Time certainly flies by when you’re having fun! We have come to the end of another half term and it’s time for a break – a chance to look back on a lovely few weeks and to look forward to lots more fun coming down the before the end of summer term.

Looking back, stand out memories of this term for me will be the amazing May Day organised by the KSPA, the joy of children learning to take pride in their work – some for the first time – the event of our We Are Ivy Week, the Community Cafe in the church, the brilliant calm and gentle attitude of our Year Sixes taking their STAs and the brilliant calm and gentle behaviour of the other classes who made sure that their friends could do their best. I will remember all the singing and dancing, the fun and stories that come back from Forest School – and much much more.

Looking ahead to next term, I’m looking forward to our great Camp Out in Willowland, our production of The Jungle Book, lots of fun playing on the field when the weather is good. Something else that I am really looking forward to is getting to know our new headteacher, Miss Toms, she has already been on site here to help us with our recruitment of our new teacher for next year. Most of the children have met her and she has spent a little time alongside staff – most of the parents met her on the gate this morning in fact. Miss Toms will be with us for a day a week after half term, she will be learning how the school operates, getting to know children and families and generally becoming not just a member of our Kenton family but its leader. She’ll be supported by Annabelle Thomas, the Director of Primary Education, whose office is upstairs in our admin block and who is likely to be here on site most days.

Lorraine Bestwick

Some news, after working with Kenn and Kenton Schools for many years, Lorraine Bestwick is moving on to pastures new. This is happy news for Lorraine as she is looking forward to taking on new challenges and exploring a new chapter in her life, but it is sad news for us at Kenton as she has been an absolute rock for the school in general and most particularly for our pupils with special educational needs and for their families. She will be very much missed.

The plan is for Mrs Toms to take on the role of SENDCO alongside the role of headteacher. This isn’t an uncommon set up in small schools like ours and it does come with some advantages. Mrs Bestwick was only able to be here on site once a week, Miss Toms will be here every day which means she’ll be able to check up on provision for children with Special Educational Needs very much more frequently and also have a lot more flexibility in times when she can meet with parents and specialists.

I know that when the time comes at the end of term – still nine weeks away – you will all want to join with me in thanking Lorraine for all her work over the years and to wish her all the best for her future endeavors. Up till then we have a good long time for Miss Toms to have a thorough handover from Mrs Bestwick so we can make sure that the baton is not dropped.

New Teacher Appointment

We are delighted to announce that we have appointed a very experienced teacher to join the team from September, Mr James Kelly. Mr Kelly will be teaching Oak Class. We will allow Mr Kelly to introduce himself to you very soon.

Police Visit

Willow Class and Nursery had a visit from the police as part of their topic on ‘People Who Help Us’. Everyone seemed to have a brillaint time and I’m told there was lots of great talking and thinking. The photos certainly suggest that the children enjoyed their day!

Family Questionnaire

Earlier this week I shared a link to a questionnaire for parents and families asking for their views about our school. I would love as many people as possible to fill this out. If you have a child at the school you have the right to have your voice reflected in the survey. You may have views which are strongly positive, strongly the other way or you may be right in the middle. There may be parts of what we are doing and how we do them that matter a great deal to you and other parts you barely think about. It’s important that all of that is reflected in our results so please do take five minutes to fill it out.

I have included the link to the questionnaire in the email I sent out to share this newsletter. If you didn’t receive the email but would like the link, just drop me a message.

Dawlish College Tours

Our colleagues at Dawlish College have asked me to share details of their school tours for Year Five pupils who are considering their applications for Upper School.

The post Newsletter 21st May appeared first on Kenton Primary School.

What a week!

Our Year Six children absolutely knocked the challenge of sitting their SATS tests out of the park – and also managed to have an absolutely awesome week of ‘proper’ learning too.

You will know that at Kenton we know very well that SATS aren’t the be all and end all of primary education. They test a narrow set of skills so that the school can be compared with other schools nationally. They don’t tell us anything very useful about the children in a more holistic sense. We do them, and we do them as well as we possibly can, but we also celebrate and work hard at other things – for example our production of The Jungle Book which is coming along very nicely. My good friend Mike shared a poem we’d written for all the pupils taking SATS – I’ll pop it at the bottom of this newsletter.

The Jungle Book

The children practiced this morning with the help of our dance teacher Katie Whenman and those routines are looking very good indeed – this show promises to be easily just as good as last year’s epic production of Matilda.

May Day

Astonishing news from the KSPA – they have finished counting all the coins and doing all the sums following their super, super successful May Day event on the field. Here’s a message from KSPA team:

Transport during ‘Powderham Live’

A message from Heather who has taken on a new role…

Heather McGrouther and Jennifer Rowland

Swimming

Swimming Lessons for Oak Class get underway after half term. I know that the cost to parents is a big step up from last year and I really do apologise for that. Sadly, it’s beyond our control – for a variety of very boring reasons, we have been unable to book into the Dawlish swimming pool this year. We are instead using the pool at Starcross Primary School and we are very grateful to them for making that possible. The reason for the increased price is that we have to employ our own teachers and we have to employ sufficient to maintain safe ratios. That means that instead of paying for a couple of hours of time for people already employed by the leisure centre, we are contracting in qualified swimming teachers from the Dolphin Swimming School in Cofton. Half a day each for their instructors costs us more than a couple of hours of people already working at the pool.

