As we come to the end of another busy week at Brunel, I wanted to share a few reminders about what we have coming up next week.

On Monday, the NHS team will be in school to administer the nasal flu vaccinations to those children whose parents and carers have already provided consent.

Also on Monday at 2:30pm, we will be holding our Harvest Festival. Families are warmly invited to join us as we come together as a school community to celebrate Harvest.

Thank you so much for the incredible generosity already shown through your donations. The gates will open at 2:25pm for you to be able to join us.

On Thursday evening, we are looking forward to our Cats Theatre Trip. We know this will be a fantastic experience for the children attending. Before we reach the weekend, we are also incredibly proud that some of our Year 6 children will be representing Brunel at the George Orwell Project at Plymouth University this evening.

It is a wonderful opportunity for them to represent our school and share the fantastic work they have been involved in.

We hope you enjoy reading this week's Brunel Bulletin, which once again celebrates just some of the many things happening across our school. 

Thank you, as always, for your continued support.

We wish all of our Brunel families a wonderful and restful weekend, and we look forward to seeing everyone again on Monday.

Degemer An Jydh – Seize the Day!

What a brilliant Reading Café we had tonight!

It was wonderful to see our children come together to celebrate their love of reading and share their enjoyment of books.

The atmosphere was fantastic, with children excitedly talking about their favourite stories, characters and books.

A huge thank you to our wonderful Reading Pioneers for helping to make the event so special, and to Miss Pentreath for organising such an incredible experience for our children. We are so proud to continue inspiring our children’s love of books and nurturing a lifelong love of reading.

Thank you to everyone who helped make our Reading Café such a wonderful success!

What a fantastic week we have had in Lantic Class!

In Maths, the children have been working hard comparing numbers using the greater than (>) and less than (<) symbols. They have also been practising counting in 2s, 5s and 10s with increasing confidence. We especially enjoyed taking our learning outside, using the school environment to explore numbers and solve practical maths challenges together.

In English, we have continued our hunt for the wolf! The children have been busy writing sentences using the conjunction if and adverbs of place to describe where the wolf might be hiding. We were impressed by their imaginative ideas and their growing confidence in using new vocabulary within their writing.

Our Science lessons have allowed us to become young scientists. We investigated the flexibility of different materials by testing and comparing a variety of objects. The children made predictions, carried out their tests carefully and discussed their findings like real scientists.

It has been wonderful to see so much enthusiasm, determination and teamwork across all areas of learning this week. Well done, Lantic Class, for another super week of learning and discovery! We are very proud of you all.

On Monday years 3,4,5 and 6 enjoyed an assembly with author Laura Sweet who has written a book with her son. Here is a little more detail from Laura about the book: Vines of Vengeance: Adventures of a Dog Called Toad" is set in the boiling hot Devon summer of 2026, and focuses on a disastrous day when killer plants go on the rampage, from different points of view. Here is a link to the book: https://amzn.eu/d/0bne46dZ Or here’s a link to a local small business, Gwisk Lowen, where you can order online and either have it delivered or collect from Liskeard: https://gwisklowen.co.uk/product/the-vines-of-vengeance-by-jack-laura-sweet/

Wonderful work, amazing art and great gardening!

Dear parents & carers, it's been a busy and productive couple of weeks since I last contacted you. Our children have been working incredibly hard and are producing some fantastic learning. I have seen some wonderful writing across the school as we write about our dream park in year 1 and 2 and in KS2 pupils are completing their non-chronological reports which are looking amazing. Well done everyone!

Gardening Greatness
This week has seen the recommencement of Gardening club, expertly and kindly run and organised by Miss Birkinshaw and Mrs Speare. The children worked hard on watering all our plants, weeding the raised beds and tidying the garden area after the summer holidays. Next week we are planting potatoes, and spring bulbs. Well done to you all. If you think your child would enjoy taking part in Gardening Club just pop into school or let your child’s class teacher know.

Assembling for Assembly!
It was great to see so many parents, grandparents and friends come along to celebrate with their children and grandchildren at our celebration assembly last week. We look forward to welcoming you all into school over the course of the term and year.
Autumn Assembly
Just a reminder that our Autumn Assembly takes place on Friday 16th October at 9am at the Infant site, everyone is welcome.

