Welcome back to everyone after the half term break. As ever, it has been a busy week, with lots of fantastic learning taking place across the school.

Design Technology
Class 3 are learning about mechanisms through model vehicles This week, they learnt to make a prototype model car to roll down an inclined plane. Children had to work in pairs to achieve their learning outcomes in the lesson and then test their car.


Art Exhibition
We hope all those who were able to join us for the art exhibition on Wednesday enjoyed viewing the children's work. It was great to see the variety of approaches on display.



Year 3/4 Football Tournament
Despite losing both games from the first round of matches this week, I thought the players were terrific. Many of the children were playing their first ever game and were very unsure what to do at the beginning. However, by the end, they had improved significantly.

Swimming
Year 1 and 2 children started their swimming programme this afternoon. With half of them assessed as non-swimmers, it shows the value of these lessons.

I look forward to sharing more of the children's learning next week.

Thank you Class 2 families for making it to our Art Open Classroom session on Wednesday. It was lovely to see all of you in the classroom sharing the children's works. It was especially wonderful to see you all sharing your children's illustrated stories. They are all very, very proud of their books... as you might have noticed!

This week in Maths, we have started a new unit on measurement. Our class have had a lot of very active Maths lessons measuring things around the classroom using our rules and meter sticks. Please see below for some photos from one of our lessons. We have also started a new unit of writing in Literacy. This half term, we are writing explanation texts. This week, we explored a WAGOLL and identified the key text and language features we can use in our own writing. We also consolidated our understanding of writing in the present tense and have had a go at independently writing the introductions to an explanation text.

In Science, we have begun our unit on Life Cycles by learning about the life cycle of humans. In DT we have begun our unit on textiles by learning how to handle a needle and to sew a running stitch. In Geography, we looked at the 4 countries that make up the United Kingdom. We learned the names of the capital cities and explored some physical and human features found around our country.

Finally, we ended our very full first week back with an exciting first swimming lesson on Friday!!!

Have a lovely weekend and see you again on Monday for another week of learning fun!


  

What an exciting and inspiring week we've had!
Art Exhibition - Art Activism
We are incredibly proud of all the children for their amazing artwork showcased at our Art Activism exhibition. The theme encouraged pupils to use art as a powerful voice for change, and the messages they created were thoughtful, emotional, and full of purpose. A huge thank you to all the parents, grandparents, and family members who attended. Your support means so much to the children, and they absolutely loved sharing their creative ideas with you.

Science - Phases of the Moon
In Science, we've been learning all about the Moon and its phases. The children have explored how the Moon appears to change shape over the course of a month, and we've talked about why this happens. To help us understand these phases, the class created fantastic Moon phase pinwheels, which turned out brilliantly and really showed their understanding. We've also enjoyed observing how the Moon looks each evening and discussing the changes we notice.

 Maths - Year 5 & Year 6
In Maths, each year group has been working hard on their current learning: Year 6 have been mastering how to multiply decimals, showing excellent problem-solving and reasoning skills. Year 5 have continued practising their written multiplication methods, building confidence and accuracy day by day. Both year groups have shown great determination and focus-well done, everyone!

Now we have reached the end of this half term, I'm not sure where the weeks have gone. The staff and children have been working extremely hard and everyone deserves a rest. Hopefully, we will have some better weather next week and when we return on Monday 23rd February. I was told it has been the wettest January on record in Cornwall and it has certainly felt like it.

Art Exhibition
At 3.20pm on Wednesday 25th February, we are inviting parents and carers to join us in classes for our latest art exhibition. Here is a taster of what you will see. Class 3 have been learning about art activism and produced their own artwork with a message they want to share with the world. Class 3 have been learning about repeating patterns and how they are generated for the textile and design industry. They have created their own. We look forward to welcoming you on the 25th.




Football Tournament
Well done to our Year 5 and 6 football team, who completed their tournament fixtures this week. A 5-0 win against Menheniot in the first match was followed by a narrow 3-2 defeat to South Petherwin in the second. I was very proud of their attitude, effort and teamwork. A special thanks to Jacob from Year 4, who stepped in to make up the numbers and support Rioch, Rosie, Belle, Seth, Alfie and Jayden. 

