News From Hemyock Primary School - April 09

Our school days are getting busier and busier, filled with exciting and extra curricular activities. It looks as though the school has truly sprung into life this spring.

Charity work: Children have been raising money for Comic Relief by dressing up in red and wearing funky hair styles.

They have been collecting coins in support of the Devon County fundraising day 'Stand up for Toilets and Clean Water', using the coins to fill the shape of a giant tap filling a giant basin and the shape of a toilet on the playground (you may have seen the picture in the local paper). The money raised came to a whopping £141.36 which went towards helping provide toilets and clean water for children in Uganda.

Hedgehogs' class collected and shredded paper for bedding for genuine hedgehogs at the RSPCA Westhatch Animal Rescue Centre in Somerset and a small group of children delivered bedding directly to them, looking at the work the RSPCA are doing and reporting back to the rest of the school.

The school has recently become affiliated to Heartstart UK, an initiative coordinated by the British Heart Foundation, teaching emergency life supporting skills to children. All teachers at our school have undergone training to enable them to teach the children (currently Year 5 and 6) a series of life saving skills.

Sport: A small group of Hemyock pupils represented our school in the CVSA Swimming Gala at Tiverton Leisure Centre. Year 1 and Year 2 took part in two multiskills events at Uffculme School, making the most of the impressive facilities available to us through this secondary school. A small group of dancers, trained by Mrs Arrowsmith, devised a dance routine and participated in a dance competition held at King's School, Ottery St Mary.

Both of our Football teams are challenging for honours in their respective leagues, playing impressive team football with a fine display of skills. Congratulations to all the players (and coaches).

The Tag Rugby team is also going from strength to strength, playing local friendly games and participating in the Tag Rugby Festival at Uffculme, where three teams from Squirrel Class competed against 6 other local schools. The results were great for us with Team C and Team A coming top in their team matches and Team B coming a close second out of seven teams. All teams were demonstrating real team spirit and were a credit to the school. Further, the Tag Rugby School team have finally managed to beat the mighty Willowbank team, adding to their fine playing results. They are now in the Tag Rugby Quarter Finals which will take place on April 1st in Cullompton.

Last, but not least, the year 6 netballers have won the Culm Valley Cluster tournament, making them top of the netball league and earning them a place to represent their school in the East Devon League, an achievement that the school
is very proud of. The younger players are playing their socks off, too, showing
determination and fine results.

Practice walks for the Exmoor Challenge are underway and the children are showing great motivation and stamina. Thank you to all parents who are able to help on these walks.

Other: The children have enjoyed 'Pancake Day', mixing batter and making pancakes (and eating them, of course). Squirrels Class have been learning to play the tin whistle and the school had a visit from the Fire Brigade, talking to each class in turn about fire safety. The children, and their teachers, have dressed up as characters from a book for 'World Book Day'. They have paired up with children from other classes to share their favourite books and teachers swapped classes to read stories to a different class. The day ended with a parade of all the costumes and children trying to identify as many characters as possible. Children in Foxes Class have started 'Forest School' activities in the playground (they have made charcoal and used tools to cut and whittle wood for toasting marshmallows) and to enhance this provision, Rabbit's Class have planted some trees around the school. They have planted Rowan, Wild Cherry and Silver Birch Trees, some on the bank and others around the Willow Garden area.These trees were provided by the Woodland Trust and will greatly enhance the wildlife at our school.

For parents of pupils in KS1, we had a very successful reading meeting where parents were introduced to an exciting range of books, were offered ideas on how to make reading fun for children and how the school teaches children synthetic phonics and reading skills. The time given by the literacy coordinator and a member of the Devon Library Service was much appreciated by all parents present.

And finally, a double congratulation to Leanne Arrowsmith; not only has Leanne passed her National Professional Qualification for Headship but she is also expecting her first child. Best wishes to you from all of us.

Coming up:

• M&M productions will be performing The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for the whole school (funded by the PTFA).
• Easter bonnet parade and egg decoration school competition
• PTFA Easter Egg Hunt
• Willow Garden Working Party