Hemyock Primary School - August

Another term is over and the summer is here. We say farewell to the Year 6 pupils who will begin secondary school in September and congratulations to Mrs Arrowsmith who has had a little baby boy, Toby.

The second half of the term was the busiest yet. School trips to Rosemoor  Gardens, Sealife Centre and Explore@Bristol have been successes, as has the  annual Wild Night Out overnight camping and nature trip to Escot. The school  participated in the Walking Bus Record Breaking Event and we are yet to hear if it  will be listed in the Guinness Book of Records.

The KS1 Sports Day event was  won by Beacon and Abbey won the KS2 Sports Day. Challenge day, a whole  school event challenging children's thinking through a variety of activities  conducted in small groups, took place and the whole school took part in an Arts  event held at Blundell's school in Tiverton.The children, and the many parents  who were able to watch the final performance, had an exciting afternoon at  Blundell's and many of the children learnt new skills in dance, circus skills and  drumming.

The Summer fete, despite the changeable weather, was a lovely day  enjoyed by all, too. Traditional fete games such as apple bobbing, splat-the-rat  and crockery smash were on the agenda, while the evening saw former pupils  from the school perform their own music and some cover versions to parents and  pupils.

The end of term summer concert, organised by our music teacher, will  have taken place by the time you read this, with performances from pupils in a  variety of instruments, such as mixed strings and mini double basses, tin  whistles, keyboards, guitars, drums and flute.

Sporting events were manifold this half term; five pupils participated in the Devon Youth Games in Barnstaple, representing East and Mid Devon in Tag Rugby,  Athletics, Netball and Triathlon. A team of children represented the school at the Culm Valley Area Sports competition at Exeter Arena, an athletics event, where we came second overall in the large schools competition.

Well done. Year 5 went  to Uffculme secondary school to play a part in an Olympics festival which  included an endurance test, javelin throw, bench jump, chest throw and team
relay. Some Year 4s attended the athletics festival at the same School. The annual staff versus pupils netball challenge was won by staff this year with a score of 5:4. Last, but not least, our new after school cricket club, run by a parent, is successful, too, and the first cricket festival they participated in was promptly won.

It's all go at Hemyock! Roll on next term.