Latest News | Appleby Primary School

Poland: Day 1

Sun 01 Mar 2020 Mr Caygill

We set off at nine o’clock sharp and headed towards Leeds with a bit of a detour as a result of the A66 being closed. Check-in and passport control were really straightforward however our meal was slightly more problematic. We ordered separately and our food arrived one at a time - with a five minute interval between each item - so that Mr Caygill and Miss Dickinson has to shovel their food in as the boarding gates were closing. It wasn’t the hardest thing to leave to be honest - I don’t think Gordon Ramsay has much to fear!

We got on the plane easily and were really close to the back so it allowed us to get on and off quickly. L loved her first flight and especially enjoyed zooming along the runway before takeoff. Our flight was around two hours long and we were soon in a taxi, heading to our hotel. On arrival we met our Polish hosts, who were very welcoming and made us feel immediately at home. We also met the Spanish group who had just arrived before us. Later we met up with the Cypriot group and all went out for our evening meal: chicken and mushroom pizza.

Later we walked into the historic centre of Kraków which was absolutely beautiful with glimmering fairy lights, horse and carts (complete with rear lights) and an array of stunning, historical buildings. Lots of tired people - especially the adults - but ready for tomorrow’s adventures.

Erasmus Week Celebrates Our European Connection

Wed 05 Feb 2020 D.Spruce

Erasmus+ has enabled pupils at Appleby Primary School to experience unparalleled opportunities to connect with their peers across Europe. During the remainder of the school year, pupils and staff will visit Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Bulgaria and Portugal to celebrate connections across the continent and the unique cultural heritage and identities within each location.

In March, we will welcome visitors to Appleby from Romania, Turkey, Italy, Portugal and Bulgaria. In order to learn about each of those countries and to prepare an extra special welcome, pupils across the entire school enjoyed an extra special European Week last week. Children researched a country assigned to each class; finding out about the geography and history of each location. They also prepared and sampled traditional foods, created amazing art work and even learned traditional dances.

Each class has made a display and prepared a presentation to share with our visitors when they come to school and had great fun taking part in European Week.

Engineering Project Wins First Prize

Wed 05 Feb 2020 D.Spruce

Pupils at Appleby Primary School are celebrating this week after an engineering project they have worked on won an award at a competition at the University of Cumbria.

Children at Appleby Primary entered the First Lego League – an international competition focussing on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics – and competed alongside pupils from ten primary and secondary schools in the regional competition held at the University of Cumbria on Friday.

The competition has seen pupils work with University of Cumbria STEM Ambassador, Dr Alan Green to design, build and programme their own robot. Pupils learned how to use a range of algorithms to instruct their robot to complete a series of tasks. Children developed their skills over the last half term; encoding their device to perform an ever-increasingly complex range of functions from operating a crane to depositing crates and cross a narrow bridge. Science subject leader, Nicola Willacy, remarked: “It has been really rewarding to see the children honing their skills. They have shown real talent and a great deal of resilience to perfect their coding in order to operate their robot using complex computer software.”

However, it was the outstanding engineering project that pupils completed alongside their robot that really captured the judges’ imaginations. Pupils were challenged to develop and project manage a plan to tackle a real-life issue in their community. Mrs Willacy explained: “A core value of our curriculum approach is to extend pupils’ learning and aspirations through creative, real-life experiences and this project has truly embodied that.”

Choosing the area of flood prevention – a topic close to the heart of everyone in Appleby – pupils chose to contact some experts for advice and it was at this point that the assignment really took flight. Following some internet research, children contacted the chair of the Association for Project Management. Dr Paul Chapman is a senior fellow at Oxford University and the Academy Director for the UK Government’s Major Project Leadership Academy. Impressed by the work and knowledge demonstrated by the team of nine and ten-year-olds he agreed to advise them via a series of Skype calls. Children created their project team, assigning roles and delegating tasks to research and plan a scheme of flood prevention for their town which was significantly affected by flooding following Storm Desmond in 2015.

As the children’s work progressed, staff at the school were taken-aback to receive an email offering support from the Cabinet Office in Whitehall. Mrs Alison Baptiste is a senior civil servant with the Cabinet Office and is Director of Operations leading the team providing delivery support and assurance to departments with projects on the Government Major Projects Portfolio. She contacted the school in order to arrange the chance to discuss with pupils their “remarkable project”.