We really do regret this price increase but it is beyond our control, we have to teach swimming and we have to do it safely and properly. I believe that I’m right that in previous years the KSPA has helped to part fund swimming lessons which has been very generous of them, this year – quite reasonably – their priorities are elsewhere and we cannot assume that they should want to fund this important part of our curriculum when it des not directly benefit every child in the school community.

I am particularly passionate about making sure every child leaves primary school able to handle themselves safely in the water because I know how badly this can go wrong. Back in my old home town of Oxford, we would lose young people every summer who went for a cool dip in the river and found that the situation got out of control quickly. Here, living by the estuary and close to the beach the risks are very high and very scary indeed.

I do hope that people can understand this and able to make the payment via Arbor to allow this to go ahead.

Inset day May 22nd

Please do not forget that next Friday – 22nd May is an inset day and that the school will be closed for staff training. We will be doing important work on site to improve our curriculum and make sure it best fits the needs of the children.

Mike’s SATS Poem

My good friend Mike, who was headteacher at Haywards School in Crediton for many years, shared this poem with me and I asked his permission to share it with you all.

SATs don’t measure sport

SATs don’t measure art

SATs don’t measure music

Or the kindness in your heart

SATs don’t see your beauty

SATs don’t know your worth

SATs don’t see the reasons

You were put upon this earth

SATs don’t see your magic

How you make others smile

SATs don’t time how quickly

You can run a mile

SATs don’t hear your laughter

Or see you’ve come this far

SATs are just a tiny glimpse

Of who you really are

So, sitting at your table

With a pencil and your test,

Remember SATs aren’t who you are,

Remember you’re the best!

Attendance Letters

Earlier this week, we sent every family a letter letting them know their children’s current attendance figure. We do this periodically so that you are fully aware of your child’s percentage and so that there’s no surprise at the end of the year when the attendance figure is given on the report. In general we would say that we have no concerns about any child whose attendance is above 95% – that’s what I think of as the green zone. When attendance falls below 95% is when I get concerned and below 90% is when I’m worried. If your letter gave you any cause for concern, do get in touch for a chat.

World War Two Experience Day

Once they had seen the SATS off and then worked very hard on the Jungle Book performance, the children of Chestnut Class then spent the rest of Friday dressed up in 1940’s clothes immersing themselves in the lives of British people in the Second World War. Our brilliant TA Miss Williams organised for her father, Paul, to come and visit us with his extraordinary collection of WWII memorabilia including his 1940’s US Army Jeep. What a sight! The children had officially the best time ever. Huge thanks to Miss Williams and to her dad for giving us this experience. Paul is enormously knowledgeable about the second world war in general and especially the D Day landings, he was able to answer all the children’s questions. Abbie and Paul were very keen to make sure that the children understood that the guns they brought in are replicas – not originals – and that they are absolutely not capable of firing – even if there had been any ammunition involved.

The post Newsletter 15th May appeared first on Kenton Primary School.

Just a quick catch up to say again how pleased, proud and impressed I was with Monday’s May Day celebration. What a brilliant team of organisers and what a spectacular day they put on for our community – it was a privilege for me to be part of it. My friends from The Crediton Strummers (now also known as ‘Katie and The Acorns’ were all hugely impressed by the day. My bandmate Mike, a retired headteacher, messaged me to say;

Absolutely cracking afternoon at Kenton Primary School. So well supported, so many turns and activities, and a great crowd. Well done Ed to your school organisers. Proper job!

We’ve seen some lovely photos but if you have more please do send them in so we can create a record of the day

SATS Tests for Year Six

Next week is the week of our Statutory Assessment Tests for the children in Year Six. The children are well up for the challenge and couldn’t have been prepared better. As you know, at Kenton we know that every child counts for far more than any test could ever show. Our children are musicians, athletes and gymnasts; they are kind friends and staunch allies, they are funny, kind, cheeky and steadfast. They multitudinously curious. They are three dimensional people and they are very much themselves. We want our children to be as well prepared as they possibly can be for these tests, just as we would want them to be well prepared for the challenge of a performance or a sports fixture – because we want them to feel that they have represented themselves to their full potential. We know that you, as parents and as community members, will never, never mistake a child’s performance in a test for any sort of judge of that child’s worth or as any sort of predictor of their future attainment. We wouldn’t ever do that either. We are excited to see how the children deal with their SATS but we are, whisper it, maybe even more excited to see how they get on with Sports Day and The Jungle Book later in the term.

Teacher Vacancy at Kenton

We are advertising a position for a new teacher to join the team at Kenton. We will let you know all about this as soon as it is appropriate for us to do so. We would like to recruit the best possible teacher for the role so, if you know of a brilliant teacher who would fit our ethos here please do pass the news on. Feel free to share this link.

