Weeks 5 and 6: Under the Sea! 

Another fantastic fortnight of learning brings our half-term to an end and what a lot we've packed into it! 

This last week saw our fantastic Year 1 children go a visit to Blue Reef Aquarium and there was much dancing at the FOWPA disco. Here are some of the highlights: 

English

We have been looking at poetry and learning about our senses. The children looked at pictures of beaches and worked in groups to make mind maps of what they could see, smell, hear, taste and feel at the seaside. We then used these ideas and added adventurous vocabulary to them to make them more interesting, for example 'seagulls' became 'squawking seagulls' and 'ice cream' became 'scrumptious, sweet ice cream'. The children then used these ideas to create their own seaside senses poems, which they showed confidence in reading out aloud to their classmates. Some really fantastic work! 

Maths

We have been exploring fractions and started with finding a half of an shape and then finding half of a group or a number. The children used concrete objects to work practically and record their answers in their books. We then moved onto finding a quarter of a shape, group and number, again, working practically to solve different problems. We ended the week by looking at position and direction and using our mathematical language of left, right, forwards and backwards to navigate around a picture board and then write instructions for a friend to follow. 

Science

We had a letter delivered from The Singing Mermaid who told us she had unfortunately scraped her tail on a rock and damaged some of her scales. She wrote to Year 1 to ask for their help in finding a material that would be strong, lightweight and waterproof (and beautiful of course!) that she could make some new scales out of. The children set to work learning about different materials and their properties before planning and carrying out 3 experiments to find the best material. They tested if a material was waterproof by dipping it in water to see if it absorbed the water or not, stretched the materials to see which was strongest and felt them to see which was lightest. They recorded their results and found out that plastic was the best material, which children then wrote back to The Singing Mermaid to let her know their findings. 

PE

We have been very lucky to have Pro20 in this half-term teaching the children football skills, which they have loved! They have learnt to dribble and control the ball and have played some very exciting mini games of football! Next half-term, PE goes back to being on a Thursday and we will be doing athletics on the field - running and throwing and jumping - we can't wait! 

Our School Trip 

Wow! What a fantastic time we had at Blue Reef Aquarium - the children were fantastically behaved and showed much interest in what the Blue Reef staff shared with them. We took lots of photos and talked about them after the trip and it was amazing to hear how much information they had remembered! Not only did we have a fantastic time at the Aquarium but the sun shone for us on the beach and we were able to go and play in the sand with our friends! They were amazing on the trip and we really were very proud of them. A big thank you again to all the parents who were able to help us on the trip. 

Reminders

School will reopen on Monday 3rd June and we look forward to seeing you then and hearing all about the children's adventures over half-term.

PE is now on a Thursday so please send your child in full PE kit on Thursdays. 

Library books will continue to be changed on Thursdays too. 

Please do continue to read with your children over half-term and encourage them to complete some of the activities in their phonics packs - they have been very enthusiastic about completing these already, which is great to hear! 

Phonics screening checks will take place on week commencing 10th June. 

Have a wonderful half-term break and we look forward to seeing you on 3rd June. 
The Year 1 Team 

Cornwall Air Ambulance Fundraiser
Congratulations to our Nursery and Reception children who had a great time on their sponsored walk. All the children made masks, flags and banners and took on the challenge of walking or running 4 laps around our school field. We had a special visit from Andy, the pilot from Cornwall Air Ambulance, to say thank you for raising money for them.


FOWPA
Many thanks to FOWPA, our staff, children, parents and Regal Cinema for supporting the recent fundraising events at school. We will be able to share after half term how much was raised from these the Uniform Sale and Disco ahead of the next event, the FOWPA Quiz.

FOWPA are hosting a Non-School Uniform Day on Thursday 13th June. Children may come to school dressed in normal, casual clothes of their choice! In return, we would like to ask you for voluntary donations of luxury hamper items to be used as raffle prizes for the FOWPA Quiz Night on Friday 28th June. Suitable items for donation would be a bottle (alcohol or other), chocolates or biscuits, for example, so that we can put hampers together. FOWPA volunteers will be stood outside the school office at drop off on Thursday 13th June with trolleys to accept your wonderful donations. Please note that alcohol donations MUST be donated by an adult to either an FOWPA volunteer or brought directly into the secretary’s office (where other donations can also be made at any time). All proceeds raised from the raffle go back into supporting the children at WPA.

Thank you as always for your support.
The FOWPA Team


Online Safety
Please check the link sent by email today for some useful information and tips about keeping children safe online.


Car Park
When we return after half term, we will let you know about some changes to the car park for drop off and collection. Unfortunately, there is no perfect solution – I’ve heard it has been tweaked many times already! We will need everyone’s support in helping make drop off and collection as smooth and safe as possible. Look out for an email from me in the first week back to update you on the new arrangements.