Half Term Activities
I look forward to seeing everyone again on Monday 23rd February but, in the meantime, here are a couple of ideas for half term:





Finally, here is something for the summer term:

Over the past few weeks, the children have been hard at work crafting their own setting stories inspired by Pandora. We've been exploring how to build atmosphere, use descriptive vocabulary, and bring imaginary worlds to life. The pupils have shown incredible creativity, and we are delighted to share some examples of the excellent writing they have produced. Their attention to detail and imagination have really shone through!

In addition to our storytelling, we've also been diving into our new topic on the Ancient Greeks. The class has been researching who they were, how they lived, and the huge impact they had on the world. From democracy and theatre to architecture and the Olympic Games, we've been thinking carefully about the legacy the Ancient Greeks have left us. All of this learning is helping us prepare for our "big write" after half term, where pupils will bring together their knowledge in a longer, independent piece
of writing.

As we head into the break, I hope all the pupils enjoy a well‑deserved and restful half term. They have worked incredibly hard, and we look forward to continuing our learning adventure when we return!

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus leo ante, consectetur sit amet vulputate vel, dapibus sit amet lectus.

This last week of the half term has been a fun filled learning adventure in class 2. 

We have spent a lot of time reflecting on and consolidating our learning from this half term. In Literacy, we have all finished writing our "triumph over terror" stories, and have been illustrating our stories so that we can have our very own picture books. We can't wait to share them with you when we come back after the break! In Maths, we have consolidated our understanding of multiplication and division, especially multiplying and dividing by 2, 5 and 10.

In Science, we completed the final recording of our experiment and spent some time discussing our findings and drawing our conclusions from it all. We have found that water is very essential for a seed to germinate, and that it does not really need soil to do the same. In History, we wrapped up our learning from this term by answering some key questions on the topic of the history of flight. On the left is a photo of Roma's beautiful write up about the key facts we have learned in this unit. In Computing, we consolidated all our learning about word processing by creating a document with details about a friend. We typed our text, formatted it in our friend's favourite colour and inserted a photo of them.

Finally, a very well done to:
> Roux for getting the Ready Award for his fantastic progress in Maths, especially his knowledge of multiplication and division.
> Harriet for getting the Respectful Award from Mrs Connell for her fantastic attitude during RWI lessons.
> Emily for getting the Safe Award for being a super helper to Mrs Connell, helping her with the gates every morning.
> Isla for being nominated for the Safe Award by the Positive Potato Police for letting others join in her game.

Have a lovely half term break, and see you all bright and refreshed on Monday, 23 February 2025.

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.

What a long, full and amazing week we've had here in Class 2!
In Literacy, we have finished writing our stories and have edited them, ready to write them into our neat copies. Watch this space, next week, we are going to get very creative with our stories! In Maths, we have come to the end of our unit on Multiplication and Division. Next week, we are excited about spending time recapping some of the key concepts we have learned and getting more fluent with our 2, 5 and 10 times table and related divisions.

In Science, we had a huge discussion around what plants need to grow. We had a very important question we needed answering - how do plants get their food? Some of us suggested that they get it through their roots which connected to the "wood wide web," while some suggested they got it from the soil. Finally, had a lesson on how plants used sunlight, water and carbon dioxide to make their own food. This was further reinforced during our walk down at Haye Farm on Wednesday afternoon. You can see some of the pictures from the trip on the slide show below. 

In History, we learned about the first men on the moon. We watched actual footage of the Apollo 11 mission and watched Neil Armstrong as he stepped foot on the moon for the first time. We finished off by reading "The Sea of Tranquility." At the end of the lesson, we had quite a few of us who wanted to change our "When I grow up..." banners. Harriet shouted, "I want to be an astronaut! I will be the first girl on Mars!"

We ended the week with a huge collaborative Art project. We crafted our own mark-making tools using a variety of objects and mixed primary colours to make a range of secondary colours. We use them to experiment with mark making.

Finally, a very well done to:
> Jimmy, Jane and Darcie for getting the Ready Award for their brilliant improvements in their Arithmetic skills.
> William for getting the Respectful Award for trying his very best to wait for his turn to speak.
> Darcie for being nominated for the Safe Award by the Positive Potato Police for being a kind and considerate friend and checking on her friends.

Also find attached below, this week's number bonds homework.

