This week, we would like to introduce James Warner.  James, who has seen two generations passing through Chagford Primary (sorry James!) is the most experienced governor on our LSB, having been a member of the Board in its various guises for about eight years. He is the Safeguarding Lead, and this role is key to understanding the effectiveness of safeguarding for everyone in the schools. He has to understand the requirements of safeguarding guidance and legislation and is ‘confident in his challenge to executive leaders on strategies for monitoring and improving the behaviour and safety of pupils.'  He supports the work of the Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs), reports back to the LSB about how effective safeguarding is, and ensures that the school is compliant with statutory guidance, with all the appropriate policies in place and reviewed in a timely way.  He also checks whether there is a consistency in safeguarding across the whole school (approach and reporting), and ensures that there are effective systems in place to keep vulnerable children safe.
 
It is an extremely important role, and with his impending retirement from the Board (having served two full terms), we are seeking to replace him.  If you have an interest in exploring this governor role further, please do contact me or Liz (details below).


We have recently welcomed a couple of new governors to the LSB and will introduce you to them, once all the mandatory training has been completed.  All governors annually revisit their training needs to identify any gaps that could be filled.  For example, we have all recently ensured our Safeguarding Young People, The Prevent Duty, and Data Protection training is up to date. 


We are looking forward to seeing you all at our impending Community Forums, and the principals of each school will let you know when those are to be held.  Parent voice is incredibly important to the schools, so please do try and attend if you are able!  It is an important opportunity to let your voice be heard.


Best wishes,


Mel & Liz
mholyoak@dmatschools.org.uk
edavidson@dmatschools.org.uk

Three Hares LSB
Liz Davidson & I (Mel Holyoak) would like to introduce ourselves to you all, as we have taken over as (Co) Chair of the Local Stakeholder Board (the governing body) from Emma Neath.  The role of the LSB has changed over the last few years, and we thought it would be useful to you as parents and carers to know a bit about us as individuals, and the purpose of our role.  Our intention is not to overwhelm you with information, but each week, we will aim to add to the school’s newsletter, introducing ourselves, the lead roles and what we’ve been up to (that will be of interest to you!). 

This week, it’s introducing me & Liz.  So a bit about me:
I’m a parent at Chagford School, and have lived in Chagford for the last 16 years.  I have been a governor since 2019, and am also involved with the 1st Moretonhampstead Scout Group (as Treasurer), the local Parish Church Council, Chagford Sanctuary (our Homes for Ukraine support group) and Chagford’s monthly Celebration of the Earth events .  So, one of those people (!), with a genuine interest in linking and supporting the community in as many ways as possible.  I also love running, so am often out and about exploring the moors, and trying not to get lost.

Liz says: “I'm a parent at South Tawton School and have lived in Okehampton for the past four years. I am also Co-Chair of the Parent Teacher Association at South Tawton School. Having taught in primary schools for almost 15 years, I really enjoy being involved in school life! It is always so inspiring to see young people learn and grow. Given how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful place I spend as much time as possible with my family on the beach or exploring the countryside.”

The role of the LSB is to act as the link between the Dartmoor Multi Academy Trust (DMAT), the parents & the community, and part of that means representing the interest of the community within the Trust, and representing the school in its community,.  Liz & I are particularly keen to develop the community links in each of our three schools, and enhance parental engagement and communication.  We hope that this weekly update is one way to make us more accessible to you - please do feel free to contact us – our details are below.
Next week, we will tell you about the Lead Roles within the LSB, and introduce someone else to you!

In the meantime, we sincerely hope that your children have enjoyed being back at school and that they are looking forward to the year ahead.
Mel & Liz
mholyoak@dmatschools.org.uk
edavidson@dmatschools.org.uk
​

May 2021

Welcome to the Three Hares Governors blog page.  Our purpose is to share information about the Three Hares from a governance perspective with parents and carers, as well as other members of our Three Hares community. We hope that you will find it interesting and informative.

