News
Newsletter for the week ending Friday 14th July
As one parent quite rightly pointed out to me this week, ‘…that’ll learn you for saying manning the school fair bouncy castle for two hours is more stressful than any Ofsted inspection’ I can now confirm it to be true, because Ofsted visited us Tuesday and Wednesday! Whilst we can not share the actual outcome just yet (due to Ofsted’s internal validation system required for every inspection), what we can share is that we are very happy with the outcome that reflects all the hard work of the staff and children. As soon as the report is officially available we will share it with you – likely to be in September. Thank you to those who completed the survey and/or spoke to the inspectors.
Well done to all year 6 pupils and all the staff across the whole school who have taught them for their end of Key Stage 2 SATs results. We received them on Tuesday and they are the best results the school has ever received and the best I have seen in over twenty years of teaching.
Two very funny and two well acted performances of I’m an 11 Year Old Get Me Out of Here by year 6 to the whole school and their parents. Fabulous crowd participation and I’ve never seen grown men so terrified as they were dragged onto the stage by the pupils to take part in ‘trials’!
Today many children are participating in our school site Bioblitz. This entails identifying the range of biodiversity on our site so we can track over time how it is changing as a result of what we are doing in our various eco activities within our school grounds. The pond continues to take shape with it now extended and fully lined and the decking is nearly complete. Big thanks to Lucy, Jon, Alex, year 6 and everyone else involved.
Dadfest, 22-24th September, is a dads and children only weekend with numerous activities included (eg bush craft, archery, fishing, circus skills and much more). For more information click here and for information about the Appledore Library summer reading challenge please click here.
To avoid disappointment, it is very important that current year 5 parents understand the application process for secondary schools and you an explanation is available by clicking here. The window for applying opens at the start of September and closes at the end of October.
As summer approaches, please click here for some useful online safety advice to show your children.
Wishing you all a super weekend
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff
AROUND THE CLASSES
This week in Turtles and Dolphins we have continued learning about The Three Little Pigs. We have been looking at the materials that the houses were built from and how strong they were. We made a list of all the different materials that we know and what we think they might feel like. Then we went around the classroom to find objects made from that material. On Wednesday we went to The Jungle. We talked about the terms natural and man-made materials and then we went on a hunt for some natural and man-made materials. We talked about how we know that those materials are natural or man made.
In year 1 this week we have carried on with our story How to Hide a Lion at School and thought about how we could change it. We decided to change the animal in our story and where they went on a school trip, then we made a story map. In Maths we have started Money and we have been so impressed with how lots of the children could use the addition work we’ve done to add coins together! We made our own shop where the children could buy things and had amounts which the children needed to make with coins, with the challenge of making it in two different ways! In topic we recapped the features of a castle that we know and then designed our own junk model castle which we will be making next week. We had a look at some example materials and thought hard about what we could use for each feature of the castle, then labelled it on our design!
Year 2 have practised multiplying and dividing by 3 in Maths and solving word problems. In English, they have been writing sentences in the past tense using the book ‘Previously’. For their History learning they have talked about how seaside holidays have changed over the past 100 years. They are enjoying their computing learning at the moment as they are using Scratch to learn how to code. Some children said they have carried this learning on at home, so well done. They have spent their last session in the Art Studio for Year 2 and made insect seed markers for the sunflowers they planted.
Year 3 have had a wonderful week! We began learning about shape in maths and started by learning about position and direction. We also learnt lots of new vocabulary including right angle, obtuse angle and acute angle and compared the size of different angles. In English, we began reading ‘Dare to Care for a Pet Dragon’ and we wrote our own noun phrases using lots of exciting adjectives to describe the dragon. In history, we explored what everyday life was like for people living in ancient Egypt using pictures of primary sources and then wrote a diary entry as either a wealthy Egyptian or a lower class Egyptian. In values, to carry on our learning on inspiration, we did our own research on some inspirational children and thought about the qualities that make them inspirational.
In HMS Echo (year 4) this week, the children have begun to plan their very own quest story in preparation for writing one next week – they have some really fabulous ideas! In Maths, we have started a new unit looking at position and direction, such as coordinates on a graph, plotting coordinates and translating shapes. In Science, we finally made our string telephones and the children loved them! We are looking at volume next and how vibrations change for louder and quieter sounds. In PE, we are continuing developing our football skills, such as using different parts of the foot to change direction. The children on Friday are also taking part in a range of ‘bioblitz’ activities as part of outdoor learning too!
Year 5 have had a really busy week completing our end of term units of work and assessments. We have added information about the old Appledore railway line to our ‘Where my wellies take me’ books and finished the reading assessments. In maths we have completed our unit on decimals and this term’s assessments. Our science was interesting this week when we looked at how our understanding of the human body has changed over time. We now know what a tourniquet is used for, why trephining was used and why advances have been made with the use if xray and MRI machines. We know about the work of Galen and Vesalius. The Arts Award is almost at a completion. Thank you so much for coming into school on Wednesday afternoon to look at some of the work undertaken to complete this project. Your feedback was greatly appreciated. The class are looking forward to the biosphere work in school today.
In Maths, Year 6 have been investigating and working on their recording of their thinking and explaining their findings – not always easy. In Literacy, they have been exploring poetry and writing their own ‘Magic Box’ poems – some of their ideas were so creative. They enjoyed a great session of sailing on Wednesday thanks to the Royal North Devon Yacht Club and were so lucky with the weather. Year 6 have enjoyed performing their play to the school and parents and hope that you all enjoyed it. Please send your child with a bag to take things home next week as sadly, it is their last week and there is a lot of sorting to be done. Parents are invited to join us for the year 6 Leavers Assembly on Friday 21st at 2pm so that we can say our goodbyes but as we have some classes watching this assembly, we try to limit it to 2 seats per child. Don’t forget the Wake Park on Tuesday 18th – further details will be sent in a message.
