News

School Newsfeed

26 April

Daily Mile

Next week we will be starting the Daily Mile initiative at school where children from Year 3,4,5 and 6 will be taking part in a 15 minute social and physical activity in the fresh air. Children will need to have trainers in school to use during this session. Children will be encouraged to jog or run during the time focusing on boosting health and fitness.

Forest school

The Forest School sessions at Swimbridge will be starting next week with some children accessing this on a weekly basis to support wellbeing time. All classes will have sessions running throughout the Summer term. Please ensure your child has a pair of wellington boots in school and a waterproof jacket to access these sessions. Mrs Nickels, who is a forest school trained leader, will be running these sessions in small groups. 

19 April

As you are aware, the school has undergone an Ofsted inspection this week. I’d like to thank you for giving your feedback to the inspectors through the Parent View survey as this is a really important aspect of the inspection. We were proud of the children who managed the two day process well.

I’d also like to thank the Swimbridge staff team and our Governors who managed the inspection process so positively. The lead inspector remarked on how welcome she was made to feel and how everyone was open, honest and fully co-operative.

We will receive a draft report in just under three weeks and once we receive the final report, we will send it out to you.

28 March

This has been a short half term leading up to the Easter break but an action packed one with trips, visitors and performances! This week in school has been vibrant with lots of opportunities for the children to showcase their learning to Parents. At Swimbridge the curriculum is designed around an Engage, Develop, Innovate and Express cycle of learning. The Express element was a focus this week with classes across the school presenting and reflecting on their learning and celebrating their achievements with others.

22 March

The week started with the fantastic night of the proms on Monday afternoon and evening at the Queen’s Theatre. Pilton Bluecoats school invited Swimbridge to take part in their school showcase event. 

The children performed as part of their class and /or choir in the Key Stage 2 production. Theo and Blythe also performed solo performances. Jessica and Albi were part of the narration team that conducted the show. 

All of the children performed brilliantly, sharing and shining as Swimbridge pupils. It was a valuable experience to be part of performing on a big stage with other children in the TEAM academy trust.

15 March

We have been celebrating British Science Week in school this week with a focus on the theme ‘Time’. 

The Adventurers explored the outdoors and noticed and identified the changes that have taken place.

The Discoverers explored evolution by natural selection and how adaptations can happen within our lifetimes with some evolution that creates entirely new species that takes millions of years!

The Explorers measured the weather over time and created their own weather forecast flip books. They observed the temperature and weather conditions throughout the week.

The Inventors got to experiment with making and testing jelly recipes. Jelly sets over time, but can different methods for preparing it slow that process down? 

8 March

We had a wonderful World Book Day celebration on Thursday. The children across the school had an opportunity to gather together in family groups and share their favourite books, authors and wonderful costumes.

Our World Book Day experiences included:

Discoverers- Got inspired with a workshop from Axel Scheffler, the awesome Illustrator of the Julia Donaldson books. 

Explorers- Designed their own comic strip characters and created a comic strip storyboard inspired by the ‘Go Sketch Club’

Inventors- Explored a workshop with Terry Deary and the ‘Horrible Histories’ series focussing on the Romans and Doodling fun with Liz Pichon (Tom Gates author/illustrator).

1 March

This week, Parent Consultations have taken place in school. If you have not managed to meet your child’s class teacher and have a current update about their progress in school please contact your child’s class teacher on Class Dojo to book an appointment. 

23 February

Happy Friday everyone! It was lovely to welcome all of the children back after half term keen and ready for the rest of the Spring term at Swimbridge. This week, in whole school collective worship, we have been focussing  on the school value of Dignity and Respect. Learning about being a trustworthy friend, exploring the life and achievements of Zaha Hadid in our fruitful life session as the first Arab woman Architect and learning about the achievements of women in science.

9 February

Today, the children learnt about Safer Internet Day with a focus on being safe online and our own online reputation. The school uses a scheme of learning throughout the whole school called Project Evolve which starts each Computing unit each half term with a different online safety focus. Please see the online safety section of the website for more information.

2 February

The long and seemingly never ending January is finally behind us and we can now look forward to an exciting February!

Next week, the Inventors are off on their two night residential to Heatree where they will be taking part in a number of outdoor adventure activities. Parents have been sent a letter with all the last minute reminders, if you could all please check you’ve received it and read it through.

We also have some more trips planned this month with the rearranged dates for the KS2 cross country and a visit to Westward Ho! and Northam Burrows at the end of the month for the Discoverers - more information will follow on this.

26 January

On Monday, Tempest Photography came and took year-group photos for Reception and Year 6 to mark the beginning and the end of their journey at Swimbridge School. Links have been sent home separately so parents can view and order the photos if they wish.

On Thursday March 7th, we’d like to invite parents, grandparents and carers in to have lunch with their children. This will be held in the Jubilee Hall. More details to follow but something to put on your calendars!

19 January

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been keeping you updated with steps we are taking to increase take up of school lunches, particularly in years 3-6. This is to try and reduce the amount the school is subsidising the service which is currently running at £18k.

I’d like to thank those of you who have already taken the time to complete our parent survey - we’ve had over 40 responses back so far which is amazing! We’ll be closing the survey on Monday so there’s still time to take part over the weekend. Your views and ideas are really important to us. Here’s the link: https://forms.gle/ys73imEvxz3pEG7Q9

12 January

I’m sure with last week’s deluge and flood warnings across the region, many of you might have thought about the implications for the school site and the bank.

We’ve been delighted with the new boreholes, which have helped us keep track of water levels and reduce the water in the bank when necessary. Ted Picken, governor, has been instrumental in keeping us on track and his expertise and skills working with the remote monitoring team have been such a gift to the school. We are also grateful to Richard Power and all who work with him at the diocese for overseeing the project which has given us the means to stay on site while the new school building is developed. 

After several weeks of rain, we are very happy to still be comfortably in the safe zone and we are especially enjoying this current dry spell. Our boreholes have been effective in helping us dispatch any increase in water so we can be reassured by this recent stress test.

4 January

Happy New Year and welcome to the Spring Term! We hope you all had a happy and restful Christmas holiday. This is always a lovely time of year with the nights drawing out, new life beginning and hopefully a little less rain!

Our new Inventors teacher Mrs Duhig started with us this week. Mrs Duhig comes with many years experience of teaching this age group having spent the last few years teaching Year 5/6 at Lapford Primary School and before that at Chulmleigh Primary School. We would like to extend a very warm Swimbridge welcome to Mrs Duhig - we’re so pleased that you have joined our team!