Newsletter: 13th May 2022

School Lunch ordering

As you know, we are in the process of bringing our systems in line across all three schools. One huge current difference from your point of view is the ordering of school lunches. At the moment, Woolsery families can order or change meals up to the night before whereas Buckland and Parkham families need to give a much longer notice period.  However, after half term the following changes will be made to ParentPay for parents at Buckland and Parkham:

  • Parents will be able to order school meals weekly or half termly, whichever is easier, provided there is a credit balance on your account (or your child is entitled to Universal Infant Free School Meals or means-tested Free School Meals)
  • If your child is away from school (for example, on a school trip or through illness) we will cancel their meal and your account will be credited.
  • You will be able to order right up to midnight on the day before the meal is due to be taken. We continue to very much appreciate everyone who orders further ahead than this as it helps us control our stock and ordering, but know that this late-ordering facility will be really useful if family plans change at short notice.

Following this change, all three schools’ parents should have almost identical school meal ordering experiences and routines. I’m afraid we can’t move to a single payment system just yet, so Buckland and Parkham families will continue to use ParentPay and Woolsery families will continue to use ScoPay.

Adventure Bude Spending Money

Just a reminder to all chidlren attending the Adventure Bude residential at the end of the Half Term holiday, all spending money must be sent in to school by Friday 27th May. As school is closed over half term, there will be no ability to send this money in later and I will not be able to accept it on the day we leave. As you’ll have already read in the letter, the money, up to a maximum of  £15, should be sent in as cash in a sealed envelope labelled with your child’s name. We then pay this out gradually through the week. If you are also buying a hoodie, you can put a check in the envelope too, made payable to Adventure Bude. Thanks.

Lost Property

The lost property pile/mountain at Woolsery will be on tables by the main gate at the end of the day today. We have a lot of un-named jumpers and fleeces which have been left on the school field at the end of breaktimes, so please take some time to look through and see if any belong to you.

SATS congratulations

Well done to all of our Year 6 children who have completed their  SATS tests this week. These assessments are always a huge stress-point for children, but particularly so this year when the tests have been absent from the “usual” school calendar for two years. In all three schools, we’ve been very impressed with the resilience of all 39 children who took the tests. Thank you also to our Year 6 parents for keeping your children focused in the lead up to SATS week and ensuring that everyone was in school, on time each day.

Results will be published in early July and will be reported to parents along with Annual Reports, which will go out to parents across the Partnership on Friday 8th July.

FOBBS Village Walk

All Buckland children should have brought a sponsor form home this week for the Sponsored Village Walk which takes place on 27th May. The three classes will all complete different routes within the Parish – Owls will walk up to the playing field behind the church and complete some laps of the field before returning to school; Falcons will walk around Gorwood, whilst Eagles will walk down to The Glen, then back via Hele and Gorwood. Please encourage your children to get as much sponsorship as they can so that we can use FOBBS funds to improve learning and playing environments at the school – thank you.

Burton Art Gallery Exhibition

We are delighted that two of our children have won prizes in this year’s School’s Exhibition at the Burton Art Gallery! Huge congratulations to Ethan (Y1, Parkham) and Poppy (Y1, Woolsery) who were selected by the judging panel. The two children have been invited to attend a prize giving at the gallery next Friday afternoon. If you’ve not yet been in to see the exhibition, please try to do so – as always it’s a stunning collection of talent from Preschool to A-Level and really shouldn’t be missed – and it’s free admission, right next to Victoria Park!


Well done to everyone who received a Headteacher’s Award this week for developing excellent Learning Behaviours…

Owls: Esme, Oscar, Caleb and Jensen (bees) – working together to when creating a small world setting of the naughty bus; Elsie (tortoise) – being resilient and brave in her exploring.
Falcons: Hugo (tortoise) – settling in to Falcons Class and the school amazingly; Tillie (tortoise) – being courageous and resilient during swimming and getting her head under water; Ada (spider) – making great links with her maths learning on Fractions
Eagles:  Jess (dolphin) – engagement in learning outside of school teaching herself to play the drums and performing as part of a band; Brody and Jamie (tortoises) – settling into Eagles Class and the school amazingly. 

Kestrels: Abbie (tortoise) – being very resilient with her reading. To begin with Abbie found it difficult to read just a few pages at a time. Now she is reading the whole book confidently;  Payton (tortoise) – great reading with Jo daily and trying so hard. She is now recognising more sounds and reading with more confidence.
Buzzards:  Josie (tortoise) – showing resilience with her maths, keeping working on a problem to find the solution or for some problems all the possible solutions; Riley (tortoise) –  showing resilience with his Cyclops wanted poster. He ensured he included lots of detail in his description and also worked hard on ensuring his handwriting was as neat as it could be.
Hawks: Ben (tortoise) – for showing amazing resilience in his learning; Maddie (tortoise) – showing a “never give-up” attitude even when things are challenging.

Cranford: Freddie (spider) – for writing lots of sentences at home using his letters and sounds; Bea (cat) –  wanting to learn more about life cycles and using Google to find out about a snake.

Burscott: Hugo (bee) – super partner work in literacy, joining clauses to make sentences; Mason (bee) – super partner work in literacy, joining clauses to make sentences

Stroxworthy: Henry (tortoise) – continuing to improve his writing, grammar and presentation in English; Archie (tortoise) – continuing to improve his writing, grammar and presentation in English

Alminstone: Sophie (dolphin) – diving into all maths and english work this week; Jackie (dolphin) – being a super dolphin, working hard and becoming more independent

Ashmansworthy: Bailey (tortoise) – being resilient this week, whilst all the changes to his normal routine changed, he carried regardless.  Well done; Holly (bee) – working well with others during cricket, whilst learning new fielding skills.


Monday

Mrs Parkhouse out am (meeting) – Mr Tucker supply

Miss Shorney out pm (meeting) – Mr Tucker supply

Tuesday

Hawks Class to Appledore Art

Stroxworthy and Ashmansworthy Classes – Cricket coaching

All schools – Inter-school Cricket Competition at N.D Cricket Club Instow (pm)

 

Wednesday

Stroxworthy Class to Appledore Art

Falcons Class swimming

Thursday

Ms Peter, Mr Marks and Mrs Kersey out am (meeting) – Cover from in-school staff

Mrs Dobson out pm (meeting)

Friday

Mrs Lewis and Mrs Morrison out am (meeting)

Presentations at the Burton Art Gallery (pm)

Mr Cole’s Work Pattern:

Monday all day
Tuesday all day
Wednesday afternoon morning
Thursday afternoon
Friday all day

Have a super weekend everyone!

With best wishes,

Matt Cole, Headteacher

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