​It has been a glorious day for a Woodland School session. Our nature area has transformed into a verdant glade. Today we learnt about campion leaves being used as a soap substitute - they will froth up apparently if you rub them like soap. We also learnt about the benefits of dandelions, every part of them being edible even if the leaves are a bit bitter. Perhaps you would like to try making some freshly ground coffee from the roots! Just dig them up, scrub them off, roast them in the oven or under the grill and then grind - delicious and your kitchen will smell wonderful.
Today's mystery animal was a stoat and we were able to feel a stoat pelt. Then, the scavenging task was to find bits and pieces to create images of animals. Can you see what they are?
We have finished our information about highwaymen and shall be assembling our information pages next week.
In Maths, we will be concentrating on using mathematical skills to solve problems and this past week, the children were given 12cm squares of paper as their only measuring tool to calculate the dimensions of their desks.
The weaving is beginning to take shape. We are learning a few different techniques as we go and the blue/green colour palette is  really rich. They're doing a good job.
Have a super weekend (hopefully in the sunshine)

Thank you to Mrs Ramoutar and Mrs Armstrong who did so much to prepare our children for their tests last week.
Thanks also to the parents and PTFA members who gave them such a lovely afternoon on Friday to congratulate them on their hard work and to celebrate passing that milestopne.
Most of all, howeever, thank you to our pupils who showed the very best of themselves. Humour, resilience, focus... we couldn't ask for more..

'Year 6, we could not be more proud of you!’
I’m sure that waves of relief are spreading out over Chagford as I write this and the year 6 children wend their ways home at the end of their SATs week.
They were certainly challenged but each and every one of them approached the job in hand with great determination and level heads – in fact, they were so calm that most of the school didn’t even realise that there was anything going on. Well done all!
This afternoon we all enjoyed a lovely party out in the sunshine. Enormous thanks to the PTFA, Chloe and James for organising a super barbecue and for Lucy and Charlotte for entertaining the children so beautifully for the afternoon. It was well worth waiting for the late lunch. Please see lots of photos below.
Finally, Mrs Ramoutar and I would like to say a sincere ‘thank you’ for the lovely gifts and appreciation in assembly today – it really meant a lot.
We hope that you all have a lovely weekend and look forward our Summer term projects.

Despite a shortened week, we have achieved a lot.
The children have enjoyed producing their recruitment poster to tempt some of the gullible into joining a gang of pickpockets (I have said that this is not something that we would generally condone!). There were some lovely puns : Pick a new career in acquisitions/Pick us and pocket a top, London career. I think that they’ll have some applicants.
The writing has not stopped there either as a challenge has been set to record as many positive and negative effects of globalisation on our lives as they can remember from our Geography unit. There may have been a small carrot dangled but the competition has been fierce to remember the most.
In Maths, we have consolidated our learning regarding coordinates and reasoning about the vertices, perimeters and areas of shapes on coordinates grids. If you find anything where they can calculate areas and perimeters at home, that would be great to firm up learning.
I have sent home the 4 star spelling mat and would appreciate if you could test your child through the list and circle insecure words. We can pick up common errors next week.
This morning, we enjoyed a Woodland School session. The woods looked so different to when we last visited with water in the pond and the irises grown up. There were beautiful carpets of celandines and bluebells too. They were challenged with creating a natural map of the area.
This afternoon, they have enjoyed an afternoon working with Lydia towards the school play and have been learning a rap – do ask for a performance.
Thank you so much for your contributions of wool and fabric for our weaving project. I think that we probably have plenty now and I’m anticipating a lovely wall hanging that will grace the school for years to come.
I am also planning a fun afternoon and picnic for the end of their SATs week but shall write more about that next week.
Best wishes.

Happy Easter everyone!
I have been a beaming teacher this week. The children have all made such fantastic progress and I couldn't be more proud of them.
Please keep up daily reading and times tables practice during the holidays as well as a daily addition, subtraction, multiplication and division to keep the cogs turning.
The year 6s had their final Easter service today and kept up tradition by insisting on wearing little Spring Chicken headbands to go with the song. They looked the part!

Now for some advance warning of a couple of important dates:
There will be a parent meeting regarding details of the France trip on Tuesday 2nd May in person at North Tawton Primary school from 5pm until 6pm. We do hope that as many of you as possible will be able to come along.
The following week (after the coronation weekend), is the SATs week. The tests will take place from the Tuesday through to the Friday inclusive. These are statutory tests and have to be held all together at the same time so please do not make appointments for you child during this week. Other than that, it will be business as usual and they won't notice any difference to a normal school test week.

