News
Newsletter for week ending Friday 11th September
Welcome back everybody and a warm welcome also to those of you new to Appledore School. Having the children fill the school again has been brilliant and their response to the required changes is a credit to them and a credit to how you have prepared them for their return. Thank you.
Please do set a reminder to read our end of week newsletter, because you will find out what has been happening in your child’s class over the week and much more. So with that in mind, please read on…
Have a lovely weekend everybody and we look forward to seeing you all next week.
From Jeremy Cooper and all the staff and children
…and to staggered drop off and collection times. Of all the changes we are required to make, they are probably the change that has the biggest impact on you and us. We are required to do so and thank you for your support, no matter how much of a headache they may be causing you. We are continually reviewing arrangements and where possible making changes that hopefully improve the situation. Please do give us feedback and we will listen to try to accomodate, although it isn’t always possible and for that I can only apologise. Please refrain from bringing your dog on to school premises.
As you are aware we are operating ‘bubbles’ in the school to reduce the frequency of interaction between children. Please can I ask that you maintain awareness of social distancing when travelling to and from school by keeping your children close to you and stopping them from interacting with children out side of their year group. Additonally, please maintain a safe distance from other adults, even if they are parents of children within your bubble.
Regarding infection control measures, the children are cleaning their hands at various times and I am aware that some of you have asked about the use of sanitiser. we have sought clarrification from Devon County Council Health and Safety and they have confimed that washing with soap or using hand sanitiser are euqally acceptable. As part of the enhanced cleaning routines the whole school is ‘fogged’ by an industrial cleaning company on a mid week evening as an additional precaution.
If you child is displaying symptoms of COVID-19, please refer to page 4 of our guidance document on what to do by clicking here and clicking here for advice on how to book a test.
This week children and staff have started using our new Google platform and over time this will become integral to how we orgnise and deliver learning.
I know it’s only September, but I must mention Christmas because we will be producing Christmas cards with your child’s artwork in-house so please don’t buy any from any other outlets!
Art club will return arter half term and forest school club will be resuming shortly. Appledore Book festival starts next week and a list of events can be found on their website and for details of Michael Morpurgo’s event click here
Around the Classes
Welcome back all Turtles abd Dolphins! This week we have been exploring our environments both indoors and outdoors and getting to know our new friends. We have talked about what we did in the holidays and painted pictures of them. We have also weeded our gardens and planted broad beans. We have made up our Golden Rules to follow and talked about how we felt about coming to school and how we feel about school now
This week I have had the greatest pleasure of getting to know the children in Year 1. We have read lots of stories and created our own miniature people using pipe cleaners. Some children have even started to take their tiny people on big adventures around the classroom. We will be using this imaginative play to inspire our writing in the following weeks. If the children would like to create any accessories for their minuscule people over the weekend, this would help facilitate their play further. Finally, I have been really impressed with the way in which the children have settled back into the school routine. They have displayed really resilient ‘can do’ attitudes which have been a joy witness.
Welcome back Lundy Puffins (Year 2)! We are very pleased to have a full class again and we have been very impressed by how they are settling into their new classroom and getting used to new routines. This week they have spent time thinking about how they want the classroom to be by making up some classroom rules. They looked at a picture of a chaotic classroom and thought about what they could do to make it better. After reading ‘My favourite game’ from the Book of Hopes, they have made miniature people which they will be using for some writing over the next few weeks. They had a go at making some clothes and props for their miniature people and next week will be taking them on an adventure and writing about it. The link to the Book of Hopes is here if you would like to explore the book at home: https://literacytrust.org.uk/family-zone/9-12/book-hopes/ They have spent a morning in the Art Studio learning about colour mixing and have created some brilliant oil pastel portraits for the classroom wall.
Year 3 have settled back in to school brilliantly this week. They have accepted and adapted to the differences to the room and routines needed to keep them safe and have been encouraging each other. It has been lovely to see how pleased they are to see one another and interact as a group. They have spent time making class promises to keep our classroom a safe and happy place, written stories, painted pictures of our class ship (Seahunter) and found out how their amazing brains work. A busy start to the term! We are really looking forward to a great year together.
HMS Echo have started the week with such a positive attitude, and have become quickly accustomed to the new routines and life in Year 4! The children have been listening to stories about hope from ‘The Book of Hopes’ and have been thinking about what this means. We have been focusing on the importance of being responsible and what our own and others responsibilities are within the school. We have begun some Maths work on ‘Place Value’ and have also been practising our times tables in different ways. The class enjoyed their first session on the new Chrome books where they explored how to use ‘Docs’.
It has been lovely to welcome Y5 back to school this week; they are gradually becoming more used to the routine and we have started work on a few topics. In English, we have been discovering stories from ‘The Little Book of Hope’ in order to work towards creating our own stories. In Science, we have begun thinking about materials and their properties and in maths we are going back over place value and extending knowledge to include numbers up to one million. Our main topic for this half term will be Plastics linked to the Eco topic. We look forward to sharing this with you at some point.
Year 6 have returned to school with enthusiasm and a positive attitude to their learning. We now have House Captains, Head boy and girl, and Deputy Head boy and girl. Many have taken on the role of being responsible for looking after the school guinea-pigs and hopefully more roles will happen as we progress through the year. We have started our new topic on climate change and beginning to think about the different forms of pollution. We have been writing poems and stories about our hopes for the future, both near and distant, by reading texts from the e-book, The Book of Hopes. In numeracy we have started the unit on place value, looking at numbers up to ten million. All have been excited about using the new chrome books and learning ways in which they can record their work. I will be sending home a letter next week with the new Y6 residential plans.
