This week, the children have been working hard across the school and have enjoyed taking part in a range of exciting learning activities which you can explore on their class blogs. On Monday, pupils attended a special assembly celebrating the life and work of Sir David Attenborough in recognition of his 100th birthday. The assembly highlighted his inspiring contribution to wildlife and nature conservation and encouraged children to think about the importance of protecting our planet and caring for the environment.

Platinum 99 Club
Congratulations to Harley for getting every question right in the Platinum level of 99 club.  Harley is the first person in Polperro School ever to be awarded a platinum 99 club badge, answering 100 multiplaction and division questions within the time limit of 4 minutes.  Well done Harley, you are the King of Times Tables!

Return of Ice Pop Fridays 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.

Feedback about School Lunches Caterlink, who provide our school lunches, have put together a very short survey in the hope of getting some feedback from you about the menus and any barriers there may be to taking up a School Meal. Please click on the link to complete the survey Parent Feedback - Fill in form

Free School Meals and Pupil Premium We would like to remind families that children may be eligible for Free School Meals and Pupil Premium funding. All children in Reception, Year 1, and Year 2 automatically receive Universal Infant Free School Meals; however, families who meet the eligibility criteria should still apply for Free School Meals as this allows the school to receive additional Pupil Premium funding. This extra funding helps us provide further support for children's learning, wellbeing, educational resources, school trips, clubs, and enrichment opportunities. Applications are quick, simple and confidential. For more information on eligibility and details on how to apply through the council, please click here https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/schools-and-education/schools-and-colleges/school-meals/apply-for-free-school-meals-and-pupil-premium/  If you need any support with the application process, please contact the school office.

Have a wonderful weekend

Anthea Hillman

Thank you for sending your children in with sun hats and sun cream this week. They have been enjoying lots of time outdoors on the field; however, as there is limited shade, hats remain essential.

We're pleased to let you know that the pool has now been tested and is up and running. Please ensure your child brings their swimming kit each week, as lessons will take place whenever the weather is suitable.

Health and Well Being - new initiatives As part of our ongoing commitment to supporting pupils' health and wellbeing, we are introducing some exciting whole-school initiatives to encourage active lifestyles and healthy habits. We have shared these with the children as follows:
• Marathon Monday which invites families to walk, jog, or run to school, with pupils building distance on our playground track together. We will be tracking to see if we can run the distance of a marathon by the end of the summer term.
• Wheely Wednesday which encourages travelling by bike or scooter, promoting fitness and eco-friendly habits (please ensure safety measures are followed).

In addition to Marathon Monday and Wheely Wednesday, children are encouraged to bring a water bottle daily containing water and enjoy healthy snacks at breaktime such as fruit, vegetables or yogurt. These fun, inclusive activities will be celebrated in school, and we appreciate your support in helping children develop healthy habits. Further details can be found on the attached document. Please contact the school if you have any questions.

Have a lovely bank holiday weekend.

We look forward to seeing the children back in school on Tuesday 5th May.

Anthea Hillman

Welcome back to the summer term, we hope you had an enjoyable Easter.

Term has started well with the children enjoying lunchtime play on the field today and PE lessons outside.

Swimming Pool We are busy preparing the pool which should be up and running very soon and when the weather is warm enough, we will start lessons for all year groups. In the meantime, you may wish to organize your child's swimming kit which should comprise a swimming costume/trunks, towel, waterproof bag, swimming hat. Please ensure everything is named. We have swimming hats for sale at £3.00 each. Please email the office if you would like one. These can be paid for on Parent Pay.

What are the children learning about this half term? The children have settled into their learning quickly this week and have started their class enquiries as follows:
Penhallow: Who are Explorers and What do they do?
Landaviddy: Why do Explorers Explore?
Talland: Can 'Change' Change?
Chaipel: What do all Living Things have in Common?

You can keep uptodate with your child's learning by accessing the class blogs on this website.

MHST and Papaya, focusing on Parenting in the Digital Age With increasing concerns around screen time, social media, gaming, and their potential impact on children and young people's mental health, many parents and carers are seeking practical, balanced guidance. MHST and Papaya are holding an interactive talk on MONDAY 8TH JUNE 2026 - 9:30 AM to 11:00 AM. The talk aims to help find solutions that work for families. Please find attached the poster and further information. The link to access the talk is included in the poster.

Polperro Family History Society The Polperro Family History Society is holding its annual gathering this weekend in the village hall. Anyone connected with Polperro school would be very welcome to join the Society for any or all of the events shown on the attached programme. There will also be an opportunity to look at a range of historical records relating to the village.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Anthea Hillman

Head of School

This half term has raced by and we have had a wonderful Spring Term at Polperro School with much to be proud of. It was good to share achievements with parents and carers at yesterday's Reader/Writer and Mathematician if the week assembly.

