This week two classes went on trips in the local area. It is always good for our children to connect with their local community and the environment as it gives them a sense of place.

Tree planting at Cotehele
The National Trust is planting millions of trees across their estates and this week Class 4 helped plant beech, oak, hornbeam, pine, sycamore and lime trees at Cotehele. The children worked in teams of three to plant and stake over 100 trees. They did an amazing job and really understood the value of the contribution they were making to the landscape and the local habitat.



Haye Farm
Class 3 visited Haye Farm to learn how plants get their food. The visit supports their work in science this term. They will be visiting again in March to learn more and may get the opportunity to see some newborn baby animals too.

It's a girl!
Congratulations to Sam Watts and his partner, who welcomed their baby daughter into the world yesterday. Sam is understandably feeling very proud and asked us to share this angelic photo. We will send a congratulatory card and gift on behalf of our school community.

This week has been a busy and exciting one for Year 1. In English, the children completed their own creative versions of Augustus and His Smile. They worked hard to think about character feelings and events in the story, using their imaginations to add their own ideas while developing their writing skills and confidence.

In maths, the children continued learning about tens and ones, using this knowledge to help them with addition and subtraction. They explored numbers in different ways, using practical resources to support their understanding and explain their thinking.

During PSHE, the focus was on overcoming obstacles in learning. The children discussed how learning can sometimes feel tricky and shared ideas about what to do when they find something challenging. They talked about perseverance, asking for help, and not giving up, helping them to build resilience and a positive attitude towards learning.

In science, the children planted seeds and placed them in different areas of the classroom as part of an experiment. They are beginning to understand that plants need certain conditions to grow and are looking forward to observing and recording changes over time.

On Thursday, Year 1 went on an educational visit to Looe. The children enjoyed exploring the local area and identifying both human and physical features, linking their learning to real-life experiences and developing their geographical vocabulary.

Reception have also been learning about plants this week. They completed an experiment by planting a seed in a bag with kitchen roll, allowing them to observe the early stages of plant growth closely. The children were very engaged and excited to see how their plants will change over time.

Friday 6th February

This week  in phonics, we have learnt trigraph /igh/ and digraph /ee/ . Please look out for you weekly email so you can support your children's phonics at home.

In maths Miss Wilson explored the composition of 6, 7 and 8 with the children and then they began to explore 'one less'.

In English the children have started a new text The Emperors Egg. The children have loved exploring this book and learning all about penguins. We have explored a story map, drawn and labelled a penguin, thought of questions that we want to ask a penguin. Then on Friday we had a visit from a penguin and the children got to ask their questions and have them answered!!  We enjoyed making penguin huddles and doing a penguin dance!

In foundation we have started to complete handwriting lessons each afternoon to help with letter formation and begin to get ready for year1. On the first day all the children found it quite tricky to follow the handwriting lines BUT today Mrs Phillips nearly ran out of stickers because the handwriting was sooooo good!

The children have also made polar scenes, penguin scenes, started to make a penguin plate, explored books, had another library visit, built, made snipped and so much more!

We are nearly at the end of spring 1 already and next week school finishes at 3:15 on Thursday. Friday is an INSET day.

We wish you a wonderful weekend

The Foundation Team 

TALLAND'S BLOG 6.2.26

What an incredible week! We've had Anglo-Saxon VS Viking battles, making historic buckles and broaches , hot fires to cook bread and soup on, wattle and daub making for some sturdy ancient walls. And then, for good measure, we through in some tennis and some torch making.

CONGRATULTIONS to Renley, Charlie, Kayla and Taran for passing there next round in 99 club. Well done to Emma for being noticed for being an incredible learning partner this week. She showed creative guidance, kindness and as always, she was a fantastic member of Talland.

That's all from us this week. We hope you have a brilliant weekend!

Signing off from Mr. Langley and Mr. Bishop.  


PHOTO FRENZY INCOMING..

We are very nearly at the middle of the school year! Next week is the final week of this half term and it has flown by. Still to come next week we have the Valentine's disco on Tuesday and school finishes for pupils on Thursday as the staff have INSET training on Friday 13th Feb. 

We were really lucky to have a visit yesterday from author Jane Griffiths. She came in to talk to us about her new book (and read it to us) and talk about conservation. We are grateful to her for giving up her time to visit us and share her passion. 

Parent Survey: You said, we did!

Thank-you so much for your replies to the parent survey. You have made some fantastic suggestions and comments and we have already started to look at them. Thank-you also to the parents and carers who have volunteered to be part of the steering committee. There is still time to be part of this if you would like. Please let Mrs Norris know. 

