Dear parents and carers,
Welcome back to a brand new year at Umberleigh Primary Academy. As the incoming Head of School, I have thoroughly enjoyed my first week, getting to know many of the children and some of the parents at the beginning and end of the day. Please feel free to make yourselves known to me - I hope to know all of you in time.
The children have settled into the new term wonderfully from nursery right the way through to Year 6. It has been a pleasure watching their interactions with each other during playtimes and lunchtime. On Wednesday, we restarted our book buddy assemblies with groups of children of different ages sharing a book together. The care of the older children over the younger children and the resilience of our new reception children participating in something new and unfamiliar was the highlight of my week. I can only imagine how much they will flourish over the forthcoming year with the support and guidance of our superb teaching and support staff.
In KS1 and KS2 this year, we will be using a platform called Class Dojo, which offers teachers a way of sharing photos of the work that has been done in class as well as teacher/home communication and promoting good behaviours in class amongst other things. This means we will no longer post photographs of children on our Facebook page. However, we will continue to use tapestry for Brumbles. Personal sign-up letters will be sent home for every family, so please follow the instructions to get access.
Next Thursday 17th is South Molton Community College’s open evening for year 5 and year 6 children, running from 4.30pm until 7pm. There is no need to book a place - you can simply turn up and a member of staff will be there to welcome you.
The road closure on Wednesday for resurfacing ended up not being as troublesome as we were anticipating and all children and staff managed to get to school and home ok with my journey adding Cobbaton to the list of Devon villages I have visited.
It has been a busy car park in the mornings this week. Could I ask parents to be mindful to spend the minimum amount of time parked in the car park at drop-off and pick-up so that we get a nice through-flow of traffic and minimise the chance of children and parents having to walk on the main road.
Here is to a fantastic year ahead.
Mr Hookes
Head of School