This morning, the children had a visit from the Easter Bunny who delivered Easter eggs to them on the playground. A huge thank you to FOPS for helping to organise this and the Easter discos that the children enjoyed yesterday evening. The discos raised £260 for school.

House Points House points are given out to pupils who consistently demonstrate our school values. This term, Oak were awarded them most and are currently in the lead with 200 points, closely followed by Willow (195), Ash (186) and Chestnut (176).

More Cross-Country Success Well done to 16 of our runners who qualified for a medal from the Cross Country League this season. A huge well done too to Flora and Isabelle who came a magnificent 11th and 28th respectively in the Primary Mid Cornwall Inter Area Cross Country Races on Monday.

Clubs After Easter, clubs will remain the same as follows, including Y6 SATS clubs. Once the greenhouse has been delivered (date tbc), Art Club on Thursdays will end and we will set up gardening club which will be run by Miss Randle and Mrs Fitzsimmons.
Monday: After School Running Club (Miss Bowden and Miss Bolton) for years 3-6. Tuesday: Lunchtime Construction Club (Mrs Lister) for Reception/Y1/Y2 After School Girls' Football Club (Mr Peters and Miss Bowden) for years 3-6
Thursday: Lunchtime Choir (Mrs Butlin) for years 2-6 After School Art Club (Mrs Fitzsimmons) for Reception/Y1/Y2 (limited numbers, 1st come 1st served) After School Football Club (Mr Langley) for years 3-6
If your child would like to join any of the clubs available for their year group and has not already signed up, please let us know by email or telephone. Please note that once children have signed up to a club, they are expected to attend every week unless they are absent from school or we have received written parental permission for them not to attend. This applies to both lunchtime and after-school clubs.

Uniform If you are looking ahead to buying uniform, please remember that we have a good supply of nearly new uniform in school, including summer dresses and PE items, which is available for a donation (£1 minimum) to the school. Please ask at reception. Please ensure that your child's shoes are black and socks/tights are grey, black or white. Full details of our uniform can be found under the Information tab on this website.

INSET Dates for 2026-2027 Please see below training days for 2026/27, to help with planning time off, childcare and forthcoming family events.
• Thursday 3rd September 2026
• Friday 4th September 2026
• School Term to start for pupils on Monday 7th September 2026
• Friday 23rd October 2026
• Monday 4th January 2027
• Friday 12th February 2027
• Friday 28th May 2027
• Friday 23rd July 2027

Looking ahead to the summer term, three important dates for the diary are: Polperro Festival School's Day which is on 16th June this year; and Sports Day which will be on the morning of Tuesday 23rd June with a reserve date of Friday 26th June. Further details of these events will follow nearer the time.

Wishing you a wonderful Easter break. We look forward to seeing the children back in school on MONDAY 20th April.

A Hillman

Another busy week at school has included a Year 5 trip to Liskeard Fire Station, where pupils learned all about safety on the railways, online, on the roads, and when using electricity. They also tried their hand at choking prevention and CPR and explored the risks associated with smoking. On Tuesday morning, Reception had a very enjoyable trip into Polperro to find out more about how post is processed and delivered from the post office.

FOPS Fundraising Quiz Night New Date - Friday 24th April Our Quiz Night has been rearranged for Friday 24th April. The event which will be held at school is open to parents, carers, and friends of the school. Doors open at 6:30pm for a 7:00pm start. Why not form a team of 4-6 people and test your knowledge while supporting our fundraising efforts. Tickets are £5 per person and are available from the school office. See the attached poster for more details.We hope to see you there!

Clubs After half term, clubs will remain the same as follows, including Y6 SATS clubs. Once the greenhouse has been delivered (date tbc), Art Club on Thursdays will end and we will set up gardening club which will be run by Miss Randle and Mrs Fitzsimmons.
Monday: After School Running Club (Miss Bowden and Miss Bolton) for years 3-6.
Tuesday: Lunchtime Construction Club (Mrs Lister) for Reception/Y1/Y2; After School Girls' Football Club (Mr Peters and Miss Bowden) for years 3-6
Thursday: Lunchtime Choir (Mrs Butlin) for years 2-6; After School Art Club (Mrs Fitzsimmons) for Reception/Y1/Y2 (limited numbers, 1st come 1st served);  After School Football Club (Mr Langley) for years 3-6.

If your child would like to join any of the clubs available for their year group and has not already signed up, please let us know by email or telephone. Please note that once children have signed up to a club, they are expected to attend every week unless they are absent from school or we have received written parental permission for them not to attend. This applies to both lunchtime and after-school clubs.

