The 2020 Summer Reading Challenge is here!

The Summer Reading Challenge, presented by The Reading Agency and funded by Arts Council England, encourages children aged 4 to 11 to set themselves a reading challenge to help prevent the summer reading ‘dip’.

Each year the Challenge, delivered through public libraries, motivates over 700,000 children to keep reading to build their skills and confidence. Last year more than 14,000 children across Devon and Torbay took part.

With the disruption caused by COVID-19 and the impact of social distancing on schools and public libraries, the 2020 Challenge will launch as a digital activity to keep children reading over the summer and support parents and carers with children already at home. The Challenge will run from June to September.

This year, Silly Squad, the Summer Reading Challenge 2020, celebrates funny books, happiness and laughter and features bespoke artwork from award-winning children’s author and illustrator Laura Ellen Anderson (Amelia Fang; Evil Emperor Penguin; I Don’t Want Curly Hair). Children taking part in the Challenge will join the Silly Squad, an adventurous team of animals who love to have a laugh and get stuck in to all different kinds of funny books!

The digital Challenge is free to access, featuring games, quizzes and digital and downloadable activities to incentivise and encourage children and their families to take part in reading-related activities at home. Although our library buildings are closed we have boosted  the number of children’s books available to borrow via our e-lending platforms which can be accessed from our Devon Libraries and Torbay Libraries websites. From July we will also be hosting lots of Silly Squad events and activities on our Facebook pages, so look out for those!

There is a special SCHOOL ZONE on the Silly Squad website with lots of resources to help you to promote the Challenge and we would be very grateful if you could help us by doing the following:

• Sign up here
• Facebook pages https://www.facebook.com/TopshamLibrary/ and https://www.facebook.com/Devon.Libraries) where we will be hosting lots of Silly Squad digital events throughout the summer. More information to follow.

​With school life disrupted and many children missing the company of their friends, this year’s fun-filled Summer Reading Challenge will be all the more vital as a way of helping parents and carers find fun, family-friendly activities, maintain literacy levels and create a safe space for children to connect with their peers.

Kind Regards,

Béatrice Drecq

Senior Library Supervisor

Topsham Library

Libraries Unlimited

Please click on link to read end of year message from Mrs Milford.

End of year 2020

We have been very fortunate to have been given a generous donation by Clinton Devon Estates and the Lord Clinton’s Charitable Trust to enable every child to in our school to have a wildlife book to say thank you for staying at home and continuing with your learning during this difficult time.

Thank you to Kate Ponting (countryside and communities officer) for helping with this donation.

Books will be presented to children when they return to school in September.

We celebrated our Year 6 leaver’s service in a slightly different, socially distanced way this year!

The service took place in the Glebe field where the sun shone as if to order!

Year 6 enjoyed a picnic lunch, listened to each other’s fond memories of their time at primary school, watched a photo presentation of special times and listened to a beautiful, inspirational poem.

They were presented with gifts from the staff, Bibles from the church, a book from Clinton Devon Estates and a dictionary from Exmouth Rotary Club – Thank you so much for these donations!

Our new Vicar, Rev Bill kindly ended the service with a special blessing.

We would like to wish all of our Year 6 a very happy time at their secondary schools and hope that they will come back to visit us!

We will miss you Year 6.

Many of your children may be feeling excited, nervous or a mix of both about starting their new learning journey at secondary school and over the holidays, there may be times when they are feeling anxious about their transition.

Bitesize has created some videos of worries your children may have and explains how other

children have overcome them which you and your child could watch together.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/tags/zh4wy9q/staffbting-secondary-school/1

They have also created some videos for parents to support the transition with their child.

Parental survival guide & cheat sheet https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/affbticles/zbr7rj6

Supporting a child moving to secondary school with Dr Radha

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/affbticles/z4k8bdm

We wish all the year 6 every success in their new schools.

We would like to extend a very big welcome to all of our pupils and new children who will be joining us in September.

What a very strange few months it has been, a little ‘topsy – turvy’ to say the least! This has meant that unfortunately, we have been unable to carry out transitions to your new or next classes in the normal way. We know how much you enjoy visiting your new teachers and teaching assistants on transition day and meeting the new pupils in your classes.

Please don’t worry, as when you return in September we will be doing many activities to help you to settle in and make new friends!

In the meantime, your teachers have written welcome notes to tell you a little bit about themselves.

They are all really looking forward to seeing you all again and excited to be meeting lots of new faces too!

We wish you all a fabulous summer, with plenty of sunshine and fun!

Mrs Milford, Mrs Turner, Miss Weeks, Mrs Shepherd, Mrs Tweedy, Mrs Corlett and the rest of the school team.

