Hello Everyone,

This week, we have been using our enquiry question, which is all about Cornwall, and why it is special, in different aspects of learning.

In art, we studied some paintings by John Dyer, who has painted some bright and vibrant images of Cornwall. We picked out our favourite images within these paintings, and recorded them in our art books.

Our RE lesson this week, was all about special and sacred places in Cornwall. We discussed places that are special to us and the reasons that they make them special. We then looked at different places in Cornwall such as beaches, Truro cathedral, and St Michael's Mount, and discussed why they might be special to different people.

In English we have continued to use texts by the local author Ellie Jackson. This week we used Nelson's Dangerous Dive as well as Duffy's Lucky Escape. We have been writing descriptions and speech bubbles to help us to understand the story from the perspective of the animals in each story.

We hope you enjoy the sunshine this weekend.

From The Penhallow Team

Another busy week has flown by, including a fascinating UK Parliament outreach visit where Years 4, 5 and 6 learned more about the workings of the UK Parliament. Across the school, children have been enthusiastically rehearsing for next week's festival. It has been a real pleasure to hear the sound of singing and music filling the school and to catch snippets of their performances as I have moved around the school.

Polperro Festival School's Day is next Tuesday 16th June from 11am-2:45pm. Please send your child in with a packed lunch, drink, filled water bottle, sun hat and sun cream, and a raincoat because who knows what the weather will be doing! Please note that the timings below are approximate.
11.00 - 11:15 - Welcome and singing (whole school)
11.15 - 11:40 - African Drumming/Ukulele (children from Y4, Y5, Y6)
11.40 - 11:50 - Choir 11:50 - 12.00 - Young musicians/performers
12.00 - 13:00 - Lunch (12.30 - 13.00 Magician Performance for the children)
13:00 - 13:15 - Solo Singers
13.15 - 13.30 - Penhallow Class performance
13.30 - 13.45 - Landaviddy Class performance
13.45 - 14.05 - Talland Class performance
14.05 - 14.25 - Chaipel Class performance
14.25 - 14.45 - Singing finale

Children may be collected from their teacher following the final singing session. Children not collected from Big Green will walk up to Polperro School in time for 3.15 pick-up.

Wear Yellow Day Thank you so much for sending your children in today wearing yellow to help raise awareness and support the work of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. We raised a total of £125 which will go towards supporting the charity's vital work.

Bridge School Games Week The children will all be competing in the 5th annual Bridge Schools Games next week so please ensure that their PE kit is in as they will be taking part in different World Cup Football-themed challenges across the week. Polperro were the champions in 2022 and runners up in 2024 so are looking forward to competing again this year against the other 14 schools in the academy trust.

We look forward to seeing you at the festival next week.

Mrs Hillman

Summer 

As always, summer term is full of exciting outdoor based activities, however some of these have needed some clever thinking to be completed. In Design Technology, we have learning about nutrition and how to cook spaghetti Bolognaise and we were going to cook this using the forest school area and the campfire however,  the weather had different ideas. So an outdoor kitchen was erected under the awning outside Tolbenny class and cooking got under way. The children used their learning from previous lessons to create their own Bolognaise sauce which they put in glass jars complete with labels and nutritional information attached.

Sailing lessons are underway and this week we were joined by the Saga cruise ship in the river. This soon became a magnet for the Fusions as the children battled the wind and outgoing tide to follow the waypoints. We managed with only boat capsizing and as always, the children showed resilience and confidence to get back on the boat and carry on with the lesson.

Next week is the Bridge School Games and our Sports Day so lots of active days to look forward to.

Have a lovely weekend.
MrT and MrsW

TALLAND'S CLASS BLOG

We're hoping everyone has had a brilliant week and you're all set for the World Cup! We've had a bit of a West End week this week - the children have been fully immersed with rehearsals and singing practice.

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

Maths:
Year 5 have continued their unit on decimals and fractions. This week they have been focusing on 'thousandths' - how you would convert from fractions to decimals and vice versa and writing numbers which represent tenths, hundredths and thousandths on a place value grid.

Year 4 have been fantastic this week. They have all completed their times table check assessments and they all did really well - well done to all of them!

English:
We have continued to rehearse in preparation for the Polperro Festival. We even did a dress rehearsal for Landaviddy which went great!

Art:
We have been very lucky to have Sean, the artist in this week. Talland have begun creating their new masterpiece...

