Dear North Tawton Friends and Families, Happy Red Nose Day! Did you know that Comic Relief launched Red Nose Day in 1988? I was at college! My friends and I told jokes and did face painting in our local shopping centre. Comic Relief encourages schools and community groups to plan events, dress up, and complete challenges to raise money for children facing poverty in the UK and across the world. This year, the event has focused on supporting those in need during the current living crisis, focusing on issues such as lack of food and homelessness. Thank you for encouraging your children to wear red today and for the contributions to our cake sale! Miss Collins and Miss Wallis will collect up the money and let us know how much we have made for the charity. In the afternoon, we all met in the hall for a fun treat – we watched Mr Bean and told jokes. Lots of TV shows and personalities support the cause. There will be programmes on TV from 7pm on BBC1 tonight. International Women’s Day In assembly, we learnt why we still need to address gender equality. While many aspects of women rights have been addressed, there is still a long way to go in this country and across the globe to ensure that women and girls, men and boys are all treated fairly. We spoke about the need for 50% representation in sport, law making, politics, business and all positions of influence. Lunch Times This week we have been reviewing our lunch time systems. It is important that all of our children feel safe and included in all aspects of the school day. The dinner hall can be noisy, and finding a seat can be overwhelming and uncomfortable for many of our pupils. We have been looking at ways to ensure the systems run smoothly and efficiently, and that the noise and bustle is reduced. We do instruct children where to sit ‘filling up tables’ so that children are not saving seats and making others feel uncomfortable when they are looking for somewhere to sit. We trialled sitting in mixed age groups, houses and have settled on a system where we line up in a way to aid our kitchen staff to distribute food quickly and tables are filled up in order. Games outside have also been an area we have been addressing. Younger children have not always looked after play equipment and put it away at the end of sessions. We now have a new storage space and system for distribution and collection of equipment. Older children are much better at looking after equipment, but there have been issues with football games being perceived as unfair. I was really impressed that a group of Y6 pupils took up my request to form a problem-solving group, giving up part of their lunch time to help find solutions to the organisation of football. We have a system we tried today and it worked better. Children need to stick to their team (no mid game transfers!) and one team wear bibs so it is clear to everyone who is on which team. It is important to us that we take in to consideration all of our children’s needs and we appreciate your support while we try new systems. Coats The weather is improving – however, children still need a coat every day! Today several children did not have waterproof coats. We are hardy North Tawtoners and like to be out in all weathers, so please make sure your children are dressed appropriately. Attendance Each week we monitor attendance. We are calculating attendance across the school houses and House Captains announce the percentages in Friday assembly. Tin Can Collection Next week is the last week of our tin can collection. Pease bring along your cans for this worthy cause. We need your cola, soda, beer and cocktail cans! Please bring them to school on a Thursday where there will be a box at the gate. The cans will be recycled, and the money obtained given to the charity Families in Greif. Help for grieving children & families | Families in Grief Flowers Thanks to FONTS for donating plants to the school, the Y4 class and our Wildlife Champions have been busy planting this week. Do look at the planting in the Memorial Garden and the top of the carpark. For photos and information about class learning, please click here for our blogs:
Sycamore Class Hazel Class Ash Class Willow Class Beech Class Chestnut Class Oak Class Acorn Class Wishing you all a lovely weekend, Tara Penny Principal 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 Dear North Tawton Friends and Families, As always we have had a busy half term of sports and art, maths and reading, design and technology, music and writing. Find out more about our learning in our class blogs: Sycamore Class Hazel Class Ash Class Willow Class Beech Class Chestnut Class Oak Class Acorn Class The Valentine's Disco is in full swing! KS2 pupils are at home perfecting their looks and practising their dance moves ready for their disco later. Thank you to FONTS for organising this with OkeGlow. Attendance Last week our Reception class had the highest attendance with 96% Well done Oak Class This week it was Year 2 with a very impressive 98% Well done Beech Class. We still have much lower attendance as a whole school than the average across our Trust schools. Please can all families support us in making sure attendance is of highest priority next term. Rewards Children are praised for their work, effort and attitude throughout the day. Our staff give thumbs up, give stickers and say well done. Each week we celebrate our learners of the week, these are children chosen because over the week they have been consistently working hard. The receive a certificate in Friday assembly. Our collaborative house points earned for effort and good deeds. We have a song and out Y6 house captains reveal the winners. This week, I have celebrated with three children who have earned 50 Dojo points for their individual hard work, which means a prize from my box of treats! Ultimately, we want children to achieve for the pleasure of achievement and not rewards, so we work towards this as they progress through the school. Parking Thank you to the families who are not dropping their children outside the school anymore. We all appreciate you making the walk to keep our children safe. For the few parents who occasionally drop children, please be aware that other parents complain to me regularly about this. Please make every effort to ensure we never have an accident outside our school. Made Well Madewell in Hatherleigh have some lovely activities for children next week, and all year round. Do pop in! Wishing all of our families a very happy half term.
