Clwb Cwtsh sessions, an initiative by Mudiad Meithrin. Sessions start on 16/01/2026 and may be of interest to parents/carers in your school and the wider local community.

Clwb Cwtsh is a short, free and informal Welsh language taster programme designed for complete beginners. It focuses on supporting parents/carers to use basic Welsh with young children at home. Parents-to-be and extended family members are also welcome to join.

Sessions are fun and relaxed, using songs and games to learn words and phrases. During the Spring Term, the course will include 8 sessions with a half-term break.

A choice of online and face-to-face sessions is available, in either North or South Wales dialect.

Menna Machreth

Rheolwr Clwb Cwtsh / Clwb Cwtsh Manager

Mudiad Meithrin

Dear families,

I am pleased to let you know that all after school clubs will begin this week. Please do your very best to sign up by Monday at 3:20 so that the lists can be shared with the class teachers.

All pupils need to be collected from the front door at 4:20. Please let us know during the day if your child is unable to attend on a particular day as all children gather in the hall to wait for the start of the club. 

Tuesday	Colourful Creators	Reception to Year 2	Mrs. Thomas	3:20 – 4:20
Tuesday	Mighty Movers	Year 3 – Year 6	Mr. Allen	3:20 – 4:20
Thursday	Doodle Designers	Year 3 – Year 6	Mrs. Davies	3:20 – 4:20
Thursday	Digital Dragons	Year 2 – Year 5	Mrs. Williams	3:20 – 4:20

Mrs. Thomas will be doing art and craft activities.

Mr. Allen will do a range a sports depending on weather, season and any competitions that may arise.

Mrs. Davies will be doing arts and crafts for the older pupils.

Mrs. Williams will be focusing on digital skills.

If some clubs have low numbers, we will open them up to more year groups.

Please remember that we also have many family engagement opportunities which you can sign up for. A separate form for these was sent out at the start of the week.

Tuesday mornings – Drop in session with Ceri.(Starts January 13th)

Tuesday afternoon – Wellbeing Walk (Starts January 13th)

Tuesday after school – Make and Bake (Starts January 13th)

Thursday afternoon – Future You Course (4 sessions – Starts  January 15th)

Thursday after school – Performance Club (Starts January 15th)

Friday afternoon -Forest Schools (4 Week Course – Starts January 23rd)

If you have any questions regarding any of the clubs, please use our contact form on Schoop.

Warm regards

Mrs. M. Teague

Class 1 News

A very Happy New Year to you all.

Welcome back to the start of the Spring Term. 

We are pleased to announce that our new classrooms are almost complete. The children have been exploring their new environment and learning how to look after the new resources.

The pupils have decided that they would like to call their new environment ‘The Nest’. ‘The Nest’ now has a huge brand-new block play area which will support their development and wellbeing in a holistic, meaningful way through building their thinking and problem-solving skills, developing early Maths skills, supporting language and communication, encouraging social skills and collaboration, developing physical skills, helping them make sense of the world as well as boosting their creativity and imagination. We can’t wait to see what the children will create and share their creations with you.

This term our new concept is ‘Explorers’. When we asked the children what this means to them – they said it’s when you find things, you use your eyes, binoculars or a telescope. You might look in the jungle, the sea or the farm. You might find treasure or things that are missing. They knew who Dora the Explorer was and said that she had a bag with a map.

Our pupils showed an interest in birds last term, so we are starting the year off with the story ‘Owl Babies’ by Martin Waddel. The owl babies explore their world from the safety of their nest in the tree – they notice the forest, listen for sounds and watch and wait. We will be exploring our new classroom environment. Pupils can create a habitat for the owls using the ‘Block Play Area’ / ‘Lightbox Area’ / ‘Small World Area’. The biggest journey in the story is emotional – the owl babies explore worry, fear, reassurance and relief – we will be exploring feelings in our ‘Calm Area’. The owl babies explore through their senses – listening to forest noises, looking into the dark and feeling the closeness of each other. We will be exploring using our senses – going on a listening walk in our ‘Outdoor Area’, creating sensory artwork in our ‘Creative Area’ / ‘Painting Area’. We will be exploring through talk and questions like the owl babies. They ask, ‘Where’s Mummy?’ ‘What’s that?’ We will develop our questioning and conversation to become explorers. We will also be exploring belonging and home as the tree in the story represents home, safety and family.

