A huge thank you for your support of me running the Bideford 10k last Sunday. Your generosity raised a staggering £1,080 (+ £240 gift aid)!  This money will fund the equipment and resources for our new Design and Technology curriculum.

The Government publishes helpful; advice regarding infectious diseases that can be found here. There have been a few cases of impetigo, so please see the relevant section on the link if it applies to your child.

If there is something on your mind about family life, help is available from Action for Children in Bideford. For more information please click here

The field is doing well and we continue to be optimistic that Sports Day will go ahead on Tuesday 21st May.  Things can change, as can the running of the day on the day, so please keep an eye out for texts and emails from us about it. Current weather forecast shows dry in the morning and likelihood of rain in the afternoon, so we should at least be able to complete the morning races. Please be aware, and inform other family members attending, the school gate will close at 9.30am, be open 11.45am-12,15pm and reopen again when Sports Day finishes. Anyone arriving when the gate is closed are likely to have a very long wait at our front door and might not get in, because staff will be supervising the children at Sports Day. Please click here for Sports Day information.

ARC (Atlantic Racquet Centre, Bideford) come to school each week during the summer term to teach the children tennis. They are very good and have asked us to publicise their popular Multi-Sport Holiday Camp, operating this coming half term holiday, which is a fun-filled 4-day activity week that’s overflowing with great games, serious skills, terrific teamwork, and continuous competition!  For more information and too book please click here

Wishing you all a happy (and hopefully dry!) weekend

From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff

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Finally, the children got to use the field this week and it has been lovely to see their joy now the wait is over! We will monitor it’s condition and suitability for us to proceed with sports day on Tuesday 21st May, so fingers crossed! Information regarding the day has been emailed to your priority contact and can also be found by clicking here.

The good weather ensured two year group trips to Northam Burrows went ahead this week for environmental and curriculum activities. See Around the Classes section below for more information…

There are still a few places left for the science party at Appledore Baptist Church on Saturday 18th May. For more information, please click here

Provided there is sufficient demand to make it viable, we are hoping to run an afterschool sports and fitness club on a Wednesday. Further information and how to express interest has been sent to your priority contact and is also available by clicking here

Please click here for our latest attendance newsletter.

Apologies that a wrong date was given in last week’s newsletter for the Picnic in the Park. The correct date is 1st June.

And finally, thank you to all of you who have sponsored me for running the Bideford 10k this weekend. The money raised will pay for tools and equipment for our new design and technology curriculum. I’m close to my hoped target of £1000, so any final contributions are very welcome by clicking here.

Wishing you all a super, sunny (hopefully!) weekend

From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff (more…)

Sports Day Arrangements 2024

We are looking forward to Sports Day on Tuesday 21st May. These are the plans for the day and please be aware changes may be required before the day or during the day in response to unforeseen circumstances.

School will open at the normal time and parents can take their places on the field once their child has gone into their classroom.

Please be aware, and inform other family members attending, the school gate will close at 9.30am, be open 11.45am-12,15pm and reopen again when Sports Day finishes. Anyone arriving when the gate is closed are likely to have a very long wait at our front door, and perhaps not be able to get in, because staff will be supervising the children at Sports Day.

9.30am -11.30am: races for children in Years 1-6 will take place and parents and carers of children in these year groups are very welcome to attend. Please sit behind the roped off area. After these races all children will then go back to class for a short period of time.

12pm-12.45pm: Parents and carers are invited to stay to picnic with their children from reception and years 1-6 on the field. Children in years 1&2 can be collected from their classrooms, children in Reception from the Foundation Stage Unit and children in years 3-6 will come out to meet their parents.

Please stay on the field and do not enter the wooded area.

Children in Reception and years 1&2 that do not have parents attending will eat a school dinner in the hall as per usual. Children in years 3-6 who do not have parents attending will eat their packed lunch on the playground.

12.45pm: the children are called back to class for the register

1.15pm the activities for all children from Reception to year 6 will start. Children will be placed into house teams and will take part in a number of different activities. You are welcome to move around with your child’s team and support them in their activities.

Please can children in years 1-6 come to school wearing their PE kit. If possible they can wear a t-shirt in the colour of their house instead of their usual white PE shirt. Children in Reception to wear a house colour t-shirt if possible (please see notice board outside FSU for which house/colour) and trainers.

Please ensure your child has a sun hat, named water bottle and applied sunscreen that lasts for the day.

