Queen's Jubilee Bank Holiday.
Due to the extra bank holiday for the Queen's Jubilee falling within the May half term break, all schools have been granted an extra day's holiday in this academic year. South Tawton Primary School will be therefore not be open to pupils on Monday 6th June.

It has been a sunny and happy week at South Tawton Primary School. For the first time in many months, we have had no pupils off with Covid and attendance figures have been fantastic. Sadly, Mrs Bond wasn't so lucky and had a positive test on Friday; we wish her all the best for a speedy recovery. 

The weather has been beautiful and many lessons were taken outside in the Spring sunshine. We have had our first lunch break and assembly of the year on the field, and everyone seemed to enjoy the additional space and fresh air. I'm not sure that we'll be quite as lucky with the weather next week, but it's been lovely to have a taste of summer.

Please see the letter below from music teacher, Tor Loram, who played for the children in assembly on Thursday. You can scroll down to view the letter for details of the lessons she is offering, or view it here.

The ECB are providing training sessions for 5 - 8 year olds (All Stars) and 8-11 year olds (Dynamos) this summer at Belstone Cricket Club on Friday evenings

What is All Stars Cricket?
All Stars Cricket provides a fantastic first experience for all children aged 5-8 years old where they’re guaranteed 8 weeks of jam-packed fun, activity and skills development. The programme is designed to introduce children to the sport, teaching them new skills, helping them make new friends and have a great time doing so.
Every child that registers will receive a backpack full of goodies. Your child’s pack will include:

• Backpack
• Cricket bat
• Cricket ball
• Personalised t-shirt with your child’s name

All children returning to All Stars will receive a kit bag, a set of stumps, a new ball and a personalised t-shirt.

What is Dynamos Cricket?
Complementing junior cricket, Dynamos provides children with a more social offer focused on developing fundamental movement skills and applying them in an exciting game of countdown cricket. 
We know how important it is to look like the heroes of the game, so every child who registers will receive their very own personalised Dynamos New Balance T Shirt. 

For more information, please click on the link below to access the website.

https://ecb.clubspark.uk/

Friday was a particularly fun-filled and sunny day. The children all looked wonderful wearing yellow and blue clothes in support of Ukraine and this non-uniform day raised a staggering £331.79. Thank you to everyone who donated so generously. The money will be paid to the DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal to support children and families who are fleeing from the conflict. We were also delighted to receive many, many donations for the 'Little Bags of Help' collection for the charity Josephine's Star. 

On Friday, the children all had the chance to take part in circus skills workshops, very kindly funded by our PTA. We seems to have many budding circus performers amongst our pupils and it was lovely to see everyone outside having fun in the sun. 

Covid19 Update
Last Friday, we had 6 cases of Covid19 amongst our pupils, 4 in Y1, 1 in Y2 and 1 in Y5. I haven't been informed of any further cases over the weekend and am hopeful that most if not all of these children will be back in school tomorrow after reaching the end of their isolation periods.

We would just like to acknowledge how well behaved and polite the children from South Tawton Primary School are. The staff here have commented on numerous occasions now of how the children always say hello upon arrival and thank the staff. We have several primary schools use the centre but your pupils have really stood out to the team here. They are a pleasure to have here and we wanted to share this with you.

Kind regards
 
Amy Parker   |   General Manager
Parklands Leisure Centre
​Fusion Lifestyle

​We are so grateful to have received an amazing donation of £200 from the local charity Yeo Bequest. A huge thank you for their support. Every penny donated is spent on activities and resources to enrich our children's learning and school experience.

Plus a thank you to you all for remembering us when shopping through Easyfundraising and Amazon Smile. Last month we received an Amazon Smile donation of £58! Plus we had our largest Easyfundraising payment ever of £152!!
​
Up and Coming Events:
Tag Rugby Thursday 31st March.
We are delighted the annual Tag Rugby event for schools across the DMAT is back this year and being hosted once again by South Tawton. The PTA will be providing refreshments served from the pavilion. We are looking for volunteers  to help serve drinks and snacks to spectators during the day. If you have an hour or two you can spare between 9.30-3.00 please do get in touch we'd be very grateful for your support, contact us on [email protected]

Break the Rules Day  Friday 1st April
For one day only children can break the rules – and no this is not an April Fool! You’ll need to pay 50p for every rule you choose to break, and you must choose from one of the following:
• Wear school uniform
• No nail polish
• Bring a healthy fruit snack
• No toy/footballs/teddies *
(Must be able to fit in your bag and school does not accept responsibility if lost/broken)
• Neat and tidy hair
• No hats or caps
• Only water in your bottle


Diary Dates:
Monday 4th April : Guess the Eggs in the Jar
Monday 4th April: Our next meeting via teams at 8pm
Saturday 30th April : Ground Force Day  
​

It is with mixed emotions that we must let you know that Miss Chalcraft will be taking on an exciting new position in the next academic year and will be leaving us for El Salvador. She will be teaching in a top international school which will be an amazing experience for her and her family. Whilst we will be terribly sad to lose her, we look forward to hearing all about it and developing some links between our two schools. We will let you know as soon as we have recruited to fill her role.

Covid19 Update
Numbers remain low across the school at the moment. I know of 4 children who are currently positive and will be isolating tomorrow - 2 in Y1 and 2 in Y6. We continue to monitor the situation carefully and do all we can to limit transmission.

