I can’t quite believe that am now half-way through my first term at Pelynt. I have thoroughly loved my time here already. We have the most amazing children, extremely supportive families and a wonderfully dedicated staff.  It’s really important to us that the whole school community is aware of what is going on behind the scenes to move the school forward, so I’m going to outline some key developments that we are working on this year.

A key focus of my first term is to monitor the many things that are going well already at our school, and also explore opportunities to make things better, creating a School Improvement Plan, which outlines what we will be developing and changing, to provide the best possible experience for our children and families from Pre-School to Year 6.

I have started to introduce some new ideas based on the latest educational research. This includes breaking teaching across the curriculum into manageable learning chunks, to minimise cognitive overload, and developing the use of learning journey progression maps, where the children can clearly see the direction that their learning will take them across a topic or enquiry question. Key knowledge is regularly recapped to promote security in long term memory. We are developing the use of learning walls in our classrooms, to make these even more effective learning tools for children to be able to refer to, promoting independence when tackling a challenge. We are strengthening the concept of having a growth mindset and when learning is tough, to say “I can’t do it…yet” rather than giving up. We are teaching the children that mistakes are a good thing and necessary for deep learning to take place.

Reading is a key focus this year. We are working closely with the Bridge Trust English lead to introduce ‘Reciprocal Reading’ in our Guided Reading sessions. The children are learning to take on one of the ‘Fab Four’ Reading roles (clarifier, questioner, predictor and summariser). Reading for pleasure is timetabled in daily and every child is read to at the end of the day. We will also be working with our fundraising team on FOPS (Friends Of Pelynt School) to develop the range of books in school.  Oracy, and the use of high level vocabulary, are also a priority this year. We are introducing new ideas such as weekly vocabulary lessons and ‘I see, I think, I wonder’ assemblies.

Staff work very closely with subject leaders across the trust, with expertise regularly being utilised to drive curriculum development. This has included staff visiting other schools to see best practice and visits into school from professionals across the trust to model effective teaching strategies.

Early Years is where the foundations in learning are made, and are therefore a crucial part of our school. I have been reviewing the provision and practice in Pre-School and Class 1, developing the use of ‘Explore and Learn Time’ (continuous provision), the teaching of phonics and oracy. We are also improving the use of Tapestry, our online learning journals.

Our SENDCO is in school each week and has been working hard with myself, the children and families to ensure that children with additional needs are identified and the provision needed for their individual developments is in place. She has also completed staff training about the effects of trauma on children and the role school plays in supporting these individuals and their families.

We are also trying hard to get parents more involved in school life and to ensure that they are more aware of their child’s progress. This has included Family Friday sessions every week in Class 1, face to face parent consultations and our Class Celebration Assemblies in the last week before the holiday, where the individual successes of each child in each class were celebrated.

On the INSET day before the holiday, teachers went to another school in our trust, Looe Primary Academy, to focus on exciting developments in other Bridge schools. This had a particular focus on reading, maths, EYFS and Science and we have already planned how we can utilise these ideas at Pelynt.

We have six key values as a trust, which are promoted in all Bridge schools. Discussions about the behaviour characteristics of different animals in our new House Team Assemblies (where children across the school now come together with others in their house each week) have linked creatures to our values. These are: excellent eagle, determined salmon, creative chameleon, responsible penguin, enthusiastic dog and curious meerkat. These will be at the heart of our celebration assemblies each week, along with a focus on being kind.

We celebrated Arts Week earlier in the term, where children across the school explored art, music and drama centred around the wonderful world of Roald Dahl. Some of the artistic creations from this week can be seen in our school hall.

