Newsletter: 7th October 2022
Posted on October 7, 2022 | By Mr Cole
Author Visits
I know Woosery children very much enjoyed hosting friends from Goldworthy Class and Tythecott Class this week so they could participate in the Author visits as part of the Appledore Book Festival. I hope the children from Parkham and Buckland Brewer enjoyed the trip out as well!
Here are some photos of the first vistor we had (illustrator Joseph Witchall)- along with the children from Alminstone and Goldworthy Classes.
Adventure Bude Residential
Thank you to everyone who came along to the recent series of Parents’ Presentations on the Year 6 residential to Bude. Please remember that in order to secure a place for your child we will need a deposit of at least £60 by the end of Half Term two weeks today.
If you have any questions about the residential and what it has to offer, please ask. I can either chat to you about anything in particular or send you a copy of the slides I used in thepresentation. Please also remember that the photos from last year’s trip are still on the Partnership blog here:
https://woolseryprimaryschool.edublogs.org/category/residentials/adventurebude-22/
Forest School – What’s it all about?
We’ve talked a lot about Forest School over the last few months. If you would like to know more about what Forest School actually is, how sessions run and what the underlying pedagogy behind it is, we have organised a Paren’ts Forest School Session. This will take place in the Forest School at Woolsery next Thursday morning from 9:30. All parents are welcome, please come along if you can. Louise Grout, our Forest School Leader, will run a session for you and show you the sorts of things the children get to do when they’re on session. You will need to wrap up warm, and wear wellies.
Parent/Teacher Meetings
Teachers shoud be reaching out to you at the moment asking for appointment times to discuss your child’s progress so far this year. These are really important meetings so please look out for the information if you’ve not already received it. If you are unable to make the times offered, please speak to your child’s teacher so we can work out a convenient time: we do expect all parents to make an appointment at this vital time of the year. Thanks.
If you receive this Newsletter as a parent but do not have residency for your child, please remember we warmly encourage you to meet with your child’s teacher as well. If you live locally, we ask that the appointment is face to face but if you live out of the area, just let your teachers know and they will be able to offer a telephone conversation instead.
As a reminder, here is the list of email addresses for Partnership teaching staff:
| Staff Member | Email Address |
| Ms Peter | lpeter@villageschools.org.uk |
| Mrs Parkhouse | cparkhouse@villageschools.org.uk |
| Mrs Lewis | slewis@villageschools.org.uk |
| Miss Shorney | gshorney@villageschools.org.uk |
| – | – |
| Miss McCann | lmccann@villageschools.org.uk |
| Mrs D Bird | dbird@villageschools.org.uk |
| Miss Orchard | norchard@villageschools.org.uk |
| Mrs Pennington | cpennington@villageschools.org.uk |
| Mr Marks | dmarks@villageschools.org.uk |
| – | – |
| Ms Richardson | jrichardson@villageschools.org.uk |
| Mrs Kersey | skersey@villageschools.org.uk |
| Mrs Morrison | hmorrison@villageschools.org.uk |
| Mrs Farmer | cfarmer@villageschools.org.uk |
| Mrs Oyarzabal | oyarzabal@villageschools.org.uk |
| Mrs Phillips | kphillips@villageschools.org.uk |
| – | – |
| Mrs Grout (Forest School) | lgrout@villageschools.org.uk |
| Mr Davies (PE and Sport) | cdavies@villageschools.org.uk |
| Mrs Dobson (Art) | kdobson@villageschools.org.uk |
Secondary School Admissions
Please remember that if you have a child in Year 6, the deadline for applying for a place at secondary school is fast approaching. Here is more information from Devon Schools Admissions Service:
The deadline to make your application to the Local Authority is the 31st October 2022.
You can apply online by visiting www.devon.gov.uk/admissionsonline or you can collect a hard copy of the application form from the school office.
Please be advised that if you don’t apply or apply after the closing date of the 31st October 2022, your application will be considered after all timely applications, and this may mean that you miss out on a place at your preferred or local school. Places are not held in reserve for people that apply late.
It is important that you make your application before the closing date to give your child the best chance of getting a place at one of your preferred schools.
Please don’t assume you don’t need to apply and that you will be allocated a place at the local secondary school if you don’t. You must make an application and give the Local Authority your preferences. If you don’t tell the admissions team where you want your child to go to school, you will run the risk of being allocated a place at a school that isn’t the nearest school, or a preferred school, and it may also be a school to which you are unable to transport your child.
If you need help or assistance with the application process, please speak to the school office or contact the admissions team on 0345 155 1019 or email admissions@devon.gov.uk
Parent/carers can apply online by visiting www.devon.gov.uk/admissionsonline
Operation Encompass
Operation Encompass is a national strategy between schools and every police force in the UK. Its aim is that if families experience domestic abuse which the police attend, schools will be notified before the next school day. This is so that staff at school can be prepared to respond to the needs of a potentially distressed or frightened child. Along with me as the Partnership Designated Safeguarding Lead, only staff who have contact with your child will be informed that an Operation Encompass incident has come through – for example, your child’s class teacher and/or teaching assistant.
Up until now, our schools have received phone calls in the early morning following up on a previous night’s incident. However, this will shortly be changing to an email based response. This should make the system of notification better, both from the police point of view and for the receiving schools.
If you and your children are the victims of domestic abuse, it is really important that you let the attending police officers know which school(s) your children attend, this will ensure we are notified in good time and can make the following days as positive and nurturing for your children as possible. We can also help you with support, or give you the space you need if that is more helpful.
