I would like to say on behalf of the Stakeholder Board, a huge thank you to all Three Hares’ staff, parents and carers and, most of all the pupils, for another wonderful year in our schools. I wish all the Year Six Leavers all the best in their next stage of education.
After 4 years as a governor in the Three Hares Stakeholder Board (and prior to that 4 years as a governor at South Tawton school) it is time for me to step down as governor. It has been an absolute privilege to be a governor and as Chair I have supported the principals with the development of the Three Hares Hub. I must also say a huge thank you to all governors, past and present, with whom I have worked over the last 8 years. I am not going far I am now a Trustee on the DMAT Trust Board and as LSB Link Trustee I will still be involved with the schools and the LSB. I am very pleased to announce that Mel Holyoak and Liz Davidson are taking on the role of Joint Chairs and I know they will do an amazing job. Once again, a big thank you to everyone and hope you all have a great summer. Emma Neath Chair of Three Hares LSB On 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 eneath@dmatschools.org.uk. 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 Three Hares Governors Blog
May 2021 Welcome to the Three Hares Governors blog page. Our purpose is to share information about the Three Hares from a governance perspective with parents and carers, as well as other members of our Three Hares community. We hope that you will find it interesting and informative. As every recent blog will have begun, it has been a challenging and unusual year to say the least! For us as governors, we have never experienced anything like this. We are used to being able to visit schools regularly, attend meetings and make decisions based on historical knowledge of the schools combined with forward-thinking strategic plans. As you can imagine, all of this changed in March 2020… The Dartmoor Multi-Academy Trust installed Dan Morrow as its new CEO, and he began his role in January 2021, although many of you will have met him virtually, when we held our parent forums at the end of last year. Governance work by the local governing bodies of all schools in the DMAT was suspended in the Spring Term at his request, to allow school leaders to focus solely on the schools’ provision to pupils. This meant we no longer held our regular governor meetings, but the Chair and other governors kept in regular contact with the schools during this time to provide support and a listening ear. There were also fortnightly meetings with the Trustees, Chairs of Governors and Dan to keep up to date with all that was happening across the MAT and schools in general. During lockdown, an extraordinary amount of work went into ensuring the education our of children continued whether in school or at home and our thanks go to all those who played a part in this effort. During the governance suspension, following a review of the Governance structure, we changed from being known as a Local Academy Committee, to the Local Stakeholder Board. The scope of our role has evolved, and the recently-published Scheme of Delegation (which sets out in detail the specifics of our role) explains that the purpose of the LSB is “to provide local access and accountability for our parents and carer; framed within a cooperative structure to build and deepen partnership and connection. This is the place that the voice of the individual pupil, staff member, parent and other membership groups is heard and understood; where the lived experience of our provision and offer is felt and triangulated.” But, what do we actually do on a day-to-day basis?! Well, we are divided into small groups covering Ethos, Safeguarding, SEND, Foundation, Resources, and Quality of Education. Each governor takes a “lead” for the group, so we focus our skills on particular areas of interest and ability. Our part is mostly to monitor that the schools are fulfilling their statutory responsibilities as well as ensuring that their strategic goals are being met. This might be in respect of staffing, budgeting, the premises, curriculum etc. We review the various policies and then look for evidence that everything is as it should be! It is also important that we stay up to date with legislation and keep our own knowledge up to date, so we attend various training sessions – some compulsory for the role (such as safeguarding) and others optional. We communicate frequently via email, but also with regular meetings. Our first meeting of the term was a couple of weeks ago, and all governors were in attendance. Most of our discussion was based around listening to each Principal update us in respect of their school – how the first couple of weeks of term have been, any challenges they are facing and things that are going really well, that might be shared amongst the three schools. We also discussed recruitment of two new parent governors to join our LSB. You should have received an email about this with details from your Principal. If you are interested and would like further information, please do contact our Chair of Governors, Emma Neath, whose details are below. We currently have three governors with connections to Chagford, two for North Tawton and two for South Tawton. A number of us have attended training sessions, provided by the DMAT and the Diocese. These include OFSTED training, Ethos, Safeguarding, and Ensuring a Quality Curriculum. Our Chair of Governors, Emma Neath, attended North Tawton’s Relationships and Sex Education parents’ forum, and the DMAT’s policy on this will be finalised and released shortly. Mel Holyoak, Vice-Chair of the LSB and Foundation Governor, is working alongside Mark Neave (Foundation Governor) with Ed Finch, Ed Pawson (of the Diocese of Exeter) and Rev Paul Seaton-Burns to review the implementation of the new SIAMS (Statutory Inspection of Anglican & Methodist Schools) framework in Chagford. Our next blog may not be quite as detailed, but we hope that you have found this introduction insightful! If you have any queries and would like any further information, please contact Emma Neath – Chair of Governors: eneath@dmatschools.org.uk Dear Colleagues, Parents, Carers and Friends of North Tawton Primary School,
