The Spring Term is one of our favourite times of the year, where we see high levels of concentration and good levels of progress being made by pupils across the school.  We have all made our New Year’s Resolutions and I feel that this year promises to be one of our best ever!

January saw us welcome eleven new children into school and one new member of Staff, Miss Rachel Cooper.  Miss Couch has been delighted with the way that the eight new reception children have settled so quickly, and they have made a really fine start. Similarly, the children who have started in classes two and three have settled quickly and they are doing well also. Miss Cooper has joined the Key Stage Two staff, teaching a mixed class year 4/5 group for the core curriculum subjects of Literacy, Maths and Science and covering for Staff on training courses. We hope that they will all be very happy here at the school.

The Key Stage One topic this half-term is Home Sweet Home, which is why you may have seen our youngest children walking around the village, studying the geography of our local area. The topic also looks to see how things have changed over the years, comparing homes in the past and now and finding out about the different kinds of materials that have been used at different times.

Our Key Stage Two topic is based around the weather with the children learning about different climates around the world and where some of the more extreme conditions that can be found. This term, these children will also be learning to play the ukulele as part of their wider opportunities programme – we have invested in a dozen sunshine yellow instruments for our Starlight Room and many children have been keen to buy their own so that they can put in some extra practice!

This term, we have the benefit of three final teaching practice students in school; they joined us in January and stay until the end of March. Miss Mabbutt is working in the reception class, Mr Pike, is working with Class Two and Miss Leslie is working with the eldest children in Class Four. We really enjoy being able to offer trainee teachers the opportunity to carry out their school experiences with us and like to think that we offer a positive and rich environment for them to develop in.

Finally, February marks the fourth anniversary of our walking bus scheme at school.  To date, we still have one of the most successful walking buses in the whole of Devon, with up to thirty children using the scheme at any one time.  Our daily buses are often commented on by visitors to the school and they have done so much to alleviate the traffic and parking congestion around the school at home time that it is difficult to imagine life without them.  Congratulations, therefore, to the fantastic band of parental volunteers and thank you to our walking bus co-ordinators, Shelley Choudhury and Chloe Kitson who help make sure that it is all possible.