What a wonderful week we've had! Busy, sporty and full of learning experiences!

Everyone in Class 2 agree that the best thing about the week was our AMAZING Sports Day on Thursday. We had an entire day of working with out teams to try out a variety of challenges before coming together in the evening with our families to compete in a series of track and field events. Everyone did so well in all the sporting events throughout the day. Further, all the adults in attendance agree that they were very impressed with the superb sportsmanship exhibited by every child throughout the day. Well done everyone!

Alongside all sporting fun, we have also engaged with a variety of learning opportunities. In Literacy, we have completed our persuasive letters. I have had a lot of fun reading all the letters and have been thoroughly impressed by the variety of language skills used in all of them. On the left is a picture of the introduction to one of these letters written by a Year 2. 

In Maths, both Year 1 and Year 2 have completed their unit of work and completed their Hot Tasks. Next week, Year 1s will move on to Place Values within 100, while Year 2s will start a  fun unit on Position and Direction.

In Geography this week, Class 2 completed our first task using our new online learning tool - Showbie. We learned about the physical features of a coast and used Showbie to label a picture of a coast using both captions and voice memos. In DT we had a lot of fun cutting and juicing a variety of fruits as we begin to identify key skills we will use to make our smoothie.  

This week we had our sports day.  This year it was an all day event.  It start in the morning with pupils taking part in different activities with their houses.  Mr Watts led a football skills workshop; Mrs Flashman had children taking part in javelin and shot put; Mrs Charlesworth was getting children to do target practice with beanbags and I did some shooting and passing skills for netball.  The Year 5 and 6s were incredible at working with the other children and supporting them.  In particular Lexi, Holly and Leo stood out for the support and encouragement that they gave the younger children.  In the afternoon, we went outside to practice the tug of war and to do some games.  We finished the day with banner making ready for the evening. 

When 5 pm rolled by, it was time to process up onto the field and take part in the race.  Again, the Year 5 and 6 were great at encouraging the others in their team and supporting each other.  It was a win last night for yellow team with green team being nominated for being the most sporting.  Year 6 seems to enjoy the waiter race the most although there was a lot of water spilt by the end.  

Next week, there will be no more swimming.  Instead, six Year 6 children will be heading out on Monday to watch the cricket.  We have play rehearsals at the end of the week ready for the performance the following week.  

Here are the KIRFs for the week

Class 2 have been busy (yet again!) having oodles of fun learning and doing and creating.

In Literacy, we have begun drafting our persuasive letters and we have used some amazing vocabulary to persuade rockpool visitors to be more careful while enjoying our delicate habitats. In Maths, while Year 1s explore Fractions, year 2s continue their exploration of statistics. Beside this, our class "Morning Snack Shop" is running really well, with all the children "paying" for their snacks, with the help of Year 2 shopkeepers keeping track of payments.

In Geography, we have been able to locate the main bodies of water that surround the United Kingdom. We have also explored a variety of coasts and begun to identify distinguishing features of a coast.  

In Science, we continued our investigation into the microhabitats in our forest school area. This week, we went on a mini beast hunt and made note of the different animals we could find in the many microhabitats in our amazing forest school space. We found tons of earthworms, slugs and snails. There were far too many ants and woodlice (or cheesy bugs as some of us like to call them) to count.

On Thursday, we also set up our next Science investigation . Years 1 and 2 have marked out a 'Square of Life' in a corner of the forest school area. We spend a peaceful afternoon sketching the many things we could see in the square. Our 5 minute sketching during Art lessons really helped us make some amazing variety of life drawings in our Science books. In the next few weeks, we will keep visiting our 'Square of Life' to make note of how it changes over time.

Please find below a gallery of images from last week's Music Lesson where the class worked with dot notations. Mrs Lane is so very impressed with the progress everyone has made in Music this term. Mrs Lane said, "We were introducing dot notation with 2 notes and they worked so well together. I can honestly say it was one of the most enjoyable afternoons I've had in school in a while!"

