I'm sure that you will all join me in wishing the very best to our Year 6 pupils as they move on to continue their education at secondary school. It hasn't been the end to their primary school days that any of us would have wanted, but we're delighted that we got the opportunity to see so many of them in school over the last few weeks. They have been a wonderful class and have all matured greatly in their journey through the school. We'll miss you Year 6 and wish you the very brightest and happiest of futures. 

As we were unable to have a leavers' assembly this year, Mrs Everett has worked through several technical hitches to compile a wonderful leavers' video for them. Thank you to all parents who have sent in photos and clips for this - it is absolutely lovely and can be viewed on the Year 6 blog or by clicking here. 

Masks
I've had several enquiries about whether children and staff will be wearing masks in September. I have pasted below the current guidance from Public Health England:
“Public Health England does not (based on current evidence) recommend the use of face coverings in schools. This evidence will be kept under review. They are not required in schools as pupils and staff are mixing in consistent groups, and because misuse may inadvertently increase the risk of transmission. There may also be negative effects on communication and thus education.
Face coverings may be beneficial for short periods indoors where there is a risk of close social contact with people you do not usually meet and where social distancing and other measures cannot be maintained, for example on public transport or in shops.”

Holiday Activities
Please visit our blog post which is full of suggested activities for the holidays.
https://www.southtawton.co.uk/school-news/ideas-for-holiday-activities

Safeguarding
If you have any concerns about children or families through the holidays, please email me: smarvin@southtawton.org or the Dartmoor MAT's safeguarding lead, Jane Lake: jlake@dartmoormat.org.uk. Alternatively, you can contact the Devin MASH team using the details in the photo. 

PTA News
Hello everyone,
I have carried out the last draw for this school year and the following people/numbers won:-
1st    26    Chloe Bennett
2nd   12    Jennifer Kennedy
3rd    11    Mark Neville
As mentioned previously, I will email in September all winners of prizes won during lock down to confirm when their prizes are available for collection from the school office.

Once again, many thanks to you all for your support of the 100 Club this year and have a happy summer holidays.
Best wishes
Mary MacMillan-Scott
PTA Member

If you enjoyed home-learning and would to continue with some activities over the summer holiday, we've gathered some suggestions below. Please dip into these as and when you'd like to, while making sure that you still have a holiday and a good rest! We'd love you to bring any work you complete back with you in September so that we can display and celebrate it.

You can find the Year R 'Summer Holiday' themed topic web here.
For KS2 we have an Engineering topic web which can be found here  plus resources here

We'd love all children to take part in the library Summer Reading Challenge. All of the books and the whole challenge is available online this year, or Devon libraries are now open and able to lend the books in the usual way. More information can be found here. Please let us know if you complete the challenge so that we can celebrate this in school in September. 
​
Maths Activities
Links to 3 documents containing maths puzzles and problems can be found below:
Year 1 and 2
Year 3 and 4
Year 5 and 6
Below, there are also a couple of suggested websites for the children to use if they want to.

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games
https://nzmaths.co.nz/problem-solving These problems are more suitable for KS2 and get more challenging the higher the level.

The Book of Hope
Completely free for all children and families, the extraordinary collection of short stories, poems, essays and pictures has contributions from more than 110 children’s writers and illustrators, including Lauren Child, Anthony Horowitz, Greg James and Chris Smith, Michael Morpurgo, Liz Pichon, Axel Scheffler, Francesca Simon and Jacqueline Wilson.
The collection, published by Bloomsbury, is dedicated to the doctors, nurses, carers, porters, cleaners and everyone currently working in hospitals and can be found here.
It would be lovely to create a display about this book for the re-opening of our refurbished and re-stocked library in September. For the display, I'd really like the children to create mood boards in response to one or more stories or poems from the book. Some guidance on how to create a mood board can be found here.

​Our Local Area
We're so lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the world. I'd love to create a display in September of the children's art work inspired by our local area, Dartmoor, wildlife, villages, houses etc. It would be great if everyone could have a go at producing a piece of art-work for this display and bring it with you when we return in September. 

You can revisit any of the content or lessons from the Oak National Academy, who have been providing video lessons and activities throughout the lock down. The Oak National Academy classroom can be found here. 

You can also search BBC Bitesize for lessons and activities on themes of your choice. This content can be found here. 

