Newsletter: 5th May 2023

Posted on May 5, 2023 | By Mr Cole

Tomorrow is, of course, the King’s Coronation: we very much hope all of our children will watch at least some of the procession and ceremony at Westminster Abbey. The royal procession in London will have extra significance for our Year 5 children who will be following some of the route on foot when we stay in the Capital on our residential in just over two weeks’ time – the children got together this week to identify some key landmarks such as the Palace, The Mall, Admiralty Arch and Trafalgar Square: it will be fantastic if they can spot them during the TV coverage this weekend too.

Our villages  are all running community days over the weekend – however you’re choosing to celebrate and enjoy the extra bank holiday on Monday, have a wonderful time.

Great Torrington School Year 5 Taster Day

The annual taster day for Year 5s considering attending GTS in Year 7 is taking place in early July. Details are below if you’d like to book. If your child attends, it is really important you let us know as well, as this will not count as a days’ absence from school:

Great Torrington School are delighted to offer Year 5 pupils the opportunity

to spend a day experiencing life at GTS. Our Year 5 Day is Friday 7th July 2023

 Pupils will engage in a range of activities, culminating with an afternoon

of sports  where we welcome parents/carers to observe and

meet with our staff

 To reserve your place on this every popular day please follow this link or scan the QR code. (Please note bookings end on Monday 3^rd July 2023)  

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/year-5-taster-day-tickets-62623

Colour Run

Information and sponsor forms for our joint FOPS, FOBBS and FOWS Colour Run event have gone out in book bags this week. We very much hope your children are excited by the event: it’s something branmd-new for our school community!

Here are the full details:

The Friends of Parkham, Woolsery and Buckland Brewer Primary School are coming together to organise a very fun and exciting colour run! This will take place on the 24^th June from 12-5pm at Woolsery School.

The colour run will be 2 laps (approximately 0.4 miles) around the school field (please note this is not a race it is a fun run)!  You will get a bag of coloured powder to throw! There will be obstacles to tackle and a medal for everyone at the end.

We have lots of other things planned for the day so it’s a lovely fun day for all the family. As well as the colour run we will have a bouncy castle, ice creams, food stalls, bar/refreshments, cake stall and lots of local stallholders. Races will start from 12.30-4pm you will be allocated a time on arrival and can run as a family.

In celebration of this special coronation year “2023” We are kindly asking for all VSP children to get sponsored for this run. The Goal will be to raise £20.23. Siblings who attend VSP can be included on 1 sponsorship form. All monies raise will go to each child’s school.

There will prizes in each school for the most amount of sponsorship raised.

You will be required to still register your child on our booking system to secure their place. Please find the link below and follow the section for Sponsored Child. Parents, family, friends are also able to book a place for £7.50 using the Standard Entry Option.

Please get your bookings in as soon as possible as we are opening this event up to the general public!

Closing date to book is the 26/5/2023 all sponsorship monies should be handed into school prior to the event. Also note that you will need to supply your own t shirt (preferably white to get the full colour effect) and also glasses. Sunglasses will be available to purchase on the day.

We are really excited for you to join and support this event and very much look forward to seeing you on the day!

Please remember that all slots must be booked beforehand using the QR code above, or this link

School Site Security

We’ve had a couple of instances recently of parents going through gates and doors in order to bypass our normal entry systems via each school office. Please remember you should not be asking children to open electronically locked doors for you from the inside, nor go through gates clearly marked “No Admittance” – our security measures are in place to keep all our children safe whilst at school and we need your co-operation in not trying to circumvent those measures. Thank you for your help.

FOWS: Bag-2-School

Thank you to those who have already dropped off bags to the FOWS hub, our new building next to the car park at Woolsery School. We have until Wednesday 10th May to keep collecting for the Bag2School collection. Please have a look at the poster and drop off bagged up items by Wednesday May 10th.  Please leave bags in the bike shelter or under the FOWS hubporch if possible (especially if it is raining), as they won’t take wet clothes. Items will be put into the shed every pick-up and drop off. There is LOTS more room in there, so please bring more. Thank you for having a clear out for us!

