The highlight of the week for me was the wonderful Y3/4 production. This production has been filmed for the parents to see (Thank you, Miss Jackson!) and we're hoping to be able to have a live performance for parents in the Summer Term. To give the children experience of a live audience and as a thoroughly enjoyable treat for the rest of the school, we all gathered to watch the show on Thursday morning. It was wonderful! The acting, singing, dancing, props, costumes and lighting all combined to produce a polished and excellent performance. Well done to all involved and a big thank you to all the staff who supported the pupils and made this possible. The Spring Term has not been without its Covid challenges, but there has been so much laughter and happiness too. It is such an enormous pleasure and privilege to be a member of such a school and to be part of the children's learning and play. Thank you to all staff who have worked tirelessly to make education fun and meaningful for the children, to all the children for being so beautifully behaved, hardworking and smiley, and to all the parents for their support and enthusiasm. I hope that everyone has a lovely, sunny break and stays healthy and safe. I am thoroughly looking forward to the Summer Term. Bookings for lunches, breakfast club and the school bus are now live on School Gateway. After school club bookings will open in the new term - we have an exciting programme of new clubs for the children to enjoy. The new menu can be found here. Governor Message to ParentsOn behalf of the Three Hares governors, I would like to wish all pupils, their families and all staff a Happy Easter, and to say a huge thank you for all your hard work and support during what has been another tough term. I would also like to welcome our new governors, Liz Davidson a parent governor who has a daughter at South Tawton, Lucy Dennis a staff governor from South Tawton and Wes Frewin a staff governor from Chagford. We also welcome back Ben Morris who had been on sabbatical so he could concentrate on the COVID vaccination programme. Unfortunately, we have to say goodbye to Mark Neave, one of our foundation governors, who is moving to a new parish. It’s been another busy term for governors, and I thank you all for your hard work and support too. There are still some vacancies for governors, so if you are interested or know someone in the community who may be please contact me at [email protected]. We would particularly welcome someone from the North Tawton community, as both Jo Ware and Lee Pascoe stepped down as governors last term. We are hopeful that next term we will be able to come into school more so we can see all the wonderful things that are happening in our schools and to meet up with pupils, parents and staff to hear their thoughts about the schools. We also hope to join in with community events. So please keep an eye out for us. Next term we will have our details posted on the school websites so hopefully that will help in recognising us! We are also going to set up a governor blog so you can see what we have been doing for the schools. Happy Easter Emma Neath Chair of Three Hares Governors PTA NewsGuess the number of Easter eggs in the Jar - the winning number was....167 and the winner was Scarlett from Y4. This activity raised £66! Thank you to all of the Y6 pupils who helped to raise this amount.. Ground force day - Saturday April 30th - 10am Do you have a few hours you could dedicate towards helping clean up the school? There are windows to clean, paths to sweeping, jet-washing, strimming and lots, lots more! If you have brooms, buckets jet-washers etc please bring them along! The more people* and equipment we have, the quicker and easier it will be! (*Please be aware that there will be no child care provision, so please either make arrangements for your children to be looked after at home, or be aware that you will have to supervise them whilst helping at the school!) Easter Egg Hunt The PTA provided Easter eggs for every child and the Easter bunnies were busy on Friday hiding them around school for the children to find. Dear Parents and Carers I am writing to update you on the coronavirus situation at South Tawton Primary School and in terms of the changes to HM Government advice that came into effect on Friday 1st Aril 2022. As always, the health, safety and wellbeing of children, staff and the community are our top priority; closely followed by ensuring that education provision continues. I am proud to say that whilst many schools closed during the recent spike in cases in the area, the DMAT primary schools were able to remain open for all children despite having many staff absent. Presently, cases in the area continue to be extremely high, much higher than at the height of the pandemic. Covid cases in the West Devon area. Thank you for all your support over the previous weeks National Arrangements for ‘Living with COVID from 1 April The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) released this information this week on the ‘next steps for living with COVID’. The Department for Education also published this blog to clarify how ‘living with COVID’ will apply to schools, in preparation for all relevant guidance published on 1st April. The key points and changes that came into effect are as follows:
