Helping your child(ren)
On this page:
- share ways for you to get further involved in school life and your child(ren)'s learning
- we collect information from you to keep improving the school
- give you feedback from families' surveys and questionnaires as appropriate
- update you with ways in which families have impacted on learning in school
Reminders About How To Interact With Us...
@bhp_school
(contact your classteacher for how to link up)
(login with your child to access online features)
PTA News
Chairperson and lead teacher representative- Mr Bevan
Treasurer and lead parent representative- Mrs Amy Jenkins
To find out how to get involved please contact Mr Bevan at the school.
Upcoming events:
INFORMATION UNDER CONSTRUCTION 
Closing The Achievement Gap
We want all children in school to receive opportunities to achieve, aspire and thrive.
We want all children to have opportunities regardless of their family's income.
Research by John Hopkins University has showed that an achievement gap is created between children of lower and higher income families.
A reason for this, is the range of opportunities children have OUTSIDE of school.
This is discussed in "Outliers: The story of success" by Malcolm Gladwell. He describes how higher income families are more able to more easily participate in 'concerted cultivation' of their children's interests and academic ability.
The research shows that times when this achievement gap widens most are NOT in SCHOOL TERM TIMES, but ARE in SCHOOL HOLIDAY TIMES. In fact, research showed that lower-income children progressed MORE THAN higher-income children in school term times. (CLICK HERE FOR RESEARCH)
[Some schools such as KIPP Schools in USA are trying to reduce this gap by increasing the amount of time that lower-income children are IN SCHOOL. (CLICK HERE FOR KIPP SCHOOLS) ]
Welsh Government has prioritised a number of ways to try to address this:
1) reviewing national school holiday timetables (CLICK HERE TO SEE REVIEW)
2) safeguarding/ increasing children's school attendance (CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE)
3) 'food and fun school holiday enrichment programme' (CLICK HERE FOR LINK)
4) develop community focused schools (CLICK LINK FOR MORE INFO)
In our school, we want to give learners opportunities to be in school more and to support families in 'concerted cultivation' of their children's interests and academic ability.
We organise this in the following way:
BPS INFO ABOUT: BUSY BEE GROUPS, DISCOVERY TIME & AFTER-SCHOOL FUEL GROUPS
All children in Brynhyfryd Primary School are part of our Busy Bee groups/ hives of activity (!). Hives are facilitated by teachers and teaching assistants. We work together a number of times each term in order to enrich learners interests and experiences in school. After meeting together, we evaluate these experiences together to see if we want to follow our new interests in our discovery time/ some after-school fuel groups.
Current hives of activity are called:
Rights Rangers
Criw Cymraeg
Eco-Committee
Digital Dudes
Wellbeing Warriors
Brynhyfryd Breaktime Buddies
Empathy Explorers
Drama Dudes
Art Attack
Animal Lovers
Brynhyfryd Busy Bee Bulletin
TT Rockstars
Chess Club
Fitness Friends
Glee Bees
Gardening Gorillas
Recorders
Cookery Kids
Portuguese Club
Sewing and knitting bees
Boxercise
Signing Choir
Recycling Rangers
Nature Squad
Eco Explorers
DanceFit
Creative Crusaders
Spanish Club
Busy Bee Bakers
Photography Friends
In addition to Busy Bee groups, learners will encounter a wide variety of visits and visitors as they progress through the school. Some of these may be part of learners' "maiden voyages" as topics are launched and some may be part of ongoing progression in learning. In addition, optional visits and visitors supplement Discovery Day learning for older learners: This is in order for them to increasingly take personal responsibility for widening their interests and aspirations. Mr Curtin oversees our Busy Bee groups to make sure that they run smoothly. Classteachers work with other staff and learners to choose progressively new ideas for visitors and visits to experience.
Learners of all ages, at all stages of development in our school enjoy Discovery Time!
New knowledge, skills and experiences are introduced and developed in 'Spotlight' and 'Challenge' times with learners, but in Discovery Times, learners explore and map out their interests in order to turn them into more ambitious aspirations. Discovery Time draws on learners' growth mindset in order to progressively support their independent learning and personal learning adventures.
Learners map their Discovery Time around Areas of Learning and Experience that they know fuel them; but they also collaboratively collect ideas for related learning that they might enjoy in the future; additionally, they plan what personal route they will take to develop their perseverance and experience satisfaction by turning interests into more challenging aspirations.
Mrs K Jones is currently working on developing systems to support learners' aspirations.
....TEMPLATES OF DISCOVERY TIME MAPPING COMING SOON....
A range of after-school activities are on offer to learners in order to increase the opportunity for families and schools to work together at 'concerted cultivation' of learners interests and academic abilities. After-school fuel groups change throughout the school year, in-line with seasonal and changing needs of learners, staff and families.
Mr Bevan organises our After-School-Fuel-Groups. Below you can find a list of groups that are currently arranged across the school...
