Newsletter 5 Spring Term 2021

Expressing Ourselves for Children's Mental Health Week

There have been some lovely discussions and work completed this week inspired by a focus on children's Mental Health Week. Year 1 had a story focus on Ruby's Worry; Year 4 discussed the best ways to unwind and destress. Year 5 also looked at relaxation with children in school really enjoying skipping together to aid this, while Year 6 have created some lovely pieces of work based on Shaun Tan's book, The Lost Thing. Hopefully, we shall have some brighter, warmer weather soon so we can all get outdoors more!

Online Etiquette

Please could you help us by reminding your children of three basic online etiquette rules for all live lessons and registrations:
1. Cameras should be on.
2. Pupils should be fully dressed.
3. Pupils should not eat during the live lessons.

Results of Remote Learning Survey

Please see below some pie-charts showing the results of our Remote Learning survey last week. Thank you to everyone who responded for your excellent suggestions and messages of support and thanks. On the whole, I feel that staff and parents are very pleased with the curriculum opportunities the children are receiving and progress they are making.

There are more worries on both sides about the social implications of the school closures, although the live lessons and opportunities for children to meet their classmates online are helping with this. Some parents would like more freedom during the day to go for a walk or for siblings to do something together. Please do feel free as parents to create opportunities to do this: we will continue to provide the full curriculum offer, but understand if life gets in the way and you wish to make time for something different. Teachers will continue to make lessons as interactive and fun as possible, but I'm afraid we will not be able to arrange online breaktimes and play dates as some parents have requested. The staff in school are essentially now doing two full time jobs at once: teaching the children in class and also teaching the children at home. I'm immensely proud of how well both staff and children have adapted to this difficult situation and thoroughly look forward to a time when all children can return to school.

If you feel your child is in great need of more social time with their peers, please do give me a ring to discuss this. I'm very happy to 'introduce' parents so that you can exchange details and possibly set up online meetings for your children. 

PTA News

Mrs Everett, with the help of some Year 6 pupils, carried out January's draw at school last week.

The winning numbers/people are:-
1st       56    Lizz Williams
2nd      11    Mark Neville
3rd       31    Mark Everett

I will make contact with all the winners to distribute prizes once School has fully reopened.

Many thanks.

Mary MacMillan-Scott
PTA Member

Spring Walks
Getting fresh air and exercise is important for looking after our physical and mental health. We have decided to share our favourite local walks with you so you can get out and enjoy a happy healthy half term! 

You can download this PDF to your computer and print it out or download it to your smartphone or tablet and take it on the walks with you!

Click here for our favourite spring walks or see the document below.

It is very hard to fundraise right now but if you enjoy these walks and feel you can, please donate via  PayPal at southtawtonpta@gmail.com (remembering to choose the 'friends and family' or 'known seller' option)

Remote Learning Policy and Risk Assessment
The Dartmoor Multi-Academy Trust have updated our Remote Learning Policy and Risk Assessment. These can be found here.

Devon Wildlife Trust

Wild Activities for all the family!
Devon Wildlife Trust's Education team have created a Wild Learning hub to help assist learning at home with lots of nature inspired activities and ideas.  Lots of these activities can help fulfil curriculum criteria but there's also lots of great wild learning for all ages to be had. Lesson plans, identification guides, nature inspired crafts and 'how to help' ideas can be found here - scroll down to undertake our quizzes and also to play some online wildlife games.
More information can be found on their website here.