It was lovely to see so many of you at the Polperro Festival on Tuesday. Thank you for coming and being part of a really special day. Please see the class blogs for photos.

The children have had a busy, sporty week, doing each activity for the Bridge School Games  and practising for Sports Day next Wednesday 25th June from 10-12:00. Please ensure that your child’s PE kit is in on the day. We look forward to seeing you there. Please come into the school via the field gate. T

Garden Update Everything is growing really well in the greenhouse thanks to the hard work of our volunteers Mr and Mrs Peters and Gardening Club children with Miss Randle, Mrs Wilkie and Mrs Fitzsimmons. You are invited to look round the garden during our school fair (see below).

FOPS Summer Fair – Monday 21st July at 2pm FOPS are busily organising this year’s Summer Fair. Monday 30th June will be a MUFTI day where we will be asking for donations of an item matching your child’s house team colour to create hampers for raffle prizes. Children can wear their own clothes and this could include wearing their house colour. Please see attached posters for suggestions of what to send in for your child’s colour on the day.

Orwell Society School Award We are proud to be one of just two schools in the UK that have been awarded the prestigious Orwell Society School Award for 2024–2025. Inspired by George Orwell’s deep love of nature - nurtured during his childhood holidays in Polperro - our exciting project aims to bring the natural world to life for our pupils. With support from local experts and organisations like the National Trust and Cornwall Wildlife Trust, children in years 4-6 have learnt about Cornwall’s unique environments, including Bodmin airfield and even a nearby temperate rainforest. They have transformed their learning into a creative “found” sketchbook, imagined as Orwell’s own, filled with nature notes, detailed drawings, descriptive writing and poetry, all produced by the children. There will be an exhibition of this work, including the “found” sketchbook, in October when the society holds their annual conference in Polperro. Please click here to find out more about the project.

School Uniform Thank you to Mrs Kane who has raised £15 for the school at a nearly new uniform sale recently. We have a large selection of preloved school uniform available for a suggested donation of just £1 per item. While you might have seen a few things on the rail by the school office, there is actually much more available in a range of sizes – plenty of everything! It's a great way to save money, find what you need and help reduce waste. Before heading to the shops, please consider taking a look. Just ask at the office for the size you need. Giving these clothes a second life helps keep perfectly good uniform out of landfill.

MHST SilverCloud Please find attached a poster about free NHS online support for those supporting an anxious child, teen or child diagnosed with ADHD. This is a very busy half term with more exciting events coming up including trips for all classes and the year 6 residential trip to the Ultimate Adventure Centre in North Devon at the beginning of July. These and other important dates are on our events diary on the website.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Hillman

A great start to the week when our swimming club defied the weather and used the pool in their wetsuits (see photo).

We have had a very busy week preparing for next week’s School’s Day at the Polperro Festival. We are looking forward to seeing you there on Tuesday 17th June from 11am - 2:45pm. On the day please send your child in with a packed lunch, drink, filled water bottle, sun hat and suncream as the weather is going to be fine.

Approximate timings are below.
11.00 – 11:20 – Welcome and singing
11.20 – 11:40 – Taekwondo Demonstration
11.40 – 12:00 – Young Musicians
12.00 – 13:00 – Lunch (12.15 – 13.00 Magician Performance for the children)
13:00 – 13:15 – Solo and Group Singers
13.15 – 13.30 – Penhallow Class performance
13.30 – 13.45 – Landaviddy Class performance
13.45 – 14.05 – Talland Class performance
14.05 – 14.25 – Chaipel Class performance
14.25 – 14.45 – Singing finale

Children may be collected from their teacher following the final singing session. Children not collected from Big Green will walk up to Polperro School in time for 3.15 pick up.

Summer 2025 Bridge Schools Trust Parent and Carer Questionnaire  Here is the link to the Bridge Schools Trust Parent and Carer Questionnaire which closes on Monday 7th July Summer 2025 Bridge Schools Trust Parent and Carer Questionnaire. Your feedback is really important to us and we would really appreciate your views on the key strengths to celebrate, as well as areas we could develop even further for all our children. We would really appreciate your time in answering the questions as your responses will help us to continue to improve.

Bridge School Games The children will all be competing in the 4th annual Bridge Schools Games next week so please ensure that their PE kit is in school as they will be taking part in different Wimbledon-themed challenges across the week. Polperro were the champions in 2022 and we are looking forward to competing again this year against the other schools in the Academy Trust.

MHST Summer Wild Wellbeing Sessions Please see attached details of MHST Summer Wild Wellbeing sessions being run throughout the county. These are nature-based, creative, practical workshops where children can learn about the Five Ways to Wellbeing: Give, Connect, Take Notice, Be Active and Keep Learning whilst outdoors in nature. These sessions are open to children aged 5-12, 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.

Have a great weekend.