When the afternoon activities have finished (no later than 2.30pm) all children will return to their classroom. Parents and carers can collect their children soon after as per usual arrangements. Older children who normally walk home will not be released from school until the usual end of day time of 3.30pm

Our intention (and hope) is for Sports Day to be held on 21st May. If it is possible on this date, the likely running of the day will be as follows: races for years 1-6 will happen in the morning from 9.30am; parents and carers of children in year 1-6 are invited to picnic on the field with their children 12-1pm and afternoon activities for children from Reception to year 6 will start at 1.15pm. FOAS (friends of Appledore School) will be selling bacon sandwiches, cream teas and other food and drink on the day. We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible. All of this, of course, is dependent on the weather and the condition of our field. At present, the slightest rain waterlogs the field and currently it is not draining enough for us to be able to use the field. So whilst it might not be raining ate the time, or even recently, the field can be unusable. We will notify you with as much notice as possible should we have to postpone – hopefully we won’t have to – and will look for an alternative date.

Keeping with the sporting theme, my running of the Bideford 10k to raise money for the school looms frighteningly near (Sunday 12th May!) Thank you everybody who has sponsored so far and the money will fund what we need for the improvements we are making to our Design & Technology curriculum. The target is £1000 and we’re nearly there. If you want to support who can do by clicking here 

Devon Country Council has set aside money to support families on low incomes with food and utility costs through a new round of the Household Support Fund, being administered by Early Help. The scheme runs until 30th September 2024. Funds are limited, so when the allocation is used up, they will close for applications. Schools can apply on behalf of the families they are representing  (the Council do not accept applications direct from families) and if you would like more information please email admin@appledoreprimary.co.uk and mark it for the attention of Mrs Liz Philips.

Staff have received safeguarding training on CPV (Children on Parent Violence) and if you want to understand CPV more and how to manage it please click here

Interested in gaining free qualifications that could lead to a job in a school or other settings, such as teaching assistants, midday supervisors and youth workers to name but a few? If so, free courses fully funded by the ESFA (Education Skills Funding Agency) in levels 1, 2 & 3 are available. For more information, please click here

Diary dates:

• Sports Day Tuesday 21st May
• FOAS (Friends of Appledore School & Appledore Pirates) Picnic in the Park 1st June (details to follow)
• Summer Fair Friday 5th July 3.30pm-5pm
• Appledore Carnival 11th August

Don’t forget it’s a bank holiday, so call will be closed on Monday and we look forward to welcoming you all back on Tuesday

From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff (more…)

Another of the Covid shackles has been cast aside with the resumption of our weekly visits to a local dementia care home and also us receiving visitors each week from Northam Care Trust, both providing such mutual benefit for our children and the residents and clients of these organisations.

For details of a ‘Crazy Science Praise Part’ being held at the Baptist Church at 4pm on Saturday 18th May, please click here for more information.

This week staff have received safeguarding training on County Lines. For more information on this issue that does affect North Devon and involves primary age children, please click here for a parents guide.

Wishing you all a super weekend

From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff (more…)

Welcome back and a warm welcome to our new families who have joined us this term and to new staff too. We hope you all had a good Easter break.

For information about the Northam May Fair medieval and Viking fancy dress and hat competition on Saturday 4th May 2024 and an application form please click here and here

Diary Dates:

• Sports Day Tuesday 21st May – more details to follow

Wishing you all a very happy weekend

From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff (more…)

Whilst a short week, it’s been a busy week once again with much to read in Around the Classes later in this post. the term finished with a wonderful performance by our choir.

The Spring Disco last Friday was a success and raised £499.55p. Thank you to FOAS (Friends of Appledore School) for organising and DJing this and for all the children who were impeccably behaved. Message from the committee: If you would like to be involved with FOAS please do contact one of the committee or email friendsofappledoreschool@outlook.com We are also open to suggestions for fundraising so please do let us know if you have any ideas.

Mr Cooper’s training for the Bideford 10k in May to raise money for the school is progressing.  Notice the absence of comment as to how it is progressing! If you were intending to sponsor and haven’t got round to it yet, the link is here. Obviously, there’s no obligation at all to support. Current total including gift aid is just short of £500!

Diary Dates:

• Sports Day Tuesday 21st May – more details to follow

Have a lovely Easter weekend and break

From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff (more…)

Newsflash – Iris has won the Rotary Club district (ie Devon & Cornwall) photography competition and will go through to the national competition. Iris entered our House photography completion and we forwarded it to the Rotary one. Well done Iris and please click here to see her photo.