Over recent weeks and months, since the Trust appointed our new CEO, Dan Morrow, school leaders across DMAT have engaged in exciting work to bring us together as a collaborative and cooperative team. This work is bringing about transformation within the Trust: Together we are a family of schools, united in our mission to sustain and strengthen our communities through exceptional education; based on the needs and aspirations of our children and the communities we serve. We will transform the life chances of children and adults alike, within and beyond our Trust. There has been a real sense of joy in our work together this term, where we have explored the rich vision and values of our Trust. As we stride forward, enjoying opportunities to reflect the strengths in each other, we will also be able support one another's relative vulnerabilities. The changes in leadership which you can read about here, will enable us, more than ever before to put children at the heart of everything we do, and every decision we make; leading rather than managing. This will ensure that we can really bring to the fore our civic responsibility to educate this generation of children and get it right for the next generation. Our school leaders will be empowered to serve our communities. What do these changes mean for the Three Hares? As you will have read in the School News Blog, Sunita Chauhan will move to become Principal over Bradford Primary and Black Torrington CE Primary Schools. Tara Penny will become Principal of North Tawton Primary, with Ed Finch taking the role of Principal at Chagford CE Primary. Sarah Marvin will remain as Principal of South Tawton Primary. Whilst the Three Hares will miss Sunita, as we move forward as a Trust, we will of course still work together as school leaders. My role of Executive Headteacher is also set to change, transitioning to work together with the other Executive Principals across all of our Trust schools, each with a focus area to drive forward. Though my allegiance, solely to the Three Hares will change, I am thrilled to be able to continue the work that has taken place to bring us together as a cluster of schools, just extending across a wider context. Over the coming days before Easter and in the weeks after Easter, the transition for new leadership will continue. Executive Principals and Dan Morrow will visit all of our Trust schools so that parents and children can meet them. I hope that our Three Hares communities will extend a warm welcome to our school leaders. Meanwhile, please take two minutes to view a video about the Dartmoor Multi Academy Trust changes in leadership. As we begin a new chapter in our Trust, with lockdown restrictions shortly beginning to ease and Covid-19 vaccines taking a hold, we look forward to fulfilling our promise to you to 'be the best that we can be' in order to deliver the very best education for our children. With kindest regards, Elizabeth Underwood ![]() As we draw close to the end of a really busy and exhausting half term for everyone, I have been reflecting on these six, unusual weeks. It is with pride, that I often receive feedback about the excellent work that happens in our Three Hares schools. Most recently, we were described as the most positively cohesive group of schools within our Trust. As we continue on our journey, working together, benefiting from each other’s strengths, the impact on your children’s development and enrichment will continue to grow. ![]() Remote Learning I would like to pay tribute to our teachers and support staff who have truly gone above and beyond to deliver the improved Remote Learning offer that we promised, following the first lockdown, last year. Within the Three Hares, I am really proud that we managed to deliver on that promise with the launch of Google Classroom across our schools, almost overnight. It has not been an easy journey, but due to the hard work and diligence of our staff and everyone going ‘the extra mile’, we have been able to ensure that our Three Hares curriculum has continued in spite of lockdown. Of course, this would not have been possible without the support and encouragement of parents at home, many of whom are trying to work from home as well and/or challenged with supporting more than one child. Thank you for your compassion and understanding. We look forward to hearing government advice about the plans for the return of our children as from 8th March. Thank you for the feedback many of you were able to provide through our recent surveys. We have been interested to process and follow-up your thoughts on well-being as well as provision of teaching and learning. Alongside really positive feedback about the curriculum, the highly valued new aspect of remote learning has been the provision of live interactions with teachers and support staff, either through registration, lessons, small group or 1:1. We have worked hard to develop this in all of our schools and it has evolved in a variety of ways, all of which aim to enable children to engage with their learning and maintain a feeling of belonging within the school community. Of course, there is no ‘requirement’ for live teaching, but I am delighted that we have been able to enable most children to engage in this way. Provision of additional