CELEBRATIONS:
Congratulations Isabelle, Nevaeh and Max for earning their next badge in our 99 club challenge! A great effort from Harley and Reuben this week - I've thoroughly enjoyed their enthusiasm for the acting and singing during our rehearsals.

We will be heading into a crazy week next week - Polperro Festival (thank you so much for all the wonderful costumes and props) and the Bridge School Games begin - showbiz and sport incoming...

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.

Friday 12th June

Some of this week's learning

The children have been continuing to explore The Rainbow Fish. To support our understanding of the book we have mixed colours and used pipettes to make a Rainbow Fish, we have used different mediums to paint and decorate fish also. The children's creativity has been amazing to see, and some lovely artwork has been produced.

In maths this week we have been decomposing shapes, and we used shapes to make different shapes. For instance, we cut a large rectangle diagonally and then rotated it to make a large triangle!! Mrs Lyden was set the challenge to see if she could do it! She needed the children's help!

We have completed lots of other activities too!

The Foundation Team 

We have had a very arty month this month!
We completed our learning about the designer Orla Kiely by creating our own Orla Kiely inspired prints. We also learned how we can bend, spiral and cut paper to create 3D art. We displayed our 3D tree sculptures in the school art exhibition. The art exhibition was a great success and we enjoyed looking at the work displayed by the other classes.
We've made the most of the beautiful sunny weather that we have been having and have been out in the woods pond dipping and also hunting for minibeasts. We were lucky enough to have fine weather for our class trip to Burrator Reservoir too. We learnt lots about the history, geography and flora and fauna of the area. 
We celebrated David Attenborough's 100th birthday with a special guest appearance from a tortoise. It was so lovely to see such an interesting animal up close. We also created birthday cards for David and thought carefully about the messages we wrote within them.
In maths we have been learning about volume and capacity and have been practising counting in steps of 2, 5 and 10.

Another week has flown by and we are in full rehearsal for our performance at the Festival on Tuesday. Everyone is giving their absolute best and it is going to be a great day! 

Our enquiry into Crime and Punishment is in full swing and we have looked at life in both Roman and Anglo Saxon times. We all agree that life was pretty gory back then and are glad that 'Trial by Ordeal' is something that belongs in the past.

In DT, we are designing and creating prototypes for a new school playground. We have designed our equipment, got into groups to share our ideas and create floor plans and then have taken notes on the equipment that we will need in order to bring our designs to life. Watch this space as our projects develop...

On Wednesday, our school was lucky enough to have been visited by a local politician (Tom) who talked to us about what politicians do and what the House of Lords and Commons are about. We were asked to put in a bill to be discussed and a unanimous vote for 'NO SCHOOL FRIDAYS' was put forward! 

It was WEAR YELLOW FOR CYSTIC FYBROSIS day on Friday and we all showed our support, wearing yellow and learning about the condition. 

Congratulations to our Person of the Week, Thomas, for demonstrating our school values and being a role model to their peers.

I have attached the Home Work Grid and Knowledge Web for our learning this half term.

That's all from us so enjoy the weekend and see you on Monday.

Miss Randle and Mrs Clary.

It has been a very busy start to the half term! This is the first newsletter after half term and what a start we've had! The weather has not played ball for some of our activities meaning that last week we didn't make it to the building site. We have rescheduled this for the 29th June and the crew on the site are already planning lots of activities. This week saw Class 2 spend the day at Trelowen Flowers - a local organic flower farm in Rilla Mill. They had a great time, looking after chickens, planting seeds, making flower bombs and so much more! Thank-you to Wayne and Tamsin for their hospitality. We will definitely be back to see how their farm grows. Yesterday was the annual beach day. Although we didn't go near the sea, the rain made sure it looked like we had. Despite the weather, we had a great time, building sandcastles, making art and beach-combing. Next week is also really busy: Swimming sessions on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for Years 4 and 6, the Bridge School Games for all children and on Tuesday, a visit from a professional photographer. He is visiting all schools in the trust to capture what it means to be part of Darite. There will also be a whole school photo so can all children make sure they are wearing correct school uniform. There is so much that we do at Darite, I can't wait to show it to people. Finally, I would like to say how proud we all are of the children at Darite. Sometimes we do have to do assessments with them and this week Year 1 and some Year 2 sat the phonics screening check. Year 4 did the multiplication check and I had the privilege to show the Year 6 writing to an external moderator. He was very impressed with the writing and we are proud of all the children.

