Head's Blog

Spring Term 2 Week 2

World Book Day
Thank you so much for all that you have done to support our World Book Day on Thursday. The children looked amazing and we have some wonderful books in boxes and vegetable characters on display around the school! We plan to keep the book in a box displays up, but please speak to your child’s teacher if there is anything in the box that is precious to your child and needs to go home. The children enjoyed a fun-filled day of book themed activities, including a swap the teacher story time and a book swap.

St Piran’s Day
Just a reminder that we are holding our St Piran’s Day Celebration at church on Monday 6th March at 9.15am and we would like the children to wear black and white. All welcome!

Comic Relief
On Friday 17th March we will be raising money for Comic Relief by asking the children to wear something red and bring in £1.

Parent Consultations
These will be taking place on Tuesday 21st March and Wednesday 22nd March from 3.30-6.30pm. Each appointment lasts 10 minutes and will be held in classrooms for Classes 1, 3 and 4 and the library for Class 2. Please contact the school office to make your appointment. This can be done in person after school drop off in the morning, by email secretary@pelyntprimary.co.uk or by phone 01503 220262. Please come to the hall via the Class 2 door, where you can look at your child’s books. Your child’s teacher will meet you there to take you to the classroom.

Kind regards,
Abigail Rich
Head of School

Spring Term 2 Week 1

Welcome back to Spring Term 2! We hope that you’ve had a lovely half-term holiday and the children are ready for another fun-filled term of learning. Curriculum maps will be emailed and posted on blogs next week.

Spring Term 2 Dates
Monday 27th February Mr Alex Knight starts teaching Class 3
Thursday 2nd March World Book Day (see separate letter/email)
Monday 6th March 9.15am St Piran’s Day church service (all welcome)
Tuesday 21st March 3.30pm-6pm Parents Evening
Wednesday 22nd March 3.30-6pm Parents Evening
Monday 27th March 2.30pm Class 1 Celebration Assembly/show and share
Tuesday 28th March 9.15am Class 4 Celebration Assembly/show and share
Tuesday 28th March 2.30pm Class 2 Celebration Assembly/show and share
Wednesday 29th March 9.15am Class 3 Celebration Assembly/show and share
Thursday 30th March 2.30pm Easter church service (all welcome)
Friday 31st March School closed (staff INSET day)

Uniform
We are always mindful of putting additional financial strain on families, but we are noticing that a number of children are not wearing the uniform specified on our uniform list. We also have a growing number of children wearing hats inside the building (hats outside are fine). There are very valid emotional and medical reasons behind this for a small number of children at our school, but we ask that children do not wear hats in school unless I have been made aware of the reason for this. Boys with longer fringes may use plain headbands to prevent hair from getting into their eyes, rather than a hat. Please see below for a reminder of our uniform expectations.

Green jumper/cardigan (with or without Pelynt logo). Tops in other colours are not allowed.
Yellow or white polo shirt (with or without Pelynt logo).
Grey trousers, skirt or pinafore dress
Black shoes

P.E. Kit
Yellow or white t shirt (with or without Pelynt logo).
Green or black PE shorts
Trainers

Outdoor Learning clothes (to be worn only on outdoor learning days)
Any suitable clothing for outside play depending on weather, including a waterproof coat.

Punctuality
Just a gentle reminder that school starts at 8.40am, as some children are arriving later than this. Arriving on time means a calm start to the day and maximises learning time. It also relieves pressure on Mrs Thompson, who needs to adjust registers when children are late. Children arriving late need to be taken by an adult to the school office to be signed in.

Thank you in advance for your support with these matters. Please do get in touch if you have any questions.
Kind regards,

Ms Abigail Rich
Head of School

Spring Term 1 Week 6

We have had another fantastic week of learning and enrichment at Pelynt. Pre-School, Class 1 and Class 2 had a fabulous morning of role-play, courtesy of the Pop Up Play Village. We were also joined by children from Polruan. A huge thank you to Mrs Marshall for organising this. On Thursday, 12 children in Class 3 were joined by children from Duloe, Polruan, Polperro and Trenode at the Sports Festival at Duloe Primary, where they took part in a fantastic afternoon of boxing, cross-fit, frisbee golf, table tennis, tag rugby and archery. Class 3 have also been to Polperro today for their art lesson. They had a wonderful morning sketching harbour scenes, which they will be adding watercolour paint to later.

