News
Newsletter for the week ending Friday 9th October
The most recent winners of our House Cup was Atlantic (green), so all children in Atlantic can wear non-school uniform (with something green) on Friday 16th October.
Calling all girls in Years 2 & 3 – Bideford Blues and Appledore JFC has recently started a new U8 girls team for school years 2 and 3, but need help finding more players. For more information please see here. Training Wednesdays 5-6pm
Devon County Council SEND department is currently being inspected by Ofsted. If you want to complete Ofsted’s questionnaire about the service the SEND department please see this QR code 
As part of our Harvest celebrations, we collect food donations for a local homeless charity. We are asking for contributions of non-perishable food items only, such as:
- Tinned goods (soup, vegetables, fruit, baked beans, tuna, etc.)
Dried pasta, rice, and noodles
Breakfast cereals and oats
Packaged biscuits, crackers, and snacks
Jams, spreads, and sauces
Tea, coffee, and long-life (UHT) milk or juice
Important Note on Fresh Produce: Please do not send in any fresh fruit, vegetables, or perishable items due to storage limits and distribution guidelines. Thank you as always for your continued generosity and support.
Dates for the diary:
-
- Thursday 22nd October Year 1 & 2 harvest festival celebration 2.45pm in the school hall
- Nursery and Reception classes Harvest Festival 2.30pm 20th October in the school hall
- Friday 6th November 5-6pm Reception – Y2 Halloween Disco and 6.30-7.30pm Y3-6
- Friday 4th December School Christmas fair 3.30pm
Wishing you all a good weekend
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff
AROUND THE CLASSES
On Monday Turtles and Dolphins had a visit. Lorna from Queen Annes Dentist came to talk to us about her job as a dentist. We dressed up as dentists wearing gloves and masks and she told us why we need to wear these pieces of clothing. She gave us some mirrors so we could look at our teeth. We then measured out some sugar to show how much sugar was in coke, chocolate and tomato sauce and there was rather a lot!
At the end of the week we started our new topic ‘Autumn’. We spoke about where Autumn fits into the seasons and what happens in Autumn. We also made some repeating leaf printing pictures. Have a look at our page on the website to find out more.
This week Sea Lions (year 1) have been learning all about penguins and how their amazing bodies are adapted to life in Antarctica. We have enjoyed learning about the different types of penguins and our class particularly loved the chinstrap and emperor penguins! In Writing this week I have been very proud of how hard the children have been working towards their writing targets. We had lots of fun and giggles planning and writing our own versions of The Naughty Bus and really enjoyed sharing them with the class. In Maths we have been learning that counting doesn’t always have to start at one and have been practising counting on from larger numbers. We were very excited to try the Number Name Rap and have been enjoying learning our written number words.
Year 2 had a visit from a dental nurse on Tuesday. She told them all about how to keep their teeth healthy and showed them a story about a giant who had a toothache. Everyone came home with a toothbrush, toothpaste, timer and a copy of the story, so please check bags if your child hasn’t shown you theirs. In English, they have been enjoying a new book called ‘How to wash a woolly mammoth’. They put pictures from the story in order and practised washing toy mammoths to act out the story. In Maths, they have been counting in 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s and are now moving on to look at adding and subtracting numbers. In their Geography work, they looked at the area around the school using Google Earth.
Key Stage 2 harvest festival – Well it was never in any doubt. Despite the ambition of the piece and a challenging dress rehearsal, the children pulled it off in a truly remarkable way. Thank you to everyone who made it to the key stage 2 Harvest celebration on Thursday. I have seen it many, many times and I was totally engaged by the quality of the performances whether they were singing, dancing, reading or paying an instrument. A huge well done to all the children involved. They gave it everything and I hope enjoyed the experience as much as I did and hopefully you too.
Year 3 had a fantastic day at The Eden Project this week, training to be rainforest rangers. They needed to look at the plants and select appropriate ones for survival; plants to eat, for building shelter and plants to catch rainwater for drinking. It was really lovely watching them all look for plants and thinking about their uses. We also joined in with a live STEM lesson (Space Whales; Mission Ocean) which looked at how space can help locate whales. The class has some really good ideas and made sensible choices in making a satellite; definitely some budding engineers in the class. We have now written our own stories and have been busy publishing these ready for display, and in maths we have been using the column method for addition. The class all sang their Harvest Festival songs well in the church; thank you for coming to share this with us.
It has been a lovely week of both hard work and celebration in Year 4. In English, we have been exploring our new text, Little Evie and the Wild Wood which is a great story that helps us to remember that some stories have slightly different endings. We have been exploring the concept of suspense and what tools we need to use this well. For our spellings, we are really trying our best to ensure our key words are consistently spelt correctly in all areas of our learning. In Maths, we have finished our place value work, completed an end of unit assessment and all showed excellent progress. We move on to area and addition before the end of the half term. In computing, we looked at networks and what we may find on various websites ready to create our own. In Geography, we considered how being more sustainable may help us to save money and that even by being 1/10 more sustainable, this sum adds up quite quickly – not only supporting the planet but also our pockets! In Science, we explored bar models and different melting points of metals. We drew these out based on data from a table. We of course celebrated the Harvest Festival at the Church and Year 4 sang and danced beautifully. We also enjoyed our next PE lesson on cricket. It’s been another busy week!
In Year 5, we have been busy with our Harvest rehearsals and performance this week. In literacy, we are nearly finished writing our own versions of The Tear Thief. We have been working hard on our editing skills and using a range of spelling strategies to improve our writing. We are looking forward to publishing our finished stories next week! In maths, we have continued developing our understanding of place value and rounding numbers. Next week, we will move on to addition and subtraction. We have also enjoyed lots of art this week! We have been finishing our fantastic penguin artwork with Mrs Cooper and have also been working on our Art Awards. Well done, Year 5, for another busy and productive week!
Year 6 have had a busy week completing their maths unit on Place Value, including using negative numbers, and starting to think about methods for the four operations. In Literacy, they have planned their own stories and have begun drafting. They are trying to work on using punctuation and editing skills, to make sure that their readers can follow all the details. In science, they have learnt more about classification by making keys for a selection of animals using scientific vocabulary. In PE they enjoyed developing their handball skills. They performed their song, recorder tune and readings at the Harvest Festival wonderfully!