Class Photos

We will be taking Class Photographs on 19th May, let’s all be as smart as we can possibly be so we represent ourselves and our schools with pride.

World War Two Day

Chestnut Class have been studying World War Two. They will be having an ‘experience day’ next Friday 15th May. Children in Years 5 and 6 are invited to come in a period costume.

Inset Day

A reminder that we have an INSET Day on Friday 22nd May. School will be closed for all pupils.

Powderham Garden Festival

We were so delighted to be invited to take a group of children to Powderham Garden Festival last week. We sent our Green Team along to represent us and to see what they could learn along with a couple of responsible adults. The looks on the children’s faces (as well as on Liz’s and Rachael’s faces) when they got home spoke of a long, happy and rather exhausting day. The children has tales to tell and also a couple of freeby watering cans that they had acquired along the way.

These pictures tell the story better than I could. A huge thank you to the team at Powderham who invited us along and gave our children such a lovely day.

The post Newsletter 8th May appeared first on Kenton Primary School.

I’m very pleased and proud to be able to introduce the new Headteacher for Kenton Primary, Ms Francesca Toms.

Thank you for your patience while we have been holding on to this information – we wanted to give Francesca’s current school plenty of time to communicate with their own community in a calm and timely manner.

New Director of Education for Primary

Ivy Trust has made the decision to restructure staffing in Primary to clarify structures and make savings. The role of Executive

Dear Parents and Carers,

I am writing to introduce myself as the Director of Primary Education as of the 1st May for Ivy Education Trust. I will be working closely with the Headteachers from the five primary schools at Kenn, Kenton, Cockwood, Starcross and Teignmouth. I have worked within education for 20 years, and have been a school leader at Teignmouth Primary School since 2011, and more recently an Executive Headteacher across Starcross and Teignmouth Primary Schools.

The Primary Director of Education will provide strategic leadership, oversight, and support for the primary phase across Ivy Education Trust. They will ensure high standards of teaching, learning, and pupil outcomes across the five primary schools, aligning with the Trust’s vision, values, and improvement priorities. Working closely with the Executive Director of Education, and school leaders, they will drive school improvement, strengthen leadership capacity, and ensure compliance with statutory frameworks and Trust policies.
They will aid collaboration and learning from each other to bring about change.

I will be based at Kenton Primary School, but will be visiting each setting regularly to support them on their school improvement journey. I look forward to meeting some of you on the gate and please do come and say hello!

Kind regards,

Annabelle Thomas
Director of Primary Education

Building Update

Work on the new school building has been continuing in the background. While we aren’t seeing work on the ground at the moment, huge amounts is going on behind the scenes and the plans are still to get that building built and Kenton Primary moved into its forever home as soon as possible. I asked for an update and was given this:

“We are at the feasibility stage, where we are exploring the best school design to suit the location and create a concept that can be developed and refined into a final proposal. The design will meet the DfE’s specification requirements, as well as the needs of the Trust and the school. The DfE and the Trust are committed to sustainability; the new school will be designed with sustainability and ecological benefits at its heart. Plans include green spaces and planted areas for pupils, staff, and visitors to enjoy. These outdoor spaces will support wellbeing, learning, and a connection with nature.

As the designs develop, we will share further updates and more details with you.”

Bank Holiday

Just to remind you – Monday is a Bank Holiday, there’s no school!

You are, of course, welcome to our May Day Celebration – in fact we hope very much that you will be there.

May Day

This is your final reminder that on Monday we have our May Day Celebration from 12:00 to 4:00 p.m.

There will be lots of fun to be had including games to play, music, dancing, our green man procession and lots more. Mr Finch will be going in the stocks at some point so you can enjoy throwing wet sponges at him. There will be owls, morris dancers, a circus, pizza, a tea tent, a toy stall – it’s going to be a really good day.

It would really help if you bring the money you are intending to spend in cash and, as an especial help, if as much of that could be in smaller denominations as possible, that would be really helpful.

There will be NO PARKING available up here at the school – that will all be needed by traders and stall holders – so please walk if at all possible or, if you need to drive, park in the triangle or at The Victory Hall who are generously letting us use their parking for the day.

Remember that we do not allow any dogs to come on to the school field. Not even very nice ones. I understand that there was some friction over this last time we celebrated a May Day, hopefully there won’t be any this time. Of course guide dogs for the blind are an exception to this but I don’t think there is any other wiggle room – I can’t have children playing on grass which has been recently pooed or weed on.

As a sidebar, don’t forget to enter your pets for the competition to pick a mascot for The Dolphin. All creatures great and small are welcome and newts are as likely to win as chinchillas so don’t hold back. The link to enter is here. The closing day is TOMORROW May 2nd, don’t miss your chance!

We Are Ivy Week

This past week, every school in Ivy Trust has been involved in activities of service to build children’s pride in their communities – the community of coastal Devon, the community of our trust and, most clearly, the home communities that we live amongst. Our Willow Class children got busy collecting litter around the village playing fields, Oak Class tidied in the churchyard and cleared some overgrown graves as well as following up the Willow litter pick and Chestnut Class ran a pop up cafe down in the church and welcomed members of the community for a cup of tea and a slice of cake – raising money for local projects in the process.

