News
And there was us thinking £898 was a very generous figure to reach this time last week on our wear yellow and blue for Ukraine day. It now stands at an even more impressive £1153!
We have seen Covid numbers rise again in school. This time symptoms have predominantly included a sore throat, lethargy and a headache. If you have confirmed cases of Covid in your household, or your child is feeling unwell, please do all you can to test them before they come to school so we can do all we can to limit the spread in school. I noticed today that not wearing a mask on school premises is becoming commonplace amongst parents and carers entering the school premises as part of the school run. Whilst wearing a mask is not necessarily a requirement elsewhere, we ask that you respect our continued wish that you wear a mask on school premises, inside and out, to protect our staff and children. Thank you.
Multi-Sports activity days are being run at Bideford College over the Easter holidays. The times are 10-2pm on 19th-22nd April and for children aged 5-13 years old. For more information please click here.
Please read on to find out what has been going on around the classes, not least year 3 performing in Exeter Cathedral following their collaboration with the choristers!
We wish you all a lovely weekend
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff (more…)
Today the children were decked out in yellow and blue in support of those in Ukraine undergoing hardship and those who have fled Ukraine and undergoing hardship. We have established a JustGiving account named Appledore School non-uniform day for voluntary contributions to ShelterBox and in less than 24hrs we achieved the initial target. At time of writing this today we were at a staggeringly generous £898! If your child is worried about the events unfolding in Ukraine, the NSPCC has useful advice on how to discuss this with your children.
If you believe your child is at higher risk from coronavirus the department for health has published information that is available here
We wish you all a happy weekend
Best wishes from
Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff (more…)
Welcome back everyone and we hope you had a good half term. The children have returned from their break with their usual levels of infectious energy and thrown themselves back into school life – not least their enthusiasm for World Boy Day!
With the removal of staggered starts and ends to the day there is now a greater concentration of traffic and pedestrian activity around and on the school site. Please remember that Kingsley Avenue is a private road and permission is granted to cross it and not to park on it. We are able to issue parking permits for the Odun Road car park for you to park safely, so please contact admin@appledoreprimary.co.uk if you would like one. If you do park on the road, please park responsibly, including avoiding the yellow zig-zags, and when driving near to the school site raise your awareness for pedestrians. Please refrain from reversing into the school car park if you are turning around on Kingsley Avenue. Thank you for your consideration and support for the safety of the children and other pedestrians and road users.
Parent meetings got underway this week and for most classes continue next week. If you have not booked an appointment, please email admin@appledoreprimary.co.uk.
Best wishes to you all for a lovely weekend
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff (more…)
Welcome back everybody and we hope you had and enjoyable half term.
Last week saw a change in the legality of various Covid measures, most notably isolating. For school, the measures are very much the same as before. Please click here to view a letter that explains the necessary measures in school. This letter was sent to parents today.
Following advice and the completion of a safety risk assessment the decision has been made to close the school on Friday 18th due to Storm Eunice. Please note that the before and afterschool club will also be closed on Friday.
Learning will be available tomorrow for Years 1-6 in their Google Classroom.
I hope you remain safe safe tomorrow and look forward to seeing you all after half term on Monday 28th February.
Best wishes
Jeremy Cooper
A short week due to storm Eunice brings to a close this half term a day early. Batten down the hatches for a while and we hope you all safe and well after half term.
In our first week back after half term World Book Day is Thursday 3rd March. Children can come to school dressed ready for a bedtime story in pyjamas that day and bring their favourite book to share.
For a useful internet safety update, please click here.
Have a good week everybody and we look forward to welcoming you all back on Monday 28th February.
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff (more…)
Another busy week that ended with super reports from the general public and staff at Bristol’s We the Curious museum of how well behaved our children were on their trip yesterday and of the kindness and consideration they showed towards other visitors to the museum. Also, their space and science knowledge surprised the museum staff and their searching questions required quick research from the staff for them to be able to answer!
Our (Herculean) Jack will be running his final 1k (totalling 100k in 100 days) and would love anyone who has a spare 10 minutes at 4.45pm on 23rd February to come on down to the amphitheater at Affinity Devon (Atlantic Village) and cheer him across the finish line! He has done so well and been awarded for his endeavours. Great work, Jack!
