News
Newsletter for the week ending 16th September
Please read on to find out what has been happening and what is coming up, including how you can help our younger children when you visit a Tesco and for cross country course changes…
We need your votes!
We have been shortlisted (one of three) for the Tesco Bags of help initiative and your votes will secure us between £8,000 and £12,000 to develop our outdoor area for our younger children. Between Monday 26th September and Sunday 9th, please visit the Tesco store at East of the Water, Braunton, Barnstaple, Barnstaple Extra and Ilfracombe to vote for our project. In the meantime, please inform your friends via Twitter and Facebook. Many thanks
Free School Meals/Pupil Premium Form
Please remember to complete and return to us the Free School Meals/Pupil Premium sent to all parents last week because it will release from the government money the school is entitled to.
Cross Country Date and Venue Changes
There have been some changes to the race dates and venues since we distributed our original information. The races are now as follows:
Sunday 25th September: Kingsley School Bideford
Sunday 16th October: Shebbear College
Sunday 6th November: Coxleigh Barton Equestrian Centre
Sunday 27th November: Arlington Court
Sunday 15th January (to be confirmed): Northam Burrows
Sunday 5th February: West Buckland School
Don’t worry if you are unable to run in all of the races – it really is the taking part that matters. To be aware of any other possible changes, please keep visiting http://northdevonxcleague.weebly.com/
Y5/6 Swimming
A reminder that it starts on 19th September for ‘reluctant swimmers’. The cost is 50p per week towards minibus transport. It ends at 3pm and if you want to collect your child from the pool please contact us prior to our departure.
SEN Support
Please be aware that our SENco is available to meet with parents on a Friday morning between 9am-11am, just ring or email the school for an appointment.
Around the Classes
We have had a great week being Superheroes in Foundation Stage, but not ordinary Superheroes but Supertatoes! Supertato and his Super Veggies have been in The Unit helping us to capture the Evil Peas! We have made our own Supertato using different vegetables and painted them. The Evil Peas left a trail for us to follow leading us right to their hide out in the Jungle. On Thursday we made super vegetable stew to give our Superheroes some energy and it was delicious!
This week in Maths, Lundy Puffins have worked hard to master place value. They have counted in tens and investigated what happens to the digits. In English, they have read parts of a non-fiction text about penguins and have learned and remembered some of the pages. This involved them using a map and actions. We were very impressed with how quickly they managed to do this. Continuing the animals topic, they looked at African animals and their habitats. They have started to produce a pop-up book about their chosen animal; these will be displayed, so please pop in to have a look when they are.
Another great week in Sea Lions class! We have started our writing topic looking at the book ‘What would you do with a tail like this’. We have mapped out a page from the book, although we haven’t read the whole book yet. We also cut out pictures of animal noses and wrote about ‘what we would do with a nose like this’. In Maths we have practised counting in 10s, forwards and backwards, starting from any number. We have also played games like ‘Guess My Number’ and ‘Numicon Bingo’. Everyone has settled into their new Guided Reading groups and read with Mrs Stephens. Mrs Halloway has helped everyone to complete their first Reading Comprehension. We now start the day with ‘Funky Fingers’ – quick activities that will strengthen our arm muscles, and help to develop our fine motor skills, all done to the cheerful sounds of Disney music. Sunny the meerkat has enjoyed going home with some children this week, and has written some excellent postcards with the help of Noah and Hayden.
This week, HMS Echo pupils have been revising place value in Maths and they were all highly competitive on Thursday when they were deciding where to place the digit card drawn in order to make the highest possible number. In Literacy, they have begun work on the book, Leon and the Place Between and worked on developing noun phrases and using inverted commas (speech marks) correctly. They have also continued to explore digestion and watched (or listened) as a banana and wheetabix biscuit was ‘digested’ as it passed through a funnel, plastic tube, plastic bag, some tights and finally into a plastic bowl!! There were a few “Eegh ” s uttered. They have also begun work on the word Inspire and thought about what they find inspiring and how they could inspire others.
Seahunter have worked really hard in Maths this week, partitioning Hundreds, Tens and Ones in different ways then using their skills to solve problems. In English they have learnt a Pirate poem to perform to Year 1. During Monday’s PE they had their first go with handballs and started to develop some good dribbling skills. Overall, they have had a great week!
Year 5 have managed their first full week in class very well. They have been looking at diary writing and the past tense in literacy and have completed Roman numerals in maths. They enjoyed preparing Powerpoints to share with parents on Thursday and we’d like to thank parents for coming. Parents evening is on Tuesday and Thursday for Y5 next week – alist is on the door. Please sign up or call the school and they will obtain a slot for you. There is an exhibition in the Burton Art Gallery opening this week and Y5 will be involved in a project writing poetry linked to artefacts in the gallery – if you’re passing it’s worth a visit.
This week in Year 6, we have done a variety of lessons including: Literacy, maths and art. In Literacy we have been focusing on biographies and have been planning our own auto biographies. We also received some dictionaries from the Rotary club in Assembly. In maths we have been looking in on conversion and word problems. We’ve also been completing some previous papers of the SATs tests as well as doing a baseline number reasoning maths test. In art we have been looking at Tudor portraits e.g. Henry the Eighth. In P.E we have been looking at an invasion game called Football as well as playing cricket and rounders. Year six have also included French on their agenda, doing it on a Wednesday and Friday. The grilling regime has also included daily reading we are taken out in groups to read or independent reading. In Topic we have just began to look into the Tudor age. Science included as biography on Charles Darwin, the discoverer of evolution.
By the Class reporters William and Laurence.
Best wishes,
Jeremy Cooper and all of the staff
