Posted 25/05/2025
by Jane Cansdale
In May, we have been enjoying some beautiful sunshine. This month, we've been focusing on developing our gross motor skills both indoors and outdoors in the warm weather.
During Hall Time, we practice our climbing, balancing, and strength exercises. We have also used these skills outside.
This term, our theme has been "People Who Help Us." It has been fun learning about the jobs of veterinarians, medical professionals, police officers, firefighters, and dentists.
In Science, we have been exploring scientists and inventors, including Ole Kirk Christiansen, who invented Lego. We had a great time creating our own Lego inventions. We also learned about George Mottershead, whose dream was to build a "zoo without bars" after witnessing an elephant chained behind bars as a child. He was the founder of Chester Zoo.
Much planting has taken place this month, including cucumbers, strawberries, sunflowers, and wildflowers. We are excited to watch them grow over the next few months.
Posted 23/05/2025
by Alice Wilkie
This week, we have been working hard on finishing up our letters to King Charles on plastic pollution. These will be prepared to be sent after half term. Fingers crossed we get a royal reply! We have also continued working on Fractions in Maths, with Year 2 finding quarters and thirds, and Year 3 finding fractions of amounts.
Preparations for Polperro Festival have begun! Please make sure you practise your speaking parts, dance moves and My Lighthouse song. Here are some links which should help you!
Walk like an Egyptian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jr6fOhS123s
My Lighthouse song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFBZJGSgyVQ
Congratulations to Benjamin and April for being Landaviddy's People of the Week! And a big well done to Jemima for achieving her 99 club badge!
We hope you have a wonderful half term holiday and come back feeling refreshed on Monday 2nd June 2025.
Mrs Wilkie, Mrs Phillips, Miss Bowden and Miss Colton
Posted 23/05/2025
by Ben Heasman-Langley
Wishing you all a brilliant week off and can’t wait to see you all for our final half term.
CONGRATULATIONS to Lily and Everly for earning their next badge in 99 club and great effort to the whole of Talland class for a super half term.
Thought we would show you some of our best bits from this half term. We hope you enjoy!
Signing off from Mr. Langley, Mr. Bishop and Miss. Colton.
Posted 23/05/2025
by Sarah Burton
This week, Seaton class enjoyed using the microbits in their computing lesson. They showed off their coding skills by making different sounds and light patterns.
Posted 23/05/2025
by Sarah Burton
Today Seaton class enjoyed their reading with Daymer class. It was wonderful to see them sharing books and enjoying the wonderful grounds we have.
Posted 23/05/2025
by Sarah Burton
Today was break the rules day so we ended it by painting our nails. Everyone joined in and I enjoyed seeing the different colours. A fun end to the half term!
Posted 23/05/2025
by Joanna Rickard
Apologies for the absence of last weeks blog due to technical issues! This is a roundup of our last 2 weeks
of summer term 1 in pre-school.
We have completed our learning around our enquiry question ‘What
do we like to eat?’
Lots of different fruits and vegetables have been tried throughout
our snack time with the most popular ones being cucumber, grapes, peppers,
watermelon and pineapple. The children were all keen to try everything!
We have had lots of discussions around what our favourite
foods are, but also what we do not like and why. Sometimes it can be the texture of a food,
surprisingly many of the children did not like a tomato because they said it
was too squishy on the inside.
We have looked at where our food comes from, and what foods
we can grow in our gardens. We have even
planted some carrot seeds and a raspberry plant. We will keep watering and
crossing our fingers that they grow!
This week we have been using food items to investigate ‘heavy’
and ‘light’, we then took this into our play and explore time with weighing
pasta and rice on weighing scales.
Outside time has been glorious with the beautiful weather we
have had. The children have enjoyed lots
of water play, the sand pit, and the mud kitchen in our garden area. A lovely
way for us adults to observe their social and language skills as they use their
imaginations and interests to lead their play.
