This week we are answering our new enquiry question which is "How do i know it is autumn?"
The children have explored our autumn themed tuft tray, looking at different objects and exploring the different properties of them.
There has been some great arts and craft happening including handprint hedgehogs and leaf printing with the paint.
On Thursday we  did some cooking and the children enjoyed making some apple crumble and today (Friday) we have been in the school garden and on the field collecting sticks for an art project next week. The children explored with interest and were keen to see what was growing in the greenhouse.

At story time we have been enjoying a selection of stories including "The leaf thief" and "In the woods".
In phonics this week we have been exploring loud and quiet sounds, copying sequences of actions e.g. clap, stamp, clap, stamp and we have been trying to recognise sounds that have the same initial sounds.

In maths, the children have been enjoying our new abacas outside and have been practicing counting all of the different coloured balls on it as well as drawing and practicing writing numbers and mark making on the chalk boards.

Bags2school- We are collecting any good condition clothes, shoes, bags and belts for Bags2school. If you have any items then please bag them up and bring them to nursery before 9am on Wednesday16th October.

See you next week

Julie, Sarah and Jade

Fantastic first day at Beam House (PGL)

After a very early start - we have had a great first day at Beam house.  The bus journey was very smooth - and we arrived a little early.  After a short while to stretch our legs - we were able to get ourselves settled into our rooms and have our packed lunch outside in the sunshine.

This afternoon, we enjoyed activities such as archery, abseiling and the Trapeze (which looks terrifying)!  After a delicious dinner - we have played a great game of 'Ambush' in the dark (we loved the war-paints) and we are settling down for our first night 'sleeping' in our dorms!

A great first day!!

The children have settled into Year 2 brilliantly and have engaged with all their learning so far. We also made it on a school trip to Carnglaze Caverns which the children thoroughly enjoyed! We focused on using adjectives to describe the setting and enjoyed listening to the echoes in the cave. Please enjoy reading more about what we have been up to!

English

This half term we have been learning all about traditional tales. We started off by exploring lots of traditional tales and what they are. Then start looked at labelling and listing nouns before writing captions for pictures from traditional tales. 

Now we have focused on Golidlocks and the Three Bears. We have been busy learning all about expanded noun phrases and the 5ws. We practiced re-writing the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears before making changes to the original and now we are working on writing our own versions.

Maths

This half term we started by thinking about place value. This means making and drawing numbers, comparing numbers and their value, ordering numbers and partitioning numbers. The children have made a great start to their maths learning and have got stuck in! Please see below for some useful websites for children to be practising their maths at home. Their Times Table Rock Stars logins are now ready for them to use and practise their times tables at home. Little and often is the best way to go with this! Please see the bottom of this post for the children's KIRFs this half term. These are number facts that children need to be able to recall quickly. We practice them in school daily but any practice at home would be great too!

https://play.ttrockstars.com/auth/school

https://whiteroseeducation.com/1-minute-maths

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/daily10

History

This half term we have been learning all about the history of flight and how it all started with the Wright Brothers. The children have thoroughly enjoyed learning all about this and can remember a lot of information each lesson! We started off by learning about who the Wright brothers were and what happened in their lives. We will move onto learn all about Bessie Coleman, Amelia Earhart, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong before thinking about flight today and learning about Tim Peake.

Design and Technology

This half term we have linked our DT to our Science by thinking about what humans need to survive. In our Science we have explored the importance of eating a healthy balanced diet and now in our DT we will be making fruit smoothies! The children have enjoyed learning about different fruits and vegetables and where they come from. They also got to taste different fruits to help them decide what they would like in their fruit smoothies. We will also practice cutting skills before we make our smoothies.

PE

This half term we have been focusing on ball skills which includes throwing and catching, dribbling both with feet and hands as well as batting. The children have really enjoyed getting stuck in and giving everything a go! We even managed to enjoy a game of quick cricket to bring all our skills together.

What a fantastic week of learning Year 3 have had!

During our Geography lessons, we have been looking at earthquakes and how we can build earthquake safe buildings. We investigated the rock types around our school grounds. We used magnifying glasses and a rock identification sheet to explore the different rocks that we found.

Year 3 were also excited to receive their adopted Jaguar pets which they worked on in Year 2. Each toy jaguar will be living in one of the Year 3 classroom and we will be naming them next week.

Please don’t forget swimming continues on a Wednesday afternoon until half term and outdoor PE on a Monday up until half term.

Many thanks,

The Year 3 Team

We were invited to Gunwen Methodist Chapel to take part in the celebrations of Crying The Neck.

Crying The Neck is a harvest festival tradition once common in Cornwall, in which a farm worker holds aloft the final handful of cut corn and a series of calls are chanted.

