CHERITON Fitzpaine School has welcomed its new head teacher, Mrs Claire Theedom who has been delighted to see how quickly everyone has re-integrated back into school life.

Mrs Theedom has joined the school from Newton St Cyres school where she has taught for 14 years. During that time she led mathematics and Pupil Premium across the federation.  

Staff have been working on “Recover, Refocus and Readiness”, which is all about making sure that children are emotionally and academically ready for the new year, acknowledging that every child is in a different place after returning from home learning since March.  

She reports that the schools focus value this term is HOPE – a very appropriate focus to have after such challenging times.

One way of exploring this theme has been through a beautiful book called "The Book of Hope”. The book is full of short stories, poems, essays and pictures contributed by more than 100 children’s authors and is dedicated to the doctors, nurses, carers, porters, cleaners and everyone currently working in hospitals.

Ash class has been exploring the “Hope-o-potamus”, a funny rhyming poem about a hippo who never gives up, which their teacher Mrs Woolacott enjoyed acting out!

Oak class has enjoyed reading “Seeds” which is all about growing a love of reading, and Beech class delved into “Sky-bots" which was all about books taking you to another world!  

Staff at Cheriton Fitzpaine are aiming to make the most of their exciting, vast outside space during this term.

Teachers have been looking for ways to take their learning outside, whether that’s a maths lesson on the playground, a PE lesson on the field, or just enjoying a good book on the story mountain.

The nursery children in Maple have also been making the most of their outdoor classroom.