When we return after half term, we will have a new enquiry
question ‘Where can we go on an aeroplane?’ We will explore holiday
destinations, looking at world maps, what we may need to pack for a holiday
depending on the climate, what we will see and hear in different
countries.
A fun topic to build on the children’s
understanding of the world.
We return to pre-school on Monday 2nd June, but a
reminder that the Friday 6th is another Inset Day.
A newsletter was handed out this week but it will be attached below for anyone who has not received one.
Finally, if you wish to book a parent consultation to talk about how
your child is doing in pre-school then please sign up on the appointment sheet
in our entrance area.
We hope all our children and families have a wonderful half
term break.
The Pre-School Team.
Posted 23/05/2025
by Katie Grinsted
What a wonderful final week we’ve had in Tregantle Class before the half-term break! The children have been busy, creative, and full of enthusiasm as we've rounded off a brilliant few weeks of learning.
To bring our storytelling to life, we’ve been exploring the magical tale of Jack and the Beanstalk. Inspired by Jack’s adventure, the children planted their very own beans! We discussed what plants need to grow and each child carefully potted a bean to take care of. We can’t wait to see which ones grow as tall as the beanstalk in our story!
Our young writers also put their skills to the test, producing some fantastic sets of instructions on how to plant a bean. From neat handwriting to clear step-by-step guidance, we were so impressed by the effort and thought that went into their work. Budding authors in the making!
In PE, we had tremendous fun playing 'popcorn' – a game using the parachute and lots of bouncing balls! It was brilliant to see such great teamwork, energy, and laughter as everyone took part and encouraged each other. To top off the week, we were treated to a very special music session with our music specialist, Sally Butlin. The children had a brilliant time exploring rhythms and sounds, and their enthusiasm for making music was infectious. A huge thank you to Sally for such a joyful and engaging session.
We’re so proud of all the children for their hard work and enthusiasm this half term.
Have a lovely break, and we look forward to seeing you all refreshed and ready for more adventures next half term!
Posted 23/05/2025
by Emily Randle
Our final week of this Summer 1 term has flown by and Chaipel have been learning about Darwin's Theory of Evolution. We began by investigating his findings on finch adaptation, how their beaks have adapted to suit the food they have available. We then conducted an experiment into what this would look like, using a range of tools to replicate the size and shape of the beaks.
ENGLISH
We have completed our best copy write-up for our Tudor narratives. Everyone has done an incredible job and have written a story to be proud of. We are moving onto constructing a balanced argument on whether we are doing enough to fight the effects of Climate Change.
WIDER CURRICULUM
We have been practising our dolphin technique in swimming this week. In RE we have been looking into how Christians put their belief in Jesus into practice and in Geography, we have been charting Darwin's journey on HMS Beagle.
Congratulations to Lily and Isaac for being our People of the Week, demonstrating our school values and being exceptional role models.
Enjoy your half term break and see you all back for the final part of our term on Monday 2nd June!
Miss Randle, Mrs Clary, Miss Hodge and Miss Colton.
Posted 23/05/2025
by Michele Spencer
Thursday afternoon we came today in our TEAMS from Preschool to Year 6 to start our Sports Day preparations! We designed our TEAM banners, practised our TEAM chants and had some time together to get to know each other better. We are hoping to come together again soon as the children enjoyed this mixed age afternoon so much. Well done BEARAH, CHEESEWRING, KILMAR and SHARPTOR!
Posted 23/05/2025
by David Parry
This week, we’ve been putting on our reporter hats and learning how to create a news report—and the subject we covered was the desert biome. Desert biomes are fascinating places, and they have so much to teach us about how plants, animals, and even people survive in such an extreme environment. We learned how people use the desert in very unique ways, for instance, the military to fly supersonic fighter aircraft. Not only did we learn about the desert, but we also got to use video techniques to create our very own news reports. We used a range of techniques which included close-up, panning shot and long shot.
