Thank you to everyone who came in to visit during Art this week!  The children have moved on to the next lesson of creating paints using natural resources.  They picked berries, leaves, dandelions, soil, sand, grass and flowers to grind down, add water and paint onto paper.  They really enjoyed this!

Our history lessons have been focusing on what the word "Prehistoric" means and created a timeline that was presented on the playground!

In PE, hockey is going well and the children learned how to "push" and pass the ball safely.  In PSHE, the children brainstormed ideas of what a "Dream School" might look like! They decided that a dream school would be everyone being nice to one another!

We are all looking forward to the Festival of Words trip on Monday! 

What another busy and brilliant week it has been at Brunel! 

It has been wonderful to see so many exciting learning opportunities taking place across the school and our children continuing to show such enthusiasm, curiosity and determination in everything they do.

Our after-school clubs are now well underway, and we are incredibly proud of the range of opportunities available to our children. There are still spaces available in a number of clubs, so please do take a look and consider signing your child up. Clubs are a fantastic opportunity for children to try something new, develop their talents and spend time with friends.

A huge thank you to our staff who voluntarily give their time to run these clubs. Their willingness to provide these additional opportunities is just one of the many things that makes Brunel such a special school.

Our Helping Hands group has also been very busy this week! They have worked together to create a wonderful new Little Engineers Shed for our youngest children to enjoy during their lunchtimes. We cannot wait to see the imaginative building, designing and problem-solving that takes place there. Thank you to everyone involved in bringing another fantastic addition to our school grounds to life.

We were also delighted to hold the first Lighthouse Room Parent Café this week. It was a really positive opportunity for parents to come together, find out more about the support available through our Lighthouse Room and talk with members of our team.

Thank you to everyone who joined us. Finally, a reminder that our Reading Café takes place next Thursday, 1st October, straight after school. We would love to see as many of our families there as possible.

Come along, enjoy some time together and help us celebrate something that sits right at the heart of learning at Brunel – a love of reading!

Thank you, as always, for your continued support. We hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Degemer An Jydh – Seize the Day!

Another busy week of learning...

This week, the Yr5s and 6s have been learning about speech within texts. We have been practising coming up with our own direct speech, punctuating it accurately as well as adding action and emotion. This will help them to then insert dialogue into their own consequence story, inspired by the novel Letters from the Lighthouse.

Within maths, we are continuing to work through our Place Value unit which includes understanding the value of number, ordering and comparing number. Their books are looking beautiful - they are taking real pride in setting out their work correctly and explaining their reasoning in detail.

Another busy week of learning...

This week, the Yr5s and 6s have been learning about speech within texts. We have been practising coming up with our own direct speech, punctuating it accurately as well as adding action and emotion. This will help them to then insert dialogue into their own consequence story, inspired by the novel Letters from the Lighthouse.

Within maths, we are continuing to work through our Place Value unit which includes understanding the value of number, ordering and comparing number. Their books are looking beautiful - they are taking real pride in setting out their work correctly and explaining their reasoning in detail.

Week 3 in Whitsand!

Our Year 1 children have been amazing mathematicians this week as we've been exploring greater than and less than. We made our own Numbergators using card and split pins, and the children loved using their hungry crocodiles to work out which numbers were bigger and smaller. They showed great confidence explaining their mathematical thinking.

In Science, we became investigators and carried out an experiment to discover which materials are the stretchiest. We tested a variety of different materials and found that rubber bands stretched much more than anything else. We also discovered that felt was one of the least stretchy materials, and the children enjoyed making predictions before testing each one.

Our History lesson sparked some wonderful conversations as we shared the fantastic feedback from parents about how school has changed since they were at primary school. The children were fascinated to hear about the differences and similarities, and they loved comparing school life then and now.

We're so proud of all the enthusiasm, curiosity and teamwork the children have shown this week. Well done, Whitsand Class – keep up the amazing work!

Autumn

We have had another busy and productive week of learning across the curriculum.

DT
The children have continued their exciting Viking longship project. They have been working incredibly hard to create each individual component that will eventually be assembled into a complete longship. So far, they have designed and created sails, carefully mixed paints to match the appearance of timber for the planks, and used saws safely and responsibly to cut out templates for the decks and masts. The children have also been studying authentic Viking designs to create historically accurate shields. Over the coming week, they will begin crafting the dragon heads that will complete their impressive models.

English
We have been exploring different ways to add detail and depth to our descriptions. Through grammar activities, vocabulary choices and varied sentence structures, the children have been developing their writing skills and learning how authors create vivid images for their readers.