We have lots of exciting events to come next half term:

World Book Day
On Thursday 2nd March we will be celebrating World Book Day! We are very aware that creating or buying a costume for World Book Day can put unnecessary time and financial pressure on parents and carers, particularly when it may only be worn once. We are also sensitive to the fact that not all children enjoy dressing up. We are therefore offering several different options for the day.

1. Dress up as a character from your favourite book. If your child has this book, please send it in with them on the day, so they can talk about what they like about it.

2. Make a book hat, with pictures of objects, places, characters, words etc from the story or non-fiction text. This can be worn with school uniform or home clothes.

3. Home clothes or school uniform only.

We would also like the children to have a go at one of the following. We have emailed examples of these to inspire the children!
• Make a character from a story using vegetables and bring it to school on the day. Not one to make too far in advance!
• Make a book in a box.

We will also be holding a book swap. If you child has a book that they would like to donate to this, in exchange for another book, please bring this to school on the day. We would also love to invite any parents/carers/other relatives of children in our school to come in to read a favourite story or non-fiction book to the children in small groups on the day. If you are able to do this, please let Mrs Thompson know in the office secretary@pelyntprimary.co.uk.

St Piran’s Day
On Monday 6th March, we will be celebrating St Piran’s Day. We would like the children to wear black/white to school that day.

Class 3 Staffing News
We will be making changes to Class 3 staffing next half term, which will start on Monday 27th February. To give further time to drive school improvement and provide support to children across the school, I will no longer be teaching on Thursdays and Fridays. Mrs Jo Morris has kindly agreed to switch schools with Mr Alex Knight from Brunel, who will teach the class full-time. He is an experienced teacher, with a wealth of skills and expertise to bring to our school. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Mrs Morris for her work with Class 3 and wish her all the best in her new position at Brunel.

Finally, I hope that you all have a happy and healthy half-term holiday and see you at 8.40am on Monday 20th February!

Kind regards,

Ms Abigail Rich
Head of School

Spring Term 1 Week 5

We are reaching the end of another wonderful term at Pelynt. We have a busy last few days, full of celebration and learning enrichment!

Class Celebration Assemblies
Just a reminder that Class Celebration assemblies, followed by Show and Share in classrooms are this week, at the following times:

Class 1 Monday 6th February at 2.30pm (in the hall)
Class 2 Tuesday 7th February at 2.30pm (in the hall)
Class 3 Wednesday 8th February at 9am (in Class 3 classroom)
Class 4 Thursday 9th February at 2.30pm (in the hall)

Under The Sea Garden Renovation Project
A huge thank you to everyone who joined myself and FOPS on Saturday to start the garden renovation project. This was a huge team effort, with everyone from toddler siblings to grandparents helping out. The space is now cleared and ready for painting and planting. We will be in touch after the holiday to ask for volunteers! School Council will also be meeting with Mrs Forbes to discuss ideas that the children have for the space.

Visit from local artist Sean Hewitt
20 of our children spent a fantastic day with local abstract artist Sean Hewitt, learning about his methods, the work of other Cornish artists and using this to inspire their own masterpieces. These will be on display in the main entrance after the holiday.

Pop Up Play Village
On Wednesday 8th February, children in Pre-School, Class 1 and Class 2 will be visited in school by the Pop Up Play Village, for a wonderful morning of role play.

Polperro Art Visit
Class 3 have been learning about how Cornwall has changed over time. Part of this has included looking at coasts and coastal art. On Friday 10th February, they will be visiting Polperro harbour for their art lesson, where they will be using the skills that they have been developing this term to draw and paint a harbour scene. In the afternoon, they will be doing some geography fieldwork in the immediate local area.

Sports Festival at Duloe Primary Academy
Duloe Primary Academy have very kindly invited us to attend their Sports Festival on Thursday 9th February, taking 12 of our KS2 children. The children will participate in six different sports: boxing, cross-fit, frisbee golf, tag-rugby, table tennis and boccia!

Carol Gibbs Music Room
Pelynt staff were very sad to hear that a much loved founder of Pre-School staff passed away recently. To commemorate all that she did for us as at Pelynt, we will be developing one of the rooms in the Pre-School building into a music room in Spring Term 2. We will be having a grand opening once completed.

