Hot dinners for KS1
Thank you all for your patience as we began the term with packed lunches. We are now in a position to begin rolling out hot lunches to all KS1 children in the first instance. 
 
We will be offering hot meals at lunchtime as from Monday 28th September (tomorrow!) with the menu options detailed below.

We would be grateful if you would book your child's lunches as soon as possible in order that we can order appropriately. Please note, any existing bookings for next week for KS1 have all been cancelled and need to be re-made using the new menu options.
 
Please be assured that appropriate hygiene practices will be in place for children using the school hall for dining, and bubbles (classes) of children will continue to be kept separate.
 
It is our intention to provide hot meals for KS2 children, after half term, but in the meantime, provision of packed lunches will continue for these children as per the previous menu.

Parents' Evenings
Parents' evening meetings will take place over the phone this term and will be scheduled between the 5th and 16th October. Further details and information on booking a time will follow during the week. 

Sharing of cakes and sweets in school
I emailed you all last week to ask that you help us by not sending your children to school with cakes or sweets to share on their birthdays. Thank you to all of you who understood the importance of this and acted accordingly. However, I discovered on Friday that a parent had attempted to send cakes in for KS1 staff without my knowledge. This shows complete disregard for our risk assessments and overriding intention to keep our staff and pupils safe. Please help us by ensuring that there are no further incidents of this nature so that we can continue with our efforts to keep the school open and infection free.

Dial 111
Click here for a poster about dialing 111. Although the poster relates to Cornwall, the process is exactly the same for Devon. 
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Letter for parents about COVID-19 symptoms
Public Health England have produced a letter for schools to distribute to parents which explains when a person requires a coronavirus test and what the symptoms of coronavirus are. 
The intention of the letter is to help prevent children being taken out of school unnecessarily and answer some of the questions parents may have around testing.
You can view the letter here.

PTA News
We started the new school year with our AGM via Zoom. There was a great turnout (thank you all!) and the formal committee now includes joint Chairs Katie Wright and Jo Parker-Groom, Ali Vallance as Treasurer and we're pleased to welcome Hannah Passmore as our new Secretary. 

Fundraising this year is going to be more challenging but watch this space for some virtual events coming soon...

Our funds usually go towards school trips and workshops within the school. As these can't take place for a while, our autumn fundraising will be focused towards installing fun, new, interactive playground markings for all classes to enjoy at breaktimes and during PE. We'll send more info on this soon too. 

At this time, our regular non-event fundraisers are more important that ever before, so please do sign-up for the 100 Club, do your shopping via the Easyfundraising link and continue to bring in your crisp packets

Easyfundraising; there are just 3 easy steps: 

1. Open the following link:  You shop. South Tawton Primary School PTA gets money. For free. And click the button 'Support this cause'. Create an account/login or download the app. 
​2. Use the website or app to choose the retailer you'd like to buy from - there are over 4000 including Amazon, ebay, Sainsburys, John Lewis, Argos, etc.
3. Just shop as normal and when you check out, the retailer gives your cause a donation. 

Crisp packet recycling - please continue to send crisp packets into school with your children. Rather than the previous central collecting box that was outside the hall, there will be a collecting box in each classroom. As well as recycling thousands of crisp packet rather than sending them to landfill, for each kg collected, the recycling company gives money to our cause.

Please remember: 
- Any brand of crisp and including the larger outer bag of multipacks
- Please do not fold into triangles 
- No popcorn bags, meat snack bags, nut packets or any other food packaging

Don't forget to check out our PTA Facebook site for regular news and links.

https://m.facebook.com/SouthTawtonPTA/
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Beware of Scams
The Dartmoor MAT have received reports of parents of being called on the phone, allegedly by their school, to say their child has been involved in an incident or taken ill. An example has been where a parent was called to say the child was ill and asked to dial 1 to be connected to right person to speak to. This child was at home that day so they knew it could not be correct so they attempted to ring the school but discovered the phone line had been held open reportedly to a high cost phone line. In another example the parents were asked to contact the school on the number provided, which again turned out to be a high cost phone line. If we call you, we will only ask you to call us back on our school number 01837 840242.

