Thank you to Duchy College for hosting a great cross country event. Some of our running club members took it to the field and all placed in the top 50 of their age categories - well done to you all. A special nod to one of our runners who placed 2nd and received a lovely certificate of congratulations! 

Autumn

We had a great afternoon with Polruan artist Louise Kidd. This is the second visit we have had from Louise to teach the children print making and the this time, the developed layering techniques using stencils to create their pieces. We will use these prints to make greeting cards which we will sell at our up-coming Christmas events.

Preparations for the Christmas play are in full swing, with practice and prop making. The children are fully invested in this and most are now able to remember all their lines, where to be and when to - thank you for helping with practising lines at home! The prop making crew are creating some fantastic pieces to help bring the action to life. It is beginning to look a lot like a Christmas pantomime.

Next week, we are singing at the Community Group Christmas lunch Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday afternoon is dress rehearsal, and the play performance is Thursday 1pm in the village hall. 

Have a lovely weekend
Mr Twaite and Mrs W

It has been a wonderfully festive and hardworking week in Year 2/3 as we move closer to the end of term. The children have embraced every challenge and activity with enthusiasm, and we are incredibly proud of them.

Christmas Show Rehearsals:
Our main focus this week has been preparing for our Christmas show. The children have been practising their lines, learning songs, rehearsing movements and supporting one another beautifully. Their confidence is growing by the day, and they are very excited to perform for you next week. Thank you for all the support you have given at home with practising lines - it really shows.

English:
We have begun a brand-new English topic this week: animal survival fact texts. The children have started exploring the features of non-fiction texts, identifying headings, subheadings, technical vocabulary and key information. They have enjoyed discovering new words and learning how writers help readers understand how animals survive in their habitats.

Maths:
Our maths learning has continued in two exciting directions:

·       Year 3 have moved on with addition and subtraction using formal column methods, including calculations that cross a ten or a hundred. They have been working hard to line up digits correctly and explain their reasoning.

·       Year 2 have been focusing on shape, naming 2D and 3D shapes, talking about their properties and beginning to sort them using different criteria.
It has been lovely to see both year groups growing in confidence and independence.

Christmas Tree Festival Visit:
On Thursday, we visited the Christmas Tree Festival, and the children were an absolute credit to the school. They showed respect, curiosity and lovely manners throughout our visit. They also had great fun taking part in the festive treasure hunt, searching the decorated trees for items on their list. It was a joyful, sparkly morning and we were so proud of how beautifully they represented the school.

Sewing Stockings:
Our stocking sewing has continued this week, and the children are becoming more confident with threading, stitching and tying knots. A huge thank you to all the parents, grandparents and helpers who supported the children with their sewing - your help makes such a difference and is greatly appreciated.

Here's what has been going on at Harrowbarrow this week:



Speak Out. Stay Safe.
Following their assembly and workshop on the theme of speaking out to stay safe, Class 4 children created eye catching posters which will be put up around the school to signpost children to Childline should they ever need to talk to someone. I ran the workshop with Class 4 and was really impressed with the maturity they displayed during discussions about the types of abuse young people can suffer and how to keep themselves safe.



Infant Theatre Trip
This week, I had the pleasure of accompanying the infants to Sterts to see a performance of The Ugly Duckling, which was brilliant and, judging by the looks on the children's faces, thoroughly enjoyed by all of them. For children to see stories brought to life through drama is such a powerful thing.

Design Technology
Thank you to those parents who were able to attend the exhibition of soft toys made by Class 4. Weren't they good? Next up, Class 3 are continuing work on their model pavilions. If we have time, we will be inviting parents and carers to come and see the finished work in another after school exhibition.

Father Christmas
In a change to our usual routine, Father Christmas won't be visiting Harrowbarrow before the end of term but don't worry, he is still planning to visit everyone on Christmas Eve! Instead of supporting Santa's visit with a gift for the children, the Parent Staff Association will be sponsoring a special event at the school in the spring term - watch this space!

Contacting the School Office
Please note, Amy Souch works in the school office from 8.30-1.30pm Monday to Friday. At all other times, the office will be unattended. However, we have staff listening for the doorbell and answer phones messages will be picked up by Lesley Connell, who gets an alert on her iPad when one is left.

