Torre Times – January 2015
Pray, Praise, Potential, Pride, Persevere
Dear Families
I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas. We have had a fantastic
start to the new year and term, despite some nasty illnesses. The
boys and girls are all happy to be back at school and are enjoying
their new topics.
The new homework routine has begun well and I would like to thank
you for supporting us with this. We now feel that homework is
purposeful and feeds into the day to day learning in the classroom.
We have lots more exciting things to do later this term, but for now, I
hope you enjoy reading about some of the great experiences we
have had so far this term.
Mrs Julyan
Upcoming Events
January 5th
First day of the spring term
January 29th
School Eucharist
w/c February 9th
Life Education Caravan (KS2)
February 25th
KS1 Zoo Trip (look out for text)
Trips, visits and experiences
Oriental Touch Chinese Restaurant
In Year 3 and Year 4, the children have been learning about China and
the Shang Dynasty. As part of this project, they went on a visit to the
‘Oriental Touch’ Chinese restaurant to taste some typical Chinese fayre.
The buffet is ‘eat as much as you like’, although some of the children
definitely seemed to think it was ‘eat as much as you can’!
French Workshop
Miss Chew took a group of pupils from across the school to Churston
Ferrers Grammar School to take part in a French workshop. They had a
great time and have shared some of the things they learned to say in
French with their classmates.
Poetry Slam
A visiting poet ‘Dreadlock Alien’ came in to do an assembly for
Reception to Year 6 followed by a workshop with year 6. Some friends
from Mayfield School came to join in with us. Dreadlock Alien taught
Year 6 how to write cool, rhyming poems and also how to ‘beat box’.
February 26th
School Eucharist
March 5th
World Book Day – ‘Friendly
Fox’ Theatre show
March 9th & 10th
Parents’ evening
March 10th
Year 3 and 4 Saxon
Storyteller visiting
March 26th
School Eucharist
Important Information
We have recently received several
complaints from the residents of
Valley View Close. Please respect
locals when parking.
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On 9th February, a team of five children from Year 6 (to include a student
from Mayfield) will be performing their poem at the Princess Theatre
competing against 18 other schools in the Torbay Teaching School
Alliance. The rest of the Year 6s will be going to the theatre to watch and
support them.
Bring a teddy to nursery
All the boys and girls enjoyed bringing a teddy to nursery. They shared
their story map and actions to Goldilocks and the Three Bears with their
grown-ups and did lots of different teddy themed activities.
Fairytale day – Key Stage 1
The children and grown-ups in KS1 had a great time on their fairytale day
dressing up as their favourite characters and doing lots of activities to get
them excited about this half term’s storytelling learning.
Family Learning
This term’s new mathematics course ‘Enjoying Numbers Together’ has
now begun. Several of our family members are attending these sessions
and the feedback has been very positive so far.
Parent support
South Devon College came to Torre to talk about free training course
opportunities that they can offer to our parents and carers. This session
was very well attended and lots of adults in our school community have
expressed an interest in finding out more about these courses. A weekly
coffee morning and an advice drop in, is available at South Devon
College on Thursday mornings from 10am until 1pm.
Charities
Poppy Appeal – we have recently received notification that we raised
£22 for the charity. Mrs Harker raised a fabulous £360.79 for her hand
knitted poppies. Thanks for all your support.
A group of Year 6 boys baked and sold cakes as part of their Civic Award
and raised £78.56 for their chosen charity – the World Wildlife Fund.
Reading Rainbow
PTA
Win a playground
The Herald Express is doing a
token collect for this. The PTA
will be selling newspapers after
school on Thursdays and
Fridays.
Table top sale
In February the PTA will be
holding a table top sale. The
date for this will be decided in
January.
Church and RE
Eucharist
We hope Father John enjoyed
his first Eucharist with us this
month. Thanks for all the
families who came to join us.
PAIS Team
Some young people from this
Christian inter-denominational
organisation are going to be
starting an after school club.
We hope that some of these
children can begin to help to
lead some assemblies.
Max Beer – Stage 4! This means that he has read 200 books and
completed 50 book reviews! Well done Max!
Maria Julyan – Stage 3
Well done and keep reading! Let’s see if we can add a few more names to the list next month.
Attendance
Whole school attendance is 96.77% for this term. This is AMAZING! Thanks for all your support with this.
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Currently the Clownfish class has the best class attendance.
So far this academic year, we have 58 pupils with 100% attendance. Keep it up!
School Meals
Our school meals have really taken off. Donna and her team are doing a great job of planning our menus
and preparing all our lunches in house. On Thursday 12 th February, the school kitchen will be serving a
special valentine’s menu. The School Council has worked with Donna to plan a tasty two course meal, with
milkshake to wash it all down! Please see the school website for the menu. It would be great to see lots of
our children enjoying this special meal on the day.
We would love it if even more children were benefitting from our nutritious and varied menu. The kitchen will
be serving free samples of school meals for parents to try during our parents’ evenings later this term.
Competition
We are encouraging our children to enter this year’s Radio 2 - 500 words story writing competition. Details
can be found on the school website.
PE and Sport
Year 5 – Sports Festival at Torquay Academy – report written by Kelsey Cresser
On Wednesday, Year 5 went down to Torquay Academy to take part in a sports festival. A few other schools
joined us. We went round different circuits. I personally enjoyed the running. On one of them we had to
throw heavy balls and see how far we could go.
Miss Gay reported that our children were the best behaved children at the festival. Well done Year 5!
Reception and Year 4 Swimming
Our Dolphins class and Octopuses have now started swimming lessons at Plainmoor. Both groups are doing
very well. The Seahorses are getting excited about their swimming lessons, which will begin after half term.
Ski Club
The children in Mrs Crompton’s ski club have achieved their Silver Award. This is an amazing achievement
and the children have made remarkable improvements over the last half term.
New member of the team
I would like to welcome Miss Browse to our team of hard working and dedicated teaching assistants. She will
be supporting in KS2 in the first instance.
Personal Achievements
A big well done to the following children:



Max Beer – Swam 200m without stopping. Well done Max – what a long way!
Tommy Watson - Gained his first Kyu belt in karate – only one away from a black belt. Good for
you Tommy 
Alana Kirby- Selves – Won 1 trophy, 3 gold medals and 2 bronze medals at her latest baton
twirling contest - wow!
It would be great to hear about more personal achievements for the February edition of Torre
Times. Please let Mrs Julyan or your class teacher know when you achieve something special.
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Reception: writing
Nursery: Box building
Y3&4: Trying Chinese food
KS1:Fairytale day
KS1:Science Investigation
Y6: Poetry Workshop
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