News
Newsletter for the week ending Friday 27th June
Year 6 returned from Lundy all in one piece and certainly packed their sea legs! It was a pleasure to open my inbox on Monday morning to see a number of emails from the other passengers on the boat from the general public who wanted to praise the manners and behaviour of them.
Next Friday children will be spending time with the teacher they will be having next year. The teachers will be as follows: Dolphins (ie Reception), Mrs Bannister; Year 1,Mrs Wilkins and Mrs Malyn; Year 2, Mrs Stanbury and Mrs Stephens; Year 3,Mrs McMorine and Mrs Evans; Year 4, Mrs Avery; Year 5, Miss Truepenny and Year 6, Mrs Mitchell and Mrs Evans.
For a parents guide to ensuring children’s use of Nintendo Switch is safe, please see here
Next Friday (4th July) is our School Summer Fete on the field 3.30-5pm. cakes, refreshments, bouncy castle, tombola, raffle and games. we hope to see as many of you as possible.
- Girls cricket @Bideford Cricket Club free turn up and play sessions information see here
- North Devon BioBlitz Friday 27th and Saturday 28th June is free to all. Please see here and here for information.
- School Fete after school on Friday 4th July
- Free family fun day at ARC (Atlantic Racquets Centre), Bideford, Saturday 12th July. See here or here for more information
- Football summer camps at Bideford Blues see here and Moreton Park, Bideford, see here
Wishing you all a great weekend.
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff
AROUND THE CLASSES
This week in Turtles and Dolphins we have been learning about the beach. We had a great discussion on Tuesday about all the things that we do and see at the beach. On Wednesday we looked at what beaches were like in the past. We looked at what people wore and compared this to what we wear. On Thursday we had a talk from Rey’s Dad who used to be a lifeguard. We explained the importance of his job and what we can do to keep ourselves safe at the beach.
Year 1 have had another brilliant week! We have started our new book ‘How to hide a lion at school’. We had a go at writing our own stories where we tried to hide an animal on a school trip, we had lots of great ideas! In Maths we have been learning our numbers to 100 and splitting them into tens and ones. It would be brilliant if everyone could practice counting to 100 at home. On Thursday we had a special visitor, a teacher from America who is friends with Mrs Wilkins. She came into school and told us all about her school in America and we thought about things that were the same and different. The children then had some very insightful questions.
Year 2 were very excited this week to discover that dragons had been spotted flying around Appledore. They had to write descriptions of the dragons and instructions for what to do if they are spotted. Their writing was really imaginative and entertaining. Well done, everyone! In Maths, they have been learning about pictograms and started their new learning about position and direction. In History, they became detectives and had to work together to find information from photographs and paintings about seaside holidays in the past. In Science, they were looking at bulbs and seeds with magnifying glasses and working in groups to say what they noticed each time. Their tennis lessons are continuing on Thursday afternoons and their skills are really improving.
Year 3 reported back to the rest of the class about the inspirational Christian they had been researching. We concluded that all these individuals had certainly contributed to making the world a better place and were inspired to do by their faith. Year 4 watched a film of a Humanist naming ceremony and then designed one of their own by choosing appropriate songs, music and readings. Year 5 had a visit from a Humanist speaker who told the children about her ”beliefs” which was followed by a very interesting discussion. Our guest was very impressed by the quality of the children’s thinking and the points they raised. Year 6 looked at the story of Job to further understand how faith can help when life gets difficult.
In Maths, Year 3 learnt all about angles. We compared right, obtuse, and acute angles, and then recapped lines of symmetry. We challenged ourselves to find vertical and horizontal lines of symmetry on a variety of 2D shapes. In English, we wrote our own instructions to explain how to mummify an ancient Egyptian. We used adverbs to sequence our instructions and imperative verbs in our commands. In Science, we explored the role of friction by testing a toy car on different surfaces. In Tag Rugby, we played some fun games to practise our teamwork and passing skills. We then put on the tags and had our first go at learning how to make a tackle and how to defend. On Thursday, we had a whole day dedicated to DT. We designed and made our own light-up cards using electrical circuits. In Values, we read a book about Wilma Rudolph and discussed why we found her inspirational.
In Year 4 this week, the children have started learning about shape in Maths, where we revised different 2D and 3D shapes and also different types of angles. In English, the children wrote the story of the Dragon Slayer where they will now move onto writing their own quest story which will be published next week in the corridor for you to see! In Computing, we are looking at programming again where we will use scratch to give commands to a sprite and we will compare these commands to the turtle playground we were using earlier in the year. In PE, the children are continuing having football training with a coach from Northam Lions and they have also been working hard at improving their swimming skills. In Values, we looked at different environmentalists and we wrote down how they were inspirational. The children also received their multiplication check results where they all did very well! Well done and thank you for your hard work at home with this – it certainly paid off.
Yet another busy week for Year 5. We started our new writing sequence based on the book ‘Where my wellies take me’ by Michael Morpurgo. We went on a short walking trail, following a map, from the school and down to the quay, back up to school. To start our writing we looked at writing some non-fiction facts based on landmarks we saw around Appledore (anchor, figure head from Maritime museum etc). In maths we have been converting units of measure; there was more of a challenge when we converted imperial measures to metric. We have continued to look at forces in science and looked at what evidence exists to authenticate the story of the Trojan Horse. Half the class went to a sustainability festival at West Buckland School which they found very interesting. A couple of tree saplings were given to the school and these have been planted, with Sarah’s help, in the school grounds.
Year 6 have managed to run through the play a few times this week – it still needs work, but it is coming together. They need their costumes in by the end of next week please. In Literacy, they have learnt more about the Tempest and continued to retell the story. In Science, they have done more about light and how we see colour. Geography has involved looking at islands and in History children have discovered what Pok-aTok is. Homework is to make sure the words for the play songs are learnt – they are available on spotify to practice at home, if you have it, and they are also available on googleclassroom. I still have some photos of when children were younger missing – please can you sne them in as soon as possible.