Hello Everyone,

What a lovely afternoon we have had this afternoon, learning all about the rowing challenge of oars of thunder. Thank you so much to the crew, who allowed all of the children to step onto the boat to see the equipment that the crew will be using. In school we enjoyed drawing pictures and writing letters to the crew, to thank and encourage them. We looked at some online maps to find out more about the route that the crew will take. As you can see, some of our children decided to reenact the experience of rowing. 

During our science lessons this week, Penhallow have been learning about the human body, as well as different categories of living creatures. We learnt about the features of mammals, and how different animals can be grouped into categories.

In maths, Year 1 have been learning about making 10 in different ways. We have used different apparatus and different ways to record number sentences. 

In English this week, we have been learning and innovating the story of ‘Orion and the Dark’. We ended with drawing our own story maps and using them to retell our own stories verbally.

This week, the children have chosen their own library books and have taken them home. We will have a regular weekly session every Tuesday, when children can change library books. Please can you make sure that library books are in school every Tuesday.

Have a lovely weekend,

From the Penhallow team.

Landaviddy class have had a fantastic week! We continued our Enquiry, 'What Makes the World Go Around?' by exploring the features of rivers in Geography and investigating what happens to our pulse when we exercise, in Science. We have also been working extremely hard on our handwriting this week!

Today, we were amazed by the Oars of Thunder crew, who will be undertaking a journey across the Atlantic in the next few months...and we were lucky enough to see what they will be travelling in. We had so many questions! 

During English, we have been concluding our character descriptions of Plop form the story 'The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark'. I have been so impressed with the stamina of the children's writing this week. We have had to use our growth mindsets to stay motivated. Next week, we will finish off our descriptions and then begin our non-fiction unit for this half term.

In Maths, we have concluded our Place Value unit and started working hard on developing our Addition and Subtraction knowledge. Year 2 have been using their number bonds to add and subtract within 20, find fact families and related facts. Year 3 have been busy adding and subtracting 100s, 10s and 1s. 

All of the children have been to the Library this week and chosen a book for pleasure to read at home. This may be a book they read independently or decide to share with their adults at home. Please continue to ensure your child brings in their colour-banded reading book into school daily.

*Year 2 Minibooks will be sent out again next week, as we are working through our new sound 'gn' and will continue this next week.*

Reminder - Wear yellow for World Mental Health Day
Next Thursday is World Mental Health Day and our School Council is asking pupils to come to school in MUFTI and wear something yellow to raise vital funds for Young Minds, https://www.youngminds.org.uk/support-us/fundraising/helloyellow/ and show children and young people they’re not alone with their mental health. A donation of £1 or more to Young Minds will be collected in class

We hope you have a lovely weekend and look forward to seeing you on Monday! 

Mrs Wilkie, Mrs Phillips, Miss Bowden and Miss Colton

We’ve had a busy September in nursery getting to know our new children and making new friends. We started the month talking about ourselves and our likes and dislikes and made collages that reflected our individual personalities.

We introduced the season of Autumn and discussed what we already know and what we’d like to learn. To help extend our understanding we have decorated and sent home Autumn treasure bags so we can collect items and return to nursery to show our friends.

We promoted our British values by using a voting system to choose our children’s interest role play area – the most votes went to a Fire station.

We introduced tooth brushing in nursery to promote good oral health and the children have done a great job keeping their teeth clean.

Giving thanks for a fantastic week...

This week, we have been watching the two new chicks growing before our very eyes! In fact, they have developed their voices so much in order to ask for food that they have moved into the room next door to us (Finnygook) to ensure we have peace for learning! We are eager to see what the next week brings as the next batch of eggs are due to hatch on or around Monday...

As well as being fortunate enough to continue with our extra-curricular Time to Shine cricket sessions with Chris, and ASONE violin sessions with Sally, we have been particularly busy in our core subjects. In English we have completed our drafts of our Brunel biographies and have begun writing them up onto information posters. We have been promoting presentation and handwriting as a school; I think you'll be impressed with the transformation in some of our handwriting already this year. Watch out next week to see some completed biographies, complete with illustrations and images...

In maths we have been persevering with our place value unit. Our focus has been on rounding numbers this week - all the way up to rounding numbers within 1 million! It is a tricky skill to master, but is exceedingly helpful out in the real world to ensure that we can judge 'roughly' how many things we will need for a project, how much 'roughly' shopping will be etc.

Our Religious Education topic for this half term is 'Christianity: What Would Jesus Do?'. This week, we analysed Christian prayers and had a go at writing a short prayer of our own: some giving thanks and some making requests for support for ourselves, or others. We were really impressed with how caring and thoughtful Talland class members can be - a great example of our school values and Issy manners in action.

Dates for your diary next week:
Monday 7th Oct - 1pm Harvest Assembly held in the hall (all parents and carers welcome to attend)
Wednesday 9th Oct - 2.30pm Parent Cafe being hosted by Mr Woolner (come along and have a chat, raise any questions you may have, share suggestions) 
Thursday 10th Oct - Mental Health Awareness Day (Children are welcome to wear something yellow to school)

TALLAND CLASS BLOG 4.10.24

What an 'eggsellent' week we've had in Talland class this week (excuse the pun)! Here's a brief run down of it...

