News
Newsletter for the week ending Friday 8th December
If you thought you could delay the start of Christmas until the children break up next Friday, please think again! This week our Christmas nativity performances started (thank you Turtles and Dolphins) and our main corridor is decked out with Christmas hoops made by each class and the excitement is certainly building. Next week brings Christmas dinner day for the children and please see below for the dates of our remaining Christmas performances.
Sadly, due to weather safety concerns relating to gazebos and stalls, our Christmas Fair scheduled for this afternoon will not go ahead.
The house captains are organising a Christmas cookie competition for Reception- Year 6 to enter. All cookies will need to be handed in to the office by the morning of Friday 15th December ready to be judged by the lucky judges, Mr Cooper, Mrs Stephens and Mrs Wilkins. The cookies should have a Christmas theme and please remember we are a nut free school. The prizes will be house points which could be the deciding factor for which house wins the house cup this term!
Thank you to everyone who turned out on a bitter night to take their child to the Methodist church for the carol service. We feel it is so important to support events like this and do so for as many external events as possible. Their efforts were very much appreciated by the organizers and there were many compliments about their singing. It was particularly lovely to see the children enjoying the experience so much and appreciating the other musical numbers with such enthusiasm. The choir will be singing for the Appledore Pirates next week so thanks in advance for this. Keep up the hard work choir, as you go from strength to strength, and thank you Miss Carr for making all of this happen!
This week, our year 5&6 children participated in an online safety workshop. Also this week, staff safeguarding training has covered suicide ideation. Very worryingly, this and other forms of self harm are now present in primary school age children and our awareness is important. For a parents guide to increase awareness and for advice please click here or here. As highlighted in the media, the internet is an influencer of self harming thought and some seemingly harmless games or apps can have a darker side. Blue Whale is an one example and information about it from Devon CC can be found here.
A few diary dates:
- St Mary’s Church, Appledore, Christingle Service December 10th at 4pm
- Year 1&2 nativity Monday 11th December 2pm and Tuesday 12th December 9.30am, school hall. Due to limited space, please attend only the one performance
- Pupils can wear Christmas jumpers the day of their Christmas meal 14th December for Year 5 and 13th December for all other years
- Christmas service for years 3-6 Friday 15th December, 2pm, St Mary’s church.
Wishing you all a super weekend.
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff
This week in Turtles and Dolphins we have been learning about the meaning of ‘Advent’. We have explained to each other what our advent calendars look like. We have also been finding out about the Christingle Service and we know that some people celebrate this at this time of year. We made our own Christingle and now know what the objects represent. We have also read the Christmas story and related this to our Christmas Play.
In Year 1 this week we have carried on using adjectives in our writing and have thought of how we could change the story of The Three Little Pigs. We decided to change the pigs to different animals so we have been drawing our characters and choosing adjectives to describe them. In Maths we have been finishing off our 2D and 3D shape learning and started looking at making and carrying on repeating patterns. In topic we looked at what happened to St Paul’s Cathedral during the Great Fire of London and compared the old cathedral to the one they built after the fire.
This week year 2 have been putting the finishing touches to their Christmas Play which they are very excited to show you next week. In English they have been watching a Christmas Advert from a few years ago and writing letters to one of the characters. In Maths, they have been learning symmetry in 2D shapes, sorting shapes and beginning to describe 3D shapes. In their History topic work, they have been learning about Christopher Columbus.
Well, years 3 to 6 have done everything we can in school and are now ready to transfer our Christmas performance to St. Mary’s church. The children have worked extremely hard and are word perfect on the songs and dialogue. Thank you for all your support with the learning of lines and lyrics. The children will go to the church during Tuesday to rehearse their part in the play. If any outstanding costumes could be sent in to school on Monday that would be great. With the streaming and recording of the show, hopefully everyone who wants to view will be able to. For those able to join us in the church on Friday, we look forward to seeing you for what should be a wonderfully festive occasion.
Year 3 have had a wonderful week. In Maths, we have been exploring how multiples of 5 and 10 are related and then we have been learning our multiples of 3 and 4 and applying our knowledge to reasoning questions. In English, we have started a new book called ‘The First Drawing’ and we wrote our own diary entries as though we were the boy living in the Stone Age. In History, we researched the Amesbury Archer and learnt that he was buried 3 miles from Stonehenge and that his grave was one of the richest found from the Bronze Age. In Science, we have learnt all about the three types of natural rock and we used chocolate to show how igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks are made. In Values, we discussed different ways that we can resolve problems with friends.
In HMS Echo (year 4) this week, we wrote a poem as a class based on the poem ‘Jellyfish Pie’, where we played around with rhyme, syllables and alliteration. In Maths, we have looked at what happens when you multiply a number by 1 and 0 as well as what happens to a number when you divide it by itself and one. In History, we looked at the Roman army and why they were so successful, including their organisation and their armour. In Science, we’ve been looking at animal teeth, and identifying which animals are herbivores and carnivores just by looking at their teeth. In PE, we have worked our way towards a netball game, where we are applying all the skills of shooting, defending and attacking. In our Values work, we have been looking at friendship and what qualities make a good friend.
It has been a really busy week in the year 5 classroom. Well done everyone for learning their part in the play; it is coming together really well. We have continued with our poetry skills, writing cinquains. In maths we have been recognising equivalent fractions and converting mixed numbers into improper fractions. End of term assessments have been completed in both maths and reading. The class watched an e-safety performance in school, learning more about the dangers of being online and using technology. We used our history enquiry skills to answer the question ‘Viking horned helmets – historical fact or myth? Remember that we have a day at Rosemoor next week so our class Christmas dinner will be on Thursday (Christmas jumpers can be worned on both days).
Year 6 have still working on skills with fractions in maths this week. They are finalising their writing for Harry Clement’s biography and refining their editing skills in Literacy. They had a workshop earlier in the week to focus on dangers associated with social media. Art and science are the same as last week with groups switching over to complete their work. We have completed assessments, so hopefully in the final week we can enjoy a few different activities before Christmas.