Once again, I would like to thank you very much in advance for your ongoing support. Should you have any questions or queries, please do not hesitate to contact us. With my warmest wishes, Sarah Marvin (Principal) This letter can also be download by clicking here. National Arrangements for ‘Living with COVID from 1 April 202 The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) released this information this week on the ‘next steps for living with COVID’. The Department for Education also published this blog yesterday to clarify how ‘living with COVID’ will apply to schools, in preparation for all relevant guidance to be updated. The key points and changes that came into effect last Friday are as follows:
Our latest risk assessment can be found here. Our letter to parents can be found here. The changes to the guidance mean that we're looking forward to welcoming Mrs Bond, Mrs Bazeley and Mrs Watkins back to school tomorrow. These three staff members were all off following positive tests last week. Unfortunately, after a positive test yesterday, Mrs Culverhouse will not be in for a few days, but Mrs Snell has very kindly agreed to cover YR to ensure continuity for the children. Every Child an ArtistOn Friday, Miss Chalcraft gave a very interactive assembly to the whole school with the theme of 'Every Child an Artist.' All the children had an opportunity to produce their own designs and chat about their work. In-school Tag Rugby TournamentAfter postponing the inter-school Tag Tournament, children from Year 4, 5 and 6 enjoyed a morning of friendly, in-school competition. Those children who hadn't had the opportunity to play before, learned the basics of the game and those who had played before had the chance to play with their school friends and work as part of a team. It was a fantastic morning, filled with brilliant team spirit, and the children appeared to thoroughly enjoy it. Rachel Everett PTA NewsBreak the Rules Day was a great success with lots of excitement and giggles. Thank you once again for your generosity - the ‘fines’ raised a fantastic £320! Monday 4th April : Guess the Number of Eggs in the Jar On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week, Year 6 will visit each class (Years 1-6) with a jar filled to the brim with chocolate eggs! If your child would like to be in with a chance of winning them, they need to bring £1 to guess how many are inside. The lucky winner will be announced on Friday. Where the money goes…. We are so grateful to all your ongoing financial support, especially during these tough times. We aim to plough the money raised back in to directly benefitting our children. For example did you know each year The PTA provide each class with £300 to put towards trips or exciting in-school experiences? This year we are also providing an additional £100 per class for teachers to spend on learning resources for their classes. Diary Dates: Saturday 30th April : Ground Force Day We are planing a day to all muck in and help tidy up the school grounds ahead of the summer, to make it the best it can be for our children to enjoy! Please come to the school at 10am, armed with brooms, buckets, window cleaning materials and plenty of enthusiasm! The more helpers the better, so please donate your time if you can! (There will be no child care provision, so please either make arrangements for your children to be looked after at home, or be aware that you will have to supervise them whilst helping at the school!) Come and join us for our next meeting via teams at 8pm on Monday 4th April and help us plan the Summer Term's events. If you would like to receive the link for the meeting, please email [email protected] - We really can’t function without your help!! March 100 Club DrawThe 100 club draw for March took place with one of the phonics groups this week and the lucky winners are: 31 Mark Everett 53 Sally Darken 77 Brian Vernon Congratulations! If you'd like to join the 100 club for the remainder of the school year, then it's not too late! Please email [email protected] for details. South Zeal Recreation GroundThere will be work taking place on the football pitch at the Recreation Ground starting on Good Friday and possibly carrying on throughout the Easter weekend. Please be aware that during this time there will be heavy machinery operating on the field. Local Cricket OpportunitiesThe cricket season is starting at Chagford CC at the end of April.
