Dear North Tawton Friends and Families, Ready Respectful Safe We revisited our behaviour expectations in assembly on Monday. Behaviour in classes is very good, all visitors comment upon this and our Trust learning audits and Ofsted report evidence this! However, we do have some occasional unwanted behaviour at lunch and playtimes. Our Young Sports Leaders are doing a grand job modelling turn taking and sportsmanship and our staff are working hard to praise the positive and continue to have high expectations of all of our children. Please do support this at home by talking about being ready and respectful and safe in your daily routines. World Book Day Once again the children, and staff, looked amazing dressed up as inspired by their favourite books! Lots of popular classics such as Where’s Wally, Disney princesses and Roald Dahl characters, but also some new costumes including Frida Kahlo, Marie Curie and a chess piece! Head to the school blogs, Dojo and our FONTS Facebook page for more photos! Our bunting winners were: N Amelia Jane R George Y1 Margo B Y2 Margo W Y3 Natan Y4 Marnie Y5 Laura Y6 Jessica R Thank you to FONTS who organised this and provided prizes. Children were engaged in lots of activities in classes to celebrate the love of reading. There are lots of good videos and advice on line to support parents reading with children at home. Such as https://youtu.be/iRPNPCAf84E Dressing Up We are aware that some children do not like to dress up, and it can cause additional strain on families. I would like to remind you that this is never an expectation. However, for those who do like to dress up, our next non uniform day will be on Tuesday 14th March for World Wildlife Day. Children are allowed to dress up as an animal, or plant! Mental Health Physical health, and to an extent spiritual health, have been taught in schools for a long time. However, mental health is something which has only recently become part of our school curriculum. I strongly believe this is of huge benefit to our children that they are learning from a young age how to look after their bodies and their minds. This is a wonderful poster made by Year 4.
Festival of Hope Next week we launch our 2023 Festival of Hope. This a collection of events linking us with other schools across our Trust. Today we completed our collaborative art piece for the Trust art exhibition. I will reveal it in next week’s newsletter! Class Blogs As always, please look at the class blogs to see what the pupils have been learning about this week. With very best wishes for the weekend Tara Penny Principal Key Dates for your diaries Wednesday 8th March – Cross Country at Chagford Thursday 9th March 6pm LSB Monday 13th March – R, Y1, Y2, Y3 & Y4 Zoo Tuesday 14th March – World Wildlife day – dress up as an animal *Wednesday 15th March – Strike day *Thursday 16th March – Strike day Monday 20th March – Fun Fitness 2 – 3pm Friday 24th March– Author Visit Tuesday 28th March – Y6 SATs meeting 5pm Thursday 30th March – Y6 at Oke Football Comp Friday 31st 1.30 – 2pm Normandy Meeting Y6 Thursday 30th March – Art exhibition in the hall after school. Friday 31st March Parent Assembly 2pm 8th May – Bank Holiday following King’s Coronation – Volunteers at school Friday 9th June 7pm FONTS Quiz Friday 30th June - Rainbow Day Saturday 1st July – Summer Fair 11th July – 15th July - Y6 Residential to France 23rd July - Carnival Friday *not confirmed yet Dear North Tawton Friends and Families, Welcome back! We have lots to look forward to in this short term ahead including our Trust wide Festival of Hope which will include music, sports and art events, World Book Day and our school Science Week. These are going to be great experiences for our children, please keep an eye out for emails and dojos for details. School Grounds During the half term week, Gary and Jamie from our Estates team swept and power washed the decking outside Y5 & Y6, the tables and area outside N & R and the playgrounds. They have done a great job and it really makes a difference to the look of the school. The daffodils are blooming and I am hopeful the new bulbs we planted last year will start coming through soon. We have had a donation of frogspawn in our pond so we will be on the look out for frogs! We have lots of plans in the pipeline for the memorial garden and the forest school, if you have an interest in gardening, or reading with children, please come along to the volunteers meeting on Monday at 9am. Lent In our assemblies this week we have learnt and thought about Lent, why Christians give things up, or take things up during the 40 day period and why many people enjoy pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. On Thursday, Mr Cutler led a pancake tossing competition! Fustal Year 3 and Year 4 took part in OCRA futsal games on Thursday – apologise they came home so muddy, I am sure washing machines were spinning across North Tawton! Class Blogs As always, please look at the class blogs to see what the pupils have been learning about this week. Tara Penny Principal Key Dates for your diary Mon 27th Feb – 9 am Volunteer meeting in hall Wednesday 1st March – Book Day – dress up as a book character Thursday 2nd March - Strike day, school open for Nursery and Y6 only Wednesday 8th March – Cross Country at Chagford Thursday 9th March - 6pm Local Stakeholders Board Monday 13th March – R, Y1, Y2, Y3 & Y4 Zoo visit Tuesday 14th March – World Wildlife day – dress up as an animal *Wednesday 15th March – Strike day *Thursday 16th March – Strike day Monday 20th March – Fun Fitness 2 – 3pm Friday 24th March– Author Visit Tuesday 28th March – Y6 SATs meeting 5pm Thursday 30th March – Y6 football team at Okehampton Friday 31st March 1.30 – 2pm