Thanks to Storm Eunice, the end of the half term came rather suddenly! I hope that all our families stayed safe and well and weathered the storm with no damages. I'm pleased to report that I have checked the school site today and all is well. 

I do hope that everyone is getting on well with making their Story Jars ready to bring into school on Monday 28th. If you're still in need of inspiration, there are some photos below. It was felt that this was a home learning task that could be completed without power or internet and this was just as well, as I understand that many of us were without power yesterday with homes in Okehampton currently off for a second day today.

We had 15 cases of Covid19 amongst our pupils on Thursday. I do hope that those affected are out of isolation in time to enjoy the latter part of the half term break and that the holiday serves as a circuit breaker. Please do continue to let me know if your children receive a positive test during the holiday.

Hopefully, the weather will now improve. I wish you all a very happy and healthy half term and look forward to seeing the children back in school on Monday 28th February.

Victoria Loram will be coming in to school after half term on Thursday 3 March to give an assembly. She will be demonstrating her instruments - clarinet, saxophone and recorder for all pupils to enjoy in assembly and so that anyone interested can sign up for regular lessons in school. 

Victoria has been teaching for 30 years and has experience of teaching all ages and abilities. She’s taught in lots of places including Chagford Primary School, Plymouth College, St Margaret’s School in Exeter, Plymouth University and the South West Music School. 

In lessons Victoria introduces pupils to different styles of music and likes to include pupils’ choices too. As well as instrumental technique the learning covers reading music, music theory, listening skills and general musicianship.  The pace of the lessons is geared to the pupil’s individual needs and pupils can take exams and enter local music festivals if they wish but there is no pressure to do so. 

There are scientific studies showing how the brain lights up when playing a musical instrument - showing how learning to play an instrument is good for the brain and therefore has a beneficial effect on overall learning ability across all subjects and areas of life. Here’s a link to a short video which I highly recommend watching if you want more information on this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0JKCYZ8hng

As well as teaching Victoria also plays clarinet professionally with orchestras and small groups. She's played with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Glyndebourne Touring Opera, British Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and the Ten Tors Orchestra among others. Victoria has also played in wind quintets and is currently in one called the Skylark Quintet (https://www.skylarkquintet.com). She is also part of a duo called Just Us Musique in which she plays bass clarinet with a violinist. She's been on Radios 2 & 3 and played in lots of festivals including Aix-en-Provence, Montepulciano, Ryedale, Chichester and Aldeburgh. She's also made CDs with  Quintessence Wind Quintet and a clarinet sextet called The Clarinet Section (you can find these CDs on Spotify). Victoria studied at the Royal Northern College of Music and the University of Manchester. While she was at school in Canterbury she was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.

PTA Disco
Thank you to everyone who helped pull off another very successful disco! All the children seemed to enjoy themselves and it was especially nice to include the preschool this time. There was some excellent dancing and lots of fun (and knee slides...)

School Dinner Balances
Please could all outstanding lunch debts be paid before the start of the half term holiday.

World Book Day
We are delighted to be welcoming The Bookery, Crediton, to school, as part of our World Book Day celebrations. They will be coming on Tuesday 8th March and bringing their Top Titles for 2022 to share with the children, reading extracts and introducing them to new authors. They will then hold a bookfair, with all of the titles discounted for the event: £6 for one book or £10 for two. Please send cash in an envelope with your child’s name if you would like to buy a book. We are looking forward to this event and  to continue fostering  a love of reading and books.

Don't forget that we will be dressing up as favourite book characters on Thursday 3rd March.

Cake Sale
A group of year 4's are wanting to show their support to the schools environmental work by having a cake sale on Thursday 17th after school! 

There will be lots of yummy goodies to buy 😋 Cake donations are welcome! 

Please do not send your child to school with money, but visit the cake stall with them after school to purchase cakes.

The wildlife champions had a fantastic afternoon spent in the Forest school area on Wednesday with Sarah from the Devon Wildlife Trust and Mrs West. The children created a super bug hotel and woodlouse house, thank you very much for all of the kind donations to help with this. The children are very excited to show their peers their handiwork. ​

The First South Zeal Scout group had a fabulous trip this week to Exeter Cathedral  to see Museum Of The Moon by Luke Jerram. Our pupils tell us that is well worth a visit and recommend it to their school mates, possibly as trip in half term.
https://my-moon.org/

The photos above are from our whole school assembly to celebrate Wear Your Scarf to School Day for the launch Children's Mental Health week. During the assembly, Mrs Culverhouse introduced some of the activities the children would complete during the week. All classes have developed their own emotional thermometers to help them to recognise feelings of anxiety and anger and explore strategies to calm themselves down. 

