Welcome back! I hope you had a restful Christmas break and managed to spend some quality time with friends and family. All our TMS staff have been thrilled to see all the children again, and have got quickly stuck into our new STAR learning. All the STAR guides, learning letters and home learning grids have been uploaded on the year group section of our school website – so please check them out! 

We are also really pleased that Mrs Brown (not EYFS Mrs Brown!) is continuing to work with us this term. She is an experienced teacher who has been involved in school leadership previously. She is joining the Y6 team and supporting the children using the Government tutoring funding. We are also delighted to welcome back Mrs Johnston, who will be joining us for a day a week from February as the school takes on a new phonic scheme, “Little Wandle.” This is a really exciting time for us, both working with Mrs Johnston again, and embarking on a new journey in phonics across the school. We also welcome Mrs Shaw to our team of office staff!    

Clubs are also starting next week, which allows our children to spend time in school with staff on extra curricular activities. With a limited number of days and staff, we always endeavour to provide a range of activities to cater for all the differing interests of our children, always responding to need and feedback. There will inevitably be some disappointment for some clubs which are over subscribed, so if this is the case, have a look to see what other clubs are out there and there may be some spaces left! If you have signed up for 2 clubs on the same day … please can you contact the office to make sure you are on the right list!

With covid guidance continuing to change regularly, we will always keep you updated!

Thank you as always for working together to ensure the best opportunities for your children!

Have a good weekend and see you on Monday! 

Ms Teagle

PTFA

A massive thank you to everyone who was involved in selling of raffle tickets and also to the PTFA for organising all the prizes. We raised £600 altogether! We hope that everyone who won have enjoyed their prizes! However … we are still left with a lovely hamper … If anyone knows Mark Mitchell – we still have your hamper waiting and no phone number! 

The next PTFA meeting is coming up and the focus will be organising the FAMILY BINGO NIGHT! 

COVID UPDATE

From Tuesday 11th January, PCR tests are no longer needed to determine whether someone has coronavirus. 

If staff or pupils have a Positive Lateral Flow Device, they must then isolate. 

They can test from 6 days after the symptoms started (or the day the test was taken, and another LFD test on the following day (24 hours later). If both results are negative, and they do not have a high temperature, they may end self isolation immediately after the second negative results and return to school (even if they test negative in the morning).

They may return to school after the 10th day of isolation, even if they have another positive LFD test result, unless they have a high temperature in which case they must seek medical advice.

All staff will continue to test twice weekly, even those who have tested positive for covid in the last 90 days. Testing primary aged children is left to parental discretion, and test kits for primary aged pupils can be accessed via gov.uk or their local pharmacy.

TMS SPORT and WELLBEING HALL

Lots of you will be aware of the conversations happening between the school and the council over the last 4 years. Our current school hall, as you know, is not fit for purpose: delivering the full PE curriculum is an impossibility and meeting as a whole school, which is so incredibly important to a school, is a logistical nightmare! The hall was built for a school of less than 200 children and with the school expanded to now 420, the buildings have extended, but the hall, situated in the middle of the building has remained the same (in fact … decreased in size!).

The council has allocated £888,000 towards the building of a new sports hall, which is incredibly exciting and shows how much commitment there is from the community of TMS and also the councils and county officers. We have worked with PBWC on a design which encapsulates more than just a sports hall. It includes a wellbeing workspace, as well as building an outdoor learning area to support our curriculum, as well as extra curricular activities. 

We also intend use by the community in the evenings, both the hall and the workspace, for sports hiring, or local groups meetings to strengthen links in the community.

The planning has now been submitted and through consultation with parents and the local community we know how much support there is for this provision to support the children in the village.  We invite you to share you support on the planning portal:

https://planning.cornwall.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=R2Q37YFGH0600

Thank you to all the members of the community who have supported us thus far on this journey: Dulcie Tudor, Kenwyn Parish Council, TMS Community Centre, Rev’d Jeremy and All Saints Church, Stephen Horscroft and many more. 

DIARY DATES