Normandy Meeting for Y6 Friday 31st March - Parent Assembly / Art show time TBA 8th May – Bank Holiday following King’s Coronation Friday 30th June - Rainbow Day 11th July – 15th July - Y6 Residential to France 23rd July - Carnival Friday *not confirmed yet Dear North Tawton Friends and Families, The end of this term marks halfway through our school year! We have certainly achieved a lot so far: making progress with improving our outdoor areas; further developing our curriculum and working with FONTS to put on great events. In terms of pupil achievement, we are working hard as a school and with others in our Trust to ensure all children are supported and challenged to be the best that they can be academically and personally. We have so many plans for the coming months, including: The Festival of Hope; a KS1 and lower KS2 zoo visit; further developing our outdoor areas; music concert; Rainbow Day; Y5 day at Escot; Y6 residential to France; lots more sporting events and of course further developing our curriculum which we are building and improving all the time. I am also looking forward to the longer days and warmer weather Spring and Summer promise! This week, as every week has been packed with exciting events including: Reception Phonics Meeting A group of parents came to school to join our reception class to learn more about our phonics programme Read Write Inc. Thank you Mrs MacDonald – parents said it was really helpful and supportive. Volunteer Meetings I held two Volunteer Welcome Meetings where parents and members of our local community came to find out more about roles they can play in our school, how to ensure children are safe and our relevant policies. I am so excited that so many people are passionate about supporting us and I look forward to thus building more and more. I’ll hold another meeting on Monday 27th Feb at 9.00 for people who could not make one of the meetings this week. Do come along, and / or nudge someone else to! Sports Events We had children represent our school at OCRA cross country and swimming events. As always their efforts and attitudes were commendable. Tiverton Museum Year 4 went to Tiverton Museum to learn more about their history topic Anglo Saxons. Leadership Conference On Thursday I had a really encouraging and productive day working with Trust leaders. We are working hard to be the best leaders of our services and schools so that our children have the greatest opportunities to thrive. School Disco What a fabulous end to the half term! A huge thank you to Rob Holmes for providing the music and light and our FONTS team for organising decorations and refreshments. A great time was had by all. Apologies that my photos are dark and blurry! Farewells
Miss Wallis and Mr Hunt have been working in Y4 over the past three months as an essential part of their course to qualify as teachers. Today we had to say goodbye ☹ We wish them all the very best in their careers ahead and thank them both for all their hard work. Class Blogs As always, please look at the class blogs to see what the pupils have been learning about this week. Wishing all of our families a very happy half term Tara Penny Principal Dear North Tawton Friends and Families, Thank you for the support you have given us regarding the industrial action. As you know, the staff are passionately committed to the education of our pupils and taking strike action was not an easy decision to make. Some parents have asked why North Tawton was closed while other schools were not. The reason is that education staff across the country belong to one of several unions, or none at all. While all unions have been asking for fairer funding, only one union voted for industrial action, the National Education Union (NEU) Unlike some schools, all of our teaching staff are in the NEU, therefore there would not be any teachers or safeguarding leads on site. Some parents were not aware that teachers do not get pad if on strike, and also that they did not have to give notice of their intentions (I am very grateful that they did.) The NEU is not just a union for teachers; principals, including myself, and CEOs including our Trust leader are also NEU members. I will write more about this in the March edition of Roundabout. It looks like the strikes on Thursday March 2nd will be going ahead, so school will again be closed. I will be in touch regarding this straight after the holiday. Developing our Outdoor Education Area Last week we had an incredibly generous delivery of donated slate chippings. At the weekend, our school pond was bordered with the chippings and looks amazing! Huge thanks to Evie and David again for their hard work and connections. After half term, I will organise a number of ‘Ground Force’ days to continue this great work. Volunteers
I will be holding two volunteer meetings next week on Wednesday 8th February at 10.30am and Friday 10th February in the school hall. We have invited people who have already applied to volunteer, but his is open to those who have not yet. I will talk about:
There will be lots of opportunity for questions and discussion. It will take no longer than 1 hour, and there will be biscuits! Please do come along if you have time to volunteer, particularly to read with children. Do encourage locals to attend. Dress to Impress! For Children's Mental Health week, the children can wear their favourite clothes on Friday 10th February. It should be whatever they like to wear. If you have PE and the clothes aren't suitable for PE, please send PE kit in as well so they can get changed. School Disco The children are very excited about the disco on Friday! Please collect your tickets from our FONTs reps at the gate before or after school. Class Blogs As always, please look at the class blogs to see what the pupils have been learning about this week. With very best wishes, Tara Penny Principal Dear North Tawton Friends and Families, Burns Night The 25th January is an important day for Scottish people – it’s the birthday of the great Scottish poet Robert Burns. If you have not heard of him, you may well have sung Old Lang Syne at New Year – which is probably his most famous poem. In assembly I told the children how I celebrate Burns Night with (vegetarian!) haggis, tatties and neeps! We listened to bagpipe music – not everyone’s taste, and said the Selkirk Grace which is a thanks for the food we have. The Dogs Trust
