Newsletter 12 Autumn Term 2022

Important Information - late opening tomorrow

Dear parents,
 
In response to the Met Office yellow weather warning and the forecast of temperatures well below freezing tomorrow morning we are putting in place the following steps to enable us to operate safely and in the best interests of staff and families:

All DMAT schools will have a late start at 10am. This will allow for roads to clear somewhat and for gritting to take place on site to make paths and playgrounds as safe as possible.

Breakfast club will be cancelled, and parents will refunded for this session.

South Tawton Primary School will be open at the normal time to enable parents and carers who need to drop earlier (and who are able to safely make the journey) to do this. Please be aware that we may not have very many staff on site at 8:40 as staff will be advised only to drive to school when it is safe to do so. Please help us by not dropping off until 10am wherever possible.

Please take great care when driving and walking to school and please share this message widely to ensure that it reaches all of our parents.

Best wishes,
Sarah Marvin

It's been lovely to have a dry cold week and to get the children outside for some outdoor learning. The term seems to be accelerating and it is hard to believe that we only have one week left before we break for Christmas. We'll be making the most of this week though and are very much looking forward to the performances of The Bethlehem Bake-off tomorrow at 2pm and 6pm, our whole school theatre trip on Wednesday, Christmas dinner on Thursday, carols around the Christmas Tree at 3:30 on Thursday, and our Christingle service on Friday morning. 

Please ensure that your children are in full school uniform on Wednesday so that they are easily identifiable in the theatre. At the time of writing, there are still a number of children who are showing on School Gateway as 'No Booking.' Please log in and check that you have booked a school packed lunch if required or indicated that your child will be bringing a home packed lunch if not.

The theatre have contacted us to let us know that the pantomime is a little longer than previously thought. Please note therefore, that we will not be back at school for collection until 5pm. Please do not drive into the village and park any earlier than this as it is imperative that we can drive the 4 coaches down to drop the children off safely. 

Christmas Dinner and Christmas Jumper Day

On Thursday, we'd love the children to wear their Christmas jumpers or full Christmassy outfits for the day. There is no requirement to wear uniform trousers or skirts with their Christmas jumpers. Again, please ensure that you have recorded whether your child is having a main or vegetarian school dinner, or bringing a home packed lunch. There will be no sandwich or jacket potato option on Thursday and any bookings for these have been removed. There is no charge for the Christmas jumper non-uniform. 

At 3:30, please join us for some carols around the Christmas tree. Thank you to Mrs Dunn and her team for giving us such a beautifully decorated tree outside the school. 

Housekeeping

If you need to get a message to you child's teacher during the day, please ring the school administrator rather than emailing the teacher. Teachers very rarely get time to check their emails during the day whilst they are teaching, so your message may be missed until that evening. 

We've had a few messages recently asking for us to send work home for children who are too unwell to be in school. If your child is unwell, we would much prefer them to concentrate on getting better and will help them to catch up when they are back at school. We will only send work home if your child needs to isolate for any reason but is feeling well. 

Scarlet Fever

As communicated to you on Friday, we have had two cases of scarlet fever in Y1. We have another suspected case who is receiving antibiotics, but I have not heard of any further cases over the weekend. If your child has any of the symptoms detailed in this letter, please seek medical advice. 

Upcoming Events

Monday 12th and December 2pm and 6pm - YR and KS1 Xmas play 
Wednesday 14th December -  Whole School trip to Northcott Theatre
Thursday 15th December -  Christmas Lunch and Christmas Jumper Day
Thursday 15th December - Carols Around the Christmas Tree 3:30pm
Friday 16th December -  Last Day of Autumn Term
Tuesday 3rd January - Non Pupil Day
Wednesday 4th January - First day of Spring term

Many calendar and term dates can be found in the calendar at the bottom of our website home page.
2022 23 Term dates can be found here.
2023 24 Term dates can be found here.

​Free school meals

All children in reception, year 1 and year 2 at state schools in England automatically get free school meals. However, parents and guardians are encouraged to apply for free school meals when they enrol their child in school, as this can help their child’s school to attract additional ‘pupil premium‘ funding to support learning.
From year 3 onwards, children whose parents are getting any of the following are entitled to free school meals:

• Universal Credit (provided you have an annual net earned income of no more than £7,400, as assessed by earnings from up to three of your most recent assessment periods).
• Income Support (IS).
• Income-based Jobseekers Allowance (IBJSA).
• Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (IRESA).
• The guaranteed element of State Pension Credit.
• Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999.
• Child Tax Credit (provided you’re not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income that does not exceed £16,190).
• Working Tax Credit run-on  (the payment you get for a further 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit).

