Newsletter: 18th November 2022

Posted on November 18, 2022 | By Mr Cole | 2 responses

Christmas Dinners

Just a shout-out to remind everyone that if you want your child to have a roast dinner on Christmas Dinner Day at Buckland Brewer or Woolsery Schools, you  MUST complete this online form to book it (as well as your normal lunch booking routine) by the end of November (which is only a week and a half away!) as Dave has to place his meat order. If we haven’t received a booking from you by the end of the month we will assume that your child will bring a packed lunch on that day. The form to book a meal can be found here: https://forms.gle/xgmuToYFgLxZFMiz5 

For children at Parkham Primary, FOPPS are providing your Christmas lunch and are asking that you log into Parent Pay to book your child’s meal. If you could do this by the end of November too, it would really help Kelly and her team get everything they need before the day.

All three schools will have a Christmas Jumper Day to coincide with their Christmas meal. There is no charge for wearing a Christmas Jumper (and indeed anything else that is Christmassy), it’s just for fun and to add to the festive feel of the day.

Panto Pandemonium

If your child attends Woolsery Primary, please remember that due to the size of the school and available seats at the Village Hall, we need to allocate tickets for the three performances of Panto Pandemonium. Please complete this Google Form to request your tickets (which are all free) and we’ll do out best to accommodate you. https://forms.gle/yx7tfcgCiWWWFJZv8 

(Families of children taking part in Stable Story (Buckland Brewer) or Bethlehem the Musical (Parkham) don’t need to reserve tickets to watch their performances as there will be enough room for everyone)

Healthy Snacks

We’ve noticed an increase in the amount of sweets/chocolate bars children are bringing to school for their morning breaktime. Please remember that they should only be bringing healthy snacks with them to school – fruit, vegetables or nuts are ideal. It you are sending your child in with nuts, please make sure your child’s teacher knows as we have some children across the Partnership with nut allergies. Children should not be bringing crisps, sweets or chocolate bars in unless they are for their packed lunch, in which case they should be consumed in the dining hall, not on the playground. Thanks.

Christmas Fair

FOPPS are holding a Christmas Fair on 2nd December and we’d love to see you there. The work of our three PTAs supports the provision in our three schools so even if your child doesn’t attend Parkham please drop along; anything raised with FOPPS will ultimately help all the children in our federation because increasing chances for one school increases chances for us all…

Parking at Drop Off and Pick Up Times

We are noticing that parent parking near our schools is becoming increasingly congested now that the cold weather is upon us. Please could I remind everyone that you must park both legally and responsibly when dropping off your children or picking them up from school -no excuses- so that our children are kept safe. This may mean you need to park a little further away from school and walk in, but that is surely better than there being an incident which injures a child.

Specifically in Woolsery, please avoid parking on the pavement on Old Market Drive as this makes walking safely along the roadside almost impossible for families.  Please also make sure you are not blocking residents’ driveways as this causes bad feeling between the school and our community which we obviously wish to avoid.

For families in Parkham, the most dangerous place to stop is between the Allardice Hall car park and the school gate as children need to walk along that section of road: parking in that area means through traffic driving into the children’s walkway. No-one should be stopping on the bus stop markings as this prevents safe crossing onto the pavement.

Thank you to everyone who is driving and parking in a considerate manner, it is very much appreciated.

Gliddon and Squire Cross Country League

FOBBS Request

Fobbs are holding a raffle along with refreshments at the school Christmas play this year and are asking parents/carers/grandparents for any donations for prizes and possibly some mince pies or Christmas cakes to sell. There will be a box left at reception for all donations kindly received.

FOBBS (and FOPPS, FOWS) do a great job of supplementing resources for your children’s education – for example, they recently funded new large screens for the school halls so we could retire some very aged projectors for assemblies and for group teaching, something simply not possible from our shrinking school budgets – so please support your PTA wherever you can, thanks.

FOWS

FOWS are looking for a couple of volunteers to help with refreshments and raffle at the matinee performance of Panto Pandemonium on Wednesday 7th December. This needs to be people who aren’t intending to watch the afternoon show. If you can help, please contact Kate Harding or let Tina know in the school office.

FOWS are also looking for donations of raffle prizes. So that we get an even spread of things for people to win, we’re asking for children to bring in the following types of items…

• Sunflowers and Cranford: Sweets and Chocolates
• Burscott and Stroxworthy: Smellies and Pampering
• Alminstone and Ashmansworthy: Stationery, Toys and Small Games

Minibus News!

We’re truly delighted to announce that thanks to the coming together of the three schools under the Village Schools Partnership banner, we’re able to now fulfil our long term goal of having a minibus to move children around between our sites and to other events. This is very exciting and should make both Partnership and inter-school events much easier and reduce costs to parents.

We expect to take delivery of the minibus in the next couple of weeks! It will initially be based at Buckland Brewer as the furthest-out school. However, it will absolutely be making a regular appearance in all three schools as we get used to having it available. It will take a little while before we can get the full benefit of the bus as we wait for staff training and permits to catch up with the process of acquiring the vehicle itself. We will, of course, be requesting your permission for your children to travel in the minibus for school events. Watch this space!

