News
Newsletter for the week ending Friday 15th May
Fingers crossed for the weather on Wednesday so sports day can go ahead. We will make a decision during Tuesday afternoon based on the information we have available to us at the time. If we have to postpone because the weather looks disappointing, please note that our reserve date is Tuesday 16th June. Information relating to sports day can be found here and please keep an eye out any communication from us on Tuesday.
We work with Mental Health Support Team in schools (MHST) who have won the Psychological Professions Network Southwest Award in the Analogue to Digital category for the implementation of Lumi Nova for all children aged 7–12 across Devon and Torbay. Children in Devon can access the app for free. The app combines psychoeducation with graded exposure therapy to help children understand anxiety and gradually face their fears in a safe, structured way, all delivered through a fun, engaging game format. Parent/carers simply need to follow this link to generate a game key before downloading the app: https://luminova.app/devon
Dates for the diary:
- Book Festival at Barnstaple library, Saturday 16th May and see here for more information
- Sports Day Wednesday 20th May all day for Years 1-6 and the afternoon for Reception/Dolphins information is here. Tuesday 16th June is back-up day should the weather be bad in May. More details to follow nearer the time.
- Football clubs for boys and girls of all abilities are being run across the region over May half term. See here.
- Skern Lodge celebrates 50 years and is hosting a family afternoon of activities on 30th May. See here for info
- Appledore’s first ever Pride will take place around the village on Saturday 6th June (see here) and please see here for a competition for children to win £50 and here for story reading in the library
- Tabsfest, in memory of an Appledore Pupil, is a family music festival at The Big Sheep, Saturday 13th June. See here for info.
Wishing you all a good weekend.
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff
AROUND THE CLASSES
This week in Turtles and Dolphins we have continued to read the story ‘Goldilocks and the three bears’. On Tuesday we had a discussion about whether Goldilocks was good or bad. We then wrote letters to her explaining our ideas and she wrote back to us thanking us! We have interviewed the characters from the story and then we had a go at writing our own versions of the story. We have made some moving bears and created a new blanket for baby bear. We have read a couple of different versions of the story and compared them.
In Year 1 this week we have started our new book ‘Stuck’. We have found this book really funny and enjoyed reading it. We made a story map of the story and had a go at writing sentences about the book using conjunctions. In Maths we have started looking at fractions and really enjoyed using playdough to cut shapes in half. In Science we had another look at everyday materials and the children remembered a lot from their outdoor learning lesson on materials! We played a game where we had a bag with different objects in, made of different materials and the person with the bag had to describe what they were holding and the others had to guess what material it was. The children started asking brilliant questions such as ‘Is it flexible?’, ‘Is it see through?’, ‘Is it stretchy?’. We took it in turns in groups to be the person describing the object.
Year 2 have shown their great writing skills this week as they have started writing their own stories about a magical machine and they have tried to show all the skills they have learnt. They have continued with fractions in Maths and have been looking at 2/3, 3/4 and the equivalence of 2/4 and 1/2. Finding out about hot and cold places in the world was the focus in Geography and they also completed their weather diary on a very blustery day! They are looking forward to their visit to Westward Ho! next week and also sports’ day (fingers crossed for good weather!).
Year 3 had a fantastic day out last Friday when they went to Instow on the ferry. They then walked along the sand dunes and SW coast path to Yelland. It was amazing listening to the children talking about the rivers and using the vocabulary we have been using in the classroom. This week we have started out new maths unit on time. There have been a few tears so it would be amazing if ‘telling the time’ could continue at home. We have been watching the life cycle of a butterfly happen in the classroom. We started with very tiny caterpillars and this week our first ‘painted lady’ butterfly emerged (it caused a lot of excitement in the classroom). We have started a new text for our writing (Small in the City). This week we started a debate to think about whether it would be better for a cat to live in the country or a city? In science we looked at how water is transported around plants and followed up our investigation on planting peas. Although our outdoor learning session was cancelled this week we have kept our gear in school ready to do next Friday.
In Year 4 this week, we have written and edited our English work based on a magical place. This will be published next week. The class has done really well and made sure to include lots of fronted adverbials, prepositional phrases and speech as per our learning previously in the sequence. In Maths, we have looked at money and problem solving and continued to work on our times tables. In Science, we have made a physical switch to help us understand how electricity must have a continuous loop to flow, subsequently powering our components. In Geography, we have been looking at the countries that have the most and least water consumption in a day and found those countries using an atlas, identifying them on our own maps, too. In music, we have been using recorders. Our values lessons looked into what it means to be a friend V an acquaintance and how we would treat both with kindness and care. In computing, we started programming and repetitive loops.
It’s been another fantastic week and it’s so wonderful to see lots of fantastic work being completed and plenty of positive attitudes.
This week in Year 5, we have continued working on our non-chronological reports about Ernest Shackleton’s expedition across Antarctica. The children have been developing their note-taking skills and focusing on editing and improving their writing. In Maths, we have recapped decimal numbers and tackled a range of problems involving adding and subtracting decimals, including calculations requiring multiple exchanges. In Values, we explored the inspiring story of Rosa Parks and reflected on our school value of inclusivity, discussing the importance of fairness, respect and standing up for others. We also enjoyed another fantastic Wednesday session at ARC, where the children continued to develop their badminton skills. In Science, we explored the life cycle of insects through a reading-based lesson before creating and labelling the life cycle of a butterfly. In Geography, we investigated the impact of single-use plastics, watched part of a TED talk by Kids Against Plastic, and finished by writing persuasive letters to manufacturers, encouraging them to switch to more environmentally friendly alternatives. On Friday, we were lucky enough to spend the whole day taking part in Science workshops with The Royal Society!
Well done to all our year 6 pupils who completed their SATS tests with maturity and thank you to all the staff and external volunteers who helped this week to ensure it all ran so smoothly. The bacon sandwiches and juice were delicious. In Science, we have started work on electricity and light. We looked at the National Parks in geography and studied maps of the United Kingdom. We are looking forward to Sports Day next week.