If you enjoy programming, have a go at Hour Of Code. There are tutorials and activities. The dance party one is particularly fun.

Some other lovely ideas for things to do over the summer:
National Literacy Trust- Free online resources:
https://literacytrust.org.uk/family-zone/9-12/
Where’s Wally activities:
http://www.wordsforlife.org.uk/sites/default/files/Wally_25th_activity.pdf
Big Butterfly Count 17th July- 9th August
​https://butterfly-conservation.org/

Devon Live have produced Sixty-four fabulous and free things to do with kids in Devon
Western Morning News have produced 50 things to do with your kids. The image is very small, but you can zoom in to see each activity.

The End of Term Draws Near
It has been the strangest school year in the history of the school, but time rolls on and we only have two more days of the summer term left. We're looking forward to our Moving Up day on Tuesday 21st and to seeing you all again, albeit briefly, before the summer holidays begin.
The teachers will be in school on Wednesday getting classrooms ready for September and the return of all pupils. In August, we will publish the risk assessments and other relevant documents for the re-opening of the school here on the school website. Please do check back and have a look at which measures will be in place to ensure a safe return for your children. In the meantime, please have a restful and safe summer holiday. Below, I have posted some photos of Hugo demonstrating how to relax! For those of you who haven't yet met Hugo, he'll be back in school for visits and hugs in September.

Summer Holiday work
After so many weeks of home-learning, some of you will be looking forward to a well-earned break from school work. For others having been at home for so long, the summer holidays will just seem like more of the same and you may be keen for some activities to complete. On Wednesday 22nd July, we will publish a list of activities and resources which you may like to get involved in over the break. These are by no means compulsory, but are merely provided for any families who wish to complete them or continue with home-learning. 

Around School this week
Take a look at Year R's Frog themed dance: Click here
See how well year 6 have adapted to social distancing with their football rounders:

Group 7 have been all about ladybird life cycles and Group 8 have studied life cycles of lots of different plants and animals.

PTA news
PTA Crisp Packet Recycling
Thank you to everyone who has brought in their used crisp packets this year.  We have raised just under £60.00 so far and another box full of crisp packets was taken away for recycling on Monday.  Please continue to save your crisp packets throughout the holiday and bring them into school at the start of the new term.  

PTA Pre-loved Uniform
We have a good selection of uniform for sale on our PTA rail and items can be purchased for £1.00 each.  We will put the rail outside on Tuesday 21st July during the school day for anyone who would like to make a purchase. 

PTA Cash for Coins
Thank you to everyone who has donated foreign and old coins to the white bucket in the Admin Office.  The coins have raised £181.00 so far this year.

We are very grateful to the PTA for all of the support that they have given to the school throughout the year.

Moving Up Day Tuesday 21st July
On the last day of term, we are hoping to welcome all pupils into school to say goodbye to their old teachers and meet their new ones. Due to social distancing, we will be inviting half the class to come for the morning and the other half for the afternoon. More details of this will follow over the next week. Hopefully, the weather will be fine and many of the activities can take place outside. Attendance is not compulsory, but we would love to see the children and for them to catch up with their friends before the summer holiday.

We feel that it is really important that all children have the opportunity to attend school on this day, which will mean that some children who are currently attending will only be able to come for a morning or an afternoon session. If you are a critical worker who has already booked your child into school that day and need cover for the whole day, then please let me know and we will arrange provision for them outside of their morning or afternoon session with the new teacher.

Year 6 Leavers' Photo
We are hugely grateful to Lucy Wilson who has somehow managed to produce this wonderful  year 6 Leavers' photo. Although it looks as though the children were all together for the photo, it was actually taken in several socially distanced shots and then put together. Hopefully, it will be a lovely reminder for the children of their time in South Tawton. 

Thank you, Kate
A big thank you to Kate who has been covering Design and Technology as part of her home learning this week. Kate had made and donated 10 lovely, colourful masks to the school staff. 

Reading Together Day Thursday 16th July
Over 15 organisations across books, publishing and education sectors have collaborated to create a family friendly schedule of events for ‘Reading Together Day’ on July 16th to highlight the importance of reading together.
https://readingagency.org.uk/news/media/reading-together-day-announced-for-16-july-2020.html

For this week's round-up of books and activities from the library service, please click here. 