With Spring beginning, a lot of our learning this month has been centered around plants. We have searched for wild flowers in our school environment and we have learnt about how plants grow. We have planted and cared for seeds.
In Geography we have been thinking about the difference between human and physical features. We have spotted both in our local area.
For PE we have been enjoying athletics out on the school field.
We have had lots of lovely practical maths sessions recently as we have been learning to measure length and weight.
In RE we have been learning about a sense of belonging. We brought uniforms and other items in to show the teams and clubs we belong to outside of school.

What an exciting month March has been!
Right at the start of the month we marked World Book Day. It was great fun to dress up as characters from our favourite books and our costumes sparked lots of conversations about what we like to read. 
Over the month we have observed and looked after some tadpole, finally releasing them into the school pond where they can thrive in a lovely environment.
In science we have been exploring our senses. We have used out sense of smell to guess the contents of some mystery pots. We have used out sense of taste to describe the flavours of foods. We have used our sense of touch to create textured Easter egg 'feely' pictures.
This month we concluded out learning about what the weather is like in the UK by observing and recording the weather for five days. We used a thermometer, rain gauge and weather vane to give us data.
We have been learning to weave. We used our weaving skills to make woven Easter baskets. This required lots of focus and the results are just lovely. Now we are waiting for the Easter bunny to come and fill them!

The last fortnight has been exciting but very busy at Harrowbarrow, so there is lots of news to share:

Class 3 Visit Carnglaze Caverns
As part of their summer science, Class 3 children visited Carnglaze Caverns to learn about underground slate mining in Cornwall. At the same time, they learnt about one of the myths around a type of fairy, know as a Cornish Knocker. These mythical beings would make a knocking sound, warning miners they were at risk of imminent danger.



Class 4 Victorian Day
Class 4 are learning about the Victorians. To deepen their understanding, they welcomed Adrian Chapman from Blast from the Past. Adrian taught them all about Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel and brought the learning to life with his role play and range of interesting artefacts. 



Class 3 STEM Workshop
On Wednesday, Andy from Cognition Creative Learning ran a Lego robotics workshop in Class 3. The children had to design and make a moving Lego device that could be programmed using coding software. We had cranes, drills and even an open and closing coffin!



Design Technology
Class 4 are currently designing a multifunction navigation device. This week, they coded their own programme, which enabled a Micro:Bit device to point to the cardinal compass points and also operate as a pedometer at the same time. The buzz of excitement when the children successfully completed the task was brilliant to see.

In their design technology lessons, Class 3 are designing and making their own torches. Last week, they created a circuit to light a bulb, manufacturing their own switch to turn the light on and off.


Parent Parking
Finally, a polite request to help keep pedestrians safe. Please note, the yellow markings at the front of the school are not for parking or stopping on. Access to the school drive should also be kept clear at all times. Thank you for your understanding.

Residentials, Cricket Workshops, Kids Day Out and wonderful learning opportunities have filled this week at Brunel. Please enjoy browsing through this week's edition of the Brunel Bulletin. 

Another wonderful week has flown by in Mousehole Class, and the children have continued to impress us with their enthusiasm, creativity and hard work across the curriculum!

English

In English, we have been exploring verbs and the suffixes -er and -or, thinking about how these can change words and their meanings. The children have also planned, written and performed their own Kennings poems. We were so impressed with their imaginative ideas and confident performances, which brought lots of fun and creativity to our classroom.

Maths

This week in maths:

• Year 2 have been learning about mass, volume and capacity, using practical activities to compare and measure different amounts.
• Year 3 have continued their work on fractions, learning about the whole, as well as ordering and comparing fractions. They have shown great perseverance when tackling some challenging concepts.

PE

The children enjoyed another exciting session with Cricket Chris, developing their cricket skills further by learning how to bowl the ball accurately. There was some fantastic concentration, teamwork and determination on display.

Computing

In computing, we have been exploring desktop publishing, learning how to organise text and images effectively to create attractive and informative documents.

History

We had an exciting hook lesson to launch our new history enquiry question:

"How have children's lives changed?"

The children became history detectives, sorting different children's objects into the time periods they thought they belonged to: Tudor, Victorian or Modern Day. They enjoyed discussing their ideas and making predictions before finding out the answers.

To deepen our understanding, we then worked collaboratively to create large-scale artistic representations of a Tudor child and a Victorian child. The children absolutely loved this activity, and the finished pieces are now proudly displayed in our classroom for everyone to enjoy.

