It was a real privilege this week to see three members of our class attend the presentation evening at Plymouth University alongside representatives from the Orwell Society and members of Plymouth University. We were incredibly proud of how they represented our school and celebrated the fantastic work they had completed. Mrs May was joined by George Orwell's son, Richard Blair, who presented with a piece of slate from teh roof of Orwell's cottage in Jura.  What a lovely memento to have.  Many thanks to the George Orwell Society for their kind gift.   During the evening, we were delighted to receive two wonderful books: The Bluest of Blues, which tells the inspiring story of Anna Atkins, and a children's adaptation of George Orwell's Animal Farm. We also collected our beautiful artwork and poetry, inspired by flowers and created using the cyanotype technique, which looked fantastic on display.

Back in the classroom, we have been putting the finishing touches to our exciting outlaw narratives, ready to write up and share with others. In science, we have been investigating the best shapes for swim gloves, exploring how streamlined designs help objects move more efficiently through water. Through testing and discussion, we have been considering which shapes reduce resistance and make the most effective designs. Well done to everyone for another week of creativity, hard work and curiosity! 

This week in pre-school we have continued with our focus on 'all about me'.  We talked with the children about lots of different animals and asked them to tell us what their favourite animal was.  We then completed some art work for our favourite animal. We had snakes, cats, ponies, and cows!

This allowed the children to share their ideas and to think about what it is about the animal that they like the best.
We then had a variety of animals from farm, jungle, artic and pets that we had on our tuff tray to give them all a bath and say their names as we were cleaning them. 
We encouraged conversations around where they may live and what sounds they make.

Our All About Me display now has our paper plate portraits and our jigsaw puzzle faces on to show all our unique features.

We have been very lucky with our continued dry weather as we transition in to Autumn.  The mornings definitely feel cooler, and our playground has an abundance of fallen leaves for the children to play with.

We will be discussing all the changes we see through autumn, and we encourage the children to bring in anything they may want to share that they find whilst out on an autumn walk with their families.

A reminder that Thursday 8th September pre-school is joining Lantic Class and Miss Edwards for a fun forest school day.  Wellies, coats (or puddle suit) is needed for this day. 

The Pre-School Team.

We were incredibly proud to see two of our children invited to the Sherwell Conference Centre at the University of Plymouth for a special celebration of the wonderful work our children have undertaken alongside The Orwell Society.

It was a real honour to share the evening with Richard Blair, George Orwell’s son, and Quentin Kopp, son of Georges Kopp – Orwell’s commander and close friend during the Spanish Civil War. Their presence made an already memorable occasion even more significant. During the evening, Mrs May-Bracey and Mr Woolner spoke passionately about the difference this opportunity has made to children across Bridge Schools.

Over the past few years, our children have explored Orwell’s legacy through inspiring learning experiences, workshops, literature, nature, science and creativity. Most importantly, they have had opportunities to follow in Orwell’s footsteps – learning about the places, people and experiences that influenced his life and writing, while creating work and memories of their own. 

We are incredibly grateful to everyone at The Orwell Society and the University of Plymouth who has helped make these experiences possible. For our children to have their work recognised and celebrated in this way was a very proud moment.

A wonderful example of what can happen when schools, universities and communities work together to inspire the next generation.

Hello Everyone,

It was lovely to see so many of you at our meet the teacher meeting on Tuesday. If you have any questions, or were unable to attend, please don’t hesitate to see me at the end of a day, or email me at hfitzsimmons@polperroprimary.co.uk.

This week in Penhallow we have been continuing to improve our writing through ‘drawing club’. Our work this week has been based on the story ‘Not Now Bernard’ by David McKee. The children have enjoyed being creative and imaginative, inventing their own monster for the story, writing codes to make their monster move, drawing Bernard’s house, and deciding which foods the monster could eat. It really is a joy to see our children enjoying stories and being imaginative. Well done Penhallow. 

In art this week, we have continued to work on self portraits, as well as creating a large collage of Elmer the elephant. We have used a variety of materials this week including paint, pastels and collage materials.

We have been so fortunate with the weather again this week, and everyone has enjoyed plenty of time learning outside. We have used chalk to draw and practice the letters that we have learnt in phonics. The children have been practicing being collaborative, building dens, solving problems together and discussing ideas. 

Reception have been working hard in mathematics this week, where we have been using number blocks characters to learn about the numbers 1,2 and 3. They have been practicing their mathematical vocabulary outside of our mathematics lessons as well as practicing forming these numbers correctly in the outside area.

Have a lovely weekend,

From The Penhallow Team

Class Leader elections were held this week with the children writing their manifestos and presenting them to the class. We held a blind vote to elect our chosen candidate - Congratulations to Harriette, Jowan, Emilia and Stanley.

We've continued to apply our knowledge of Place Value in Maths, using Base 10 to support our understanding, moving onto number lines and calculating intervals and the difference between numbers.

In English, we've identified subject and verb in independent clauses and discussed the use of pronouns in our writing.