Maths 
The class is completing the final stages of our place value unit. The children have worked hard to strengthen their understanding of number and will soon be using these skills to support their learning in our upcoming addition and subtraction units.

Art
Our new whole school creative sessions with Mrs Fernie and Mrs Hughes have focused on self-portraits. The children have been experimenting with different artistic techniques and considering how they can express their own characteristics and personalities through their artwork.

French
We have been revisiting key vocabulary, including the days of the week, colours and numbers to remind ourselves that we can speak French! This recap work will provide a strong foundation as we move on to more focused learning, tailored to where each child is currently in their language development.

PE
In our two weekly sessions, we have been developing our skills in tag rugby and a variety of ball games. We have been fortunate enough to have both PE sessions outdoors so far this term, and we hope the favourable weather continues so that we can make the most of our outdoor learning opportunities.

Another busy week

This week in Pendennis class we have been exploring colours using rainbow filters, messy water play and coloured carpet tiles. We are able to identify colours, and we are learning to spot patterns. The coloured water play also helps us with our hand eye coordination and our motor skills with pouring, as well as our maths too! 
In our This is Me topic, children have been using letters of all shapes and varieties to spot letters in our names. Some of us are able to put those letters together to build our name. We have also been playing board games together which builds on our social skills, helping us to wait and take turns as well as building our vocabulary. 
 

A very warm welcome to all our Year 3 children and families.

We are excited for a fantastic term ahead, filled with engaging learning experiences, new challenges, and lots of opportunities to grow and succeed.
Please find attached our newsletter, which outlines the learning and key topics we will be covering this term, along with important information regarding our class.

We look forward to working together and sharing a wonderful Year 3 journey with you.

Thank you for your continued support.

It has been a busy and exciting week of learning in Little Foresters!

We have been thinking about who lives in our house and talking about the different people and families who make up a home. We have also been exploring how houses are made by making our own houses from nets and getting creative with junk modelling to design and build houses.

In Year 1, we have been recapping our number knowledge to 10, developing our confidence with numbers and exploring different ways to represent them.

In Reception, we have been learning about Numberblocks 1, 2 and 3, exploring how these numbers are made and represented.

We have been enjoying the story We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. We have been working on ordering the events of the story and thinking carefully about what happens next. We then used our imaginations to create a new part of the story, developing our storytelling and vocabulary skills.

We also learnt some important first aid skills, including what to do if we have a cut. The children enjoyed practising how to bandage each other’s arms, helping them to develop confidence in caring for themselves and others

It has been wonderful to see the children using their creativity, imagination and growing confidence across all areas of their learning this week!

Handwriting, Hockey, Nouns and Verbs! 

We’ve had a great third week back at school for Heligan class.

This week, we have started our handwriting each day. We do this through warming up our fingers by line tracing with music. We then have been practising forming the letters in the air, and then writing them down. We’ve been working really hard on our letter formation and it shows in our writing!

In PE, we have started our Hockey lessons. This week we focused on how to hold the hockey stick and how to control the ball. We did this through small taps, making sure we had two hands on the stick and we were keeping the ball close to us. We then played a few games to practise these skills. We have loved Hockey and have said how much we’re looking forward to working on it again next week.

In English, we have been learning about nouns and verbs. We have consolidated our learning of common and proper nouns and we keep practising this in the classroom, finding common nouns and finding proper nouns. We have now begun looking at verbs and have done some sentence building using verbs. We played ‘spot the missing verb’ in different sentences.

We have also been focusing on numerals as words in Maths. We had to find the word to match the number!

We’ve had a great week.

Well done Heligan class.

What a great start to the new year and Autumn Term! We've thrown ourselves fully into our topics for this half term and have been using 'Back Pack' activities to help us understand our emotions along with MHST: Online Decider Skills Workshops. On Tuesday 22nd September we were visited by GB athlete and professional surfer, Ollie Adams, who gave us an inspirational talk about his own health battles and resilience to triumph in a sport he loves. The key message being 'You can do it!'.

English:  'Place Value of Punctuation and Grammar'
By the end of our first unit with Grammarsaurus, we will recognising the parts of speech that make up independent clauses, single clause sentences and reinforced our use of punctuation and word classes.

Maths:  'Place Value'
We've used Base 10 to support our understanding of Place Value by making and partitioning numbers, consolidating our prior understanding. 

