learning there is in the school from both pupils and adults. I know it is a dynamic place, I hope it is an exciting one. It has been a very rewarding privilege to have been instrumental in making all this happen. I have enjoyed it all immensely and time seems to have passed so quickly. When I retire at the end of this term, I shall miss the camaraderie, although I hope to retain the friendships forged and I shall really miss the children, their thoughtfulness, their ideas and their energy which has always ignited mine and motivated me. I have so many lovely, happy memories and I have absolutely no worries about handing the school over to my successor with such a strong team as its backbone an ethos which has high expectations of pupils and adults alike and interested, supportive, parents.

I’m looking forward to a hopefully not too peaceful retirement and I wish all our pupils, staff and parents every success in the future and look forward to following the progress of our students as they grow into confident, global citizens making a difference in the world.

From one battered little cardboard star to over 500 glowing, pulsating potential stars of the future what a fabulous journey this has been!

Pam Mahoney

The two new parent representatives on the school’s governing body will be Mr. Matthew Daniels and Mrs. Caroline Harries, Mrs. Linda Waters has been re elected. Congratulations to the three of them. I’m sure they will be strong team members and continue to represent the interests of all our pupils. I’d like to thank all those who put themselves up for election, it is wonderful to have so much parental interest and support.
P. Mahoney
Headteacher

Fruitique has been launched - Watch the movie!

To encourage pupils at Maes Yr Haul to improve their typing skills, online access to 2Simple's 2Type application is now being provided. It is hoped that pupils will make full use of this online typing software to develop a skill, which will be invaluable in a world so reliant on technology.

How it works:
1) Visit www.2simple.com and click "Online".

2) At the login and password screen use the following details:


School login name: u57628
School Password: Contact school for this information.

The Maes Yr Haul school community enjoyed a wonderful Summer Fayre and Indian Mela. Below are the short movies of the dancing.

Year 5 pupils worked together to put together a choreographed dance of fingerpuppets to the music of Mamamia! The results were outstanding.

Pupils in Maes Yr Haul took part in the Big Sing 2008. The pupils began singing at 2:45 p.m., the event being witneesed by members of staff. The pupils shared the singing with thousands of other schools from across the UK. Play the clip to hear pupils at Maes Yr Haul perform You gotta be...

Maes Yr Haul has been recognised for ICT excellence and been awarded the prestigious Becta Excellence Award of Best Whole School, Wales for 2008. The official Becta logo and photographs can be seen below.

Click the flash player to watch the podcast team's latest production, an interview with Nicole Cooke.



Click here to open the podcast teams latest videocast.