Newsletter: 14th October 2022
Posted on October 14, 2022 | By Mr Cole
Sports Fixtures
It was lovely to see inter-school football matches continue this week, with a good turn-out from all three schools.
On Monday, Woolsery hosted two games at home against Hartland and last night, Village Schools Partnership fielded two mostly Buckland/Parkham teams away against Hartland.
From last night’s games, Mr Davies writes, “Village Schools Partnership played two matches away to Hartland. Well done to all the players, you were amazing. Some of the players had never played before and some had played last year and for other local teams. The year 3/4 match ended 1 – 1 and the year 5/6 match was sadly lost. There was some amazing goalkeeping, excellent defending and we were unlucky not to score having hit the post in the second match. A huge thank you to all the parents who transported and came to support.”
Full Blog posts about these matches are here:
Today we have many children from across the Partnership take place in the Inter-school Stephen Shield Cross Country Event at Torrington. This meet has grown into quite an event over recent years, with several hundred competitors from across north Devon schools taking part in a really good long distance running course. The atmosphere is always great and we’re looking forward to seeing photos and reports from the Primary Schools’ morning later on.
Stop Press: Link to the Cross Country is here:
Residentials
Just a reminder that next Friday is the deadline for deposit payments for both the Bude (Y6) and London (Y5) residentials. We are very unlikley to be able to add places to the London trip in particular after this deadline so please let us know urgently if you are intending your child to take part but that meeting the deposit payment deadline is a problem. Thanks.
School Photos
Next week, two of the three schools will have visits from Tempest, the school photographers, to take portraits of every child and also brothers & sisters photos too. These are used both for school records and to offer for sale to families ahead of Christmas.
Woolsery’s photo day will be on Tuesday morning so if your child isn’t on session at Preschool on that day and you would like them photographed singly and with any siblings, please bring them into school at the start of the school day and we will get them taken for you. All other children will have their photos taken during the course of the morning.
Buckland Brewer’s photo day will be on Friday next week with similar arrangements: again, if your child is in preschool but not in on Friday, please bring them in at the start of the day and we will get the photos taken for you then. This clashes with the FOBBS Hallowe’en Day so please make sure your child comes to school in school uniform, they will be able to change into any Hallowe’en clothes they bring with them in time for the afternoon.
For parents at Parkham, your child’s photo day will be on 14th November and Tempest have said this will allow time for prints to be returned to you before the end of term if you wish to order them.
Please look out for the order form in your child’s book bag after their photo day – the order process is very smooth provided you meet the deadline for in-school collection which is set by Tempest. It gets a little more tricky (and expensive) if you want to order prints directly from Tempest after their closing date.
For parents who don’t live with their children, please let your school office know before photo day if you would like an additional order form containing the proof set of photos sent to you to make your own order. We won’t be able to do this after the day because the children take the only copy of the order sheet home with them.
Parent-Teacher Meetings
The bulk of our termly Parent-Teacher meetings take place next week (although some have already happened). This is a really important time for your child’s teacher to talk to you about their progress and how you can support their learning journey. Thank you to everyone who has already made appointments. If you haven’t yet done so, staff will be in touch in the next few days to ensure every parent is seen in this term. Thanks.
Dogs in School
In case you didn’t see the School Jotter message I sent out to all families last weekend. due to a serious dog-related incident at Parkham at the end of the day last Friday, we have taken the decision to have absolutely no dogs on site at any of our three schools. If you must bring your dog to school for drop off/pick up, please ensure they are tied up well away from the school gates so that children arriving/leaving will not walk past your dog. What happened on Friday was bad enough, but could have been an awful lot worse and we simply can’t take the risk of anything like this happening again – thank you for your understanding.
Website Upgrade
Webanywhere, who host our Village Schools Website and School Jotter App are upgrading the site from version 2 to 3 in the next few weeks. We were hoping for this to have happened at the same time as the new site launched but this was outside of our control. When the change does take place, you shouldn’t notice much difference with the website but you will need to change to School Jotter 3 for app notifications. Please don’t do this yet – we will tell you when that has to happen. The School Jotter 3 app is more sophisticated than the current version and the system relies on us sending Webanywhere your details in order to be able to register for notifications. We will do this from our school information systems, so please let us know next week if you do not want your details sent to Webanywhere. (this will mean you won’t be able to access app notifications, though) Thank you.
