It's been a lovely, sunny week for the start of the summer term and new topics are well under way. The children have been enjoying the sunshine and playing together on the field. Two of the Trust primary schools have recently had Ofsted inspections and we expect South Tawton to be inspected this term. Years 4 and 5 are getting excited about their upcoming residential visit to Barton Hall in Torquay on 9th, 10th and 11th of May. Year 2 and 6 are ready to shine in their upcoming SATs tests and Years R, 1 and 2 are looking forward to their rescheduled trip to Northcott theatre which was postponed before Christmas. Thank You!I'd like to say two very big thank yous which make me feel incredibly privileged to be part of the South Tawton Community. Firstly, thank you to everyone who have donated items and made so many offers to help our Ukrainian family. They also ask me to pass on their thanks for ensuring that they are so well equipped as they begin their new lives. I'm delighted to say that they seem to be settling in very well and are enjoying the peace and safety of life in Devon. Secondly, it was wonderful to see so many of you yesterday for our Groundforce Day. Thank you to everyone who gave their time in painting, power-washing, sweeping, shed tidying, weeding, gardening and rubbish removal. The school is looking amazing! There are some photos in the PTA news section below. I include a photo of Hugo in the bluebells near Meldon and recommend a visit there. Statutory Testing This term sees the return of the Y1 phonics screening, Y2 and Year 6 standard assessment tests (SATS) and also a new times table test for Y4. These tests will take place in school with as much preparation, but as little stress as possible! We do ask that you support us, as always, with homework. Learning times tables in particular is something you can easily support with at home with games and apps, including Times Tables Rockstars. As always, daily reading and positive attitudes towards problem solving and study will always help you child throughout their primary education and help set them up to have good learning attitudes, independence and self-discipline. Reading every day is the most important support you can give at home. Sharing books, talking about book characters and plots as well as listening to your child read is so valuable and makes a huge difference across the curriculum. Labelling clothes This is the time of year that children go out to play with coats and jumpers and then take them off and leave them all over the playground and field! Please can you make sure coats and jumpers are labelled! Wellies, plimsoles and PE kits should be labelled too and make it quick and easy to reunite them with their owners. PE Kits Please make sure this your children have a full PE kit in school every day. This should be a white T-shirt, black/navy shorts and plimsolls or trainers. Bank Holidays Coming Up Please note that Monday 2nd May and Monday 6th June are Bank Holidays and children will not be in school. The latter is in lieu of the Queens Jubilee Bank Holiday which falls on the Thursday before during our half term week. Training Opportunities Adverse Childhood Experiences - Short Course Registration Link [DMAT]
PTA NewsA huge THANK YOU to everyone who came along to kindly share their time and skills at our Ground Force Day! We managed to achieve loads, but there are still a few more jobs on Mrs Marvin’s list that we didn't manage to do, so watch this space for another Ground Force Day date! SAVE THE DATE - Summer BBQ and fete is going to be after school on Friday July 8th We will be in touch again over the next few weeks to ask for volunteers and various different donations! The next PTA meeting is on Monday May 16th, 8pm, via Teams. If you would like to join us (everyone welcome!) please email southtawtonpta@gmail.com and we can send you the link The highlight of the week for me was the wonderful Y3/4 production. This production has been filmed for the parents to see (Thank you, Miss Jackson!) and we're hoping to be able to have a live performance for parents in the Summer Term. To give the children experience of a live audience and as a thoroughly enjoyable treat for the rest of the school, we all gathered to watch the show on Thursday morning. It was wonderful! The acting, singing, dancing, props, costumes and lighting all combined to produce a polished and excellent performance. Well done to all involved and a big thank you to all the staff who supported the pupils and made this possible. The Spring Term has not been without its Covid challenges, but there has been so much laughter and happiness too. It is such an enormous pleasure and privilege to be a member of such a school and to be part of the children's learning and play. Thank you to all staff who have worked tirelessly to make education fun and meaningful for the children, to all the children for being so beautifully behaved, hardworking and smiley, and to all the parents for their support and enthusiasm. I hope that everyone has a lovely, sunny break and stays healthy and safe. I am thoroughly looking forward to the Summer Term. Bookings for lunches, breakfast club and the school bus are now live on School Gateway. After school club bookings will open in the new term - we have an exciting programme of new clubs for the children to enjoy. The new menu can be found here. Governor Message to ParentsOn behalf of the Three Hares governors, I would like to wish all pupils, their families and all staff a Happy Easter, and to say a huge thank you for all your hard work and support during what has been another tough term. I would also like to welcome our new governors, Liz Davidson a parent governor who has a daughter at South Tawton, Lucy Dennis a staff governor from South Tawton and Wes Frewin a staff governor from Chagford. We also welcome back Ben Morris who had been on sabbatical so he could concentrate on the COVID vaccination programme. Unfortunately, we have to say goodbye to Mark Neave, one of our foundation governors, who is moving to a new parish. It’s been another busy term for governors, and I thank you all for your hard work and support too. There are still some vacancies for governors, so if you are interested or know someone in the community who may be please contact me at eneath@dmatschools.org.uk. We would particularly welcome someone from the North Tawton community, as both Jo Ware and Lee Pascoe stepped down as governors last term. We are hopeful that next term we will be able to come into school more so we can see all the wonderful things that are happening in our schools and to meet up with pupils, parents and staff to hear their thoughts about the schools. We also hope to join in with community events. So please keep an eye out for us. Next term we will have our details posted on the school websites so hopefully that will help in recognising us! We are also going to set up a