This week Emily Mayo visited us to talk about how to be safe around dogs. She led an assembly and then a workshop in R – Y6 classes. She was really impressed by our delightful children. A message from Emily Mayo – Dogs Trust Thank you for inviting me to come into your school. The staff and children made me feel very welcome and I was really impressed by questioning, speaking skills and thoughtful responses given in the workshops. Your pupils had some great answers to my questions and I hope you all learned more about How to Behave Safely Around Dogs. Your school felt like a really happy place to be with a great and positive team. I genuinely enjoyed my days there. Please see the link to the 'Be Dog Smart Leaflet https://www.learnwithdogstrust.org.uk/safety/bedogsmart-parentsleaflet.pdf This is for all families, those with dogs and those without! The Dogs Trust believe that by educating young people about staying safe around dogs, we can really improve dog welfare for the better. Our experiences show that teaching compassion, care and respect towards animals can also enrich children’s lives in many other ways. Farewell Today we said farewell to our student teachers Marnie Collins who has been in Y6 and Charlotte Genduso who has been in Y2. They have both been a fabulous addition to our team while they have been here. We wish them all the very best in their careers ahead and thank them both for all their hard work. Industrial Action North Tawton Primary School will be closed to all pupils on Wednesday 1st February and Thursday 2nd March. If a pay deal is still not met, the NEU will launch further strikes on 15th March and 16th March. Parents and Carers, please see the email I sent today about arrangements. Class Blogs As always, please look at the class blogs to see what the pupils have been learning about this week. Sycamore Class With very best wishes, Tara Penny Principal Dear North Tawton Families,
As I am sure you have heard on the news, the teaching union NEU has called for strike action. To this end, North Tawton Primary School will be closed to all pupils on Wednesday 1st February and Thursday 2nd March. The strike is happening because of a national dispute between the unions and the government over pay, and not because of any issues at our school. If a pay deal is still not met, the NEU will launch further strikes on 15th March and 16th March. I’m sorry about the disruption to you and to your child’s education. I understand that this situation may be frustrating, and ask that all members of our school community understand that this decision has not been taken lightly by our staff and is not the outcome they wanted either. We shall provide guidance on learning activities your children can access on these days and we will provide a packed lunch for children who are in receipt of pupil premium funding the day before. If you wish to discuss this further, please speak to me, With best wishes, Tara Penny Principal Dear North Tawton Friends and Families, Chinese New Year The week in assemblies we have been learning about the upcoming Chinese New Year. The children have learnt about the traditions and celebrations associated with the new year. This year will be the Year of the Rabbit. Nursery and Reception have been copying Chinese writing, making lanterns and drawing dragons! KS1 and KS2 have thought about the characteristics of the animals the years are named after. Why not find out what animal year you were born in and see if you agree with the characteristics! Thank You
A huge thank you to Evie and David for building a fence for our pond. It is far superior to our orange plastic one, and in keeping with our outdoor theme. We have lots of plans for outside, so please do watch this space or ways you can get involved and make our outdoor learning spaces even more exciting and engaging. Roll on better weather so we can make more of our amazing outdoor areas. Audits and Support This week we have had visitors in school to help us audit and further improve our reading and maths provision and our support for those with communication and interaction needs. Our visitors were impressed with our pupils hard work, the school environment and the culture and attitude towards learning across the while school. They have helped us to recognise what we are doing well and also to make plans to make even more progress. As always, I am incredibly proud of the work we are doing here; in particular the passion our staff have for continuous improvement and the fact they keep going the extra mile to meet the needs of all of our pupils. Internet Access at Home Please can we urge parents to consider how devices are being used at home. Are you aware of what games they are playing and images they are seeing? Do your children have access to social media, and if so are you aware of what they are writing and videos they are uploading? You may find the following websites useful for help and advice supporting your child with use of the internet at home. We will of course be covering these topics as part of our learning at school too. https://www.childnet.com/parents-and-carers/ https://saferinternet.org.uk/blog/helping-your-child-with-whatsapp Class Blogs As always, please look at the class blogs to see what the pupils have been learning about this week. With very best wishes, Tara Penny Principal Dear North Tawton Friends and Families,
