North Devon Tag Rugby

What a day we had on Tuesday. It was hot. Very hot. However, this did not hold our intrepid Federation Team back as our crew of nine met over twenty other schools from across North Devon in the area tournament. We preformed brilliantly in our pool, qualifying for the knockout cup and plate stages in the afternoon (we won two games really well and only lost narrowly to some excellent teams). After a kicking competition over lunch we then entered the knockouts and gave a great account of ourselves. Our team, although eventually defeated, scored great tries in every game and always had a chance. Well done everyone. Great day.

Harriet & Bob Reach New Heights!

We very much like to celebrate the amazing achievements of our children whether in school or beyond. Here are some great examples of working together to beat a challenge, featuring our very own Harriet and Bob her pony. Harriet has sent us several pictures of her taking part in events at venues such as Coxley Barton and has included some of the rosettes that she has won. Harriet is a keen rider and has taken on different jump heights with Bob. It has been great to hear how she has worked with Bob and they have developed their relationship over recent times. Well done Harriet. We are very proud of you (and Bob) and we love to see how well you are both doing!

If you would like us to publicise your achievements, please send the story and photos to news@exmoorlink.org

Class 1 Newsletter

20th May 2019

Dear Parents,

 

Class One Weekly Update; Summer 1: week 5 – 20th May

Apologies for the missed weekly updates recently due to staff shortages, bank holidays and internet problems but they will now continue to be every Monday as usual.

We are pleased to confirm that the class 1 trip to the Dinosaur and Wildlife Park will be going ahead on 11th June. You should receive a letter today with the permission slip. Sports day is confirmed for the 18th June weather permitting.

 

Literacy

Over the last few weeks the children have been working very hard learning the new sounds of the week. This week all children will be learning /e/ (nursery children are learning the sound while reception children are learning to write it pre cursively). After half term we will be recapping the previously taught phonemes – /s/, /a/, /t/, /p/, /i/, /n/, /c/, /k/ and /e/ and trying to read and write words using these sounds.

The reception children are currently finishing off inventing their own story based on following the story of the three little pigs. The children are focussing on remembering to use finger spaces, writing the letters correctly and pre cursively, using their phonetic knowledge to sound out words and trying to say, repeat and then write a sentence independently.

This week the children are sharing their favourite stories so please feel free to bring in a named book that your child would like to share with their friends.

 

Maths

This week the reception children are working on time, thinking about what they do at different times of the day, and ordering different activities during the day. The children will also be continuing to practise their number formation.

Nursery children will be thinking about the order of different activities they do in the day and using positional language, such as behind, on top, next to etc.

 

We hope that you all have a great half term holiday and look forward to seeing you again after the holiday.

Regards

The Class 1 Team

Met office Science Camp

Twelve children from Bishops Nympton and East Anstey had the amazing opportunity to take part in the Met Office Science Camp that took place on Friday night and Saturday morning. Upon arriving at the Met Office Exeter base the children were split into two teams – Team snowflake and Team Aurora – to start their meteorological journey.  After some delicious dinner, the activities were well on the way. The children learned about the sheep forecast, which is a real thing, used by farmers in the Falklands island to determine when to bring their sheep inside. Following this, they went on to learn about wind and how significant it is to the weather. They discovered how scientists at the Met Office tacked it and even go the chance to make their own anemometer to help them calculate wind speed. At around 8:15 we stopped for a quick snack and then ascended to the second floor to learn about how clouds are formed and how to identify them. The most exciting part involved making our own clouds in the bottle which everyone got to do.  Another highlight from Friday was getting to see the supercomputer which weight the same as nine double-decker buses some of us even got the chance to go inside the closely guarded room.  As the night drew to a close we learnt what a seagull, the sea and supercomputer had in common using some complex but fun chaos theory. Fundamentally, impressing upon us the enormous maths that happens to be able to calculate the weather. At 10:30pm, it was time for a very poignant bedtime story about looking after our unique planet.

 

 

On Saturday we continued on our learning journey this time looking at the customer services operations of the Met office. The children had the opportunity to practice what they had learnt the night before to help a real-life client that wanted to know whether to cancel a flying troop display show as he suspected it was going to rain at 3pm when the show was scheduled. From tracking the wind pressure and looking at data from the previous night the children were able to calculate that the show would be able to go ahead however that client would need to warn crowd they might need to bring umbrellas for later. In order to report their finding to the client, the children got to use a green screen to provide a client-specific weather report.

 

I can only say how proud I am of the children, they had a tremendous amount to knowledge which they shared with each other and others there. Thank you to Mr Huxtable for coming along on the trip.

 

As the Met Office is a world leader in weather and scientific research photos were not permitted, luckily they had their own photographer circulating so we should have photos very shortly.  

 

 

Traditional Tales and… We’re going on a bear hunt…

…we’re going to catch a big one!  What a beautiful day, we’re not scared!

This half term we have been learning about Traditional Tales; we have had lots of fun with Jack and the Beanstalk!

We have been counting leaves…

We have been planting magic beans…

We even made some beanstalk cakes!

 

We made a beanstalk:

We acted out the story:

 

…and we measured the beanstalk and beans:

 

 

This week we have also included a more recent classic children’s favourite and went on our very own bear hunt this afternoon…

 

We actually found a real live bear hiding in her cave!

 

We also found some time to be scientists and carry out our very own science experiment to find out how plants take up water.  We added different colour food colourings to some water and then put our white tulips in the pots of different coloured water.  We were all very excited, (children and adults!)

 

We were surprised (and excited!) at how quickly the white petals started to show signs of red and blue from the food colouring.

… and by the next morning the results were amazing!

 

We could even see that the colour had been taken up into the leaves.

A very busy few weeks of learning and fun! 🙂     Continue reading

Construction Club!

Today saw the first session of Construction Club at lunchtime!  The children all thoroughly enjoyed themselves.  It was lovely to see some of the children from classes 1 and 2 working alongside and helping each other.

We built cars, rockets, an ambulance, a fire engine, a ramp and of course a Peugeot 208! (Hope I got that right! 😉  )

The children had the opportunity to socialise in a relaxed setting, practice taking turns and sharing, use their imagination and of course improve their fine motor control!  😉

Here are just a few pictures from today’s club. Looking forward to next week already! 🙂

Welcome back!

The children have come back to school full of energy and ready to learn.  This term we are learning our traditional stories and having fun retelling the stories.  We have read Goldilocks and the Three Bears and the Three Little Pigs and next week we will be reading Jack and the Beanstalk.

Reception have been busy using their phonics and writing wanted posters to catch the big bad wolf!

We have been playing schools and making music.

Reception have been doing sums and writing them down.