More information regarding registration can be found here: https://mailchi.mp/af051aff9ab1/youth-cricket-season-registration?e=97a664ecbd Queen's Jubilee Bank Holiday. Due to the extra bank holiday for the Queen's Jubilee falling within the May half term break, all schools have been granted an extra day's holiday in this academic year. South Tawton Primary School will be therefore not be open to pupils on Monday 6th June. It has been a sunny and happy week at South Tawton Primary School. For the first time in many months, we have had no pupils off with Covid and attendance figures have been fantastic. Sadly, Mrs Bond wasn't so lucky and had a positive test on Friday; we wish her all the best for a speedy recovery. The weather has been beautiful and many lessons were taken outside in the Spring sunshine. We have had our first lunch break and assembly of the year on the field, and everyone seemed to enjoy the additional space and fresh air. I'm not sure that we'll be quite as lucky with the weather next week, but it's been lovely to have a taste of summer. Clarinet, Saxophone and Recorder lessons in school Please see the letter below from music teacher, Tor Loram, who played for the children in assembly on Thursday. You can scroll down to view the letter for details of the lessons she is offering, or view it here. Governor RecruitmentChildren's Cricket TrainingThe ECB are providing training sessions for 5 - 8 year olds (All Stars) and 8-11 year olds (Dynamos) this summer at Belstone Cricket Club on Friday evenings What is All Stars Cricket? All Stars Cricket provides a fantastic first experience for all children aged 5-8 years old where they’re guaranteed 8 weeks of jam-packed fun, activity and skills development. The programme is designed to introduce children to the sport, teaching them new skills, helping them make new friends and have a great time doing so. Every child that registers will receive a backpack full of goodies. Your child’s pack will include:
What is Dynamos Cricket? Complementing junior cricket, Dynamos provides children with a more social offer focused on developing fundamental movement skills and applying them in an exciting game of countdown cricket. We know how important it is to look like the heroes of the game, so every child who registers will receive their very own personalised Dynamos New Balance T Shirt. For more information, please click on the link below to access the website. https://ecb.clubspark.uk/ OCRA Easter Holiday Activities. Click here for more details.Friday was a particularly fun-filled and sunny day. The children all looked wonderful wearing yellow and blue clothes in support of Ukraine and this non-uniform day raised a staggering £331.79. Thank you to everyone who donated so generously. The money will be paid to the DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal to support children and families who are fleeing from the conflict. We were also delighted to receive many, many donations for the 'Little Bags of Help' collection for the charity Josephine's Star. On Friday, the children all had the chance to take part in circus skills workshops, very kindly funded by our PTA. We seems to have many budding circus performers amongst our pupils and it was lovely to see everyone outside having fun in the sun. Covid19 Update Last Friday, we had 6 cases of Covid19 amongst our pupils, 4 in Y1, 1 in Y2 and 1 in Y5. I haven't been informed of any further cases over the weekend and am hopeful that most if not all of these children will be back in school tomorrow after reaching the end of their isolation periods. Pupils showing support for those in Ukraine.
A lovely message received from the staff at Parkland's Leisure CentreWe would just like to acknowledge how well behaved and polite the children from South Tawton Primary School are. The staff here have commented on numerous occasions now of how the children always say hello upon arrival and thank the staff. We have several primary schools use the centre but your pupils have really stood out to the team here. They are a pleasure to have here and we wanted to share this with you. Kind regards Amy Parker | General Manager Parklands Leisure Centre Fusion Lifestyle PTA NewsWe are so grateful to have received an amazing donation of £200 from the local charity Yeo Bequest. A huge thank you for their support. Every penny donated is spent on activities and resources to enrich our children's learning and school experience. Plus a thank you to you all for remembering us when shopping through Easyfundraising and Amazon Smile. Last month we received an Amazon Smile donation of £58! Plus we had our largest Easyfundraising payment ever of £152!! Up and Coming Events: Tag Rugby Thursday 31st March. We are delighted the annual Tag Rugby event for schools across the DMAT is back this year and being hosted once again by South Tawton. The PTA will be providing refreshments served from the pavilion. We are looking for volunteers to help serve drinks and snacks to spectators during the day. If you have an hour or two you can spare between 9.30-3.00 please do get in touch we'd be very grateful for your support, contact us on [email protected] Break the Rules Day Friday 1st April For one day only children can break the rules – and no this is not an April Fool! You’ll need to pay 50p for every rule you choose to break, and you must choose from one of the following: • Wear school uniform • No nail polish • Bring a healthy fruit snack • No toy/footballs/teddies * (Must be able to fit in your bag and school does not accept responsibility if lost/broken) • Neat and tidy hair • No hats or caps • Only water in your bottle Diary Dates: Monday 4th April : Guess the Eggs in the Jar Monday 4th April: Our next meeting via teams at 8pm Saturday 30th April : Ground Force Day Mrs Everett - London Landmarks Half Marathon
