News
Newsletter for the week ending 4th November
Please read on to find out about Operation Christmas Child and waht has been happening around the classes…
Please remember to sign-up to the Google Calendar on our website (instructions for how to are on the website too) or visit it every once in a while, because dates are being confirmed. Christmas nativity and service dates are now confirmed for Foundation Stage, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2.
If there is any outstanding NSPCC sponsorship money, please bring it to school on Monday.
Please remember to vote for us at Tesco so we can win money to develop our outdoor area for our youngest children. Votes can be cast in any North Devon Tesco.
Operation Christmas Child
This year we have decided to take part in ‘Operation Christmas Child’. The website tells us that it is now the UK’s largest children’s Christmas appeal and has been running since 1990. The idea is to wrap and pack shoeboxes with a selection of gifts. The shoeboxes are then sent overseas, where local churches distribute them to children as an unconditional gift.
On our school website you will find a document that gives ideas for the sort of gifts that can be included in the shoe boxes, as well as the items that are not suitable. This also includes information on how to wrap your shoeboxes.
As a family, or even a number of families working together, we would love you to pack a shoebox and bring it in to school by Monday 14th November. Each box needs a transportation donation of £3. This can either be brought in along with the box, or paid online, on the Operation Christmas Child website. Paying online allows you to print a barcode that can be placed in the shoebox. This enables the box to be tracked and you will receive an email to let you know where your shoebox ended up.
Nearly new children’s and baby sale in aid of North Devon Hospice.
Clothes, toys, books, furniture and equipment ranging from birth to 11. A great chance to shop pre-Christmas for bargains in great condition whilst supporting our local hospice.Kingsley School Sports Hall, Northdown Road Bideford from 1pm until 3pm on Sunday 13 November.£1 per person entry or £4 for an early bird entry ticket (from 12:30pm you have the opportunity to be amongst the first to select the bargains. Limited to 30 buyers only). Refreshments also available and there will be the usual raffle.
Art News
If you haven’t caught it already the Beaford Arts ‘New Perspectives’ exhibition is on at the Goodwin Gallery at Petroc, Barnstaple until Saturday 12th November. The exhibition features a photograph of Tom and Fluffy going to buy croissants from John’s in Appledore by Tom’s Mum, Dr Eleanor Gordon. The exhibition pairs fifty images of North Devon from the Beaford archives with fifty current images of the same place that have been submitted by the public. Well done to all those who submitted photographs for flying the Appledore Arts flag!
Around the Classes
FSU have celebrated bonfire this week. We found out a little about Guy Fawkes and what part he played in during bonfire night, we had some interesting ideas as to who he was initially! We have used lots of different media to create fireworks and bonfires and the children have loved getting messy! We made sparklers (both edible and non edible ones) and rockets and we are going to test out our rockets to see if they fly through the sky next week. We have talked about the firework code and we are very much looking forward to our bonfire party later on this evening. See you all at 5:45pm
We have had a great first week back. We started the week by writing a recount of our half term holiday. We then got into the spirit of Bonfire Night by writing firework shape poems. We worked together to make a word bank to describe fireworks. Then selected the best words to use in our poems. We also used paint splattering techniques to make fire work pictures. In Maths we have been looking at 2D and 3D shapes. We have looked at the properties of shapes and discussed the similarities and differences between them. We have also had a go at making our own 3D shapes. And although it is only November we have started learning the songs for our Christmas Nativity already!
In Maths this week, Lundy Puffins have been looking at subtraction. They have demonstrated, using equipment, how to ubtract multiples of 10. In English, they have continued to read the story ‘Augustus and his smile’ and looked at the words the author had used. They identified nouns, adjectives and verbs in the sentences and wrote their own sentences. In computing, they had to program the floor robots to follow a course. They have also written firework poems for the house poetry competition. Although only November, we have begun to learn the words for the songs in our Christmas play
Seahunter have had a great week, particularly in English and topic. In English, Miss Goodman has started teaching a new sequence of work based on Paddington Went to Town. The children loved watching a clip from the Paddington film and writing about it as well as writing character profiles and letters from Paddington. They have worked really hard and we look forward to reading their own Paddington stories in two weeks’ time! In their topic work, they looked at a mystery artefact and investigated it through observation and questioning. They discovered it was Guy Fawkes lantern and were then able to find out more. The answers had been discovered through diaries, records and paintings. Finally, they created some amazing artwork using charcoal to draw the lantern and labelled it with some of the facts they had discovered. They look fabulous!
This week, Year 4 have been writing their own poems to go with the piece of art that they chose. In maths, they have started work on multiplication, by finding factors and ‘tricks’ for multiplying by 4 and 8. We have taken advantage of the good weather, by developing our tennis skills learning to control the ball and we only managed to lose 3 out of 30
The week has flown by in Year 5, we have been reading Drake’s Drummer Boy in Literacy (A Tudor Sea Story). We have been seeing how the author uses imagery to engage the reader. In maths, it has been calculating with subtraction and science has involved finding the best material for a conductor to have the brightest floodlights. Please remember residential deposits for the trip next year if you haven’t already done so.
In English Year 6 are reading the Shakespeare play, Macbeth. So far we have read about the battle led by Macbeth and Banquo and their meeting with the three weird sisters. In numeracy we have started work on algebra. We had a workshop with the NSPCC and learnt about staying safe and whom to seek support from. In science we have been looking at how animals adapt for the winter months and discovering how Mary Annings was a famous fossil collector. Jack and Lizzie went to Instow School to take part in an anti-bullying workshop. Reporter: William
Have a great weekend
Best wishes,
Jeremy Cooper and all of the staff