These activities have ben very happy ones indeed and allowed us to have powerful conversations about caring for where we live and for connections to community. As of right now, my website platform is being very naughty and refusing to let me upload photos. I’ll try to add some as soon as it starts behaving!

Sports Day

Our Sports Day this year will be on Thursday June 11th. As ever, Mr Tyrell will be running a carousel of activities for the children to participate in. As always, he will spend his session with them the week before introducing all those activities so that they aren’t new and overwhelming on the day. We will let you know timings and other details closer to the day.

Swimming

There will be swimming lessons for children in Oak Class after half term. |We are just nailing down the last details regarding minibuses and timings so bear with us. We’ll let you know details as soon as we can.

Jungle Book

Our amazing production of The Jungle Book will take place at the auditorium at Teignmouth College on Tuesday 14th July. All children in Key Stage 2 will be involved. Please, please keep that day free. We will get tickets on sale after half term.

Parking

Once again I have to ask people please to avoid parking on East Town Lane as much as possible and absolutely definitely to avoid parking on the tight corner directly opposite the gates onto the school grounds. We had a horrible situation yesterday when a local resident and a minibus from the school met without any space to pass and with reversing made almost impossible by the traffic piling up behind them. I understand it was a fraught encounter. Personally, I would prefer that the corner opposite the school had double yellow lines as it really is not safe for people to park there and I feel that, if the situation continues as present, it is only a matter of time before we have a serious incident.

The post Newsletter 1st May appeared first on Kenton Primary School.

what a glorious day it is today! I very much hope you are all able to enjoy getting outside and having some important sun time this weekend. It almost feels like the start of summer. Naturally we are looking forward to all sorts of things over the next few weeks – swimming lessons, a camp out, our May Day and more – but it’s worth me saying here that I am also really looking forward to letting you know about our new permanent headteacher who will be starting in role in September. The selection process was very rigorous and we are pleased that we have appointed a really strong candidate. We want to give our new head a reasonable amount of time to tell their current school that they are moving on before we put the word out here so please bear with me for just a few more days. I expect to be able to let you know all about them in this newsletter next week. Thank you all for your patience and understanding.

Nursery and Reception are just LOVING the additions to the EYFS garden. I cannot tell you what joy it has given me to see the children exploring and experimenting with the new features in the area. I see jumping and balancing, I see thinking and tinkering, I see bravery and imagination. I’d like to give an enormous thank you to the parents, carers who came in over the Easter break to dig, plant, hammer, saw, screw, nail, plane and work magic. A huge thanks also to RGB construction supplies in marsh Barton who donated cast amounts of materials to make this happen – they were very generous indeed. Also to Taylor Construction Management who were very generous in time and expertise.

May Day

Our wonderful May Day Celebration is on May 4th from 12:00 to 4:00 p.m.

The KSPA have been working incredibly hard on this and they are preparing a wonderful day for us. There will be so much fun to be had and so much connection to be made. Get it in the diary, invite every friend and neighbour you can think of and don’t forget to make sure you have cash – with mobile reception being so poor we can’t rely on sum up machines and the like.

The Dolphin Are Looking For A Mascot And It Could Be YOU(r pet)

The community group working to bring the pub back to life want to choose a mascot for the pub. Send in a photo of your pet and you could revel in the glory. The winner will receive a framed photograph of their pet and a copy will be proudly displayed in the pub when it reopens. They tell me it doesn’t just have to be a cat, a dog or even a mammal – goldfish, axolotls and bearded dragons are all equally welcome as entries and equally likely to win.

The link to enter the competition is https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18eGJ7AspX/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Camp Out

On the night of Thursday 18th June running into Friday 19th we will have a big camp out at school for all children in Year 3, 4, 5 and 6. We will be sleeping in the bell tents that we have used before – you may remember them from the last week of Summer Term when we ran our ‘tent school’ in the grounds at Kenn Primary. The tents will be put up in the grassed area behind the Willow classroom and Nursery so that it will be entirely within our secure perimeter and with toilets very close by.

We’ll be asking you to bring your children along after an early tea and we will entertain them until bed time. In the morning we will give them some breakfast and toddle them along till school time. If you want to whisk your child away for breakfast and a shower in the morning that’s fine and we’ll keep the register open until 10:00 a.m. for those children to return – but there’s no need. We will make sure that Key Stage have a very gentle day indeed on that Friday as some may not have slept very much and might have missed home a lot – that goes for the staff too!

Some children will be very comfortable with sleeping away from home but we know that for some this will still be a challenge. That is precisely the reason that we are running this opportunity – we are thinking especially of the children who will be going on the residential trip in the autumn, we want to make sure that they all have the opportunity to try this one night camp out in a very familiar place as a sort of ‘dry run’ before the autumn and the longer time away from home.

