News
Newsletter for the week ending Friday 2nd October
Our PTA is vital for raising funds for all children at Appledore School and have paid for things they otherwise would not have benefitted from. Please see here for the details of an invitation to their next meeting when they will be planning the year ahead. They can not do it without you, so please try and give them some of your time so they can continue their important work.
Please be aware that there will be road works close to the school on 6th, 7th and 8th October that are very likely to affect your journey time and parking. We have recently emailed all families about an arrangement we have come to with Skern Lodge whereby they are opening-up a field for you to park in and then opening the gate at the top of the field for you to exit it at ‘Lookout’. Please see here for a map showing where this parking is available and the walking route to school. Additionally, please remember that Kingsley Avenue is a private road and parking is not permitted.
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:
-
- 8th October, 2pm, Key Stage 2 (years 3-6) Harvest Festival at St Mary’s Church, Appledore – we hope to see you there!
- For details of open mornings and evenings at Great Torrington school for current year 6 pupils see here
- For information on Kingsley School open days for entry into year 7 see here
- Park School opening morning and evening are next week see here
- 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
Wishing you all a good weekend
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff
AROUND THE CLASSES
This week in Turtles and Dolphins we have been talking about our bedtime routines. We talked about how our routines might be slightly different but essentially we all do the same thing. We talked about how important sleep is. We had great fun talking about what our pyjamas look like and then we had a go at designing a new pair. We also talked about how important cleaning our teeth is and we watched a short video about visiting the dentist. We drew our mouths and cut out white paper to create teeth.
This week in Sea Lions (Year 1) we have been learning all about amazing animals and their classification groups. We learnt about what makes each group special and discussed what our own favourite animals are. We were also amazed to find that a naughty bus had invaded our classroom and had been up to no good! We wrote down all the things he had been up to, he even ate Mr Cooper’s lunch! We have been trying really hard with our writing and were so excited to receive our writing targets to work towards. In maths, we have been exploring numbers and looking at how different numbers can be made. We really enjoyed exploring numbers and making them practically in lots of different ways.
Year Two have been making new adventures for Traction Man and writing about them in English. They tried hard to use all the skills they have been learning including improving their handwriting. In Maths they have been comparing and ordering numbers and using the language less than and greater than. They have also been using number lines and estimating where numbers would go. In their Science work, they have been on a walk around the school grounds to look at different habitats. They found and identified different types of leaves and used a spotter sheet to find different animals. In Geography, they have been learning about the UK and identifying the different countries. Next Wednesday, we will be completing some more Science learning outdoors, so if the weather is wet a pair of wellies would be useful to have in school.
We are really excited to present our Harvest festival next week. I overheard one year 6 child comment that he couldn’t wait for the parents to see it. Any help with last minute learning of song words would be greatly appreciated and any costumes that some children require should be sent into school early next week in a named bag. The service will begin at 2.00pm on Thursday 8th October at St. Mary’s Church. The first pews will be reserved for the children. Once it has finished we will send one class at a time to collect their bags. You are then free to collect your child. Please inform the class teacher that you are taking your child before you leave. Any children who do not have someone watching will return to school for the normal finish time. We hope you enjoy the service . The children have worked very hard and had a lot of fun pulling it together.
This week Year 3 have been busy looking at add inverted commas to their writing to show character dialogue. All have planned a new story which they will publish next week for display in the main building. We have continued with our maths work on addition and subtraction, crossing both the tens and hundreds boundaries. We used the chromebooks to research information about the rainforest for our fact posters in preparation for our upcoming trip to the Eden Project.
This week in Year 4 we have been writing our ‘independent write’ based on Meerkat Mail in English which has allowed us to get our creative ideas flowing. In Maths, we have been rounding to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000. This has relied lots of our prior learning around numbers lines, estimating numbers and sequencing numbers. In Geography, we explored sustainability on a local and global scale – this includes the solar cooker in Nepal and scrapes to support lapwing nesting in Exminster. In reading, we have explored ways that show us how malicious English witches can be – including turning children into pheasants, hot dogs and slugs! We are enjoying our new spelling programme and have been revising the ‘air’ sound. In Science, we have completed an experiment looking at melting and the temperatures that different items of food melt at (cheese and chocolate in a Science lesson is always good fun). We have enjoyed our second art lesson with Mrs Cooper and have been crafting some exciting Christmas items. In PE, we learnt to make circles with our body in dance and put that to music and continued our cricket session. In values, we explored how we would manage a scenario where we could practise our skills of being an ‘upstander’ (when safe to do so).
In literacy, Year 5 have been learning about similes and metaphors and have been using these to make our writing more descriptive and imaginative. The children have come up with some lovely examples! In maths, we have been focusing on place value and developing our understanding of the value of digits in numbers. In our science lesson week, we investigated the hardness of different materials and thought about why it is important to choose the right material for different purposes. In geography, we have been learning how to use four- and six-figure grid references to locate places accurately on a map. Finally, in PE, we continued developing our handball skills and had some mini matches.
Year 6 have had a busy week placing numbers on a number line to one million and rounding numbers in their maths unit on Place Value. In Literacy, they are working on using colons and semi-colons to improve their sentence construction. 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 with mini games. They have also had time in the art studio working on drawing skills, completing a detailed pen drawing of a shoe. We enjoyed listening to the author JP Rose talking about her book Birdie, set in Yorkshire.