As every recent blog will have begun, it has been a challenging and unusual year to say the least!  For us as governors, we have never experienced anything like this.  We are used to being able to visit schools regularly, attend meetings and make decisions based on historical knowledge of the schools combined with forward-thinking strategic plans.  As you can imagine, all of this changed in March 2020…

The Dartmoor Multi-Academy Trust installed Dan Morrow as its new CEO, and he began his role in January 2021, although many of you will have met him virtually, when we held our parent forums at the end of last year. Governance work by the local governing bodies of all schools in the DMAT was suspended in the Spring Term at his request, to allow school leaders to focus solely on the schools’ provision to pupils. This meant we no longer held our regular governor meetings, but the Chair and other governors kept in regular contact with the schools during this time to provide support and a listening ear. There were also fortnightly meetings with the Trustees, Chairs of Governors and Dan to keep up to date with all that was happening across the MAT and schools in general. During lockdown, an extraordinary amount of work went into ensuring the education our of children continued whether in school or at home and our thanks go to all those who played a part in this effort.

During the governance suspension, following a review of the Governance structure, we changed from being known as a Local Academy Committee, to the Local Stakeholder Board.  The scope of our role has evolved, and the recently-published Scheme of Delegation (which sets out in detail the specifics of our role) explains that the purpose of the LSB is “to provide local access and accountability for our parents and carer; framed within a cooperative structure to build and deepen partnership and connection.  This is the place that the voice of the individual pupil, staff member, parent and other membership groups is heard and understood; where the lived experience of our provision and offer is felt and triangulated.”

But, what do we actually do on a day-to-day basis?!  Well, we are divided into small groups covering Ethos, Safeguarding, SEND, Foundation, Resources, and Quality of Education.  Each governor takes a “lead” for the group, so we focus our skills on particular areas of interest and ability.  Our part is mostly to monitor that the schools are fulfilling their statutory responsibilities as well as ensuring that their strategic goals are being met.  This might be in respect of staffing, budgeting, the premises, curriculum etc.  We review the various policies and then look for evidence that everything is as it should be!  It is also important that we stay up to date with legislation and keep our own knowledge up to date, so we attend various training sessions – some compulsory for the role (such as safeguarding) and others optional.  We communicate frequently via email, but also with regular meetings.

Our first meeting of the term was a couple of weeks ago, and all governors were in attendance.  Most of our discussion was based around listening to each Principal update us in respect of their school – how the first couple of weeks of term have been, any challenges they are facing and things that are going really well, that might be shared amongst the three schools. 

We also discussed recruitment of two new parent governors to join our LSB.  You should have received an email about this with details from your Principal. If you are interested and would like further information, please do contact our Chair of Governors, Emma Neath, whose details are below. We currently have three governors with connections to Chagford, two for North Tawton and two for South Tawton. 

A number of us have attended training sessions, provided by the DMAT and the Diocese.  These include OFSTED training, Ethos, Safeguarding, and Ensuring a Quality Curriculum.  Our Chair of Governors, Emma Neath, attended North Tawton’s Relationships and Sex Education parents’ forum, and the DMAT’s policy on this will be finalised and released shortly. 

Mel Holyoak, Vice-Chair of the LSB and Foundation Governor, is working alongside Mark Neave (Foundation Governor) with Ed Finch, Ed Pawson (of the Diocese of Exeter) and Rev Paul Seaton-Burns to review the implementation of the new SIAMS (Statutory Inspection of Anglican & Methodist Schools) framework in Chagford.

Our next blog may not be quite as detailed, but we hope that you have found this introduction insightful!  If you have any queries and would like any further information, please contact Emma Neath – Chair of Governors: eneath@dmatschools.org.uk
 

As we draw close to the end of a really busy and exhausting half term for everyone, I have been reflecting on these six, unusual weeks.

It is with pride, that I often receive feedback about the excellent work that happens in our Three Hares schools. Most recently, we were described as the most positively cohesive group of schools within our Trust. As we continue on our journey, working together, benefitting from each other’s strengths, the impact on your children’s development and enrichment will continue to grow.

Vision, Values and Ethos
It has been an exciting few weeks since Christmas, working collaboratively with Dan Morrow and leaders right across our Trust, to develop a common understanding of our Vision, Values and Ethos. Together, we have explored the International Cooperative Values and the principles that underpin them.

We are keen to explore with you as parents and our wider communities, how our Three Hares Values of: Hope, Respect, Courage, Kindness, Honesty and Curiosity relate to the cooperatives. Once children return to some semblance of normality in school again, we would hope to see these values being lived and breathed in everyday life in and beyond school, with children being able to identify them in themselves and each other, their community, famous people, paintings and so on.