We are IVY Week

Next week is we are Ivy Week – classes are all doing things to benefit the community. Chestnut Class are running a cafe for the community in the church on Monday morning and Friday morning, Oak Class are taking some time to help tidy up the churchyard – including cleaning up gravestones, and Willow Class are doing a big litter pick around the school field. More information has gone around on Seesaw and the WhatsApps I believe.

We are IVY week runs right across the trust with all eight schools running a variety of community events that serve to embed our shared values. As a part of the week we will also have a friendly football match between our pupils and children from Cockwood School. Mr Keirle has asked that pupils in Chestnut Class bring in boots and shinpads if they have them so that they can take part.

INSET Day 22nd May

Please do note that school will be closed  to all pupils for staff training on Friday 22nd May. The following Monday is the May Bank Holiday so you have a cheeky four day weekend to enjoy there. Book those campsites before they sell out!

ADDENDUM! A Message from the KSPA

The post Newsletter 24th April appeared first on Kenton Primary School.

A joyful Happy Easter to all our friends and families, do have a great break. We look forward to welcoming everyone back after the holidays.

Work Party

We will be gathering at school on Thursday April 9th for a work party to improve the Nursery/EYFS Garden. We have all sorts of plans afoot but need some strong and willing workers to help out. Come along to school from 10:00 a.m. If you are handy do bring along tools. Even if you are not handy, do come along and we will find work for you to do! There is a second work party planned for the Tuesday focussing on gardening and on painting pallets so they can be used for the more construction based jobs. I believe that work party is being coordinated through the WhatsApps so do look out for messages there.

Bug Hotels

After Oak Classes trip to Powderham to build a bug hotel last week, this Tuesday it was Willow’s turn. The short walk down to the Riding School felt like a jolly long way for some of our smaller people but they held it together and we got there to eat our packed lunches in one piece. We had a great time filling up our bug hotel with leaves, pine cones, twigs, bamboo tubes and all sorts to create sheltered living places for a whole variety of mini beasts.  One junior farmer even showed us how to get the string off a hay bale with predictable results – there was hay EVERYWHERE! I hope to pop back in a few weeks and see the place teeming with bugs.

Book Fair

Thanks to Mrs Best for organising our Scholastic Book Fayre which ran after school on Monday and Tuesday. I’ve seen a lot of children around who look very happy with their purchases! I understand the QR system wasn’t great due to the flaky Kenton mobile signal – we would need a better option for a other year I think.

May Day

Another call to put the date for our May Day Bank Holiday celebration in your diaries and to invite grannies and grandpas, aunties, uncles, friends and neighbours. There’ll be pizza, a barbecue, morris dancers, owls, circus and all sorts of fun, plus, of course, the legendary may pole dancing. Do not miss it.

We are collecting toys for a big bring and buy so do clear your attics. Speak to Heather if you can spare and hour or two to help out on the day.

We the Curious

Chestnut Class had a terrific day at We The Curious in Bristol. They had an amazing time working with chemicals to create different colours, experienced and planetarium and got hands on with all sorts of other fascinating scientific adventures. Thank you to Mr Keirle for all that organising and driving, it must have been a long and exhausting day but it looks like it was well worth it.

Gymnastics Club

Mr Tyrell’s brilliant Thursday Morning Gymnastics Club finished their term in style this morning by giving the whole school a performance of what they have been working on. There were back bends, flick flacks, cartwheels and who knows what all. Every child was a superstar and it would be wrong to pick any out in particular but I am going to give special mentions to Mollie for confident leadership, Grace for extraordinary bendiness and Robyn for being a smiling superstar. It was a lovely way to start our last morning of the term and at least one of us adults had a tear in our eye as we reflected on the bravery and brilliance of our pupils.

That’s all for now – have a wonderful Easter Break and see you soon everyone.

Best wishes,

Ed Finch (head teacher)

The post Newsletter 2nd April appeared first on Kenton Primary School.

Gosh what a busy week! I think we are all ready to drop. I hope you get a relaxing weekend then come back bouncing ready for the last week of term. DOn’t forget that there’s no school on Friday – this last week of term is just four days.

Ivy Music Festival

A group of children from Oak Class impressed us all with their performance on stage at the Langstone Cliff Hotel as part of the Ivy Music Festival on Thursday evening. They had worked with Pat and Elfyn from Sonopera to write their own song based on their own ideas about working together and performed as part of an evening where each of the eight schools in the Ivy Trust showcased their own composition. It was a jolly long old day for the children who rehearsed from 1:00 p.m. and gave two full performances – as well as courage to perform and responsibility to each other they showed us bags and bags of resilience. Miss Phippen and Mr Finch were very, very proud of each and every one of them.

The Girl Locked in The Library

Last week we hosted a theatre performance from MED Theatre of their show ‘Locked in the Library’ about a girl who finds herself, as the title suggests, locked into the library by the fiendish Rumpelstiltskin and has to prove she knows about lots of the characters in the books in order to be let out. One very clever performer played lots of characters – Heidi, Mr Toad, The Grumpy Ladybird and a very funny bookworm. The children were very engaged in the show, they liked the way that the performers gave them lots of ways to join in and feel part of the show and they thought the performers were very clever with their puppetry skills and their range of funny voices. It was a very happy afternoon indeed with children from Nursery to key Stage Two all sitting and enjoying the show together. Who knows, it might even encourage them to widen the scope of books they check out in the library!

