Well, it's been a tough week but we can safely say that the SATS are over for us! Everyone has been amazing and we have really worked together as a team to support each other. It was Nuala's birthday on the Thursday, and we celebrated the end of the SATS by having cake and lots of fun! We tie-dyed our T-shirts in the afternoons and they have turned out AMAZING!! Next week, we will be sewing on appliques and really personalising them.

There is no much more to say except, "Have a well-deserved rest this weekend. Everyone has deserved it!"

Miss Randle and Mrs Clary. 

This week, we have had an absolutely fantastic time in school with lots of exciting learning taking place across the curriculum. One of the highlights of the week was our wonderful trip to the Box and the Hoe, which linked closely to our Science learning about living things. The children behaved brilliantly throughout the visit and showed so much enthusiasm and curiosity. They asked lots of thoughtful and brilliant questions, demonstrating just how engaged they were with their learning. It was lovely to see their confidence grow as they explored and discovered new things together.

In Maths, the children have now completed their unit on fractions. They worked incredibly hard to develop their understanding of halves, quarters and equal parts, and they should feel very proud of all the progress they have made. Next week, we will begin our new unit on money, where the children will be learning to recognise coins and notes and use them in practical problem-solving activities.

In Literacy, the children have been busy imitating the story Lost and Found. 

In RE, the children have been learning about the Creation Story and thinking carefully about why it is important to Christians. They enjoyed discussing the world around them and reflecting on the beauty of nature and how we should care for it.

Our History lessons have focused on the Great Fire of London. This week, the children worked collaboratively to diamond-rank different pieces of information about the event, discussing which facts they thought were the most important and explaining their reasoning carefully. They showed excellent teamwork and listening skills during these discussions.

In PSHE, we continued thinking about friendships and what it means to be a good friend. The children shared thoughtful ideas about kindness, listening, helping others and including everyone in games and activities. It has been lovely to see these values being demonstrated around the classroom too.

In PE, we learned compass skills and practised giving and following directions. 

Reception have also had a brilliant week. In Maths, they have been learning more about number composition and understanding what numbers are made up from. For example, they explored how ten and one more makes eleven. They have been developing their confidence using practical resources to represent numbers in different ways. Reception also had great fun learning more fascinating facts about space and enjoyed sharing their knowledge about planets, stars and astronauts.

Well done to all of the children for another wonderful week of learning, hard work and enthusiasm! 

TALLAND'S BLOG 15.5.26

Hoping everyone has had an excellent week and are looking forward to the weekend! The children have been brilliant this week and so respectful to all of the year 6's during their SATS week! 

Here's a snapshot of what we've been learning:

Maths:
Year 5 have been working their way through converting units. We've investigated metric and imperial measurements and have been using our multiplying and dividing skills to convert.
Year 4 have been enjoying their unit on money where they have been solving problems, converting and delving into real world scenarios.

English:
Talland's persuasive letters were brilliant. They were such a joy to read - they're clearly passionate about the health and safety of our beaches, oceans and aquatic life!

Computing:
We have been creating music on an app called 'Scratch'. Children have been using movie genres to produce a sound track which could fit the theme - noisy, but good fun!

RE:
We've been looking at Jesus and his disciples - why he chose them and what they sacrificed to follow him. Why not ask your child what is meant by 'fishers of men'... 

PE:
In PE, children were trying to have rallies and use a range of shots to return the shuttlecock. They were also thinking about their positioning and tactics when working with a doubles partner.

Celebrations:
Congratulations to Renley and Max for earning their new badge and moving on to their next round of the 99 Club. A great effort from Kayla and Arnie this week - they got noticed for excellent pieces of writing and taking their learning home to practice. 

That's all from Talland Class this week. We hope you have a wonderful weekend and look forward to seeing everyone next week.

Signing off, Mr. Langley and Mr. Bishop.

First of all, thank you to all the Class 2 families for making time to come into class this morning to share in the amazing writing the children have been doing this term. It was really lovely to see you all first thing in the morning to celebrate the progress that each child in Class 2 has made in the past year.

Class 2 have had another full week of amazing learning adventures - so many new facts discovered, so many new skills learned and so many more memories made. In Literacy, we have finished writing the neat copies of our setting description. We have had some awesome sentences and imaginative use of words. On the left is an image of one such writing. We have now started a new unit on writing a diary entry.  In Maths, we have completed our unit on Fractions and have just completed our Cold Task for the next unit on telling time.