Summer 2024 Bridge Schools Trust Parent and Carer Questionnaire
A reminder that the school survey closes today, thank you. Please check your parent email for the link.


PE Days
Please note your child's PE day below as some year groups have changed days. This is due to external providers such as Pro20 and DT Coaching having set days to come and deliver quality PE provision to our pupils. The children only have one day of PE (or split days in Year 3) but have 2 lessons during the school day to ensure they receive the required time.

Reception: Monday with Pro20 (please send children to school dressed in their PE kit)
Year 1: Thursday
Year 2: Monday (Pro20 Sports Academy)
Year 3: Monday and Wednesday (DT Coaching). 2 days due to split lessons.
Year 4: Tuesday
Year 5: Friday
Year 6: Thursday


Class Photos
On Wednesday 5th June, the school photographer will be in during the morning to take class photos. Please ensure your child is wearing full school uniform on that day. If they have PE, they will need to bring in their PE kit to change into on that day. Thank you for your co-operation.


Important dates coming up:

Monday 3rd June: Back to school

Tuesday 4th June: 14:00-16:15 Year 5 and Year 6 Quad Games at Wadebridge Secondary School – please complete form recently sent by email

Wednesday 5th June: Class Photos – Children need to wear their full school uniform to school

Thursday 6th June: Year 6 Sponsored Dance-a-thon

Friday 7th June: Community Day for Royal Cornwall Show – School closed for children

Monday 10th – Friday 14th June: Year 1 Phonics Screening Check Week

Monday 10th June: (pm) Choir singing at St Breock Care Home

Tuesday 11th June: Year 4 Multiplication Check

Thursday 13th June: FOWPA Non-Uniform Day

Friday 14th June: 09:00 SEND Coffee Morning

Friday 14th June: (pm) Year 6 Transition – KS3 Team and Year 7 Buddies visit.


Thank you for all your support this half term.
We look forward to an exciting final half term of the year, seeing everyone back on Monday 3rd June.

With very best wishes,

Chris Wathern 

We just wanted to say how proud we are of Year 2. Over the past few weeks we have been doing our KS1 SATS papers. The children have taken these on with such resilience and confidence. They have been amazing!

So to celebrate this and to celebrate (a week earlier than normal) we ended Summer 1 with a scone picnic outside to celebrate National Scone Day! This was a great link to our Wider Curriculum question 'Did the Cornish do a proper job?'. Safe to safe to say there were sticky fingers all round. See you after the half term holiday.
Many thanks,
Year 2. 

Wow! What a great end to the half term. We thoroughly enjoyed our outdoor learning day with our growing and Viking theme. Our main highlight was finishing off our D.T project by making our Viking jewellery by pouring the melted metal into the mould that we crafted. We were pleased that this process was a reversible change as some did not go to plan first time. Another highlight was making miniature Viking longhouses using traditional methods.

We also enjoyed making seed balls for our local environment, planting sunflowers for a class competition and learning about what the Vikings might have eaten and planting some of these as seeds to harvest later in the year.

A massive thank you for coming to our Class 4 assembly and sharing our other recent learning with us. 

Points to remember:
Friday 24th May- INSET day. 
PE on Monday 3rd June.
Friday 7th June- INSET day.
Class 4 residential 12th-14th June 2024.

This week, the children have been putting their cooking skills to the test! They have spent time learning about traditional Greek food, sampling some Greek specialties (tzatziki, sundried tomatoes, Kalamata olives, pita bread, dalmades), practicing their cutting, peeling and grating skills and baking.
They worked together to create Greek salads and a Greek village bread. This afternoon thy enjoyed a Greek picnic on the field.

Half term starts here! 

Wow, here we are at another half term! The time is flying by and we are so immensely proud of the children’s effort and progress so far. When we come back after the break, we will have one half term left before the summer holidays.

Summer 2 is a busy yet exciting half term! We will have lots of transition discussions and opportunities, we will have sports day and a class trip, plus lots more exciting learning!

This week the children have been working hard in English to write their letters to Mrs Waring asking if we can go to Looe beach for our school trip. Foundation children have been exploring different questions verbally and as a challenge writing a question, Year one children have been planning and writing their letters using lots of persuasive vocabulary. I’m sure once Mrs Waring has read the letters, she will allow us to go on our trip!

In maths this week year one children have continued to explore multiplication and division; they have been exploring arrays and also sharing equal groups. Foundation children have been continuing to count beyond ten and add more and taking away.

The children have also been using bats and balls to practise returning the ball to one another. They have also continued to explore relationships in PSHE and this week the children spoke about how they are incredible and how others are incredible too!

We have used our funky fingers to thread beads up to twenty, explored 3d shapes, thought about capacity using water, role played serving people in the café, read tricky words on a track outside and SO much more!