Scholastic Book Fayre

We have a Big Book Sale after school on Monday. Come along at Pick Up Time and have a look at what we have. There are books for all tastes and price bands as well bookmarks, pencil sharpeners and other items at pocket money prices, nothing is more than ten pounds. Children who are going to after school club will have a chance to visit the fayre before they leave for Starcross so they can bring some money in an envelope to buy a book – otherwise all payments will be made through a clever QR code system. If it’s hard to make time to visit the library or a book shop then this is a great way to give your child the chance to make a choice for their own reading. A little bonus is that we get to choose some books to keep for school – the more you buy, the more we get to keep!

May Day – a message from the KSPA

The children have been preparing for May Day by brushing up on their Maypole Dancing skills.

Work Party Call Out

We will be hosting two work parties in the first week of the Easter Holidays to create some fun and interest in our foundation unit garden. This grassed area was reseeded over the summer and is now just about ready for children to play on – time for us to get our work gloves on and make something of it.

On the 7th we want to get together to paint a whole bunch of pallets. With many hands this shouldn’t take too long we just need people who don’t mind getting their hands mucky, who can get some paint on and who can bring a brush or two to do it.

On the 9th we need people who are reasonably handy with tools and can follow instructions and plans scribbled on envelopes to makes some things like a water wall, a big mud kitchen, a music board and so forth. Exact timings for both days to be agreed and publicised next week. Do get these onto all the class WhatsApp groups if you can please as I know some people see those who don’t always read this newsletter.

We’ll provide all the tea you can drink and maybe some biscuits and snacks too.

Mike Taylor – Hugo and Mabel’s dad – has cleverly sourced lots of materials for us to work with but we are still looking out for things like offcuts of chunky timber 2″x4″ and 4″x4″ in particular. We are also on the look out for decking boards – these could be offcuts and we don’t mind at all if they’ve been used already. Any car tyres you can lay your hands on would be put to good use. If anyone has guttering clips or downpipe clips going spare we would be very grateful for them. We would REALLY like a couple of sheets of marine ply – we know that’s a bit of an ask but just in case you know someone in the business – that would be SO helpful. We are more than happy to thank suppliers or trades on our social media or to do a little local news story if that would be persuasive to anyone.

If you have any thoughts or queries about this, do have a word with Ed or Mike.

Bug Hotel Project

This afternoon, Oak Class are off to Powderham to create a bug hotel. We are looking forward to taking the muddy route over and finding out exactly what they have in store for us – will it be a bug palace? A bug tenement? A bug castle! Hopefully, by the time you see this newsletter, I will have added the photos! Next week it will be Willows turn – what fun!

UPDATE: Yes – it was lots and lots of fun and the Powderham staff were incredibly kind and welcoming. HOw nice to run into friends from Starcross School while we were down there too.

Fun in the Sun

The brief window of lovely weather last week may have proved to be a false spring but it still gave us the chance to get out and enjoy the sunshine. We have been back out on our field for the first time in what feels like a long time. Willow Class even got the parachute out and enjoyed playing games together.

Ordering Meals

Thank you to everyone who is ordering meals on Arbor, it’s is now the majority of the school and it is saving SO MUCH TIME and making our mornings a lot more seamless. It really, really helps us if you can record that your child is bringing a packed lunch from home – we can’t safely assume that or some children would be going hungry. It’s worth noting that if you need us to provide a packed lunch for a trip, we really need to know at least a couple of days before the visit so we can order it from the kitchen at Kenn and get them to bring it over the day before. If you order it via arbor on the morning we really cannot help. The best thing to do is to speak to Tammy on reception or send her a message at least two days before the trip takes place.

The post Newsletter 27th March appeared first on Kenton Primary School.

Well! That has been my busiest week yet at wonderful Kenton Primary – all good I hasten to add, but super busy and I hope you will forgive me if this is a shorter than usual newsletter.

My main purpose today is to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported us this week. It’s a long list and no doubt my tired Friday Afternoon Brain will forget someone but I cannot miss out Ron Morton, Liz Spowage, Gemma and Mike Taylor, Matthew Johnson and that whole team who helped us make the Community Welcome Morning such a success. The children were outstanding, the tea was hot, the scones were delicious – everything went beautifully. I have heard back from several members of the community about how much they enjoyed the event – we really must do it again soon.

Thanks also to all the people – many of them named above – who have been working so hard on the Forest School site at Powderham. The pictures I’ve seen are amazing and I can’t wait to get up there in my boots and do a few hours helping out. If you are interested in getting involved or in donating a few pounds to help us get that provision set up before the children can start using it then do step into the school reception where there is a display board and a sign up sheet.

Thanks to everyone who has been so kind and cooperative as we have jiggled forest school dates around to try and make them work for everyone. I know it has been a little confusing but no one has had a cross word. All the children have been having such a good time up at Gin’s site – the pictures I see are heart warming.

