News
Newsletter for the week ending 6th October
Please read on to find out about harvest festival, parent evenings and much. much more…
AROUND THE SCHOOL
Halloween Disco
The date for this will be Friday 13th October. 5-6.15pm for Dolphins and Years 1 & 2 and 6.30-7.45pm for Years 3,4,5 & 6. For more information, please click here.
PTA
Our Parent Teacher Association is a small group dedicated to raising funds for the ‘extras’ that otherwise wouldn’t happen. If you have ideas and time to help run the three main events of the year (Halloween Disco, Christmas Fair and Summer Fair), please contact Jeremy on headteacher@appledore-primary.devon.sch.uk
School Christmas Fare
Provisional date set for 1st December – more details to follow…
Appledore Book Fesival Schools’ Programme
We will be hostimg visits from Philip Ardagh on Monday and Steve Cole on Tuesday of next week. They will be able to sign books for children. If they have a copy of theses authors’ books, please feel free to bring them in and Mrs O’Shea has a limited number of copies to buy.
Parents Evenings
For years 1-6 are happening next week and the week after (w/c 9 and 16 October). Dates are on the school Google calendar (available on our website) and you can sign up for a time on the list available outside each classroom or by ringing the school.
Governor Vacancies
We have some vacancies on the governing body. If you are interested in supporting the school in this way, please contact Annemarie for information or the head teacher for an informal discussuon about the role and the level of commitment required.
Harvest Festival
Our harvest festival celebration will be held in St Mary’s Church on Friday 20th Ocober at 2pm. You are all most welcome to attend.
Attendance
Our attendance as a whole school is just in line with expectations, so thank you for all your efforts with ensuring that you child’s attendance remains good and arranging holidays during school holidays. At present the governors are not requesting we impose fines, but please be aware that a concerning decline in school attendance as a whole could lead to a change of policy.
AROUND APPLEDORE
Shebbear College Open Days for Year 7 Entry
For year 6 parents, Shebbear College are holding open day during the week commencing 9th October. For more information contact 01409 282000 or registrar@shebbearcollege.co.uk
Harvets Festival at St Mary’s Church
You and your family are warmly invited to join St Mary’s Church for their Harvest Festival this Sunday at 10.30am. This will be a short child-friendly service, followed by a ‘Bring & Share’ lunch in the church hall.
AROUND THE CLASSES
This week we have been singing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and finding out about nocturnal animals. We went to The Jungle to make nests for the owl babies and we made hedgehogs from clay. On Friday we were astronauts flying to the moon.
Another busy week in Year 1. We are publishing our stories about Mrs Armitage and we have made front covers for them using the laptops. In Maths we have learnt about ordinal numbers and discussed when we might use ordinal numbers. In Science we have designed boats and made them out of Lego. We then tested them in the water tray to check if they floated or sank. If they did sink we tried to improve on them to make them float. We are really looking forward to our trip on the West Somerset Railway and will be learning about the railway next week. P4C question for the week: Why did the boat not look where it was going?
This week, in English, Lundy Puffins have been story writers. They are trying to remember everything they have learned about sentences and noun phrases to put into their stories. Next week, they will be publishing the stories, so look out for the books on display! In Maths, they have been counting in threes. They have now finished the block on place value and next week will be starting addition and subtraction. Looking at how far a car rolls down a ramp was the investigation in science as they tried to answer questions: Does the height of the ramp make a difference?; Does the surface of the ramp make a difference? The P4C question, having read ‘The Prodigal Son’, was ‘Why does the father give all the money to the youngest son?’ Everyone is looking forward to the steam train trip on the 17th October; please ask if you didn’t receive your letter. Just a reminder that I am holding parents’ evenings next week; please sign up on the list outside the classroom door
Seahunter have had a great week, particularly developing their listening and thinking skills. In our philosophy session we watched a short cartoon clip about taking responsibility. The children came up with some amazing ideas but the one we discussed was ‘Should we choose whether to trust people based on their past behaviour?’ They listened and respected one another brilliantly and worked really hard on being able to express their own opinions and accept others’ different opinions. In art, they finished work on their coins and collage, adding gold paint and wax. In Maths, they have impressed with the improvements to their weekly assessment scores and demonstrated good knowledge of place value.
This week HMS Echo have written brilliant stories linked to ‘Leon and the Place Between’, which they are in the process of creating in book form. Next week, we will be starting our new unit where will be focusing on a non-fiction text linked to ‘Penguins’.
In Maths, the children have completed their Place Value unit and have moved onto our Addition and Subtraction unit. We will be continuing this unit into half term.
The class were very enthusiastic when they spent the whole day in the new Art Studio with Mrs Harvey on Thursday. The children created collages of mythical monsters and Gods and Goddesses from Ancient Greece! These are going to be put together to make large books, including illustrations the children drew of their character and speech bubbles to describe them.
Our big question this week came from looking at the painting ‘The Scream’. The children came up with the question, “How would it feel to be the person in the painting?” We had an open and respectful discussion about feelings and emotions and how we sometimes present these emotions.
Y5 have had a very busy week. We have completed writing our stories based on Viking Sagas and now thinking about information writing. In maths we have been looking at formal methods for addition and subtraction. We have been working on our college work in the art studio and did several science experiments to separate materials. Today we went to Torrington secondary school to take part in the Big Bang. We made moving Lego models and DNA necklaces. In the afternoon we watched a fantastic science show. Tonight we are really looking forward to eating our fish and chips before the sleepover.
Year 6 have been on residential at Heetree House on Dartmoor, so I’m sure we will here all about it soon!
Music, R.E. and French news
This week, Year Three have practised basic greetings in French and begun their focus on Hinduism. They learnt about the places that Hindus worship and that the Hindu Supreme god, Brahman, takes on many different forms. In Music, they explored different ways to create the sounds of a building site and added more sounds this week.
Year Two experienced a P4C session this week linked to the Christian story, The Prodigal Son. The chosen question was ‘Should the father have given the money to his younger son?’. In Music, they worked really hard to play one of their Harvest songs on the chime bars. Well done everyone. Finally, they practised singing Big Red Combine Harvester with Year 1, creating and rehearsing the actions keeping in close time with the beat of the music.
Year Four spent time getting more familiar with the names of colours in French and began to learn the names for parts of the face. They continued their P4C session from last week and thought about the characteristics of a hero as they focussed on whether Frog really was a hero. Everyone listened to each others’ view points really well. In Music, they began to create an Autumn soundscape.
Best wishes from
Jeremy Cooper and all the staff and children
