News
Newsletter for the week ending Friday 29th April
Welcome back everybody and we hope you had a super Easter.
Just before we broke up for Easter, Year 4 participated in the Bideford Chorister Outreach Programme and this involved performing in Exeter cathedral. To view the recording of their contribution and that of other schools please visit https://youtu.be/4rS67iyKStM
North Devon Surf School are running a children’s after school surf club starting Tuesday 3rd May. For more information, please click here.
After school, on the bottom playground, there will be a cake sale in aid of NSPCC on Tuesday 3rd May. This has been organised by a very kind group of Year 5 girls who will also be baking the cakes! For more information, please click here.
We wish you all a lovely bank holiday weekend and look forward to welcoming you back on Tuesday 3rd May.
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff.
AROUND THE CLASSES
This week in Turtles and Dolphins we have started our new topic. We are learning about the animals that live in the warm seas. We have made an extensive list of the animals that we already know that live in these seas. We have read the story ‘Commotion in the Ocean’. We have acted out parts of the story and added lines to some of the verses. We have painted pictures of these sea creatures and made sculptures of them using playdough
Year 1 have had a great week back after Easter! The radishes they planted before the holidays were ready to be harvested so we went and pulled them up and talked about the things plants need to grow. We have started our new topic learning all about Oceans, our question for this half term is ‘What do we find in the oceans?’ so we learnt the 5 oceans through a song and had a go at labelling these on a map. Our Literacy book is also about oceans and all about the animals you might find. So far we have been learning lots of facts and put actions to the first section of the book to help us learn it.
Welcome back Lundy Puffins after the Easter break! This week, they have been exploring a new book: The Dragon Machine and have been imagining what it might be like if dragons visited their classroom. There were some great fun ideas! In Maths, they have been revising their addition and subtraction skills and we have been impressed by improvements to their number fact knowledge. Next week, we will be revising multiplication and division; keep practising those 2,5 and 10 times tables. Everyone has been enjoying reading sessions with our reading volunteer, Nicky. She is very impressed with their enthusiasm and reading skills. Their new topic has started about the seaside which fits in with the whole school ‘water’ topic. We are hopefully going rock-pooling and will let you have more details about this as soon as possible.
Year 3 began some drama work based on the wonderful book “On Sudden Hill” Later on, they will have the chance to compose some music to accompany the drama. Year 4 began composing counter rhythms so they can add some texture to their compositions by selecting and playing different instruments. Year 5 resumed their dance work based on the ballet “A Simple Man” . They have learnt a motif which is performed in unison and have begun to create their own motifs which will be danced in canon. Year 6 used their knowledge of French vocabulary to write a recipe for a smoothie by listing the name, number and colour of fruits they used.
This week, in year 3, the children have been carrying out some start of term tests – they have all worked really hard to show what they know. In Maths, we have completed our unit ‘statistics’ and begun our learning on ‘fractions’. The children have been writing up our innovate of Paddington and have been practising writing using present tense verbs. In Computing, the class have been learning about branching databases looking at yes/no questions. We are starting our swimming lessons next Wednesday. The children have been spoken to about what this will look like as well as behaviour expectations at the pool.
HMS Echo have had a busy first week back at school, working hard as marvellous mathematicians, super scientists and amazing authors! In Maths, they have been brilliant at getting to grips with fractions and recognising them as parts of wholes. They have used bar models to support their learning and been able to add and subtract fractions. In Science, they have created tabards to wear showing their digestive systems. They have been amazing at remembering and using the key vocabulary and have started to create films of themselves describing the digestive process. FInally, in English, they have enjoyed listening to the story of The Firebird and have been able to describe and summarise elements of the story using ambitious vocabulary. A great first week and we’re looking forward to a great final term.
Year 5 has very quickly settled back into work and made a great start to the summer term. In English we are starting to find out about the explorer Ernest Shackleton through reading the book ‘Shackleton’s Journey’. This week in maths we have completed all the start of unit assessments and begun our unit on geometry. This week we have looked at how to identify angles, both acute and obtuse. For history we have started to look at what life was like in Elizabethan England and what role Sir Francis Drake played in changing England’s fortune. Our science work has started to look at ‘living things and their habitats; we have looked at pollination in plants. All have enjoyed the use of Kahoot for starting the units and using their scores for assessment. This week we have started to make scones in cookery and explored the use of sewing machines in art.
Year 6 have had a busy week revising skills ready for SATs. They have worked on speed and accuracy in the arithmetic paper and have improved brilliantly over the week. In Literacy, they have improved grammar and spelling skills and have enjoyed the songs we’ve used for this – look out for the odd help sheet that comes home. PE and short sessions outside have been very welcome. They also started thinking about positivity in values lessons too. Please make sure you pay for hoodies as soon as possible, if not done so already, and look out for information about our Lundy trip.