StaffingIt is with mixed emotions that we must let you know that Miss Chalcraft will be taking on an exciting new position in the next academic year and will be leaving us for El Salvador. She will be teaching in a top international school which will be an amazing experience for her and her family. Whilst we will be terribly sad to lose her, we look forward to hearing all about it and developing some links between our two schools. We will let you know as soon as we have recruited to fill her role. Covid19 Update Numbers remain low across the school at the moment. I know of 4 children who are currently positive and will be isolating tomorrow - 2 in Y1 and 2 in Y6. We continue to monitor the situation carefully and do all we can to limit transmission. Red Nose Day Friday 18th MarchWith the current situation in the Ukraine, we will be having a slightly different Red Nose Day this year. On Friday, we would like the children to wear yellow and blue to school (instead of uniform) in exchange for a suggested donation of £1. All proceeds from this will go to the DEC (Disasters Emergency Committee) Ukraine appeal. Children are welcome to also wear their red noses if they wish and any donations over £1 are obviously appreciated. We would also be hugely grateful if any items from the poster above could also be brought into school on that day, either as an alternative or in addition to the £1 donation. An Amazon wishlist for these items has also been established by the Tarrys and can be found here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/14UCTK9SUDDZM?ref_=wl_share Story Jar WinnersCross Country Event at North Tawton32 children from years 4-6 travelled to North Tawton last week to take part in the second race of the series. They all put in brilliant performances on a muddy course and we had many runners in the top ten of their categories. We also had some winners and many runners who really embraced the opportunity and ran far harder than in their first race. Results of the three races in the series will be combined after the final event. Ukraine AppealLast weekend, some of our pupil were asking questions about Ukraine and Russia and talked with their parents about what was happening. They discussed ways they could help and decided to try and raise some money. The children made some cupcakes and sold them in Belstone from their garden. They raised £63.70 to go to the Red Cross. Well done and thank you. Secondary Teaching Taster Day Dartmoor Multi Academy Trust is pleased to lead the Dartmoor Teacher Training Partnership. With our routes you can train while you teach to earn your PGCE and Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). Our programmes are aimed at nurturing the teachers of tomorrow and the leaders of the future. Whether you are a new graduate or you are considering a career change, our teacher training will equip you with the skills, knowledge and knowhow to be an excellent teacher. Our secondary routes into teaching are led by Tavistock College. Taster Day - Thursday 24th March 9am at Tavistock College Come and experience what a day in the life of a secondary teacher entails, and how the Dartmoor Teacher Training Partnership could provide the launchpad for your own career. Please contact Phil Ruse to register your interest: [email protected] Primary Teaching Taster Day | Tuesday 5th April, 9.30am at Okehampton Primary School Dartmoor Multi Academy Trust is pleased to lead the Dartmoor Teacher Training Partnership. Our programmes are aimed at nurturing the teachers of tomorrow and the leaders of the future. Whether you are a new graduate or you are considering a career change, our teacher training will equip you with the skills, knowledge and knowhow to be an excellent teacher. Please contact Sally Huxen to register your interest [email protected] PTA 100 club Year 6 helped with February's draw and the winning numbers were: 29 Sharon Cooper 55 Sheena Vernon 13 Mary Roles If you would like to join the 100 club then please email [email protected] PTA NewsThanks to everyone who came along to this week's meeting. It was great to have so many great ideas for events. Watch this space!! We are really pleased to have funded new equipment for the Craze boxes that are used by all classes during break times. The Pupil Council and Mrs Culverhouse had the tough job of deciding what to fill the new boxes with. All the pupils agreed in assembly they had done a brilliant job and everyone has been thoroughly enjoying using the new equipment this week. Up and Coming Events Break the Rules Day Friday 1st April!!!! For one day only children can break the rules – and no this is not an April Fool! You’ll need to pay 50p for every rule you choose to break, and you must choose rules to break from one or more of the following: • Wear school uniform • No nail polish • Bring a healthy fruit snack • No toy/footballs/teddies * (Must be able to fit in your bag and school does not accept responsibility if lost/broken. No electronic games) • Neat and tidy hair • No hats or caps • Only water in your bottle Guess the Eggs in the Jar