Maths:
Both year 4 and 5 have completed their place value units and have moved swiftly on to addition and subtraction. It's always fun to get your child solving some addition and subtraction problems at home - especially when it comes to money - you can't have them short changing you now (joke)!

English:
The children have written up their instructions for helping a minaturised monster travel through a digestive system. They have been great to read!


Science:
We have begun our experiment to see what happens to an egg when left in a particular liquid for a week. What do you think will happen? Why not ask your child why we used an egg to replicate a tooth...

ART:
We've continued to experiment with white (to tint) and black (to shade) paint. We tried painting a mug this week -  First, the children draw the mug, then we added either black or white to the paint to show elements of where the light was shining on the cup and where is was most shaded. Talland did a fantastic job!

A massive thank you to the Oars of Thunder crew for bringing their rowing boat in to show and talk to the children about. The vessel will be rowed around the Atlantic - what an amazing achievement that will be once they have conquered it! We wish you all the best on your journey!

Attached are the spellings for both year groups next week. 

We hope you have  a spectacular weekend and we can't wait for Monday!

Signing off from Mr. Langley, Mr. Bishop and Miss Colton.

  

Another busy week at Polperro School has seen a visit from George Orwell’s son, Richard Blair, to discuss an exciting upcoming project involving writing, art and nature. The project will start next half term and will culminate in the children presenting their art and writing as part of the annual conference of Orwell Society which is taking place in Polperro in October 2025.

The World's Toughest Row We had an amazing visit today from the crew of Oars of Thunder, who spoke to the children about the World’s Toughest Row by Atlantic Campaigns which brings together teams from all walks of life to take on the unique challenge of crossing an ocean in a rowing boat. The team of four will be rowing more than 3000 Miles west from San Sebastian in La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain to Nelson’s Dockyard, English Harbour, Antigua & Barbuda . The race begins in early December 2024, with up to 30 teams participating from around the world. Our pupils will be following the team’s progress during the race with interest. The team (Sally, Kim, Nat and Harry) brought the boat, Oars of Thunder, onto the school field and all of our pupils were lucky enough to go onboard and have a look round.

Wear yellow for World Mental Health Day Next Thursday is World Mental Health Day and our School Council is asking pupils to come to school in MUFTI and wear something yellow to raise vital funds for Young Minds, https://www.youngminds.org.uk/support-us/fundraising/helloyellow/ and show children and young people they’re not alone with their mental health. A donation of £1 or more to Young Minds will be collected in class.

Harvest Assembly and Donations We will be holding a harvest assembly for the children in school on Tuesday 8th October with Reverend Allen. We are collecting donations for the foodbank in Liskeard. If you would like to donate, please send your donation in with your child or bring it to reception where there will be a collection box. There will also be a collection point in the nursery. We will be taking donations to the foodbank at half term.

School Open Morning Do you know anyone looking for a school for their Reception age child in September 2025? If so, please pass them the attached information regarding our open morning on 13th November, 9:30 – 11am. 

Spooky Discos we will be holding Spooky school discos on Thursday 24th October, the last day of this half term. Tickets are on sale in the office and cost £3. The disco for Reception, Year 1 and year 2 will be from 3:15-4:15pm. Pupils should bring a change of clothes and will be able to change after school. KS2 (years 3-6) children should go home at the usual time of 3:15pm and then return to school for their disco which will be from 4:30-6:00pm. Please find attached a poster for this event and the FOPS Quiz which will be held on Friday 15th November.

We Are Music (WAM) Pupils from year 3 to year 6 are welcome to attend the WAM music ensemble, led by Mrs Butlin, at Looe Community Academy (Music Department) on Monday’s 4pm-4:45pm term time. The first two sessions are free then it is £3 per week. To book a place please email wam@cmst.co.uk if your child is interested.

Have a lovely weekend

Mrs Hillman

What a brilliant start to Y2 the children have made!

We started by discussing the rules every day in the first week so that we are really clear on what is expected of us.
Lots of us are already earning certificates for showing our school values in different ways.

In our English work, we have been looking at 'The Diary of a Wombat' and picking out the features of diaries.
We linked this to our 'Great Fire of London' topic and finished the unit by writing a diary of 'Maureen' the rat, who was an eye witness in the Great Fire. 

Maths has been mainly about place value, reading, writing and comparing numbers. We have started each lesson with daily counting in twos, fives and tens.

In History, we have learnt about the events of the Great Fire, why and how it happened. We have compared fire fighting equipment, past and present and also tried to place events on a timeline. We are very much looking forward to the fire brigade visiting us in a couple of weeks so that we can learn about how fires are dealt with nowadays.