We wish you all a super weekend
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff (more…)
Supporting jack with his 100km run, visiting a working fishing boat and selling shack, fractions to decimals/decimals to fractions, science in our woodland and the circulatory system are just some of the things happening this week in and around the classes, so please read on to see what has been happening in each class.
Friends of Appledore Library (FOAL) have contacted us because they are looking for new members interested in becoming a trustee for the charity. For a conversation to find out more of what that might entail please call 01237 422518.
We wish you all a super weekend
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff
And that’s nearly the end of January and it appears to have gone so quickly. As per usual, lots has been happening here this week and please do read up on what has been happening this week. This includes congratulations to Jenson who is the first recipient of our Literacy Cup for his passion for reading. Similar to our Values Cup, each half term it will presented to a child and they will have their name engraved on it and can keep it for the half term. Well done Jenson!
We are part of ACCT (Atlantic Coast Cooperative Trust) which is a group of primary schools and three schools in the trust are proposing to federate. For more information please see this letter.
Could you be interested in becoming a primary school teacher and would want to find out more? SCITT is a primary school teacher training programme and we regularly host trainee students. If you are interested in finding out more about becoming a primary teacher via the SCITT route, please click here.
The number of cases in school has risen considerably this week and thank you for being so supportive with the testing of your children. Teachers are now very stretched between teaching the class and simultaneously providing remote learning. Unless your child is too unwell to access remote learning, provided physically for those in Reception or in the Google Classroom for Years 1-6, please do all you can to ensure your child engages with the learning provided.
Have a lovely weekend
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff (more…)
Good afternoon everybody and we hope you have had a good week. Once again, so much has been going on in each class and please do access the sections of this post that describes much of what has been happening.
Thank you for both your patience and support in the continuing challenging circumstances. Despite the need for children to test and being unwell, attendance on the whole is better than last term. Periodically, school monitors attendance and informs parents of children who’s attendance is low and offer support – often parents aren’t aware of low attendance and it is easily explained and solved. We have had to manage staff absence too and staff in school have worked to continue provision when covering their absence. To support teachers with a healthy work-life balance please email admin@appledoreprimary.co.uk if you have questions for your child’s teacher and not their individual email address.
Although it is sometime in the future, class photographs are back and will be taken on Tuesday 5th April. We will provide information on how to order them nearer the time.
Last call for those of you who haven’t yet completed the survey to identify children with have critical worker parents. Please follow the link to complete the short survey even if you believe you are not a critical worker https://forms.gle/e344svNE4h3CBiPg6
Wishing you all a lovely weekend
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff (more…)
Thank you for completing the survey emailed to you on Tuesday. We are collecting information regarding your employment to establish if your child would be eligible to attend school due to ‘critical worker’ eligibility should we be required to close the school. Please don’t be alarmed, we are just preparing ourselves for a possible scenario that we hope will not occur. Please complete the survey even if you believe you are not a critical worker. If you missed the survey, it can be accessed on this link https://forms.gle/LVSkmSRtfQ2xf2f6A
For an update on everything to do with Covid testing, please follow this link from Devon County Council for a comprehensive explanation of everything you might need to know https://www.appledore-primary.devon.sch.uk/wp-admin/post.php?post=1973&action=edit
Wishing you all a lovely weekend
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff
Welcome back everybody and happy New Year to you all! We hope you all had a really enjoyable Christmas and it is wonderful to have the children back so full of energy and ready to go again. For the children (and fingers crossed I don’t jinx it by saying this now!) it appears to have been a healthy Christmas break because this week we have not had a single Covid case reported amongst the children. Thank you for everything you have done for this to happen. We are suffering from staff absence though and thank you for your patience as we manage this challenge.
We welcome Miss Gray to Year 1 and the children in her class have been very keen to tell me what they have been up to with her this busy week. It has been a busy week for all the classes, so please do click on the (more…) text below to find out what has been going on in each class.
Congratulations to Indian House (yellow) for winning the Coffee Cabin House Cup for last term.