governor blog so you can see what we have been doing for the schools. Happy Easter Emma Neath Chair of Three Hares Governors PTA NewsGuess the number of Easter eggs in the Jar - the winning number was....167 and the winner was Scarlett from Y4. This activity raised £66! Thank you to all of the Y6 pupils who helped to raise this amount.. Ground force day - Saturday April 30th - 10am Do you have a few hours you could dedicate towards helping clean up the school? There are windows to clean, paths to sweeping, jet-washing, strimming and lots, lots more! If you have brooms, buckets jet-washers etc please bring them along! The more people* and equipment we have, the quicker and easier it will be! (*Please be aware that there will be no child care provision, so please either make arrangements for your children to be looked after at home, or be aware that you will have to supervise them whilst helping at the school!) Easter Egg Hunt The PTA provided Easter eggs for every child and the Easter bunnies were busy on Friday hiding them around school for the children to find. Dear Parents and Carers I am writing to update you on the coronavirus situation at South Tawton Primary School and in terms of the changes to HM Government advice that came into effect on Friday 1st Aril 2022. As always, the health, safety and wellbeing of children, staff and the community are our top priority; closely followed by ensuring that education provision continues. I am proud to say that whilst many schools closed during the recent spike in cases in the area, the DMAT primary schools were able to remain open for all children despite having many staff absent. Presently, cases in the area continue to be extremely high, much higher than at the height of the pandemic. Covid cases in the West Devon area. Thank you for all your support over the previous weeks National Arrangements for ‘Living with COVID from 1 April The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) released this information this week on the ‘next steps for living with COVID’. The Department for Education also published this blog to clarify how ‘living with COVID’ will apply to schools, in preparation for all relevant guidance published on 1st April. The key points and changes that came into effect are as follows:
Once again, I would like to thank you very much in advance for your ongoing support. Should you have any questions or queries, please do not hesitate to contact us. With my warmest wishes, Sarah Marvin (Principal) This letter can also be download by clicking here. National Arrangements for ‘Living with COVID from 1 April 202 The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) released this information this week on the ‘next steps for living with COVID’. The Department for Education also published this blog yesterday to clarify how ‘living with COVID’ will apply to schools, in preparation for all relevant guidance to be updated. The key points and changes that came into effect last Friday are as follows:
Our latest risk assessment can be found here. Our letter to parents can be found here. The changes to the guidance mean that we're looking forward to welcoming Mrs Bond, Mrs Bazeley and Mrs Watkins back to school tomorrow. These three staff members were all off following positive tests last week. Unfortunately, after a positive test yesterday, Mrs Culverhouse will not be in for a few days, but Mrs Snell has very kindly agreed to cover YR to ensure continuity for the children. Every Child an ArtistOn Friday, Miss Chalcraft gave a very interactive assembly to the whole school with the theme of 'Every Child an Artist.' All the children had an opportunity to produce their own designs and chat about their work. In-school Tag Rugby TournamentAfter postponing the inter-school Tag Tournament, children from Year 4, 5 and 6 enjoyed a morning of friendly, in-school competition. Those children who hadn't had the opportunity to play before, learned the basics of the game and those who had played before had the chance to play with their school friends and work as part of a team. It was a fantastic morning, filled with brilliant team spirit, and the children appeared to thoroughly enjoy it. Rachel Everett PTA NewsBreak the Rules Day was a great success with lots of excitement and giggles. Thank you once again for your generosity - the ‘fines’ raised a fantastic £320! Monday 4th April : Guess the Number of Eggs in the Jar On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week, Year 6 will visit each class (Years 1-6) with a jar filled to the brim with chocolate eggs! If your child would like to be in with a chance of winning them, they need to bring £1 to guess how many are inside. The lucky winner will be announced on Friday. Where the money goes…. We are so grateful to all your ongoing financial support, especially during these tough times. We aim to plough the money raised back in to directly benefitting our children. For example did you know each year The PTA provide each class with £300 to put towards trips or exciting in-school experiences? This year we are also providing an additional £100 per class for teachers to spend on learning resources for their classes. Diary Dates: Saturday 30th April : Ground Force Day We are planing a day to all muck in and help tidy up the school grounds ahead of the summer, to make it the best it can be for our children to enjoy! Please come to the school at 10am, armed with brooms, buckets, window cleaning materials and plenty of enthusiasm! The more helpers the better, so please donate your time if you can! (There will be no child care provision, so please either make arrangements for your children to be looked after at home, or be aware that you will have to supervise them whilst helping at the school!) Come and join us for our next meeting via teams at 8pm on Monday 4th April and help us plan the Summer Term's events. If you would like to receive the link for the meeting, please email southtawtonpta@gmail.com - We really can’t function without your help!! March 100 Club DrawThe 100 club draw for March took place with one of the phonics groups this week and the lucky winners are: 31 Mark Everett 53 Sally Darken 77 Brian Vernon Congratulations! If you'd like to join the 100 club for the remainder of the school year, then it's not too late! Please email southtawton100club@gmail.com for details. South Zeal Recreation GroundThere will be work taking place on the football pitch at the Recreation Ground starting on Good Friday and possibly carrying on throughout the Easter weekend. Please be aware that during this time there will be heavy machinery operating on the field. Local Cricket OpportunitiesThe cricket season is starting at Chagford CC at the end of April.
More information regarding registration can be found here: https://mailchi.mp/af051aff9ab1/youth-cricket-season-registration?e=97a664ecbd |
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