News
Newsletter for the week ending Friday 14th February
This week included continuation of two of two of our Royal Society ‘tomorrow’s climate scientists’ investigations. Year 4 with follow-on work with the British Trust for Ornithology on data they collected and Year 5 storyboarding for their day at Pertoc where they will be extending their leaning about plastic in the sea.
FOAS (Friends Of Appledore School) are a small group of dedicated parents who organise events (eg cake sales, discos, fairs etc) to raise money for the school. This money is used not only to fund some ‘extras’ that wouldn’t otherwise happen, but also to help with ensuring those ‘extras’ that the always school does that make the school what is is and aren’t typically available in other schools. Please see here for a lovely glossy newsletter they have produced and if you can spend a few hours each term helping them, your help would be very much appreciated.
We are delighted Mrs Wilkins and Mrs Stephens are returning to us later this term from maternity leave. Mrs Wilkins will return immediately after the Easter holiday to Year 1 in a part time capacity and we are equally delighted that Mrs Malyn will continue to teach in Year 1 for the rest of the week. The week before the Easter holiday, Mrs Stephens will return the to Year 2 and resume the successful partnership she has shared for a number of years with Mrs Stanbury. Both arrangements will ensure continuity for the children this year and Mr Stephens and Mrs Wilkins will visit to get to now the children before their return dates.
To read our attendance letter for January, please see here
Next half term our value is Healthy and children will continue to learn about how they can keep themselves safe and healthy. Included within this is the statutory curriculum for relationship, sex and health education. Information has been sent to parents via email and to see the content of the email and for the links to understand what is being taught please see here.
Diary dates:
- Cake sale after school today on the bottom playground (or the hall if it is wet and/or too windy)
- For half term holiday football camps see here
- Saturday 22nd February, 10am-12pm, free Bird Box Workshop in Appledore Library
- World Book Day 2025 is Thursday 6th March. Turtles, Dolphins, Years 1 and 2 can come to school dressed in pyjamas for a bedtime story. Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 can dress in pyjamas or as a character from a book they have read
- 9.30am-12.30pm Wednesday 12th March Torridge Family Hub, Victoria Park, Bideford is holding a free drop-in for parents to chat to Speech and Language therapists and Special Educational Needs Advisors. See here for more information.
- Sport Day Tuesday 17th June and reserve date is Tuesday 24th June
Wishing you all a good half term
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff
AROUND THE CLASSESS
This week in Turtles and Dolphins we have moved further around the world and found out about homes in Madagascar. We located Madagascar on a map and worked out it is a hot country because it is near the middle of the world. We have found out that people in Madagascar can live in stilt houses due to the fact they are built near the river and the river floods. We have made houses using straws and printed pictures of stilt houses.
Year 1 have had a lovely last week of term. We finished our story writing unit by creating their own new versions of No-Bot the robot losing another part of his body. There were some very imaginative and funny stories. In history, working in groups the children compared three nurses from the past and how their lives have had a significant impact on the way hospitals are run today. We then compared hospitals now to those in Victorian times. In pairs the children created their own gymnastics routines to music using all the different positions and movements we have been working on over the past few weeks. We really enjoyed watching each other’s performances. We finished off the week with time in the art studio to continue printing. The children have created some beautiful designs using new skills.
Year 2 had a great time in the Art Studio this week. They were using different techniques for printing and making leaf patterns. For their History work, they finished the Grace Darling topic by creating something to remember her by. In their English work, they have completed their Grace Darling biographies which will be ready for display outside the hall after the half term break. In Maths, they have been learning the 2 and 10x tables and looking at doubling, halving and dividing by 2. We wish you all a relaxing half term break.
Key stage 2 had a very productive week. All classes concluded their current RE unit. Year 3 drew symbols to signify promises. Year 4 considered how a Muslim’s faith impacts on their daily life. Year 5 wrote lines and poetry and drew to show their understanding of a loving and holy God and year 6 wrote to explain their personal thoughts about creation and the position they take. In music, all classes began to use digital technology to recreate and develop the pieces they had composed using live instruments. For year 3 this was their spooky story soundtrack, year 4 composed a one bar track which they looped. Year 5 composed a pentatonic melody. Year 6 composed an ostinato which they looped. As the children progress through the school the intention is to use the different component parts they have created to make one final composition.
Seahunter class (year 3) have had a wonderful last week of this half term. In Maths, we started a new topic on fractions. We began by recapping all of our learning from Year 2 and we learnt all about unit fractions. We used this knowledge to find fractions of shapes and amounts. In English, we wrote our own poems based on the book If All the World Were, and used our noun phrases from our plans. In Guided Reading, we finished reading the poem The Spider and the Fly. We used our retrieval and inference skills to answer some questions about the characters in the poem and then we made predictions about what we think would happen at the end of the poem. In History, we finished our learning on Marie Curie by comparing her to a male scientist, Albert Einstein. We used a venn diagram to compare their achievements and legacies. In PE, we continued to focus on our balance and coordination skills by moving balls around our bodies in different ways.
In Year 4 this week, the children have written their own poems based on The Sound Collector, where they have used rhyme, focused on the rhythm and also used onomatopoeia. The children had a go at recording their poems in Computing and editing them to make a sort of audiobook. They have been such a joy to read and listen to! In Maths, we have been calculating the perimeter of rectilinear shapes. In Guided Reading, the children have been reading about how WWII affected Britain, especially children. In Values, the children explored how we show feelings in different ways. They then created their own ‘My Feelings Book’ where they wrote down their own strategies to use to manage their own feelings.
Year 5 completed writing our space logs, finishing with an evaluation about the 12 planets and which was our favourite. In maths we have continued to look at long multiplication and short division strategies. We took part in a plastic free workshop with Libby where we learnt so much about plastic in our rivers and seas. We were helped by Sarah and her team, and Martha from the ND Biosphere. The morning saw us create storyboards and props for our filming session at Petroc, an event which is due to happen in three weeks time. This half term has flown by with so much learning happening in the classroom. Have a restful week and see you ready for another busy half term on Monday 24th February.
Year 6 have begun calculating with decimals in Maths, as well as completing work on volume. In Literacy, they have been revising noun phrases, adverbs of certainty and writing in the passive voice – all of these skills will feed into writing about their own festival after half-term. In Science, they have been fascinated with fossils as part of their work on evolution and they used bread and sweets to replicate how fossils are formed. In History, they have completed work on how life expectancy has improved for the people of Appledore over the last 250 years: producing a timeline and a written account of significant medical breakthroughs and changes in the way we live that have all contributed to people living longer. Maths homework over the holiday is all about the arithmetic paper – please check the sample papers that your child brings home and use the resources provided online to help to secure methods for calculating. There is a paper on maths.co.uk to complete for homework. They are all looking smart in their hoodies and were very excited to have them – please make sure they are clearly labelled as it makes returning them to the right owner so much easier! Enjoy the holiday!
