Dear Parents and Carers,

What a lovely week we have had in school. The children really enjoyed having real life authors come from the Appledore Book festival to talk to them. If we don’t have the next Julia Donaldson hiding somewhere in our midst as a result of their visits, I would be very surprised!

It has been lovely weather and has been wonderful for me to get to know the children better during playtimes and lunchtimes. The children play really well together and there is rarely any falling out. I spent part of lunchtime today building a hibernation shelter for a dormouse with a group of children across a number of different year groups. I will check on its progress tomorrow - it still looked a bit draughty when I left it.

I was really pleased to meet and talk with the FUS on Thursday morning. They are an amazing team and listening to a list of all of the events planned for the forthcoming year, I was truly humbled. The effort and organisation required to stage these is phenomenal and there are projects and resources that the school benefits from (and which you may not know of), as a result of their tireless work. There is a meeting next Wednesday 7th at The Rising Sun. It is a seven o’clock meet for a half-past seven start. Please consider coming along to hear about the work of the group and you may get involved in helping.

The Key Stage 2 cross country meet at High Bickington was a great success with plenty of children achieving personal bests and many, many top ten finishes. The children represented the school and you brilliantly. A huge thank you goes to Mr Lovelass for organising transport and for Mrs Langdon and Mr Brayley for helping to get the children there and back safely. 

Next week, we have a Monday visit from Poppy-Lea Price form The Sign Maker, as part of the following environmental dates: - World Habitat Day: First Monday of October (focuses on human settlements and the basic right to adequate shelter, highlighting the human impact on the environment) and World Animal Day: October 4th (celebrates animal rights and welfare worldwide).  Poppy has made a personalised bird box for school and will be presenting this to us on her visit.  Thank you in advance to Poppy for contacting us and arranging this lovely gift. 

We will also have our next Bible story from the Open the Book team on Wednesday at the Chapel of the Good Shepherd.

We are really blessed to have the play area adjacent to the car park and it has been lovely to watch them playing there after school. Can I ask that you help the children see this as an extension of the school by ensuring that they are thoughtful about how they use the equipment and how they interact with each other. A consistent message, whether at school or outside with their family members is an important feature when helping our children to transit through their childhood and form meaningful and cohesive friendships.

Many thanks

Mr Hookes

Head of School 

Flu Vaccinations 

A reminder to complete your child/rens form of consent for them to receive their flu vaccination in school on Tuesday 20th October.  If you do not consent, you MUST still complete this form to say so please!

Please follow this link: Flu Vaccination Consent Form

Deadline for consents is:- 9am on 19th October

EXETER CATHEDRAL CHOIR TRIP

We would like to invite children in Year 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 to join an after-school choir, starting on Monday, 5th October run by Mrs Langdon, who will prepare songs to perform at the Teachers Rock Choir event in Exeter Cathedral in November.

Choir Club Details:
Date: Monday (starting on Monday 5th October)
Time: 3:30pm – 4:30pm

Concert Details:
The concert will be on Friday 20th November. The concert will consist of several different primary and secondary schools each singing one song on their own, as well as all the children and adult teachers rock choir members singing a number of songs together as a massed choir.

Parents will be responsible for transporting their children to the cathedral and collecting them again at the end of the concert.

Date: Friday 20th November
Rehearsal: 6:15pm - Parents should bring their child to the cathedral at 6:15pm for a rehearsal. Please note that the cathedral doors will be closed before this time, as the venue is in use. Once the doors open, children should be brought inside and seated with Mrs Langdon. After this, parents will leave and can explore Exeter, while the rehearsal takes place.
Concert: 8:00pm - Parents should return to the cathedral for the concert, which will take place from 8:00pm to 9:30pm. After the performance, children will need to be collected by their parents.

T-shirts:
We usually wear the same Teachers Rock t-shirt every year and are therefore usually able to use the same ones each time. However, this year, as Debbie Kent is launching a single, there are different t-shirts to wear so unfortunately if children still have an old t-shirt, they won’t be able to wear it this time. Therefore, all children will require a new t-shirt. These have been subsidised by sponsors and will cost £5 each.

Cost:
The cost for taking part is £4 per child, plus the £5 t-shirt cost means that it will cost £9 per child to take part.

Tickets:
Family and friends wanting to come and watch the concert will require a ticket. Tickets for this event will go on sale on Friday 9th October at 7:00pm and will be made available here: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/teachersrock
Please note that there are 2 concerts, one on the Thursday evening and one on the Friday evening, so make sure that you purchase tickets for the correct evening; Friday 20th November.

If your child would like to take part, then please sign up via Arbor – Trips by Monday, 5th October.

Kind regards,
Mrs Brayley and Mrs Langdon