Class 1 welcome

Class 2 welcome

Class 3 welcome.pub

This week in Blue Bubble, some pupils have been learning to sequence the months of the year, to match numerals to pictures and to write poems using interesting adjectives.

We have all been learning about famous people and have produced fabulous portraits of Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Elizabeth II. They are so good that we may even send them to the Queen herself!

Some of our children were able to contribute to a virtual Year 6 Leavers Service organised by Exeter Diocesan to wish Year 6’s across the county, goodbye and good luck in their new schools during this strange time.  The service was created and led by children from various schools in Devon.  A Massive well done to all those involved – we are very proud of you!

A message from Sue Lockwood, Deputy Diocesan Director of Education

Thank you from us all, we wish to recognise the contributions of our year 6 pupils to our schools and to their communities.  Please do pass on our thanks for all they have done, and wish them well from us for the future.

We appreciate it has been extremely challenging for all however we wish to focus on our year 6 pupils particularly, knowing they have missed out on their end of term celebrations and transition visits; on saying thank you to the staff who will have had such a positive impact on their lives and on saying goodbye to their friends as they head off to their secondary provision.

With your help, we have produced a year 6 Leavers service <https://youtu.be/NhEOqU7psC0>  which we hope you will share with your year 6 cohorts over the next few days, whether they are in school or at home.

Thank you.

Sue Lockwood,

Deputy Diocesan Director of Education

Welcome to our final collective worship of this school year. As we started the academic year in September, nobody could have imagined the events that were to occur.  The Spring term seems so long ago as so much has happened in our lives since then.

At the moment, we are living through a moment in history that will be remembered forever.

Each of us has had a different journey, with different experiences along the way. The highs and lows have been different for us all.

We must remember first and foremost, those people who have lost their lives or who are recovering from the effects of the Corona virus. We pray for their family and friends and ask God to give them strength and hope in the days ahead.

We remember the bravery and dedication of all the doctors and nurses looking after those who were and continue to be ill.

We are thankful for the key workers who have kept our country going during these unusual times.

We will all remember with pride, the clapping that we did on our doorsteps to show our appreciation of our key workers. The coming together in our communities to help each other and the smiles, offers of help and friendship that we gave.

It was heart-warming, to hear the tales of inspirational people such as Captain Tom Moore who raised over 32 million pounds for the NHS.

And of course, we will always remember those Joe Wicks workouts, which left our parents with sore legs!

The rainbows that were painted by children and placed in windows will be remembered fondly. A symbol of HOPE and a reminder to people that they were not alone.  For many people the rainbow symbolises that there will be sunshine after the storm and it is possible to find good things even in difficult situations.

For Christians, the rainbow is a symbol of God’s promise.

We will now use the colours of the rainbow to help you think about or pray for people:

Red is the colour of bravery: pray for or think about those people who are having to be brave at the moment

Orange is the colour of waiting: pray or think about having to be patient and wait for things to get back to normal

Yellow is the colour of sunshine: be thankful for some good things in your life

Green is the colour of growth: pray or think about the people who are growing and producing our food

Blue is a peaceful colour: pray for or think about people who are anxious at this time, that they would find peace

Indigo is a sad colour: pray for or think about those who are sad or lonely

Violet is a royal colour, the colour of leaders: pray for or think about the people in our government, that they will make wise decisions

We must remember and think carefully about how we can take the positive actions from the pandemic forward with us into our lives as we slowly get back to normal. The kindness that we showed each other and they help that we so willingly gave.

I wonder how you will show kindness to others?

I want you to think carefully about our key scripture from 1 Peter 4:10

“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.

How will you serve others between now and the start of term?

What can you do to show kindness and love this summer holiday?

As we close the end of this term, think back to the start of the year and our vision week where we launched our vision statement, “Inspiring one another to live life in all its fullness.’

Think of all the wonderful acts of kindness that you have shown each other.

Think of the Love that you have given and have shared.

The Inspiration that you have been to others and those who have inspired you.

The Fellowship that you have shared with your friends, family and wider community.

And

The Encouragement that has helped you and others to live life to the full during both lockdown and the rest of the year.

We wish our Year 6 pupils and those who are leaving Woodbury Salterton this term, lots of happiness and success in their new schools.

Let us say a prayer for them at this time:

May the road rise up to meet you.

May the wind be always at your back.

May the sun shine warm on your face;

The rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Amen

We warmly wish you and your family a relaxing summer break and very much look forward to welcoming you all back in September.

The Woodbury Salterton School Team

We have made treasure boxes, which include pictures and messages to wish our friend good luck in their new school.  We have also written poems and drawn portraits too.