This week in French, we've been learning some super useful phrases that you can use every day, especially when you're talking about things around your home! Whether it's in the kitchen, the living room, or even the garden, these French phrases will help you talk about all the places and things you see in your house, for example: Les Phrases de la Maison (House Phrases)
When you talk about your house in French, it’s really helpful to know a few key phrases to get started. Here are some that we’ve learned:
Où est… ? (Where is…?)
Voici ma maison. (Here is my house.)
Ma chambre est… (My room is…)
Il y a… (There is…)
Je suis dans… (I’m in…)
Great job this week, Talland Class! You’ve learned some really useful skills in video camera usage, you understand how people make use of the barren land of the desert and are able to use some French phrases to talk about your home, and now you can practice using them to describe the rooms and things around you. Keep practicing, and soon you’ll be able to talk about everything in French—right from your own house!
Keep up the fantastic work, and remember: Pratiquez, pratiquez, pratiquez! (Practice, practice, practice!)
À bientôt (See you soon - after half term)!
best wishes, Mrs Swabey, Mr Parry and Mrs Walters.
Posted 23/05/2025
by Michaela Wright
This month we begun studying Cornwall. Our geography question being; ‘Where in the world do we live and how could we improve our local area?’ The children used maps and atlases to firstly look at the seven continents and after recapping that we lived in Europe the children began investigating exactly where Cornwall was located. They were able to tell me, using maps and atlases that Cornwall is in the South West of England which was part of the United Kingdom which is in Europe. They also used a local OS map to locate exactly where our local area of Gunnislake/St Ann’s Chapel is.
During our next lesson the children spent time creating their own sketch map of Cornwall from a high view point. This required them to use observational skills to recreate the shapes of the coastlines. Next, the children compared local maps from the 1950’s to the present day to identify similarities and differences between them. This encouraged them to ask and answer questions about place, positions, patterns and processes whilst investigating the maps.
In literacy this month we began to read and study ‘The Iron Man’ by Ted Hughes. We completed lots of VIPER activities to help us learn more about what we were reading and the children spent time writing character and setting descriptions. They completed hot seating activities to help them think about the questions they may ask certain characters as well as how those characters may answer the questions. We completed work on fronted adverbials, expanded noun phrases and apostrophes to help us prepare for or final write. The children used a story plan to plan out the story of the Iron Man from his point of view. They used writing toolkits to make sure they were including all of the necessary features.
In Maths we finished our decimal unit whilst continuing to practice our times tables.
In Science the children have been learning about ‘Changing States’. They identified the three different states and learnt about their particle arrangements and properties. They looked at reversible and irreversible changes and melting and boiling points of different materials. They then planned out an experiment investigating the melting points of different foods.
Posted 22/05/2025
by Sarah Evans
May has been all about Sir Francis Drake!
We have enjoyed learning all about why he is famous, especially in our locality.
Our topic culminated in a fantastic trip to Buckland Abbey today in the sunshine. We drove via Tavistock and spotted the statue on the roundabout. Then we had a tour of the house and found out lots about Sir Francis Drake and his extraordinary life. We also got to dress up in Tudor clothes and learnt how to wear ruffs, doublets and shifts!
Have a look at our wonderful photos.
In Science we have learned about plants and enjoyed dissecting seeds and bulbs. Then we planted some seeds in different conditions and observed what happened.
In Art we are learning all about Van Gogh and discussing his work. We have been sketching pictures of the sunflowers and we are painting them in the style of the artist ready for our art exhibition in June.
Posted 22/05/2025
by Darren Woolner
What a wonderful half term it has been at Brunel Primary and Nursery Academy. At 3:10pm today, we close our doors for the start of the half term break. Our school will reopen on Monday 2nd June for the second half of the Summer Term. We can't thank our whole community enough for your continued support.
In the meantime, please enjoy this week's edition of the Brunel Bulletin. Have a wonderful half term break.