Please click here for the full brochure. 

We've had a lovely week of learning this week and more information and photos about what we have been doing can be seen on the class blog pages. Unfortunately, Covid 19 cases seem to be on the rise again. We send our very best wishes for speedy recoveries to all our pupils who are currently positive (3 in Y2 and 3 in Y6) and also to Mrs Donovan. Y6 will be covered by Miss Chalcraft for the beginning of the week. 

This coming week is Children's Mental Health Week.  To support this, and the valuable work of our PSHE curriculum, we will be holding a whole school 'wear your scarf to school day' on Monday 7th Feb.  

We use the resources and principles of SCARF (Safety, Caring, Achievement, Resilience, Friendship) in our weekly PSHE lessons and assemblies across every year group.  So, please send your child to school wearing a scarf on Monday where we can all join together and raise awareness of this important topic. ​

On Friday afternoon, we were thrilled to take 32 runners to Simmons' Park for an inter-school cross country event. This is the first offsite event against other schools which we have been able to compete in since before the pandemic and it was brilliant fun. This race is the first in a series, so there were no individual or team results given on the day. However, we had some excellent runs and had the first runners home in the Y3/4 girls' race, the year 5/6 girls' race and the Y5/6 boys' race! The effort, enthusiasm and encouragement for others shown by all our pupils made the event particularly special. Well done and thank you to all runners and parent drivers/cheerers.

World Book Day is coming up on 3rd March and we wanted to give you advance notice that we will be inviting the children to dress up as their favourite book characters for the day. We would also like to join in with the school library service Design a T-Shirt competition. Further details can be found here, or by reading the documents below. Please note that entries will need to be returned to school by Monday 14th February so that we can scan them and send them into the library. 

​After the resounding success of last year's Book Nooks, to celebrate our love of reading this year, we will be asking the children to make story jars at home and bring them into school in time for World Book Day so that they can share them with their classmates. To make a story jar, the children first need to think of a book or story which they have really enjoyed. They then fill the jar with items or words which remind them of that story. There are some photos below to inspire you.

​Parents in receipt of tax-free child care vouchers can use them to pay for breakfast club sessions if required. Please let us know if you would like any support with this. 
​

Mealtime Assistant Vacancy
Salary - £17,842 per annum pro rata (NJC Grade A)
​Location – South Tawton Primary School 
Job Term – Permanent / Part-Time  
Hours – 12.00pm to 1.30pm Monday to Friday (Term Time Only) 7.5 hours per week

About the role:
South Tawton Primary School are looking to recruit a Mealtime Assistant to ensure that the lunchtime supervision of children is adequately covered. The successful applicant will need to supervise, assist and encourage the children with the daily meals and undertake playground duty promoting positive relationships and play.
 
 We offer:

• A Trust that is committed to our people and their development and wellbeing.
• A warm and friendly environment with possibilities to inspire our children.
• Dedicated, supportive and friendly colleagues.
• Employee loans and assistance programme.
• Leading edge technology.
• A generous pension scheme.

 
We are committed to safeguarding and protecting the welfare of children and young people. A Disclosure and Barring Service Certificate will be required for all posts and be subject to enhanced checks as part of our Prevent Duty.
​
For further information on this role and to make an application, please visit Vacancies - Dartmoor Multi Academy Trust (dartmoormat.org.uk)
​

We have also funded an annual subscription to ‘The Week’ for Year 6 to offer an even wider range of reading materials and a storage rack for their art aprons so they are always ready and waiting when it's time to get creative. 
​

We are most pleased to be funding the return of the circus skills entertainer who visited the school last July and will have a new show to share with all classes at the end of this half term. 


D.I.S.C.O.

Don't forget this Friday is the disco, you need to return your permission forms by this Wednesday 9th February. We are looking forward to seeing you have such a fun time again! 3.00pm - 3.25pm Preschool
3.30pm - 4.30pm Reception, Year 1 and Year 2.
4.45pm - 5.45pm Year 3 and Year 4.
6pm - 7pm Year 5 and 6.
If you are able to help out at one or more of the sessions we would be grateful if you could email us at southtawtonpta@gmail.com ​