Thank you to all of you who have supported my daft running idea. If you don’t know what I’m talking about please click here. Obviously, there’s no obligation at all to support it but if you can in any way it’s very much appreciated.

We are soon to install CCTV covering our school entrance and car park and CCTV use requires a policy. The draft policy is available here and if you have any comments on the policy please submit them to us before Thursday 28th March.

Diary Dates:

• Spring Disco Friday 22nd March. 5pm Reception – Y2, Y3-Y6 6.30pm-7.30pm. Tickets £3 and on sale on the door
• Sports Day Tuesday 21st May – more details to follow

Have a super weekend

From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff

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Fancy watching something a bit different from football? Click here for professional basketball matches in Plymouth during Easter.  But not forgetting football, here and here are details of Easter football activities run at Pilton School by Chivenor Soccer School and here for more local ones run at Kingsley School.  Please click here to book multi-sport and art Easter course for children aged 5-14. These activities are either £15 a day or free if you are on benefit-related free school meals. Use the discount code EASTHAF24 to redeem the course for free. A free hot lunch is also included.

All children have spent time with visitors from RNLI recently learning about water safety and their ‘Water Safety Passport’ is here.

Did you know that if your child’s attendance drops to 90% this equals over 100 missed lessons! For more information please click here for our monthly attendance letter.  Obviously, children get ill from time to time and if they are too unwell to attend school they should stay home, but if you are unsure please call us to help make your decision. Often children ‘pick-up’ as the day progresses and we call if we feel a child is presenting as too unwell. Useful NHS advice is available here

Do you have concerns about your child’s speech and language development with them struggling with talking and understanding words? If so, please click here for advice and and advice line to contact a speech and language therapist.

Diary Dates:

• Spring Disco, Friday 22nd March. 5pm Reception – Y2, Y3-Y6 6.30pm-7.30pm. Tickets £3 and on sale by Friends of Appledore School on the playground after school
• Sports Day Tuesday 21st May – more details to follow

Have a good weekend

From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff (more…)

Thank you for making World Book Day such fun and supporting the children with their outfits. Staff had fun too reading stories to different classes.

This week we resumed our weekly visits to care homes following a Covid enforced break. A huge thank you to Charlie, Alice, Tejah, Peyton, Leon and Dasha for being so kind during the visit and making the residents feel so valued and special.

Diary Dates:

• Class photos Tuesday 12th March
• Spring Disco, Friday 22nd March, after school and more details to follow
• Sports Day Tuesday 21st May – more details to follow

Have a good weekend

From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff (more…)

A good week, despite the weather doing its best to change that! Plenty going on in and outside of classes this week, so please read Around the Classes section further on in this post.

Diary Dates:

• World Book Day 7th March. Children in Dolphins, Yr1 & Yr2 can come to school dressed in pyjamas ready for a bedtime story. Children in Yrs 3-6 can choose whether they wear pyjamas or come dressed as a character from a book they have read. There will also be a book sale in the Bay on the day. Books will cost 20p and the money will go towards new books.
• Spring Disco, Friday 22nd March, after school and more details to follow
• Sports Day Tuesday 21st May – more details to follow

Have a good weekend

From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff (more…)

Another packed week of learning that has included for the children: basic first aid training for asthma attacks; online reputation and online information sharing; a trip to China; bird’s eye view mapping using Google Earth; nutrition; everyday materials; inspirational historical women; earthquakes; keeping healthy; lino printing; biekability; outdoor learning and much,, much more. Please read on to our Around the Classes section to find out what each class has been up to…

Thank you to all of the pancake poem entrants. A difficult choice, but the judges decided on Amelia for first place, Bonnie second, Amber third and Iris fourth. Winning poem was:

Pancake Love

I love pancakes with syrup

I love pancakes with jam

I love pancakes with sausages

I love pancakes with ham

I love pancakes in the morning

I love pancakes at night

Please give me pancakes,

So I can take a big… BITE!

For more information on football trials for JPL North Devon Regional Talent Centre (working with Exeter City FC)boys and girls from under 7s upwards on 23rd February (boys) and 1st March (girls) please click here and here.

