Mid season trials

Our year 3 / 4’s re established their footballing credentials on Wednesday night with 2 friendly matches against Dulverton and Witheridge.  We are half way through our league competition and we have yet to pick up any points.  With the second half of the season looming it was vital that we got back in to the swing of competitive football.

With a couple of players back from injuries we were trying out a different set up with our near full strength squad.  Our opening encounter with Witheridge started brightly as we had them under pressure for most of the first half.  Witheridge had their chances but we had them trapped in their own half for much of the game.

Unfortunately, we were unable to make that pressure count and conceded 2 goals (one from the penalty spot ) without a reply.  Before our second game of the evening we looked at how we could improve on that performance and convert that pressure into goal scoring opportunities.

A closely fought game against Dulverton was the result.  We took a 2 – 0 lead into the second half but knew that Dulverton would be coming at us.  Dulverton did pull a goal back but we were too strong to let go of our lead.  A promising mid season trial which will hopefully kick start our season in earnest as we go hunting for our first points of the league.

Mr Scandrett

SMCC Tag Rugby Tournament Champions

Our loyal supporters witnessed a dominating Tag Rugby display in this year’s SMCC Tag Rugby tournament. Our players were well organised defensively and showed great attacking flair with the ball in hand.

An 11 – 2 victory against South Molton gave us the early platform to build upon, followed up with    9 – 1 and 9 – 3 victories against Chittlehampton and Multi Academy Trust.  Our semi-final place guaranteed we were keen to top the group with victory against High Bickington which we secured with a 5 – 1 win.

Full of confidence, we went into the semi-finals with the belief that we could win the whole competition. We went back to basics to ensure that we remained a difficult team to beat.  With a comfortable lead at half time we reverted back to our more stylish attacking style of play winning the game 13 – 6.

A tense and tight start to the final against Brayford with both teams coming close to scoring. Our defensive structure remained strong and helped us to build momentum during the game.  We proved to strong an outfit for Brayford to deal with and ended our dominant tournament display, winning the final 8 – 4.

Back to training with winners medals around our necks, but an understanding that there is now more hard work to be done in preparation for the North Devon Finals.

Mr Scandrett

Premier League Primary Stars Football Tournament

With the sun bearing down on us, the local footballing world converged on SMCC on Friday 20th April.  With coaching staff from: Exeter City F.C and Plymouth Argyle F.C; representatives from the football association and the 25KG solid silver Premier League Trophy in attendance, this was the most high profile sporting fixture we had ever attended.

The Premier League Primary Stars football tournament, North Devon leg was a fantastic opportunity to test our credentials against the very best football teams in North Devon. The high profile of the tournament brought together schools from all over Devon.

We started brightly, taking a 1 – 0 lead in our opening game against local rivals South Molton. We kept them at bay for some time before our resolve broke, going down to a 4 – 1 loss.  Same story in our second game.  A much improved performance against a very talented Newport Academy.  Losing 4 – 1 to the eventual tournament winners was a brilliant result for us.  Newport had convincing victories of 9 – 0 and 7 -2 on their way to the trophy.

It was a scorching hot day and our dogged players had no breaks in between matches. Red faced and already jaded by their efforts (and this was just the supporters) our third match would easily have made the highlight package on Match of the Day!  It was an end to end game with both sides having chances.  Some stunning saves by our goalkeeper kept us in the game on more than one occasion.  Chulmleigh proved to be the better side though  winning the game 3 – 1.

Having played football in the heat for over an hour and half, our players had to pick themselves up for one last effort. We knew we could not go any further in the competition but we were determined to take home a result from this prestigious competition.

As ever, they didn’t disappoint. A huge final effort was made, playing our most attractive football of the day.  A well-deserved 3 – 0 victory over St Petroc was our reward followed by a photo with the Premier League trophy.

I am so proud of all the players. Several referees commented on our children’s attitude on the pitch and the overall effort without breaks in the heat was phenomenal.

Mr Scandrett

Science Fair

A belated well done to all the children who took part in the science fair at Bishops Nympton Primary School before the Easter break.  The children were invited to investigate and research a scientific topic of their own choosing, enabling them to present their findings to the school community during an open event.

As part of the Ogden trust, an initiative set up to inspire children into the world of science, these science fairs have been taking place in various schools across the county.  A select winning group of scientists from each school will then have the opportunity to demonstrate their scientific knowledge at a science fair held at Dulverton All Saints Primary School this Tuesday evening.

It was astounding to see the efforts and the knowledge gained through this initiative as everyone who took part presented their findings in a visually appealing and intellectual way.  The children had clearly took control of their own learning and could be seen passing on their knowledge to peers, parents and other members of our school community.

Well done to all of our budding scientists.