We are also promoting the importance of attendance. Being in school every day, from when we open at 8.40am, is important to your child’s achievement, wellbeing, and their wider development. Analysis of national assessment data when children are in Year 6 (SATS) and GCSE results consistently shows the positive impact of good attendance and punctuality. I meet with Mrs Thompson fortnightly to review lateness and absence, writing to/meeting with those parents where there is a concern. We will be starting various whole school initiatives including attendance superhero mascots for classes to look after if they have the highest percentage of children in school and on time. These are EDNA the superhero cat (Every Day Never Away) and OTIS the superhero dog (On Time In School). There will be awards at the end of each half term for children with the highest attendance and for being on time every day.   We are also reviewing the names of the school houses with the children, to make these more meaningful to them.

As well as continuing whole school improvement, we have an exciting second half of the term to come, with a musical performance at Carnglaze Caverns and a whole school Strictly Come Dancing themed Nativity! We are really looking forward to sharing these events with our families.

I hope this has given you an insight into just some of the ways that we are improving our school this year. Thank you to everyone in our school community for their support this term. I have been made to feel so welcome by everyone and the drive from our school team to embrace the developments that we are making has been fantastic.

Abigail Rich

Head of School

Roald Dahl Arts Week
This week we have all had a gigantius of a razztwizzler week celebrating the lickswishy world of Roald Dahl in our ‘Arts Week’, through art, music and drama. There has been lots of churgling and a huge dollop of ringbellering!

Class 1 were inspired by 'James and the Giant Peach'. Their learning included using a range of mediums and techniques to create a wonderful whole class piece of art. Class 2 based their learning around the stories ‘George’s Marvellous Medicine’ and ‘The Enormous Crocodile’. Their artwork included making an enormous collage crocodile as a class, and their own Roly-Poly birds. They also wrote character descriptions of the enormous crocodile and warning posters, as he eats children and is exceptionally good at disguising himself! Class 3 focused on ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ and created collage masks of animals from the story and Andy Warhol inspired fox art. They also created wanted posters for Mr. Fox. Class 4 focused their learning and artwork on ‘The Twits’. After listening to the original story, the children observed, and smelt some examples of the items in Mr. Twit’s beard and used this as inspiration to create a descriptive piece of writing. They enjoyed making mini riddles of new items that could be in the beard, challenging others to guess what they had described. Their artwork was based on the Roly-Poly Bird from the Twits. They created their own versions of the colourful bird using collage. Their favourite part was learning how to draw realistic bird eyes. The children also created the Roly-Poly Bird out of clay. We all loved learning songs from Matilda and look forward to showing you our learning at our Class Celebration events at the end of term!

Parent Consultations
All parents and carers have been emailed about the Parent Consultation afternoons/evenings next week. Please make your appointment via the school office. We really look forward to talking with you about how your child has settled into their new year of learning, areas to celebrate and skills/knowledge that need further development

Autumn Term Week 3

A priority at Pelynt this year is to maximise opportunities for our families to come into school. This week we invited parents and carers to our new annual Class Welcome Meetings. We were thrilled that so many parents and carers took up this opportunity to meet their child’s teacher, learn about the curriculum specific to that class, as well as routines and expectations. They also gave families the chance to ask questions. All those attending were provided with a curriculum map for this term, outlining learning in each subject. This document and notes from each class meeting will also be posted on our class blogs for anyone unable to attend. The curriculum maps will be updated each half term.

Our Reading Karate rewards are now up and running and we already have some children reaching their first band. Congratulations to those children and thank you to everyone at home for supporting our drive for all children to become fluent readers who love books! Please speak to Mrs Fenton (Class 2 and Reading Leader) if you have any questions about how the system works.

I met with Rachel from FOPS this week, to start to plan fundraising events for the year ahead and discuss how the money raised will benefit the children. Proceeds will be used to enhance the provision for our Early Years children, purchase lunch time reward boxes for KS1 and KS2 and inspirational texts for our writing curriculum. We are very lucky to have such a dedicated group of people to organise these events, but we would love to see even more parents and carers getting involved. Any support is very gratefully received. This could be support with planning events, running them, or behind the scenes support such as creating posters, sourcing local business investment, budget planning etc. Please let FOPS know via the school office if you would like to volunteer. FOPS are also looking to create a team of people to improve our outdoor areas. This includes the pond in the Forest School area and renovation of the ‘Under the Sea’ garden to the left of the playground. More details to follow, but if you are able to spare some time or tools to help, please let me know via the school office.

