News
Newsletter for the week ending 3rd November
Please read on to find out what has been happening in the classes, our new pirate ship, workshops for the community in our art studio and much, much more…
AROUND THE SCHOOL
Break Time Snacks
We are aware that some children in year 3-6 are eating their packed lunch at break time. If your child does get hungry and in need of a snack at break time, please ensure they bring to school a healty snack and fruit is a very good option.
Pirate Ship
If you’ve visited the school this week I’m sure you’ve seen it, but if you haven’t then perhaps you’ve heard about our new ship on the playground. The children have had much fun playing on it this week. We have explained to all the children and I would like you to also be aware that children are not permitted to use it before 9am and after 3.30pm, even if an adult is with them. Thank you for your support with ensuring the children remain safe.
Our Art Studio Reaches Out
Our art studio continues to provide opportunities for pupils at Appledore and the other eight schools in ACCT, the cooperative trust of schools we are part of. This week we also provided a workshop for Norgan Lodge, a Devon charity that provides services for adults with learning and physical disabilities. We are very proud of the pupils at Appledore School who joined this workshop and will continue to do so once a week for the rest of this term. We also held a nurture workhop this week for children across the nine ACCT schools who deserved a change of scene following recent events in their lives. As part of an ongoing project, St Margaret’s and St George’s schools have been sending a class for one day a week for workshops since the beginning of term for art projects that link with other areas of their curriculum. And…we also held a printing workshop for all the teachers in the ACCT schools as part of ongoing training we are providing to improve pupils’ art outcomes in this area. needing respiteInclusive
School Photographs
School photographs (portrait) will be taken during Monday 6th November. If you would like a family photograph, the photographer will be available in the school before school from 7.30am
Collecting Your Child
Please could parents for Years 3-6 wait on the bottom playground and allow your child to come to you, rather than waiting outside their classes. Parents collecting children from FSU (Turtles and Dolphins) are welcome to wait outside FSU. For parents of children in years 1 and 2, please wait on the bottom playground too. Thank you for your support with our ‘traffic management’.
School Fare
Provsional date set for 1st December – more details to follow…
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 APPLEDORE
Childrens Nearly New Sale
In aid of Everything Ellie Registered Charity No. 1164084, Saturday 4th November 10.30am – 12.30pm at Roundwell Community Centre (next to Sainsburys)
Entry £1 which includes a drink! For sale will be a wide range of clothes, toys, books, DVD, games, and equipment from 0-13 years.
Coffee shop & homemade cakes and a raffle. Free parking is available
Rolle Canal Performance
Tickets are now available for the Rolle Canal Performance on Wednesday 15th November 2017 @ 7:00 p.m. They are purchased direct from Rosemoor Gardens from this link https://gardentickets.rhs.org.uk/rhsrm/sessions.aspx?tid=19. Please be aware that several schools are taking part and tickets are likely to sell out quickly.
AROUND THE CLASSES
This week we have been celebrating bonfire night. We have created fireworks and bonfire pictures using many different types of media. We have made rockets from different shapes using both 2D and 3D shapes and had a go at flying them. We have read a little bit about the story and looked at the clothes that they wear and why they might be different to ours (P4C.) We are very much looking forward to celebrating bonfire night with you all at our party on Friday which starts at 5:45 – see you there.
We have started our new topic ‘Stomp, Stomp, Roar’. We had a visit from a friendly dinosaur who made a mess of the classroom. The dinosaur ran away before we could see him but luckily we caught him on video. We have written him letters asking him things we would like to find out about dinosaurs but he hasn’t written back yet. In writing we have started looking at the book ‘What do you do with a tail like this?’. In Maths we are continuing to look at addition. We have swapped numbers around in number sentences, and found the different pairs of numbers to make a total. Our P4C question this week will be taken from the book ‘Something Else’.
In English, Lundy Puffins have started to look at their new text: How to wash a woolly mammoth. They enjoyed reading it and learning one of the pages. In Maths, they are continuing to look at addition and subtraction. It would be really helpful if they could keep practising their number bonds to 10 and 20 as this will help them with future calculations. The new topic for this term is ‘Stomp, Stomp, Roar!’, which is all about dinosaurs. They have started to think what they would like to find out about dinosaurs. We were impressed that we already have one or two dinosaur experts in the class! Our P4C question for the week, after reading the book ‘Something Else’, is ‘Why were the other animals not being inclusive?’ This also fits in with our value for this half term: Inclusive.
Seahunter have been busy being dragon seekers, grammar experts and historians this week. In English, they investigated evidence of dragon sightings in the local area including newspaper reports, photographs, sound recordings and artists’ impressions. They collected information about the dragon in question ready to write a report next week. In addition to dragon seeking, they did an amazing job in their grammar work, learning about independent and subordinate clauses. We were very impressed by the speed with which they picked it up, applied it and were able to explain to others. Finally, in their topic work, they worked as historians to investigate an image of a mystery object. After lots of questioning and discussion, they discovered it was the lantern belonging to Guy Fawkes. They went to the studio to produce some observational sketches in charcoal as well working in class to produce storyboards retelling the key events from the story. It has been a busy but very successful first week back in school.
HMS Echo have had a busy first week back at school. The children have completed their final addition and subtraction task to show what they have learnt, and also have carried out their elicitation task, to show what they know about multiplication and division. The class were sad to say goodbye to ‘Sammy the subtraction’, who has been helping them learn, but look forward to working on the next unit. In P4C this week, we started to look at our school value for this half term ‘inclusive’, and read the book ‘Giraffes can’t dance’. The children came up with the big question ‘What would it feel like to be Gerald?’ Following our previous Topic lesson where we learnt about the city states Athens and Sparta, the children were split into two groups to have a class debate about which city was better to live in. The children put some great arguments across and also showed excellent speaking and listening skills. This week in English, the children have enjoyed writing more about the superhero that they researched over half term. They used this knowledge to learn and write complex sentences. Next week, we will start creating a class non-fiction book using some of the skills we have learnt.
Year 5 have had a fantastic few days away on their residential to St George’s House. They have been canoeing, rock srambling, rock pooling, fencing and archery. It has been the most amazing weather with everyone out in shirts and t-shirts. Who would believe it’s November. I am really pleased to see how much everyone has grown in confidence and how they have been so supportive of each other. We would like to thank the staff at St George’s House for giving us such a great time and to Mrs Evans and Mrs Phillips for coming with us and making sure we were ok.
Year 6 have watched some Viking Sagas this week and worked individually and in groups: writing mapping and acting out the stories. In maths we have been securing subtraction and division methods. Science has included more on classification, in light of our trip to Rosemoor and in Art we have begun making Viking inspired brooches. There has also been more drama for the Rosemoor performance, which is looking exciting. In Grammar children have been forming versions of the present tense and have a sheet to keep at home which they can use to go over the work in class
Best wishes from
Jeremy Cooper and all the staff and children
