News
Newsletter for the week ending 29th September 2017
Please read on to find dates for Halloween Disco and Christmas Fare, what has been going on in and around the classes and much more…
AROUND THE SCHOOL
Halloween Disco
The date for this will be Friday 13th October – more details to follow…
School Fare
Provsional date set for 1st December – more details to follow…
Book Festival
We will be having the authors Philip Ardagh and Steve Cook in school as part of the Appledore Book fFestival school’s programme. We have some of their books in school for you to borrow (see Debbie) and from next week will have copies available to buy.
Governor Vacancies
We have some vacancies on the governing body. If you are interested in supporting the school in this way, please contact Annemarie for information or the head teacher for an informal discussuon about the role and the level of commitment required.
Attendance
Our attendance as a whole school is just in line with expectations, so thank you for all your efforts with ensuring that you child’s attendance remains good and arranging holidays during school holidays. At present the governors are not requesting we impose fines, but please be aware that a concerning decline in school attendance as a whole could lead to a change of policy.
AROUND OUR LOCAL AREA
Shebbear College Open Days for Year 7 Entry
For year 6 parents, Shebbear College are holding open day during the week commencing 9th October. For more information contact 01409 282000 or registrar@shebbearcollege.co.uk
AROUND THE CLASSES
Our Nursery Rhyme this week has been Incy Wincy Spider and we were really excited on Wednesday afternoon as Incy Wincy Spider came to visit us! Steve from Exmoor Zoo brought some minibeasts in to show us and talk to us about them. On Thursday we visited The Jungle to created webs for Incy Wincy. We have created webs and spiders using a range of different media. A plea – has anyone got any toy food, cutlery pots, pans, tea sets etc that they don’t use anymore? We would love to have it for our Role Play Area?
Year 1 received another letter from Mrs Armitage asking us to write our own stories about her adventures. We have written the first draft of our stories and are now in the process of editing and publishing them. In Maths we have compared numbers using the vocabulary more, less and equal. We have also used the symbols <, > and =. In Science we have grouped objects by the material they are made of and then discussed why that material has been used. We have now started to design boats and thought about which material would be best to build a boat. In Art we used three different types of pen to investigate drawing lines.
This week, in English, Lundy Puffins have been looking at a book called ‘Journey’. The book is wordless, so they had lots of discussion about what was going on and asked lots of questions such as: Why is the girl so sad? They then did some writing from this. In Maths, they’ve been ordering numbers and counting in twos, fives and tens. Science this week has seen them experimenting with different objects to see which ones they could push and which they could pull. They’ve also found out about the railway engineer George Stephenson.
Seahunter have had a busy week with their first swimming session, a day in the art studio and poetry day. On Monday, they visited Torridge pool for the first of ten sessions. Everyone was enthusiastic, well behaved and worked hard in their lessons. On Thursday, they spent the day in tears studio with Mrs Harvey working on some archaeology themed collage work to support our history topic. They produced string collage coins, tissue paper earth layers and some archaeological tools. They worked cooperatively and focused hard to create some great pieces that they will return to pain on Monday. Finally, they came to school in the most stunning costumes today, including a dog, an astronaut and a Lego Ninjago character, ready to write ‘How to be a…’ poems. It was lovely to see so many parents at the end of the day visiting to share their work. The poems will be displayed on the writers wall next week.
HMS Echo have had a busy week! On Monday, they took part in house football competition where they competed against their class peers. The children have continued to learn more about their topic Ancient Greece, where they have used non-fiction texts to research Gods and Goddesses. They then choose a particular God/Goddess they would like to focus on and found out further information, so that they can make top trumps cards next week! In Maths, the children have been learning how to round to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000 and how to estimate. We then used these skills to solve addition problems. The class have written up the class story which we planned together and are now ready to invent their own stories about a magical place. The children used google and PowerPoint to collect images of the creatures and objects they would like in their magical place. They are very excited to start writing this up next week!
Year 5 have continued to write sagas about the Vikings and are writing about Thor. We have needed to get into the character of Thor or Loki to write our story in the ‘first person’. The whole class have certainly developed their story writing skills over the past few weeks. In numeracy we have been finishing off our unit on place value and starting to focus on addition. We have had our first session in the art studio where we have been improving our college skills. In philosophy we have read the story ‘Willy and Hugh’ by Anthony Brown and decided on the question suggested by Gus and Imogen – ‘Is it right to leave someone out?’
We are looking forward to our science day next week at Torrington when we take part in the ‘Big Bang’. Please look out for the additional letter about the residential after half term and also details of a Y5 sleepover.
Year 6 have had a visit from the Magistrates court this week and have found out all about responsibility and what happens when you break the law or don’t follow rules that are there to enable all of us to live safely. On Wednesday Robert Barber came to work with the class on drama ready for our performance at Rosemoor in November. We ran the cake sale for Macmillan on Friday and raised over £60 – thank you for all donations of cakes and money! In literacy we are now writing our own warrior stories and in maths we have been using skills in place value to show how we understand how to work the answers out. A group also visited West Buckland and learnt how to make a Lego Mindstorm robot and how to program it; they had a great time. IN the Art Studio, we did a collage of an Anglo-Saxon person and hope to complete them with backgrounds soon. We are now set for the residential next week!
Music, RE and French News
Since the beginning of this term, the pupils of Years 2, 3, 4 and 6 have spent time focussing on R.E., Music and French while their class teacher has had her weekly Planning and Preparation time.
Year Two pupils have started learning about their key religions this year: Christianity and Judaism. So far, they have been thinking about the differences between facts and beliefs and have been listening to the story of The Prodigal Son. In French, they have been learning how to say I am happy, sad and tired.
In Music, they have been learning about two of the key Musical Elements: pitch and pace. They have begun to explore playing the chime bars and creating a sound scape linked to the Loch Ness Monster. There were some highly impressive sounds and vicious facial expressions!
Year Three pupils will be learning about Christianity and Hinduism this year and so far, they have been learning about what happens in a Christian place of worship Last week, they enjoyed a visit from John Kidd who talked with them about what worship means to him. In French, they have been learning to count to 10 and even doing addition and subtraction in French. In Music, they have been playing ostinato rhythms linked to a building site. They have started to learn the song John Kanaka and will be adding actions next week.
Year Four pupils will be learning about Christianity and Islam this year, and so far they have learnt about the stories in the Bible which relate what Jesus did and how he inspired people during his lifetime. In French, they have begun to learn names for colours. In Music, they have been exploring pitch and been developing their ability to keep a steady beat. They have been trying really hard to pass their pebble in time to the beat and hoping that they receive a pebble from their neighbour.
Finally, in Year Six, they have begun to learn about the wealth of rules within the Jewish Torah. In French, they have revised the names for colours and begun to learn the names for parts of the body. Year Six are also involved in an exciting Arts project this term involving both music and drama. They have been busy learning the songs which retell the story of Lord Rolle’s 1800s project when he embarked on building a canal from Landcross to Rosemoor. This week, they enjoyed an afternoon with Robert Barber, during which they improvised a retelling how limestone and coal was brought in to Bideford, unloaded and conveyed by boat to the start of the canal. They will be developing this over the next few weeks, in readiness for the performance at Rosemoor Gardens in November.
Best wishes from
Jeremy Cooper and all the staff and children