In Science, we used all our knowledge of mini-beasts and their microhabitats to help us design our own microhabitats for our outside area. In Computing, we have begun experimenting with the Stop Motion app to make our own stop motion animations. In History, we learned about motte-and-bailey castles and stone keeps. In RE, we have begun exploring how Christians bring Jesus' good news to others.

In Art, we have finally assessed our structures and explored different ways to make the structures more stable before using our creativity to decorate them. We have had some very creative structures. Please check below for a photo illustration of the process we followed to get to the end result. You will also be able to see a photo of your child's creation if you check their Showbie portfolio.

Finally, a very well done to:

> Jimmy for getting the Ready Award for the amazing progress he has been making in Maths.
> Jane for getting the Respectful Award for taking really good care of her equipment.
> Harriet for getting the Safe Award for being an amazing team player.
> Isabella for getting her London Achievement Award.

The Storytellers have been eagerly waiting for our duck eggs to hatch, but as they are now overdue, we are still keeping our fingers crossed that our little ducklings will arrive soon!

 In the meantime, we were very lucky to have a fabulous parent bring in some newly hatched chicks for the children to see and gently handle. This was such a wonderful experience for the children, giving them the opportunity to observe the tiny chicks up close, talk about how to care for animals, and learn about the life cycle of birds.

The children were incredibly calm, gentle, and caring whilst holding the chicks, and they thoroughly enjoyed watching them cheep, move around, and snuggle together. It was a lovely hands-on learning experience that created lots of excitement, curiosity, and conversation throughout the day.

It has been an incredibly busy week this week: This newsletter will give just a snapshot of what we have been up to! Year 6 have all done their KS2 SATs tests. There were some tricky questions but each and every one of them tried their hardest and I am so proud of all of them. It is never an easy week, but they all need to remember that whatever their results, SATs will only show what they are like in that test and not what they are like as people, their passions, ambition and what they all succeed in each day. Well done Year 6! Class 1 had a great trip to St Jospeh's in Launceston this Tuesday. The children got involved in a lot of different sports and games. Who knew they would be so good at cricket! Thank-you to St Joseph's for hosting the day. Next week is the final week of this half term - I know, it seems to have flown by! Friday is an INSET day, and school is closed to pupils but before then, Class 2 are joining with 4 other schools to perform in the "Festival of Belonging". They have been working really hard on their performance, and we are all looking forward to the show. Please see the posters and flyers that have gone home for more details. All are welcome! Thank-you to you all for keeping the zig-zag lines at the front of school free at drop-off and pickup time. This has really helped the safety of the pupils. Can I also ask again that children are not permitted to play on the trim trail on the playground at the start and end of the day. These are unsupervised times and we want to make sure that the children are safe. Finally, we have noticed an increase in small toys being brought in from home. We understand that some children need items to fidget with in class to maintain concentration and these children have had conversations with staff and the school are able to provide fidgets for these children as we have a supply in school. If you feel your child would benefit from this, please talk to staff. We are not responsible for anything brought from home without prior consent and items seen will be removed in class and returned home.

Storytellers set off on a big bug hunt through our beautiful forest and hedgerow habitat, but before we began exploring, we talked about where insects and bugs might like to live and what they might need in their homes, such as leaves, logs, damp soil and long grass. 

The children each took a little toy bug with them and carefully searched for the perfect place where they thought their bug would like to live. Some chose cosy spots under leaves, while others found fallen logs, mossy areas and tiny hiding places amongst the hedgerows.

 The children thoroughly enjoyed exploring the woods, climbing, searching and discovering the natural world around them. Activities like this help children build confidence, curiosity and an understanding of nature, while developing their communication, teamwork and problem-solving skills through play and exploration

We have had a super busy week at Brunel and couldn't be prouder of our Year 6 children who have been so determined and focussed during their End of KS2 SATS. It has also been a busy week with visitors, trips and super learning experiences for our children. We hope that you all have a wonderful weekend and we look forward to seeing you all on Monday. In the meantime, please enjoy browsing through this week's edition of The Brunel Bulletin. 