We hope that you all have a wonderful half-term!

Kind regards,

Ms Abigail Rich
Head of School

Spring Term 1 Week 4

Governor Recruitment

We are currently seeking new governors to join our Governing Body and would be delighted if parents/carers at our school, or local residents would like to join us.

What is a school governor?
School governors have a varied and important role, in helping our school run effectively. They have 3 core functions:

· Planning the strategic direction of the school.
· Overseeing financial performance of the school and ensuring money is well spent.
· Holding the school leadership to account.

The governor role is strategic rather than operational. Governors don’t get involved with the day to day running of a school, instead supporting and challenging the school’s leadership team to drive school improvement. They champion the work the school does.

Our Governing Body
This year we have joined together with four other schools within the Bridge Trust (Polruan, Duloe, Trenode and Polperro) to form one collaborative Governing Body. We meet all together every term, sometimes in person and sometimes via Microsoft Teams. Our governors are parents and people in our local community and in their role they:

· Get to know the school, including visiting the school during school hours to gain a good understanding of the school’s strengths and areas of development, and completing monitoring documentation.
· Attend induction training and regular relevant training and development events.
· Attend meetings (full governing board meetings and meetings with the Head of School) and read documentation before the meetings. · Act in the best interests of all the pupils of the school.
· Behave in a professional manner, as set down in the governing board’s code of conduct, including acting in strict confidence.

Being a school governor is a commitment and a responsibility, but offers you the chance to see first-hand the impact you can make in improving education for children in our community.

Do I need to have certain qualifications?
No special qualifications are needed and the most important thing is to have a keen interest in the school and be prepared to play an active part in the governing body’s work.

How do I get involved?
Please make an appointment to meet with me, via the school office secretary@pelyntprimary.co.uk.

If it’s something you might be interested in, we hope you’ll apply. We are really keen to have more local community voice within our school.

Kind regards,
Abigail Rich

Head of School

Spring Term 1 Week 3

The Under the Sea Garden Renovation Project

We are incredibly lucky to have such varied and extensive outdoor areas for our children at Pelynt. One of these is our Under the Sea Garden, to the left of the playground. This is in need of some love, to turn it back into a magical outdoor learning space. FOPS have very kindly volunteered to clear this area on Saturday 4th February between 9.30am and 12pm, but they need your help! Once this has been cleared, we will be looking for volunteers for the next stage of painting and planting renovations. Please catch Rachel Rowe, or myself, at the school gate, or send an email to head@pelyntprimary.co.uk if you can help. A huge thank you to FOPS for organising this!

New high quality books

Part of our school development this year has included looking at the books that the children have the opportunity to be immersed in through our English lessons, library and Reading for Pleasure daily sessions. Through FOPS fundraising, and the generosity of our families, we are in the process of buying lots of wonderful new books. These have been carefully selected to include ‘old but gold’ classics and ‘new and bold’ contemporary authors, from an extensive range of genres. These will make a huge difference to the learning opportunities available to our children, so thank you!

Cornish Art

It is really important to us that the children in our school have a deep understanding of Cornwall, including inspirational people who have made Cornwall their home. We have been very lucky to secure some funding for a local artist, Sean Hewitt, to come into school to create art with groups of children in February. He will be teaching them about inspirational Cornish art and using this to create a collaborative piece with them, to display and treasure in our school entrance.

Class Celebration Assemblies

We would like to invite our families to our Class Celebration Assemblies at the end of this half term. These will follow the same format as last time, with a whole class celebration of learning in the hall (in the classroom for Class 1) then time together with your child to enjoy their books more closely. Please come to the school office to be signed in.

Class 1: Monday 6th February 2.30-3.15pm

Class 2: Tuesday 7th February 2.30-3.15pm

Class 3: Wednesday 8th February 9-9.45am

Class 4: Thursday 9th February 2.30-3.15pm

Kind regards,

Ms Abigail Rich

Head of School

Christmas Head's Blog

Merry Christmas!

