A
warm welcome to our school’s website. Our school
is passionate about enriching the lives of the children
in our care and creating a happy work environment
for our staff. We do this by striving to value, respect,
challenge, motivate and inspire each other.
Through
our website, I hope you feel encouraged to visit Buckland
St. Mary Church of England Primary School to find
out more about our unique school and what is distinctive
about us.
Mrs Sue English, Headteacher
NPQH,
PGCE Education, PGCE SEN, BA(Hons)
Founded
in the mid 19th century, we are a Church of England
Voluntary Aided Primary School in the Blackdown Hills
near Chard, Somerset.
Our current
development priorities include:
ensuring children make excellent progress in writing
and reading
improving our approach to phonics
identifying the impact of our Christian character
on children’s learning and spiritual development
continuing to meet the requirements of Every
Child Matters
developing further learning opportunities through
play in foundation stage and key stage one
improving our use of the local environment to
enhance learning
Our Vision
Statement:
In
our school community, everyone matters. We strive
to value, respect, challenge, motivate and inspire
each other, and to enrich the lives of our children
as citizens of an ever-changing world.
Our
Mission Statement:
We
will work in partnership with our children, parents,
governors, and wider community to achieve excellence
and develop every child as an individual.
Our
Motto:
Everyone
Matters
Pentagon
Collaboration
The Pentagon collaboration is made up of five small
local schools, Ashill, Buckland St Mary, Combe St
Nicholas, Neroche and Winsham. The group has developed
over the years and now a stronger more formal partnership
has been forged. The aim of shich is to provide academic,
social and sporting opportunities for all of its pupils
as well as offering school-to-school support, training
and development pathways for staff. The Head teachers
meet each half term and a variety of events are timetabled
throughout the year for the children and adults to
participate in.
Scholastic
Book Fair on Tuesday 31st January in the school
hall!
This
is the perfect opportunity for your children
to 'race into reading'! There will
be over 200 titles for children to choose from
and prices start from as little as £2.99.
Don't forget, for every book you buy it will
mean our school gets one too! See you there!
Our
Links with Sri Lanka
We
were delighted to welcome Bishop Dhilo this
morning, along with the Rev Sue Green to talk
to the children about his experiences in Sri
Lanka. The intention is to forge links between
our pupils and pupils who attend the Paynter
home so we can share and learn together on
an international level.
Childrens
Hospice South West
Last
week we were visited by two representatives
from our chosen charity for this year. They
came to talk to the children about the important
work they do and showed us a very informative
slide show. See below for information on how
we select our annual charity and a link to
their website.
A
Little Nativity
Our
nativity was a resounding success again this
year. Thank you to everyone who helped the children
to learn their lines and words for the songs,
with the costumes and to FOBS for providing
the refreshments. A special well done
goes to Mrs Archer - your hard work really paid
off! There are many wonderful photographs kindly
taken by Mr Archer. If you would like a copy
of them please give Mrs Archer a blank CD with
your name on it and she will endeavour to work ICT
miracles.
Phonics
Evening for Parents
The
recent phonics evening for parents was a great
success! Well done to all those who can now
distinguish between a grapheme and a phoneme!
Mrs Archer and Mrs Rundle made all the arrangements
and talked us through the ‘Letters and Sounds'
programme which we currently use.
Author
Visit
On
17 November, Barbara Spencer
(www.barbaraspencer.co.uk)
visited our school to talk about her wonderful
children's books. She explained how books are
printed, read from some of her books and inspired
the children to write some excellent stories
of their own.
School
Charity 2011/12
Each year, Beech Class pupils make presentations
to all the children on a number of proposed
charities. The whole school then votes for
the one they wish to support. This year the
children have proudly chosen the Childrens
Hospice South West as their school charity
for 2011/12 and will be raising money for
this cause throughout the academic year.