A simple letter, outlining the project can be downloaded HERE
Cross Country Results
After the first meeting of the season last of the Gliddon and Squire Cross Country League at the Northam Burrows last Sunday, Village Schools Partnership had some great results thanks to the dedication and determination of our runners. Congratulations to all our runners Molly, Bella, Bronte, Henry, Arthur, Phoebe, Anise, Monti and Harry. A huge well done to Henry (5th) and Phoebe (9th) for both finishing in the top ten.
FOBBS AGM
FOBBS will be holding their AGM on Tuesday the 18th of October at 2pm in the school hall.
Everyone is very welcome to attend, even if you are not part of the committee. We would love to share ideas for fundraising and would like your thoughts on where you feel money should be spent.
We are also looking for a new secretary in the new year, so if anyone is interested please let Suzanne or Jenny know.
We understand that not everyone will be able to come to the meeting or commit to the committee, but if you would like to help in some way, we are looking for people to help secure grants for the school. So if you have a bit of spare time when you are at home to search online, it would be super helpful!
It’s time to dig out all your unwanted clothes, shoes, bags and linen etc! FOWS are repeating the Bag 2 School clothes collection scheme. This has been a very successful fundraiser for us so we are again asking the local community to collect together good quality items for re-use. Bag 2 School weigh all the donations as they are loaded into their van and give us a cheque in exchange! Please could bagged up donations be dropped off to the school gates (on Old Market Drive) from Monday November 21st to Thursday 24th. Heavy items (like thick curtains, shoes or belts) make the most money. So, please have a clear out and help improve the pupils experiences at the same time.
They accept: all clothing, paired shoes (tied together), handbags, jewellery, belts, soft toys, linen, curtains, towels, bedding (sheets, pillow cases and duvets covers).
They DO NOT accept: duvets, blankets, pillows, cushions, carpet, ripped clothing, school uniform or rags.
AGM
The Friends of Woolsery School AGM will be held on November 7th 2022 at 7.30pm in Woolsery School hall. Everyone interested to hear more about what we do or who would like to be involved is very welcome.
Lottery
The Woolsery School Lottery launch is going well. Please sign up before the first draw (29th Oct) to have a chance to win. We are only 12 players away from our target which translates to significant support for the school pupils. Linked into a large, established School lottery group, this scheme passes on 76% of funds raised to our school, with a local winner each draw and the chance to win a big £25,000 Jackpot too!
Well done to the children who achieved a Headteacher’s Award today in recognition of developing their positive learning behaviours which are represented by the six animals:
Orleigh: Oscar (tortoise) –being resilient and concentrating and maintaining effort to write his whole story independently; Maddie (dolphin) – diving into her learning and giving things a go in Maths and really enjoying it
Tythecott: Jake (bee) – Excellent working well together in PE; Charlie (bee) – working together beautifully with in PE
Gorwood: Monti (dolphin) – fantastic effort at the Cross Country last weekend, and also for trying really hard in his higher level maths work this week.
Foxdown: Athea (bee) – Athea helped a younger member of Foxdown, kindly showing him how to use the playdough shaping tool. “You do it like this, I’ll show you.”; Myles (tortoise) Myles is showing increased resilience across the curriculum. Trying himself and using resources around the room to support him before asking for help.
Melbury: Iris (dolphin) – Iris has dived into her learning this week creating an exciting character and story plan. Well done!; Ashley (tortoise) – Ashley has worked hard in maths this week and shown resilience when things have become tricky.
Goldworthy: Harry (tortoise) – being very resilient when using a bow saw during forest school; Anise (tortoise) for continuing to be resilient in all her subjects and showing a mature attitude to her learning.
Sunflowers: Joshua (tortoise) – attending our harvest celebration even though he found it tricky; Lola (dolphin) – beautiful name writing
Cranford: Elliott (dolphin) – remembering all his sounds so far; TJ (tortoise) – careful cutting of vegetables with a real knife.
Burscott: Mason spider) – making links in his learning to produce a super piece of writing; Robyn (cat) – asking great questions at the author visit this week.
Stroxworthy: Mia (dolphin) – diving into her learning when applying her addition and subtraction skills in maths; Alfie (tortoise) – being resilient when being challenged with addition and subtraction in maths.
Alminstone: Robert (dolphin) – diving into his learning with his positive change in attitude to school life; Ella-Mai (spider) – making links and connections with her maths problem solving.
Ashmansworthy: Dexter (tortoise) – showing super perseverance with some challenging maths problems; Genevieve (cat) – asking thoughtful questions (and making notes on the answers) to check her understanding of difficult subtraction
| Monday |
Ms Richardson at meeting (pm). Mr Davies with Ashmansworthy Class Football: Y5/6 Friendly, Woolsery Vs Hartland (home) 3:30pm |
| Tuesday | ARC Tennis – Stroxworthy and Burscott Classes |
| Wednesday | Parkham Flu Immunisations; Woolsery Flu Immunisations |
| Thursday |
Forest School Parents’ Session 9:30am at Woolsery – all welcome! ARC Tennis – Orleigh Class Football: Y3/4 Friendly, Buckland Brewer & Parkham Utd Vs Haartland at Hartland 3:30pm |
| Friday |
Stephen Shield Cross Country (am) at Torrington ARC Tennis – Melbury and Goldworthy (pm) |
Mr Cole’s planned schedule…
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| Monday | afternoon | morning | |
| Tuesday | all day | ||
| Wednesday | all day | ||
| Thursday | afternoon | morning | |
| Friday | morning | afternoon | afternoon |
with best wishes,
Mr Cole