Newsletter 5 Summer Term 2

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!

Marvellous Mirabelle!

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.
​

Volcanoes
Year 6 have enjoyed a great couple of days creating volcanoes and then making them erupt this afternoon. They learnt about the chemical reaction between vinegar and sodium bicarbonate. It was great fun and the children thoroughly enjoyed themselves. 

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