Tara Penny Principal Dear North Tawton Friends and Families,
A taster of my week at North Tawton:
Find out more about our learning in our class blogs: Sycamore Class Hazel Class Ash Class Willow Class Beech Class Chestnut Class Oak Class Acorn Class Thank you FONTS For those who do not live in North Tawton and receive the parish magazine Roundabout, this is what I wrote this month: Thank You Friends of North Tawton Primary School This month I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank our parent group ‘Friends of North Tawton School.’ Schools nationally, and in fact internationally, have parent and carer groups who work in ways to support the schools their children attend. Typically, they will organise a summer fair and run bake sales. Our North Tawton group do this, and a whole lot more! Friends of North Tawton School (FONTS) have two main aims: to raise funds for the school and to bring the community together. Throughout the year they organise events to do these two things. The funds they raise are used for enriching the curriculum, as you will know from my previous articles, we have less and less government funding for doing this. Hopefully you have seen the local media coverage of the North Tawton Santa Dash. This was the first time and I hope will now become a tradition. This year we had another Christmas first, a wreath making workshop, which was also well attended and enjoyed. In addition to our Christmas Fair and selling children’s Christmas cards, FONTS raised over £2000 this Christmas! Over the past year FONTS have organised a Bring the Fizz for the Quiz, Valentines Disco, Crown around Town and Scarecrow trail and an Easter art competition. They also organised a book fair, school photos and of course the summer fair and bake sales! FONTS have been of great support advertising and supporting school events such as World Book Day, volunteer days and encouraging the local community to collect resources for developing our grounds and welcoming new parents. So, who are these people? There are four named posts. The people who volunteer to take on these roles fulfil the vital role of organisation and coordinating events, and ensure we fulfil legal duties such as risk assessments and insurances for events and keeping the accounts. They work closely with the school, namely myself and Jo Ware, to agree dates and organise logistics. Chair - Philippa Crisp Vice Chair - Vanessa Peri - Khoi Secretary- Katie Hillier Treasurer - Wayne Arscott They don’t do all the work! They enlist support from the wider parent and carer group. All are welcomed to be members of FONTS! We welcome parents and carers to support in any way they can: running stalls, selling raffle tickets and of course, attending events! We also have members who have taken on the organisation of a specific event such as Evie Compton organising the Santa Dash, and Katy Robins organising the printing of Y6 hoodies and the Bag 2 School scheme. This year FONTS have raised money for to pay for our new and exciting playground markings, staging and microphones to enhance our performances, playtime equipment trolleys, musical instruments and subsidised the costs of class trips. From all of us at the school, we would like to say a heartfelt Thank You! To find out more about FONTS and the work they do, follow ‘Friends of North Tawton School’ on Facebook. Attendance Please see the letter from Miss Paton reminding parents and carers of the importance of great attendance. The class with best attendance this week was Ash Class (Year 4) with 96.9% Well done Ash Class, extra play on Monday for you! Farewell Farewell to Lucy Lamb who leaves us after 5 years of dedication to our nursery children. She has taught so many of our children to be independent and make a great start on their learning journey. We will miss her. And farewell to Pieta Merriott who has been conducting her teaching training in year 1 class, we wish her all the best in the future. Wishing all our families a great weekend, Tara Penny Principal Dear North Tawton Friends and Families, As many of you will be aware, North Tawton lost internet coverage this week. While many homes were without for a day or two, we still didn’t have internet access on Friday. I sincerely hope we have it back for Monday! Three days of no internet at school has made me realise how reliant we have become on technology. We take registers online, arrange dinners online, use email to communicate with you and other agencies, and we use apps and websites throughout the day to keep records and seek information. Our lessons are greatly enhanced by showing video clips displaying diagrams, text and images. One child said: ‘in the olden days, they used blackboards and chalk at school!’ this made me feel very old as not only did I use these as a child, I did when I started teaching! Thank you for being patient with us, and thank you to staff for hot spotting and using their own phones so we could keep in touch and make important calls. Zones of Regulation In our Trust INSET training, we looked at the Zones of Regulation, how we can use this in school to help children recognise their emotional state, give the children language to discuss how they are feeling and ultimately, to regulate. You might like to use this at home when talking to your children. The aim is to know how to regulate back to the green zone where we are psychologically safe. Children often need support to recognise their zone – partially the yellow zone, and need advice to regulate, this called ‘co regulation’. We are making it clear that there are no ‘bad’ feelings, it is what we do with our feelings that matters. Anger is an emotion that can enable change, such as women getting the vote, workers having sick pay and children having protection and rights. Sadness is also something we should express and not be ashamed off.