Where possible, we try to promote local events and activities that are beneficial to our school community. Here are a few things you may be interested in:

Holly Jolly Christmas Fair - always popular with our families



Kelliwik Mini-Kickers - a football opportunity for reception and Year 1 boys and girls



Barnardos Young Carers



Plymouth Argyle - their first team might be having a terrible season, but the club are still running a number of community opportunities!



Flu Immunisation - Cornwall NHS are seeing a spike in flue cases this year. Immunisation rates have been low so, if your child missed out, you can access this through a community clinic:



For more information: 01872 221105 or email kernowhealthcic.schoolimmunisation@nhs.net 

Tregantle Class Blog - What an Exciting Week!

This week has been full of festive fun and magical moments for Tregantle Class!

On Tuesday, we went on our class trip to Plymouth Theatre Royal to watch the 'Father Christmas' show. We travelled by train from Saltash to Plymouth, which was an adventure in itself! The children had a wonderful time-enjoying the journey, the enchanting performance, and even a special picnic inside the theatre.

On Thursday, we visited St Nicholas and Faith Church to explore the Christmas Tree Festival. The children loved taking part in a treasure hunt around the church and were thrilled to spot our very own Brunel Christmas tree on display!

To add to the excitement, we also had our first school disco this week. There was plenty of dancing, popcorn, and Christmas cheer to go around.

We've also been busy practicing our singing for our upcoming performance of 'Fleece Force,' which will take place next week. The children are working hard and sounding fantastic!

What a wonderful and exciting week it has been for Tregantle Class!

Christmas Crafts Afternoon

On Tuesday, parents joined us in school for a Christmas craft session. 
Little foresters worked to make hand print trees, whilst Jays and Eagles focused on making bird feed decorations for our trees in the garden. When the children had completed their decoration it was hung outside. It made quite a mess! But, lots of fun was had. Thank you to all the families that joined us, our current parents and some new faces too. It was a fabulous way to kick off December. 

This week we enjoyed the story of Stickman. The children looked around our outside area for some good sticks to make our own Stick men and Stick ladies.

We used pipe cleaners for their arms and legs, and the children found it a tricky challenge to wrap them around but they all persevered! We then stuck googly eyes and some leaves for hair, and we had created our own stick people.

During our phonics this week the children listened to the story of the Three Little Pigs, and our activities included listening to and identifying sounds from the story, making character sounds, and following sound patterns.

We have had discussions this week of the changing season from Autumn to Winter.  We talked about what changes we may notice, from the trees looking different, to the weather feeling even colder, to what clothing we may wear, and what animals may go into hibernation for the winter.  The children could not believe that some animals stay asleep for so long!

We will start to see the transition into the exciting part of Autumn Term 2, with the start of Christmas role play areas being in place in pre-school.  If you wish your child to bring in Christmas cards for their friends, unfortunately we cannot hand out class name lists, but the children's first names are all on the pegs in the foyer area.

The Pre-School Team.

Welcome to this week's edition of The Brunel Bulletin. This is your weekly update of all the latest news and events from our wonderful school. We hope you enjoy browsing through the 50th edition of our newsletter. It has been a busy week where we started the week with Mousehole's class assembly, embraced National Cinema Week and our Year 5 children have enjoyed their Lantern Workshops this week with special visits from the Mayor and Deputy Mayor.

Well done to Year 5 and their families who paraded their fantastic lanterns through Liskeard on Saturday evening. It was lovely to be there with you all and watch the tree illuminated followed by fireworks and entertainment! A lovely event that was very well organised and attended. A fitting start to this festive period.

Another busy week has flown by in Chaipel and we are fully immersed into our retelling of the Mayan folktale, THE HERO TWINS. We will be continuing this into next week, as the tale gets to its dilemma and resolution stages. Will the Hero Twins be victorious? Let's wait and see...

 In Maths, we have be assessing our understanding of the four operations (addition/subtraction/multiplication/division), and identifying vertically opposite angles in our Friday Shape and Measurement lesson. Next week, Y6s will move onto Fractions - identifying equivalent fractions and ordering and comparing them.