It has been a magical end to the Autumn Term at Pelynt. We started our Christmas celebrations with our Christmas Fayre, organised by our wonderful children, staff and FOPS. The children made all sorts of delicious treats, Christmas crafts to sell/make and games for families to play. A huge thank you to FOPS for all their hard work with the refreshments, a raffle with some of the best prizes that we have ever seen, a tombola and for organising a wonderful range of stalls run by local crafts people and businesses. A phenomenal £900 was raised!

This week started with a very icy Monday. I’m so grateful to all staff for braving the weather to get to school, so that we could open for any children able to get to us. We then had two fantastic performances of our whole school, Strictly Come Dancing themed Nativity, ‘Lights, Camel, Action.’ We’re so proud of all of the children for their singing and acting energy. A special well done to James, for his particularly enthusiastic delivery and for stepping in at the last minute to say additional lines when someone was away. Tess and Claudia need to watch out! Thank you to our families for helping with costumes and for being a fabulous audience.

On Wednesday, the children had a delicious Christmas dinner. The atmosphere of everyone enjoying their lunch together was wonderful. A big thank you to our cook Jackie and all Pelynt staff for their hard work serving the lunch.

On Thursday the children had their Christmas parties, followed by a very special visit from Father Christmas, who was very impressed with the impeccable manners of our children. In our final Celebration Assembly, Green Team reached a fantastic 1198 house points! We also announced the winners for our Christmas jumper artwork and our 100% attendance raffle. It was great to see so many children receive a certificate for being here every day of the term. Congratulations to George for winning the raffle prize!

Our week finished at church with a Christmas celebration of readings, carols and some favourite Christmas songs by candlelight. Thank you to Reverend Allen for making this so special and Mrs Allen for organising our music.

The first term of a new school year is always a busy one, with new initiatives and some new staff this year, including me! I am so proud of the team that we have at Pelynt, who work so hard and always with a smile on their faces, to provide the very best care for our children.

We know that this time of year can be difficult for some families for many reasons, with many of you feeling the financial strain. Mrs Thompson has sent home the codes from Cornwall Council for our families who are entitled to extra support financially this winter. If you are struggling, please do get in touch with us.

From everyone at Pelynt, we hope that you have a happy and healthy Christmas and will see you again on Tuesday 3rd January 2023 for an exciting new term of learning opportunities!

Ms Abigail Rich
Head of School

Autumn Term 2 Week 5

We have lots of exciting events coming up over the last two weeks of term. Please see below for more details!

Nativity performances Monday 12th December at 2pm and Tuesday 13th December at 6pm

We still have a few tickets available, please contact Mrs Thompson with requests for additional tickets.

Christmas Jumper day

Just a reminder that Christmas jumper and Christmas party day is on Thursday 15^th December. Christmas Jumper day is a fundraising event for Save the Children. We know that this is an expensive time of year for everyone, so if you are able to contribute £1, this is not expected, but very much appreciated. We would be grateful if you could provide a small contribution of party food to be shared with your child’s class at the party. For example, small cakes, biscuits or crisps. Any leftover sealed packages will be donated to the food bank via the church. Please give to your child to bring to their classroom in the morning. Due to potential allergies, no nuts please.

Christmas Celebration at the church

This is on Friday 16^th December at 2.30pm. Come along and hear some of our songs from the whole school Nativity and join in with some favourite carols and Christmas songs. All welcome!

Football Club and Art Club

There will be no football or art club for the rest of the term, due to them clashing with Christmas events. There will also be no family Friday on the last day of term.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in contact with me or Mrs Thompson. We look forward to seeing you at our events!

Kind regards,
Ms Abigail Rich
Head of School

Autumn Term 2 Week 4

Carnglaze Caverns

Last week, we took a group of children from years 2-6 to Carnglaze Caverns for our Bridge Trust Arts Festival, where the children sang two songs from the musical Mary Poppins. We were incredibly proud of their dedication to learn their words and confidence to perform in front of such a large audience. They certainly all deserved their ‘Excellent Eagle’ awards in Celebration Assembly.

Attendance and House Points Winners

Congratulations to Class 3 for winning the Otis (On Time In School) superhero mascot for week 4 and to Class 4, who are proving very hard to beat, for winning Edna (Every Day Never Away) award for the highest attendance (96.3%). Thank you to our families for ensuring that your children are in school on time to be able to access every learning opportunity available to them. We are getting close to our end of term attendance raffle, where children with 100% attendance can win a prize! Finally, a big well done to Green House for achieving the most house points, with a total so far this term of 706!

