Maple Class Blog Friday 25th November
It was lovely to see the vast majority of you at parents’ evening this week. If you have not managed to make an appointment, please get in touch and I shall be happy to have a phone conversation or even just send you some current progress notes.
We have had our second Woodland School session today and once again, they did not disappoint with their foraging skills and teamwork. We were challenged to make a map of our woodland area from natural materials that would guide someone around the area if it were their first visit. All of the maps were incredibly clear with very well placed landmarks – well done year 6.
Our persuasive leaflets are published and on display. I think that any one of them makes a well-reasoned argument and would stand up against any that may fall out of our magazines or appear in the mail. We have begun to craft ideas about our rainforest ‘animal protector’. Please ask your child which creature they have chosen and see how many ways you can reframe how you refer to it. E.g. Black Panther – obsidian prowler – night cat – slinking night spirit
Or – Toucan – Beady-eyed warrior – dagger-billed glider – jewelled sky shadow How expressive can you get?
In maths we have just about come to the end of our unit on all the basic calculation methods. It would be a great bonus if you could encourage your child to practise one each of an addition, subtraction, multiplication by 2 digits and division each day to stay on top of methods and increase speed of fluency.
Lastly, just a reminder about the trip next Tuesday (29th) to the Plymouth recycling centre. IT IS AN 8.30 DEPARTURE so please can children assemble outside the front door of school at 8.20.
And for a final lastly…. You should have all received paperwork for the France trip this week. The main action is to ensure that you have a passport or apply for one asap as we shall be needing them in January to copy for our own documentation. If you have any issues with applying for a passport, please get in touch sooner rather than later and we shall of course give our support.
Happy weekend!

Hello all,
Another week has flown past and I had forgotten to tell you how we did with the Halloween cake sale. Thank you all very much for the fantastic contributions. Between the sale itself and a break time sale the next day, we completely sold out and made a magnificent £100 for the PTFA. The children helped set up and run the stalls and I quickly found out how brilliant they were at pulling together as a team.
On Tuesday 29th November we have a visit to Plymouth ‘Energy from waste’ site (organised originally by Mr Finch to support past work on sustainability). I have sent a letter home with the children and would be grateful if you could return the reply slip. There is a cost of £6.71 for the trip and Mrs Lawson will let you know as soon as the School Gateway payment system has gone live.
We are in the midst of our work on writing a poetic narrative in the style of The Snow Leopard – I think that we shall see some beautiful stories emerge.
In maths, having covered all the methods for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, we shall next week be looking at BIDMAS(Brackets, Indices, Division/Multiplication, Addition/Subtraction) to help us understand which order to perform the operations in when faced with a mixed calculation.
Our Geography work is on informal settlements which has linked beautifully with our recent learning on the migration of people to cities during the Industrial Revolution.
Have a great weekend.

Maple Class Blog Friday 11th November
We have had a super start to the day today with our Woodland School session. I was amazed at the expertise in Bushcraft that certain members of our class had and we all learnt a lot – I certainly will be going home knowing many more ways to get a fire started. They also had the opportunity to examine a badger skull and pelt and were challenged to make a waterproof gnome shelter. The Chagford gnomes are in good hands and you will be glad to know that they will remain warm and dry throughout the torrential downpours that we keep having!
In English, we have finished writing our persuasive leaflets which will be published on Chromebook over the coming weeks as and when we are able to use the devices.
In the meantime, we are starting a piece of narrative based on The Snow Leopard by Jackie Morris. If you have or are able to borrow from the library any other Jackie Morris stories, they all use similar very poetic language and will delight with their wonderful illustrations. The more that we can read, the more we shall absorb her style.
The aim of the English unit is to write a similar story ( it is in fact a modern creation myth) but with a different central character in a different setting (the rainforest) so please start researching rainforest animals that would make good protectors of a realm and noting their features (how they look, move and sound)
In Maths, we have been learning about factors and are beginning to use them for division but we shall also be grappling with division by a 2-digit number (long division). We have had a couple of visits from other Trust staff observing Maths and I would like to congratulate the children on the confident way in which they were able to talk about their maths learning.
In Geography we are about to start a unit on informal settlements and how they come about.
I hope you all have a lovely weekend. I have included a few pictures of our Woodland School session.