Please visit the Head's Blog regularly for news, information and communications from Polperro Primary Academy.

Talland Class had a visit from the Beano Joke Experts on Tuesday 9th July, whose job it is to analyse why things are humorous. The purpose of their visit was to determine why Talland Class is so uncommonly funny.

The class spent the day learning joke creation, how to use sound effects, how to use comedy walks and laughs among many things. They shared this with the rest of the school in a comedy assembly. This photo shows the 'deadpanners' managing to keep straight faces while the audience told their funniest jokes.

It was a fantastic and memorable day with lots and lots of laughs.

At the end of the assembly the whole school recited 'The Pledge':

I promise to turn the frowns around
To raise the spirits when someone's down
To make up jokes for everyone
One for all and all for FUN!

A surprise visit from Ofsted on June 13th confirmed our school to be a Good School, where ‘’…all pupils are warmly welcomed, feel safe and secure and can excel.’’

“the school is ‘a welcoming school and really does care about their children and staff’.“

‘’the school has a ‘very safe and nurturing environment’.’’

The report, which can be found here reflects the huge amount of work that takes place every day and the positive impact that this has on our pupils. The continued success of our school only happens because of the full support of the parents, the support of the Governing Body, the hard work of the pupils and the dedication, commitment and expertise of the staff, who are all proud of the outcome of the inspection.

On Monday 24th June we held our first Alternative Sports Day where pupils tried a range of sports throughout the day including lacrosse, tri-golf, fitness, Zumba, Ultimate Frisbee and street bowls. The children enjoyed the range of activities on offer revealing skills and talents we, and sometimes they, didn’t know they had. We now hope to have a bowls team in the Autumn term and plan to run an alternative sports club too. 

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Talland Class is officially Britain's second funniest class!

More than 7.4 million people voted in the Beano competition and Talland Class received a fair proportion of the votes, coming second overall. 

As runners up, Talland Class will receive a visit from Beano Studios in July as well as a package of annuals and comic subscriptions.





Their joke was:
You Tube, Twitter and Facebook are running a  joint website.  What would it be called?
Answer: YouTwitFace

Congratulations Talland Class. It's an incredible achievement .  Thank you to everyone who voted for them.

Our school is still in the running to win the Beano's Britain's Funniest Class competition.  At the time of writing we are number one on the leader board.

On Monday 20th May BBC Radio Cornwall interviewed Talland Class teacher, Mrs Wills, about the competition and their class' enquiry 'Why do we laugh?' The children were recorded telling their jokes brilliantly. To listen to the broadcast, please click here. 

Archie was filmed telling our competition entry joke. Click the link below to watch.
https://twitter.com/BBCCornwall/status/1130452257315676161

Please keep on voting as many times as you can until 31st May https://commercials.beano.com/funniest-class/.  Talland Class would love to win first prize of a Beano VIP school visit and comedy workshop.

Our summer 2019 Parent and Carer Questionnaire is now live.

Please click on the link below to access it.

https://www.polperroprimary.co.uk/Information/Parent_Carer_Questionnaire

Many thanks for taking the time to complete this survey. We will share the results prior to the end of the summer term.

We are proud to announce that Talland Class has been selected by head-judge Harry Hill and the Beano as one of Britain's Funniest Class finalists!

Check out our rib-tickling joke and VOTE NOW for us on beano.com/funniest-class

The class with the most votes will be crowned the 2019 winner and receive a Beano VIP school visit, trophy, a Beano illustration of the class, a bundle of Beano annuals and comic subscriptions.

Thank you for your support.  Good luck Talland Class!

Radio Cornwall will be visiting Talland Class this afternoon to find out more.

Click here to see Harry Hill telling the joke and congratulating the school on being in the top 10.

Today’s assembly was led by two Lifeguards from the RNLI who talked to the children about how to stay safe near the water.

The children learned explained all about the flags used on the beach and how to stay safe in and out of the water and in the sun. Poppy dressed up as a lifeguard and acted out how to rescue Lily using a special float. The children also learned about what to do if they are caught in a rip tide.

The lifeguards' presentation focused on the following 4 important areas which you may wish to discuss with your child:

1) When you’re by the water ask yourself: Is it a safe place to swim and is there a lifeguard? How deep is it? What dangers could be under the surface? At the beach, have you asked the lifeguards for advice?

2) Stay Together. Family and friends can help in an emergency. Always go with someone else. Tell someone where you’re going and when you’ll be back. Carry a phone to call for help.

3) Float. If you get into trouble in the water, FLOAT until you feel calm. Practise floating the next time you’re at the swimming pool.

4) Call 999 or 112. You can help if someone else is in trouble, once you’ve called for help…

On Friday Jasmine, Seb and Ella were interviewed by BBC Radio Cornwall and BBC Spotlight about the Sugar Smart status which we have been awarded. Jasmine, Ella and Seb were absolute media stars, speaking really well about what it means to be Sugar Smart.

Polperro Primary Academy has been crowned the first SUGAR SMART primary in Cornwall. The initiative, which is promoted by the Healthy Schools team at Cornwall Council, encourages teachers, staff and the children into making small steps to reduce the amount of sugar in their snacks, drinks and to work towards a healthier lifestyle.

