November 19th, 2021

Children in Need
Children came to school today dressed in clothes that make them happy to mark Children in Need. They brought in money to donate to the charity and a little bit more to buy cakes kindly provided in a Bake Sale by the very wonderful Oak Class. The Bake Sale alone raised £106. I can't wait to hear how much the whole day raised when we've had a chance to bring it all together and count it all up. A special shout out to Ed and his amazing inflatable Alien outfit. I think he made us all happy.

Late Night Shopping
Late Night Shopping is back again on the 2nd, 9th and 16th of December. It will be lovely to see the town bustling and full of life and a great opportunity to support some local businesses that you don't always get to in your busy lives. Santa will be receiving visitors in his grotto on the 9th in aid of the PTFA so do give him a visit. Around that time there will be a lantern parade and singing from the children - we'll confirm dates and times for that when we have it a bit more settled.

Celebrate a Life and add a stasr to the Memory Tree while raising funds for cancer research and for Hospicare.

Volunteers
Thank you to the very kind people who have offered to volunteer at the school. We are busily processing DBS checks and references to make sure we stay within Safeguarding regulations and will be getting them into school to work with the children as soon as possible.
If you would like to volunteer to help out do have a word with us. We'd love to recruit people who can give some hours each week to read with children, to help supervise playtimes and lunchtime, to support outdoor learning and to run clubs after school. One little boy has very specifically asked if there could be an after school art club so if you know of anyone who might enjoy running an after school art club one day a week do please let us know. We'd love to host one.

Call out for donations
This week we are particularly looking for...

• pots and pans that make a satisfying 'bong' or 'clang' for the new EYFS music board.
• big cable reels to use as mini tables in early years and elsewhere
• Biggish offcuts of timber and plywood to build features and dens
• Small playfigures (playmobil, peg dolls or others) for small world play
• Battered but serviceable footballs to be released into the playtime environment
• tyres - you can never have too many tyres in a school
• anything to do with cars - wheels, steering wheel, transport mat, matchbox cars, car seats... we want to capture the interest of some car crazy boys and we'd like to build a car on a pallet - give us a shout if that sounds like a fun project to you.

Last one - and this sounds a bit mad but go with me - broken paving slabs suitable for crazy paving as we work on the labyrinth in our new peaceful, mindful area. We'll also be asking children to collect 'special stones' to add into this so keep your eyes open!

Exceptional Work
As you will know we recently changed our school vision statement to 'Community, Challenge, Care' - Challenge is right in the heart of that and this week our Year Sixes made me the proudest principal in Devon - maybe in the world. They have written simply stunning poems taking Kit Wright's 'The Magic Box' as a model and have risen beautifully to the challenge to take care not only over the sense of the words but also over their presentation. The children are just so proud of their work and so eager to share that I couldn't pick just one or two for the blog - they all had to be there. I hope we can share this work with parents soon - you would be very, very happy with your young people. I'll admit to having a tear in my eye as I looked through this work - it just goes to show what Mrs Armstrong and I always say - when you raise the challenge the children will rise to it. We are investing in some fountain pens now and there's mutterings of a calligraphy club to be started soon.

This time of year I drive to Chagford from my home in Crediton in the dark and it's just starting to get light as I wind through from Whiddon Down. I don't mind though as it gives me some absolutely stunning views. I love the wreaths of mist and how they drape themselves across the fields. I doubt there are many other schools with such a beautiful view from their play field.