We've had an exciting week in class, highlighted by our fantastic trip to Cotehele, where we planted young Scots pine and oak trees to help support the woodland for future generations. It is all part of the National Trust's scheme to plant 20 million trees over the estate.  Back at school, we've been sharpening our maths skills by exploring fractions by adding and subtracting breaking the whole.  Year 6 started looking at decimals and how they can be partitioned.  After school,  we also represented our class brilliantly in football matches against Copper Valley and Bishop Cornish schools. To round it all off, we've begun planning and writing our own settings stories set on different planets, blending real scientific facts with our own imaginative ideas based on our unit on Pandora.  There have been lots of imaginative creatures created as part of this planning process. What a brilliant week of learning and adventure!

And with that, January comes to an end... well, almost. Class 2 have had an amazing week of learning and exploring. 

In Literacy, we have completed our key learning for the unit and are applying them to write our draft 'triumph over terror' stories. In Maths, we have moved on to multiplying and dividing by 10. We have also started our journey into the world of Around the World Challenge, and most of us are fast working our way through the UK cities.

In Science, we have continued monitoring and collecting data from our experiments. We have also looked at the difference between a seed and a bulb by closely examining different seeds and bulbs. We really enjoyed watching time lapse videos of seeds and bulbs sprouting and discussing how they differ. This led us ultimately to a discussion about the life cycle of a plant. We can't wait to visit Haye Organic Farm next week to explore the hedgerows and see what plants we can find there.  

In RE, we learned about 'ibadah' as a way of life for Muslims. In History, we watched some amazing videos of Amelia Earhart's first solo flight across the Atlantic and discussed what it might have been like to witness such an amazing event. In Art, we explored Vincent Van Gough's art and making a lot of -ish art inspired by his brushwork and colours.

Finally, we ended the week with a wonderful visit from the library van. All of us got the chance to look through some wonderful books and choose one to take one home to read. Lilly R came back super excited and said, "I wish that was my room!"
 
And, a very well done to:
> Jimmy for getting the Ready Award for his amazing hard work in the past few weeks and completing all his tasks.
> Lilly R for getting the Respectful Award for her kind and considerate nature and always greeting everyone with a smile and a cheer.
> Isla for getting the Safe Award from the Positive Potato Police for sharing during break time.

As mentioned earlier, please find attached below the PDF of the number bonds homework for the week.

Our class has had a wonderfully busy week, exploring a mix of creative writing, maths mastery, and scientific discovery! In English, pupils have been using a range of sentence types to describe the world of Pandora, adding detail, mood, and excitement to their writing. Year 5 have been working hard on subtracting fractions, while Year 6 have taken on the challenge of dividing fractions-both groups showing great perseverance and progress. In Science, we've been investigating how the Earth's movement creates night and day, sparking lots of curious questions and thoughtful discussion. A quick reminder: we'll be planting at Cotehele on Monday 2nd February, and with showery weather forecast, pupils will need waterproofs and wellies.

It's always busy at Harrowbarrow and this week is no exception. Here are some examples of what the children have been up to:

Science in Class 2
Class 2 have been investigating the difference between seeds and bulbs.


Art in Class 3
After looking at the work of artist Rachel Parker, the children designed a tile which is going to be transformed into a repeating pattern using a clever trick of quartering it, rearranging the sections and using technology to repeat their design multiple times. We look forward to sharing the final work at the end but here are a few of tiles ready for the next stage of the process.


Writing in Class 4
The children have been using a text about the fantasy world of Pandora as a stimulus for their own writing. Here are some lovely examples that show how hard the children are working to create some quality pieces of writing.:

In the terrain, foliage sprawls in every direction, only stopping when it meets one of the rivers that winds through the land. Beneath the misty sky, trees stand guard and under  the vines that trail from their branches a wilderness teems with life, above which slivers of moonlight shift and shimmer. Pandora is well known for its deadly environment. Lurking beneath vast trees with dangling vines is the camp where the humanoid inhabitants of Pandora hide. Wrapped around the branches, long, shiny vines with spikes dangle, ready to ensnare anything that touches them. All around, the small but glistening fauna float, spinning slowly. Pandora has amazing features and one of them is the Hallelujah Mountains. Hovering above the ground, the Hallelujah Mountains float over the surface of Pandora. Silky vines connect the Hallelujah mountains. Above the silky, glossy vines that to the Hallelujah mountains slide through the mist. Lurking beneath the mist, the Hallelujah Mountains meet together. Hiding beneath the vines, lay the Hallelujah mountains vailed in silver mist. By Leo

