News
Newsletter for the week ending 7th February
The children continue their emersion in various aspects of our half term whole school topic on health, ranging from learning about who keeps them safe, The Great Plague and through to a debate on the merits of a character in a story having a heart transplant! Read on to find out more…
AROUND AND ABOUT THE VILLAGE
Free Lego Club
Monday 17th February from 2.30-4pm at Appledore Library.Free fun for the kids with refreshments provided for a small donation.
Interested in Becoming a Primary School Teacher?
Devon Primary SCITT are holding open evenings to allow people to find out more. Drop in between 5.30pm – 6.30pm 24th February at Trinity CofE Primary, Exeter or 10th March at Edburton Primary. For more info call 01392 790 164
AROUND AND ABOUT THE SCHOOL
Uniform
I reminder to please check your children are wearing the school uniform. Trainers tend to appear instead of school shoes and headband become increasingly colourful and large! I have spoken to the whole school about it and individuals if required and the repsonse from the children has been excellent. If you are unsure please click here to see what is acceptable uniform and if you are still unsure please do call us before buying new.
Communication
Please ensure that we always have your current contact details, including address, email and all telephione numbers. Thank you.
AROUND AND ABOUT THE CLASSES
This week we have focused on cars. We read the story ‘Mr Gumpy’s Motorcar’ and compared his car to cars that we ride in today. We have made models of cars using tubes and painted pictures of them. We have looked at road signs and discussed what they mean and we have also talked about the importance of a lollypop lady, then we made our own lollypop signs and created roads for us to cross safely. We have measured the length that toy cars travelled down a shoot and quickly worked out which ones went faster than others. Today we have looked at the inside of a car to work out how a car moves.
Another busy week in Year One. We have been editing our Oi Frog inspired stories and writing them up neatly ready for the writing display. In Maths we have started looking at numbers to 50. We have been partitioning them into tens and ones and representing them in lots of different ways; as words, pictures and with resources. We have learnt more about Grace Darling and learnt why we still remember her today. We have also compared jobs that Grace Darling had to do with jobs that we do today. We had a fun Art lesson in the Jungle with Mrs Halloway, we made Andy Goldsworthy inspired pictures using natural resources we found. We then had our third trombone lesson, some of us are now able to make consistent (and loud) sounds!
Lundy Puffins have been using their skills from reading about Chinese New Year to write about a festival familiar to them: Easter. In Maths, they have been learning about division and investigating through grouping and sharing. They had to work out how many different ways 24 children could be put into equal sized groups. They found out how boats have changed throughout history and have linked Grace Darling’s historic rescue to the modern day lifeboat service. In the Art studio they have been putting the finishing touches to their lifeboat collages. The aim is to make some of these into greetings cards to sell. They are looking forward to a visit to the lifeboat station on Monday.
The children have been working hard in Maths this week in Year 4 to learn how to multiply 2 and 3 digit numbers use the short written method. Next week, we will be learning how to divide 2 and 3 digit numbers. In English, the children have written their own versions of ‘Winter’s Child’ using the skills we have learnt over half term and other skills from before half term. In Topic, the class have compared their weekly food diaries that they wrote to a weekly food diary from the 1940s. For Philosophy, we looked at other inspirational women from from the book ‘Great Women who Changed the World’, including Anne Frank and Marie Christine Chilver (Agent Fifi).
In Year 5 We have been busy writing our own stories sent during the time of the Great Plague. Some of us have written from the perspective of being a plague doctor or watchman, whilst others have been parents during this time. We have looked at pictorial sources from the time to find out more information and use this in our writing. In maths we have been using formal methods for long division and starting to apply our skills to word problems. In science we have been looking at life cycles, with a focus on mammals and amphibians, to find similarities and differences. We had a fun fitness session on Thursday morning with staff from Northam Pool.
In literacy this week, Year 6 have been writing a discursive piece about whether Cameron, in our story, should have his heart transplant or not. There have been some great arguments for and against this. In Maths, we have moved to algebra and have been looking at problems and trying represent them with algebraic equations – it’s been taxing our brains somewhat! In science we have completed our work on vvolution and inheritance and will move onto animals, including Humans. Our Art will be on display soon – look out for the medicine bottles in the corridor and in Topic we have been finding out about some of the greatest innovations in medicine in since 1850, in order to create our own timelines. Homework is due on Wednesday, we are trying to provide work as revision and aiming to go over this in class. Unfortunately, many children are not bringing their work in as required, making it difficult for us to mark and go over problems and misconceptions. This week at least 1/3 of the class needed more copies of the required work – please can you encourage your child to look after their homework, complete their homework and hand it in on time. They always have Monday and Tuesday in school before it needs handing in and need to start training themselves to take responsibility in preparation for secondary school next year. If you would like extra revision guides, there are many available – the Collins books from The Book People we have used in the past but there are also Letts Guides at The Works which look good too! Click here to take a look at some.
Have a wonderful weekend everybody and we look forward to seeing you next week.
From Jeremy Cooper and all the staff and children.