​We would love to share your thinking, ideas, and contributions within a meeting for each school. Our recent ethos forums were sadly not well-attended, perhaps due to the current time-constraints imposed by home-learning and work commitments. However, we would really welcome your support and input and drive towards establishing our ‘Three Hares Vision Statement’. We are working with the wording ‘Together, we will live, love and learn with abundance’, which we hope will reflect our aim to deliver a primary experience which goes above and beyond.

Dear Parents,

Blended Learning
As we complete our fourth week of lockdown within the Three Hares, a huge well done to all of our children (and parents) who are home-learning at the moment! I have been delighted to share in some of the learning that is taking place and you should all be very proud of your achievements. It is no mean feat to take on this job, virtually overnight. Huge praise to our Three Hares staff who have up-skilled themselves, to ensure that our remote learning delivery has transformed since the first lockdown (as promised). You will have received a brief survey which I hope you will have a few minutes to complete over the weekend, which will help us to evaluate our current blended learning provision (teaching and learning for children in school as well as at home). Please refer to the separate email which you will have received to access the link to the survey.
Thank you to the parents who are trying to juggle time spent on home learning as well as working from home – we understand how tricky this must be, especially for those of you with younger children.
It has certainly made a big difference this time round, for children to engage in live teaching and / or sessions where they can engage with their teachers/teaching assistants. We are working hard, all the time, to make improvements to our provision, as we now understand that we will be continuing with home-learning at least until the 8th March.
It has been lovely to see the children in school engaging in ‘live meets’ with their friends at home e.g. assemblies, ‘show and tell’, small group work and so on.
I hope that parents are reassured that the children’s curriculum is continuing as closely as possible, to that which would be delivered if we still had everyone in school. We look forward to receiving your feedback and I will share with you the outcomes and any improvements we are able to make.
I am pleased to say that having taken delivery of large numbers of Chromebooks this week, we now have class sets of devices in all of our schools for children to use. South Tawton and Chagford have had a long wait, due to the redeployment of the original delivery of devices for families which were eligible for Pupil Premium. This means that children, currently attending, in all of our schools now have access to a device to work within Google Classroom or similar to access their learning too.
It is fantastic, thanks to the super work of the Trust, that all of our children, eligible for Pupil Premium, now have been allocated a device (Chromebook or tablet). If your child is struggling to access a device at home, please let us know and we will do our utmost to help.
As the days begin to get a bit longer, and as we enter into the fifth week of lockdown, please take time to focus on mental health and well-being. Next week, is a national Children’s Mental Health Week with a theme of ‘Express Yourself’. I know that our schools will be making provision for this in their activities, but in between times, I hope you will take time to enjoy the outdoors, have a walk with your family. We are always here to help, so please keep in touch with us if there is anything more we can do to support you. There is opportunity in the survey, to comment and we will be taking careful note!

Dartmoor Multi Academy Trust
As you will know, Dan Morrow is now four weeks into his new role as Chief Executive Officer within our Trust. He has certainly made an impressive start, not least faced with the challenges of lockdown. Having visited two out of three of our schools, with the third visit taking place on Monday, I have had the opportunity to discuss with him the challenges faced by our schools and our vision for school improvement.
Clearly, we have plans for building works and renovations at North and South Tawton and grounds development in all three schools. It is exciting to see that Dan is so supportive of the projects and is already impacting on the progress of planned works. He has been impressed with the progress made in all of our schools and the good work that has taken place as a Three Hares cluster.
The three Heads of Schools and I meet as a leadership team at least once a week to drive school improvement and share operational challenges between us. Since January, we have also met with the wider group of 14 primary schools across the Trust, sharing leadership development, culture, values and vision days. It certainly is an exciting time within the Trust and leaders are feeling tremendously positive about the imminent and far-reaching future. I am sure that the impact of this work will soon filter out to staff, parents and wider communities. Of course, the most important impact, is that which makes a difference to our children. I am looking forward to sharing more about this as we go forward.