What a busy week we have had.  Today we have been practising for our sports day next week.  There are a couple of new events such as the long distance race and the tug of war which are proving very popular with pupils.  Mrs Lane has been working with groups getting ready for the end of year performance. 

Next week, we will have the last swimming session at Mount Kelly pool.  Tuesday, weather permitting, will be a day of sports with activities such as football skills, shot put and netball skills in the morning and activities such as banner making and team building in the afternoon.  On Thursday,  Year 6 will have an event at Callington College where they will get to meet the Year 7 mentors and play rounders and cricket with them.  

There will be no spellings homework set for the next couple of weeks as the mornings are being changed with the different events going on so there will be no RWI spellings groups.  

The KIRFs format has changed slightly so that we are focusing on some key areas of maths.  

Last week our children competed in the Bridge School Games. This annual event involves children trying to score as many points as they can in several events based around a theme. The theme this year was Wimbledon. Scores are then submitted to see which school has the highest overall score. Our children have been competing in activities such Racquet Run, Tennis Side Step Shuttles, Ball Kid Bedlam, Tennis Toss and Game, Set, Catch. Congratulations to Trenode, the overall winners this year. I would like to make a special mention of Harrowbarrow Year 3, Year 4 and Year 5 who came first in the Racquet Run, Tennis Toss and Tennis Side Step Shuffles respectively across the Bridge Schools. To find out more about the activities, please ask your children or watch this video of the opening ceremony:

Opening Ceremony of Bridge School Games 2024-25


Tomorrow, we look forward to welcoming you all to watch the children compete at our annual summer sports evening. Postponed from Tuesday due to the weather, we are optimistic the weather will be favourable tomorrow. Races start at 5pm so please ensure your child is delivered to the covered playground for 4.50pm, ready for teams to process to the school field. After the competition, the PSA has organised a summer fete, with plenty of refreshments and activities.



This year, instead of raising money for the school, we will be supporting one of our families as they attempt to fund important medical treatment. For further information or to make a direct donation, please follow this link: www.gofundme.com/f/help-give-my-auntie-a-chance-life-saving-cancer-treatment?attribution_id=sl:6a3829e3-89a3-4c8c-8cab-01abf6ef1922&lang=en_GB&ts=1747720989&utm_campaign=pd_ss_icons&utm_content=amp13_t1-amp14_t2&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=messenger&v=amp14_t2

A huge thank you to the PSA, who have been working tirelessly to organise this event and the recent colour run, which proved a huge success both in terms of money raised and enjoyment for those watching and the children taking part. Here is just one of the amazing photographs from the event.




Overall, you raised in the region of £1,700 for school funds, which is simply staggering. Thank you to all those who made donations and supported their children to secure sponsors. We look forward to sharing with you how the money has been spent for the benefit of the children.

Some dates for your diary:

Thursday 26th June: Reserve sports evening
Wednesday 2nd July: Orchestra to perform to their parents at 3.30pm

This week we have been practising for our sports day event on 24th June.  We have been working on running relays as well as working on the tug of war.  The children also had an amazing afternoon on Tuesday doing the colour run which was brilliantly run by Mrs Flashman and the PSA.

We have also been writing up our discussion texts.  Here is sample from Imogen 

Should we ban Fortnight?

In this discussion, we will discover some of the pros and cons of Fortnite.  Fortnite has been played for years from one person to a quarter of the world.  See what you think after reading this.  Some say no; others think we should.  After reading this, you many want to take away all non-educational video games away from your child.  The first video game was created in the year 1958 where as Fortnite was created in 2017. 

The spellings for this week are from the 100 words that Year 5 and 6 children should know.  They are: correspond, recommend, amateur, attached, community and available. 

Here are the KIRFs for this week:

The first week, a short week, but an action-packed week! This is the only way I can describe learning in Class 2 this past week.

In Literacy, we started by completing our neat copies of the information texts. We have some seriously brilliant pieces of work and can't wait to show them to you all. Then, we started our new unit of work. This half term, we are learning all about persuasive language. We will be using this to write persuasive letters later in the term.

In Maths, Year 1s continued learning more about multiplication and division by exploring arrays and dividing by sharing. In the meantime, Year 2s have continued exploring fractions.  