During the week beginning 4th April you will have a chance to guess how many eggs are in the jar for a £1 donation. Be in with a chance to win a delicious prize. Ground Force Day Are you available Saturday 30th April? We are planning a ground force day and looking for adult volunteers. Simply turn up at school with brushes, buckets and rakes and help us to sweep winter away and freshen up the outside areas. If you are green fingered, good with a paint brush or can roll up your sleeves and get stuck in, we would love to see you. Our next meeting will be held via teams at 8pm on Monday 4th April. We will be planning the Summer Fayre and BBQ event so if you’d like to help make this a really exciting event, please do come along. We had a wonderful day celebrating World Book Day on Thursday 3rd March. The children's outfits were absolutely fantastic and they spoke eloquently about their characters and books. We are delighted to be welcoming The Bookery, Crediton, to school, as part of our World Book Day celebrations. They will be coming on Tuesday 8th March and bringing their Top Titles for 2022 to share with the children, reading extracts and introducing them to new authors. They will then hold a book fair, with all of the titles discounted for the event: £6 for one book or £10 for two. Please send cash in an envelope with your child’s name if you would like to buy a book. If you have already chosen which book you would like your child to buy, please also write this on the front of the envelope. We are looking forward to this event and to continue fostering a love of reading and books. The titles that will be available on the day are listed below. Please click on each photo to view the whole list of books for each year group. Story Jars The story jars which the children have brought in are wonderful. You can see a few of them in the gallery at the bottom of this newsletter. We were so impressed by the time and effort that has gone into them that the PTA have provided a £5 token from Dogberry and Finch (the bookshop in Okehampton) for a winning jar from each class. PE Kits The children are looking smart in their school uniforms. However, we have many children who are not keeping their PE kit in school or are not wearing the prescribed PE kit of white T-shirt and black/navy shorts. Please could all families ensure that these items (and plimsolls/trainers) are in school every day? Covid Update Case numbers remain low in school. For tomorrow (barring any cases overnight), we have just one positive case in school from our Y3 class. Vacancies across the Dartmoor Multi-Academy TrustVacancies - Dartmoor Multi Academy Trust (dartmoormat.org.uk) Current vacancies include:
Ukraine AppealLeif and Mary Tarry are producing Little Bags for Children fleeing from the conflict in Ukraine. Please view the document below to see how you can help, or read the poster here. We are trying to address the anxiety that pupils may be feeling about the conflict in Ukraine through our PSHE/SCARF lessons. We also recommend the guidance for how to talk to children about the current situation from BBC NEWSROUND which includes a specific section on this: Advice if you're upset by the news. PTA NewsWe would love to see you at our meeting this Monday 7th March at 8pm via Teams. We are a small and very friendly group and we promise that by coming to a meeting you are not automatically signed up to run any events!! If you would like to receive the link to the meeting please email [email protected] Up and Coming Events: Break the Rules Day Friday 1st April!!!! We know you would never even dream of breaking the rules at school!! However, for one day only you can! How does it work? Choose the rules you would like to break from the list we will send home. Donate 50p for each rule you choose to break. Simple and lots of fun!! During the week beginning 4th April you will have a chance to guess how many eggs are in the jar for a £1 donation. Be in with a chance to win a delicious prize! Ground Force Day Are you available Saturday 30th April? We are planning a ground force day and looking for adult volunteers. Simply turn up at school with brushes, buckets and rakes and help us to sweep winter away and freshen up the outside areas. If you are green fingered, good with a paint brush or can roll up your sleeves and get stuck in we would love to see you. As always thank you for your ongoing support from all on the PTA. Scouts Chocolate BingoSome amazing Story Jars!Thanks to Storm Eunice, the end of