News
Newsletter for the week ending Friday 15th March
Fancy watching something a bit different from football? Click here for professional basketball matches in Plymouth during Easter. But not forgetting football, here and here are details of Easter football activities run at Pilton School by Chivenor Soccer School and here for more local ones run at Kingsley School. Please click here to book multi-sport and art Easter course for children aged 5-14. These activities are either £15 a day or free if you are on benefit-related free school meals. Use the discount code EASTHAF24 to redeem the course for free. A free hot lunch is also included.
All children have spent time with visitors from RNLI recently learning about water safety and their ‘Water Safety Passport’ is here.
Did you know that if your child’s attendance drops to 90% this equals over 100 missed lessons! For more information please click here for our monthly attendance letter. Obviously, children get ill from time to time and if they are too unwell to attend school they should stay home, but if you are unsure please call us to help make your decision. Often children ‘pick-up’ as the day progresses and we call if we feel a child is presenting as too unwell. Useful NHS advice is available here
Do you have concerns about your child’s speech and language development with them struggling with talking and understanding words? If so, please click here for advice and and advice line to contact a speech and language therapist.
Diary Dates:
- Spring Disco, Friday 22nd March. 5pm Reception – Y2, Y3-Y6 6.30pm-7.30pm. Tickets £3 and on sale by Friends of Appledore School on the playground after school
- Sports Day Tuesday 21st May – more details to follow
Have a good weekend
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff
AROUND THE CLASSES
This week in Turtles and Dolphins we have finished off our learning around the Savanna and Africa. We found out about the River Nile and compared this to the River Torridge. We were very fascinated by the pyramids. On Thursday the children in Dolphins walked to the library to change their books. On Friday we went on Safari in the woods. We made our own binoculars to spot the animals. We have also had a talk from the RNLI.
Year 1 have been working hard this week! In Maths we have started our new topic of length and height and have loved measuring items around the classroom, first with cubes and then learning to use a ruler to measure in centimetres. In Writing we have started a new book, The Slime Book! We are looking at instructions and loved following the instructions in the book to make our own stretchy slime! We’ll be uploading pictures on Google Classroom for you to see. In topic we recapped the countries in the UK and where they are on a map and then thought about why people like to come to North Devon on holiday. We thought of lots of great ideas including the beaches, rock pools and of course, Hockings!
Year 2 have had another great week – well done! On Monday, they were visited by a member of the RNLI and learnt about beach safety and what to do in an emergency at the beach. In English, they are beginning to write a biography about the life of Grace Darling and are trying to show all their writing skills. In Maths, they have completed their unit of learning about length and measure and are now learning about mass, capacity and temperature. They used the balance scales to compare mass and have begun to measure in grams. In their History work, they asked the question – how do we know about Grace Darling’s rescue? They were able to look at lots of different evidence and had to decide what it was telling them. In their Science work, they learnt about Charles Mackintosh and carried out an experiment to test how waterproof different fabrics were.
After a detailed study of Diwali, year 3 looked at another Hindu festival – Holiday. They designed greetings cards which were appropriate for both festivals. In music, they had an introduction to whole class ensemble teaching on recorders and in French they used a colour key French to colour a design. Year 4 looked a clips of church services on Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday to compare the mood in church on these occasions. They continued with their WCET by playing one of our singing assembly songs in the recorder. Year 5 looked at the Hindu concepts on Ahimsa and Satya and considered how the absence of violence and truthfulness could improve the world. Year 6 looked at Holy Communion in detail. They also looked at artwork which was inspired by the events of Holy Week. In French they revised how to say I like/ I do not like when learning some new vocabulary for breakfast foods.
Seahunter class (year 3) have had a brilliant week! In English, we recapped our knowledge on when to use the possessive apostrophe and practised using this in our writing. We also focused on using conjunctions to create multi-clause sentences. In Maths, we finished our topic on fractions by learning all about equivalent fractions and we used number lines and bar models to help show these. In Science, we recapped the seven nutrients and then looked at a variety of food packaging to identify the nutrients in different foods. We also took part in some exciting outdoor learning where we foraged for wild garlic to make our own garlic bread and then we designed our own healthy pizzas with different toppings. In Computing, we created our own branching database using yes/no questions on the computers. In Values, we discussed what we need to do to keep our bodies healthy and we also explored some things that can be harmful for our bodies.
In HMS Echo (year 4), the children have come to the end of their fractions unit in Maths and will be moving onto learning about decimals, and how this links to fractions. In English, the children have been writing a different explanation text about earthquakes which links with their Geography learning. They had to come up with a ‘fantasy’ way of how earthquakes happen and then explained how earthquakes really happen. They have tried really hard at using different vocabulary and extending their sentences with a range of conjunctions. In Geography, we learnt why New Zealand experiences lots of earthquakes, and we also used the Chromebooks to locate other countries that experience lots of earthquakes. In Science, the children took part in some outdoor learning where they looked at how to ‘classify’ different living things. We had a practise of creating our own branching keys to identify a living thing. In PE, the children have been practising their skills with sending and receiving balls to each other, and have worked hard at improving their accuracy and control. For our Values, we looked at how our feelings can change as we get older, and how we can make ‘compromises’ to settle a disagreement.
This week in year 5 our writing we have been reading stories by Ted Hughes and Rudyard Kipling. We have focused on how the whale became and how he got its throat. We have secured our use of dialogue and using time adverbials. In maths we have completed our unit of work on multiplying fractions and started work on decimals and percentages. This week in geography we have looked at the different regions of Iceland and identified the key characteristics of each place. We also discovered more about the Westman Islands and how they form an archipelago. In science we joined in with a BBC live lesson for British Science week and we have looked at how our bodies change during puberty and this has linked to the growing up talk in the PSHE lesson.
Year 6 have been refining their stories this week in Literacy and some children have had the chance to publish a section of their stories with illustrations. There has been some impressive artwork! In maths, there has been more on volume, reflections and translations and telling the time – please check telling the time with your children at home. Most children were great with digital times but analogue was not so easy. In PE, they showed great skills and team work in handball – it was the team spirit that shone through and not giving up! Booster classes are now finished but children should still be asking for help if needed.
