News
Newsletter for the week ending 24th March
Please read on to find out about the choir, around the classes annd much, much more…
aint the School Red
A great turn out for Red Nose Day with so many of the children coming to school in red. Thank you for your support of this cause.
Gymnastics Club
There are places in Wednesday’s after school gymnastics club. For more information, please contact Jade on jadeboyle1@aol.co.uk
Thrift Club
Please be aware there is no Thrift Club on Monday 27th March and due to Easter holiday and the next payment date is 24th March.
Choir News
On Tuesday, the Choir did a brilliant job representing the School at the Annual Choir Festival at Bideford College. Here are some quotes from two local Head Teachers:
“I was blown away by the standard and by the incredible production, especially in the collaborative pieces! Astounding sound!”
“The quality of the performances from all schools was super and the collaborative songs were breathtaking. Please pass on my congratulations to the children/students. They were Outstanding!!”
Magnificient praise indeed!
Mrs Smale would like to add grateful thanks to Mrs Bannister, Mrs Phillips and Mrs Quy for their help in making sure that all the students wers reunited safely with parents and carers at the end of the second performance. Thank you too, for all the family, friends and relations who came to the performances and for collecting the children so promptly after the second performance. Everyone was rather weary at that point as it had seemed a long afternoon rehearsing and then singing (and behaving) so beautifully during the two performances. Theis event is an amazing opportunity for the pupils, as they have the chance to sing with so many other voices to create a truly amazing sound accompanied by a live orchestra.
Parents Evenings
A reminder that parents evenings for Years 1-6 are planned for the week commencing 27th March. Please sign-up for a time on the list outside your classroom. If you are unable to do so, please contact the school by phone or email and we can place your name on the list. Our Google calendar on the website on Tuesday too.
Non-Uniform Days
24th March – Wear Red for Red Nose Day (small donation please)
28th March – Wear House colours for House events (no donation please)
Home School Agreement
I reminder that we have in place a home school agreement and this can be viewed by clicking here.
Around the Classes
This has been the last week of our travels in FSU and we only travelled a little way out to sea, to Lundy Island. We started off the week with Derek (Hannah’s Dad) coming in to talk to us about life on Lundy, Hannah did a great job helping Derek – we would like to thank Derek for giving up his time to come and chat to us, we learned so much. We have compared Lundy to Appledore and we took particular interest in the animals that live on Lundy, we have painted, use pastels and written about the puffins, seals, crabs and farm animals that live on Lundy.
This week we have written our first drafts of our final stories about Bernard the Robot. We are now in the process of editing and writing up our final copies, ready to be displayed in the Writing Gallery. In Maths we have been using rulers and height charts to measure ourselves. We have also estimated how long Bernard’s body parts are, then measured them, and used a ruler to replicate them. For DT we have designed our robot string puppets and have started making them, though just the heads and bodies so far, we still need to make the arms and legs.
Lundy Puffins have this week been planning and writing their stories based on the book ‘Previously’. They had to write a fairy tale, but with a twist – they had to tell it backwards, which is a lot harder than it sounds! Look out for
the finished versions soon. In Maths, they have begun to look at tally charts and pictograms, trying to decipher the information in them. Next week, they’ll be creating their own pictograms and tally charts based on information they
collect. They have found out the various jobs that they might have done if they had been living in a castle in times gone by. They then had to create some job adverts for the different jobs. Lots of children wanted to be knights or lords
and ladies, but not many wanted to be ‘gong farmers (ask them to tell you what this is!). Just a reminder that I will be holding parents’ meetings on Monday and Wednesday next week. There are a few slots left, so if you’ve not yet
signed up, please look at the list outside the classroom door or phone/email school. And a reminder about our Open Afternoon on Tuesday – Turtles at 11:30am and 3pm and Dolphins at 3pm.
Seahunter have been busy report writing this week. They have been working as dragonologists to write dragon seekers guides for dragons they have created. They have used some impressive vocabulary and detail to make them an interesting read. They will be on the writers wall next week. In their topic work they have written guides to the rainforest layers and created animations on an iPad using their amazing dioramas. Finally, they have been working hard on their singing and drama skills and are looking forward to sharing their work with parents/carers next Friday.
We have been busy in HMS Echo again this week, finisihing off our Science and History topics. In Dance, everyone worked extremely co-operatively taking turns to sculpture their partner into a Roman statue. There were some impressive creations and everyone managed to remain still, almost as if they really were made of stone! In Maths, we are now turning our focus to co-ordinates and next week, translating shapes so everyone will remember to systematically ‘go along the corridor and then up the stairs’ or ‘up the lamp post’ as some the the children are preferriing! In Literacy, after completing their recounts, they are focussing on non-fiction texts and everyone enjoyed starting this off by writing about some of the toys Mrs Smale had brought from home that had been used by her children – and even one toy of Mrs Smale’s and so must be VERY old !! Finally, congratulations to the class for leading the class assembly this week during which they shared lots of their knowledge about Mothering Sunday.
Year 5 enjoyed flying their paper aeroplanes (made for homework) to see which design flew the furthest – some children had really looked into the science of their designs too – so well done to them. We have a book of Space stories that is alsmost completed and will be on display in the corridor – pick it up and take a look as the children have worked really hard on these. We have completed a reading and maths test in class and gone over the papers this week – children now have some areas of these subjects to work on. We are expecting children to remember work covered in class and encourage them to ask for help, if they feel they need it. The aim is to build learning behaviour where the children take some responsibility for making progress and reaching presonal goals. Some children are responding really well to this and are finding that hard work pays off. Next week we will finish our space topic, writing newspaper reports about visits into space. The next residential payment of £30 is due by Friday 31st March – thank you if you have already paid.
In Year 6 this week’s quota included: art, English, computing, science, maths, singing and assembly. In English we have started to write our stories about a specific character from The Tempest by William Shakespeare. We had to choose from either Caliban (a sea monster) or Ariel (a water sprite). As well as that, we have also done art in which we continued doing NOTHING for mother’s day… or were we? In science we began our leaflets on our @Bristol trip out. In computing we worked on our coding subject with Mrs Evans where we did Tynker Hour of Code. In Maths, we have done our end of year assessment practise in which MOST of us passed. In singing we’ve continued our House Singing (the house competition where we sing). We have also watched an assembly in which we watched the 1st half of The Easter Story (from the bible).
By Class Reporters Laurence & William
Best wishes,
Jeremy Cooper and all of the staff and children.