Our first ‘proper’ week back! Children (and staff!) are back into the routines of school and have been very enthusiastic about their new topics. This week Year 2 and Year 6 have completed assessments in English and maths help us measure individual progress and to plan teaching for the term ahead. Year 5 started their swimming sessions at Parklands in Okehampton on Thursday. They have made a very confident start. Staff have been planning visits and visitors for the spring, details to come once confirmed… Watch this space! As always, please look at the class blogs to see what the pupils have been learning about this week. Absence We had such a lot of absence last term, particularly in the last two weeks, due to unprecedented waves of illnesses. We will send a copy of your child’s attendance so you can see their current percentage. We are aiming for above 95% which I know for many is a long way off, but if we can keep illnesses away and make sure children are in school if well, then all percentages should improve over this term ahead. If your child is ill, please call the school office to inform us. Illness will be authorised, however if there is a pattern of regular days off, we will ask you about this and talk about support we and the educational welfare officer can offer. Holidays are not authorised. Term Dates The term dates for 2023 – 24 are on the website, so if you are planning holidays, please do check these so children do not miss valuable learning time. With very best wishes, Tara Penny Principal Dear North Tawton Friends and Families,
Welcome back! I wish all of our school community a happy and healthy new year! In assembly this week we thought about New Year Resolutions. Children were invited to reflect on the promises they made to themselves last year and make new ones for the year ahead. Nativity We made the decision to cancel our nativity performances in December due to high levels of sickness. Although it was very peculiar to celebrate Christmas in school on 5th and 6th January, it was a lovey start to the term! Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 performed their Strictly Come Dancing themed nativity on Thursday to the rest of the school and then after school on Thursday and Friday for their parents. Considering the disruption to rehearsals, the children were fantastic and remembered all their words, songs and dance moves. A 10 from me! Nursery entertained their families with three brilliant songs and showed pictures and writing about the Christmas story, they were really proud and confident and really made us all smile! Thank you to all the parents who came to the performances and for all the lovely comments. A reminder about Uniform, PE Kits and Jewellery Uniform We want children to feel proud of their school and wear our school uniform as it helps to give a sense of identity. Children can wear: a white or green polo shirt, a green sweatshirt or cardigan with school logo, with grey or black trousers, or grey or black shorts. A grey skirt or pinafore dress or green and white check dress. Grey or white socks or tights with black shoes. Black, low-heeled boots may also be worn in Winter/adverse weather conditions. Green baseball caps with our school logo on are also available from the office. The school keeps a stock of sweatshirts in various sizes and these can be obtained from the school office. New parents will receive a copy of the current uniform requirements with prices attached. Further copies are available from the office. PE Kit The PE kit is a house colour T shirt, black or navy shorts, white sports socks, and trainers or pumps. You can purchase a t shirt in the colour of the house they are in from School Gateway. KS2 children will have swimming lessons at the pool in Okehampton. For this they also require a swimming costume and hat. We would prefer these to be a one – piece swimsuit for girls and trunks or swimming shorts of a sensible length for boys. Swimming hats can be purchased from the school office. Please ensure that all your child’s school uniform is labelled with their name. Jewellery/Hair styles/Fashion In the interests of safety, we do not allow children to wear jewellery in school. If ears have been pierced, studs may be worn. These should be removed/taped over before swimming. We encourage children to be independent individuals, however we request parents to consider the impact of fashion on their child’s learning and social development and ask parents to ensure their children do not wear inappropriate hairstyles or fashion items to school. Long hair should be tied back for both safety and hygiene reasons. This is on our school website I am going to add to this that we can not allow children to have smart watches in school. I know quite a few children got these for Christmas, but they are not appropriate for school. Term Dates The term dates for 2023 – 24 are on the website, so if you are planning holidays, please do check these so children do not miss valuable learning time. As always, please look at the class blogs to see what the pupils have been learning about this week. With very best wishes Tara Penny Principal Dear North Tawton Friends and Families, What an end to the term! With so many children, and staff off with illness, we made the sad but sensible decision to postpone the nativity. Messages on Dojo have been sent to explain the exchange of tickets should you need to. Performing