News
Newsletter for the week ending Friday 10th February
Lot’s of messages today, before we break for half term, and please remember to click on more to find out what has been happening in and around each classroom. What is Torridge Junior Parkrun? A free, fun, and friendly weekly 2k event for juniors (4 to 14 year olds). When is it? It is held every Sunday at 09:00am. Where is it? The event takes place in Victoria Park, Bideford and for more information click here.
This week, staff have received safeguarding training on radicalisation: what to look for and what to do if there are concerns. For more information please click here. The previous system of sending home paper head bump letters has been replaced with an email to your first priority contact to ensure it does reach you. Getting an email does not mean it is any more severe a bump than would previously require just a letter to inform and we will continue to call immediately if we have concerns. In short, email is to let you know and a call is if we have immediate concerns.
Further to our email communication this week regarding our Healthy Value next half term, please click here to find out more. And well done to Nancy for winning our Values Cup for our whole school half term theme of being Positive.
Out House Captains have devised a photo competition for completion over half term. All children are invited to send in (physically or by email to admin@appledoreprimary.co.uk) their photos on the theme of nature. All submissions to school by the end of Monday 20th February so they can be judged by the panel of ‘experts’. Please click here for their expertly designed poster.
Please be considerate of our neighbours living on the roads close to our school when parking you cars. We have received complaints of blocked drives and verbal abuse of residents when they have asked for cars to be removed. We continue to provide free parking permits for you to use the Oden Road car park and these can be obtained from the school office.
AROUND THE CLASSES
Mrs Phillips, our Learning Mentor, will be off school after half term following a medical procedure. We have explained this to children and discussed with them who can they speak to in her absence and their response was that they want it to be their teaching assistants and teachers. Please communicate with school as before any concerns you have and we will ensure they are acted upon.
This week in Turtles and Dolphins we have travelled further south in Europe and we have been finding out about Spain. On Wednesday Gal.La’s Mum came to talk to us about life in Spain and she showed us pictures of the lovely food that they eat. We have made collages of the flags and flamenco dancers. We have also painted pictures of ourselves dancing as flamenco dancers. On Thursday we tasted some Spanish food.
Year 1 have been busy this week inventing their own version of the story No-bot the Robot. They have had a go at changing the characters and changing the body part that Bernard loses and have thought of some very interesting ideas! In Maths we have been doing addition to 20 and doubling and enjoyed using the dice to try and roll doubles. In topic we discussed the visit from the nurses last week and thought again about how nursing has changed through time. We’ve had a great half term and hope you have a lovely week off!
What a great half term Lundy Puffins (year 2) have had! In Maths, they have worked hard to multiply and divide by two and recognise odd and even numbers. In English, they are starting a new book about Amelia Earhart and enjoyed finding out about her and the main events in her life. In their topic work, they have been learning how lifeboats have changed since Grace Darling’s time. After the break, they will be visiting the lifeboat station to find out more. We wish you all a relaxing half term break and look forward to seeing you next week.
Year 3 have had a wonderful last week of this half term. We thought of our own question in science that we would like to investigate and we came up with, ‘Do taller children have bigger feet than shorter children?’ We then worked together to design an investigation to test this question and we found that there was no correlation between our height and our shoe size. In English, we acted out the meeting of Arthur and Thor and then wrote the conversation between the two characters. We practised our use of speech marks and reporting clauses in our dialogue. In history, we compared Marie Curie with another scientist, Albert Einstein. We learned that Marie Curie wasn’t allowed to attend university in Poland because she was a woman and we discussed how the role of women in society has changed over time. In Maths, we finished our multiplication and division topic by learning all about multiplication as scaling.
Year 3 refined their compositions about a train journey and recorded them. They then performed them for their class teacher who was successfully able to say what the theme of the pieces because the children had chosen appropriate instruments to make the sounds. Year 4 made a story map to show how the word of God was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad by the angel Jibril. Year 5 wrote poems to bring together all their thoughts about why it is important for Christians to believe in a God that is Holy and Loving. Year 6 gave a rousing performance of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy on the recorders and in RE expressed their beliefs about creation. In French years 4,5 and 6 learnt a song about the weather and year 3 consolidated their knowledge of French colours.
Beechcroft (year 5) have now published their explanation writing about their newly invented machines; many would be very useful. These are now in a book, on the writing display, in the main building. In maths we have completed our final assessments on multiplication and division and ready to start our new unit on decimals and percentages. In history we thought about the 100,000 people who died in London during the great plague. We were surprised by the scale when we compared it to the population of North Devon today. We also looked at different sources of information which informed us about the plague and when the plague came to Bideford. Well done to everyone who passed their level 1 and 2 bikeability training this week. Have a relaxing half term with your families.
Year 6 We have continued our evolution topic during our outdoor learning this week with Sarah. Please take a look at the slide show in the hall way showing our progress with the school pond as well. We have continued to read ‘Pig Heart Boy’ and completed our monologues in Literacy. We have spent time editing our writing to ensure we have produced our best work. Some great humour coming through in the writing! In maths we completed our algebra topic (super logical thinking shown) and have started looking at decimals this week. We have learnt about some of the great medical breakthroughs over the last 250 years in history and thought about which ones were the most important. In science, we learnt about fossilisation and even made our own ‘fossils’ which took over 200,00 million years to form! Please take some time to look at the pack sent home with the children today regarding revision and booster classes for SATS.
