This last week of Autumn Term 1 we have looked at Diwali, the Hindu celebration of light.  We have had stories to understand more about the celebration and what Hindu families do to celebrate.  We have also made our own Diva paper plate lamps.

We also enjoyed some early Halloween activities this week, with spooky silhouette painting, looking at Pumpkins and why we carve them, Halloween yoga and dancing, then finishing the week with some Halloween dressing up!

I think we are all ready for a little half term rest before we come back in the very exciting second part of autumn term.

We return to Pre-School on Monday 3^rd November and our new enquiry question will be 'Why is Julia Donaldson so fun?'  An exciting topic with so many lovely stories by Julia to enjoy.

We hope everyone has a lovely half term break.

The Pre-School Team.

What a busy final week we have had! We have finally completed our art project - a study into Retro-Futurism - and everyone has done an incredible job using different mediums to create a sense of fore, middle and background. We concluded by using chalk and charcoal to create light and shade before sharing our work with our peers; the positive comments we received were amazing!

In Maths, we began by looking in to prime/square/cube numbers at the beginning of the week before delving into long multiplication on Wednesday, and after a full morning's dedication - we nailed it!

We have written most of our non-chronological report in English, however, we need to continue after half term, uplevelling our sentences and then creating a double-page spread to showcase our best piece.

Wider Curriculum
We have investigated day and night in Science - which concludes our study of the Sun, Earth and Moon - and are confident in our understanding of how these amazing space bodies work together to create life on our planet. We have created our own 'flow' in Yoga and upskilled our Football techniques. 

Congratulations to Frankie and Nuala for being our People of the Week, displaying our school values and being excellent role models.

That's all from us so have a lovely half-term break and see you all back on Monday 3rd November!

Miss Randle and Mrs Clary.
 

Parent Teacher Consultations (PTCs)
We hope everyone found the Parent Teacher Consultations really useful this week. Whilst we don't have our next set of PTCs until 24th and 25th February, please don't hesitate in reaching out to your child's teacher in the meantime should you wish to discuss anything. A big thank you to Caterlink who provided some very tasty treats/snacks - the chicken biryani, apple cake and beetroot burger were particularly popular!

FOWPA Bake Off and Bake Sale
Our wonderful FOWPA group organised the Great WPA Bake Off this week to raise funds for improving our school. The hall was filled with spooky treats, from ghostly cupcakes to pumpkin biscuits, all baked and decorated with amazing creativity and effort. A huge thank you to everyone who baked, bought, and supported the event - your generosity raised an impressive £264. Before being sold, the bakes were judged by Mrs Orme and the Year 6 House Captains. The winners of the Great WPA Bake Off were announced in Wednesday's assembly, each receiving a certificate and special tea towel:
Nursery - Noah
Reception - Ted
Year 1 - Sophia
Year 2 - Phoebe
Year 3 - Bertie
Year 4 - William & Harriet
Year 5 - Tom
Year 6 - Eva

FOWPA Meeting - Thursday 13th November 18:00-19:00
FOWPA would like to invite all parents to their Special General Meeting at The Pearl and Trawl. Everyone welcome!

House Competition - Pumpkin Designs
Also in Wednesday's assembly, our House Captains announced the winners of the recent competition they launched to design a pumpkin. The House Captains had so many entries to judge, eventually choosing the following children.

Reception and KS1 Winners
1st - Marley
2nd - David 
3rd - Archie

KS2 Winners
1st - Imogen
2nd - Zyrah
3rd - Macie

Well done to everyone who entered, earning a point for their House.

Children in Need - Friday 14th November - Non Uniform Day
Friday 14th November is Children in Need Day. Children are welcome to wear non-school uniform or combine non-uniform/dressing up with the Children in Need theme. If you would like to contribute to this fund-raising event, please send your child to school with any voluntary donations in cash which will be collected by the teachers in class. All money received will go to Children in Need.

PE Days after Half Term
Please note your child's PE day after half term:
Monday - Nursery
Tuesday - Year 1
Wednesday - Year 6
Thursday - Year 3 & Year 4
Friday - Reception, Year 2 & Year 5

After School Extra-Curricular Activities (ECAs)
A reminder that after half term, all after school ECAs start again. Teacher-led ECAs will finish on Friday 5th December. External providers (Pro20 and Dance) finish as per sign up.

Poppy Appeal
After half term, our House Captains will be going around the school to sell poppies and other items to support the Poppy Appeal. Please send your child in with some coins if they would like to buy something.

House Points
Congratulations to this week's winners, Chough. Overall, Choughs maintain the lead going into the half term break:
Choughs - 2564
Swans - 2273
Puffins - 2175
Cormorants - 2056

What a fantastic half term it has been. I'm sure that everyone is looking forward to a well-deserved rest. On behalf of everyone at WPA, thank you for all your support and have a wonderful half term break. We look forward to seeing everyone back at school on Monday 3rd November.