Easter Bikeability Cycling Sessions Please see attached poster for details of cycling sessions available at Callington Community College during the Easter holidays for pupils aged 4 upwards.

Easter MHST Wild Wellbeing - new venues added Tehidy Woods and Lanhydrock House have now been added to MHST Wild Wellbeing for Easter. The link for sign up remains the same. The Mental Health in Schools Team (MHST) Wild Wellbeing sessions being run this Easter holidays in collaboration with Natural England, Cornwall Wildlife Trust and National Trust. These free sessions are open to children aged 5-12 to help understand and support emotional and mental wellbeing. Each session will be approximately 2 hours long. Sign up details are included in the attached poster. Sign up will close one week before the session date, or when the session reaches capacity, whichever comes first.

Diary Dates Next Thursday 2nd April is the last day of the Spring term and school ends for pupils at 1:30pm. On Thursday morning we will have a visit from the Easter Bunny. The first day of the Summer term after the Easter break will be Monday, 20th April. Looking ahead to the Summer term, Sports Day will be held at 10am on Tuesday 23rd June with a reserve date of Friday 26th June.

Have a great weekend.

Mrs Hillman

Thank you for sending your children in today in MUFTI and with wonderfully creative crazy hair (see blogs for photos). We had a huge amount of fun in school and spent time finding out about the work of Comic Relief. At the time of writing, we have raised over £85 for Comic Relief from your generous donations.

Trust Music Event On Monday, pupils from Polperro School joined other schools from the Trust for a special music event held at St Martin's Church in Liskeard. Thirteen of our older pupils performed a fantastic original song they had written about climate change, showcasing both their creativity and their commitment to an important global issue. Following the performances, all the children came together to sing alongside Luke Wallace, a world-renowned singer-songwriter from Canada who inspires positive climate action through music. It was a memorable event that brought the schools together and highlighted the importance of raising awareness about climate change. Well done to all those who represented Polperro.

FOPS Easter Discos Reminder that we will be holding Easter discos next week on Friday 27th March. 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.

Diary Dates Thursday 2nd April is the last day of the Spring term and school ends for pupils at 1:30pm.

Looking ahead to the summer term, Sports Day will be held at 10am on Tuesday 23rd June with a reserve date of Friday 26th June.

Wishing you a  sunny weekend.

Mrs Hillman

It was wonderful to see so many of you at our parent/carer consultations for Penhallow, Talland and Chaipel Classes this week. Mr Langley will be holding consultations for Talland Class next Wednesday. Miss Bolton will be holding them for Landaviddy Class on Wednesday and Friday. If you have not been able to meet with your child's teacher yet, please contact the office to arrange an appointment.

Cross Country Success The Polperro team yet again did brilliantly well in last week's final league race at Lanhydrock. Congratulations to the children who all ran well. Thank you to Mrs Turnbull and Miss Colton for their wonderful team support this season and to parents and carers for transporting our runners to each race come rain or shine (mostly rain!). An amazing effort all round from Team Polperro. Special congratulations go to Flora and Isabelle who have qualified for an Inter Area competition at Par Track on 30th March.

RNLI Beach Safety Assembly Lifeguards from the RNLI visited today to hold an assembly about how to stay safe on the beach. They enlisted the help of pupils to demonstrate how to get help if they get into trouble in the sea. They also discussed where it is and isn't safe to swim and what to do if you are caught in a riptide. Your child will have brought home a leaflet which contains the information discussed.

Comic Relief, Friday 20th March - Crazy Hair MUFTI Day This year Red Nose Day is on Friday, 20th March. The School Council would like the children to come to school in MUFTI with Crazy Hair with a minimum donation of £1 for this MUFTI day.

FOPS Easter Discos Reminder that we will be holding Easter discos on Friday 27th March. 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.

Bags for School Collection Monday 16th Reminder that these are being collected from Nursery on Monday 16th March. Please ensure Nursery have your bags before 9am.

MHST Wild Wellbeing Please see attached details of the Mental Health in Schools Team (MHST) Wild Wellbeing sessions being run this Easter holidays in collaboration with Natural England, Cornwall Wildlife Trust and National Trust. These free sessions are open to children aged 5-12 to help understand and support emotional and mental wellbeing. Each session will be approximately 2 hours long. Sign up details are included in the attached poster. Sign up will close one week before the session date, or when the session reaches capacity, whichever comes first.

Wishing you a lovely weekend

Mrs Hillman

World Book Day Thank you for sending your child to school dressed as their favourite character for World Book Day yesterday. We saw some of the best costumes ever and really enjoyed seeing them all during assembly.

After assembly, Landaviddy and Talland Classes shared stories and read together, while Chaipel pupils read to Penhallow pupils, which was a lovely opportunity for children to enjoy books together. Later, KS2 took part in a BBC live lesson all about reading while Penhallow Class enjoyed a range of World Book Day activities. All of these activities were designed to encourage a love of reading, which is such an important part of every child's education.

