News
Newsletter for the week ending Friday 20th September
It’s always good to get the minibus on the road, because it means the children are busy enjoy extra curricular activities and this week has seen a tag rugby festival and tennis at ARC, Bideford, with Judy Murray.
Secondary school open days are coming up for year 7 entry are approaching. Typically aimed at pupils currently in Years 5 & 6, please click on the school name for a link to the details and check whether it applies to current Year 5 and/or Year 6 pupils. For current year 6 pupils Atlantic Academy, Bideford College, Great Torrington School, Kingsley School, Park Community School, Pilton Community College and West Buckland School.
Next Wednesday (25th September) a free community cricket programme starts for children aged 8 years+ ate starting at 6.45pm at Pilton Community College. For more information please see here and here.
Dates for the diary:
- Years 3-6 Harvest Festival, 2.15pm, Wednesday 16th October at St Mary’s Church
Have a great weekend everybody
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff
AROUND THE CLASSES
This week in Turtles and Dolphins we have been exploring our environment using all of our senses. We named the senses and then we went on a senses walk around the school. On Wednesday we had Marian from ARC come in and teach us some tennis skills. On Thursday we had Pete from Asda come in and talk to us about healthy eating. We all tried lots of different fruits.
This week in Year 1 we thought about what the ‘Naughty Bus’ could do in our classroom. The class had some very imaginative ideas, he could drive over the laptop keyboard, he could bump into the water bottles spraying water everywhere or drive through paint making a mess. We just hope he doesn’t escape and cause havoc in the classroom! We had a great tennis assembly and coaching session with the ARC team this week. We had fun playing games and learning some new skills. In maths this week we have been looking at recognising numbers as words and counting on from any number. We have played some fun games and activities to help us with our learning. Our first outdoor learning session was a great success and the children had a fantastic time looking for signs of Autumn and discussing the seasons.
Year 2 have had another great week. They have been learning about verbs in English and writing sentences about Traction Man. In Maths they have been looking at 2-digit numbers and splitting them up in different ways. On Wednesday, they enjoyed a tennis session with a coach from ARC. They impressed us with their brilliant tennis skills. In their Geography learning, they looked at different photographs and sorted them into human and physical Geography. They are looking forward to a morning in the Art studio Thursday.
In RE, Year 3 considered the majesty of nature as a way in to learning about creation. Year 4, looked at the importance of prayer to Muslims after revising the 5 pillars of Islam. Year 5 began studying why Hindus try to be good by looking at the cycle of birth, death and rebirth. Year 6 looked at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur – two important Jewish festivals. In music, all classes continued with their harvest preparations. The songs are already sounding good and the dances are coming all well. Simply love that the children are rehearsing the dances of their own volition on the school field.
Seahunter class (year 3)have had a great week! In English, we created our own noun phrases to describe the tiger and then we wrote a letter to the tiger to persuade him that he is the Lord of the Forest. In Science, we set up an investigation to find the most reflective material. We discovered that shiny materials are more reflective than dark materials. In Maths, we learnt how to partition 3-digit numbers in different ways and we also learnt how to find 1, 10 and 100 more or less than a given 3-digit number. In Values, we discussed different people who help to keep us safe and we talked about what we can do to help these people help us. In PE, we explored creating standing and floor shapes and then used movements to link these together to create a dance sequence. In Computing, we were introduced to the program Scratch. We familiarised ourselves with the layout, and we learnt that commands in Scratch are represented by blocks.
In HMS Echo (year 4) this week, we all had a very enjoyable day at Exeter Energy from Waste Plant, where children saw grabbers take tonnes of rubbish into the shredder, they learnt about the 3Rs and they learnt how the plant makes energy into waste, such as burning waste to create steam and then electricity. It was a bit of a smelly place! Apart from our trip, we also learnt about renewable energy and fossil fuels. In English, we learnt about apostrophes and conjunctions. In Maths, we have been looking at how to find more and less of a 4 digit number. In PE, we have been working on making shapes with our bodies in a routine in Dance to the beat of the music.
Year 5 has settled into a great routine and are fully prepared for each day of learning. They have now planned a new story based on the Tear Thief and these will turn into stories next week. We are developing our use of vocabulary and thinking of rich words to include in the text. Our maths work has continued with addition and subtraction, using the inverse for checking. We have used our world map knowledge to locate the countries different Fairtrade products come from. It’s been a busy sporting week for the class. On Wednesday 12 went to ARC to play tennis games and have the opportunity to meet Judy Murray and on Friday 15 took part in a tag rugby festival at West Buckland school.
Year 6 have settled well this week after their residential and have started to work hard. In maths, they are working on place value 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 and found out about a boy called ‘Elhaji’ who lives in The Gambia in Geography. 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. Next week we have 2 author visits: Steve Cole and Justyn Edwards to look forward to.