We have had a wonderful week and half term.

We wish you all a wonderful break and look forward to seeing all the children on Monday the 3^rd of June. Gentle reminder that Friday the 7^th June is an INSET day.

Foundation /year 1 team.

What an exciting week with some good weather, finally. All of our classes have had time in the pool. The vegetables are coming on in the garden and greenhouse. A huge thank you to Mr and Mrs Peters for their amazing help with the garden and with our gardening club. Also thank you to Dennis Julian for his generous donation of plants. We are hoping to see the produce used in our school lunches soon.

Return of Ice Pop Fridays After half term we will be selling ice pops after school at the main gate every Friday (or Thursday if it is an INSET day) until the end of term to raise extra funds for the school. Please send your child in with £1 or bring £1 along when you pick them up if you would like to buy one.

Clubs All clubs will start again straight after half term on as follows:
• Wednesday: Lunchtime Sewing Club continues for those already signed up. If your child is signed up and does not wish to continue please let us know.
• Thursday: Lunchtime Choir practice for Year 1-Year 6 with Mrs Butlin
• Thursday: After School Gardening club with Mrs Taylor and Miss Randle Years R-6. This club has been so popular this half term and perhaps too big for every child to have a role. We will need to limit the numbers to 20 this half term, this will be on a first come first served basis with priority given to those that have not already attended.
• Friday: After School Olympics Club with Mr Langley and Mrs Turnbull for Years 3-6. An opportunity to try a range of sports.

As usual, please email secretary@polperroprimary.co.uk to confirm which clubs your child would like to take part in.

Half Term Cricket Camps Please find attached information regarding half term cricket camps in Cornwall run by Cornwall Cricket.

Upcoming Dates Tomorrow is an INSET day. Friday 7th June is an INSET day. The school will be performing at the Polperro School Festival Day on Big Green this year on Tuesday 18th June. Sports Day is on 25th June (10am-12) with a reserve date of 27th June.

Have a lovely half term. We look forward to seeing the children back in school on Monday 3rd June when there will be class photographs in the morning.

Mrs Hillman

Relax the Rules in Lantic!!!

What a fun end to a very busy half term!

We all enjoyed taking part in the BFA 'relax the rules day' at the end of the week. There were some wonderful outfits and accessories and funny back to front lessons! Some children even ate their pudding first at lunch time!

We have been very busy bees this week investigating what makes leaves fall off of trees!  Some children from Y1 and Y2 also went on an exciting able writer's day at Bishop Cornish School.  We have been creating promise/friendship cards in R.E. as we finish off learning about how we belong - you can look forward to those coming home after half-term.  In music, we finally got to start learning how to play the African drums...

We wonder what exciting things we will be learning next half-term... have a lovely, restful break and see you soon!

Relax the rules!

What a fun end to a very busy half term! We all enjoyed taking part in the BFA 'relax the rules day' at the end of the week. There were some wonderful outfits and accessories and funny back to front lessons! Some children even ate their pudding first at lunch time!

We have been very busy working on our phonics skills in Tregantle this week. We have taken part in a range of different phonics games making the children experts at all of the sounds they have learnt!

The Year 1 children completed their class story 'Fantastic Mr Fox' by Roald Dahl. The children have completed some wonderful character descriptions and book reviews which are ready to go on display in our book corner. 

After the success or releasing our butterflies last week, we have been very excited to welcome five new caterpillars into class! The children have been very observant in watching them move and eat.

We hope you all have a very enjoyable half term break! Fingers crossed for some nice weather!

Wow, what a wonderful morning. The children were super excited to do their sponsored walk and made the nursery team proud. Morwenna and Andy the Air Ambulance mascot came to cheer us on our way.
Thank you for all of your support.

.

 

On Tuesday, we danced the afternoon away for our Archie Project ‘Dance-a-thon’. Fun was had by all as you can see from these photos! If you can make a small donation to help this cause in raising dementia awareness then please see ParentPay. Thank you.

Today, we have relaxed some rules in school. The children and adults have worn their relaxing clothes, funny spellings were put into the spelling test, the class have chosen relaxing places to sit in the classroom and an extended playtime may have been enjoyed! Ask your children about what other fun they enjoyed today.

I hope you all enjoy a restful half term break. Again, the class have worked so hard this half-term and have made me an extremely proud teacher! 

Year 3 Geography Trip 

On Monday, Year 3 went to Treraven Farm on a geography trip. We took part in different activities including orienteering through the woods using compasses, bug and flower hunts for different types of species and fire lighting. We also walked either to Treraven Farm, or back to the school so that we could map a familiar route. The children had a great time and especially enjoyed the sunny weather and the stop at the park!