Wishing you a happy and relaxing weekend with your families.
​
Kindest regards
 
Elizabeth Underwood
Executive Headteacher
 

A message from the Three Hares Governors 
The Local Academy Committee governors would like to wish all children, parents and staff a very happy, safe, joyful and peaceful festive break.  We would also like to thank all the staff for their extraordinary efforts to keep the schools as safe as possible.  Behind the scenes, they have been working under extreme pressure to ensure the children have been able to experience school life as normally as possible, and have had to respond quickly and efficiently when cases of Covid-19 have arisen.  Our thanks also go to parents and carers, who have worked with the schools so willingly to comply with the various measures that have been put in place to minimise the risk of spreading the virus.  Have a wonderful Christmas, and we look forward to continuing our work with each of the Three Hares schools in the new year. 
With our very best wishes 
Three Hares Local Academy Committee governors   

I am pleased to say that we managed to launch Chagford's Fundraising Strategy at the end of last week, thanks to the hard work of our foundation governor, Mel Holyoak. Mel has led this on behalf of The Three Hares and the scheme is being piloted within our three schools in the first instance. We will roll out the fundraising strategy to local businesses and the wider community in the new year. If successful, the DMAT hope to roll out something similar, across the other 14 schools in due course.
In the meantime we hope that South Tawton and North Tawton's fundraising programme will also launch in the near future.
Of course the Amazon Wish List is already live at Chagford and North and South Tawton's will be live soon. All lists are being populated by staff and updated as purchases are being made. Thank you to all the people who have already helped the schools by making a purchase - it is wonderful to see boxes of 'goodies' arrive in the office! 
​Elizabeth Underwood

I am delighted to say that this week, we managed to conclude our meetings with parents of all three schools. Members of the Three Hares Local Academy Committee (governors) and I, joined with Heads of Schools and representatives from the DMAT and Trustees to share our vision with parents, for the continuing development of each school. Parents welcomed the opportunity to ask questions and receive immediate answers from school leaders.

Together, we have been able to share information about current school improvement plans, as well as our aspirations for some more ambitious projects, known as 'legacy' projects. While school leaders are driving improvement plans on a daily basis, we are also keen to keep our sights on the bigger picture, to ensure that we always aim to achieve the absolute best for our children of the Three Hares. These projects may look different in each of the three schools, depending on the needs and issues arising, while some aims will share common themes.

This year, we have a number of overarching focus areas within all 3 schools.

• To ensure that catch-up plans are implemented and all children are back to meeting expectations according to their individual potential, following lockdown. 
• Having re-worked our Three Hares curriculum, we are working hard to develop teaching and learning planning across the range of national curriculum subjects, exploring new resources, visits and visitors (when and where restrictions allow).
• Development of an online learning platform is also a significant area for development and training and resourcing to achieve this goal is already underway. All teachers have had training on the use of Google Classroom, which will enable children to access their learning in school and at home, facilitating a blended learning approach. Work can be submitted to the teacher within the online classroom and feedback can be provided, which is essential for learning and improvement.
• Fundraising to make our growing wishlists and aspirations a reality - to provide enrichment in abundance. we want our children grow up through their primary years, experiencing a wide variety of opportunities which will make learning exciting and memorable. These years with us are the foundations on which their adult lives will rest.
• We also have individual aspirational goals for each school which include: At Chagford, we are working to develop the grounds to enhance the outdoor learning opportunities for the children.
• At North Tawton, developing the premises with a focus on library and early years is key, in addition to developing an outdoor learning environmental area.
• At South Tawton, work to improve the 'old building' with new doors and windows as well as repair the Year R/Y1 front facia is planned and will be evident imminently. We have also undertaken a feasibility study to explore how we might bring the pre-school onto school site so that our whole school is united. Provision of a school kitchen is high on our wishlist too.

I am pleased to say that we are well supported by our governors and the DMAT. 

Mel Holyoak, our Vice Chair, is driving a fundraising strategy across the three schools and their communities, which it is hoped will support some of the more ambitious projects. Our PTAs are also supporting this work with an Amazon wishlist for each school, in addition to their usual excellent fundraising events.

We have been happy to have welcomed a good number of parents to each meeting across the schools and I hope that enabling parents to join us via Teams has been helpful. We look forward to our next occasion.

Best wishes,
Elizabeth Underwood