Ofsted report

Thank you for your support in sending back the questionnaires to the inspectors. With your information and that gathered by the children’s questionnaires they were able to make judgements about how everyone feels about how we are doing.

Read the full Ofsted report.

Tesco vouchers

If you have any spare Tesco vouchers, please bring them in. We need to choose our items soon and send all vouchers in by the middle of June.

June dates

June
7th—Return to school
15th—Beach safety talk
23rd—Sing up performance at Hall for Cornwall

PE Kit

Could the children all have their PE kit in school for the summer term. Classes may go outside for PE on days other than their normal ones, due to the weather.
PE kit should consist of a white T shirt / polo shirt, black shorts and daps or trainers.
Please label all items of PE kit.

Headlice!

The sunshine is back—and yet again, so are the headlice!
Please could you check your child’s hair and if necessary treat, or use the comb and conditioner method to remove any live lice. Please continue to inform us if your child does have headlice as we can tell individual classes to check heads.

Interactive whiteboards

Our new interactive whiteboards are now in place in both Class 2 and 3. The new ICT system update with a new server will all be put in during the next few weeks. We will all then have much better access to computers.

Playing on the green

At the end of the day, you are welcome to allow the children to play on the green, but staff will not supervise the children.
If you are running late then we will keep the children either in the playground or back in the school building.

Rocket Day

Classes 2 and 3 enjoyed learning about space and making rockets with Mr Purchase. Some rockets flew the whole length of the green!

Spirit of Carnival

Many parents, friends and members of the local community enjoyed our promenade performance. Local stories, provided by older community members were incorporated into the play which ended with a carnival.

Rehearsals

The children rehearsing with members of Cascade.

Making props and costumes.

The children, parents and members of the community worked with Cascade theatre company to produce props and costumes for our production of Spirit of Carnival.

Roseland School Camp

Years 5 and 6 from St Mabyn and St Tudy schools enjoyed drawing and making boats at St Just in Roseland.

St Piran's day and book day

The children dressed in black and white for St Piran's day or as book characters for World Book Day.

Flambards visit

Class 2 visited Flambards to find out about World  War 2

Anderson shelter

Class 2 are finding out about children's experiences during World War 2.

Wartime cooking

Class 2 used their leeks to make a wartime vegetable pie. They all agreed it was delicious.

Digging up leeks

Class 2 dug up the leeks that were planted last summer.

Lavender Cottage visit

Class 2 visited Lavender Cottage to find out about where the Hamley family lived in 1851 and they looked at lots of artifacts from the past.

Learning French songs

The children in Class one had fun learning French songs through "sing up" on the Interactive white board.

St Kew Pottery trip

Class one visited the St Kew Pottery before Christmas and produced some amazing presents.

Visit to Kellow's farm

Class 2 have been finding out about farming in the past and visited a modern dairy farm to find out how things have changed.

Class 2 shop

 

Laura from St Mabyn shop visited class 2 to tell them about her job as a shopkeeper.

Special school meals

We have two special school menu days approaching. The first is on Thursday 11th February, which is Chinese New Year. It is the year of the tiger—dates for tigers include 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998 and 2010. Traits for a tiger include: a forceful personality, being adventurous and confident.
The meal includes:
Sticky Chinese Chicken Skewers or Vegetable stir fry Prawn crackers, Noodles, Savoury Fried Rice, Warmed Sticky Banana with Ice Cream or Fresh Fruit.
If your child would like this meal could you please complete the slip at the bottom of your newsletter and return it to school by Wednesday 3rd February. This allows Angela enough time to order the ingredients.
The second special menu will be on St Pirans Day (5th March) and will be a pasty designed by the children. All children are welcome to take part in the competition to design a pasty for the day. Entries (recipes) need to be handed into school by Tuesday 9th February.

Holiday forms

If you are going on holiday during term time, please ask for a holiday form from the office. The form will ask for some extra details about why you are wanting to use term time rather than school holidays. Please be aware that although up to ten days of holiday can be authorised, it is only allowed in one family holiday—not lots of dates throughout the year. Once I have then checked your child’s absence rates, I will reply to your request. If your child has had a lot of illness or other absences, then I may not be able to authorise the holiday. Education Welfare Officers look at absence rates of 85% and below...one holiday can put you into this category.

February dates

February 2nd—Y1 hearing tests
5th—Cascade in all day
11th—Special menu day
Class 1 from St Tudy visiting Class 1 here
12th— Cascade in all day / School council meeting / Break for half term
22nd—Return to school
March
2nd—Curriculum /Personnel Govs meeting 5.00pm
8th—Finance/Buildings Govs meeting 6.30pm
15th / 16th Art Residential—Roseland
24th—Last swimming session
April
1st—Break for Easter

Creative Arts Project

As part of our on-going creative arts project, we have Cascade (a national arts project group) working with both the school and community members on an arts project based on the theme—Journeys. The project will involve lots of art, drama, literacy, music and dance, which all children will participate in during the Cascade visits to the school. The end project will be a huge performance with the school building and other local buildings transformed as the back drop for the children’s work. Cascade have just begun to formulate their ideas with the children and so specific details are a bit sketchy at the moment. We will keep you informed of details as the term progresses.

HEADLICE

Please be aware that we have headlice around again. They obviously didn’t like the cold, but now things have warmed up—they’re back!
If possible could any children with long hair keep it tied back .Could you also check your child’s head every few days in case they have headlice or nits.
Combing through with a nit comb with conditioner is probably still one of the safest ways of treating them. Tea tree shampoo or conditioner can also be effective for some children.