Other books we will be reading this term are ‘One Snowy Night’ by Nick Butterworth, ‘Wow! Said the owl’ by Tim Hopgood, ‘The listening walk’ by Paul Showers, ‘The Snail and the Whale’ by Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler

We look forward to sharing our learning experiences with you over the term.

Class 2 News

Welcome back and a very happy new year to you all!

It was lovely to see all the children back in class and hear all about their Christmas holiday

After a tricky start to the new term with the snow, it’s great to see everyone has settled back into school nicely

Our concept this term is all about exploration. We will be exploring the book ‘We’re going on a bear hunt,’ and we already have lots of planned fun activities for the children to undertake. The children will be learning all about what explorers need to take with them on their journeys and will be creating an explorer’s kit bag and healthy lunch, we will be exploring everything about brown bears then designing and constructing a den for the bear. We will also be going on some local walks to explore what we have in Creunant. As our concept is exploration, we will be outdoors a lot this term, so can I kindly ask that you send a pair of wellies into school labelled with your child’s name and ones you are happy for us to keep in school.

In our Language and Literacy lessons we will continue working in our Read Write Inc groups, learning lots of new sounds, words and story books. We will also be reading 5 story books, 1 at the end of each day, and these books will be read on rotation throughout the coming weeks until the children are familiar with the stories and will then be put in our new reading corner for them to enjoy reading together. The books we will be learning are, We’re going on a bear hunt, A mountain to climb, When will it snow? Ebb and Flo and their new friend and Hundred Feet Tall.

In Maths we will be learning all about measuring in millimeters, centimetres and metres using lots of different resources such as multi-link cubes and rulers. We will also been learning to compare and order different heights and lengths of items, adding and subtraction lengths and measuring the perimeter of objects. Later in the term we will be moving onto position and directions were we will learn how to describe an object being above, below, to the left, to the right, in front of, forwards and backwards.

A few reminders:

• The school main door is open from 8:40-8:50am.
• Children need to bring a snack and water bottle to school every day – a small request regarding snacks, if your child brings their snack in a small Tupperware box or container please ensure it is either clearly labelled with their name or has a familiar sticker that they will recognise. Please also avoid sending in loose snacks (like apples) unless they’re placed in a named bag or container, this is to avoid any confusion at snack time and at the end of the day.
• Please ensure all school uniform is labelled with your child’s name to make it easier for us and the children to locate their things.
• The children will be dismissed at the same gate in the school yard at 3:20pm.
• P.E is on a Tuesday so please can children wear their kits to school.
• Reading books are due in every MONDAY and will continue to be sent home every THRUSDAY as normal. Please can I remind you to record in your child’s reading journal when they have read with you at home.

We are looking forward to the fun term ahead!

Mrs Williams, Ms Morgan and Mrs Amos.

Class 3 News

Spring Term 2026                                                                       Class 3 – Exploration

Dear Parents/Carers,

We are excited to share what your child will be learning this term. Our concept is Exploration and our question is How does exploring hidden parts of our village teach us about the importance of Community and Culture? Pupils will take part in a range of engaging activities across the Curriculum for Wales Areas of Learning and Experience:

Humanities
Exploring Crynant’s past and present through maps, photos, interviews, and local landmarks.

Mathematics & Numeracy
White Rose Maths sessions. Measuring distances between landmarks, finding perimeter and area, as well as calculating costs for park projects.

Science & Technology
Explore practical investigations and problem-solving activities, measuring and classifying objects and shapes, using technology to research local landmarks and present findings, applying scientific thinking to real-life contexts and experiments.

Language, Literacy & Communication
Read, Write, Inc. sessions. Debating and collaborative discussions using Higher Order Thinking Skills.  Our ‘End of Day’ class reading books will be: ‘Moon Zoo’ by Carol Ann Duffy, ‘Please Mrs Butler’ verses by Allan Ahlberg, ‘Santes Dwynwen’ and ‘St David’s Day’ stories, as well as fiction and non-fiction text about Crynant village, including diaries, letters, stories and poems.

Expressive Arts
Music sessions, Welsh folk dancing, and creative projects inspired by local culture.

Health & Well-being
Learning about healthy eating, respect, pride in heritage, and positive relationships.

Welsh Language
Learning songs for St David’s Day and exploring Welsh vocabulary and phrases about Crynant, sharing likes, dislikes and favourites.

Digital Competence (DCF)
Using digital tools safely and responsibly to research and present information.