Mrs Hillman

This half term has flown by and the children have spent so much time outside and in the pool. Let’s hope the weather continues after the half term break for the many activities we have planned for the final half term of the school year.

In our celebration assembly today, we had a visit from the Mayor of Polperro and Mrs Finnmore, our Chair of Governors, who presented prizes to the winners of the Polperro Festival programme cover competition. Very well done to our winners: Evie Penhallow Class; Amber Landaviddy Class; Flora Talland Class and Hamish Chaipel Class. Special congratulations to Flora, the overall winner, whose design will be on the cover of this year’s Polperro Festival Programme.

Clubs All clubs will start again straight after half term as follows:
Monday: After School Swimming Club (Mr Langley/Mrs Turnbull) for years 4, 5 and 6. This is for confident swimmers who can swim at least 25 metres using a recognised stroke. It will be run on a first come first served basis as the pool can only accommodate 15 pupils at a time. The club will take place even in cooler weather - we can provide wetsuits or children can bring their own on cooler days.
Tuesday: After school Alternative Sports (Mrs Hillman) for years 3-6 (to include swimming when the weather permits)

Thursday: After School Gardening Club for all ages (Miss Randle/Mrs Wilkie/Mrs Fitzsimmons, Mrs Peters)

Friday: After School Running Club (Mrs Turnbull/Miss Bowden) for years 2-6.

As usual, please email secretary@polperroprimary.co.uk to confirm which clubs your child would like to take part in. Please note that running club will include year 2 for this term and will revert to years 3-6 in September. There will be no running club on Friday 13th June. After School Alternative Sports Club will not run on the Polperro Festival’s School’s Day on 17th June.

Rainbow Run Cornwall 2025 Rainbow Run returns to RAF St Mawgan Newquay on Saturday 21 June 2025 and is open to anyone aged 5 years old and over. You can run, skip, walk or jog with family, friends or work colleagues and be showered in powder paint at 8 different colour stations while raising vital funds for Children’s Hospice South West. Please see attached poster for details.

Parent Champions Cornwall Council is looking for parent volunteers who give a few hours a week to talk to other parents about the local services available to them. Parent Champions can make a big difference by sharing their experiences and knowledge with other parents. Please see attached poster and FAQs for further information.

Upcoming dates Tomorrow is an INSET day. Friday 6 th June is an INSET day. School Class photos are on the morning of 10th June. The school will be performing at the Polperro School Festival Day on Big Green this year on Tuesday 17 th June. Sports Day is on 25th June (10am-12) with a reserve date of 27th June. These and other diary dates can be found on the Events Diary page.

As always, thank you for your support this half term. Have a lovely break and we look forward to seeing the children back in school on Monday 2nd June.

Mrs Hillman

What an exciting week with good weather again. All of our classes have had time in the pool and our brilliant Year 6 children have completed their SATS tests and enjoyed an ice-cream on the beach afterwards to celebrate. Thank you to the Smuggler’s Café for accommodating us. 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, including the plants at the front of the school, and with our gardening club.

Sun Safety While the weather is hot, please ensure your child comes into school with a named sun hat and sun cream (at least factor 30).

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.

Children’s nearly new sale Please see attached details of a nearly new sale, in aid of Baby Basics Cornwall, which is being held at Lanreath Village Hall on Sunday 1st June.

Upcoming dates Next Friday is an INSET day. Half term is coming up: 26 th May – 30th May. Class photos are happening on Tuesday 10th June. Sports Day is on 25th June (10am-12) with a reserve date of 27th June. These and other diary dates can be found on the Events Diary page.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Mrs Hillman

A huge thank you to all the parents and carers who joined us on the school field for our VE Day Afternoon Tea yesterday. It was wonderful to see so many families coming together in a sea of red, white and blue, to enjoy the sunshine, share cream teas, and take part in traditional games and football. A special thank you to FOPS for their hard work in organising the event, helping to make it such a lovely afternoon! We raised £181.00 for the British Legion.

Online Safety Roblox has launched new parental controls  https://en.help.roblox.com/hc/enus/articles/30428310121620-Parental-Controls-Overview which will help to keep your child safe online. Further information regarding online safety can be found on this website under the Keeping Safe tab.

MHST Parent/Carer Workshops There is still time to sign up for the MHST Parent/Carer Workshops which are set to run from June 2025. These are 5 session online workshops with our Mental Health Practitioners. These are open to everybody; people do not need to have a mental health need to join. You can sign yourselves up using these links: Anxiety and worries - https://forms.office.com/e/0qRnKmCw1i
Behaviour as Communication - Parent Support - https://forms.office.com/e/BvhDpYUcQa 

Penhaligon’s Friends Please find attached information regarding a fundraiser for Penhaligon’s Friends who help make a difference to the lives of bereaved children, young people and families throughout Cornwall.

Have a good weekend.