Fruit and fruit helpers

Starting from Monday we would like to offer a wider range of fruit for all children, to encourage a few more to eat fruit at breaktime.
At the moment children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 are entitled to free fruit and any other children pay 10p per day.
We have basic fruit available (apples, satsumas, carrots etc) from the suppliers, but we would now like to supplement this fruit with other things—grapes, pineapple, melon, cucumber, peppers and soft fruits when in season.
This would allow the children to have two portions of fruit a day from a much wider selection, eg half an apple and some grapes; half a banana and a slice of melon etc.
For the moment, we will try to cover our costs with contributions of 10p per day. If you would like your child to try the new fruit from Monday, then please pay 10p per day.
We still need helpers to prepare the fruit first thing in the morning—so to get you out of Wake and Shake you could come in and wash and slice up the fruit!

First thing in the morning

From Monday, we would like to resume Wake and Shake during the early part of the morning, but not as part of an assembly as happened previously. To be able to do this as a whole school, we would like to try Wake and Shake at 9.00am.
We would request that all children stay outside in the main playground (the top playground) with their book bags, lunch boxes etc. ready for the Wake and Shake session starting at 9.00am.
A member of staff will be on duty every morning from 8.50—9.00am to supervise the children in the playground.
You are welcome to leave the children under the supervision of the staff member or stay and join in with Wake and Shake if you would like to!
Once Wake and Shake has finished, all classes will walk into the building at 9.05am ready for their registers and assembly.
From 8.50—9.00am staff will be available for any parent who may wish to discuss something in private in their classrooms, with the exception of the staff member on duty who will be outside.
We hope that this will stop a lot of the unnecessary putting on and taking off of coats, and will also allow parents who have a private matter to discuss, an opportunity to speak to the class teacher.
If it’s pouring with rain—please come into school as normal.

HELP WANTED

Are you able to offer 10 minutes of your time first thing in the morning to help prepare fruit?
If so, please let the office know.
Thanks

Money

Could we please remind you that any payments for swimming, fruit and milk by cheque should be made payable to "St Mabyn School".
Any dinner money should be made payable to "Cornwall Council" (no County part any more).
Dinner should be paid by the end of the week, so that no payments are in arrears as the school has to pay for each meal eaten at the end of every week.

Welcome back

Firstly I need to welcome two new members of staff to St Mabyn School—Mrs Alison McDonald who will be teaching in Class 2 and Mrs Kate Lang, the new school secretary.
Both new members of staff have been into school during the holidays, familiarising themselves with school processes and where everything is!
Mrs Lang will be available in the office every day from 8.45—1.00pm. She will have help from Mrs Christine Ord (from St Tudy) for the first few days, to help settle in.
Mrs McDonald, as Head of Teaching and Learning, is available for any parent with concerns or worries about their child, on a day to day basis. Where further intervention is needed then I will be involved.
At the moment, I plan to work for three mornings at St Tudy and two at St Mabyn and then three afternoons at St Mabyn and two at St Tudy. This should help with someone in the main office here during the afternoons, as I plan to work there when possible. This week however, I plan to spend whole days in each school, to save driving between the villages. I will be here on Wednesday and Friday.
Karen Holmes

DATES
January
11th—Federation governors meeting cancelled
13th—swimming starts
15th—Cascade visiting all day
22nd—Cascade visiting am only
26th—KH out at a conference in Exeter
29th—Cascade in all day
February
5th—Cascade in all day
12th—Cascade in all day
Break for half term

School is open!!!

School still closed!

Please listen to Radio Cornwall for further updates.

Goodbye to Mrs Puttock

Christmas dinner

Christmas party

Class 1 and 2 had a Christmas party.

Christmas displays

Children made Christmas displays.

Children in Need

Raising money for Children in need.

Christmas is Canceled!

Pictures from St Mabyn School Drama Club play "Christmas is Canceled"

Class 2 walk

Class 2 went for a walk to study the local landscape.

Padstow fishing boats

Class 2 painted Padstow fishing boats.

Bodmin railway

Classes 1 and 2 went on a journey. They travelled on a diesel train and then a steam train.

Padstow Boat Trip

Classes 2 and 3 took a boat trip from Padstow past Pentire and the Rumps and round the islands.

Ocean Commotion

Class 3 rehearsing Ocean Commotion for presentation evening.

Vegetable sale

Class 2 grew a variety of vegetables and sold them to parents. They raised £21. They have decided to buy a book for the classroom and donate the rest to a children's charity.

Pirate day

Class 2 wrote pirate stories having been inspired by their drama games.

Squashbox Theatre Company

Craig Johnson of Squashbox Theatre Company came to perform The Sea Show to the whole school. Everyone found it very entertaining and informative. After that he ran very successful puppet making workshops with all the classes. Class 2 created their own "under sea adventures" using the shadow puppets they had made and performed to the rest of the school.

Sports Day

Out there in here

Church Fete

Dancing round the Maypole.

Library news

Just before half term the County Librarians audited our book stock and replaced old books with two hundred new ones. We will receive another hundred in September. This is part of a plan to improve the reading stock and make this space more attractive to readers.

Aquarium

Classes 1 and 2 and year 4 visited the aquarium at Newquay.

Abstract paintings

Class 3 abstract paintings inspired by the Isles of Scilly.

Fishes

Class 1 made decorated fishes.