With the current situation in the Ukraine, we will be having a slightly different Red Nose Day this year. On Friday, we would like the children to wear yellow and blue to school (instead of uniform) in exchange for a suggested donation of £1. All proceeds from this will go to the DEC (Disasters Emergency Committee) Ukraine appeal. Children are welcome to also wear their red noses if they wish and any donations over £1 are obviously appreciated.

We would also be hugely grateful if any items from the poster above could also be brought into school on that day, either as an alternative or in addition to the £1 donation. An Amazon wishlist for these items has also been established by the Tarrys and can be found here: 
https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/14UCTK9SUDDZM?ref_=wl_share

32 children from years 4-6 travelled to North Tawton last week to take part in the second race of the series. They all put in brilliant performances on a muddy course and we had many runners in the top ten of their categories. We also had some winners and many runners who really embraced the opportunity and ran far harder than in their first race. Results of the three races in the series will be combined after the final event. 

Last weekend, some of our pupil were asking questions about Ukraine and Russia and talked with their parents about what was happening. They discussed ways they could help and decided to try and raise some money. 

The children made some cupcakes and sold them in Belstone from their garden. They raised £63.70 to go to the Red Cross. Well done and thank you. 

Primary Teaching Taster Day | Tuesday 5th April, 9.30am at Okehampton Primary School
​Dartmoor Multi Academy Trust is pleased to lead the Dartmoor Teacher Training Partnership. Our programmes are aimed at nurturing the teachers of tomorrow and the leaders of the future.  Whether you are a new graduate or you are considering a career change, our teacher training will equip you with the skills, knowledge and knowhow to be an excellent teacher.
Please contact Sally Huxen to register your interest [email protected]
 ​

Thanks to everyone who came along to this week's meeting. It was great to have so many great ideas for events. Watch this space!!
We are really pleased to have funded new equipment for the Craze boxes that are used by all classes during break times. The Pupil Council and Mrs Culverhouse had the tough job of deciding what to fill the new boxes with. All the pupils agreed in assembly they had done a brilliant job and everyone has been thoroughly enjoying using the new equipment this week.

Break the Rules Day  Friday 1st April!!!!
For one day only children can break the rules – and no this is not an April Fool! You’ll need to pay 50p for every rule you choose to break, and you must choose rules to break from one or more of the following:
• Wear school uniform
• No nail polish
• Bring a healthy fruit snack
• No toy/footballs/teddies *
(Must be able to fit in your bag and school does not accept responsibility if lost/broken. No electronic games)
• Neat and tidy hair
• No hats or caps
• Only water in your bottle

Guess the Eggs in the Jar
During the week beginning 4th April you will have a chance to guess how many eggs are in the jar for a £1 donation. Be in with a chance to win a delicious prize.

Ground Force Day  
Are you available Saturday 30th April?
We are planning a ground force day and looking for adult volunteers.
Simply turn up at school with brushes, buckets and rakes and help us to sweep winter away and freshen up the outside areas. If you are green fingered, good with a paint brush or can roll up your sleeves and get stuck in, we would love to see you.
 
Our next meeting will be held via teams at 8pm on Monday 4th April. We will be planning the Summer Fayre and BBQ event so if you’d like to help make this a really exciting event, please do come along.

We had a wonderful day celebrating World Book Day on Thursday 3rd March. The children's outfits were absolutely fantastic and they spoke eloquently about their characters and books. 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 book fair, 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. If you have already chosen which book you would like your child to buy, please also write this on the front of the envelope. We are looking forward to this event and to continue fostering  a love of reading and books. The titles that will be available on the day are listed below.

Please click on each photo to view the whole list of books for each year group.

Vacancies - Dartmoor Multi Academy Trust (dartmoormat.org.uk)

Current vacancies include:

• Administrator at North Tawton Primary 
• Caretakers (Okehampton College and Tavistock College)
• Teaching Assistants and Higher Level Teaching Assistants (across Trust schools)
• Cleaners across trust schools

Leif and Mary Tarry are producing Little Bags for Children fleeing from the conflict in Ukraine. Please view the document below to see how you can help, or read the poster here.

We are trying to address the anxiety that pupils may be feeling about the conflict in Ukraine through our PSHE/SCARF lessons. We also recommend the guidance for how to talk to children about the current situation from BBC NEWSROUND which includes a specific section on this: Advice if you're upset by the news.

​Up and Coming Events:
Break the Rules Day  Friday 1st April!!!!
We know you would never even dream of breaking the rules at school!!
However, for one day only you can!
How does it work? Choose the rules you would like to break from the list we will send home. Donate 50p for each rule you choose to break. Simple and lots of fun!!

During the week beginning 4th April you will have a chance to guess how many eggs are in the jar for a £1 donation. Be in with a chance to win a delicious prize!

​Ground Force Day
 
Are you available Saturday 30th April?
We are planning a ground force day and looking for adult volunteers.
Simply turn up at school with brushes, buckets and rakes and help us to sweep winter away and freshen up the outside areas. If you are green fingered, good with a paint brush or can roll up your sleeves and get stuck in we would love to see you.
 
As always thank you for your ongoing support from all on the PTA.