We are all very excited that next week we will be having our ‘Arts Week’, where all classes are exploring the magical world of Roald Dahl stories through art, music and drama. We can’t wait to share our learning with you on our class blogs next week, as well as on our hall displays and in our class assemblies at the end of the term. I hope that you all have a wonderful week.


Kind regards,

Ms. Abigail Rich
Head of School

It has been another busy week at Pelynt Academy, as the children settle into their new classes and get stuck into their enquiry questions for this term. We also took time for quiet reflection on the death of Queen Elizabeth. We have all been extremely impressed with the maturity shown by our wonderful children during discussions across the week.

National Teaching Assistant Day
On behalf of the whole school, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank our wonderful Teaching Assistants for their hard work and dedication. We are extremely lucky to have such fantastic support staff, who play a huge part in making our school the very special place that it is.

Family Fridays
We were delighted that so many families joined our Reception children in Class 1 for our new weekly ‘Family Friday’ sessions, where parents and carers join in with activities and get to know each other. If you would like to come to these sessions, please arrive at the school gate at 2.30pm, where a member of the Class 1 team will be waiting.

Welcome Meetings
This week we are inviting parents and carers into school to meet our staff teams, find out about the curriculum in each class and learn about how you can help at home. This is also an opportunity to ask any general questions about learning and routines in your child’s class.
Class 2: Tuesday 20th September at 3.30pm
Class 3: Wednesday 21st September at 3.30pm 
Class 4: Thursday 22nd September at 3.30pm 
Class 1: Friday 23rd September at 3.30pm 

Harvest
As you know, we had a provisional date in the diary for our Harvest celebration. Having met with Reverend Allen, we can confirm that this will now be in church on Monday 10th October as follows:
Pre-School at 10am
Classes 1 - 4 at 2.30pm
Families are very welcome to join us there for this special celebration. Further details to follow about food donations.

Clubs
All children came home with a letter about lunchtime and afterschool clubs last week, which was also emailed. If your child would like to take part in any of these, please return the consent form to the school office by Wednesday 21st September, for staff to organise places.

The School Day
Just a gentle reminder that doors open to classrooms at 8.40am, with the register being taken at 8.45am. We know that traffic and unexpected issues at home can make families a little late from time to time, but we urge parents and carers to ensure that this is a rare occasion. This allows a smooth start for the class and maximises learning time before morning break. Children arriving later than 8.45am should be taken to the school office to be signed in. The school day ends at 3.15pm for classes 1 and 2 and 3.20pm for classes 3 and 4. The staggered finish ensures that we limit the number of children and parents on the playground, and going through the gate, at any one time, allowing staff to see who is collecting each child clearly and making it easier for conversations with your child’s teacher, or myself, when needed.

P.E. and Outdoor Learning
Please make sure that your child comes into school in their P.E. kit on their allocated days, with their outdoor learning clothes over the top. This also allows us to maximise the time available for these lessons.
Class 1 Tuesdays and Thursdays
Class 2 Mondays and Thursdays
Class 3 Mondays and Wednesdays
Class 4 Thursdays and Fridays 

Volunteers
We would be very grateful for any offers of help in school! This could be a one-off visit to talk about your job, or a hobby that you think the children would benefit from learning about, or more regular volunteering, such as gardening, supporting a club, hearing children read, supporting practical sessions such as art or science, chatting to children at lunch, or with organisational tasks such as tidying the library, preparing resources, mounting work for displays etc. If you would like to get involved, please speak to the school office about completing a DBS check.

I hope that you all have a great week and look forward to meeting as many of you as possible at our Welcome Meetings.
Kind regards,
Ms Abigail Rich
Head of School