I do hope that the rain stops at some point and that you are all able to get out into fresh air over the Easter break. 
Very best wishes.

​Dear all,
After a short school week, we have still managed to forge ahead with our learning.
The start of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone has been a popular platform from which to study how personalities are built through speech and action and the children have really got into the swing of creating a strong sense of character.
In Maths we have been working with ratio. If you are doing any baking over the next week, please ask your child to scale the recipe up or down for practice. Our next topic will be Pie Charts. However, it would be greatly appreciated if you could continue to practise a couple of multiplications and a couple of divisions each day and keep up with the times tables.
In French, we have been learning to talk about what we like/don't like to eat or drink for breakfast. Vocabulary to learn includes the following:  au petit dejeuner, je mange/bois
du lait - some milk
du pain - some bread  (avec de la confiture)
des tartines - some toast
du cafe - some coffee
du the - some tea
du chocolat chaud - some hot chocolate
des cereales
du jus d'oranges

Please can you make sure that the children bring their reading journals to school every day. We have some parent volunteers now who will be hearing the children read and will record reads in the journals.

Have a lovely weekend everyone. Children, remember to spoil the mums in your life and Mums, remember to let yourselves be spoilt!
Best wishes.

What a busy week it has been.
We are very proud of our year 6s having completed their art project for the Trust’s Festival of Hope. Unfortunately, I have sent it off to the exhibition without taking any photos but we shall display it prominently in our school when it comes back. It certainly has strong visual impact, portraying the many positive impacts that we can have on our environment. (I took some picture though! - Ed)
On Tuesday, all the children sang their hearts out for the recording of the Festival of Hope song too. We are really looking forward to the end results of both projects and to be able to see the results of the collaboration between all the Trust schools.
Wednesday brought Chagford book day with it and the costumes were absolutely tremendous and thoroughly enjoyed by all. The Bookery brought a super selection of books which were enthusiastically delved into by the children and I’m looking forward to some reviews as they are read.
In Maths, we have just about come to the end of our unit on Measures and shall be moving on to Ratio.
In English, the focus of our next piece is the development of character in fiction. It would be really good to discuss how characters in your child’s reading book have had personality developed for them. You might also like to think about the characters of Harry, Dudley, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon in ‘Harry Potter’: what are their personalities like, what sort of body language do they have and how do they speak?
Have a great weekend.

We’ve got straight back into the swing of things after the holiday and have been busy writing our crime reports for DCI Strongarm. I think two men in brown are going to be in for a nasty surprise shortly!
In our novel ‘Smith’ we have just been introduced to a ‘dashing’ highwayman. Our next writing assignment will be to write our own episode of the story in which ‘Lord Tom’ the highwayman tries to get his hands on Smith’s document. Our focus will be on showing character effectively through speech and action so thinking about body language that gives away emotions will be key.
In Maths, we are revising units of measurement and practising converting from one to another. Any practice that can be done at home to convert between grams and kilograms or centimetres, metres and kilometres would be really beneficial.
Next week I hope to be able to send you a picture of the final product of our art project based on the book Window. We have endeavoured to portray a view from a house changing for the better over time as we treat our environment in an eco friendly way.
Have a good weekend everyone.

Maple Class Blog Friday 10th February 2023
Happy half term everyone,
Everyone has worked very hard this half term and we are making super progress.
Please keep up the good work in Maths by practising one each of + - x and ÷ for whole numbers and for fractions. Try finding percentages of different amounts too.
I have taken a photo of your wonderful Hundertwasser-inspired house. Well done- it is really striking.

After half term, you have the other Art project that we spoke about today. Again we shall be creating windows but this time, views out of windows, showing how a barren, countryside landscape could evolve over time if we looked after the environment.
Please think about the eco-aware developments that could occur and collect as much as you can that will help us create collages and 3D images of changes to layer upon the background landscape.
e.g. wallpaper or wrapping paper that has a small-patterned print to be good as wallpaper around the windows, sticks, lichen, feathers, sellophane wrappers in different colours, coloured wool, fabrics, lolly sticks, straw, straws, bottle tops, buttons. Please get scavenging! Looking forward to the fun after half term.