Head's Blog

Stepping Back in Time at St Cleer

We are going to have a School History Day next Friday 27th September!

This term, every class is studying a different period of history through an enquiry based approach. This involves the children asking questions and learning a wide variety of skills in a range of subjects, but with history at the heart of it.

To inspire the children, we would like everyone on that day to dress up as either a significant historical character or dressed to represent a key historical event or building.

This is your chance to really embrace our school value…be creative!

Books, books, books!

This year we are very lucky to be able to access the Gold Service with the Education Library Service which is based in Truro.

This allows us to access thousands of books and resources to support our learning adventures.

Just this morning, the mobile library van visited the school to help us consider our book supply and to drop off some topic boxes that link with our History and Science topics this term.

Remember that our History Day is coming soon, so remember to ask your child all about their learning.

Libraries are great places to access additional learning resources. We look forward to working with the ELS to supplement our learning and also in developing our school library space.

Keeping Active with a Sprinkling of Competition

"If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you."

Our Year 6 students have been busy this week supporting the younger students with games, movement skills and coordination. It was fantastic to see all of the children enjoying this collaborative and sometimes creative work.

Also, a really big well done to our brave footballers who played their first 2 competitive matches this week. They won one and lost one. Well done for having a wonderful 'Go for it!' attitude. It was commented on how well it was supported by parents and how well the children worked together. What a fantastic start to the year!

Sharing in the Vision at St Cleer

It was fantastic to have some time with so many of you yesterday at the parents meeting. We discussed the key priorities of the school for this year:

Progress—we want to ensure that every child reaches their full potential

Feedback—we are working tirelessly to ensure that feedback happens in the moment so that it has the maximum impact

Middle leaders—we have very capable and talented staff here and we want to ensure we are building capacity

Intervention—we run many effective interventions here and we want to ensure that these continue to be effective for your child

Curriculum—we continue our journey in the development of our creative curriculum

Attendance—we will work very hard this year to ensure that our attendance is in line with the national average of 96.5%. Parental support in this is crucial and very much appreciated.

Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts on our value ‘be creative’ and sharing the values that are important to you.

Mrs Stoate's last Blog

FINAL MESSAGE FROM MRS STOATE

I am writing to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for all your kind words, cards, gifts and the tea party yesterday to mark the ending of my happy 20 years at St Cleer School.

Most of all, I want to thank you for the "loan" of your precious children. It has been a great privilege and a real joy to have a small part in each one of these lives, and to have some influence on their growth as happy, fulfilled young people.

This last week has been very moving for me- and also there has been much fun! You may have heard how I was "stitched up" during a totally unfair competition entitled "Mrs Stoate has got Talent"!

It has been hard to thank each one of you personally, but please take this message as my sincere thanks to each of you for your support.

And I would like to say a special thank you to the PTA who are amazing, and gave me a lovely tea yesterday, with numerous cakes all with my face on them!

The children and the wonderful staff at St Cleer School are very special. This school community has a unique nurturing ethos in which children's well being as whole people comes first.

Have a really happy summer holidays, returning to school on Thursday 5th September.

Very best wishes

Catherine Stoate Headteacher.

Parent Questionnaire

Results of Parent Questionnaire

Dear Parents,

We would like to thank you for taking the time to complete our Summer 2019 parent questionnaire. We have collated the information, you have kindly provided and can now share the results with you. Your comments and suggestions help to support the school and Trust in their continued effort to improve and develop areas within current systems to enrich parental communications and reach out to wider audiences. Here are just a few of your comments, so thank you once again for your valuable contribution.

Catherine Stoate

Headteacher

Year 6 learn teamwork!

Year 6 have enjoyed a series of workshops aimed at preparing them for secondary school

After successfully completing their Standard Assessments (SATs), Year 6 are benefitting from a series of workshops led by different outside visitors.
The aim of each workshop is to develop team building skills, resilience and the ability to form positive relationships. These are all vital qualities that the children will need as they move to secondary school and beyond.
The class have loved producing Manga Art (a Japanese art form), performing poems they have written in assembly, Wild Tribe and Forest School.
See how these boys are working together to toast marshmallows!

Reception class enjoy Eden

The Reception Class, were invited to the Eden Project to take part in a 'Feast of the Senses Workshop. Once there they explored the outside area of the workshop, looking for plants that matched a piece of coloured card that they each had and they got to smell all the beautiful plants and herbs.

Using sticks the children also explored the sounds that they could make on the willow trees and the cobbled stoned pavements. Finally we got to touch lots of chosen plants in order to discuss their texture and use the sense of touch.

Once the workshop had finished the children really enjoyed exploring the Bio Domes and had great fun in the Rain Forest, where they were keen to get wet. It really was a feast for their senses and the children had a fun filled day of learning.

Run a Daily Mile at St Cleer Academy

DAILY EXERCISE AIDS LEARNING

At St Cleer Academy we believe that daily physical exercise is very important as an aid to learning: Healthy Body- Healthy Mind.

We have started aiming for every child- and staff member!- to run a Mile a Day.
Our field is beautiful, but often wet and muddy.

We have a Working Party of parents aiming to raise £12,900 for a purpose built mile track to run around the edge of our grounds. Any support with this would be most welcome.

Visits and Visitors enhance learning

At St Cleer Primary Academy, we believe that children are motivated and their learning enhanced by outside visitors and visits.

This term we have had visits from South West Water to lead experiments and investigative workshops into the science of water filteration. Workshops with the younger children, seen here, also used creative art activities to explore the life-giving qualities of water.

Children in Year 6 have had visits from a professional musician and our rehearsals are culminating in a Songfest Concert in Plymouth Pavilions on 2nd April. What an experience to be part of a 100 strong Choir with a professional band of musicians in such an impressive Arena! Other visits have included visits to the Fire Station and a Farm and Country Day at the Royal Cornwall Showground. These visits and visitors bring learning alive and they are experiences the children will never forget.