Key Stage 2 SATS Week

Next Tuesday is the first of the the four days of national end of Key Stage 2 SATS tests. We know that this is a stressful time for our Year 6 children who have worked tirelessly to reach the very best level they can in Reading, Spelling, Punctuation, Grammar and Mathematics. We know that all our Year 6 children will do the very best they can in these tests – please make sure they have a good breakfast before school and are in in plenty of time for the start of the day so they feel settled with their friends before the tests start. the timetable for the tests is as follows:

If your child is ill on the day of one of the tests, it’s really important you let us know as soon as possible – this will stop the rest of the chidlren waiting nervously for a delayed start. Your child will still need to sit the tests but we will need to talk through those options with you depending on the nature of their illness.

Thank you for all your support in preparing your child for these tests: helping with reading, core maths skills and spelling at home has made a huge difference to the potential achievement of many of our children. As you know, they are very important as secondary schools must now use this assessment data to track their student’s progress through Key Stage 3

If you would like your child to take up cricket, or develop skills they already have, there are two clubs starting very soon: All Stars is for ages 5-8yrs and Dynamos is for 8-11yrs. Information is below:

Well done to everyone who was presented with a Headteacher’s Award in assembly today. As you know, we present these each week to children who show progress in the development of key learning behaviours: self-reflection, making links and connections, working together, asking questions, developing resilience and engaging in learing activities. We represent these behaviours across the Partnership with our six Learning Animals:

Orleigh: Oscar (spider)- for applying his knowledge of tens and ones to find doubles of two digit numbers; Timmy (dolphin)- for trying really hard during singing practise and joining in enthusiastically

Tythecott: Eliza (spider) – For being an excellent spider and making links with all your fantastic R.E knowledge; Hannah (Dolphin) – For diving into your learning and using amazing, descriptive language to describe Tobago.

Gorwood: Aubri (dolphin) – for showing great determination when learning cricket skills, particularly batting; Lucas (spider) – for making links with the work we have done on suspense writing and planning a very exciting story

Foxdown: Jasper (dolphin) – Jasper listened well and was able to describe the giant from our story using fabulous adjectives all by himself; Jack (tortoise) – Jack challenged himself to write a little more in English this week than he normally does! It was wonderful to see him focus so hard.

Melbury: Hugo  (Bee) – Hugo worked cooperatively with others in his team during PE. Well done Hugo; Josie  (Tortoise) – Josie showed resilience and determination to build different circuits. Great work Josie

Goldworthy: Finn (tortoise) – for showing good levels of resilience in your learning and for being curious to make sure you have a clear understanding of what is expected; Ava (owl) – for being very thoughtful within her learning- really thinking about the process behind her mathematics as well as thinking carefully about word choices in her writing.

Sunflowers: Lola for recognition and understanding of healthy food and drinks; Albert for making links in Phonics between initial sounds and oral blending.

Cranford: TJ and Freddie (Bees) – for completing their work really well and then helping to improve our mud kitchen, using their strong muscles to dig over the mud.  

Stroxworthy: Scarlett (owl) – for looking forwards and backwards and retrieving her knowledge from previous lessons to inform her current thinking and understanding in maths; Bella (tortoise) – for being resilient and continually trying to build her confidence in English and Maths.

Alminstone: Aaron (Dolphin) – for diving into his reading this week – reading well and thinking carefully about the text he is focusing on; Arthur (Spider) – for thinking hard about the plot of his mystery story, and using different sentence types in his writing. Well done, Arthur

Ashmansworthy: Georgia (bee) – for collaborating enthusiastically with the visitors from Northam Care Trust; Emily (cat) – for participating confidently in discussions and answering probing questions in maths

Mr Cole’s planned schedule

Monday
Tuesday			All Day
Wednesday	All Day
Thursday		All Day
Friday	Morning	Morning	Afternoon

With best wishes,

Matt Cole, Headteacher

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