Well-Being and Mental Health
There are a couple of new posts on the Well-being blog which you may find helpful.
https://www.southtawton.co.uk/well-being/see-hear-respond
https://www.southtawton.co.uk/well-being/devon-family-advice-line

More free resources to keep families active
More information for parents from Sustrans can be found here.

Please click here to hear to find out more about the Usbourne Summer Reading Challenge
​

Good afternoon

Dan at FISH Kids has asked that we share the attached with schools, with details of their holiday club at St James Primary, Okehampton. Some parents/carers who have already expressed their interest will have been contacted by FISH kids to ask them to book their place.

We have been asked to further promote for people to book online by Friday this week so that FISH can get confirmed numbers and ensure viability of the programme.

More information can be found here.
​

July seems to have arrived already and we're hopeful that the weather will catch up with it by next week! With the social distancing measures easing to 1m+ from Monday, we will be looking forward to welcoming a few more pupils back to school. With increased numbers, it will be increasingly important that we minimise the number of people on the road outside school at any one time. Currently, some of the 8:45 - 9:00 arrivals are coming early and queuing on the road. To minimise the possibility of spreading the virus, please do not arrive before your allotted time slot. As previously, if you have children in different groups with different arrival times, you are welcome to bring them in at the earliest slot. 

If there are any more children in years 1 or 6 who have not returned to school and would now like to, please do get in touch. 

You will have noticed on the news that the intention is for all children to return to school in September. We are fully committed to making this happen and will be working on plans for whole year group bubbles to maximise safety. 

New CEO appointed for the Dartmoor Multi-Academy Trust
​
Please click here to read an important letter from the trustees about the appointment of a new CEO.

Joe Wicks Workouts
How many of you have done Joe Wicks' workouts all through the lockdown? The pupils in group 8 must be pretty fit by now!

South Tawton Lockdown Recipe Collection

We're excited to announce that Miss Chalcraft has decided to collect recipes, poems and artwork to  produce the first ever South Tawton recipe book! Please click here for more information. 

​The Book of Hopes and other reading resources
Completely free for all children and families, the extraordinary collection of short stories, poems, essays and pictures has contributions from more than 110 children’s writers and illustrators, including Lauren Child, Anthony Horowitz, Greg James and Chris Smith, Michael Morpurgo, Liz Pichon, Axel Scheffler, Francesca Simon and Jacqueline Wilson.

It can be found here and is a great read for both adults and children.

​This week's round up of lovely ideas and suggestions from the library service can be found here.

For those children who have read every book in the house and also for those reluctant readers who struggle to find a book they want to read, did you know that you can now join the Devon libraries completely online and borrow ebooks to read at home?

To join Okehampton library click here.

To find out more about the summer reading challenge and borrowing ebooks, click here.
​

Round up of the week
As ever, there are some lovely news and stories on the class blogs of what the children have done at home and in school this week. Please go to the blogs and have a look, but here are a few of my favourites:
https://www.southtawton.co.uk/year-r/spider-fun-with-year-r
https://www.southtawton.co.uk/year-1/group-3-topic-extreme-weather
https://www.southtawton.co.uk/year-2
https://www.southtawton.co.uk/year-4/our-new-topic-erupts
​https://www.southtawton.co.uk/year-5/a-round-up-of-the-week1306881

PTA 100 Club
A message from Mary Macmillan-Scott:

Hello Everyone,
Once again, I have carried out this month's draw at home.  June's winners are as follows:-
1.    18    Dane Forester
2.    74    Ashley Rogers
3.    44    Neil Vernon

As School wish to limit the number of people entering school grounds, it has been decided I will retain all the prizes won since lock down until school reopens in September. I will then hopefully be able to leave them at the school office for collection. I will, of course, send out a reminder to all winners at that time to remind them they have prizes to collect.  If any of the winners do require their prizes before September, please email me.

There is one more draw for this school year which will take place in the middle of July, before school breaks for the summer.  I would therefore like to take the opportunity now, on behalf of the PTA,  to thank you for being a member of our 100 Club this past year and to congratulate all of our winners. By the end of this school year, the 100 Club will have raised £445 for PTA funds and we will have given out £311 in prize money.

The PTA hope to continue with the 100 Club next year. Usually at this time, we would be requesting subscriptions for next year and seeking new members to join the Club but obviously that is not currently possible.  Hopefully, the PTA will be in touch early in September when the 100 Club is able to operate again.

Kind regards

Mary MacMillan-Scott