Most of all however – a special, special thanks and shout out to Heather who has been working her socks off for KSPA and for all our children. The flying dragon and the castle in the library are her work as was a great deal of the work for Community Open Morning and, indeed, the Forest School project. We are so very lucky to have her.

The next project that Heather is turning her energy to is the May Day celebration on Monday May 4th. Please, please get it into your diaries so as not to miss it and if you would like to help out I know that Heather and the KSPA team would love to talk to you. There will be jobs of all sizes so even if you can only help a bit, they will find a way to put you to work.

Nursery

Nursery is now running five days a week. We have two new members of staff working with us to make this possible and they have to be paid so please, please help us spread the word. We take children from their second birthday up to the age of four after which they can join reception class. If you know of anyone in the village or in the area who might like a look around our provision and a chat about a place in our nursery, please put them in touch with Tammy or me and we’ll make a time for them to have a look see.

Disabled Football Coaching Sessions.

Most of you won’t have met our friend Laura Shaw. She’s one of the unseen army of people who work behind the scenes to keep our school functioning day to day. As well as a brilliant member of Team Kenton, Laura also runs various football coaching opportunities and she would love you to know about the Disability Football project she is running every Tuesday at Dyron’s Leisure Centre in Newton Abbot. If you know a young person who would love to be playing football regularly but who due to additional needs has struggled to find a coaching session which is sufficiently inclusive for them then this could be just what they need. The session is fully inclusive of children with learning difficulties, physical disabilities, neurodiversity or any other additional need. We would love you to pass this on to any children and families that you know of who might be interested. The sessions are fun and aim to build confidence, friendship and social skills. Laura’s website is here.

Fostering in Devon Conference: Friday 20th March 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Fostering Devon have been in touch to ask if we would help promote their event where you could find out more about fostering and how you could make a difference to a child or young person’s life in Devon. They will have a team of experts and experienced fosterers on hand to talk to you and answer all your questions.

• Fostering with your local authority
• Training and support, including a Skills to Foster taster session.
• Approaches to therapeutic parenting and the support that Fostering Devon offers
• What children and young people want from their carers

If this sounds at all interesting to you have a look at the event and consider booking your place on this link.

Parking

I’m sorry to nag again but please can we talk about parking again? Local residents love having the school here, they tell me it’s a pleasure to see the children every morning and it’s a joy to see the playing fields being used more. They do say, however, that it’s a real worry that people are still parking right on the corner opposite the entrance to the fields.

When people park on that corner it really restricts the road and the view up the road. There are genuine, justified concerns that this will cause an accident or that it will prevent the emergency services getting vehicles around that corner. There are quite a number of elderly residents living further down the road and it doesn’t bear thinking about that we block that corner and an ambulance can’t get through.

When the school was in the old site on Mamhead Road, almost everyone was in the habit of parking in The Triangle and walking around the corner. Of course, it’s a little further now and the slope up to the school can feel like the Matterhorn when you’re tired, but it would be really great practice for more of us to get back in the habit of using the Triangle and walking up. It would be good for our heart health too.

The post Newsletter 13th March appeared first on Kenton Primary School.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed that we are really trying to push reading this year. I hope you have.

Out of the many things that you could do to help your child flourish at school and beyond, promoting their enjoyment and fluency in reading is the most effective and, as a bonus, maybe the most enjoyable!

If a child leaves primary school reading confidently, with good fluency and comprehension, then they will be in a good place to access the whole curriculum as they progress through secondary school, to cope with important aspects of the adult world and – hopefully – to derive a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction from their reading life – whatever they like to read whether it’s car maintenance manuals, poetry, true crime magazines, political blogs, fiction or whatever. If schools can get just one thing rtight for their pupils (after keeping them safe and happy) then it should be ensuring that every child is able to read.

Thanks to the hard work of a lot of people and the generosity of the KSPA and all the parents, our library is now an attractive and cosy place to read and it’s much more full of books which are attractive to a wider range of children. Our improved use of data from Accelerated Reader is helping to support and challenge children more eff3ectively. The Reading Parties are incentivise some children who have been a bit more reluctant to read to really get stuck in.

The impact is that I am seeing more children excited about their reading, seeing rapid progress for a good number of children, seeing teachers more empowered in their teaching of reading and seeing the school starting to really hum. It feels good, which is why it felt extra special to celebrate World Book Day today.

World Book Day

World \Book Day is always a pleasure. I love standing on the gate in the morning and welcoming the children in their costumes – always a few princesses of various provenance, a handful of Harry Potter characters (I think those are going down year by year), a clutch of superheroes, a whole coven of witches and more. Today’s stand outs for me were an amazing Aslan in full regalia, some very nicely done Beast Quest costumes and a lovely collection of coloured pencils.

The children spent a very happy day celebrating the love of books in lots of different ways – making book themed hats, parading the costumes in the playground, figuring out who our masked ‘Mystery Readers’ were, participating in a choice of workshops and  – most importantly – reading and sharing beautiful books. What a great way to spend the day.

