Dear North Tawton Friends and Families, As we welcome March and (hopefully) fewer rainy days, it has been lovely to see the daffodils growing. I am hoping the bulbs we planted last year will begin to show soon. If you would like to volunteer to do some weeding in our memorial garden, we would be very grateful! SEND Support I am delighted to announce that we have a new Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Teacher - Juliet Boyce. She will be working with Adam Newland and her counterpart Liz Davidson (who is SEND teacher at Chagford and South Tawton) to support us to deliver the best provision for our SEND pupils across the Foundry Hub. She has been working at North Tawton as a teacher and music specialist for several years so knows our children well. She will be introducing herself to parents of children with SEND needs over the coming weeks. Parent Meetings Thank you for coming to parent meetings last week. We value our open communication and wish to remind you that you do not need to wait for a meeting to talk about your children’s needs and progress. The beginning and end of the day are appropriate for short messages, but for discussions with me, or a class teacher please let us know so we can arrange a mutually convenient time. World Book Day Don’t forget its World Book Day on Thursday! I look forward to seeing the children dress up, please know that this is not compulsory. If your chid would rather not dress up, they are welcome to come in school uniform. There will be a Great Book Give Away from 8.30 – 9.00 in the hall. Please come in to the hall and help yourselves to some quality used books. If you have any books to donate, please being in before Thursday and they will be included. We will open this to children in the morning. Mothers and Others Plant sale Our wonderful FONTS group have arranged a plant sale for Friday after school to coincide with Mother’s Day weekend. Plants are £2 a pot, children going home on the bus or Y6 going home alone can bring money to school on the day and class teachers will keep safe for them. Courage Our theme this term is Courage. As it was Chinese New Year in the half term holiday, we started the term with an active performance of the Chinese Great Race, a traditional story to explain the Chinese zodiac. The Jade Emperor summoned thirteen animals to meet at the shore to compete in a race across the river. Ox gave Rat and Cat a lift. Rat pushed cat into the water jumped off Ox and won! Tiger swam steadily across the river, Rabbit found stepping stones and bound across. Dragon stopped to help others and then flew across the river, Snake hitched a lift around Horse’s feet, then slithered in before horse. Goat, Monkey and Rooster made a raft together. Dog played in the water before making it to the shore and Pig stopped for a meal and a sleep and then swam across coming in 12th. Cat came in last, bedraggled and exhausted, and didn’t get a year named after them. We had fun performing the story and then thought about the following: Should Rat have had a year named after them? Is it fair that there is not a year named Year of the Cat? Who showed courage? Is courage the same as winning? Were there winners? Is it courageous to cheat? Who needed to show more courage? Over the following weeks, we will be exploring courage, looking to the Bible for stories and inspiration and finding for examples in history and current news to think about what courage means and how we can show this in our day to day lives. Attendance Each week we monitor attendance. This week we looked at attendance across the school houses and House Captains announced the percentages in Assembly on Friday. Creedy 91% Dart 88% Taw 96% Okement 83% Well done to Taw House. We are aiming for 97% +. With a week of colds and bugs doing the rounds, 96% is very good. Tin Can Collection Youcan be a Twocan Toucan Too! We are collecting aluminium cans for the charity Families in Greif. Mike Clark, President of the Rotary Club explained to the children in assembly that the cans will be recycled, and the money obtained given to this worthy charity. We need your cola, soda, beer and cocktail cans! Please bring them to school on a Thursday where there will be a collection at the gate. For more details about this charity, please click on the link Help for grieving children & families | Families in Grief Equality, Diversity and Inclusion In the half term holiday, I attended the Diversity and Inclusion drop in coffee morning at the community centre in North Tawton. This was a great opportunity to talk about the good work we are doing at school to support our children to learn about diversity and to prepare them for the wider world. I met with representatives from the police, Plymouth and Devon Racal Equality Council and local people who share an interest in learning more and networking about including others in our community. I look forward to this group building members and momentum. ![]() Prayer Book Rebellion I met with Marion Pratt and David Botting Page last week to find out about The Prayer Book Rebellion, a local historic event. They have a whole programme of exciting events to mark the 475th anniversary. We have planned some events in school to find out more about Tudor times and learn about this historic event. There will be lots of local events for families to get involved in too. More details to follow! Find out what has been happening in classes by following our class blogs: Sycamore Class Hazel Class Ash Class Willow Class Beech Class Chestnut Class Oak Class Acorn Class With very best wishes for the week ahead,
Tara Penny Principal Comments are closed.
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