Our Christmas play rehearsals are going well and we will be endeavouring to practise without scripts from Monday. 

In our Wider Curriculum, we have been researching the benefits and drawbacks of a range of energy sources in Geography, identified the qualities of a Saviour in RE, learnt about the incredible life of Roberta Cowell in PSHE, observed Mayan artifacts in History and created our 3D lanterns for the village's Light Switch-On next Saturday.

CONGRATULATIONS to Chilali for being our Person of the Week, showing EXCELLENT values in her Mayan narrative write-up.

Take care and have a lovely weekend,

Miss Randle and Mrs Clary

Christmas play rehearsals are in full swing and the children have done an excellent job learning their lines and practising the songs.  A costume letter was sent home earlier in the week. If you have any questions, please do let me know.

On Monday we participated in our whole School Black History month assembly where we shared the life and artwork of Lubaina Himid. In Computing, we loved exploring animation by creating our own stop motions using the stop motion studio app. We had to carefully consider how to use small movements to make sure our animations flowed. In Art, we used our line sketches from last week and enlarged these to create our own cave using charcoal. Finally in History this week, we learnt about the prehistoric dwellings of Skara Brae. We were curious archaeologists, considering the evidence left behind and debating what each part might have been. 

During Maths lessons this week, we have continued to use the column method when subtracting across 10 boundaries. In English, we have finished our Stone Age stories and began writing up our copies in pen.

Congratulations to Amelia, Evie and Hector for being chosen as Landaviddy's People of the week. And a big well done to Evie for achieving her 55 club badge.

We hope you have a fab weekend and we look forward to seeing you on Monday, where the build up to Christmas officially begins!

Mrs Wilkie, Mrs Lister and Miss Colton

This week has been a wonderfully busy and exciting one in school, filled with learning, creativity and lots of seasonal activities. We have continued practicing for the nativity, working hard to learn our dance routines and singing plenty of festive songs. The children are growing in confidence each day, and it has been lovely to see their enthusiasm and teamwork as they rehearse together.

In English, we enjoyed a special activity where we toasted marshmallows and used the experience as inspiration for our writing. The children wrote thoughtful notes and then moved on to independently creating their own sets of instructions. They focused on using bossy verbs and time conjunctions to make their writing clear and easy to follow. Next week, we will be using our writing toolkit to edit and improve these instructions, helping the children develop their proofreading and revising skills.

In maths, we have been exploring number lines to 100, concentrating on identifying and filling in missing numbers. This has helped strengthen the children's understanding of number order, place value and counting in different intervals.

For PSHE, we had an important discussion about bullying. The children shared ideas about how it feels to be left out and the emotions that come with it. We talked about the importance of kindness and identified trusted people they can talk to if they ever feel worried or upset.

In History, the children completed their timelines for the Gunpowder Plot. They showed great recall of key events and enjoyed sequencing the story to build a clearer understanding of how and why it happened.

During PE, we took part in a winter-themed dance session. The children expressed themselves through movement, developing coordination, rhythm and confidence while embracing the festive spirit.

In Science, we have been learning about life cycles. The children explored how different living things grow and change over time, making links between animals, plants and the stages they go through as they develop.

Reception have also had a fantastic week. They have been working very hard on blending sounds in phonics and are making great progress. In maths, they have been exploring odd and even numbers through fun, practical activities. They have also been learning about different celebrations, building their understanding of traditions and special events from a range of cultures.

Reception Stay and Play - for children joining Reception in September 2026
The Reception team had a wonderful time meeting parents and children at our Reception 2026 open afternoon on Wednesday. It was great to see lots of happy faces come into the setting and confidently explore all of the resources we had out. The children had a great time making cards, exploring the outdoor area on scooters and bikes, and making funny faces with playdoh! We have one more open event on Thursday 4th December at 10:00am. If you would like to join us for this, please register your interest with the school office at secretary@wadebridgeprimary.co.uk The team will look forward to seeing you. From Mrs Yates - EYFS Phase Lead

Year 3 Stay and Learn
This morning, Year 3 enjoyed welcoming parents and carers into school for their 'Maths Stay and Learn' session focused on the 3 times tables. Using practical resources, the children and adults worked together to figure out multiplication answers, with each correct solution revealing a letter to help crack a secret word. The activity encouraged teamwork, enthusiasm and growing confidence in using multiplication skills. Thank you to all the families who joined us and supported the children's learning. From the Year 3 Team

Term 1 ECAs Finish for the Term - Friday 5th December
A reminder that all our after school extra-curricular activities (ECAs) end next Friday 5th December. Sign up for our new Term 2 ECAs will be sent out before Christmas. Term 2 ECAs then begin on Monday 12th January 2026.