devices to support families at home has been essential and with the arrival of further Chromebooks from the DfE last week, we have been able to go further to ensure our children have access to their learning. Thank you to those of you who have also donated devices to be ‘wiped’ and made available to other families. It is heart-warming to feel the support for each other is shared across our schools. ![]() Vision, Values and Ethos It has been an exciting few weeks since Christmas, working collaboratively with Dan Morrow and leaders right across our Trust, to develop a common understanding of our Vision, Values and Ethos. Together, we have explored the International Cooperative Values and the principles that underpin them. We are keen to explore with you as parents and our wider communities, how our Three Hares Values of: Hope, Respect, Courage, Kindness, Honesty and Curiosity relate to the cooperatives. Once children return to some semblance of normality in school again, we would hope to see these values being lived and breathed in everyday life in and beyond school, with children being able to identify them in themselves and each other, their community, famous people, paintings and so on. We would love to share your thinking, ideas, and contributions within a meeting for each school. Our recent ethos forums were sadly not well-attended, perhaps due to the current time-constraints imposed by home-learning and work commitments. However, we would really welcome your support and input and drive towards establishing our ‘Three Hares Vision Statement’. We are working with the wording ‘Together, we will live, love and learn with abundance’, which we hope will reflect our aim to deliver a primary experience which goes above and beyond. ![]() Premises We have been delighted to welcome Mr Steve Kiff to our team, as our Three Hares Premises Officer. Steve has thankfully been able to take up the mantle of managing the range of ongoing projects across our schools. With Trust support we have a number of plans which we are keen to progress, as described during our meetings with parents last term. I hope to be able to update you on our progress over the coming weeks as we continue to drive improvements to pre-school and early years environments at North and South Tawton and outdoor environment at Chagford. Thank you So, I would like to round off with a resounding ‘thank you’ to you all: children, parents, and staff, for everything that you have done and continue to do, to support the work of our Three Hares schools to provide the best opportunities for our children. I hope you enjoy a relaxing break over the half term week. With my very best wishes, Elizabeth Underwood, Executive Headteacher, The Three Hares Primary Schools. Dear Parents,
Blended Learning As we complete our fourth week of lockdown within the Three Hares, a huge well done to all of our children (and parents) who are home-learning at the moment! I have been delighted to share in some of the learning that is taking place and you should all be very proud of your achievements. It is no mean feat to take on this job, virtually overnight. Huge praise to our Three Hares staff who have up-skilled themselves, to ensure that our remote learning delivery has transformed since the first lockdown (as promised). You will have received a brief survey which I hope you will have a few minutes to complete over the weekend, which will help us to evaluate our current blended learning provision (teaching and learning for children in school as well as at home). Please refer to the separate email which you will have received to access the link to the survey. Thank you to the parents who are trying to juggle time spent on home learning as well as working from home – we understand how tricky this must be, especially for those of you with younger children. It has certainly made a big difference this time round, for children to engage in live teaching and / or sessions where they can engage with their teachers/teaching assistants. We are working hard, all the time, to make improvements to our provision, as we now understand that we will be continuing with home-learning at least until the 8th March. It has been lovely to see the children in school engaging in ‘live meets’ with their friends at home e.g. assemblies, ‘show and tell’, small group work and so on. I hope that parents are reassured that the children’s curriculum is continuing as closely as possible, to that which would be delivered if we still had everyone in school. We look forward to receiving your feedback and I will share with you the outcomes and any improvements we are able to make. I am pleased to say that having taken delivery of large numbers of Chromebooks this week, we now have class sets of devices in all of our schools for children to use. South Tawton and Chagford have had a long wait, due to the redeployment of the original delivery of devices for families which were eligible for Pupil Premium. This means that children, currently attending, in all of our schools now have access to a device to work within Google Classroom or similar to access their learning too. It is fantastic, thanks to the super work of the Trust, that all of our children, eligible for Pupil Premium, now have been allocated a device (Chromebook or tablet). If your child is struggling to access a device at home, please let us know and we will do our utmost to help. As the days begin to get a bit longer, and as we enter into the fifth week of lockdown, please take time to focus on mental health and well-being. Next week, is a national Children’s Mental Health Week with a theme of ‘Express Yourself’. I know that our schools will be making provision for this in their activities, but in between times, I hope you will take time to enjoy