Being a Buddy!
A number, in fact the majority of children in Year 4, have been talking to me about being a 'Playground Buddy'. Following discussions with Mrs Owen and Mrs Speare our Playground Buddies are now up and running! Each day our playground buddies are on the playground to help, support, talk to and play with children from across all year groups. Well done and thank you to you all.

Callington Honey Fair – Saturday 3rd October
As many of you will know, Callington Honey Fair is being held on Saturday. Copper Valley have been asked to be part of the event. Pupils from each year group have entered an art related competition and members from our school choir will be in attendance singing a few of their favourite songs. If you can come along, it would be great to see you.

Thank you for your continued support, Mr Arnold and the Copper Valley Team.

Welcome to 5/6K class blog. The children will be making regular vlog updates so please keep an eye on this page to see all our wonderful learning. Below you will find the very first blog entry- thank you to Evalina, Harry, Jude and Iyla for volunteering to create our first vlog of the year. 

Many thanks,
Miss Kite, Miss Price and the team

The children continue to settle brilliantly into school life and it has been lovely to see their confidence growing each day. Our classroom has been full of busy learners, with lots of exploring, playing, talking, creating and making new friends.

We have been busy learning new sounds this week and the children have worked incredibly hard to remember them. We have been practising saying our sounds clearly and recognising the pictures that help us remember them. The children have also enjoyed working with Fred the Frog and are beginning to develop their early blending skills. It is wonderful to see how enthusiastic they are becoming about phonics! 

In maths, we have continued to practise counting accurately. The children have been learning the importance of counting one object at a time and making sure that we don't miss anything or count something twice. We have been looking for opportunities to count throughout the day, both during our maths sessions and within our continuous provision. The children are becoming increasingly confident with their numbers and are beginning to apply their counting skills independently during play.

We enjoyed taking our learning outdoors this week with a fantastic leaf hunt! The children loved searching for different leaves and talking about their colours, shapes and sizes. They were fantastic explorers, carefully looking around our outdoor environment and sharing their discoveries with their friends. We also had lots of fun during PE with our parachute games. The children worked together to move the parachute up, down and around while listening carefully to instructions. There were lots of smiles and laughter! These games were a wonderful opportunity to develop our physical skills as well as learning how to work together as a team.

It has been particularly lovely to see the children's friendships developing. They are becoming more confident when approaching one another, inviting friends into their games and sharing ideas during their play. We are seeing lots of lovely examples of children helping each other, taking turns and beginning to solve little problems together. The children are becoming increasingly familiar with our routines and are growing in independence too. It is wonderful to see them making choices about their learning and confidently exploring everything that Tregantle Class has to offer.

What a busy and successful week it has been! We are incredibly proud of all the children and the progress they are making. Well done, Tregantle Class — we can't wait to see what next week brings!

Workshops

This week, the children in year 5 and 6 were so lucky to spend the day learning about World War Two with a visit from 'Blast From the Past'.

They started the day with a presentation about Winston Churchill and some video footage from important moments in the war. Then they took part in some workshops where they played a game of rummy using propaganda posters, identified mystery objects and used different codes to find messages. In the afternoon, they made gliders based on spitfires and Messerschmitts and we created our own Battle of Britain in the playground to see how far they would fly.

It was a fantastic day and the children thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Workshops

This week, the children in year 5 and 6 were so lucky to spend the day learning about World War Two with a visit from 'Blast From the Past'. 

They started the day with a presentation about Winston Churchill and some video footage from important moments in the war. Then they took part in some workshops where they played a game of rummy using propaganda posters, identified mystery objects and used different codes to find messages. In the afternoon, they made gliders based on spitfires and Messerschmitts and we created our own Battle of Britain in the playground to see how far they would fly. 

It was a fantastic day and the children thoroughly enjoyed themselves. 

This week we have continued exploring all about us and what makes us unique.  The children enjoyed using a mirror to look at their own special features, to see what colour their eyes are, and what other facial features they could name. 