the half term came rather suddenly! I hope that all our families stayed safe and well and weathered the storm with no damages. I'm pleased to report that I have checked the school site today and all is well. I do hope that everyone is getting on well with making their Story Jars ready to bring into school on Monday 28th. If you're still in need of inspiration, there are some photos below. It was felt that this was a home learning task that could be completed without power or internet and this was just as well, as I understand that many of us were without power yesterday with homes in Okehampton currently off for a second day today. We had 15 cases of Covid19 amongst our pupils on Thursday. I do hope that those affected are out of isolation in time to enjoy the latter part of the half term break and that the holiday serves as a circuit breaker. Please do continue to let me know if your children receive a positive test during the holiday. Hopefully, the weather will now improve. I wish you all a very happy and healthy half term and look forward to seeing the children back in school on Monday 28th February. New Music OpportunityVictoria Loram will be coming in to school after half term on Thursday 3 March to give an assembly. She will be demonstrating her instruments - clarinet, saxophone and recorder for all pupils to enjoy in assembly and so that anyone interested can sign up for regular lessons in school. Victoria has been teaching for 30 years and has experience of teaching all ages and abilities. She’s taught in lots of places including Chagford Primary School, Plymouth College, St Margaret’s School in Exeter, Plymouth University and the South West Music School. In lessons Victoria introduces pupils to different styles of music and likes to include pupils’ choices too. As well as instrumental technique the learning covers reading music, music theory, listening skills and general musicianship. The pace of the lessons is geared to the pupil’s individual needs and pupils can take exams and enter local music festivals if they wish but there is no pressure to do so. There are scientific studies showing how the brain lights up when playing a musical instrument - showing how learning to play an instrument is good for the brain and therefore has a beneficial effect on overall learning ability across all subjects and areas of life. Here’s a link to a short video which I highly recommend watching if you want more information on this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0JKCYZ8hng As well as teaching Victoria also plays clarinet professionally with orchestras and small groups. She's played with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Glyndebourne Touring Opera, British Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and the Ten Tors Orchestra among others. Victoria has also played in wind quintets and is currently in one called the Skylark Quintet (https://www.skylarkquintet.com). She is also part of a duo called Just Us Musique in which she plays bass clarinet with a violinist. She's been on Radios 2 & 3 and played in lots of festivals including Aix-en-Provence, Montepulciano, Ryedale, Chichester and Aldeburgh. She's also made CDs with Quintessence Wind Quintet and a clarinet sextet called The Clarinet Section (you can find these CDs on Spotify). Victoria studied at the Royal Northern College of Music and the University of Manchester. While she was at school in Canterbury she was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. Menu ChangeOn the first day back after half term, 28th Feb, the menu will be changed on school to Jacket potato with beans and cheese or Tuna mayonnaise. If you need any help with changing your booking, please do get in touch and we will ensure that all changes are made before the meals are ordered on the morning of Monday 28th. Any meals and breakfast club bookings for the Friday we were closed have been cancelled and refunded to your accounts. Free Training OpportunityFREE LEVEL TWO TRAINING COURSES FROM THE AIM GROUP ALONGSIDE DARTMOOR MULTI ACADEMY TRUST
THE DOMINO EFFECT | ANTICIPATE THE SIGNS, BEFORE THE DECLINE We are excited to include South Tawton Primary School (Dartmoor Multi Academy Trust) on our brand-new FREE campaign #TheDominoEffect It is aimed to raise awareness of the impact mental health problems are having on today’s generation and provide support around neurodiversity, all without cost. By gaining an essential understanding of these issues, we can all become better equipped to support individuals and prevent the problem from spiralling out of control. Here's some of our most popular subjects available:
All courses are accessed online within a 6-week window and are completed on a laptop or computer at the learner's home. No Exams are involved, and the courses are following an online platform which you read through and answer questions with a few paragraphs per answer - No essays. All the information needed is provided, and available to you 24/7. Once finished You can do as many as you like, however you can just do one course at a time. The only criteria the learner must meet to be eligible, is the following.