Our first piece of work will be looking at communication between school and home and will shortly be sending out a communications charter that will underpin how school and home communicate. It is an exciting piece of work that children will be part of too. 

Finally, an we please ask all parents and carers to park responsibly outside of school. The markings at the front are to keep the children safe and should not be used to park. Also, please can we ask that you too remind children to use the pavements to walk on as we have had some reports of children running out into traffic. 

Thank-you again for your support of the school. Have a wonderful weekend. 

Mr Whipps

It has been a brilliant Brunel Week! Please enjoy catching up on all the latest news and events from the past week at our wonderful school. 

 




















Year 5 & 6 Space Dome
Last Friday, Year 5 and 6 ventured into a giant dome, bringing their wider curriculum learning to life. Year 5 explored our solar system, whilst Year 6 immersed themselves in evolution. A huge thank you to Simon from Space Odyssey for his annual visit.

Year 1 Stay and Learn
Thank you so much to everyone who could attend our Stay and Learn. It was lovely to share our learning with you and let the children show off what we are doing in school. There were some fabulous penny farthing drawings and excellent Maths skills on display. It was also great to see the children showing how to decode the words on our Phonics table. It was mentioned that links to some of the games we use would be useful to support learning at home - we will send these sent out as soon as possible. We hope you've managed to lose the smell of garlic paste!
From the Year 1 team

KS2 Playground Comes Alive!
It's been a super week celebrating the launch of our refreshed KS2 playground, and what a difference it's already made! As some of you may know, we've introduced some fantastic new equipment, including two table tennis tables, tennis rackets, basketballs, skipping ropes, and more. There may have been a few tennis balls that decided to go on an adventure of their own (we're still keeping an eye out!) but aside from that, the launch has been a huge success. It's been wonderful to see the children so excited for their break times-heading outside with smiles, coming together as teams, and making the most of the space and equipment. The playground has been full of energy, laughter, and positive play, which are exactly the goals we were aiming for. Seeing the children enjoying themselves and building friendships through play has been the highlight of our week. Here's what some of the children have been saying:

"The new equipment is amazing because there's so much more to do now. I love playing table tennis with my friends and trying new games every break time."

"Our playground has really come alive. Everyone is playing together more, and it feels more fun and exciting than ever before."

"I really look forward to playtime now because there are so many choices."

Thank you for your continued support-we're thrilled with how the playground is being used and loved already, and we can't wait to see it continue to grow as a happy, active space for everyone.
From Mrs Callister, KS2 Phase Leader

Year 1 Penguin WOW Day
What a fantastic day we've had to celebrate our learning about Emperor Penguins. Thank you for your efforts with the costumes - the children looked amazing and enjoyed showing off their outfits to the rest of the school at assembly this afternoon. We started the day with penguin crafts, making dangly penguins and collaging our own penguins on the ice. This afternoon, we used the hall to come together and make a big huddle, just like the penguins do in Antarctica to keep warm. It was certainly warm in the middle! We then used beanbags as eggs and waddled around to see who could keep their egg safe the longest - it wasn't the adults (!) - before having some relay races in teams.
From the Year 1 team

Year 4 Assembly - Thursday 12th February
We look forward to seeing family members of Year 4 at their assembly next Thursday 12th February. Doors open after morning drop off for refreshments, with a start time of 09:00. To help the morning drop-off routine, any Year 4 families driving are asked to try parking in the staff car park first (double parking is fine).

Last day of half term reminder - Thursday 12th February
A reminder that next Thursday is our last day of half term. School finishes at the normal time (no early finish). On Friday, when school is closed for children, we look forward to welcoming staff from across all Bridge Schools for a fantastic day of training and development with a focus on Neurodiversity: A Universal Approach.

PE days after half term
Please note your child's PE days after half term:
Nursery: Monday & Tuesday
Reception: Friday
Year 1: Friday
Year 2: Thursday (except w/b 2nd March for their week of swimming lessons)
Year 3: Wednesday
Year 4: Tuesday (except w/b 9th March for their week of swimming lessons)
Year 5: Monday
Year 6: Thursday (except w/b 16th March for their week of swimming lessons)

House Points
Congratulations to this week's winners, Cormorants. Overall, Choughs are in the lead:
Choughs - 6877
Puffins - 6193
Swans - 5912
Cormorants - 5367

Parent Teacher Consultations (PTCs)
A reminder that the booking system on Arbor to make your 10 minute appointment is open and closes on Monday 23rd February at 12noon. For parents/carers making appointments for children in Big Nursery, please note these will be on Tuesday 24th February only.