On Monday, we were very lucky to be visited by an author called Laura Sweet who shared chapters from one of her books and also gave us a step-by-step drawing workshop on how to draw one of her characters called 'Toad'. Thank you Laura, we loved it! Please take a look here too: St Cleer Primary Academy - Heads Blog

Carnglaze caverns

Another Wonderful Week of Learning!

We have had another fantastic week at school, and the children have continued to amaze us with their enthusiasm, curiosity and positive attitudes towards their learning.

A particular highlight of the week was our trip to Carnglaze Caverns yesterday. The children were wonderful representatives of our school and made us incredibly proud. They listened carefully, followed instructions and showed great excitement and curiosity throughout the trip. It was lovely to see them enjoying the experience together and making some special memories.

Please remember to check your child’s book bag this evening, as they will be bringing home letters containing important information about the pantomime in December. We are very excited about this upcoming event and hope the children will enjoy the opportunity to take part in such a special festive experience.

Maths

In Maths this week, we have been developing our understanding of numbers to 20. The children have been practising ordering numbers and thinking carefully about which numbers are bigger or smaller. We have also been comparing different amounts and using mathematical language to explain our thinking. The children have enjoyed using practical resources and talking about how they know which amount is greater or smaller.

English

In English, we have been revisiting our learning about verbs. The children have been identifying verbs in sentences and discussing how verbs tell us about an action or what someone or something is doing. We have been working hard to use our growing understanding of verbs when speaking and writing, and it has been wonderful to see the children becoming more confident in recognising and using them.

History

Our History learning has been particularly exciting this week as we continued our exploration of flight and the Wright brothers. The children designed and created their very own paper aeroplanes, thinking carefully about how they could make their planes fly. They enjoyed testing their creations and beginning to think like inventors, just as the Wright brothers did when they were experimenting with flight.

ICT

In ICT, the children have been learning more about using an iPad to take photographs. They were challenged to take three pictures, thinking carefully about what they wanted to capture and how they could use the device appropriately. This gave the children an opportunity to develop their confidence with technology while also beginning to understand how photographs can be used to record and communicate information.

Music

In Music, we have been learning about tempo and how the speed of music can change. The children followed instructions carefully and explored how music can be fast or slow. They enjoyed responding to different tempos and developing their listening skills while working together as a class.

PSHE

During PSHE, we have been thinking about being responsible and what responsibility looks like in our classroom. We discussed the importance of looking after our belongings, making sensible choices, following classroom rules and helping others. The children shared some lovely ideas about how they can show responsibility every day and considered how their actions can help to make our classroom a happy and positive place for everyone.

Well done to all of the children for another brilliant week. We are incredibly proud of the effort they are putting into their learning and the kind, caring and responsible attitudes they continue to show. We hope everyone has a lovely weekend and gets plenty of rest ready for another exciting week ahead!

TALLAND'S BLOG 2.10.26

Another fantastic week in Talland Class!

What a week it has been! We hope you’ve all had a lovely week and are ready to put your feet up and enjoy a well-deserved weekend. We’ve certainly had another action-packed few days in here, and the children have continued to impress us with their enthusiasm, hard work and willingness to have a go. There have been plenty of busy brains, brilliant ideas, lots of laughter and, as always, some wonderfully enthusiastic moments along the way! We are incredibly proud of the way the children continue to approach their learning each day.

Here’s a little peek at what we’ve been getting up to:


Maths:
Year 4 have reached the end of their Place Value unit, and we are delighted to share some fantastic news! Following their post-assessment, every single child showed progression. That is something to be really proud of! It shows just how much hard work has gone into their learning over the past few weeks. Well done, Year 4!

Year 5 have now moved on to addition and subtraction, developing their methods and applying their knowledge to increasingly challenging calculations. We’ve already seen some great determination when tackling those trickier problems!

English: 
Our new English unit has certainly captured the children’s interest! We are working towards writing our very own non-chronological reports about extinct animals. This week, we have been immersing ourselves in examples of reports, becoming detectives and hunting for the features that make a really effective non-chronological report. The children have been spotting headings, subheadings, paragraphs, factual language and other important features that will help them when it’s their turn to become authors. There have already been some fascinating discussions about animals that once roamed our planet… and what happened to them!

PE: 
PE has been another busy one! In Yoga, we learnt a brand-new yoga flow, working on linking our movements together and developing our balance and control. Some of us discovered that yoga is considerably harder than it looks! Over in Tag Rugby, the children have started playing games where they need to make quick decisions: Do I pass the ball backwards or sideways, or should I take on the defender? There has been plenty of running, teamwork, tactical thinking and, of course, lots of enthusiastic cheering from the sidelines!

Geography: 
Our Geography learning has taken us back to the coastline this week. We have been looking in greater detail at the different features of our coastline, developing our understanding of how our coastal landscapes are formed and what makes each feature distinctive. It has been lovely to see the children building on their geographical vocabulary and becoming increasingly confident when explaining what they have discovered.