We are very proud of this award and a huge well done to everyone who has been involved, especially our year 5s and year 6s who have trained as Sugar Snaps to promote the message about making healthy choices, and to Mrs Wills who was instrumental in us gaining the award.

To find out more click here

At Polperro School we provide opportunities for pupils to try out different sports in the belief that there is a sport out there for everyone to enjoy.

Miss Randle recently met with representatives from each class to find out how they felt about the sports and PE opportunities on offer at school. She found that the sport that PPA children most wanted to try out this year was badminton. As a result of this discussion, Mr Sheer from Looe Community Academy has been coming in to school on Friday afternoons to teach the older children badminton. Each class has had a turn at learning the skills involved and Jowan even managed to beat Mr Sheer in a short contest.

Last Friday Mr Sheer brought along the fencing equipment for Chaipel Class to try out. They enjoyed being introduced to something new and different and quickly mastered how to handle a foil, the flexible, lightweight, rectangular-shaped sword. Foam in this case! In the sunshine they learned how to score points by touching the chest of their opponent with the tip of the blade.  Other classes will have a turn after Easter.

Over recent weeks drones have been sighted hovering in the skies above Polperro School. Pupils have been learning how to code using the App Tynker on an IPad which is then paired with a drone.   Commands have included directing the drones to take off, move in different directions, even flip over,  and hopefully land.  

Landaviddy Class experimented with their new coding skills by flying the drones in the hall while Chaipel Class first practised inside then took their skills out onto the field.  Some sophisticated programmers in Chaipel Class have managed to programme their drone to fly down the corridor and into my office - impressive and startling at the same time!

Chaipel Class have quickly become expert drone operators and will be working with other classes to share their skills. They have also carried out research into real life use of drones and have found out, amongst other facts, that drones have been used to transport blood to save lives in Rwanda.

The set of drones has been purchased by the MAT and can easily be borrowed by Polperro School to enhance the children's learning.  

This term many of our children have been involved in some form of cycling.

Our reception children have had the opportunity to try out balance bikes in the hall with a Bikeability Balance course delivered over 3 weeks. Bikeability Balance offers children a great opportunity to become competent cyclists at an early age through the development of balance and control.

Year 4 cyclists have honed their skills in the playground gaining the level 1 Bikeability award, while many of our year sixes have braved the roads to gain the level 2 Bikeability award. The aims of the Level 2 course are: to encourage and develop safe cycling skills; to develop positive attitudes towards road use; to increase knowledge and understanding of the road and traffic environment; to give the year six children the confidence to use their bikes on local roads.

We hope to increase the opportunities for all children to improve their cycling skills at school so that they can be safer on the roads and establish a love of cycling.

‘A child who enjoys riding a bike is more likely to cycle as an adult or even to become an Olympic athlete.’ Laura Kenny (née Trott) OBE - The first woman to win four Olympic gold medals.

Our school received an exciting visit last week when Will Coleman and his team (the people behind the Man Engine) visited Talland Class to introduce their work as part of the Kerdroya: Cornish Hedge Community Heritage Project. The project marks the Diamond Jubilee of the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Our school is one of 12 partners chosen to work in AONB sections across Cornwall to celebrate one of the most special aspects of what makes our landscape so unique – the humble Cornish hedge.

Polperro School has been invited to take part and this involves pupils from Talland class learning all about Cornish hedges, their importance as a habitat, and how to build and look after them becoming hedge stewards in the process..

During his visit Will and his team showed pupils how traditional Cornish hedges are made and introduced pupils to the many creatures and plants that make the hedges their home, teaching the children the Cornish words for the plants and animals at the same time. Their favourite words:Tykki Duw - a butterfly.

In April the class will visit Lansallos to work with the team and Head Ranger to learn how to manage the ancient hedgerow.  Watch this space for a report.

What a busy World Book Day we had this year. The day kicked off with a reading breakfast which was very well attended by many parents, carers and children who enjoyed sharing a book over croissants and juice.

Throughout the day each class decorated a door as a book cover. These were fantastic! The nursery created a wonderful version of 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' and Killigarth 'Giraffes Can't Dance'.  Penhallow personalised Where's Wally with pictures of every child, while Talland Class made an interactive Harry Potter display. Chaipel Class staff and pupils featured as WW2 pilots on the cover of  'Grandpa's Great Escape'. The difficult decision of judging the winning cover went to Mrs Lang who, after much deliberation, chose Landaviddy's 'How to Train your Dragon' door as the winner.

Well done to Seb who won our Extreme Reading competition with a photograph of him reading while trampolining.  We had some very unusual entries. Thank you to everyone who took part. Please take time to look at our Extreme Reading display next time you are in the hall.   


And a huge thank you to everyone involved in helping their child dress up for the day. What an amazing array of characters we had in school.

On 5th March, the whole school walked into the village to celebrate St Piran’s Day.

Staff and pupils followed a Cornish Piper in a procession from Big Green to the harbour and back, waving Cornish flags.

The whole school then retold the story of St Piran, each class taking their turn to entertain the audience using props they had made to bring the story to life. This was followed by the whole school singing our own Polperro Fishing Song which tells the story of how pilchards were caught, packed and sent off to Italy.

I am delighted that after the event the organisers said that the children were 'a real credit to the school as they performed, sang and walked superbly'.