Newsletter: 9th December 2022
Posted on December 9, 2022 | By Mr Cole
What A Performance!
A huge well done to everyone who took part in this week’s three school Productions – Stable Story, Bethlehem The Musical and Panto Pandemonium. It was great to see live perfomances back in all of our schools, and the children really rising to the occasion. As I said at each show, live performance of this sort is a fundamental for primary education, giving children confidence in public speaking which will hopefully stay with them for a lifetime. Thank you once again to all of our amazing parents who have helped the chidlren learn their spoken and singing lines, and to all of the staff and supporters for producing the shows, the costumes and the props. Most of all, though, thank you to the children for their enthusiasm was was simply a joy to see.
Photos of each production will appear on our Blog over the weekend.
Strep A
Of course, our show week has been somewhat overshadowed by the circulation of the Strep A bug. Although it’s quite usual for Strep A, or Scarlet Fever, to make its rounds at this time of year, the reports of this particularly nasty form of Strep A is deeply concerning for all of us. The Government has now issued this information leaflet for parents: Group A Streptococcus – Information Leaflet Please take time to read it this weekend, especially the final sections around the invasive type of Strep A.
Christmas Fair
Wow! Parkham’s Christmas Fair last Friday was amazing. It was lovely to see so many members of the community turn out to support FOPPS and to add to the festive atmosphere at the Allardice Hall. Here’s a message from FOPPS:
Christmas Tree Festival
Children at Woolsery enjoyed visiting the Christmas Tree Festival at All Hallows Church and the Methodist Chapel. The school’s tree had been decorated in the school colours of red and blue and looked amazing. If you would like to visit the Festival, it is open from 10:00-4:00 this weekend. The church is creating a food tree, and would be grateful for any boxes, tins or packages of non-perishable food to add to the tree. All donations will be given to the Harbour Project in Bideford.
Christmas Dinner Day
Next Wednesday is, of course, Christmas Dinner Day! We’re very much looking forward to sharing a festive lunch together, whether that’s from the Partnership Kitchen for Buckland and Woolsery, or courtest of FOPPS at Parkham. It’s sure to be a lovely day! Please remember we are asking all children to wear a Christmas Jumper or other Christmas accessories on the day to add to the festive feeling.
Also, just a reminder that on Tuesday lunchtime we’ll have Pizza and Jelly rather than the advertised roast dinner, to make way for Wednesday meal.
Minibus
Hopefully you’ve noticed that we have now taken delivery of our new minibus and we’re very much looking forward to using it with your children fro the start of next term, when all paperwork associated with using it to carry passengers will be complete.
One of its first jobs will be to ferry Buckland Brewer children (Gorwood Class) to their swimming lessons at Torrington Pool – this will save parents a huge amount of money compared with the cost of hiring a coach each week, please look out for details about this in the first few days of term. If our plans come to fruition, we’re hoping to reduce the weekly cost of transport from £2.50 per child to 50p per child. (Swimming will begin on Thursday 12th January)
We will also be asking all families in all schools to give online consent for us to transport your children in the minibus – this will be via a Google Form link which will be sent out in very early January.
Dance Festival Success
A huge well done to Evie R (Woolsery) and Bella J (Buckland) who took part in the North Devon Dance Festival at half term. Evie came first in the Novice Modern category of the competition which is an amazing result. Well done to both girls, we’re very proud of you!
Happy Holidays!
There will be no Newsletter next Friday so this is the final publication for 2022. Wherever you’re spending Christmas, I hope you have some magical family time and a good rest at the end of what has been a very long but enjoyable term. Thank you for all your support for the Partnership: helping your child with home learning, reading and multiplication tables, turning up for PTA events, or just letting us know that you like the changes the Village Schools Partnership has brought to all three schools – it’s very much appreciated by the whole staff and governor team. Merry Christmas!
Our schools reopen on Tuesday 3rd January 2023 – please remember our new timings – gates open at 8:35am across all three sites and the school day begins at a quarter to nine, running through until a quarter past three.
Well done to everyone who received the final batch of Headteacher Awards this term, for showing great learning behaviours which are represented by our six animals…
Orleigh: Leo M (tortoise) for being resilient and building his confidence when coming into school in the morning; Alfie (dolphin) for trying really hard in his reading and reading words fluently without sounding out loud.
Tythecott: Laicee (dolphin) – Excellent effort Laicee with your very clear and loud speaking in our Christmas Performance of ‘Stable Story’, brilliant Laicee.
Gorwood: Aoife (Bee) For putting in an amazing amount of effort and being a fantastic part of the team when singing in the Christmas performance; Jamie (Dolphin) For showing great engagement, answering questions and taking part in discussions about our reading in class
Foxdown: Arya-Rose (dolphin) Arya really enjoys completing her Explore time challenges. This week she really impressed us by writing a sentence all by herself; Leo (dolphin) Leo has taken time over this half term to become more familiar with all the resources at the Art table. He is now using more tools independently, asks for help when needed and is making fantastic things like his mask and crown.
Melbury: Benji (spider) Benji has made links in our maths work on multiplication which has helped him solve problems. Great work Benji; Iris – (tortoise) Iris showed resilience when writing her story – working hard to get it finished. Well done Iris
Goldworthy: Xavi (dolphin) for diving into his learning and working with greater pace as well as showing great thoughtfulness with his Kandinsky inspired artwork with Mrs Dobson; Abi (owl) for being very thoughtful with her poetry writing to include the use of semicolons, which add to her description of Parkham village.
Sunflowers: Keitija for having an amazing week after returning to Preschool; Ethan for his great number recognition
Cranford: Ezra (spider) – for producing some lovely wrapping paper styled like Kandinsky; JJ (dolphin) – for a great shape picture using 2D shapes.
Burscott: Florence (bee) – always being helpful in class and encouraging others to be the same; Hugo (dolphin) – great improvement in his reading this week
Stroxworthy: Bella (tortoise) – for being resilient like a tortoise and continuing to work hard and improve her maths skills; Jake (dolphin) – for diving into his learning with perseverance and writing a very good story in our English assessment.
Alminstone: Henry (dolphin) – for diving into his dancing role as Jack in the school production; Harrison (dolphin) – for diving into his singing as Aladdin in the school production
Ashmansworthy: Georgia (dolphin) – for her enthusiastic and committed approach to all aspects of learning; Cobain (spider) – for working extremely hard to use exciting vocabulary and figurative language in his writing