On Thursday, this week, two teams of budding cricketers attended Braunton Cricket Club to play
against three other schools from the Braunton Learning Co-operative Trust.
Split into two separate pools, each of the Southmead teams then played against one of the teams
from each of the other schools.

The Southmead ‘A’ team started strongly by winning their first game against Kingsacre ‘B’. Following that, they won one other game against Marwood ‘B’ but narrowly lost out to Caen ‘A’ and Kingsacre ‘A’. Their strong performance, however, was enough for them to reach the 3rd place play off against ‘Marwood ‘A’.

In the other pool, Southmead ‘B’ faced some tough opposition but, despite not winning any of their games, they showed incredible resilience and perseverance, displaying some admirable bowling and batting skills, whilst improving their fielding skills in every game!
In the 3rd place play off, Southmead ‘A’ were just pipped to the bronze medal but showed off some
incredible batting performances and made some outstanding catches, in the process.
Particular mention needs to go to Archie, who won the overall award for best sportsmanship
throughout the competition and Harry for the best batting performance!
I would also like to thank Katie Kerslake and Laura Gaunt for giving up their time to accompany the
children to and from the event.
All the children should be very proud of themselves and were impressive representatives of
Southmead. Well done to you all!

On Tuesday, the Southmead choir took part in the performance of Coming Together to Sing at the Landmark Theatre in Ilfracombe. It was wonderful to see all the schools of the Braunton Learning Co-operative Trust performing together, and we were so proud of our Southmead singers who really gave
it their all, their voices really filling the theatre with their fantastic rendition of Don’t Stop Believin’. Thank you to all the children who took part and to everybody who came along to enjoy the show.

Thank you to everybody who attended the SFA Summer Fair last Friday. We are sure you’ll agree it was a huge success. Seeing everyone out in the sunshine, enjoying events from wellywanging
to hurling wet sponges at a certain Headteacher, was a real joy. The teachers had created some
excellent stalls, with the two Year 6 classes raising the most money – they will each be receiving a cooling ice lolly as a prize. Overall, the fair raised a fantastic £3553.10, which will go towards new play equipment for the school.
Special thanks go to all the children and teachers for creating their stalls, Sam & Lauren from Sparkle & Co, Amanda Farrow & family, Mr Barrett, Mr Braunton, Plastic Free North Devon, Christine, Ben from West Cross Garage, everyone that donated raffle prizes, cakes, teddies and books – and of course to all the volunteers and the SFA who kindly gave their time to make it happen. You did an incredible job and we are really grateful. 

On Friday 8th July, nearly 150 primary school children from 6 schools across North Devon took part in the North Devon Aquathlon, held at Ilfracombe Swimming Pool.
At the event, the children first had to swim a set distance in the pool depending on their year group (Year 3 – 50m; Year 4 – 100m; Year 5 – 150m and Year 6 – 200m) before running up and around Hillsborough (one lap for Years 3 and 4, and two laps for Years 5 and 6). The children in each race were split into two different ‘waves’ so, rather than just competing against the children in their own race, each child had to compete against the clock by swimming and running as fast as they could!

The Southmead values being displayed by every single one of our competitors were a privilege to witness as they each displayed incredible determination and resilience to complete their respective distances resulting in fantastic performances with both individual and team successes.
In her very first aquathlon, Missi was delighted to achieve 2nd place in the Year 3 girls’ category. Arno also won a medal by taking 3rd place out of a very competitive field of Year 4 boys.

The last time the event was run, three years ago, the Year 3 girls were particularly successful, enjoying both individual and team success. Now competing as Year 6, in their final sporting event at Southmead, they showed that they had clearly not lost that winning formula!
Amber achieved 1st place, Annie 2nd place and Lani 3rd, leading the whole Year 6 team to overall  Gold!

A huge thank you needs to go to Dr Corney and Mrs Matthews, who were busy organising, encouraging and looking the children on the field, as well as the fabulous parents who helped look after each year group - in particular, Mrs Bradford, Mr Smithson, Mrs Smith and Mrs Jones.
Every single child was an outstanding ambassador of Southmead and should be very proud of themselves! Well done everybody and what a fantastic day!

A massive well done to Loulou in Year 2, who won the Bee, Butterfly and Honey Colouring Competition at St John’s Garden Centre which the year group entered. She did really well and her entry was fantastic. Here she is proudly clutching her prize!

 

Pupils Freddie and Harry took a trip to the Devon County Show this week, and the first thing they spotted was the wonderful collection of scarecrows from the School Scarecrow Competition. The boys soon tracked down the entry from Southmead School in the Best Recycled Scarecrow category, and I’m sure you’ll agree it looks amazing! Well done to the Eco-reps from all year groups who helped to put him together for the show.