Congratulations to the winners of our paper plate competition: Penhallow: Martha (winner); Brody and Maeve (runners up) Landaviddy: Hector (winner); April and Iylah (runners up) Talland: Harley (winner); Amber and Flora (runners up) Chaipel: Lily (winner); Aria and Skye (runners up). The standard of entry was so high and it was very difficult to choose. Photos of the plates and the World Book Day costumes will be on class pages and head's blog on our website. The plates will be displayed in the library.

Enquiries for this half term Enquiry questions have been launched for this half term as follows: Penhallow: What is it like to live on an Island? Landaviddy: How can the Force be with You? Talland: How have children's lives changed? Chaipel: What was the impact of WWII on the People of Britain? As usual, photos and information about the children's learning can be found on the class pages.

Parent Consultations Reminder We will be holding parent consultations next week for Penhallow, Talland and Chaipel Classes and the week commencing 16th March for Landaviddy Class. If you have not already signed up, please call the office to arrange an appointment either in person, on TEAMS or by phone.

Fantastic Footballers Well done to our football team, who played against Bishop Cornish on Wednesday. They performed brilliantly against an older side, showing great determination and teamwork throughout the game. The team scored two fantastic goals and were unlucky not to add another after hitting the post. Although the final score was 4-2 to Bishop Cornish, the result does not reflect how competitive and closely contested the match was.

FOPS Fundraising Quiz Night Join us for a fun-filled Quiz Night at school on Friday 13th March. The event is open to parents, carers, and friends of the school. Doors open at 6:30pm for a 7:00pm start. Form a team of 4-6 people and test your knowledge while supporting our fundraising efforts. Tickets are £5 per person and are available from the school office. See the attached poster for more details. We hope to see you there!

FOPS Easter Discos We will be holding Easter discos on Friday 27th March. 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.

Comic Relief, Friday 20th March - Crazy Hair Day This year Red Nose Day is on Friday, 20th March. The School Council would like the children to come to school in MUFTI with Crazy Hair with a minimum donation of £1 for this MUFTI day.

Support for a Pupil We would like to share that one of our Year 6 pupils has been in hospital for some time. This has been a very challenging period for the family, and we are keeping them very much in our thoughts. A GoFundMe page has been set up with further details about how we can offer support during this difficult time. If you are able to help, any contribution would be greatly appreciated. https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-support-my-goddaughters-road-to-recovery We are sure you will join us in sending your very best wishes the family.

Enjoy a (hopefully) sunny weekend.

Mrs Hillman

Planting for the future

Welcome back!

The first week of term is already underway. Building on last year's Orwell Project, our Year 5 and 6 pupils, together with our Planet Protector group, visited the temperate rainforest just ten minutes from school to take part in a special tree-planting session. They were the very first group of pupils to plant trees as part of this exciting initiative, which will see more than 20,000 trees planted to help restore and regenerate the temperate rainforest. A fantastic start to the term and a wonderful way for our pupils to make a real difference to their local environment.

Parent Consultations We will be holding parent consultations the week commencing 9th March for Penhallow, Talland and Chaipel Classes and the week commencing 16th March for Landaviddy Class. Please see separate letter attached for dates and details of how to sign up.

Clubs will resume next week as follows: Monday: After School Running Club (Miss Bowden and Miss Bolton) for years 3-6. Tuesday: Lunchtime Construction Club (Mrs Lister) Reception/Y1/Y2; After school Girls' Football (Y3-6); Thursday: Lunchtime Choir Mrs Butlin (Y2-6) After school Art Club (Mrs Fitzsimmons) Reception/Y1/Y2 ; After school Football Club Mr Langley (Y3-Y6). We had hoped to restart Gardening Club this half term; however, unfortunately the greenhouse did not withstand the recent storms and we are currently awaiting a replacement. We are now aiming to have this popular club up and running again after the Easter break.

If your child would like to join any of the clubs available for their year group and has not already signed up, please let us know by email or telephone. Please note that once children have signed up to a club, they are expected to attend every week unless they are absent from school or we have received written parental permission for them not to attend. This applies to both lunchtime and after-school clubs.  

World Book Day, Thursday 5th March 2026 Please find attached a £1 digital book token for your child to spend on a free book for World Book Day. Reminder that on World Book Day children should come in dressed as their favourite book character. We have already had some super entries for "decorate a paper plate" competition where the children are asked to decorate a paper plate following the theme or character of a book. Reminder that the deadline for entries is Monday 2nd March and winners will be announced on World Book Day (Thursday 5th March).

Have a great weekend.

Mrs Hillman