School children living on their own (16-19 year olds) who receive a qualifying benefit in their own right can also get free school meals.
How to apply: Apply through the Devon Citizens Portal. This is the quickest and easiest way to apply and will result in you getting an instant decision. Alternatively, call the Education Helpline on 0345 155 1019.

Families to receive help to buy food during school holidays

Families in Devon on low incomes, whose children receive free school meals, will get support this winter to help them buy food during the school holidays.
Once again, we're providing holiday food vouchers for children and young people who are eligible for benefit-related free school meals.
If you have children at school and your financial circumstances have changed, your children may be eligible for free school meals.
You can find out by applying online through our Devon Citizen's Portal.
The deadline for applications, in order to receive free school meal holiday vouchers for the Christmas school holiday, is Friday 16 December, so please apply as soon as possible.
Before the end of this term, we'll be sending eligible families free school meal holiday vouchers to cover both the Christmas and February 2023 half-term holidays at the same time. That's to give families more flexibility to prioritise and budget their winter food expenditure themselves.
Vouchers can be used at the following supermarkets: Aldi, Iceland, Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsburys, Asda, Waitrose and M&S Food.
You can read more in the story on our news page or visit our Free School Meal Holiday Vouchers webpage for more information.
 
Kind regards
Melissa
Melissa Filby
Early Years Locality Manager & HAF Coordinator Devon

PTA News

The children are singing carols around the tree on Thursday, straight after school. The PTA will be selling hot chocolate, mulled wine, sweet treats and some christmasy bits! If anyone could donate some cakes we would be very grateful and don't forget to bring some money/card to pick-up on Thursday!!

Thank you for all your support during 2022 - the PTA couldn't run without your ongoing help! See you all in 2023!!

Please click here to read this update from Devon County Council.

Three Hares Local Stakeholder Board

With the lead-up to Christmas, we have been quite busy these last couple of weeks, but in a really wonderful and positive way.  Our thanks to our three schools for inviting us in over a frantic period in the school year, so we can appreciate the fruits of the children and staff’s labour!  I have just returned from North Tawton’s Carol Concert at the school which was utterly joyful! I absolutely loved the mix of music and singing, and particularly loved “Oh come all ye faithful” when they started the chorus quite loudly (when it’s meant to be quite quiet) and I was thinking “Goodness, how are they going to get any louder?”  but sure enough, by the third repetition, they were raising the roof!  One of the best parts of being a governor is seeing the children being themselves in a safe environment at school, and it was so clear to me how much the kids were enjoying themselves.  David Spence, our new governor based in North Tawton, also attended and was able to see the school “in action” (as well as applauding his own children!).

Another great part of our role is being recognised by the children… Last week, I was lucky enough to be invited on the joint Chagford / North Tawton Year 6 school trip to the Energy for Waste plant in Devonport, Plymouth, so I spent all day with twelve of the Y6 North Tawton pupils.  If you’re a parent of any of those children, I have to say what an absolute delight they were to hang out with.  And it was even nicer to be recognised by them today at the school, as they called out to say “Hi!” to me. 

In the meantime, all of our governors have attended the “Ringfenced Funding” training, which helps us to understand what additional monies the schools receive for Pupil Premium, Sports Premium etc, and how that is spent for the benefit of the children.  We are booking meetings with the Principals and Sports Leads for each school early next term to monitor how those funds are being spent in each school, and the impact of those spends.

Liz has also managed to visit South Tawton a couple of times, where she was impressed with the great progress Early Years have made with their reading using the Read Write Inc platform, and this was reinforced by one of the children telling her how happy they were that they could “read words now!”   

We hope to see you at one of the school’s festive events – between us, we are hoping to get to as many as possible. 

Mel & Liz

[email protected]
[email protected]

Message from SAINTs Southwest

Good news, our extra-curricular clubs for Spring term are now available for parents to book on to. 

Please use the links below to book your children into the clubs. 

Thursday KS2 Football - https://saints-southwest.class4kids.co.uk/info/1244

Friday KS1 Football - https://saints-southwest.class4kids.co.uk/info/1252