Head's Blog

School Closure

School Closure and Accessing Work

Yesterday was a very strange day and one that I'm sure we will all remember. We are as disappointed as you all will be with the news, however, we understand why we have to close and are committed to playing our part in preventing the spread of the disease. We are awaiting further guidance from the government about how children of key workers and key children are identified and how we will continue to support them. When we have more information we will communicate this with you as soon as possible.

Our role as a school now is to support you as much as possible with the educational and emotional care of your children whilst they are unable to attend school. To help you with this, in the main menu section of the website, you will find the Class pages. This is the page where we write class blogs for you. They now also contain suitable materials for you to use at home. The material posted now provides enough work to last until the end of term (27th March) and we will continue to post beyond that point. There are also several links to amazing web-based resources that school either subscribe to, are free or the companies behind them are providing free for the duration of the closure. We will continue to add these as we become aware of new resources to use.

Do not worry about any of the work and we understand that for many parents who have more than one child and where you have to work from home for example, completing learning with your child will be difficult every day. I would like to thank the staff in school for their quick gathering of work as due to the nature of the school, they have provided it very quickly and for multiple age groups. The staff will continue to add new work as needed and we would love to hear about any of the work that you have been completing when the school opens again.

Please remember that there are many other ways to learn. Reading books, watching films and talking about them, playing traditional games such as board games, looking for bugs in the garden and then researching what they are, completing jigsaws for fine motor skills etc. are just as valuable as learning experiences.

We will continue to send you emails and we will use Facebook to highlight new content. Feel free to email us during school hours if you have any questions. Please do bear in mind that while some staff may be at home, they may also find it challenging to respond immediately, as they may be also looking after and caring for family members. We will always reply as soon as we can. You can either email me at head@dariteprimary.co.uk, especially if you have a general question or comment, or if your message is about learning and content on the Class page for your child, please email the class teacher using their initial and surname followed by @dariteprimary (e.g. calberts@dariteprimary.co.uk)

Finally, thank you so much for your patience, support and response to our increasingly challenging situation over this last week. We have been overwhelmed by the positive comments and the children have been very calm, and interested in understanding the situation in which we find ourselves, even if they are a little fed up of washing their hands! This is a difficult and unknown time for us all, so from our amazing Darite Primary community, I send our best wishes and hopes that you can all stay safe, fit and well in the coming weeks and months. If you have any photographs that you are willing to share of the activities you get up to when learning at home, please do send them to me and I may be able to add them to my blog; a great way to keep in touch and raise much needed smiles.

Please stay safe in these testing times.

Mr Whipps

World book day

World Book Day

To celebrate world book day and share our love of reading, the whole school dressed to impress as their favourite book characters.

We were inundated by witches, wizards, fairies, monsters, sports cars and six Burglar Bills (teachers love dressing up too!)

It was wonderful to see so many parents, carers, grandparents, relatives and friends join us for the reading breakfast. Nothing beats the smell of toast and books in the morning!

Thank-you so much to all the adults who helped with costumes and made the day so amazing.

Classical Class!

String Quartet

The whole school enjoyed a fantastic assembly by the Florian String Quartet on Tuesday. They learned about the different types of instruments and how teamwork is essential for creating the music. We also learned about the folk music of Scandinavia and how the musical sounds of the instruments can be made by plucking as well as using the bow.

They followed it up with the second workshop with Class 3. The children loved it.

French Feast

French Food

On Friday, as part of their language lesson, Class 2 had the chance to taste some delicious French food. The children asked for the food in French and used their new vocabulary to describe what they tasted. The brie, pâté, pan aux chocolat and croissants went down really well! All to the sounds of a Parisienne cafe!

Rainforest Gymnastics

As part of the whole school topic, Class 1 took to the equipment to explore movement as animals.

we had snakes, parrots and sloths, all using the equipment to balance, jump, roll and move.

Plymouth University

Class 3 go to uni!

On the 23rd January, Class 3 were invited to take part in the annual Science and Technology Showcase at Plymouth University. This three day event is designed to give children in primary and secondary schools all over the area the opportunity to experience a little bit of what studying at university is like.

The University had displays and activities from every STEM department and the children had the opportunity to perform chemistry experiments, program robots, walk like a dinosaur, understand probability and investigate renewable energy (to name but a few).

All the children had a fantastic time and more than a few came back with brochures about studying in the future. It was a very aspirational morning!

Dartmoor Zoo

Zoo Visit

As part of the whole school topic, we welcomed Mitch from Dartmoor Zoological Park into school on Monday.

He gave a workshop to all classes, ably assisted by a selection of animals from the zoo’s collection. We learned so much including the fact that stick insects sway to look like leaves in the wind! They also have evolved to cover their eggs in a substance that is delicious to a certain species of ant. They eat the outside to help them hatch. The babies even look a bit like ants. This tricks the ants into looking after the baby stick insects!

Thanks to Darmoor Zoological Park for bringing learning to life!

Playground Leaders

On the 16th, some dedicated Year 4 and 5 pupils were trained on becoming Playground Leaders. They learned about leadership, organisation and managing games in the playground.

They now have a bank of activities that they can run with all children to help give more activities and choice when the children are outside.

Thanks to Arena for coming into school to help run the day.

500 Words

BBC 500 Words Competition

On the 16th January, Year 2 to 6 all joined in with the live lesson that launched the 2020 500 word story. This amazing competition is aimed at all children from 5-13 across the country and encourages them to write a short story of no more than 500 words. The competition is now in its 10th year and the theme this year is all about stories that defy time and space!

The children can write stories at home or school for submitting by the story online. All the details can be found on the BBC website here.

Get writing! There are some amazing prizes on offer such as Chris Evans' height in books!!! Good luck

Swimming Success

Star Swimmers

Congratulations to the Year 6 girls swimming team who have qualified for county level of the championships. The squad was created from volunteers in Class 3. One of the squad was 6 seconds quicker than anyone else from any school. Fantastic achievement girls, we look forward to the next race!