This half term, in Science, we continue our investigation into habitats. This week, we have started our journey into the mini world of microhabitats. We spend most of Monday afternoon in our forest school area, exploring the different microhabitats we could find there. It was quite an exciting afternoon of turning over logs and stones, and exploring hidden corners of the area to find some amazing hidden worlds. We also found a variety of minibeasts in these miniworlds. 

In DT, we started our new unit on cooking and nutrition. This week, we explored the difference between fruits and vegetables with Mrs Lane. We will continue learning more about how they are grown and learn how to prep them. We are really looking forward to using some of these fruits to make our own smoothies later in the term!

In Geography, we have started a new unit by the end of which we hope to answer the question: What is it like to live by the coast? We will be exploring the seas and oceans surrounding the UK, exploring the coastal landscape and diving deeper into the physical features of the Jurassic Coast.

On the left is a small snapshot of what we have been learning in Music this term. Last half term, we began exploring Pitch and Melody with Mrs Lane. We have all had fantastic fun learning about octobass and piccolo, and using a variety of instruments. We also learned to describe pitch and timbre.

This week, we put our skills to the test by writing graphic notations and creating voice to match them. Needless to say, Mrs Lane is super proud of what they have achieved so far.

Mrs Lane wrote, "The children have been using graphic notation and their voices to explore pitch and create a piece of vocal music - they all worked so well yesterday and very proudly shared their compositions - they have really grown in confidence which is lovely!"

This week we have been writing up our discussion texts.  We are nearly ready to publish some on the blog as we have written the first draft.  There have been some pretty heated debates about a wide range of subjects from firearms to animal testing.

We had our first swimming session at Mount Kelly.  The groups could use both the 25 metre pool and the 50 metre pool for the session.  The class worked hard during this time.

We had a visit from Mr Davey at Callington College to talk to the Year 6 about their transition to secondary school.  He was very informative and the pupils had plenty of opportunities to ask questions before they visit in July. 

This week's spellings are homophones so make sure that you know the meaning:  practice, practise, guessed, guest, allowed, aloud and lead. 

This term we are consolidating KIRFs from the previous term.  Here are some questions to work on

This week we have been researching our own discussion texts in class.  We are very passionate from a range of subjects from whether there should be animal testing to whether vapes should be illegal.  Watch this space for examples of our work after we have had a chance to write up our texts after half term. 

We have also been practising ready for the cricket tournament which has been rescheduled for Friday 13th June 2025.  We are keeping fingers crossed for the weather and for a sunny day this time. 

We have also been learning about Queen Elizabeth's royal progress and imaging what it would have been like to be there.  Here is the opening from Lexi's writing which starts, " As the clock struck 10:00, I knew it was nearly time for our own monarch to come to town.  I was strictly forbidden to go and see our monarch but my curiosity got ahead of me.  Very quietly, I dressed in my very best Sunday clothes."

Just a reminder that next half term is swimming.  We will be swimming on Monday 2nd June at Mount Kelly pool.  Please make sure you send your child in with a swimming costume, goggles and a towel on this date. 

 
 
This week Year 6 have been working incredibly hard on their SATs.  I have been really impressed with both the effort and attitude from them all week.  They now have a cricket tournment to look forward to on Wednesday.  This week we also had Alan in to teach us some badminton skills.  We started by throwing giant shuttlecocks but progressed quickly to rallies with raquets and normal sized shuttlecocks.  

Here is the KIRFs for Year 5 this week:

The spellings are going to be -ial words again.  The words are: initial, partial, social, initial, spacial, facial, artificial.

Just a reminder that we are starting swimming on the first Monday after half term at Mount Kelly pool. 

And just like that we are done with the penultimate week of the half term...
Class 2, as usual have been busy learning and having tons of fun... and making the most of the glorious sunshine. 

In Literacy, we have completed writing our draft Information text. next week, we will be editing them and writing out the next copies. In Maths, Year 1s have been counting in 2s, 10s and 5s, while Year 2s have been using fractions to find the whole.