‘Test and trace’ scam
Devon County Council are warning everyone to be aware of scammers looking to exploit the NHS Test and Trace service. 
They are concerned that some people, particularly the vulnerable or elderly, could be susceptible to fake calls or messages from criminals looking to get access to personal information or trick them into handing over money.
Remember, the NHS Test and Trace service is completely free, so they will never ask you for any form of payment or financial information or to provide any passwords, bank account details or PIN numbers.
It's a good idea to familiarise yourself with how the system works and know what you will and won’t be asked by the contact tracers so you can spot these scams.

PTA 100 Club
A reminder for anyone wishing to be included in this year's PTA 100 Club, to please submit their sign up form and pay their subscription no later than Friday 25 September please.

Welcome Back
Welcome back to the beginning of a new school year! I know that every member of school staff will wish to join me in expressing how delighted we are to be fully open again and how immensely proud and impressed we are with the attitude and behaviour of all the children. From our new 4 year olds who have started school having to leave their parents at the gate and carry all their own bags and equipment in, to our year 6 pupils many of whom haven’t been in school since March, every pupil has demonstrated remarkable resilience and good humour in the face of all the the challenges and changes. Thank you and well done to you all!

Class Blogs
The class blogs will be updated each week. Please visit them all to see some of the lovely activities and work that have been undertaken this week.

After School Clubs
In order to maintain the integrity of class ‘bubbles,’ we have made the decision not to start any after-school clubs in September. (SAINTS football clubs will still go ahead.) This will give us time to embed our systems within school and establish what clubs might be possible to run safely. Further information about this will follow towards the end of the month.

Road Safety
On a related note, I have had complaints from residents of both Sticklepath and South Zeal of parents driving very fast through the villages at the start and end of the day. Please be aware that there are many children walking on the pavements and lanes at these times and drive with extreme caution. ​

Absence
If your child is going to be absent from school, please let us know ASAP by ringing or emailing the office. [email protected]

If your child or anyone in your household has a temperature, a new continuous cough or loses their sense of smell or taste, the whole family needs to self-isolate for 14 days and not come to school. In this situation, we strongly recommend that the person displaying symptoms is tested for COVID-19. Please let us know the outcome of any tests. In the event of a negative test of a family member, children can return tO school. If the child is displaying symptoms but has a negative test, they can return as soon as the symptoms are fully gone.

Request for absence for medical appointments
If your child has a medical or dental appointment, please let us know by filling in a Request for Absence form and returning this to the office wth a copy of the appointment letter.

School Gateway
For those of you who are new to the school, your school gateway account is where you can book your child’s lunches and book into breakfast club. If you have not yet signed up for an account, please visit https://login.schoolgateway.com/0/auth/register and register for an account using your child’s date of birth and your contact details.

Please could everyone ensure that they have booked either a school or a home packed lunch on gateway for each day at least one week in advance.

​We're delighted to have the children back in school and are doing everything we can to ensure the safety of children, parents and staff. Please read the following points carefully so that we can maximise safety. 

1. Please do not arrive any earlier than your allotted time slot. We are extremely keen to avoid queues and crowds forming on the road. This morning, some families were outside by 8:35. The gates will open at 8:40 for years 1, 3 and 6 - in the strongest possible terms, we ask you not to arrive on the lane outside school until this time.
2. If you have children with different arrival times, please bring all your children at the LATER time. If you have a child who finishes at 3:20 and one who finishes at 3:30, please do not arrive until 3:30. Teachers will keep siblings safe and will not be releasing them to go home until 3:30. The same is true for the morning - if you have a year 1 child who starts at 8:40 and a year R child who starts at 8:50, please do not arrive on Tawton Lane until 8:50 at the earliest.
3. On arrival, please send your children straight into their playground – you do not need to sign in with me. This will leave me free to ensure that the youngest children are safely escorted into school. 
4. Please leave Tawton lane as soon as your child has gone through the playground gate.
5. It will greatly reduce foot traffic and crowds if each family is accompanied by only one adult.
6. If you need to give a message to your child’s teacher, please email them directly.
7. Please maintain a distance of 2m between yourselves and other parents.

Thank you to everyone who helped to make the drop off today so much safer. I am very keen that the pick up this afternoon goes as smoothly - please follow the list above to maximise the chance of this.

Please click here to read a letter from Mrs Underwood ahead of our re-opening tomorrow.