a nativity in January will be a first for me! I didn’t write a newsletter last week, so this is a bumper edition! Advent Candles Last week our assembly theme was peace. The second candle of advent. We remembered that Jesus was born to bring peace to the world. We thought about what peace means in our world today, but also how we can bring peace to our school, homes and our friendships. Children were encouraged to consider making peaceful choices over the coming exciting weeks when it can be easy to get over excited and not think about others as much as we should. This week we celebrated the third – Joy, by planning class parties for Friday. The last candle is Love – representing the love that Jesus, and all new babies, bring to the world. Father Christmas Last Tuesday we had a very exciting surprise, Father Christmas came to our school! He brought presents for the children and wished us all a very happy Christmas! Thank you to FONTS for booking him as we know this is an extremely busy time of year for him. Christmas Lunch A huge thank you to our brilliant caterers Mandy and Nikki who cooked and served a fabulous meal last Wednesday. We had crackers supplied by FONTS and all the staff joined in serving and eating with the children. We also collected money for Save the Children by wearing our Christmas jumpers! Carol Concert Last Friday we had our KS2 Christmas Carol Concert. We sang our favourite carols and songs, KS2 classes played the handbells, Jumbie Jams, sang in rounds and had piano and violin accompanist too. Even the parents joined in! Huge thanks to our Music tutors Miss Boyce, Mr Bryant and our volunteer tutor Mr Arnold – our children sounded great! Christingle Year Six led a very sombre Christingle service at the church, telling the story of the nativity and parading their Christingles. They really do see this as a rite of passage and enjoy the seriousness of the responsibility. It was very moving and enjoyed by the congregation of pupils and parents and locals. Year 5 joined in to make up numbers! Winners of the Bauble Competition This is always a hard decision! I looked carefully for baubles made by children who had worked alone, done something different or original or just caught my eye. Nursery – Felicity Reception – Henry Year 1 – Freddie G Year 2 – Charlie T Year 3 – Finley A Year 4 – Sofia Year 5 – Matilda Year 6 – Georgia A huge thanks to RL Taylor for supplying fabulous prizes, again! Community Fridge Did you see this article about the North Tawton Community Fridge? North Tawton celebrates opening its Community Fridge in time for Christmas | LiveWest The Community Fridge is in Merry Go Round and is open to all North Tawton residents to donate to and to take what you need. Lost Property We have rather a large collection of lost property collecting in our hall! Please pop in if you think some may be yours! And a reminder for the new year, please, please label clothes! A message from our Three Hares Local Stakeholder Board With the lead-up to Christmas, we have been quite busy these last couple of weeks, but in a really wonderful and positive way. Our thanks to our three schools for inviting us in over a frantic period in the school year, so we can appreciate the fruits of the children and staff’s labour! I have just returned from North Tawton’s Carol Concert at the school which was utterly joyful! I absolutely loved the mix of music and singing, and particularly loved “Oh come all ye faithful” when they started the chorus quite loudly (when it’s meant to be quite quiet) and I was thinking “Goodness, how are they going to get any louder?” but sure enough, by the third repetition, they were raising the roof! One of the best parts of being a governor is seeing the children being themselves in a safe environment at school, and it was so clear to me how much the kids were enjoying themselves. David Spence, our new governor based in North Tawton, also attended and was able to see the school “in action” (as well as applauding his own children!). Another great part of our role is being recognised by the children… Last week, I was lucky enough to be invited on the joint Chagford / North Tawton Year 6 school trip to the Energy for Waste plant in Devonport, Plymouth, so I spent all day with twelve of the Y6 North Tawton pupils. If you’re a parent of any of those children, I have to say what an absolute delight they were to hang out with. And it was even nicer to be recognised by them today at the school, as they called out to say “Hi!” to me. In the meantime, all of our governors have attended the “Ringfenced Funding” training, which helps us to understand what additional monies the schools receive for Pupil Premium, Sports Premium etc, and how that is spent for the benefit of the children. We are booking meetings with the Principals and Sports Leads for each school early next term to monitor how those funds are being spent in each school, and the impact of those spends. Liz has also managed to visit South Tawton a couple of times, where she was impressed with the great progress Early Years have made with their reading using the Read Write Inc platform, and this was reinforced by one of the children telling her how happy they were that they could “read words now!” We hope to see you at one of the school’s festive events – between us, we are hoping to get to as many as possible. Mel & Liz [email protected] [email protected] As always, please look at the class blogs to see what the pupils have been learning about this week. Wishing all of our children, staff and families who are ill a very speedy recovery, With very best wishes for a happy and healthy Christmas Tara Penny Principal |
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