We wish you all a lovely weekend
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff (more…)
Such an exciting week for all and the highlight has to be the return of Father Christmas circling the school in the ‘Big Yellow Bird’. We hope you enjoyed the recordings of the various nativities and carols. Coordination of these with fluctuating attendance was not without its challenges, so in the true spirit of the show must go on the children and staff launched themselves into it with great gusto!
This week we say goodbye and thank you to Mr Lewis as he leaves us for promotion at another school and welcome Miss Gray who will be our new year 1 teacher in the new year.
The Department for Education has asked that we signpost parents to a publication by Children’s Commissioner regarding online sexual harassment, particularly with many children getting a new phone or other internet devices for Christmas. Please click here to access the link to the parent guide.
Please be aware of the following guidance regarding contact and isolation: From 14 December, a new national approach to daily testing for contacts of COVID-19 has been introduced. All adults who are fully vaccinated and children aged 5 to18 years and 6 months, identified as a contact of someone with COVID-19 – whether Omicron or not – should take an LFD test every day for 7 days instead of self-isolating. Children under five years old do not need to take part in daily testing for contacts of COVID-19 and do not need to isolate. Once notified by Test and Trace as a close contact, all eligible staff, pupils and students are strongly recommended to take a LFD each day for 7 days and report the results through the online reporting system and to their setting. If they test negative, they can continue to attend their education setting. Outside of the education setting, they should continue to follow national guidance. This approach should also be adopted over the Christmas holiday and on return in January.
Thank you for all of your support as we try our very best to keep all the children and staff safe. We wish you all a very happy and healthy Christmas and look forward to welcoming you all back on Wednesday 5th January, 2022
From Jeremy Cooper and all of the children and staff
A very busy week with the chidlren rehearsing and performing their nativities to the camera. A big thank you to all the teachers with organising these and also Mr Fitzgerald for giving up much of his time (and expertise) recording the pieces in the church.
To support teachers with achieving a sustainable work life balance we ask that any emails you want to send to a class teacher is sent to admin@appledoreprimary.co.uk. Teachers receive a copy of this email and will respond if required. Please be aware that emails sent direct to staff from parents will not be answered.
Whilst Covid is reported to be more widespread in our local area than on average across the country and that we currently have larger than usual pupil absence, relatively few of those absent have tested positive for Covid. There are lots of other bugs going around at present and a huge thank you for your vigilance and willingness to LFT and PCR test your children when they present as unwell. Of those who have tested positive some have presented coldlike symptoms and not the symptoms typically and previously associated with Covid, so please comtinue to be cautious and test your child if you are unwell.
Wishing you all a super weekend
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff
Christmas has ‘landed’ in school with rehearsals underway everywhere and our Christmas hoops up the corridor. As per previous years, children can wear a Christmas jumper for the remaining Fridays this term for a small donation. The children and staff are working hard rehearsing their nativities and carols and thank you for supporting the learning of their words. We are working hard to ensure this can continue under challenging and shifting circumstances and with the help of technology we hope you will be able to enjoy them too.
We have had a few more cases of Covid in school and sent a letter to parents about this. The numbers are relatively small and in classes where the number of cases meet a trigger point of 10% of the class we are required to inform the DfE and follow their guidance. Any additional measures we are required to take will be communicated to you. We are finding that some of the symptms of the children testing positive are very similar to a cold, so if your child displays cold like symptoms please try to lateral flow test as frequently as possible to rule out Covid.
Earlier in the week we sent to you the details for the nasal flu vaccination for children at our school. If you missed the letter, please click here to view the letter.
If you want to book your child to attend our before and after school club, please ensure they are booked in first because we must know in advance numbers attending for staffing. On many occasions sessions are fully booked and we will have to turn away childrne not booked in. If you need to cancel so we can offer the place to another, please do so before 3.30pm the day before to avoid being charged. Please be aware that we will not be running a holiday club for the foreseeable future and that we will review future provision again after the Easter period.
Various funds are available through local or central government to help households financially at Christmas. For more information, please click here.
Our best wishes to you all for an enjoyable weekend
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff
