Newsletter 27th January

Flourishing!
Thank you to all the families who came to the church on Tuesday night to join in with 'Celebrating the Earth' together. We loved the poem that Year Four children had written and which they performed so beautifully - the participants at the event were very moved.
I was delighted to have so many pupils to sing with and they really made us proud. Lots of people have told me how much they enjoyed the children's singing - what an absolute pleasure and thank you to everyone who came along. The next event will be on the subject of birdsong - we shall have to think of a song to perform at that one.

​Year Four – Peace in Nature Poem
I smell green plants around me
I hear jenny wren singing in the branches.
I feel long grass brush my thigh.
I smell the sweet scent of flowers.
I taste the warm summer breeze.
 
I feel calm and relaxed in my heart.
I feel peace in the woodlands.
This is a place where I feel safe
 
The river delivers the salmon to pray
As the water comes to the beat of the dancing fish that wish for eggs to lay.
Upstream,  Down stream – the rocks tumble and the river slows.
I hear the water rushing
I see the darting fish
 
It gives me joy to be outside.
I feel one with the wild.
I feel free.

Burns Night
Children in Years Five and Six took a break from the curriculum this week to learn a little about the great Rabbie Burns. Year Five learned his poem 'Up In The Morning Early' and performed it in assembly on Friday. Year Six were given a Burns Supper in thier classroom - the Haggis was piped in and served with neeps and tatties. I was very pleased and impressed to see every child trying the food - no one turned thisr noses up at it and almost every scrap was eaten. Some had even had seconds! 

Industrial Action by The National Education Union

Parents wil know that members of the National Education Union voted to take strike action a few weeks ago, that the ballot suprapssed the benchmarks required and that union have called out for members to take action on four days over hte next few weeks. The first of those days is next Wednesday, 1st February.
As all members of the teaching staff at Chagford Primary are members of the NEU and intend to follow their union's call for action, that means that we will not be able to open the school to pupils on Wednesday. Teachers regret the inconvenience to parents and carers and are very mindful of the disruption to routine and to children's education. They feel that issues in the state education system at the moment which are impacting on thier pay and conditions are also impacting, perhaps with greater effect, on the education and wellbeing of the pupils that they care for.
Colleagues would want you to know that this strike action is taken reluctantly but with clear intent. They hope that this action will bring the attention of the government and of the public to bear on the issues of funding in general which are making it more difficult for teachers to teach and children to learn.
The school will be closed to all pupils on February 1st. We will need to look at the other forthcoming dates as they come.