Newsletter 3rd July 2023

3rd July 2023

Dear Parents and Carers,

Music Week

It was a special music week in school last week, with a series of fun interactive and sensory workshops taking place. First was an immersive workshop by experts from Take Art and Devon & Torbay Music Education Hub, organised in collaboration with the annual Budleigh Music Festival. 

Then pupils were treated to ‘Drum Bus’ sessions, thanks to funding from our school PTFA. Pupils clambered on board the traditional American school bus for the fun rhythm workshops. Afterwards, staff said: “The session leaders were both really welcoming, sensitive to the pupil's needs, got them involved in ways appropriate to them and the drums and bus were lovely.” And: “Our class thoroughly enjoyed our drumming session this week in the festival New York Drumming bus. We particularly liked making up songs around what we ate for breakfast!”
Lastly, Kitty arrived fresh from Glastonbury with her ukulele to perform for the whole school. This was the result of our ongoing partnership with the charity Live Music Now. Kitty played a lovely range of songs and engaged with pupils really well.

Shout Out!

A big well done to EP in Grace’s class for his brilliant talking at home and at school. Wonderful progress!

A big well done to RP in Andrew’s class for using his talker to spot signs in the community.

Book Donation

Colourful new books donated by the Budleigh Salterton Lions Club are proving popular with pupils! Lions Richard Allen and Lorraine Ralph presented the set of Wild Tribe Heroes books to our pupil librarians and our literacy assistant Charlotte. The books are fantastic and fit in perfectly with the learning that our pupils do about the environment.

Parent Governor Vacancy

We are looking for a new volunteer Parent Governor to join our Governing Board. You don’t need to have any experience in education to apply.

Poisonous Plants

When you’re out and about, keep a look out for these poisonous plants commonly found in Devon.

Join Our Team!

If you would like to be contacted about future jobs at Mill Water School, please express an interest by sending us a message via our website.

Mill Water’s Fundraiser: The Bicton 10K!

Thank you for all the treats donated for the PTFA’s cake sale. This raised £160 at the Bicton Balmy 10k event, which the school helped host on Sunday. More than £1,000 was raised from the day for pupils, through sponsorship and donations. Event organiser LMEvents chose Mill Water as their event charity, with a percentage of participants’ entry fees going to the school. A team of staff also went the extra mile and ran the hilly course, in respectable times, in aid of our pupils. You can support them via their Justgiving page.

Free SEND Musical Tickets

Honiton Community Theatre Company is performing High School Musical this summer and is offering a free showing of the production to children and young people with SEND and their families. This will be a closed performance with the auditorium no more than half full. The venue has disabled parking and fully accessible toilets. To reserve your family’s tickets please contact the theatre company directly by emailing sally@honitontheatre.co.uk

Online Safety

ChatGPT is reportedly the fastest growing consumer app, with 13 million users per day. Learn what parents and carers need to know about AI-powered ‘virtual friends’ here…

Download the AI-Virtual Friends Guide

Blue Tokens for Mill Water

Several regional Tesco stores are supporting Mill Water with the blue token scheme. Remember to get yours at the till when shopping. This will run from July-Sept 2023. Thank you. Every little helps!

Raising Money While You Shop

Don't forget that you can raise money for Friends of Mill Water School (PTFA) while you shop via

Dates for your Diary

Last Day of Summer Term
Tuesday 25th July

Non-pupil Days
Monday 4th and Tuesday 5th September

First Day of Autumn Term
Wednesday 6th September