School news time.
I hope that you had a great half term. It has been lovely to come back to a little more colour in the grounds-especially the Early Years pink blossom trees and the bulbs in the new planter the children made.
I ended the term by being with Mark’s class for the day. We all dressed up as Victorians and had a funny (and slightly scary) morning with Mr. Maynard (alias Mark) in his Victorian classroom. The children had to pay a penny to enter, stand when an adult entered the room, got the cane and repeated things from the blackboard endlessly. They even had gruel at snack time! We then headed off to Plymouth to watch The Vile Victorians at the Plymouth Pavilions and wowed the staff there by being so well dressed up. It was a funny show and a great end to a very memorable day.
We have two great days planned for this week. The first is Shrove Tuesday where every child will be making pancakes and discussing the reasons behind eating them. Some will make them in the kitchen while others will be cooking over an open fire.
We give the children a taste of a modern foreign language on a daily basis through their everyday activities. However on Wednesday 22nd February we are having a French day. The children in the main school will continue the French that they are learning by having workshops with Mark, Ben, Emily and Martin all themed around French. They will be in mixed aged groups spending time in a French café, looking at famous French artists and talking about where France is on the map-as well as speaking as much French as they can! Pauline is a French speaker and will be reading a children’s story to them all. Tabitha is kindly making us a French chocolate pudding. The Early Years will continue the French that they use during their daily snack time. If you have any French things to show us please bring them into school.
Please note that any posters or leaflets or sign up sheets must go through the office before they are put up on the school notice boards or into pigeon holes.
Ofsted has launched a consultation on a revised framework for inspecting independent schools. The proposals for change are set out in a consultation document which can be found on the website
www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/110131
You can respond to the consultation by filling in a response questionnaire which appears at the end of the consultation document. This can be done online, via download and email (when you have completed the questionnaire email it to: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk , please put Independent schools framework consultation in the subject line) or print and post to Independent schools framework consultation, Ofsted, National Business Unit, Piccadilly Gate, Store Street, Manchester, M1 2WD. The closing date is 17 April.
I wanted to say a big thank you to Sarah (Esther’s mum) who cooked lunch for us one day last term when Tabitha was ill. It was a very big thing to take on suddenly and we were all very grateful for her delicious cooking and the time she gave so willingly.
The Fire Service came to school to the two main school classes and taught the children about fire safety in a fun and interesting way through a film and dressing up.
Book Week February 27 Feb-March 2nd Next week it is book week. Please take a moment to look at the green notice board under the covered way to see what is happening -as there are lots of activities happening. Dressing up day will be Thursday 1st March. This is a day that the children (and some staff!!) dress up as a book character and have a big parade around the school to show each other their creations. World Book Day tokens will be given out during the week and are valid until 25 March.
Tickets for the School Barn Dance at Rattery Village Hall are now available in the office. There will be some soft drinks available but no bar so you are welcome to bring a bottle if you want to. Please bring a friend or two to this wonderful fundraiser.
Dates:
Please note not all dates are on this post due to child protection. please see hard copies in pigeon holes.
- Work Day-Please see covered way for the date-very soon!
- Whole School Open Day 29 March 2.30-4pm. We are planning an Easter Treasure Trail around the grounds for our visitors (our children will have their own separate hunt). This will be followed by a café for all of us – do stay and introduce yourself to visitors. Please speak to Stephanie if you can help with the Treasure Trail or café.
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Pancake day!
The children had lots of fun making pancakes on shrove Tuesday. They made them on open fires in our Forest School area and in the school kitchen. Lots of lemon juice and a touch of sugar made them taste even more delicious.
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Zimbabwe comes to school!
The children had a wonderful few dayS finding out all about Zimbabwe and the shona culture when a master mbira player and singer came to school. He taught them a Shona song and talked to them about his beliefs about ancestors and all about his life in Zimbabwe. The children were then invited to have a dance and drumming workshop and taste a selection of Zimbawean food. They worked with very experienced drummers and dancers and performed a song to parents and the general public. It was a great experience and one which we will do again as Chartwell has opened his Mbira academy about 5 mins walk from the school.
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Creating a less stressful education
The Children’s Minister, Sarah Teather, says “Government can only do so much” to support children’s wellbeing, but a less stress-creating education policy would go a long way.We wanted our daughter to go to a small school to avoid the early pressures of tests and targets. Park School, Dartington, is part of the human-scale education movement and puts the emphasis of primary education on good relationships – with yourself, others and the environment. Combined with smaller class sizes and plenty of outdoor exploration, this supports children’s self-confidence and gives them a foundation for more academic learning later on.
Our daughter made a good transition to a large state secondary school last year and is doing well at her new subjects, but more importantly she’s entering adolescence with high self-esteem and a good connection with her Self. I’m certain that if the emphasis of all education moved in this direction we’d find our national wellbeing at a much higher level in years to come.
Carlos Glover-Member of the Council of Management
Sunnyside, Bulkamore, Rattery, Devon TQ10 9LQ 01364 643108
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Article in the Guardian-class sizes
A recent article by Oliver James (Guardian 11 November) refers to the evidence that smaller classes really do create better educated children. However the issue of smaller class sizes, for example in the mid teens as opposed to the usual 30 pupils per class limit, has not been part of any government’s agenda for a long time. Longtitudinal studies in both Tennessee and in UK demonstrate that small classes mean improved results for primary aged children. The UK study tracked more than 10,000 pupils in 300 schools from entry to the end of primary school. It also suggested reasons why “small is beautiful”: for example, teachers could spend more time with individual children and the children were more inquisitive, better behaved and were more involved in the educational process. Interestingly, the evidence shows that whilst having Teaching Assistants in larger classes does free up Teachers to work in a more individualised way, their presence does not have the same effect on outcomes as smaller classes. Professor Peter Blatchford’s summary of class size evidence appears on classsizeresearch.org.uk.
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Carol Concert Finale
The final verses of the 12 days of christmas as sung by the parents and children at our carol concert…
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Carol Concert Fun!
Here are some pics from the wonderful carol concert we had today. Big thank you to the parents for the music which helped make it such a special afternoon.
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Work Party builds community spirit
We had a marvelous Work Party on Saturday. Over 17 families came along to offer their time and energy to help get some work done at school. We trimmed the willow and stored it to use later in the year,made a new bark play area in the Early Years garden, got lots of painting in the main school finished, washed windows, cleared the pond and nearly finished off rabbit proofing the veg. garden. On top of all of that we had a delicious sit down lunch for 40 people using pumpkins and apples from the garden. The whole day had a great atmosphere and helped us all to get to know each other better to build our community spirit. The children helped and played alongside us learning all sorts of skills. Thank for your time everyone!
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Whole school walk
We 
had a wonderful walk with the whole school this week. All the classes aged joined together to share a treasure hunt that nature provides. The children were asked to find as many colours as possible and to look for interesting habitats. We found gold and silver as well as all the colours of the rainbow as we played. There were so many habitats but the favourite one was the amazing toadstool village we found under the pine trees. The children had plenty of opportunity to talk together as they climbed and ran alongside each other. We stopped in an area that enhances sound and the older children sung songs. A day full of precious treasures!
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Little homes!
The children worked with cobb this week to make these little houses. They made their own cobb by stamping in the clay that had been locally sourced on the Estate. They learnt about how people used to make homes years ago and that they would have used animal dung too! They then worked on their own creation to produce beautiful little homes which naturally meant that lots of stories were made up along the way. These will be put into our orchard next week.
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