Newsletter 8th October 2021

You catch me in a very good mood this afternoon. I always enjoy our Friday Celebration but todays was a special one. Afetr talking about our new school vision 'Community Challenge Care' with the children on Wednesday I was keen to see if they could talk about those values and qualities in their own lives. I was beyond pleased that they could. Children talked about children in their classes who had done great things for the community of the class, the community of the school and the community beyond. They talked about children who had taken up Challenge in thier personal lives, in sports and in school work. They talked about care they had experience and care they had given - when they'd had a scrape or a fall, support with challenging school work and care for the environment. It made me beyond proud to hear the children using the language of the school vision to notice and celebrate the good things going on in the school and in their lives.

Harvest Festival
Our Harvest Festival will take place next Wednesday in the church starting at 2:00 p.m. We would love some parent volunteers to help walk classes up to the church so if you are available do drop an email to [email protected] letting us know and we will divvy up the helpers between the classes.
Family members and people of the community are welcome to join us. We will sit the children in the middle section of the church and hope that all our wonderful guests will fill up the sides and, when those are full, the rear of the church. It is going to mean an awful lot to us to see the children and the community back in the church together after this long time. Of course harvest Festival exists to celebrate the bounty of the land and the gift of harvest but I think, this year especially, it is equally a celebration of community. I do hope people will feel welcomed to join us.
As part of the harvest Festival I hope we can collect donations for the food bank. Pasta and dried foods with a long shelf life are always welcome. Tinned foods go down well. Even more than that Nappies, wipes, tampons and sanitary towels, shampoo and shower gel are always very welcome donations. Children can bring donations into school through their classes or, if it's easier, you can drop them off at reception at school. I'm hoping to share a photo of an absolute mountain of donations in the next newsletter.

Covid
We currently have three children off school isolating with covid. Two in Year One/Two and another in Year Four. We do not think they caught the virus at school and we don't think they were in school while contagious. One family with a child in Year Six  are currently awaiting the results of PCR tests - we will let you know if that comes back positive but, again, we don't have reason to believe that school was the source of that infection. You'll be glad to know that the affected families are not very seriously ill. We do advise that you keep on taking regular LFT tests of course and we welcome a message to let us know if you get a positive result and have to go for a PCR.

Community Festival
Another heads up for the amazing Chagford Primary Festival of Community. It's only a couple of weeks away on Saturday 23rd October and we want it to be EPIC! We really hope that every community group in the area will be able to make a showing from bell ringers to allotment holders and fire fighters. If you have got any ideas of who should be invited and how we can make it a special day do PLEASE get in touch with the PTFA.

Otters!
There's two very special new members of the school community keeping guard in reception at the moment. This mother and child entitled 'An Otterly Dreamy Summer Day' were part of the Moor Otters dispersed exhibition that you will have spotted around and about the moor. Painted by local artist Julie Greenaway this sculpture celebrates those wonderful days on the moor when you can lie on your back on soft, sheep nibbled turf and gaze up through the oak leaves with flowers nodding, bees buzzing past and meadow pipits zipping overhead. What a glorious thing to have on loan in the school.