Mondays: Coding Club Year 5/6 3.30 to 4.15 pm ( Mr Curtin)
Lego Building Club Reception 3.30 to 4.00 pm ( Mrs Beynon)
Sports Club Year 4 3.30 to 4.10 pm ( Mr Bevan/Mr Jones)
Tuesdays: Arts and Craft Club Year 3 3.30 to 4.15 pm (Mrs. Murray)
Team games when organised 3.30 to 4.20 pm (Mr Bevan/Mr Jones)
Wednesday: Wonderful Wednesday Club 3.30 to 4.15 pm (Mrs Baker/Miss M-Jones
Year 3/4 and Mrs Williams)
Thursday: Sports Club Year 3 3.30 to 4.10 pm (Mr Bevan/Mr Jones)
Friday: NA
Local PCSOs (Police Community Support Officer)
Please find link to poster below giving names and contact details of our current PCSOs:
PCSOs Updated March 2023
Local Area Co-ordinators
Please see the following details for your Local Area Coordinator. They may be able to help your family if you're looking for support or contacts with issues in your area...
Name:
Cerri Goodfellow
Address:
Hafod, Landore, Plasmarl, Parc Avenue (15)
Email:
Cerri.Goodfellow@swansea.gov.uk
Mobile:
Name: Emma Shears
Brynhyfryd, Manselton, Cwmbwrla, Cwmdu and Gendros (4)
Email:
Mobile
Here is some information from the coordinators on half term events!...
2024 February Half Term Events for families
Current Questions For You
We are always interested to have constructive feedback from families so that we can continue to improve the school. Please find current questionnaires, surveys and information we are asking for sign-posted or linked below:
Please click the distance learning logo below to give us information about your experiences of blended-learning during national lockdowns.
Helpful Things Pupils Have Said
We have carried out a survey across the school about children's experiences of the outdoors. We are using it to plan our future curriculum. It might give you ideas of experiences you could share with you child(ren), that will support their outdoor learning in school...
What You've Said
Thank you for every time that you have taken time to give us feedback! We always analyse what our families collectively say, to try and make your children's learning opportunities even better.
In our Twitter poll about "Religious Education" and "Relationships and Sexuality Education" you said:
In our most recent parents'-evening based family questionnaire, we asked about end-of-year reports and the new curriculum, and you said:
When the school was closed due to covid-19 in national lockdown 1.0, we asked you about if you needed to loan a digital device or were without internet connections separate from your mobile phone tethering: You said...
"DEVICES NEEDED TOTAL- 30
INTERNET CONNECTIONS NEEDED IN TOTAL- 3"
During national lockdown 3.0 the following number of digital devices were requested and loaned to families...
"DEVICES NEEDED TOTAL- 18
INTERNET CONNECTIONS NEEDED IN TOTAL- 0"
How Families Have Changed Learning In School
Apart from all the ways you care for your children by supporting their learning at home, Brynhyfryd Primary families have changed learning in school for the better!
Here's how you've done it...
- PTA event fundraising (discos, mother's day stalls etc.) has helped to purchase AppleTV boxes for all KS2 classes!
- Your support of the school book fair over the last 2 years has enabled the school to be funded for the purchase of £1,768.43 books. These books have helped widen the range of stories that children in every class have access to in order to develop empathy, philosophy and referencing skills (we have purchased new dictionaries for Y3-Y6 aswell as stories)!
- The information that you have provided on end-of-year reports for pupils has informed our decision making process about how to make them more useful and easier to understand. The next reports you receive are be designed to be increasingly "family-friendly"!
- The ideas that you have shared with us about your feelings on the new curriculum is helping to shape how we group children and design a curriculum that is specific to the needs of children in this specific school. More information will be coming to you, watch this space!
- By supporting your children with distanced learning activities during the covid-19 school closure, you have maintained contact with classteachers through Dojo and emails. The information and feedback you have been giving has been vital in helping teachers know the type and levels of challenge of activities in future units of learning!
- Families across the school have supported multiple charitable events that our children have organised as part of learning to be more empathic. These events have more recently included a: Christmas Craft Fayre for board games supporting the Seniors' Group in the Montana Centre: Literacy and Numeracy Game Day supporting Children in Need: Art Show and Scone Sale in Brynhyfryd Library to raise money for the homeless supporting the charity 'Crisis': Bake Sale for the Australian bush fires supporting: Batik Art Exhibition to buy Oxfam items supporting African families. Because of your support with these events, your children are developing an understanding of the real-life benefits of their learning and are becoming increasingly motivated to engage with learning!
- PTA members have been actively working to organise and run events with staff in school. Seeing us all work together really role models to our children how we can practically "Dream, believe, achieve together!"
- Information that families have shared with us about their skill-sets, willingness and availability to visit classes (alongside those who already come in as visitors to share with children) are enabling the staff at school to plan topics that are increasingly relevant to children's lives here in Wales. Our curriculum is becoming increasingly authentic, real-life and meaningful!