That said, the college will grant extensions if the learner has a reason as to why they won't be able to complete it within the allocated time. Please note: under the college request you may need to attend a short webinar that will need to be attended to ensure we get you successfully enrolled onto the correct course If you are interested in undertaking one of these Free Online courses, then please complete the following link asap. This will then allow Chris to contact you and send over the relevant Enrolment details and of course, answer any questions you have. South Tawton Primary School Link Any questions you may have Chris Greenfield will be in touch on 0203 900 3091 once you are registered to walk you through everything and make sure you are happy. PTA Disco Thank you to everyone who helped pull off another very successful disco! All the children seemed to enjoy themselves and it was especially nice to include the preschool this time. There was some excellent dancing and lots of fun (and knee slides...) School Dinner Balances Please could all outstanding lunch debts be paid before the start of the half term holiday. World Book Day We are delighted to be welcoming The Bookery, Crediton, to school, as part of our World Book Day celebrations. They will be coming on Tuesday 8th March and bringing their Top Titles for 2022 to share with the children, reading extracts and introducing them to new authors. They will then hold a bookfair, with all of the titles discounted for the event: £6 for one book or £10 for two. Please send cash in an envelope with your child’s name if you would like to buy a book. We are looking forward to this event and to continue fostering a love of reading and books. Don't forget that we will be dressing up as favourite book characters on Thursday 3rd March. Cake Sale A group of year 4's are wanting to show their support to the schools environmental work by having a cake sale on Thursday 17th after school! There will be lots of yummy goodies to buy 😋 Cake donations are welcome! Please do not send your child to school with money, but visit the cake stall with them after school to purchase cakes. Wildlife ChampionsThe wildlife champions had a fantastic afternoon spent in the Forest school area on Wednesday with Sarah from the Devon Wildlife Trust and Mrs West. The children created a super bug hotel and woodlouse house, thank you very much for all of the kind donations to help with this. The children are very excited to show their peers their handiwork. Museum of the MoonThe First South Zeal Scout group had a fabulous trip this week to Exeter Cathedral to see Museum Of The Moon by Luke Jerram. Our pupils tell us that is well worth a visit and recommend it to their school mates, possibly as trip in half term. https://my-moon.org/ Children's Mental Health WeekThe photos above are from our whole school assembly to celebrate Wear Your Scarf to School Day for the launch Children's Mental Health week. During the assembly, Mrs Culverhouse introduced some of the activities the children would complete during the week. All classes have developed their own emotional thermometers to help them to recognise feelings of anxiety and anger and explore strategies to calm themselves down. PTA NewsNext meeting: Because it's Valentines Day this Monday, we're having our next monthly meeting on Tuesday 15th February at 8pm. The meeting will be via Teams as usual and anyone new who would like to get involved then please email [email protected]. The month we'll be discussing the upcoming events and planning more great things for the future! Upcoming events... Don't forget...Pancakes: Tuesday 1st March Ground Force Day: Saturday 30th April Update from Devon Libraries
Dartmoor National Park Half Term Activities
Please click here for the full brochure. We've had a lovely week of learning this week and more information and photos about what we have been doing can be seen on the class blog pages. Unfortunately, Covid 19 cases seem to be on the rise again. We send our very best wishes for speedy recoveries to all our pupils who are currently positive (3 in Y2 and 3 in Y6) and also to Mrs Donovan. Y6 will be covered by Miss Chalcraft for the beginning of the week. This coming week is Children's Mental Health Week. To support this, and the valuable work of our PSHE curriculum, we will be holding a whole school 'wear your scarf to school day' on Monday 7th Feb. We use the resources and principles of SCARF (Safety, Caring, Achievement, Resilience, Friendship) in our weekly PSHE lessons and assemblies across every year group. So, please send your child to school wearing a scarf on Monday where we can all join together and raise awareness of this important topic. Cross CountryOn Friday afternoon, we were thrilled to take 32 runners to Simmons' Park for an inter-school cross country event. This is the first offsite event against other schools which we have been able to compete in since before the pandemic and it was brilliant fun. This race is the first in a series, so there were no individual or team results given on the day. However, we had some excellent runs and had the first runners home in the Y3/4 girls' race, the year 5/6 girls' race and the Y5/6 boys' race! The effort, enthusiasm and encouragement for others shown by all our pupils made the event particularly special. Well done and thank you to all runners and parent drivers/cheerers. World Book DayWorld Book Day is coming up on 3rd March and we wanted to give you advance notice that we will be inviting the children to dress up as their favourite book characters for the day. We would also like to join in with the school library service Design a T-Shirt competition. Further details can be found here, or by reading the documents below. Please note that entries will need to be returned to school by Monday 14th February so that we can scan them and send them into the library.