Posted 22/05/2025
by Jacob Lewis
Posted 22/05/2025
by Joanne Pentreath
.
As we
approach the half-term break, we're excited to share the enriching activities
and learning experiences your children have engaged in this week.
English:
Crafting Imaginary Worlds
This
week, our English lessons transported students into the realm of creative
writing. They crafted stories set in imaginative worlds, employing figurative
language and expanded noun phrases to bring their narratives to life. This
exercise not only enhanced their descriptive writing skills but also encouraged
them to explore the depths of their imagination.
Mathematics:
Exploring Fractions and Decimals
In Year
3, students focused on comparing unit fractions and fractions with identical
denominators. They learned that among unit fractions, the larger the
denominator, the smaller the fraction, and practiced ordering them accordingly.
Year 4
students delved into the world of decimals. They connected hundredths to tenths
and place value, extending their understanding of the number line to link
fractions, numbers, and measure.
Geography:
The Spread of Christianity in Anglo-Saxon Britain
Our
geography lessons explored the historical spread of Christianity during the Anglo-Saxon
era. Students learned about key figures like St. Augustine, who began
converting influential Anglo-Saxon leaders such as King Ethelbert of Kent
around 595 AD, leading to significant cultural and religious transformations in
Britain.
PSHE:
Understanding and Addressing Bullying
In PSHE,
the focus was on recognising bullying and understanding appropriate responses. Students
discussed various scenarios, learning strategies to address and prevent
bullying, fostering a supportive and respectful school environment.
Design
and Technology: Castle Construction Day
A
highlight of the week was our Design and Technology day, where students
designed and built model castles. They incorporated features such as turrets,
towers, flags, and drawbridges, using materials like cardboard and recycled
items. This hands-on activity allowed them to apply their knowledge of 2D and
3D shapes creatively.
Special
Events: Playground Opening and Author Workshop
Excitement
filled the air with the opening of the new KS1 playground. Each child received
a lunchbox and water bottle to celebrate this occasion.
Additionally,
students enjoyed sharing reading sessions with Tregantle class outdoors, taking
advantage of the sunny weather.
We also
hosted an online author workshop with Neill Cameron, known for "Donut
Squad." Students enthusiastically participated, designing their own
characters and gaining insights into the creative process of comic book
creation.
Looking
Ahead
Please
note that tomorrow is an INSET day, and the following week is half-term. We
encourage you to enjoy this time with your families. We look forward to
welcoming the students back after the break, refreshed and ready for more
learning adventures.
Posted 22/05/2025
by Jacob Lewis
Posted 22/05/2025
by Melissa Pinfield
This week we have been researching our own discussion texts in class. We are very passionate from a range of subjects from whether there should be animal testing to whether vapes should be illegal. Watch this space for examples of our work after we have had a chance to write up our texts after half term.
We have also been practising ready for the cricket tournament which has been rescheduled for Friday 13th June 2025. We are keeping fingers crossed for the weather and for a sunny day this time.
We have also been learning about Queen Elizabeth's royal progress and imaging what it would have been like to be there. Here is the opening from Lexi's writing which starts, " As the clock struck 10:00, I knew it was nearly time for our own monarch to come to town. I was strictly forbidden to go and see our monarch but my curiosity got ahead of me. Very quietly, I dressed in my very best Sunday clothes."
Just a reminder that next half term is swimming. We will be swimming on Monday 2nd June at Mount Kelly pool. Please make sure you send your child in with a swimming costume, goggles and a towel on this date.
Posted 22/05/2025
by Jane Wills
Sailing Lessons Resume with a Strong Start!
We're excited that sailing lessons have resumed for our class. Yet again, we have benefited from the generosity of our fabulous community with fully funded sailing, kayaking and paddle boarding lessons. This week, the children started their adventure with kayaking sessions. The instructors were particularly impressed by how mature and supportive the children were, noting how they built on the skills and knowledge gained last year to help guide and encourage the younger participants. It's been wonderful to see their growth and teamwork in action!