Relationships & Sexuality Education (RSE)
Understanding rights, respect, and working together peacefully through community projects.

Outdoor Learning
Practical activities like measuring, classifying shapes, and exploring the community.

How you can help at home

If you have any stories, memorabilia, photos (past or present) of our locality that you would like to share, we would love to invite you into school to share them with us!   

We also welcome grandparents who would like to join us and share their experiences of how the locality has changed over time.

We will also enjoy special events such as Santes Dwynwen, St David’s Day celebrations, folk dancing, and continue with our community park project. 

Thank you for your continued support. If you have any questions or would like to get involved, please contact us.

Best wishes,
Mrs Donna Davies

Class 4 News

Dear Parents, Carers and Pupils,

A warm welcome back to the Spring Term 2026! We hope you all enjoyed a relaxing break and are ready for an exciting term ahead. Our topic this term is Exploration, where pupils will investigate why humans explore, the challenges they face, and how exploration shapes our understanding of the world.

Our Big Question

Is exploration worth the risk to human life?

Learning

In Humanities, pupils will explore the journeys of significant explorers and consider the risks, challenges and ethical questions surrounding exploration. They will discuss how exploration has contributed to our understanding of the world and debate whether the dangers faced by explorers are justified.

In Literacy, pupils will develop their writing skills through adventure stories set in icy landscapes and diary entries written from the perspective of someone on an expedition. They will learn how to build atmosphere, describe challenging environments and express the emotions and experiences of explorers.

In Maths and Numeracy, pupils will interpret data linked to real exploration contexts, such as temperature, daylight and weather patterns. 

In Science and Technology, pupils will investigate how materials provide insulation and use this knowledge to design simple shelters suitable for extreme environments. They will also develop their digital skills by coding small programs linked to exploration scenarios.

In Expressive Arts and Health & Wellbeing, pupils will create simple animations inspired by the Frozen Kingdom, while also taking part in teamwork and resilience‑building activities that mirror the challenges real explorers face.

Books We Will Be Reading

Richard Parks – Welsh Explorer

We will be learning about Richard Parks, the Welsh extreme environment athlete and former rugby player known for completing record‑breaking polar and mountain expeditions.

Little People, Big Dreams Series

This term we will also explore the stories of:

• Ernest Shackleton
• Sir David Attenborough
• Charles Darwin

These texts will help pupils understand exploration from scientific, historical and environmental perspectives.

Key Project

Frozen Kingdom Stop‑Motion Film
Pupils will plan and create a short stop‑motion animation linked to the theme of exploration.

Reminders

• Warm PE kit for outdoor sessions
• Reading books in school daily
• Weekly homework tasks

Thank you for your support,

Mr. Allen

Dear Families,

I never thought I’d be so pleased to see the return of the rain! We’re delighted to let you know that we intend to open school tomorrow. Please make sure the children are dressed warmly, as the building will take a little time to return to its usual temperature.

While the rain brings a welcome return to school, we’ve also been advised to prepare for Storm Goretti on Thursday, which could bring more snow. We’ll keep a close eye on this and keep you fully updated.

In the meantime, we look forward to seeing the children back in school tomorrow. Breakfast Club will be open as normal at 8:10, but please note it will be limited to toast while we wait for our food delivery. Dinner will follow the usual menu.

Thank you all for your patience and understanding during this time. We can’t wait to welcome everyone back!

Warm regards

Mrs. M. Teague

We have some excellent opportunities for parents and carers to come into school to work alongside your children this term or to develop future skills for yourself. Please take a look and sign up through Schoop. We hope to see you in school.

Kind regards

Mrs. M. Teague

Tuesday mornings – Drop in session with Ceri.(Starts January 13th)

Tuesday 1:30 – Wellbeing Walk (Starts January 13th)

Tuesday 3:20 – Make and Bake (Starts January 13th)

Thursday 1:30 – Future You Course (4 sessions – Starts  January 15th)

Thursday 3:20- Performance Club (Starts January 15th)

Friday afternoon 1:00 -Forest Schools (4 Week Course – Starts January 23rd)

Creunant Primary School Newsletter

Friday January 2nd 2026

Happy New Year!
We send our very best wishes to all of our families for a healthy, happy, and prosperous 2026. A warm welcome back to the new term! Thank you for the incredible support shown throughout the past term—it truly makes a difference.