Celebrations!
There are a couple of special mentions this week… A huge congratulations to Harper for successfully completing the next level of 99 Club!  What a fantastic achievement! Your hard work, perseverance and determination are really paying off. Keep going - the next challenge awaits! We would also like to give a special mention to Oliver for his wonderful effort this week. He has taken real responsibility for his learning and approached a scientific investigation with fantastic enthusiasm. He worked carefully, made predictions, carried out the investigation and - perhaps most excitingly - the results were really cool!

That's a wrap! And just like that, another busy and brilliant week in Talland Class comes to an end! Thank you, as always, for your continued support and encouragement. It really does make such a difference, and we love seeing the children come through the door each morning ready for another day of learning, discovering and having fun together. We hope you all have a fabulous weekend filled with plenty of relaxing, recharging and, hopefully, some lovely family time. We’ll see everyone back next week, ready for more learning, more laughter and plenty more adventures in Talland Class!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Signing off, Mr. Langley and Mr. Bishop

P.S. Some links to help with the multiplication:
Times table check
Daily 10 - top marks
Times Table Rock Stars

We are so pleased to have been gifted our new school tee shirts!

Brunel school is one big happy family and now we feel even more part of it!

Thank you, Mr Woolner!

We have had a busy week in Chaipel. Our non-fiction texts on the Circulatory System are taking shape and we have learnt about active and passive voice as well as the use of parenthesis for 'dropping in' additional information. In Maths, we have begun our investigation into the four operations - addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. We will be looking into factors and multiples (Y6) next week and rounding and using the inverse to check our answers in Y5.

In our wider curriculum, Chaipel have been improving our balance in yoga and our passing and defending in rugby for PE this week. We have been learning about the function of the heart and what blood transports around the body in science and the significance of Zakah as the third pillar of Islam to the Muslim faith. Music with Mrs Butlin was fun on Thursday afternoon and we are beginning to get the hang of using keyboards, progressing from tinkering to identifying and series of notes/keys.

Congratulations to Rory for being our Person of the Week, demonstrating our school values and to Lily for achieving her 99 Club badge and Rory, again, this time for achieving his 88 Club.

That's all from us so enjoy the weekend!
Miss Randle and Miss Colton

 

It has been another great week of learning in Class 2.

In Literacy, we are getting to the end of our first unit of work. We have all worked really heard trying to remember what Nouns, Verbs and Adjectives are, while learning to edit our work by adding adverbials. The photo here is a sample of work by 2 of the children in the class - the first one is a paragraph written by a Year 2, while the second one is a sentence written independently by one of our Year 1s. Aren't  they just amazing?

In Maths, both year groups have completed their first unit of work on Place Values. We have had 21 great reasons to celebrate what we have learned and achieved as a class in Maths this term! Our Hot Task scores were off the charts, which only shows how hard every one of the children worked to practice and learn their place value facts. This week, we have all now started an exciting new unit on Addition and Subtraction.

In Science, we learned about the importance of eating the right kind of food. We tried our best to remember why our body needs carbohydrates, protein, calcium and vitamins. This week in RE, we have begun exploring how Christians bring Jesus' good news to others around them. We learned about sone of the charitable work that Christian Aid does for people in need around the world. In History, we learned about what childhood was like for our parents and grandparents. Thanks to Eva's nanny who came in to the class on Wednesday to help us answers our many questions, we now had a good idea of the similarities and difference between childhood now and in the past. This week's Forest School was all about exploring colours and textures. We spend time taking crayon rubbings of the many different surfaces and textures around us. We even used light colour washes to see if it could lift and enhance our rubbings. We ended it with a quick quesadilla around the fire circle.

Finally, it will be wrong not to talk about the most exciting learning of the week - Class 1 and 2's trip to the Box to explore the works of Gillian Ayres. Below is a quick look in pictures of some of the many exciting things we saw and did on Thursday.

And I cannot end a class blog without celebrating the amazing work everyone in the class have been doing. However, every Friday, we can only choose 3 children for the Celebrations certificate. This week, we say well done to:
> Sammy for getting the Ready Award for making amazing progress in Maths.
> Rosanna for getting the Respectful Award for her impeccable presentation.
> Ernie for getting the Safe Award for being a kind and gentle friend and allowing others to join in his games.

It has been another busy and exciting time of learning in Whitsand Class!

In Maths, we have reached the end of our unit on place value. The children have worked hard to develop their understanding and have enjoyed taking part in a range of consolidation activities to revisit and strengthen their learning. It has been fantastic to see them applying their knowledge in different ways and becoming increasingly confident with place value.

In English, we have been exploring exclamation marks and coordinating conjunctions. Whitsand Class particularly enjoyed getting active with their learning! We danced along to music before working with a partner to create an exclamation mark using our bodies.

We also had fun finding two independent clauses that could be joined together using the coordinating conjunction 'and'. There was plenty of movement, laughter and some very creative ideas as we experimented with our sentences!

In RE, we explored the inside of an Anglican church. We looked carefully at some of the different features we might find inside a church and discussed their purpose and importance. The children then used what they had discovered to draw and label the different features. It was lovely to see them taking such care with their drawings and thinking carefully about what they had learned.

Well done, Whitsand Class, for another fantastic week of learning!