Best wishes,
Chris Wathern


Dates coming up

Friday 24th October 
School Closed - INSET Day

25th October - 2nd November
Half term break

Monday 3rd November
Back to school
Year 5B Green Ripple Project (Mon-Weds)
After School Extra-Curricular Activities (ECAs) re-start

Wednesday 5th November
(am) Year 1 Trip to Wadebridge Library and Cricket Club

Friday 7th November
18:00 Year 3 Sleepover and Fireworks - sign-up deadline 03/11/25

Saturday 8th November
09:00 Year 3 Sleepover Collection

Monday 10th November
Anti-Bullying Week
Year 5W Green Ripple Project (Mon-Weds)
(pm) Year 4 Benchball Festival

Tuesday 11th November
Reception - Year 6 Flu Vaccinations
11:00 Reflection/silence

Thursday 13th November
18:00-19:00 FOWPA Meeting (The Pearl and Trawl)

Friday 14th November
Children in Need Dress Up Day

Monday 17th November
Road Safety Week
13:45-15:00 KS2 Cross Country - sign up deadline 10/11/25

Tuesday 18th November
08:45-11:30 Grandparents & Special Family Members Stay and Learn - All grandparents/special family members invited for a special Stay and Learn session.

Wednesday 19th November
(pm) Year 3 Multi-Skills Event

Thursday 20th November
Year 6 Assembly (08:45 for a 09:00 start)

Wednesday 26th November
13:30-14:30 Reception 2026 intake Stay and Play

Friday 28th November
Year 3 Stay and Learn (08:45 for a 09:00 start) 

Tregantle Class Blog - A Fantastic First Half Term!

What a wonderful first half term it has been in Tregantle Class!

This week, we found out all about Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Light. The children loved listening to the story of Rama and Sita and learning how Diwali is celebrated around the world. We had lots of fun making our own diva lamps from clay, retelling the story with puppets, and creating colourful Diwali decorations to brighten up our classroom.

We've also been enjoying lots of autumnal activities. The children worked together to make delicious pumpkin soup - scraping out the pumpkins, adding onion, sweet potato and herbs, and of course, tasting their tasty creation!

During our Forest School session, we became potion-makers! Using natural materials and a sprinkle of sparkly dust, the children created imaginative potions and thought carefully about what their magic spells could do - complete with their own special magic words.

To celebrate Black History Month, we took part in an exciting African dance workshop. The children were amazing at learning the moves and dancing to the lively rhythms.

It's been a busy and brilliant start to the year, full of fun, creativity and learning. We can't wait to see what adventures await us next half term!

Duckpool update...

So it's been another very busy week with so many exciting events, including an African Dance workshop and research to commemorate Black History Month.

Also, Duckpool have been producing some super factfiles to show off their knowledge from this half term's learning on Rivers. They have been speaking like Geographers and writing like Geographers; using key (tier3) vocabulary such as 'evaporation, precipitation and condensation' ...




Excitingly, we teamed up with Lantic class to read them our fantastic Beastie Stories, we think you can see from their faces how much they enjoyed our stories.

Well, that's just about it for this half term, thank you for reading our blog and have a great holiday!

We'd like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all the parents and families who joined us for our art exhibition this week. The children were so proud to showcase their creativity, and it was wonderful to see such enthusiastic support from our school community. Your presence truly made the event special! In class, we've also been busy writing up our non-chronological reports, exploring how to organize information clearly and effectively. The children have shown great progress in their writing skills and have enjoyed researching and presenting their topics. Additionally, we've been celebrating Diwali, learning about the traditions, stories, and significance of the Festival of Lights. The children took part in some beautiful craft activities and thoughtful discussions, helping us all appreciate the richness of this cultural celebration. Thank you again for your continued support!

This week's spellings will stay the same as last week's ones. 

Year 6 and Year 5 now have access to White Rose Infinity.  This gives pupils a chance to review the learning from the previous week through a series of questions.  Pupils can access this at home by downloading the White Rose Infinity App and then scanning in the QR code.  Codes for Year 5 and 6 are below.  


Year 6 Infinity QR code 


Year 5 Infinity QR code

This week, the Storytellers have been exploring Diwali, the beautiful Festival of Light. The children learned that Diwali is a time of celebration for many people around the world and that light is an important symbol - it represents goodness, hope, and the triumph of light over darkness.

The children enjoyed making their own Diya lamps, carefully decorating them to shine brightly, just like the ones used in Diwali celebrations. On the light board, they created stunning Rangoli patterns, experimenting with colours, shapes, and symmetry to make vibrant designs that welcome light and happiness.