In ICT, we continued our enquiry into algorithms by planning our own set of algorithms.

History this week has been all about Amelia Earhart and her amazing solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. After recapping what we already knew about her and her adventures, we roleplayed at being one of the many people in that field in Ireland years ago when her plane landed after her grueling journey across the Atlantic Ocean and relating our own eyewitness account. Then, we had a go at writing down our account accounts. On the left are extracts from the eyewitness account written by Sophie (top) and Maddie (bottom). We also had a lot of fun recording our eyewitness accounts and watching them together.
 

In Science, we continue our enquiry into different habitats. This week we looked at a variety of habitats around the world and investigated how these habitats are suited for some animals and not others. We also discovered how each habitat provides the living thing with all the things it needs to survive - all the MRS GREN.

Apologies for the delay since my last news update but, as always, it has been another very busy period at school. Firstly, I would like to congratulate Year 6 pupils on completing their SATs before half term. Not only did they have to endure four days of intense assessment under exam conditions, but many of them had been arriving earlier that usual since March to attend booster sessions. This shows a real commitment and determination to do their best. Thank you also to their parents/carers for dropping them off early. Our Year 5 pupils have also played their part, joining me for three weeks to have their daily maths lesson in the library. This allowed Year 6 to focus on year group specific areas that needed revising prior to the tests. It was a real pleasure to work with Year 5 and to see how determined they are to succeed as mathematicians too.
I have recently reported on work to develop our forest school area. Mark Cocking, our caretaker, completed resurrecting the polytunnel and building the forest school storage shed. Class 3 enjoyed using the forest school for their class treat recently, which they earnt through their collective efforts in the classroom. A big thanks to Mark for his efforts and to Tesco for funding the resources.

The first week of whole class flute lessons in Class 3 and 4 were quite painful on the ear! However, in only a short space of time Sally Butlin, the teacher from Cornwall Music Service, has managed to progress the children towards making some more harmonious sounds. We hope, by the end of term, to invite the children's parents/carers in to listen to them perform a simple tune.

Last week, Class 4 children completed a design technology unit they had been working on for 6 weeks. They designed and made automaton, mechanical devices using cams to create moving parts. The brief was to design and make an automaton to display in a shop window, advertising the products in the shop. The learning steps also included using glue guns and accurately measuring and sawing materials. The children were delighted when their designs worked at the end, which is testament to their perseverance and accurate construction skills. The finished automaton look amazing.



Last Friday, during our training day, teachers were learning to use a cloud based learning tool called Showbie. There is lots of exciting potential for children to use Showbie on our new iPads to support learning but also to share children's work with this parents and carers. Once we are fully up and running with Showbie in September, we hope to set it up so parents and carers can see their children's stored learning.

Bridge MAT like to gather the views of parents/carers through an annual online survey. This helps inform future decisions about school improvement priorities. The survey closes on Monday 7th July. Please take a moment to complete this survey by following the link: Summer 2025 Bridge Schools Trust Parent and Carer Questionnaire

Finally, some dates for your diary:

24.6.25 - Sports evening from 5pm
26.6.25 - Reserve sports evening in the event of bad weather
30.6.25 - Year 6 group to attend county championship cricket match in Taunton
7.7.25 - Year 6 transition day at Callington College

What a busy week we have had in Class 2! 
First day back, we were joined by the Year 1s from Class 1 for a lovely workshop with our MHST worker Hannah on Sympathy, Empathy and Conflict Resolution. We had a very informative session where we not only shared our understanding of friendship but also began to explore how we might better help each other by allowing ourselves to empathize with others around us.

We also started Thursday with a special assembly to mark the 80th anniversary of VE day before we set off for our swimming lessons. Besides the assembly, we also got the chance to reflect and talk about the significance of VE day for us today. In the afternoon, we also heard some comments from children around the country celebrating VE day. 

In Literacy, this week we continued to explore Information texts. We had a go at writing some fantastic exclamation sentences and explored the use of the past tense. In Maths, Year 1s completed their unit on Place values and have now started a unit on Multiplication and Division. Year 2s have continued exploring fractions. This week, we looked at quarters and thirds.  