We've been learning about minibeasts so we went on a minibeast hunt during forest school and looked closely at what we found. We identified what they were and then asked questions about them. We then watched some short video clips and looked at some non-fiction books to find the answers to the questions we asked. We wrote sentences about them and sorted pictures into sets according to whether they were insects or not. We drew minibeast pictures on the iPads, made clay models and created transient art pictures. We talked about the facts we could remember during all the activities.

Over the last couple of weeks we've been focusing on how to be a good friend. Myself and Mrs Feakins have modelled various scenarios and the children have discussed whether we were being good friends or not. They then came up with ideas of how we could be better friends. They were then given various activities to do with a partner where they had to focus on listening to each other and helping each other. I was very impressed with how they worked together to create minibeast pictures. They were all very kind and worked together brilliantly. There have been many other opportunities for the children to work together during continuous provision. One of the children's favourites has been building dens together to keep cool in the shade.

In PE we've been learning to throw and catch beanbags accurately by putting one foot forward. We've been enjoying getting outside and have been playing football, building obstacle courses and practising riding 2 wheeled bikes. I'm so impressed with the children's determination as many of them can now ride these without stabilisers.

To commemorate 40 years since the passing of Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman CBE, Concern Wadebridge hosted a poetry competition for all Wadebridge area primary school aged children. The theme of the poetry competition was ‘Wadebridge.’ The competition was sponsored by Bricknells who provided the first-place prizes for the best written entries for Key Stage 1 & Key Stage 2 children. There were also special prizes for the most creative entries.

Manager Emma Burt said: “We were delighted to receive over 100 entries. I would not only like to say thank you to St Breock Primary School & Nursery and Wadebridge Primary Academy for promoting the competition but also to Bricknells for sponsoring the event. A special mention to Cathy and Kevin Daisy, our John Betjeman memorabilia volunteers who came up with the idea of the competition and helped me with the hard task for judging all the brilliant entries. All the winning entries will now be on display at The John Betjeman Centre for the half term holidays and until the end of June. Please come and see the talent for yourselves.”


Congratulations to our children:

Best Written Poem Key Stage 1: Lennon 

Best Written Poem Key Stage 2: Daisy 

Highly Commended: Tom

The Creative Class

During this week, the children have further developed their unique Maya patterns. Once completed, they will use these design ideas and paint them onto a  piece of fabric. They have used complementary colours,  observational skills to good effect and recognise repeated patterns. Talland Class have also used their observational skills during our history investigation about the Maya culture. They learned how to use pictures and objects to learn about another culture by asking open and pertinent questions - What are they doing in the ceremony? for example. 

English
This week has been another competition week. The children have been writing a Spooky Story of no more than 250 words to enter a national competition. Some of the starter sentences of the stories have been fabulous, for example, One dark stormy night.... and I didn't think the school was actually haunted until.... Thank you Talland Class for putting in so much effort.

Maths
Using addition and subtraction skills to solve decimal problems has been the theme for maths this week. The children's understanding of place value has increased incredibly throughout this week. They have learned to look carefully at the operation they need to use (+ or -) and whether they need to exchange values from one place value column to another.

best wishes,

Mr Parry, Mrs Swabey and the Talland Class team (Mrs Walters and Ms Rowlands)

This week's jokes: 

Where do birds go on summer holiday? The Canary Islands!

Where do bees stay on their summer holiday? An air bee and bee.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

We were so excited today for so many reasons.  We have got Children's University back up and running at school.  This is an opportunity for children to log all of the additional activity that they take part in beyond the daily school timetable.  They have a 'passport' to record their activities and once they reach a certain number of entries in their passport they become 'graduates' and are invited to attend a graduation ceremony at Plymouth University.  This hopefully helps them to understand that universities and further education are accessible for all.

Today we were delighted to welcome David Lawrence Jones back to school.  David is a Chancellor at Plymouth University but he is also an author and has written a number of children's books, and has made an animated film.  David is a great friend to the school and he has written a new book about Cub, the Children's University Bear and the children had met Cub not long ago when the Children's University Ambassadors came to visit.  This time though Cub had been on his travels and the children were finding out all about his adventures.

The children then worked with David to write a new adventure for Cub as he travelled around Devon and Cornwall.  Cub went to Exeter, Home Park in Plymouth, the Eden Project,  The Box, Bodmin Jail and Land's End.  They worked hard and even managed to finish their story!  The story will arrive back in school soon, so we will be able to share it soon.  Cub was so impressed with the work of the children that he arrived to congratulate them.

There was just one thing wrong with today.  Our own housework bear had been on his travels around the world recently, but we thought he was back to stay.  However, we couldn't find him anywhere and we now think he may have been so excited about Cub's travels that he has gone on his own travels again.  There is a chance he may just be being a mischief maker and that he may be hiding in your house.  If you find him, can you please send him back - we miss him when he is not here!