Through the Partnership, we have been able to use a dedicated funding stream, which for a stand-alone school (or even a small federation such as the old Flying Start) would have been insufficient to fund the lease on our bus so the finance behind this project isn’t taking money from other aspects of our schools’ work.

TIME TOGETHER’ TODDLER & BABY GROUP from 9.30am – 12noon ish at Buckland Brewer Methodist Church -.£1.50 per family – Contact Dave Watson on 07484 223515 for more details. The dates until end of term are Monday 21st & 28th November; 5th & 12th December

COMMUNITY COFFEE MORNING from 10am-1pm at Buckland Brewer Methodist Church – this is open to ALL especially those new to the village/parish who would like to meet others or those who would like to chat over coffee/tea & biscuits/possible cake/toast – no charge but donations welcome. These take place every Wednesday & all are welcome.

‘TODDLER TUNE TIME’ (Music Makers) at 9.30am at Buckland Brewer Methodist Church usually every 2 weeks – a time of exploring music for Under 5’s and their parents, grandparents or carers – £2 per family. The dates until the end of Term are Thursday 24th November; Thursday 8th December & probably at the end of the ‘Time Together’ Toddler & Baby Group on Monday 12th December.

These events are not just for those from Buckland Brewer but for ALL in the local area.

Other events by the United Churches of Buckland are a Christingle Service for young People on Sunday 4th December at 4pm in Parish Church & the Community Candlelight Carol Service on Sunday 18th December at 6.30pm in Parish Church – for all ages. Christmas Eve Holy Communion at Parish Church at 10pm & Christmas Day Service at 10am at Methodist Church

Advance information

The Churches of Buckland Brewer are looking to promote a Drop in Youth Club for Years 6 to 10 in Buckland Brewer. They have a sum of money to start the project off, and will look to support a paid Youth Worker.

There will be a meeting to see what the way forward is on Friday 20th January 2023 at the Buckland Hall at 7pm.

We would love as many parents as possible to attend, to let us know what sort of activity the Young people of Buckland Brewer might want.

We will endeavour to gain the wishes of the young people as part of this process – either by coming along to the meeting or through other ways

Any offer of expertise would be gratefully received. Please contact Dave Watson on bucklanddave1953@btinternet.com or on 01237 451437 or 07484 223515

Well done to eveyone who was presented with a Headteacher’s Award today in recognition of developing their positive learning behaviours which are represented by our six Learning Animals:

Orleigh: Esme (tortoise)- for taking her time to plan her sentence before writing and then reading it back to check it makes sense after writing; Mylee (dolphin)- for showing amazing enthusiasm to have a go at her reading this week.

Tythecott: Lily (tortoise)  – For being resilient and keeping on trying to succeed when things are tricky; Grace (tortoise) – For being resilient in Forest School and persevering when trying to light a fire. Well done Grace.

Gorwood: Tillie (tortoise) – for showing incredible resilience at athletics and trying her best in all events; Jay (dolphin) – for diving into his learning by engaging in all lessons and sharing his thoughts and ideas

Foxdown: Jasper (cat) for being curious. Jasper has enjoyed learning what sounds letters make and is working hard to write captions all by himself; Magnus (dolphin) – Magnus has enjoyed exploring the different groups of animals in science and was able to work out which group different animals belonged to.

Melbury: Raife (bee) –  Raife worked cooperatively with the rest of his group to be a shop keeper and working out the change. Well done Raife; Harry (dolphin) Harry dived into his learning by explaining how to make a cup of tea. Great work Harry

Goldworthy:  Harrison (tortoise) for being very focussed and extremely resilient during mathematics and science; taking extra care when asked to calculate answers to arithmetic problems; Jimmy (dolphin) for coming to school this week in a calm and focussed manner. Jimmy has shown great engagement in his learning with a sprinkle of great curiosity.

Sunflowers: Aubree – (tortoise) for not giving up and achieving personal independence; Elsie (bee) – for sitting and listening to all circle times this week

Cranford: JJ (spider) – for trying so hard in phonics this week; Elliott (bee) – for working with his friends to make a great den outside and letting everyone play in it

Burscott: Monty (spider) – for making a maths box at home to reflect the learning we have done in class; Juniper  (spider) – for linking our maths work in class to her home learning

Stroxworthy: Evie (tortoise) – for being resilient during her first full week in Stroxworthy; Cadey (cat) – for being curious and asking superb questions during our RE afternoon and creating a beautiful design for an Islamic prayer mat.

Alminstone: Robert (bee) – working together with a positive attitude to engage learning with his peers during PE with Mr Davies.; Rebecca (bee) – being creative with her ideas for friendship groups for playtimes and working together with her peers for it to be successful.

Ashmansworthy: Isla (bee) for willingly and competently supporting others with making science models; Jackie (spider) – for developing independence and making links during maths lessons

Bag2School Drop Off at Woolsery all week.

Mr Cole’s planned schedule

Monday	Rest of Day		First Part of Morning
Tuesday			All day
Wednesday		Afternoon
Thursday		All Day
Friday	Morning	Afternoon	Afternoon

with best wishes,

Mr Cole

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