WPA Family Carol Service - Tuesday 9th December 17:00 at Egloshayle Church
We look forward to welcoming you all to our family carol service on Tuesday 9th December at Egloshayle Church. This isn't a ticketed event but is likely to be well attended. The rugby club, opposite the church, have kindly offered their car park.

WPA Christmas Fun Run 2025 - Wednesday 10th December
Now a WPA Christmas tradition, the fun run is back, and the elf will once again be returning to WPA!
On Wednesday 10th December all year groups will take part in our Christmas Fun Run in aid of a charity close to our hearts. For the last few years, we have helped Children's Hospice South West raise much needed funds to provide vital support to children and their families. We are once again asking pupils to take on the fun run and high-five the elf (if they want to) and get as much sponsorship as possible. The route around the school grounds will be shared with pupils soon. The date of the run is also our Christmas Jumper and Christmas Lunch Day, therefore the plan is pupils will be dressed in Christmas attire for the run should they wish to. Like last year, we are using a Just Giving page to raise funds - see email sent home for the link. Children's Hospice South West appreciate any donation given, regardless of amount.
Mr O'Dwyer

Winter Fayre - Friday 12th December 15:30-17:00
We look forward to welcoming everyone to our Winter Fayre on Friday 12th December. There will be a mix of stalls, games and refreshments on offer to both enjoy and raise money for the school. With FOWPAs support, our efforts this year are going towards improving our outdoor learning and play environment.
In the lead up to our Winter Fayre, FOWPA are asking for donations for the tombolas. If you have good condition winter or Christmas themed items or decorations, books, toys, crafts, sweets, treats or drinks (non-alcoholic only), or clean cuddly toys to share, we would be very grateful! Please send any items in with the children to be collected in class next week. Thank you for your support!

Cinema Trip Reminder (Reception-Year 6)
We are really looking forward to our traditional annual Christmas trip to Wadebridge Cinema. If you haven't done so already, please click complete the online permission form (one per child please) giving permission for your child to attend, by Friday 12th December. Payment is made separately via your ParentPay account. If you don't wish for your child to attend the cinema trip (please tick this box on the form), they will remain supervised in school taking part in an alternative learning activity for the morning.

KS1 Nativity Tickets Reminder - Message for Year 1 & 2 families only
Our KS1 children are busy rehearsing A Bundle of Joy ready to perform to their parents/family members and the school. Tickets are now available for parents/family members in Year 1 and Year 2. If any Year 1 & 2 families haven't ordered their tickets yet, please complete the ticket request form by Monday 8th December, 18:00. If we have any tickets remaining, we will then email all families with details of how to obtain any further tickets on a first-come-first-served basis.

Football News
Recently the boys and girls football teams took part in the East section of Cornwall Schools FA cup. Both teams performed really well against some tough opposition. It was really pleasing to see the great skill, effort and teamwork on show from our teams. All the players represented the school fantastically, showing great respect towards opposition players and the referees. It was a lovely event, thoroughly enjoyed by both staff and pupils, and we look forward to taking part in many more in the future.
From Mrs Callister & Mr Langton

MHST SPACE Programme for Parents/Carers - January 2026
MHST are organising a SPACE (Supporting Parents And Children Emotionally) programme for parents/carers starting in January 2026. This free programme is designed for parents/carers to better understand and support their children's emotions, offering practical approaches to support children and cover some coping strategies. The link and QR code for sign up can be found in the email sent home.

House Points
Congratulations to this week's winners, Choughs. Overall, Choughs maintain the lead:
Choughs - 4524
Puffins - 4028
Swans - 3804
Cormorants - 3488

Have a wonderful weekend.
Best wishes,
Chris Wathern