Over the holidays, we’ve added many new photos to the school website of the many events before Christmas.  New dates for events through the upcoming term have also been added.

We look forward to seeing all pupils return on Monday at their usual times.

Just a reminder that our free Breakfast Club is available to all pupils. Join us between 8:10am and 8:30am for a healthy start to the day with fruit, cereal, toast, and plenty of fun activities.

School Developments

We are delighted to share that the painting of Class 1 and Class 2 has been completed, and most of our new furniture is now in place. A huge thank you to our caretaker, Terry, who worked tirelessly throughout the holidays to assemble everything so it’s ready for the pupils’ return.

Our outdoor development has also made fantastic progress! Thank you to Seven Sisters Sawmills for partnering with us to create exciting new resources. All fencing is now installed, creating more defined learning areas. The junior yard now features a new water area and den-building zone, while the infant yard boasts a mud kitchen, a music area, and a water play area nearing completion. Let’s hope for some dry weather so pupils can enjoy these spaces every day!

Family Engagement

We look forward to working closely with all our families again this term and hope to see many of you at our family engagement activities. A new timetable has been created, and as always, we welcome your feedback to help us strengthen our links with parents and carers. Activities will include creative club, nurture sessions, wellbeing walks, and performance club. There will also be a dedicated time for parents and carers to drop in for a chat with Ceri for support with form filling, advice or just general wellbeing support. We will also be setting up four Forest School sessions for parents / carers with pupils on a Friday. This has been arranged through grant funding.  Sign-up sheets with more details on days and times will soon be available on Schoop.

PTA

A heartfelt thank you to our PTA for their incredible support last term— more recently partly funding the pantomime trip, preparing sweets and drinks, and providing gifts for each class. Watching the pupils enjoy these experiences was truly special. We look forward to planning more events this term to raise funds and help reduce the cost of future trips and activities.

After School Clubs

Our after-school clubs will begin the week of 12th January. During the first week back, pupils will share their ideas for clubs they’d love to see, ensuring we provide the most engaging activities possible. Sign-up sheets will be shared on Schoop soon.

A few friendly reminders

Please send in water bottles which can be refilled throughout the day.

Send in a healthy snack– (no nuts please)

Coats and shoes suitable for outdoor learning (No crocs please)

Only send in a bag with your child if absolutely necessary as storage is limited. Reading bags are great for homework and remembering reading books.

Label everything! We continuously end up with large amounts of left over jumpers and coats which could easily be returned if they are labelled with names.

Schoop

Please remember to use the Schoop form if you would like to notify us of anything important or ask any questions before we return on Monday. Thank you.

Inset Days

• Friday, 13th February
• Monday, 29th June
  (One remaining day to be confirmed)

Thank you once again for your continued support—it means so much to us and to the pupils. Together, we can make this term a positive, enriching experience for every child. If you have any questions or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Here’s to a fantastic start to 2026!

Warm regards

Mrs. M. Teague

Christmas Cheer from the PTA!

We hope the children loved the special gift they received from Santa – there were lots of smiles, excitement, and festive cheer all around.

We would like to say a huge thank you to those who helped make this possible. We are incredibly grateful to Crynant Community Council, St Illtyd’s Masonic Lodge and The Lodge of Instruction for their kind and generous grants and donations. This support helped bring a little extra Christmas magic to our school, and we truly appreciate it. With these donations, the PTA has provided each child with an individual gift from Santa (we hope you all have fun painting your tealight holder over the Christmas holidays) and each class has also received £50 worth of presents including lots of fun games, fidget and sensory toys, puzzles and much more! 

Thank you to everyone for supporting the PTA throughout this term. We look forward to lots more fun and fundraising in the New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Individual Santa Gifts

Class 1 Gifts

Class 2 Gifts

Class 3 Gifts

Class 4 Gifts

Class 1 News

What a busy few weeks we have had in Class 1. We hope you all enjoyed our carol concert. We certainly enjoyed performing our songs and poems for you all in our festive jumpers.

We have been learning about why we celebrate Christmas. We retold the story of ‘The Nativity’ using character masks and sequencing the story. In Reception we were able to access our prior knowledge – remembering the names of the characters in the story.