Swimming Lessons
This week marked the final swimming lesson of the term, and what a brilliant end it was! The children completed their final assessments, showcasing the water safety and life-saving skills they’ve worked so hard to develop. We’re incredibly proud of how far they’ve all come.
To celebrate their progress, we held a special assembly where certificates were handed out for achievements and milestones reached during the swimming programme. It was wonderful to recognise each child’s effort and commitment. We have uploaded lots of photos from the session on your child's SeeSaw journal.
A Day to Remember
As if that wasn’t exciting enough, we also had an amazing trip to the Hall for Cornwall to watch Horrible Histories. The show was a big hit with everyone—funny, educational, and thoroughly entertaining. It was a fantastic experience for all the children, and a big thank you goes to FOPA for providing the funds to make this brilliant trip possible.
A memorable week full of learning, laughter and celebration!
Remember Friday is an INSET day. School resumes Monday 2nd June with another kayaking session.
Have a lovely half term
Mrs W
Posted 22/05/2025
by Anthea Hillman
This half term has flown by and the children have spent so much time outside and in the pool. Let’s
hope the weather continues after the half term break for the many activities we have planned for
the final half term of the school year.
In our celebration assembly today, we had a visit from the Mayor of Polperro and Mrs Finnmore, our Chair of Governors, who presented prizes
to the winners of the Polperro Festival programme cover competition. Very well done to our
winners: Evie Penhallow Class; Amber Landaviddy Class; Flora Talland Class and Hamish Chaipel
Class. Special congratulations to Flora, the overall winner, whose design will be on the cover of this
year’s Polperro Festival Programme.
Clubs
All clubs will start again straight after half term as follows:
Monday: After School Swimming Club (Mr Langley/Mrs Turnbull) for years 4, 5 and 6. This is for
confident swimmers who can swim at least 25 metres using a recognised stroke. It will be run on a
first come first served basis as the pool can only accommodate 15 pupils at a time. The club will take
place even in cooler weather - we can provide wetsuits or children can bring their own on cooler
days.
Tuesday: After school Alternative Sports (Mrs Hillman) for years 3-6 (to include swimming when the
weather permits)
Thursday: After School Gardening Club for all ages (Miss Randle/Mrs Wilkie/Mrs Fitzsimmons, Mrs
Peters)
Friday: After School Running Club (Mrs Turnbull/Miss Bowden) for years 2-6.
As usual, please email secretary@polperroprimary.co.uk to confirm which clubs your child would like
to take part in. Please note that running club will include year 2 for this term and will revert to years
3-6 in September. There will be no running club on Friday 13th June. After School Alternative Sports
Club will not run on the Polperro Festival’s School’s Day on 17th June.
Rainbow Run Cornwall 2025
Rainbow Run returns to RAF St Mawgan Newquay on Saturday 21 June 2025 and is open to anyone
aged 5 years old and over. You can run, skip, walk or jog with family, friends or work colleagues and
be showered in powder paint at 8 different colour stations while raising vital funds for Children’s
Hospice South West. Please see attached poster for details.
Parent Champions Cornwall Council is looking for parent volunteers who give a few hours a week to talk to other
parents about the local services available to them. Parent Champions can make a big difference by sharing their experiences and knowledge with other parents. Please see attached poster and FAQs
for further information.
Upcoming dates
Tomorrow is an INSET day. Friday 6
th June is an INSET day. School Class photos are on the morning
of 10th June. The school will be performing at the Polperro School Festival Day on Big Green this year
on Tuesday 17
th June. Sports Day is on 25th June (10am-12) with a reserve date of 27th June. These
and other diary dates can be found on the Events Diary page.
As always, thank you for your support this half term. Have a lovely break and we look forward to
seeing the children back in school on Monday 2nd June.
Mrs Hillman
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