Friday 15th May

Some of this weeks learning

In English this week the children have been drawing pictures from our story and then writing small captions underneath to match their picture. Then the children have been writing lists of their favourite fruits ready to finish our unit of work next week by making Hungry Caterpillar fruit kebabs. The adults were so impressed with the children's phoneme to grapheme correspondence, and we have had some amazing writing.  

In maths this week we have concentrated on adding more. We have done this in many ways using lots of different resources. The children have worked hard at using full mathematical sentences when answering questions and using mats I the provision.  

The children have continued to embrace the minibeast life and have been real scientists looking at and exploring, classifying and describing. They have also made painted butterflies and have drawn bees and bee hives after our special community visitor Liam came to show us his bee keeping equipment and tell us all about bees and how honey is made. We even got the chance to taste honey and try on a bee keeping suit!

We continue to be amazed with how well the children are progressing

We wish you  a wonderful weekend

The Foundation Team 

I am so incredibly proud of year 6 this week! They have approached SATs with maturity, determination and resilience. 

They have taken all the tests in their stride and gave them all their full effort. I hope they have a much deserved relaxing weekend!

Miss Burton

This week, the class have been busy exploring our science topic on habitats through an exciting practical activity, grafting willow. Although our attempts did not work out quite as we had hoped, it provided a valuable learning opportunity and sparked lots of thoughtful discussion about what plants need to survive and grow. During our time outdoors, we also made a lovely discovery of a stray caterpillar, which quickly became a focus of interest. Josh, in particular, has been making some fantastic observations about the caterpillar and has linked his ideas brilliantly to our learning about the life cycles of mammals, well done Josh! Year 6 have also shown incredible perseverance this week as they tackled their SATs with determination and maturity, and they should feel extremely proud of all their hard work. To celebrate the end of a busy week, we enjoyed a well-deserved class picnic together. We would also like to invite parents to come into the classroom tomorrow from 8:40am to take a look at the wonderful writing the children have been producing, we look forward to sharing it with you!

Tregantle Class Visit Saltash Fire Station

This week, Tregantle Class enjoyed an exciting visit to Saltash Fire Station.

The children walked to the station and spent the afternoon learning all about fire safety and fire prevention. The firefighters showed the children around the fire station and explained how they help keep the community safe.

Everyone loved exploring the fire engine and discovering all of the different equipment carried onboard. One of the highlights of the visit was having the chance to use the water hose and aim at a target - the children had so much fun taking turns and showing off their aiming skills!

The children also enjoyed trying on the firefighters' protective kit and pretending to be firefighters themselves. It was wonderful to see their enthusiasm and curiosity throughout the visit.

A huge thank you to everyone at Saltash Fire Station for welcoming us and inspiring the next generation of firefighters!

Our focus story is We're going on a picnic' and we designed our own picnic blankets today at St Anne's.

We had a wonderful afternoon with the residents and staff at St Anne's this week - who really enjoyed listening to our poetry readings - these were the incredible poems we wrote for the Fowey Festival Competition about animals that come out 'After Dark'. 
We also enjoyed listening to the memories and stories the residents shared with us about their own pets and favourite animals. Thank you to St Anne's for hosting us and we look forward to seeing you all again soon! 

Well done to Team Brunel who had several prize winners and several runners-up and highly commended in the competition. Two prize winners were invited to Fowey Harbour Hotel for a special presentation with their families and won Waterstones vouchers. What a creative group of young people we have at Brunel!

We have continued with exploring planting and growing this week at nursery.
The children have planted sunflower seeds and are very excited that their flower and broad bean seeds from last week are starting to grow!
They have enjoyed some still life painting of fruit this week. The children have identified different fruits in the bowl, naming them and discussing differences before having a go at painting them with some great results.

At story time this week we have read the book "Supertato" and "Tilly Plants a Tree". The children have been encouraged to identify different parts of plants from the book such as petal, stem and leaves.

In phonics this week we have been channeling our inner superhero's and have been making speech sounds to different superhero moves. The children used instruments to play along to the song "Superhero's in the sky" and have been matching initial sounds to the correct superhero.

In maths we have continued to create our own patterns and recognition of different numbers.

We have four more days until the half term now and just a little reminder that next Friday is an INSET day so we will be closed.

Have a good weekend

Julie and Sarah