In ICT, we continued to explore algorithms and have begun looking at how computers can use algorithms to make predictions (machine learning). In History, we all became History detectives as we investigated an artifact - a very old document in French. We had some very lively discussions around the origin of the document and what clues we could find in it. It turned out to be Bessie Coleman's pilot license. 

While the pilot's license gave us a lot of facts about Bessie Coleman, it left us with more questions than answers. So we pooled our detective heads together again and with the help of the Internet, we found more details about this amazing woman. 

Finally, we had a lovely end to a very busy week with an exciting badminton taster session with a coach from Tavyside Badminton. We started with some games around not only throwing and catching, but also around listening and following instructions. Some of us got rather competitive as we matched our hand-eye coordination with speed to complete a variety of tasks set for us. 

This week started with the May Day at the village hall with the theme being 80 years since VE Day.   The May Day dancers performed a dance inspired by the Lindy Hop as well as more traditional May Day dances to music from the 1940s.  The group did fantastically well and managed some tricky routines. 

Next week is SATs week.  Year 5s will be with Mr Hunt in the library for the time that Year 6 are taking their SATs tests.  They will continue to work on their Maths with him.  This means that there are no spellings for next week and the Kirfs are only for Year 5. 

There is a date for Years 6 to look forward to .  On Wednesday 21st May, Mrs Flashman will be taking a group of Year 6 to play cricket for the day at Landhydrock.  

May is the month that always starts with a celebration through the annual Harrowbarrow & Metherell May Day festivities. Once again, our dancers contributed their efforts to this event through the long standing tradition of dancing around the Maypole. This year, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of VE Day, they started with a Lindy Hop style dance. Well done to all those who took part and thank you to Melissa Pinfield for coaching them. We also held a short commemoration of VE Day on the school field yesterday and held a minute silence.
Whilst December may feel like a long way off, preparations for the Cotehele flower garland have to start now. Each year we are invited to make the garland that hangs in the restaurant over Christmas. This also involves growing and drying some of the flowers. As our self-appointed head gardener, Sam Beagley in Year 6 has taken responsibility for tending, picking and drying the flowers. So far, he is doing an amazing job.




This week, as part of the history, Class 3 were making model wattle and daub walls to understand how Tudor houses were constructed. The children were relieved to know they were using clay instead of the traditional animal manure!




Making the most of the glorious sunshine today, our infant classes had a badminton taster session with a visiting sports coach. The children always enjoy trying something new and, who knows, maybe one of them will be a future badminton champion.




Health & Safety
Following a parental concern, please ensure dogs are on a lead and kept a safe distance from young children during drop-off and collection times.  Dogs are also excluded from the school site. Thank you for your cooperation.

I look forward to sharing more of the children's wonderful learning outcomes and the opportunities they have had next week.

As you may know, we have been focussing our Art lessons on sculpture this half term.


We have been looking at the work of a few sculptors with permanent or temporary work displayed in Plymouth. We have looked at LOOK II, by Antony Gormley, who also sculpted The Angel of the North. This can be seen on West Hoe Pier.


We have had an even closer look at the work of Jyll Bradley, particularly The Hop.
An exhibition of her work can currently be seen at The Box.


We had a go doing warm-up sketches of The Hop, responded to cut out photos of it, then used acetate to collage our own versions. We also imitated Jyll Bradley’s work using our light box and brightly coloured transparent objects.


If anyone is interested in seeing some fabulous local sculptures, please see the link below where The Box have provided a list of permanent exhibits which can be seen around Plymouth.


https://www.theboxplymouth.com/outside-the-box/public-art/permanent-public-art-in-plymouth

This week we have been clearing the outside area ready for Cotehele planting.  Now we just need to keep them watered before they are used for the garland at Christmas.  It was hard work but it is looking good.  


Here are the Kirfs for this week.  Year 5 have been working on tenths and hundredths as fractions and decimals.  Year 6 have been recapping different areas such as percentages of amounts and multiplying decimals.