Headteacher, David Spruce, said “We have been absolutely blown away by the work and so proud of our children. When we challenged them to make the most of this opportunity to extend and deepen their learning, we could only have imagined where it could take us and they have certainly gone to the top of the tree. At Appleby we are proud of our curriculum and the opportunities that pupils create to develop their aspirations and this group of children have really grasped the bull by the horns.”

The pinnacle for the project team was possibly the possibly the chance to discuss their work with Dan Phillips. Dan is the Engineering Project Director at Mott MacDonald, the team that masterminded the countrywide response to the damage left in the wake of Storm Desmond, including the new Pooley Bridge. Pupils had to come into school early to Skype call Mr Phillips who is currently in Malaysia working on a project to build the world’s largest building.

At the competition finals day at the University of Cumbria, pupils from Appleby put all of their research and planning on display as they presented to a range of industry leaders. Judges were impressed by their professionalism, subject knowledge and the core values that they demonstrated, awarding the team First Prize for their Innovative Project.

Table Tennis at KSGS

Thu 12 Dec 2019

A group of Year 6 children had fun learning new skills recently at the Table Tennis Festival in Kirkby Stephen.

Nursery & Reception Open Day

Mon 02 Dec 2019

Nursery & Reception Open Afternoon

Mon 02 Dec 2019

Children in Need Day

Tue 12 Nov 2019

Mr Caygill and the Year 6 children are busy organising fun and games for Children in Need Day on Friday 15th November.

They are planning:-

Non uniform day (50p donation)

Cake sale (they would be very grateful for any donations of cakes to sell, please bring them to school on Friday morning)

Various games at morning playtime (10p - 30p charge)

Please send children to school with a small amount of change on Friday to join in planned activities.

PTFA Christmas Fair

Tue 12 Nov 2019

The PTFA Christmas Fair is on Thursday 5th December from 6pm - 8pm. If you are able to help in anyway please speak to the PTFA or a member of staff. We look forward to seeing everyone on the 5th December.

Italian Blog - Final Day

Sun 10 Nov 2019 Jack

Day 6 Italian Job – By Jack Wilson

After a lot of goodbyes to our foreign friends – we also sneaked a few hugs in- we got into our beds for the last time. We got a good night sleep, definitely Zak who had to get woken up AGAIN but this time by Mrs Hearn. When we had got up we packed for our journey home, we went down for our yummy breakfast and sat opposite the only other country left who were Romania. I had a weird combination of sausage and cake and managed to not make it a hat-rick of spilling my drink because of Zak’s cunning plan of using a saucer but the girls didn’t need to because they were smart (for once) and didn’t spill it in the first place. After playing a few games of Mafia – and Ruby mastering the string game and teaching others - we went to brush our teeth and then went shopping to buy a few souvenirs with some of us buying pasta to take home. For dinner we had pizzas for only the second time. On our way back from the shops we saw an ordinary dog but Hannah acted like it was a unicorn, but it was really cute. We got on the taxi for the 3 hour journey to the airport where we would buy some sweets and chocolate for the flight and for family members. When we got on the plane Mrs Johnston got a shock when the air steward said the flight was going to Dublin; he was joking. Now we’re safe on the plane for our journey back to Manchester.

We hope you have enjoyed looking at our photo, reading our blogs.

We all can’t wait to give our family and friends huge hugs and tell them about our Italian adventures.

Italy Blog - Day Five

Fri 08 Nov 2019 Mrs H and Mrs J

Italian Job Day 5

Our day of collaboration, evaluation and celebration started with a little lay in, followed by breakfast. After a quick run through of our presentation we set off on our last journey to school. It was lovely to see the sky was blue and the sun shining too. When we arrived at school we where greeted by a group of teachers eager to share their craft skills. We started with a Christmas decoration which was simple. However, the next activity of frog origami met some confusion from the children and teachers. A quick break before learning about healthy eating and the benefits of each country’s local cuisine. We livened up the group by performing our 1,2,3,4,5 a day song. Next on the agenda was pasta making with the grandmothers of school children. Zak got stuck in learning how to mix and make the pasta whilst the rest of us learnt how to shape different types of pasta, which was quite therapeutic. The parents of the school were involved again in making us a delicious pasta lunch with local cheese and salami. The afternoon was packed with fun and laughter as we tried to join in with tradition dance moves. Jack especially enjoyed the freestyle Turkish dance moves (see the video clips). Finally, we were presented with gifts from our Italian hosts and said our goodbyes before heading back to the ice cream shop for the last time. Our children have been a credit to the school with exceptional listening and behaviour. They have immersed themselves in new experiences made friendshipsand life long memories.