Art

In art, we began our new unit on sculpture. We started by exploring what sculpture is and how sculptors create three-dimensional artwork. Using the boxes kindly brought in from home, the children experimented with cutting them into different shapes and discovering ways to join them together without using glue or tape. They showed fantastic problem-solving skills and creativity as they investigated different construction techniques.

These are just some of the highlights from another busy and successful week in Mousehole Class. The children continue to amaze us with their curiosity, resilience and willingness to embrace new challenges. We look forward to sharing more of their learning with you next week!

Today, the children at Storytellers proudly set off on their Big Toddle to raise funds for Barnardo's!

Despite the rainy weather, our little fundraisers braved the puddles with huge smiles and had a fantastic time splashing their way around the toddle route. Everyone came dressed as their favourite animals and looked absolutely fabulous, making the day even more special.

To keep our energy levels up, we enjoyed some delicious animal-themed cakes before proudly receiving our well-earned medals at the finish line.

We are delighted to share that, so far, we have raised an amazing £184 for Barnardo's! A huge thank you to everyone who has supported us and donated to this wonderful cause.

Thank you for helping our little toddlers make a big difference!

What a busy and exciting week we have had in Tregantle Class!

The highlight of our week was definitely our wonderful class assembly, where we shared the story of The Enormous Turnip with our parents and the whole school.

The children amazed us all with their fantastic storytelling, confident acting, and brilliant actions. They sang their song about turnip soup beautifully and shared photographs of themselves making their very own turnip soup.

It was wonderful to see how much they had enjoyed bringing the story to life. The children also performed a fantastic dance, confidently showing the different characters from the story as they worked together to pull up the enormous turnip! We were so impressed by their creativity and enthusiasm.

Another highlight was seeing the amazing character masks that each child had independently designed and created. Every mask was unique and showed the children's imagination and hard work. The children also shared what they had learned from the story, especially the important message about working together and being a "Teamwork Tiger!" They showed us that when we support each other, we can achieve great things.

Every single child spoke confidently, joined in brilliantly, and truly shone. We are incredibly proud of you, Tregantle Class - well done for a fantastic first assembly!

Over the past two weeks we have been exploring insects and answering our enquiry question "Are insects helpful?".
The children have been busy exploring our bug themed tuft tray, using the magnifying glasses to explore with and finding the different insects in the book provided.
They have been creating different craft including dragonflies made from pegs, paper plate bumblebees and caterpillars.

At story time we have read a range of insect related books including "The Very Hungry Caterpillar ", "The Bad Tempered Ladybird" and "Bugs big trip".

In phonics this week we have been blending sounds together to create whole words, creating different alien voices in a game of "Voices in Space" and rhyming different words to complete a sentence.

In maths we have been exploring patterns and how many in a set. We have also been finding special objects up to 5 and beyond.

This week on Wednesday the children had a group photo taken, these should be available soon for you to order.

Have a good weekend

Julie and Sarah

SATs & Hoodies!

It has been a few weeks since Year 6 sat their SATs, but all the staff at Copper Valley would like to say how very proud we were of each and every one of our children!

They came in each morning smiling - yes, smiling - enjoyed their lovely social breakfast together and then knuckled down calmly and with confidence to see what each day brought. 

If there were nerves, we did not see them; if there were wobbles, we did not feel them; if there were doubts, they did not show.

Year 6 have worked so hard all year and shown exactly what a fantastic attitude to learning really looks like. They took the whole week in their stride and we know that they will have done their very best.

On Friday, Year 6 were rewarded with a very chilled-out day and there was also the lovely surprise that their leaver's hoodies had arrived - cue photo shoot!

May

In Science this half term, we have been learning all about Electricity.

We have made our own circuits, adding different components, drawn scientific circuit diagrams, problem-solved circuits which don't work and carried out an investigation into which factors might affect the brightness of a bulb in a circuit.

In History, we have been learning about some figures from our British past - many of whom we had not heard of before - in order to decide whose face would be the most deserving to appear on a new British banknote. 

Our Art project is developing nicely. We have been designing our own 'Tag', researching graffiti artists and we have begun to think about ideas for a piece of environmental wall art. The aim is that our designs will be brought to life as huge pieces of art on a currently very boring wall on our grounds.

The next step is for the children to share their ideas to produce one of 4 final pieces and then we will all be helping to get them up on the wall - watch this space!