Questions were asked about being excited, and why this is in the ‘yellow zone’ and not the green. We do of course want our children to be excited about their learning! Adults will recognise the difference between eager curiosity and hypervigilance and over excitement. When we are over excited, our brain can’t focus on acquiring new knowledge and skills. Do see more information about this here: The Zones of Regulation | A Curriculum For Emotional Regulation Attendance Our attendance continues to be lower than the national average, and our attendance officer has highlighted this. Letters are going home regarding levels of absence, so you are aware of how much your child has missed. Unless they are too ill to be at school, please make sure children are in school on time. We all have days we feel a bit under the weather, especially this time of year, but the majority of the time we need to build resilience and overcome this. Teachers are always willing to support with advice, encouragement, praise and stickers! Holidays in term time are not authorised. I understand how frustrating this is as the travel companies hike up their prices during school holidays. However, attendance is important, there is a direct link between attendance and attainment and we really do need children in school so we can give them every opportunity to succeed. Maths Audit Last week, Mr Whitley and Miss Paton conducted an audit of maths across the school They looked at books, observed lessons and spoke to children. We have identified maths as an area we need to focus on this year and we were glad that there were lots of positives from the audit. However, we still have children who are less confident in maths than they are in reading and in writing. We have an action plan to focus on raising achievement and enjoyment of maths. We will talk to you about this in our next parent meetings. Mr Morrow Visit On Friday, Mr Dan Morrow our Trust CEO, visited. He was really impressed by the attitudes of the children and enjoyed talking to the staff about what progress the children they work with are making. He was particularly impressed with the French teaching in Reception - thank you Marion, how well the staff know the needs of the pupils in their classes, the classroom environments and the conversations he had with pupils about their learning. He will be visiting regularly so he becomes a familiar face, and we can benefit from his advice and support. Lost Property We have lots of lost property at school! I am going to put it out on the hall tables after school on Monday so please pop in and see what you can find! Uniform Link We are not going to continue to store uniform at school. Please use this link to order new uniform. https://www.brigade.uk.com/parents/school/NO4360PD/ Class News As always, please click on the links below for class news · Sycamore Class · Hazel Class · Ash Class · Willow Class · Beech Class · Chestnut Class · Oak Class · Acorn Class Farewell Sadly, we say farewell to Lucy Lamb this week. She has been at North Tawton for five years and has been an integral part of developing our nursery provision. She has been a wonderful practitioner and colleague and will be missed. We wish her all the very best in her new adventures ahead. Wrap up warm and take good care Tara Penny Principal Welcome back to school! We have had a busy three days sharing our Christmas news and getting excited about our new topics. We also welcomed new staff to Y2 and new children to Year 1 and Year 3. We excited that we have more new children coming later this month!