 

Mr Scandrett

Pre tournament promise

All focus and training has been geared towards Friday’s major football tournament at SMCC.  Bishops Nympton Primary School is involved with the FA Premier League All stars football tournament.  A nationwide tournament celebrating the footballing excellence this country has at grass roots level.  Friday’s tournament is the North Devon leg of the competition.  Winners will then advance to the Walkers Stadium (Home of Leicester City) for the finals.

Tuesday night allowed us to make our final preparations and measure ourselves against other tournament participants Dulverton. It took a while to get used to their playing surface and reading the extensive bounce of the ball was nigh on impossible.  However, the team fought well to an opening 0 – 0 draw.

Satisfied with  the positioning and the system we were playing, we analysed our performance and came up with a 3 point plan to improve.  This seemed to work as we went on to win the following game 2 – 1.  A fantastic confidence boosting session but we are well aware that tougher games and a lot more will be asked of us if we are to make any impact in Friday’s showdown.

All supporters are welcomed to cheer us on.

Mr Scandrett

Brain Tumour Awareness Day 2018

We had a hat-tastic day raising money for Brain Tumour Awareness.  A wide range of hats were worn to help remind people of the dangers of this disease.  Brain Tumours affect more people under the age of 40 than any other cancer and yet only 1% of cancer funding is donated to this charity.

Mrs Headon joined us in the morning to help raise awareness as she, like myself, have had close family members suffer the ordeal of being diagnosed and thankfully successfully operated on.  This charity fully deserves our support to help continue the fight against cancer.

A huge thank you to everyone who took part, donated and purchased wrist bands and pin badges.  We raised £98.92 so far and we hope to break the £100 mark once we have received any final donations.

Many Many Thanks

Mr Scandrett

Brilliant battery recycling effort.

A huge well done to everyone who helped to donate used batteries to our recycling effort.  This term we have been investigating the use of batteries and what happens to them once they are no longer usable.  We were all staggered to realise the extent in which we rely on batteries in our everyday life and the cost that it could have to our planet.

Each battery that is put into landfill has the potential to pollute and cause irepairable damage to the world in which we live in.  This project has helped to raise awareness of this problem and hope to start turning things around.  We collected an amazing 2536 batteries!

I am not sure if we should be celebrating this or be shocked by it.  We are a small school and yet we alone have used that many batteries.  We should however embrace the fact that these 2536 batteries will be put to good use and recycled into new materials as opposed to be sitting under our feet rotting our planet.

We nominated the Bedford family for their battery recycling efforts as our battery recycling heroes.  Ruby, Phoebe and Tilly collected batteries from home, family and took them to their mums work place to extend the message to a far wider community.

Together they collected 813 batteries, our biggest total by more than 200 batteries.  Other standout performers were Matilda Selley – 603 and the Pethericks – 380.  But in my eyes, everyone who brought in a battery, whether it be 1 or 100 are heroes, as together we have helped to prolong the demise of our planet by a little longer by thinking carefully about our recycling opportunities.

Keep up the good work

Stay Green

Mr Scandrett

 

 

HATS Day 2

Seven of our talented sports stars of the Exmoor Link Federation visited SMCC on Monday morning, joining other local schools, to participate in a sports science lesson. As well as taking part in gymnastic, volleyball and athletics sessions, the children learned about the different components of fitness.

By understanding how the body works and the individual components that make up various sporting skills sets, the children were enabled to analyse their own techniques and critique each other’s performance with the use of technology and their new knowledge.

This more in depth look at physical performance will hopefully enable the super seven to enhance their sporting credentials in future sporting ventures.

Mr Scandrett

Brain Tumour Awareness Day – 28th March 2018

On the 28th March we will be holding our annual Wear a hat day.  We ask that children bring in a monetary donation to wear a hat to school for the day.  The idea of the event is to raise awareness and raise money for the Brain Tumour Awareness charity.

We support the charity due to staff members, past and current, having had close family members diagnosed with a brain tumour.  Only 1% of current cancer research donations are used to support Brain Tumour patients and yet 16 000 people a year are diagnosed with the deadly disease.

Throughout next week, we will be selling wristbands and pin badges during break time.  Please  donate in any way that you can.  Every penny counts.

Mr Scandrett

World Book Day 2018

Bishops Nympton primary school looked a very different place today as the school was filled with a wonderful  array of book characters.  We celebrated our love for books by dressing up as our favourite characters and sharing our beloved books with friends and peers.

During assembly we shared an extract from David Hill’s, ‘the farmhouse tree.  His adventures in the snow had all the children laughing at his naughty antics.  It was great to see that so much effort was made to celebrate the written word and the fun that we can all share through the power and excitement of a book.

Never stop reading!

Mr Scandrett