News
Newsletter for the week ending Friday 26th September
At this time of year we require school permissions from you to be reconfirmed please. To do this in the MyChildAtSchool app, please see Parental Consent section. Please note it is very important this this completed each year.
The entry window for Rotary Youth Competitions 2025-2026 has opened and the categories are; Young Artist; Young Photographer; Young Writer; Young Environmentalist; Young Musician and Young Chef. There is also a Junior Youth Speaks competition. For more information see here and for entry forms, coordinated by Bideford Rotary Club, contact bidefordrotary@gmail.com
Further to the email sent out about the annual nasal flu vaccination, available for all children from reception to Year 6, please be aware NHS nurses will be in school to administering the vaccination for in school on Thursday 13th November 2025 to those who have been given consent for. If you want your child to be vaccinated and have not already completed the consent form it is available here along with information about the vaccination. Please note that consent is required by midday Tuesday 11th November 2025. Even if you don’t want your child to have the vaccine please complete the form but tick ‘no’ for consent, so we know you do not want your child to have the vaccine and haven’t just missed the email.
Dates for the diary
- Friends of Appledore School meeting at 7pm, October 2nd at the school and all are very welcome to attend.
- Harvest festival years 3-6, 2pm 8th October, St Mary’s Church (please see around the classes section for more details)
- Year 1 and 2 Harvest festival will take place on Thursday 16th October at 2;30pm.
- Wishing you all a lovely weekend
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff
AROUND THE CLASSES
This week in Turtles and Dolphins we have continued to explore the environment around us using our senses. We have focused mainly on using our sense of touch and hearing. We have had feely bags and we have taken it turns to feel an object and describe it to our friends. Our friends have asked questions to find out more information. We had some interesting answers! We have played some listening games and we have painted our portraits.
In Year 1 this week we have continued with our book the Naughty Bus and drew story maps for what happens. Then we changed the bus to a different vehicle and made new story maps for what might happen! In Maths we have been learning more than, less than and equal to, we have also introduced a new word ‘fewer’. In topic we have been thinking about how penguins can survive living in such a cold place. The children had great ideas and we then labelled a picture with some of the adaptations that we learnt about. It has been really great to see the children’s reading at home being logged on the new digital reading logs! If you are unable to access these, please let us know.
Year 2 enjoyed an entertaining visit from the author Petr Horacek. He told them lots about his stories and where he gets his ideas. He complimented them on their brilliant listening skills – well done everyone! In English, they have been acting out new versions of the Traction Man story and then writing about them. Next week, they will be using their own toys to create new stories in the style of ‘Traction Man’. In their Science work, they went onto the field and into the woodland area to look at different habitats. In Maths, they were counting and finding different numbers on number lines. On Wednesday, they spent time in the Art Studio where they were able to practise their drawing skills to draw brilliant bees.
Year 3 have worked hard on their writing based on Lord of the Forest. They have now drafted their own stories and these are starting to be published and illustrated ready for display on the writing board in the main building. The place value unit has been completed in maths, with the ending assessment showing a lot of progress. The next unit of work will be addition and subtraction. The class loved meeting the author, John Towsend, and receiving their book. All worked hard in the art studio this week, producing some lovely drawings for their Christmas cards. Our geography work involved group work and sorting photos of different climates and matching animals and plants to these areas. We looked at shadows in our science lesson and investigated what shadows were made by light passing through different materials. The week has ended with an outdoor learning session with Sarah.
In Year 4 this week, the children have written their own story based on Meerkat Mail and they have been a real pleasure to read. They have worked really hard on using apostrophes correctly and writing informally to make it fun and engaging for children. They will publish this next week and they will be displayed in the corridor. In Maths, we’ve been really getting to know 4 digit numbers, including comparing and ordering them as well as plotting them on a number line. In Geography, we learnt which countries produce the most solar energy and the children used an atlas to locate them on a map. In Computing, the children learnt about routers and we will move onto learning about the world wide web. In PE, the children continued working on their footwork and coordination. In Science, the children learnt about negative numbers and learnt how to read thermometers and solve problems.
This week in Year 5, we’ve had a productive week across all subjects. In Maths, we continued our work on place value, reading and writing numbers up to one million. We especially enjoyed solving number clues to figure out six-digit numbers – for example, “the tens column is double the hundred thousands column”! In English, we’ve made a fantastic start on our story writing, inspired by The Tear Thief. We used rich vocabulary to describe our own thieves, focusing on their appearance and how they move. In Reading, we’ve been diving deeper into Holes, and even wrote diary entries from Stanley’s point of view. We also had an exciting author visit from Nadine Aisha Jassat, who inspired us by sharing her work and talking about the power of writing. In PE, we practised our handball skills and started playing mini matches. In Science, we worked in groups to investigate which materials dissolve in water, and in Values, we explored different spending scenarios, giving thoughtful advice on how to spend money more wisely. In Computing, we continued our work on vector graphics and learned how layering can be used to build up more complex images.
Year 6 have settled well this week after their residential and have started to work hard. In maths, they are working on place value and rounding skills. They are also refining writing skills in literacy so that they can work towards creating their own piece of fiction writing. In science, they were using basic classification keys to look at sorting plants and animals. In Geography, they have been looking at the climate in Australia. In reading, we have begun a class text ‘Skellig’ and we are focussing on the detail in our answers for comprehension using evidence from the text. This week we had Nadine Aisha Jassat, an author, who came to speak to us about her books and story writing. We were given a copy of her book, The House at the Edge of the World, funded by Appledore Book Festival. Next week is Outdoor Learning on Friday (and tag rugby for those involved).