Did you see we were in the local paper? Dozens took part in Friends of North Tawton School Santa Dash | creditoncourier.co.uk A huge thank you to Evie Compton for organising this and to all of you who took part, supported and sponsored. Same again next year? Wishing all of our families a very happy New Year! Tara Penny Dear North Tawton Friends and Families, Lots and lots of end of term news! Children in Need Last month the children danced to raise money for Children in Need. They raised £96! Well done all! Christmas Fair Thank you to all who came to our Christmas Fair. It was very busy and has made us rethink logistics for next year! Thank you to our choir, stallholders, and to staff and parents who made sure there were plenty games and refreshments. As always, thank you to FONTS for organising this event. Nativity Well done to our Year 1 and Year 2 children, and the staff, for a fantastic Barmy Bethlehem nativity. The children were fantastic actors and the staff worked hard to showcase them with great props, costumes and scenery. EYFS Concert, by candlelight! Our Early Years Foundation Stage pupils put on a wonderful performance of story, song and actions. They all dis such a great job. It was lovely to have parents stay and have a chat and a mince pie. Christingle Year Six led a very poignant service at the church. The read their Bible verses clesrly and confidently and paraded their Christingles with sobriety. Carols by Candlelight Thank you to those who came to St Peters Church for the Carols by Candlelight. Our school choir was small but really impressed the congregation and the church choir! Christmas Lunch Mandy and Nikki cooked a delicious Christmas lunch which went down a treat! Thank you to FONTS for the crackers. Carol Sing Along My favourite event was the whole school sing along. A wonderful get together to sing a medley of songs, from traditional carols such as Come all ye Faithful, to the debut appearance of a song about an Italian Donkey! A particular applause to our brave soloists singing Alleluia so beautifully. Nick Bryant and Miss Boyce have worked hard to continue the high quality and love of singing at our school. Santa Dash Good luck to all taking part and supporting the Santa Dash tomorrow! Uniform Link We are not going to continue to store uniform at school. Please use this link to order new uniform. https://www.brigade.uk.com/parents/school/NO4360PD/ Attendance Our attendance continues to be lower than national average. Unless they are too ill, please make sure children are in school on time. This could be a family new year resolution. Teachers are always willing to support with advice, encouragement, praise and stickers! Class News As always, please click on the links below for class news · Sycamore Class · Hazel Class · Ash Class · Willow Class · Beech Class · Chestnut Class · Oak Class · Acorn Class Parents and Carers can access Dojo for communicating with teachers and for reminders about events and even more class news and photos. Rev Spence shared this Christmas blessing by Robert Louis Stevenson at our Christingle service.
Loving Father, Help us remember the birth of Jesus, that we may share in the song of the angels, the gladness of the shepherds, and worship of the wise men. Close the door of hate and open the door of love all over the world. Let kindness come with every gift and good desires with every greeting. Deliver us from evil by the blessing which Christ brings, and teach us to be merry with clear hearts. May the Christmas morning make us happy to be thy children, and Christmas evening bring us to our beds with grateful thoughts, forgiving and forgiven, for Jesus' sake. Amen Wishing our North Tawton friends and families a very gentle Christmas Tara Penny Principal Dates for your Diary Tuesday 2nd January – Staff Inset Wednesday 3rd January – Children back to school Holiday dates for 2024 – 2025 are on the website Dear North Tawton Friends and Families, It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas! The decorations are up, the children are practicing their nativity and carols, and there is a definite winter bite in the air. Will we have snow before the 16th? Thank you to everyone for making our Christmas Fair so much fun! As always, our FONTS team organised a great event. The children enjoyed selling their wares and our choir sang beautifully to the crowds. Please make sure you sign up for the Santa Dash, or sponsor someone who has! There is so much happening at school over the next two weeks, please keep an eye on dojo for specific details.
Wednesday 6th December 4pm - Y1 & Y2 Nativity for families Friday 8th December 1.45pm - Y1 & 2 Nativity for families Thursday 7th December 2pm - Y6 Christingle at the church Sunday 10th December 6.30pm – Carols at the church Wednesday 13th December - Christmas Lunch wear Christmas Jumpers! 2.30pm - Nursery & Reception Christmas show Thursday 14th December 2.30pm – Christmas Carol sing a long – all welcome! Friday 15th December – last day Sunday 17th December - Santa Dash Wednesday 3rd January - Welcome back to school Class News As always, please click on the links below for class news · Sycamore Class · Hazel Class · Ash Class · Willow Class · Beech Class · Chestnut Class · Oak Class · Acorn Class Parents and Carers can access Dojo for communicating with teachers and for reminders about events and class news All the very best Tara Penny |
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