Diary Dates:

• Tuesday 27th February is Kingsley School Senior School open morning.  A number of scholarship opportunities are available and for more information please click here
• World Book Day 7th March. Children in Dolphins, Yr1 & Yr2 can come to school dressed in pyjamas ready for a bedtime story. Children in Yrs 3-6 can choose whether they wear pyjamas or come dressed as a character from a book they have read. There will also be a book sale in the Bay on the day. Books will cost 20p and the money will go towards new books.
• Sports Day Tuesday 21st May – more details to follow

Have a super weekend

From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff (more…)

Hi everybody. This is the last newsletter for the half term and amazingly we are now half way through the year!  Such a busy week and so much to tell you about – not least a visit to some classes from paramedics teaching children first aid. Please read the full post to find out what has been happening in all the classes.

Resplendent in our new black and yellow kit kindly provided by Appledore Pirates, a team of Year 3&4 girls competed in a North Devon schools football final this week. An immense effort against some very good teams saw then come away from four matches with two losses and a draw. With just a tiny bit of luck in 3 of the games they would have won three of the matches!  Appledore Pirates have also very kindly donated money for us to purchase a very large amount of science and outdoor learning equipment.

Mrs Stanbury has worked really hard to secure a grant for £600 to replenish reading books. Please have a good look around at home for any books your child has borrowed and not returned.

Drop off and collection for AOOSC and school is a very busy and congested time around around school and in the school car park. This can have knock-on effects and I ask that your are considerate, patient and act appropriately with each other and staff to eliminate conflict and stress and to ensure safety for all. The safety of children is paramount and children should not be witness to any rudeness or inappropriate and potentially unsafe actions. We are considering installing CCTV cameras covering the carpark to increase security (and to deter fly tipping in our bins which costs the school money!) and if you have any questions or comments please let us know at admin@appledoreprimary.co.uk

Despite one or two bugs still doing the rounds, attendance as a school is bearing up and comparing favourably with published comparisons. Low school attendance is a recognised national and international concern and thank you for all you are doing getting your children to school. Please click here for information on attendance in January here at Appledore School and here for a letter from UK Health Security Agency South West regarding winter illnesses.

After half term we return to our Healthy value in our curriculum. Further to our email communication this week regarding our Healthy Value next half term, please click here to find out more. This value includes sex education and other aspects relating to growing up and keeping safe. This programme of learning is made up of lessons carefully sequenced and introduced to ensure a progression of learning that meets the DfE statutory requirements.  Well done Emmy for winning our Values Cup for our whole school half term theme of being Positive.

With a holiday upon us and the potential for clashes with your children regarding screen time, this BBC bitesize article might be of help. Access it here.

Please continue to keep you eyes open for communication from us into your inbox about parent evenings coming up.

Diary Dates:

• Monday 19th February 5-6pm Libraries Limited Show and Tell at The Beaver Inn run in partnership with Appledore Library Click here for more information
• Tuesday 27th February is Kingsley School Senior School open morning.  A number of scholarship opportunities are available and for more information please click here
• World Book Day 7th March. Children in Yr1 & Yr2 can come to school dressed in pyjamas ready for a bedtime story. Children in Yrs 3-6 can choose whether they wear pyjamas or come dressed as a character from a book they have read. There will also be a book sale in the Bay on the day. Books will cost 20p and the money will go towards new books.
• Sports Day Tuesday 21st May – more details to follow

Wishing you all a super half term

From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff (more…)

A busy week inside and outside classrooms. Please read on to find out much of what has been happening…

Children from Year 3 and 4 competed in a tennis tournament at ARC. Everyone showed great sportsmanship, had lots of fun and huge congratulations to the Year 3 team who won the tournament!

Please keep you eyes open for communication from us into your inbox about parent evenings coming up.

Diary Dates:

• Tuesday 27th February is Kingsley School Senior School open morning.  A number of scholarship opportunities are available and for more information please click here
• Sports Day Tuesday 21st May – more details to follow

Wishing you all a happy weekend

From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff (more…)

Our wonderfully creative House Captains have come up with a new house competition: pancake poem writing!  All poems to the office by Thursday 8th February. For more information, please click here.

Well done to our pupils who danced at the Queen’s Theatre as part of Sarah Anne Westcott Dance Studio! And well done also to our Year 5 girls football team who competed so well and had such fun in a recent tournament. The match stats they would like to share is that for every game they scored in they didn’t lose!

Do you want to know more about autism, including coping strategies and tip on how to support? If so, please click here for information regarding free webinars.

Wishing you all a super weekend

From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff (more…)