Finally, here are a some opportunities for your children outside of school:

This week in Class 2 we have been working as a team to try and understand multiplication and division, and the relationship between these two operations. We learned that division as an operation is nothing but the simple task of sharing or grouping. There were oodles of counters and cubes strewn all around the classroom during our Maths lessons this week. In Literacy, we have looked at special words that tells us more about verbs called adverbials. Today, we also investigated different sentence types and the punctuations associated with them.

In History, we have continued our enquiry into the history of flight by learning all about the first African American woman to earn a pilots license - Bessie Coleman. We looked at a reproduction of her license and became history detectives as we tried to figure out some details about her life from it. We ended up with more questions than answers this time. Below is an image of Sofia's observation and notes from this exercise. In RE, we learned about some of the teachings from the Qur'an and discussed how they applied to our own lives. In Art, we used our experiments with mark making using primary colours to create our own collages in our sketchbooks, while in Computing we continued learning how to use a word processor by learning how to select a text and change some of their attributes.

Finally, a very well done to:
> William for getting the Ready Award for persisting and not giving up during Maths learning.
> Freya for getting the Respectable Award for always being a kind and responsible member of the class.
> Darcey for being nominated for the Safe Award by the Positive Potato Police for being a kind friend and sharing her play equipment with others.

It's been another busy week at Harrowbarrow with a class trip, road safety lessons for our older cyclists and the usual range of exciting lessons. For more information on what your children will be learning this term, please look at the class pages on the website. The teachers post an overview of the learning content in each subject area for your information.

Bikeability
Well done to our Year 6 cyclists who successfully completed their Bikeability training this week. After learning some important safety lessons in the covered playground, the group took to the roads to put their skills into practice.




Cornwall Museum Trip
Class 3 visited Cornwall Museum as part of their history project, learning about the ancient Egyptians. The day started with an interactive lesson on how to mummify a body - don't worry, a doll was used for this! The museum has some great artefacts, which the children were able to explore after the workshop, including a 2,500 year old mummy and his sarcophagus. The whole day was really interesting and brought the history of ancient Egypt alive for Class 3. 



Staffing Update
Sam Watts is due to go on paternity leave in the near future. During his absence, Class 3 will be taught by Abi Flashman on Mondays and Tuesdays and by myself from Wednesday to Friday.

Attendance
We appreciate there have been a succession of bugs throughout the winter period that have impacted on pupil attendance. Thank you to all those parents and carers who notify us if their child is going to be away using the telephone answer system. It is important to phone on each day of absence so we know the reason why absent children are not in school. For mild colds and ailments, we are able to administer medication such as Calpol with your consent. If this helps your child attend on a day when they are slightly off colour, please feel free to drop the medication into the school office and complete a form authorising us to administer it. Quite a few children have missed a lot of school this winter and we are concerned they may not be able to catch-up on missed learning.

Physical Education
This half term, Class 4 are learning netball skills in PE. Here are a few nice actions shots from the lesson this week, which was all about shooting.



Year 5/6 football tournament
Unfortunately, due to the unrelenting poor weather, the team is yet to play a match. Fingers crossed for this coming Tuesday, when the team are due to play Tregadillet and then Stoke Climsland. Please can all players arrive at the college for a 4.15pm kick-off. Thank you.

This week in science, we have been learning all about the heliocentric model of the universe. We explored how scientists like Copernicus and Galileo helped us understand that the Sun, rather than the Earth, is at the centre of our solar system, and we discussed how this discovery changed the way people saw the world. In maths, Year 6 have been busy tackling some challenging fraction work: we have been adding fractions with different denominators by finding common multiples, and we have also been practising how to multiply and divide fractions with increasing confidence. In English, we have been improving our sentence writing by using relative clauses to add extra detail, giving our writing more depth and variety. Finally, a huge well done to the Bikeability group for successfully completing their Level 2 training - you showed great perseverance and cycling skills!