We used our knowledge of printing using the outdoors as inspiration to create a printed Christmas tree greeting card. We collected leaves from outdoors, mixed our own green colour paint, covered the leaf in paint before pressing it firmly down onto paper to leave the print to create the ‘Christmas tree’. We left the print to dry before cutting around it. Some of us hand printed some robins with brown and red paint. Next, we folded a piece of card in half before learning how to use a paint brush to flick white paint onto the card to create snow. Then we cut a rectangular piece of felt to create the trunk of the tree. Finally, we wrote inside our cards. We hope you like them.

We practiced our fine motor skills by wrapping wool around our painted cone trees and threading pipe cleaner ‘tinsel’ in and out of the holes.

We listened to the story ‘Santa’s Secret’. We designed our own gadgets for Santa – we created a new sleigh for Santa with a rocket attached so he can quickly deliver all the presents.

We enjoyed the Pantomime – it was a little bit scary with the lightening, we liked the fairy and her beautiful sparkly dress, it was very funny when they said 6…7… Iris’ sister Meredith went up on the stage and she had to play a big drum. We loved Aladdin!

We were super excited to get to meet Santa today – it was magical! He had his bright red suit on.  We asked him lots of questions like – Do you have a rocket boost? How do you make toys with the elf? We then got to have cookies and milk and hot chocolate with Santa. Thank you for visiting us Santa!

A very Happy Christmas from everyone in Class 1. We hope you have an enjoyable Christmas and a Happy Healthy New Year. Thank you for all your support this year, we really appreciate it. See you in January 2026!

Mrs. Thomas

Class 2 News

We can’t believe the first term has already come to an end and what a fantastic term we have had in class 2! 

No matter what classroom we have been in over the last few weeks, we have all continued to work hard. Our classroom has been repainted and is finally all coming together with lots of new furniture in there and many more to come in the new year. 

We have all worked really hard in our Read Write Inc sessions to learn our sounds, words and story books 

In maths we have learnt lots of place value skills from counting, representing objects and recognising numbers as words in year 1 and learning how to represent numbers up to 100 using lots of different methods including a place value chart and whole part model in year 2. 

Our concept this term was about learning how to create a ‘healthy body healthy mind.’ We have worked hard to learn about healthy and unhealthy foods and what exercises we can do to keep our body and mind healthy. We have looked at how to respect people and how to create healthy relationships with our friends and families. 

A huge da iawn to everyone for their effort in the Christmas concert. You all said your lines clearly and confidently and sang the songs beautifully! 

We have had a fantastic last week this term in class 2, doing lots of Christmas activities and today we had a special visit from Santa. Great news we are all on the nice list too

 A big thank you to all the parents and carers for your support this term. It means a lot, and we’re excited for the next term ahead! 

We wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy new year! 

We look forward to welcoming you all back in 2026. 

Mrs Williams, Mrs Morgan and Mrs Amos. 

Class 3 News

A lovely Christmassy end to the term. We all enjoyed our Christmas dinner, delicious. We loved our Christmas buffet, party and meeting Santa. He answered all our questions and gave us all a special treat as we have been so good this year. We loved going to the Aladin Panto. We have all enjoyed making our Christmas Seasons calendars and Gingerbread men or Christmas tree cards.  

Have a great Christmas Break.

Nadolig Llawen pawb!

Mrs Davies

Class 4 News

We have had a very busy and happy Christmas time in Class 4. The Christmas concert was absolutely brilliant, and the children shone on stage. They practised so well and performed with confidence, lovely singing and clear speaking. We are very proud of every single one of them.

This term we also learned about Christmas around the world. The children enjoyed discovering how different countries celebrate and how customs can be the same or completely different. They asked great questions and loved comparing their own traditions with those from other places.

We also had a wonderful trip to the pantomime, Aladdin. The children behaved beautifully throughout the whole visit and were a real credit to the school. They joined in with the songs, the jokes and the fun, and they thoroughly enjoyed the performance from start to finish. It was a lovely festive treat for everyone.

A big thank you to our fantastic PTA for all their hard work. The children loved the Christmas events, especially seeing Santa. We are also very grateful for the presents given to each class. Class 4 were very excited and the gifts were very much appreciated. Thank you for your kindness and support.

Christmas dinner was another highlight of the week. The children enjoyed their meal, the music and the chance to share a special lunchtime together. We ended the week with a fun Christmas quiz with Mrs Teague, Mrs Ashby and Mr Elacott. The children worked well in their teams, helped one another and had a lovely time.

We wish all families a warm, and happy Merry Christmas. Thank you for your support this term. 

Class 4