News
Newsletter for the week ending 30th November 2018
please read on to find about Christmas festivities, including wearing those festive jumpers to school days, a parent survey and much, much more that has been happening in and around the school…
AROUND AND ABOUT THE VILLAGE
Westward Ho! Baptist Church Christmas family Fun (complete with craft making)
Free to all, Saturday 1st December, 4-6pm, hot food and free cafe.
Northam Care Trust Family Christmas Fair & Grotto
The Northam Care Trust will be hosting its annual Christmas Fair & Grotto on Saturday 8th December 2018 from 10.30am – 2.00pm at our Rose Hill Activity Centre on Heywood Road, Bideford, EX39 3PG.There will be many festive games to enjoy, Santa will be in his grotto, plus stalls to browse and Christmas crafts & gifts to purchase. Hot homemade soup and refreshments will be available to warm you through, as well as a bountiful cake stall.
Shebbear College entance and scholarship assessments are running from 21st – 25th January. To register call 01409 282001 or email admissions@shebbearcollege.co.uk. Full details at www.shebbearcollege.co.uk
Plastic Free Fayre
ReFuse & ReUse in association with Westward Ho! Business Association presents the UK’s first Plastic Free Festive Fayre!
The Fayre will open at 4:00pm with an eclectic selection of plastic free arts, gifts and crafts available to buy and is completely FREE to attend
North Devon Authors Book Signing
5-8pm, Sunday 16th December at the Pier House, Westward Ho! there is a book signing of local authors that includes children’s authors.
AROUND THE SCHOOL
Christmas Jumpers Every Friday in December
For £1 donation to PTFA funds your child is invited to wear their Christmas jumper every Friday in December (not £1 each time!)
Christmas Fair now the Christmas Jolly
This will be held on Thursday 13th December. It will enterprise stalls selling your children’s Xmas crafts, refreshments and a visit from Santa. PTFA will ask for your best bakes nearer the time. We are hoping Santa will be able to bring his sleigh this year and he will be able to meet children from 3pm onwards. The PTFA will be in touch about how to book a slot with Santa nearer the time.
Parent Survey
If you have a couple of minutes, pelase could you complete the (short!) survey so we can have your views on the school and what it does. It’s available by visiting https://goo.gl/forms/ILRrRqZrl64LR3P22
PE Kit
Please make sure that your child always has their PE kit in school.
Shoebox Appeal
Please remember to fill and return the box provided by the Rotary Club so they can be sent away to less fortunate children. We have chosen to support the Rotary Club shoebox appeal because there is no charge for the box and for sending them.
AROUND THE CLASSES
This week we have carried on with our Percy the Park Keeper mini topic. We have read two stories ‘After the Storm’ and ‘Percy’s bumpy ride.’ We have made bridges and tested the strength of them. We have retold the stories, acted them out and sequenced pictures of them. We also made some flying machines for Percy in The Jungle
This week has been very exciting, we read a newspaper article about Stone Giants appearing in Appledore. We found instructions for how to trap the Stone Giant and set a trap in the Jungle. On Thursday morning we found a letter from the stone giant apologising for eating our walls and promising that he wouldn’t come back. We will use the stone giant instructions to help write our own instructions. In Maths we have completed our shape learning and moved on to Place Value. We have represented numbers as numerals, words and pictures and we have used equipment to make teen numbers. Our Philosophy session used the book ‘Have You Filled a Bucket Today?’. We discussed the question ‘How can you fill other people’s buckets?’ and thought of lots of examples of how we can be kind to others.
Lundy Puffins have finished publishing their ‘How to wash a ……’ books and they are now on display on the writing wall outside the hall, so please take a look! In English, they have been looking at the vocabulary the author has used in our Amelia Earhart book and have been having a go at using some in their own writing. Next week, we will be writing a class biography about the author, Julia Donaldson, so if you are able to do any research over the weekend, that would be great! In Maths, they have been adding two 2-digit numbers by splitting them up, adding the tens and ones separately and then putting them together again. Christmas play rehearsals are underway and we were amazed by how well the children know their lines and have been singing so enthusiastically, so thank you for your help with this. Our philosophy session this week used the book ‘The Magic Paintbrush’ and the class discussed the question: Would you rather be poor like Shen, but have lots of friends; or rich like the Emperor but with no friends?
Seahunter had a fantastic start to the week, visiting the Maritime Museum and Victorian School Room in Appledore. Everyone was dressed up in Victorian costumes, with pinafores for the girls and waistcoats with collars for the boys. When they went into the school room, the first difference they found was that they had to sit in rows and be silent. After that, there were many differences with school life today that made the children quite grateful to be learning in 2018! Max and Scarlett did a great job acting out being given the cane for being left handed! The visit to the museum helped the children to find out how we present artefacts from the past so that they can plan and set up their own museum. As well as looking at the displays and having a play with some replica Victorian toys, they also got to meet the archivists who were busy recording pictures and objects donated to the museum. They got to have a look in the archive rooms and see how they are organised, which was exciting as visitors aren’t usually allowed in. It was a brilliant morning and we all learnt a lot.
This week in Maths, HMS Echo have started to learn multiplication and division skills. We have learnt how to multiply and divide by 10, 100 and 1000. In Literacy, we have looked at how information books are presented and looked at writing our own contents page and fact files for super heroes in the same style. In Computing, the class have learnt how to make a bar graph where they presented data about the amount of teeth in their mouths! In Philosophy, we read The Little Bear’s Little Boat, focusing on our value of kindness. For Art, we have started to batik snowflakes for textiles.
This week we have been making the finishing touches to our Viking sagas this includes painting our characters picture and sewing down the middle of our writing and some black paper to make it look old. In maths we have been looking at factors and multiples such as: 2 and 5 and a factor of ten and ten is the multiple. In art/topic we have created sections of the beaux tapestry and have started sewing around the outlines of the main things in our picture. We have some water proof trousers in the class-room if they are yours they need claiming please. Next week and for all the Fridays in December you are able to wear a Christmas jumper as long as you bring in a pound. If you have any SOE3s for bike-ability/Y6 residential pleas bring them in.
This week, we have been listening to A Christmas Carol and retelling the story in our own words. Because we have an upcoming Christmas play, our class are rehearsing our lines and learning the many songs. On Tuesday, we went down to the beach and learned about seaweed with someone from the Marine Conservation Society. In maths, we’re doing SATS revision papers to make sure that we know what to expect. Also, we did a spelling, grammar and punctuation test. On Fridays, we can stay in and watch a film and eat our lunch in the classroom. We are excited about watching the film and having fish and chips tonight. Reporters: I & L
Have a lovely weekend
From Jeremy Cooper and all the staff and children