We have continued to explore animals and where they may live.  The children were able to use natural resources to build homes and habitats for the animals. We also enjoyed some games to help us understand where each animal would live.  Such as the jungle, the ocean, the desert (hot) or the North Pole (cold).

In our outside play we have been building ramps to roll and push cars up and down, and building our gross motor skills by doing lots of climbing around our climbing frame.  

A reminder that on Thursday 8th October is our Forest School day with Mrs Edwards and Lantic Class.  Please do bring in a water proof coat, water proof puddle suit if your has one.  Please check that your child has spare clothes in pre-school too!

As the weather begins to become more consistently autumnal, can we please ask that your child is sent with a waterproof coat everyday to enjoy outside play.

Thank you
The Pre-School Team

Mastering Number and making fairy wands! 

We’ve been busy in Heligan class this week!

We have started our new scheme: Mastering Number, which helps the children to recognise numbers and to help them remember key number facts. We have been focusing on subitising this week and different numbers we can use to make 5. The children have begun recognising the numbers without needing to count and can also explain how they make 5. We are looking forward to how this helps with their maths learning throughout the year.

We have also been to our outdoor learning session with Mrs Gregory. This time, we made fairy wands and used them to blow bubbles. We found sticks outside and used wool to create different colours and make different patterns. We were then using our fairy wands during our role play in provision time.

We have been working lots and lots on our number formation, as this is a goal for all Year 1. We have done this through writing in the air, practising our numbers on whiteboards and practising forming the number on a peg board. We are going to keep working on our numbers until we are super confident writing them down.

We have also been busy practising our Harvest Festival songs for our Harvest Assembly next week. This is at 10am on Tuesday 6th October if any parents would like to come along. We have been working so hard on our singing so it will be lovely to share it with our adults!

Well done Heligan class, another fantastic week.

We have been playing with words

On Monday, our Year 2/3 class, Kynance and our Perfoming Arts children were delighted to be invited to the first workshop of the Festival of Words Week - an key annual event in Looe.  This took place in the wonderfully historic Guildhall on Looe High Street.  The children were asked to look at one of the historic pictures from within the town council chamber and to write a letter as if they were one of the figures in the painting, writing to another figure in the painting, using the picture to frame the story that they were going to write about.  Some of the writing produced was stunning with some very clever story telling.  One of the stories was read out to the audience at the end of the session. 

There are lots of events being held throughout the week, so do check it out and get involved; the events are not just for children and there are many venues involved.  You might also enjoy the  Seagull Trail that is available through the shops and venues in town - can you spot Stephen the Seagull on your trail?  He has a few friends too!

Our Year 5/6 Minack and Mount Edgecumbe classes will enjoy further activities at the end of the week, again at the Guildhall and we are looking forward to seeing what they achieve during their day with the Festival of Words team.

Looe is an amazing place to live and there is so much for us all to get involved in.  Have you found your 'thing' yet?

Copilot This week, we have been busy learning across the curriculum. In English, we have been exploring the legend of Robin Hood and learning about his adventures, characters and setting. We have looked closely at the features of the story and gathered ideas ready for writing our own exciting Robin Hood narratives next week. The children have enjoyed discussing how Robin Hood outwitted his enemies and helped those in need.

In Science, the class became engineers as they investigated parachute designs. They carried out fair tests to discover which parachutes fell most slowly, helping me decide on the best design for a new cycling jacket. The children carefully observed, measured and recorded their results before discussing which features made a parachute most effective.

In Computing, we have been creating animations using Micro:Bit devices. The children enjoyed programming different sequences and seeing their ideas come to life.

In Maths, Year 6 have been exploring different multiplication strategies and thinking carefully about how known facts can help us solve new calculations. For example, we have used ×10 and then divided by 2 to work out questions involving ×5. Meanwhile, Year 5 have been completing their place value unit by tackling challenging reasoning questions, such as finding the smallest and largest numbers that round to 360 when rounding to the nearest 10. These tricky problems have certainly stretched our understanding and encouraged us to explain our mathematical thinking with confidence.

It has been another productive and enjoyable week, and we are looking forward to sharing our Robin Hood stories with you next week.