Friday 12th

June 2015

Collaboration in English, Assessment and Maths, SENCO Work, New Parents Meeting, PTFA (Summer Fair, Raffle,

Match-Funding, Behaviour Policy), Swimming Pool Redevelopment, Persuasive Writing in Kingfisher, Year 5 Sporting

Spectacular, Kingfisher Renewable Energy Project, The School Garden, Ofsted Report, The Joke Spotand Messages

and Reminders

On Wednesday, Mrs Williams attended the Newton Abbot English Subject Leaders meeting looking at the teaching

of grammar and further work on assessment in the new curriculum.

Mrs Williams has also been working with teachers from Bearnes and Hennock to finalise and agree end of year

writing assessments for the Year 6 children in all schools; a useful process that gives greater authenticity to these

judgements.

Mrs Gill has been working with other Maths Leaders this week to develop key skill teaching practices in the new

curriculum.

Miss Walsh has been busy in her SENCO role this week, attending various meetings with other agencies, other

SENCOs and attending the SENCO annual conference; all of which help provide useful on-going training and updates.

As I’ve mentioned previously, from September we will be launching our work in earnest towards achieving the

Dyslexia Award. Miss Walsh will be playing a key role in this exciting project which will benefit all children.

On Wednesday evening, Mr Lawrence and I held the first meeting for next year’s new parents. There will be several

transition events happening over the coming weeks to help the little ones test the water before starting properly in

September.

The PTFA met on Tuesday evening. Planning for the summer fair is well under way but they still need more

volunteers. There is a list outside the office for people to sign up and if you could consider giving just one hour of

your time on the day (Saturday 27th

June 12-3pm), it would be hugely appreciated.

There are some stunning raffle prizes on offer this year, with a first prize of a two night stay at the Tregunna Castle

Hotel in St Ives, overlooking St Ives Bay. Thank you very much to Mrs Moss who used her remarkable persuasive

skills to land this one.

As you know the PTFA raise a lot of money across the year. Apparently supermarkets, banks and possibly other

organisations offer a ‘match-funding’ scheme if one of their employees’ children attend a school that has a PTFA

which raises money. On behalf of our PTFA, please can I ask that if you think this might apply to you, that you make

some enquiries of your organisation to see if they would be willing to match fund our fund raisers. Thank you.

I would like to take this opportunity to remind you that the PTFA support our behaviour policy by providing the 10

£5 termly vouchers to reward children drawn from the golden box. They provided the termly PTFA trophy for the

winning house and they fund the end of term reward events. For example, when we visit the River Dart Country Park

on Wednesday 22nd

July the cost should be £12 per child but this will be subsidised by the PTFA.

At 7.30pm on 30th

June, the pool redevelopment group will be meeting again to finalise plans, assess the costs, and

decide where to access funding and to make a plan to get hands-on in the area so that we can physically start the

project moving as soon as possible. Thank you very much to Sarah Leach who, in her professional capacity as an

architect, has produced detailed 2D and 3D designs.If anybody would like to join us at the meeting, you are very

welcome.

Kingfisher Class, led by Elana and Katherine in Year 5, are finalising their persuasive letters to Galliford Try to see if

they will help fund our development in compensation for the disruption caused locally. As soon as we know the

estimated cost of the build, they will be attaching the designs and costs to their letters and sending them off.

Well done to Year 5 who took part in Coombeshead’s Sporting Spectacular on Thursday. 400 children competed in

the event, taking part in Dartmoor 3 Ball, Cricket, Tag Rugby, Handball, Sprinting, Long Jump, Shot Put, Javelin and

Hurdle Agility. We had stunning success with Robbie Maddicott taking first place out of all competitors in the Hurdle

Agility. Well done to Robbie and all the others who again showed super sporting behaviour and represented

themselves proudly.

Kingfisher Class worked on a renewable energy project on Monday with a teacher from Solstice Renewables who are

looking to develop a solar farm on 2.5 acres of Ruby Farm. They met the farmer, Charles Down, conducted solar

power experiments and did a biodiversity study.

Our garden is wonderful with radishes, rhubarb and onions now being harvested and sold. Soon there will be

different lettuces, potatoes and strawberries ready. Thank you very much to Paula Simmons and David Wilds for

helping the children to make this happen. It is very impressive. David gives his time for free at school. He has his own

garden maintenance business which I would like to again recommend. You can contact him on 01626 355541 or

07779 685788 if you would like to employ him.

We are still awaiting the final published Ofsted report. Ofsted recently introduced a second tier of quality assurance

checks to all reports. I have been informed that there is a backlog of reports at this second level which is where ours

is sitting frustratingly. As soon as it is in, I will send out a copy.

This weeks’ CDL Joke courtesy of our resident comedians Cerys, Daisy and Lily: Why did the skeleton not cross the

road? Because he didn’t have the guts to do it.

Messages and Reminders

There is a whole school trip to Slapton on Friday 26th

June. Please see attached letter.

On Friday 19th

June two of our Year 1 parents, Mrs Muscott and Mrs King will be raising funds for the PTFA by selling

Father’s Day gifts in school for £1. So if you’d like to help make Dad feel special on the most important day of the

year, please bring in a pound next Friday.

On Monday 22nd

June at 3.15pm Brian Whiffin, the Assistant Head Teacher from Coombeshead, will be in school for

one hour to take any questions about secondary school.

Sex Education for Year 6 with the school nurse, Linda Richards, is on Tuesday 30th

June. Year 6 parents please see the

accompanying letter for more detail.

Finally, a reminder about class photo orders which need to be in by Monday 15th

.

Have a lovely weekend.