Science: 'Humans including animals'
Our first lessons have been based on the digestive system and the function of the organs. We've had great fun acting out the flow of food!

Backpacks: Linked to our emotions, all activities that we complete are designed to help support a skill or area of regulation. Year 3/4a particular enjoy 'Creature Creations' and the 'Learn to draw' activities.

MHST Workshops:
These workshops run along side our PHSE programme and are based on pupils understanding regulation strategies to support with recognising and regulating emotions.
These are run by: Children's Mental Health Support Team 

Welcome to Little Bridges Nursery

We are delighted to welcome everyone to another exciting year in Nursery! It has been wonderful to see so many happy faces settling into our learning environment.

This term, we are excited to welcome some new children and families to our Nursery community. We look forward to getting to know each child, supporting them as they settle in,
and helping them build confidence, friendships, and a love of learning.

It has also been lovely to welcome back familiar faces. The children we have met before have returned full of enthusiasm and are already helping to make our Nursery a warm and
friendly place. We are enjoying seeing how much they have grown and developed since we last saw them.

Over the coming weeks, we will be focusing on getting to know one another, establishing routines, making new friends, and exploring our exciting learning environment both
indoors and outdoors. We can't wait to share all of our adventures, achievements, and special moments with you through our Nursery blog.

Thank you for your continued support. We are looking forward to a fun-filled year of learning, discovery, and growth together! 

The Nursery Team 

September

Welcome back and a very warm welcome to the new members of Year 5! The children have come back so positively and they are showing a great attitude to their learning! New routines and expectations have been established and already the children have been busy designing and strengthening bridges, enjoying Friday keyboard lessons and carrying out Science investigations into air resistance using parachutes!

Our History topic for this half term is the Vikings, where we are trying to decide whether the Vikings were raiders, traders or something else. In English, we are busy writing non-chronological reports about dragons and in Maths we are strengthening our understanding of number and place value. In Computing, we are learning all about search engines In RE, we are exploring what it means when Christians say that God is 'Holy and Loving' and in DT, we are designing, testing and strengthening bridges. In French, we are learning how to talk about ourselves and in PE, we are learning how to perform dragon rhythmic parkour.

We are very proud of how this class have come back from the Summer holidays (which already seem a dim distant memory!) - they are definitely ready for Year 5!

Thank you so much to Oli Adams for sharing a morning here with us all at St Cleer. Children from Reception up to Year 6 completed a work out with Oli and then we came together to hear a little more about Oli's journey to becoming a world leading surfer. Oli found his love for surfing at the age of 6 and despite challenges he faced when diagnosed with Crohn's disease continued to pursue this passion to the highest level. Oli inspired us all to pursue what we are passionate about and not to let fear stand in our way. It has been an inspiring morning here which hopefully we can take with us as we travel through our year together.

Pre-school have had a wonderful start to the new term settling into their sessions again with lots of play and explore time. 

We have started our ‘All about me’ activities as we get to know the children, our names, our families and all our favourite things.  We will be sharing stories, songs, activities and lots of play to develop their curiosity and engagement with each other, with the support of our team to build those communication skills.

Mrs Hicks has been a wonderful addition to the team and is building great relationships with all the children already.

We have started our Pelynt Little Explorers parent and Toddler group on Monday mornings 9-11am.  This session is a relaxed and friendly stay and play invitation for any families or carers of the local area looking to meet other parents/carers and have the opportunity to bring their young person to a pre-school environment.

On Monday 28^th September a nurse will be visiting from Old Bridge Surgery to administer the sniffy flu vaccine.  Please bring back your child’s consent form if you wish your child to receive it.

It’s been lovely to see our pre-school families again, and we will be welcoming some new families over the next few weeks as other children join.

As always, please do speak to a member of the team if you have queries or concerns.

Our email address is preschool @pelyntprimary.co.uk or you can ring us on 01503 220262 and select the pre-school option.

Mrs Rickard, Mrs Rowe and Mrs Hicks.

New Netball Skills…

This week we kicked off our new term with a spot of netball. The children were tasked with practising their passing and marking skills. It took a great amount of concentration, team work and energy! A lovely lesson out in the Autumn sun.

In Maths, we have begun our place value unit: becoming familiar with numbers up to 10 million.

Our first English unit is linked to our history topic of WW2: we have been reading the story ‘Letters from the lighthouse’ and will be producing our own consequence story inspired by the novel. It is an exciting story filled with twists and suspense, and is based upon a girl who becomes evacuated to Devon. We are loving the story and can’t wait to see what happens in the end!