School Voice at Parkham have asked to run a Dress Down Day on Wednesday next week for the Over and Above charity which supports NDDH. If at all possible, children at Parkham should wear something purple to school that day (but the purple bit isn’t essential). For anyone not wearing school uniform, we’re asking for a £1 donation towards this great charity. Thank you.
Lateness
If your child is going to be late, it’s very important that you contact us before 9:10am to let us know they are coming in. This is so that lunches are booked for your child. As with all absences, you should ring your usual school number and choose Option 1 to report the absence, allowing you to leave a message which Mrs Davis will pick up and relay to the Partnership Kitchen.
PTA Events
We have a lot of PTA events coming up thanks to our dedicated band of parents who are working exceptionally hard for our children…
FOBBS
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!
***Please ensure your child wears school uniform to school in the morning for their photo***
FOPPS
We are very hopeful that, thanks tot he time commitment from the FOPPS committee that a before school club will be able to run at Parkham from after half term. FOPPS will communicate directly with Parkham families about this initially, and we hope that after Christmas this may be extended to give an opportunity for Woolsery and Buckland children to join in and then be taken to their schools for the start of the day. More information about the Before School cLub will be out soon.
FOWS
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: Alfie (spider)- for giving reasons for his answers and explaining his thinking in Maths; Leo H (dolphin)- for diving into his learning and always being enthusiastic to go to learning groups.
Tythecott: Jack (owl) – Well done for being a fantastic Owl in Maths, using what you know about numbers to help you to add.
Gorwood: Amy (Spider) – making connections in her maths learning; Ella (Dolphin) – Diving into the class shared write and having great ideas
Foxdown: Jack (cat) – Jack has really enjoyed our new reading books and has shown a great amount of curiosity about punctuation. He has really enjoyed using these to read with expression and has made his reading really interesting; Jasper (dolphin) – Jasper has dived into his phonic learning and is keen to get to grips with his tricky words! Jasper has chosen to practise these during his explore time and is now able to read and write them all by himself!
Melbury: Payton (dolphin) – Payton has dived into her reading this half term and has made great progress. Well done Payton; Ben – (spider) – Ben has been making links and connections in his learning especially in relation to our history topic. Well done Ben
Goldworthy: Cayden (cat) for a very positive few days showing curiosity and knowledge about our history learning- crime and punishments; Elodie (owl) for reviewing and editing your Chitty story independently with very little feedback. Elodie has thought about what we have done over the last couple of weeks to describe a setting
Sunflowers: Ida (dolphin) for fantastic participation in Phonics; Albert (cat) – for great listening and having the confidence to answer questions at carpet time
Cranford: Reuben (tortoise) – for being so brave this week at school. You are amazing!; Noah (spider) -for fantastic maths this week. You really know what is the greatest number and the smallest number.
Burscott: Oscar dolphin) – using great detail in his Art work based on Starry Night; Luca (tortoise) – always trying his best in everything he does
Stroxworthy: Riley (dolphin) – diving into his learning like a dolphin when writing a superb adaptation of a traditional tale in English; Alfie (tortoise) – for being resilient like a tortoise when writing a wonderful adaptation of a traditional tale in English.
Alminstone: Wenty (tortoise) – being resilient during scarf lessons by focusing his learning; Aaron (dolphin) – diving into his reading with enthusiasm.
Ashmansworthy: Elayna (tortoise) – for persevering and problem-solving in Forest School sessions; Harry (tortoise) – for determination to finish tasks in Forest School sessions
| Monday | Cranford and Burscott Classes to Burford Woods |
| Tuesday |
Woolsery Photos (am) ARC Tennis – Stroxworthy and Burscott Classes |
| Wednesday |
Dress Down in Purple Day (Parkham)
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| Thursday |
ARC Tennis – Melbury and Goldworthy (pm)
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| Friday |
FOWS Drop Off/Drop In Coffee Morning (Woolsery) Goldworthy Class at Burford Woods all day ARC Tennis – Orleigh Class Buckland Brewer Photos (am) FOBBS Hallowe’en Day – children to wear uniform to school in the morning. Schools close for half term – reopen on Monday 31st October |
Mr Cole’s planned schedule…
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| Monday | All Day | ||
| Tuesday | All Day | ||
| Wednesday | All Day | ||
| Thursday | All Day | ||
| Friday | Morning | Afternoon | Afternoon |
with best wishes,
Mr Cole