the outdoors, have a walk with your family. We are always here to help, so please keep in touch with us if there is anything more we can do to support you. There is opportunity in the survey, to comment and we will be taking careful note! Dartmoor Multi Academy Trust As you will know, Dan Morrow is now four weeks into his new role as Chief Executive Officer within our Trust. He has certainly made an impressive start, not least faced with the challenges of lockdown. Having visited two out of three of our schools, with the third visit taking place on Monday, I have had the opportunity to discuss with him the challenges faced by our schools and our vision for school improvement. Clearly, we have plans for building works and renovations at North and South Tawton and grounds development in all three schools. It is exciting to see that Dan is so supportive of the projects and is already impacting on the progress of planned works. He has been impressed with the progress made in all of our schools and the good work that has taken place as a Three Hares cluster. The three Heads of Schools and I meet as a leadership team at least once a week to drive school improvement and share operational challenges between us. Since January, we have also met with the wider group of 14 primary schools across the Trust, sharing leadership development, culture, values and vision days. It certainly is an exciting time within the Trust and leaders are feeling tremendously positive about the imminent and far-reaching future. I am sure that the impact of this work will soon filter out to staff, parents and wider communities. Of course, the most important impact, is that which makes a difference to our children. I am looking forward to sharing more about this as we go forward. Wishing you a happy and relaxing weekend with your families. Kindest regards Elizabeth Underwood Executive Headteacher A message from the Three Hares Governors
The Local Academy Committee governors would like to wish all children, parents and staff a very happy, safe, joyful and peaceful festive break. We would also like to thank all the staff for their extraordinary efforts to keep the schools as safe as possible. Behind the scenes, they have been working under extreme pressure to ensure the children have been able to experience school life as normally as possible, and have had to respond quickly and efficiently when cases of Covid-19 have arisen. Our thanks also go to parents and carers, who have worked with the schools so willingly to comply with the various measures that have been put in place to minimise the risk of spreading the virus. Have a wonderful Christmas, and we look forward to continuing our work with each of the Three Hares schools in the new year. With our very best wishes Three Hares Local Academy Committee governors I am pleased to say that we managed to launch Chagford's Fundraising Strategy at the end of last week, thanks to the hard work of our foundation governor, Mel Holyoak. Mel has led this on behalf of The Three Hares and the scheme is being piloted within our three schools in the first instance. We will roll out the fundraising strategy to local businesses and the wider community in the new year. If successful, the DMAT hope to roll out something similar, across the other 14 schools in due course.
In the meantime we hope that South Tawton and North Tawton's fundraising programme will also launch in the near future. Of course the Amazon Wish List is already live at Chagford and North and South Tawton's will be live soon. All lists are being populated by staff and updated as purchases are being made. Thank you to all the people who have already helped the schools by making a purchase - it is wonderful to see boxes of 'goodies' arrive in the office! Elizabeth Underwood I am delighted to say that this week, we managed to conclude our meetings with parents of all three schools. Members of the Three Hares Local Academy Committee (governors) and I, joined with Heads of Schools and representatives from the DMAT and Trustees to share our vision with parents, for the continuing development of each school. Parents welcomed the opportunity to ask questions and receive immediate answers from school leaders.
Together, we have been able to share information about current school improvement plans, as well as our aspirations for some more ambitious projects, known as 'legacy' projects. While school leaders are driving improvement plans on a daily basis, we are also keen to keep our sights on the bigger picture, to ensure that we always aim to achieve the absolute best for our children of the Three Hares. These projects may look different in each of the three schools, depending on the needs and issues arising, while some aims will share common themes. This year, we have a number of overarching focus areas within all 3 schools.
I am pleased to say that we are well supported by our governors and the DMAT. Mel Holyoak, our Vice Chair, is driving a fundraising strategy across the three schools and their communities, which it is hoped will support some of the more ambitious projects. Our PTAs are also supporting this work with an Amazon wish list for each school, in addition to their usual excellent fundraising events. We have been happy to have welcomed a good number of parents to each meeting across the schools and I hope that enabling parents to join us via Teams has been helpful. We look forward to our next occasion. With very best wishes, Elizabeth Underwood |
PRIMARY EXECUTIVE PRINCIPALSThe Primary Executive Principals, Elizabeth Underwood, Lisa Paton, Sarah Godbeer and Phil Whittley work with Principals across all of the Trust primary schools to support school improvement. Archives
July 2022
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