11th March

Do come along to our PTFA meeting on Monday 21st March at 3;30 to hear about what the group have been getting up to, what they're trying to acheive, what they are planning for the future and how you can get involved. They a a brilliant group of people and its a lovely way to get properly connected up in the school community.
Children are welcome, there will be supervision and activities available.

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Chagford World Book Day
What a great day we had! I have so many highlights that I don't think there will be room for all of them. First - a slideshow of the amazing costumes that made us all smile so much. I loved the mix of old and new - Bunny Versus Monkey made a great group project for some Year Six pupils., I loved to see Asterix and Obelix - old favourites from my childhood. The gaggle of Spidermen (Spidermans?) made me smile as did the one Superman and his cheeky smile. Some of the costumes were proper construction projects - massive well done to The Iron Man, Dogman, and the Roman Centurion (from another of my childhood favourites 'The Eagle of the Ninth') in particular on that front. Our parade gave everyone a chance to see the brilliant creativity of the costumes - a brilliant Chagford tradition to add to the list. Do have  look at some of the glorious costumes on display in this slideshow.

The Staff dressed up too of course - the main reason anyone applies for a job in school is so they can dress up for World book day.
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We all love the costumes but the real magic of World Book Day is spending a good amount of time really getting into the love of reading. There was a great deal of brilliant work going on around the school as teachers found creative ways to engage pupils with books and the love of reading. It was lovely to see.

And, of course, the icing on the cake was the brilliant pop-up shop from The Bookery in Crediton who had very cleverly curated a selection of books with something for everyone. Most children went home clutching a book and for those who didn't a very generous member of the school community bought us 'one of each' so we can have all the books available to read in school. A thousand thanks for this very kind gift. I'm having fun choosing which one to read first myself! All these books come with the highest possible seal of approval.

We had a sad farewell to say on Friday. The wonderful Ms Fitzgerald has been working with us for a few weeks teaching in Beech Class while Miss Coleman has been away. Miss Coleman is back in and full of energy now which is great news but we were sad to say goodbye to Ms Fitzgerald. The children said goodbye in assembly with cards and gifts. We were moved to learn that parents had clubbed togaether for a git too - Ms Fitzgerald is very well loved and we hope to see again before too long.

Run4Rosie
Following the success and enjoyment of the last 3 years events, Run 4 Rosie will be happening again this year. Back in its original format at The Clubhouse in Chagford. 
The event was set up in memory of local Chagfordian Rosie Webber. Rosie sadly passed away in September 2018, just 3 months after her Lung Cancer diagnosis.  
In honour of Rosie we want to raise funds to support those suffering with this illness as well as their families and support the vital research the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation are doing to help in the early detection of this awful disease. 
Find out more about their research projects here:  https://www.roycastle.org/research/current-research-projects/
We hugely appreciate all donations. If you would like to donate and sponsor our runners please do so on our justgiving page https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/kate-webber7

Sunflowers for Ukraine
Thanks to everyone who brought cakes and/or bought cakes at our bake sale for Ukraine on Friday. Together we raised £233.29​ which will go to the Disaster and Emergencies Commission appeal for Ukraine.
If you are thinking of giving to help out in this awful awful situation do take a little time to consider how you can give in a way which is responsible, transparent and effective. This excellent article from the 'A Mighty Girl' website is really useful (the whole website is pretty awesome actually.
The Do's and Don'ts of Helping Ukrainian Refugees: How to Make Sure Your Donation Matters

Our next project to raise money for the appeal is our 'Sunflowers for Ukraine' project. You'll see the gardening group have already started preparing a space for our sunflower field at the front of the school - by summer we hope it will be a glorious riot of yellow and gold with a band of blue provided by cornflowers. We will be selling sunflower seeds to raise some money and asking children to grow them on at home until they are big and hairy enough to be slug proof - they will then bring them back to school to be planted up. We will think a way of honouring this together as a community. Do feel free to palnt up as many sunflowers as you can, whether you've bought the seeds from us or from elsewhere. We would like to see the school absolutely popping with sunflowers in the summer.

Call for pallets
Does anyone in the community have links to anyone who could help us out with some big pallets? We have a few projects we would like to put together that require pallets - either whole or stripped down. We'd like to build some pallet dens to add interest to the children's play and we want to strip some down to create stands for 'tuff trays'. If you know anyone who could help, do put them in touch.

'Artis' - project
A few weeks ago, Chagford resident Alice Parkin invited Chagford Primary School to be park of an exciting pilot project for 'Artis' the company she works with bring the arts and creativity into all areas of the school curriculum. Classes can explore science, literacy and humanities thorugh creative and expressive activities facilitated by qualified practitioners live online. The first of these workshop sessions have happened now and the teachers have been raving about the quality of the interaction. Check out the website for Artis here. This photo is from Year Three's science workshop - thanks to Alice and the Artis for having us a s part of this project.