Nativity and Carols

All families have been sent a letter today regarding tickets for ‘Lights, Camel, Action’, our Strictly Come Dancing themed Nativity, which the whole school will be performing on Monday 12^th December at 2pm and Tuesday 13^th December at 6pm. Please email your ticket preferences to secretary@pelyntprimary.co.uk by Friday 25^th November. We will also be inviting families to our whole school Christmas Carols at church on Friday 16^th December at 2.30pm, which isn’t a ticketed event.

Christmas Fayre

Next Monday, 5^th December is our Christmas Fayre, where every class will be making things to sell. There will also be games to play, delicious refreshments hosted by FOPS, and stalls from local businesses. You will also be able to see the beautiful Christmas tree decorations that the children are busy making this week. We look forward to seeing you there!

Kind regards,
Abigail Rich

Head of School

Autumn Term 2 Week 3

School Values Art and Attendance
Every class from Pre-School to Class 4 have worked together to make an animal to represent each of the Bridge Values. These are now very proudly on display in the school hall. Certificates linked to these values, as well as our additional ‘Be Kind’ value sticker, are now a central part of our Celebration assemblies. We have also been celebrating attendance and punctuality each week. Congratulations to Class 2 for winning the punctuality award this week. Superhero Otis the dog (On Time In School) is proudly displayed in their classroom. Congratulations to Class 4 for 97.3% attendance this week. They are looking after Superhero Edna the cat (Every Day Never Away) this week.

Musical Performances
The sounds of Christmas and Mary Poppins can be heard throughout Pelynt this week! On Thursday 24th November, a group of children from classes 2 - 4 will be singing two songs from Mary Poppins at Carnglaze Caverns. They will be sharing this wonderful experience with other schools in the Bridge Trust. We are extremely proud of their efforts to learn these songs and their confidence to perform in front of an audience. Rehearsals are also underway for our whole school Strictly Come Dancing themed singing and dancing Nativity, which will take place on Monday 12th and Tuesday 13th December. Further details about tickets for these will be sent home soon. Any children with lines to learn will be receiving a script this week, if they haven’t already. We have very kindly been donated some money from Looe Lions, which we will be using to purchase some new costumes for the performances. A huge thank you to FOPS for their fundraising efforts, some of which we have used to purchase the music and performance licence for the shows.

School Council
The children across the school have now elected a School Council member from each year group. They received their special badges in assembly last week and will meet with Mrs. Forbes this week to start to plan their first mission, which is to explore options with the rest of the school for new names for the school houses. These will be the names of inspirational British people.

House Points
Whilst we wait to decide the new names for the house teams, we are referring to these as red, yellow, green and blue. The results so far this term are as follows, so congratulations to Green House!
Red: 491 points
Yellow: 521 points
Green: 554 points
Blue: 508 points

Cross Country
Congratulations to the children who took part in the Cross Country League races at Lanhydrock last week. They are all stars and we are particularly proud of one of our pupils who came in the top 10 out of nearly 300 children!

Children in Need
The children had lots of fun wearing colourful and spotty clothes last week and we have raised just under £80!

Anti-Bullying Week
Last week we focused on anti-bullying in our assemblies and PSHE. KS2 classes were visited by PC David Brailey-Evans to explore this theme further. He also spent time talking to children outside at playtime. We are delighted that he will be a regular visitor to our school.

Poppy Appeal
We heard this week that the school raised £149.05 in our Poppy Appeal. This has been added to the district total of £4388!

Healthy Snacks
As mentioned in our Welcome Meetings at the start of the year, we are really keen to promote healthy eating in our school. We also need to ensure that all children have something nutritious to eat at break time. Please can we ask that snacks are low in sugar, such as fruit and vegetables and remind KS2 parents that free snacks are only provided in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2.

School Gates
To ensure that we are a secure site, please can we remind parents that the gates to the carpark must remain closed during school hours. The carpark is for the sole use of staff, maintenance/emergency vehicles and deliveries, unless an arrangement has been agreed with school. Should you need to collect a child during the day, please make sure that you close the pedestrian gate behind you.

Kind regards,
Abigail Rich
Head of School