How to book your PTC appointment
1. Click on the Arbor App
2. Select your child
3. Click on Guardian Consultations

The system works on a first come, first served basis, however there are enough slots for each child's parents.

Where to go
If you arrive earlier than your appointment, please come to the Hall, where there will be refreshments kindly provided by Caterlink. You'll also find FOWPA's Nearly New Uniform stall and the Scholastic Book Fair with books for sale. The Book Fair is with us all week - More details to follow. A few minutes before your appointment, please make your way to your child's classroom, waiting outside on the seats until called in. 

Children's books
Teachers will be sharing with you some of your children's work/books. Following the meeting, you are welcome to take these to the Hall to look through (and have some refreshments). Once finished, there will be boxes in the Hall to drop them off before leaving.

Your feedback matters
Before you leave, there will also be an opportunity to complete a short survey about our PTCs, i.e. what's working well, what could be better, etc.

Message from Mr Smith (SENDCo)
Teachers will be reviewing all SEND pupils' current Assess Plan Do Review (APDRs) targets. The second set of APDR targets for your child will be discussed and agreed together at the PTCs in February. Once finalised, these will be sent to parents/carers week beginning Monday 9th March. If more time is required to discuss your child's needs, please arrange a mutually convenient time with the teacher. As mentioned previously, class teachers are your first port of call around SEND and following conversations with them and/or a meeting, I will be involved as and when required.

Extra-Curricular Activities (ECAs)
A reminder that there are no teacher-led ECAs w/b Monday 23rd February. Pro20 (Monday) and Dance (Friday) will be running as normal. All ECAs will then run as normal from Monday 2nd March- Friday 27th March.
If you have any questions or queries about making your PTC appointment, please contact the school office.


FOWPA Quiz Thanks
FOWPA would like to thank everyone who came out to support the WPA Big Quiz last Friday! With your support we raised nearly £600 to support the children and school. A huge thank you to the families and businesses (including Sharp's Brewery, Glanville, Tesco and Boots) who donated items as raffle prizes too. It takes wonderful FOWPA volunteers to organise these great events, so if you would like to join our friendly PTA and have fun raising funds for our school, please email fowpa@wadebridgeprimary.co.uk


Wishing you a relaxing weekend.
Best wishes,
Chris Wathern

A Week Full of Adventure in Tregantle Class!

What an exciting week it has been for Tregantle Class!

Our week began with a wonderful adventure around the school grounds, starting with a visit to see the school chickens and the pond. The children were delighted by our very noisy cockerel, Merlin, whose enthusiastic crowing made everyone laugh. The pond was bursting with life, giving us lots to look at and talk about. On our way back to the classroom, we couldn't resist stopping off at the adventure playground, which added even more fun to our afternoon.

The highlight of the week came on Thursday evening, when the children returned to school for a very special bedtime story event. Dressed in their pyjamas and bringing along their teddies and blankets, the children enjoyed a cosy and snug classroom atmosphere. Mrs Grinsted, Mrs McIntyre and Mrs Orchard shared a selection of new and favourite stories, while everyone relaxed with a hot chocolate and a biscuit.

It was a truly magical evening and a lovely way to support and celebrate our love of reading at Brunel. What a memorable week for Tregantle Class!

Another fantastic week of learning in Year 2 and 3, full of creativity, teamwork and confidence-building moments. The children have impressed us with their focus and enthusiasm across the curriculum.

English

In English, the children have been developing their writing skills further by learning how to use subordinating conjunctions and rhetorical questions to make their writing more engaging and detailed. They have also been busy planning their own recounts through letters, thinking carefully about audience, purpose and structure. We are seeing real growth in both confidence and independence in their writing.

Maths

In Maths, learning looked a little different across the year groups:

• Year 2 have been adding two-digit numbers, using a range of practical and written methods.

• Year 3 have been multiplying and dividing by 3, exploring both sharing and grouping to deepen their understanding.

The children worked hard to explain their thinking and support one another.

History

In History, we learned about the significant figure Amelia Earhart. The children were fascinated by her achievements in flight and enjoyed discussing why she is remembered as an important and inspiring person.

PSHE

Our PSHE lessons focused on thinking about others and challenging ourselves to work collaboratively. The children worked in groups to design a garden for someone with needs different from their own, showing empathy, creativity and excellent teamwork skills.

Design & Technology

DT was a real highlight this week as the children brought their pneumatic toy designs to life. The level of inventiveness, problem-solving and perseverance on display was wonderful to see-every design was unique, and the children were incredibly proud of their finished creations.

PE

In PE, we brought together our whole-class machine dance. The final performance included individual, paired, small-group and whole-class elements, all linked smoothly together. The children showed great coordination, timing and confidence.