After the resounding success of last year's Book Nooks, to celebrate our love of reading this year, we will be asking the children to make story jars at home and bring them into school in time for World Book Day so that they can share them with their classmates. To make a story jar, the children first need to think of a book or story which they have really enjoyed. They then fill the jar with items or words which remind them of that story. There are some photos below to inspire you. Tax-Free Childcare VouchersParents in receipt of tax-free child care vouchers can use them to pay for breakfast club sessions if required. Please let us know if you would like any support with this. PTA 100 club Year 1 assisted at January's draw. This month's lucky winners were: 62 Leigh Forester 41 Emma Mills 80 Nan Passmore Congratulations to the winners! If you would like to join the 100 club then there are still some numbers available. Please email [email protected] for more information. Mealtime Assistant Vacancy Salary - £17,842 per annum pro rata (NJC Grade A) Location – South Tawton Primary School Job Term – Permanent / Part-Time Hours – 12.00pm to 1.30pm Monday to Friday (Term Time Only) 7.5 hours per week About the role: South Tawton Primary School are looking to recruit a Mealtime Assistant to ensure that the lunchtime supervision of children is adequately covered. The successful applicant will need to supervise, assist and encourage the children with the daily meals and undertake playground duty promoting positive relationships and play. We offer:
We are committed to safeguarding and protecting the welfare of children and young people. A Disclosure and Barring Service Certificate will be required for all posts and be subject to enhanced checks as part of our Prevent Duty. For further information on this role and to make an application, please visit Vacancies - Dartmoor Multi Academy Trust (dartmoormat.org.uk) PTA NewsThank you for taking part in the 2Challenge this week. You all joined in with such enthusiasm and completed our giant 2 extremely neatly! You've raised a brilliant £127! Spending This week we were delighted to receive a beautifully hand written letter from a Year 5 pupil requesting some litter pickers to be kept in school for pupils to use. This care for the environment and pride in our school should certainly be celebrated so some litter pickers will be on their way shortly. No doubt you've heard the exuberant ringing of the new hand bell in Year 6, this is one of a few items we have been able to purchase for the children already this term. We have also funded an annual subscription to ‘The Week’ for Year 6 to offer an even wider range of reading materials and a storage rack for their art aprons so they are always ready and waiting when it's time to get creative. We are most pleased to be funding the return of the circus skills entertainer who visited the school last July and will have a new show to share with all classes at the end of this half term. D.I.S.C.O. Don't forget this Friday is the disco, you need to return your permission forms by this Wednesday 9th February. We are looking forward to seeing you have such a fun time again! 3.00pm - 3.25pm Preschool 3.30pm - 4.30pm Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. 4.45pm - 5.45pm Year 3 and Year 4. 6pm - 7pm Year 5 and 6. If you are able to help out at one or more of the sessions we would be grateful if you could email us at [email protected] Don't forget...Pancakes: Tuesday 1st March Ground Force Day: Saturday 30th April Next meeting: Tuesday 15th February Free Gym and Swim Sessions at Parkland's Leisure CentreMessage from Parklands: Half term is just around the corner and Parklands Leisure Centre has a great program of activities to help unwind and work on physical and mental wellbeing. We are delighted to offer your staff and parents a FREE pass (Gym or Lane Swim). Click the link below to access your free pass. https://www.fusion-lifestyle.com/offers/free-pass/ FREE LEVEL TWO TRAINING COURSES FROM THE AIM GROUP ALONGSIDE DARTMOOR MULTI ACADEMY TRUST
THE DOMINO EFFECT | ANTICIPATE THE SIGNS, BEFORE THE DECLINE We are excited to include South Tawton Primary School (Dartmoor Multi Academy Trust) on our brand-new FREE campaign #TheDominoEffect It is aimed to raise awareness of the impact mental health problems are having on today’s generation and provide support around neurodiversity, all without cost. By gaining an essential understanding of these issues, we can all become better equipped to support individuals and prevent the problem from spiralling out of control. Here's some of our most popular subjects available:
All courses are accessed online within a 6-week window and are completed on a laptop or computer at the learner's home. No Exams are involved, and the courses are following an online platform which you read through and answer questions with a few paragraphs per answer - No essays. All the information needed is provided, and available to you 24/7. Once finished You can do as many as you like, however you can just do one course at a time. The only criteria the learner must meet to be eligible, is the following.
That said, the college will grant extensions if the learner has a reason as to why they won't be able to complete it within the allocated time. Please note: under the college request you may need to attend a short webinar that will need to be attended to ensure we get you successfully enrolled onto the correct course If you are interested in undertaking one of these Free Online courses, then please complete the following link asap. This will then allow Chris to contact you and send over the relevant Enrolment details and of course, answer any questions you have. South Tawton Primary School Link Any questions you may have Chris Greenfield will be in touch on 0203 900 3091 once you are registered to walk you through everything and make sure you are happy. Kind Regards Christopher Greenfield Level 2 Qualifications Team Leader | The AIM Group Phone: 0203 900 3091 |
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