There was plenty of music and dancing, too, as we moved to traditional Indian rhythms and celebrated through movement and joy. The children also designed their own hand decorations, learning about the tradition of mehndi patterns and using their creativity to make unique designs.

Through these fun and meaningful activities, the Storytellers not only explored creativity and culture but also learned about kindness, celebration, and the importance of light in our lives. 

We have reached the end of this half term and have finished learning all about autumn and what happens in autumn.
The children have taken their craft activities home and were looking forward to sharing their artwork with family.
Today (Thursday) we carried out some halloween activities. The children decorated pumpkins and we had a spooky snack of ghost bananas and orange pumpkins. The chilsren were invited to come dressed up and they looked great!

The children enjoyed reading the story "Room on the Broom" and we talked about  what happened in the story with the children making comments about the book and talking about their favourite parts.

In maths we have enjoyed exploring the stories "The Three Billy Goat's Gruff" where the children had to make a bridge for them to cross and count how many sticks it took to build. "We also looked at "Goldilocks and the Three Bears", focusing on the numbers of items and objects within the story.

It is INSET day tomorrow and then half term so we hope you have a lovely week and we look forward to welcoming you all back from Monday 3rd November.

See you soon

Julie and Sarah

Thank you to everyone here today for being part in the music, the words, the space, the time to reflect on how lucky we are to be able to come together as a community. Thank you for your generous Liskeard food bank donations which will be collected from school along with just over £150 fundraised by Glee in the summer term. 

This week we have finished our learning around our autumn term 1 enquiry question, Who Am I?

We talked about our families, looked at all the pictures on our family wall and then drew our own families inside a lolly-pop stick house.  These look very cute alongside our portrait display wall.

The children have all been busy making some beautiful autumn leaf sun catchers for our windows, do look out for them as you walk by!

We had a lovely surprise invitation from Lantic class on Thursday, to join them in meeting PC Brailey-Evans and a police vehicle.  The children all had fun exploring the police van and then receiving a sticker.  

Next week we will be looking at the celebrations of Halloween and Diwalli, with some fun activities planned.

As a reminder, please do make sure your child has spare clothes each day in pre-school.  If your child has been sent home in spare pre-school clothes, then please do return them.  We are very low on spare trousers for both girls and boys.

Since we have started joining the main school for lunch time, there is the option of ordering your child a hot school lunch if they would prefer this over a packed lunch.  The cost of a school lunch is £2.70, this would need to be paid for in advance on parent pay.  If this is something you would like to arrange then please do go and speak to Mrs Thompson in the main school office.

A reminder that this Friday 24^th October is an Inset Day for the whole school, we return to pre-school after half term on Monday 3^rd November.

 
The Pre-School Team.

Place Value Yahtzee

Our first Maths topic of the year is always Place Value (the value of each digit in a number).  The children have spent several weeks learning and becoming more confident with the place value in numbers up to 10,000,000.

We have also learned about how to round numbers, how to split numbers up in different ways to make our calculations easier and also how to easily multiply (and divide) numbers by 10, 100, 1000.

As a fin way to review our understanding of Place Value - we played games of Place Value Yahtzee.  We really enjoyed the challenge of trying to complete each category.

Restart a heart

We recently joined forces with 'Restart a heart' for their live event.  During the event the children learned about resuscitation and also how to use a defibrillator:

D - DANGER (check for danger - don't put yourself in danger)
R - RESPONSE (Check if the casualty is responding)

A - AIRWAY (Check the casualty's airway)
B - BREATHING (Is the casualty breathing
C - CIRCULATION (Start CPR)

The children watched videos about when it is appropriate to use CPR and what to do if they are the first at the scene of a medical emergency.  They also learned how to perform CPR and practiced their technique on teddies and cushions.  Finally, we learned about how to use a defibrillator machine - and we were surprised that we have a machine in the school.

We hope that we never have to use these skills but it is always good to be prepared.

Hello Everyone,

Another busy week in Penhallow has included making bread, working as a team to build large structures during play, and some drama work during English lessons.

Reception have finished their English work, all about The Little Red Hen, and thoroughly enjoyed following instructions to make, bake and eat their own bread. It smelled delicious.

Year 1 and 2 have been learning all about letter writing, as well as writing from the perspective of a different character. We have read 'The Day the Crayons Quit' by Oliver Jeffers and there were some fantastic responses from the children about the different characters and how the story shows us how the characters feel.

In science this week, we learnt all about sorting and classifying different animals based on their characteristics. We played games and practically sorted toy animals, as well as using venn diagrams and classification keys to sort animals. 

We enjoyed being outside again this week. This time, during an RE lesson, where we found objects that were mentioned in the Christian story of creation, such as trees, flowers, and living creatures.

Have a lovely weekend,

from The Penhallow Team