Reading Targets

After the great success of last term’s Reading Party most of the children have hit the ground running this half term – the classroom displays are showing me children who, after just two weeks, are already on forty and fifty percent of their targets. I was particularly proud to see a pupil who did not make enormous progress on their target last term makign massive progress already. I have said a big well done to that child already and I need to make sure I say it to their parents as well as I’m sure encouragement at home will have played a big part.

If you’re not sure what your child’s reading target is, have a look in the front of their reading record or drop a message to the class teacher via Seesaw – they will be more than happy to help.

Reading with Your Child Workshop

It’s not always easy to find time to read with your child and not knowing quite what to do with that reading time can put parents and carers off. Come along to our reading with your child workshop on Tuesday 24th March at 9:10 a.m. then again at 3:00 p.m. We will also make and share a video version of this workshop so that you’re able to take part even if you can’t make it at drop off or pick up.

We’ll look at what works and what doesn’t work, finding a time to make sure it happens, how to encourage reluctant readers, tips for getting the best out of reading time and what we DON’T need you to do. IT will be quite fast paced and won’t take longer than half an hour. Yes – there will be cake. Yes – we are happy for little children to come along and join us.

Attendance

I don’t know if it’s something I said or whether we’ve just been lucky with the coughs and colds but this week’s attendance has been OUTSTANDING. We managed an average of 98.82%.

I can’t wait to see the whole trust data which will come through on Monday morning – I will be very surprised if we aren’t the best in the trust. I feel like I should throw a party – and if we keep this up for another few weeks I definitely will – you will all be invited.

Thanks to people who responded to the biscuit questionnaire, I have some good ideas to spark a bit of interest in attendance and encourage people to feel positive about getting to school every day. I love the idea of a whole school camp out when the weather warms up a bit, that would be lots of fun. Some people thought that attendance certificates would be a good idea; I would never do rewards for 100% as it’s not reasonable or kind to ‘punish’ a child because they had a cold for a couple of days or couldn’t attend for some other reason but I am very happy indeed to give certificates for children who have attendance of 95% or greater – that would include more than half the school by the way! I am looking at the other ideas – a special thank you to the parent who write us a long and thoughtful email full of helpful ideas.

I do feel that I need to say that I really don’t need or want your child to come to school if they are too poorly to be here or if there’s a worry that they are still contagious. My thought and care for your child’s wellbeing easily and entirely outstrips my worry for my attendance figures. I also want you to know that I trust you as parents and carers and believe you are in the best position to make the judgement over whether your child is well enough to come into school. ON the other hand though, having worked in primary schools for nearly thirty years, I do know that most of the time if a child is on the edge of ‘shall I take them to school or not’ they perk up once they are in school with something to do and friends around them. A child who seems pretty glum and down at home often turns into a cheery little person once they’ve got stuck in and forgotten to be poorly. You know that we will let you know if the judgement turns out to have been not quite right.

RSHE Survey

At Kenton Primary we use the SCARF scheme to teach our programme for Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PHSCE). That’s the part of the curriculum that looks at keeping ourselves healthy, thinking about risks and dangers, learning the very basics of looking after our money, thinking about relationships, learning how out body changes as we grow up and so forth. Our resource ‘SCARF’ is made by Coram Life Education who are very well respected across the country.

The team at SCARF have sent me a questionnaire that they would like parents and carers to fill in. It will help to inform our teaching and improve the information we share with parents. A copy was attached to the email when I sent the link to this newsletter out to the community. I have also printed off a stack of questionnaires and put them in the leaflet rack at the front office in the school reception so you can simply pick one up and drop it back. I would be very grateful for as many returns as possible so do fill in per adult, not per child if that makes sense!

Community Welcome Morning

A last reminder that we are hosting our community welcome morning on Thursday from 10:30 to 11:30. We’d love to see people who used to attend the school, people who have moved into the area, people who remember the old school and would like to check out the new location. We’d just love to show off this lovely setting and encourage as many people as possible to have a little nosey around and have the chance to celebrate this lovely school community.

I imagine most people who might be interested have already hear about the event and will be coming if they are available, but there is certainly no harm in us all giving it another boost in our various networks and on our various platforms. I would love your help and support with this.

Great Potheridge House Residential

Parents of children in Years Four and Five will have received a letter with details of the Residential Trip to Great Potheridge House coming in September when their children will be in Chestnut Class together. Payment has been set up on Arbor so first payments can be made. It looks like a great trip and I’m delighted it is happening in September – not later in the year – so that relationships can be built and a class culture of trust and responsibility can be built that will carry the pupils through the year. If you have any questions about the residential, Mr Keirle is the person with the answers.

Changes to Forest School Programme

Due to some complex scheduling issues, next week’s trip to Forest School will be for the Oak Class pupils who are owed a session from earlier in the week. Some Oak parents are yet to pay for the forest school sessions that children have had already, the payment is set up on arbor and we would be very grateful if this could be done.  Willow will be having the rest of their sessions on Wednesday 25th instead of the Thursday so pop that in diaries with a picture of a set of welly boots.

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