Love Yourself Day

On Friday, we celebrated Love Yourself Day. Children and adults were invited to wear things they love, and we spent time talking about self-confidence, kindness and appreciating what makes us all unique. It was a joyful and positive way to end the week.

The Stick House

In our focus story we have been hearing about how each little pig used a different type of material to build their house.

In these pictures the children are exploring the sticks that we found in the garden; they are trying to make a stable building for the pig to live in. We all agreed that it was much harder than it looked.

Lantic Class have had a truly fantastic week full of learning, kindness and creativity!

One of the highlights was our lovely visit to St Anne's Care Home. The children were a credit to the school as they enjoyed a snack and drink with the residents and proudly shared their literacy work. They also gave out beautiful painted cards they had made themselves, which brought lots of smiles and kind words. It was so special to see the children chatting, listening and showing such care and confidence.

In Maths, we have been learning all about doubles. The children used counters, ten frames and games to help them spot and remember doubles, and they did a great job explaining their thinking and working together.

In History, we began learning about old teddies and new teddies. The children loved comparing toys from the past with toys from today and talking about how things change over time. There were lots of thoughtful observations and exciting discussions! We also started a new poem in English called Ten Things Found in a Wizard's Pocket. The children have really enjoyed listening to the poem, exploring the magical language and sharing their ideas about what might be hiding in the wizard's pocket. We're looking forward to doing more with this poem next week.

Well done, Lantic Class, for such a brilliant week of learning and for showing such kindness and enthusiasm. We are very proud of you!

This week in pre-school we have been exploring our feelings and emotions with the help of The Colour Monster story.  The children have explored how they may feel in different situations with the help of using sentence starters and emotion faces cards to support the recognition of emotions in others.

Children of this age feel lots of emotions and may find it hard to express, interpret, or process these effectively, so as part of their development we often use stories and activities to develop strong emotional skills.  This also helps the children to learn other important things like acceptance, resilience, control, confidence, empathy, and the skill of being able to express how they are feeling.  All important skills to have and to help them build a sense of identity.

With so many emotions to discover, The Colour Monster story has really helped the children to grasp the difference in how they feel, as we know that we don't always just feel one emotion at a time.

In our art this week the children had fun sticking together the parts that make a fire engine.  Some even took it further to draw on the water hose and fire fighter.

With our phonics activities based on doctors and nurses, we used sound stories and sound bingo to discover the different sounds we may hear inside a hospital. We also watched 'Get well soon' with Dr Ranj about what we may visit a doctor for and how we may feel. 

Staying on topic of 'Get well soon' - we are aware that there has been a lot of cases of a flu type virus around school and pre-school.  There has been an email out to all parents with guidance from the school about what to do if you are unsure if to send your child in to school or not.  Please do take the time to read this information.

Any questions then please do get in touch with a member of staff.

The Pre-School Team.

Artistic fun!

This week we started our new unit in English based upon our class story 'No Ballet Shoes in Syria' by Catherine Bruton. We have been exploring the character, Aya, and writing different sentences to describe her. We have focused on using parenthesis and experimenting with subordinate and main clauses. 

in maths, we have moved onto our unit 'fractions, decimals and percentages'. We have been finding out equivalence and using this to help convert them. 

In geography, we explored the factors that might affect birth and death rates. This has helped us understand some reasons why population changes and why some people move countries. 

In art, we have been editing photos to design and album cover. We then researched different vinyl designs and had a go at designing our own. We used pastels, watercolours and colouring pencils to see which worked the best. Look at our fabulous sketchbook pages!

Have a fantastic weekend, Miss Burton.

Hello Everyone,

Great fun was had this week during our science lesson, where we made and tested paper helicopters. We learnt about how adding weight to the helicopters, changed the speed at which they fell, and then recorded our results in a graph.

Reception have been learning all about space. They have been busy using different painting techniques to paint the different planets of the solar system. They have also enjoyed singing songs and taking part in listening activities all about space stories. Our role play area has been filled with children visiting our space station and making and recording observations. 

During English this week, we have used two film clips to help us with our learning. The first, is a clip called 'Baboon on the Moon' and the second, 'Man on the Moon'. We have been using skills such as making predictions, explaining and reasoning, as well as developing our vocabulary to describe feelings. We wrote letters to the man on the moon, using the English skills that we have been developing. 

We are all so pleased with how well the children are improving their reading skills so far in Penhallow. Please keep practicing your reading as often as you can. We are so proud of your progress. Well done everybody.

Have a lovely weekend,

from The Penhallow Team