Mrs Hillman

Thank you for sending your children in with their swimming kits this week. Every class had the chance of a swim in the lovely weather. Please send your child’s swimming kit in every week from now on and we will continue their swimming lessons when the weather is nice enough.

Opening of Big Green It was lovely to see so many of you at the opening of Big Green yesterday to enjoy the children singing and watch our oldest and youngest pupils cutting the ribbon. Well done to Martha and Sienna for doing a brilliant job!

Football Congratulations to our football team who played brilliantly in the semi-final of the Shield Cup against Sir Robert Geffery’s School on Monday. It was a very close match. At full time the score was 2-2, however in the last 40 seconds the other team scored. The team has had a great season so far and is still in contention to win the league. Watch this space to see how they get on.

VE Day, Afternoon Tea Reminder that this Thursday 8th of May 2:30pm - 3:30pm we will be holding an afternoon Tea Party in school to celebrate the 80th anniversary of VE day. Please join us on the school field (entry via the field gate) and bring a rug or chairs for you and your children. We will be serving cream teas, cakes, tea, coffee and squash and ice-cream for the children or you are very welcome to bring your own. If you are not able to come, please send a small afternoon snack in for your child to enjoy or some money to purchase an ice-cream (£1). Children, staff and parents/carers are invited to wear red, white and blue on the day.  Year 6 parents please note that there will be no SATS club after school on Thursday 8th May, however there will be a final SATS club session instead at lunchtime on Friday 9th May. There will also be no gardening club on this day.

MHST Parent/Carer Workshops Please see attached details of MHST Parent/Carer Workshops which are set to run from June 2025. These consist of 5 online workshop sessions with our Mental Health Practitioners. These are open to everybody; people do not need to have a mental health need to join. You can sign yourselves up with the links or QR codes within the posters (attached) or using these links:
Anxiety and worries - https://forms.office.com/e/0qRnKmCw1i
Behaviour as Communication - Parent Support - https://forms.office.com/e/BvhDpYUcQa

Attendance Thank you for continuing to ensure that your children attend school as often as possible. Below is a list of term dates and INSET dates for next year which I hope will help you plan ahead and organise holidays out of term time so that we can continue to avoid the requirement to issue penalty notices.

Autumn Term 4th September – 19th December 2025
Wednesday 3rd September INSET day
Autumn Term begins Thursday 4th September 2025
Friday 24th October INSET day
Half Term Holiday 27th October – 31st October 2025
Friday 19th December 13:30 finish
Christmas Holiday 22nd December 2025 – 2nd January 2026

Spring Term 6th January – 2nd April 2026
Monday 5th January INSET day
Spring Term begins Tuesday 6th January 2026
Friday 13th February INSET day
Half Term Holiday 16th February – 20th February 2026
Thursday 2nd April 13:30 finish
Easter Holiday 3rd April – 17th April 2026

Summer Term 20th April – 22nd July 2026
Summer Term begins Monday 20th April 2026
Early May Bank Holiday 4th May 2026
Friday 22nd May INSET day
Half Term Holiday 25th May – 29th May 2026
Friday 5th June INSET day
Wednesday 22nd July 13:30 finish
Thursday 23rd July INSET day

Have a lovely bank holiday weekend. We look forward to seeing the children back in school on Tuesday 6th May.

Mrs Hillman

This half term has raced by. At our end of term assembly this afternoon, we shared our favourite moments from the last six weeks. The children said that they particularly liked their trips including the theatre trip, World Book Day, Funky Friday on the playground, having Nursery children in the dinner hall every day, learning to sew in year 6. Several children said they enjoyed ‘everything’ which is great to hear.

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 over £250.00 for school.

House Points This term, Chestnut won an amazing 107 House Points which was the most out of all of the houses. Overall Oak are currently in the lead with 368 points followed by Ash (298), Chestnut (271) and Willow (239).

Football Success Well done to our football team who won again on Monday, 5-1 against Fourlanesend. The team played brilliantly and have now won four out of five matches. Harry scored a hat trick and Jamie scored twice.

Alternative Sports Well done to Callum, Isabelle, Flora, Amber, Emma and George who represented our school in the year 3 and year 4 Bridge Schools alternative sports day at Looe Primary where they tried out Segway, fencing, archery, dodgeball, football golf and ultimate frisbee.

Clubs After Easter, Year 6 SATS clubs and wraparound care will restart on Tuesday 22nd April. Other clubs will restart on Monday 28th April. We will notify you about which clubs we will be running when we return after the break.

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. Easter Activities Please find attached, flyers for Bikeability opportunities over Easter, P20 football and a Liskeard Bowling Club open day for families.

Diary dates Looking ahead to the summer term, three important dates for the diary are: reopening of Big Green in Polperro on the afternoon of Thursday May 1st where the children will be singing as part of a short celebration; Polperro Festival School’s Day which is on 17th June this year; and Sports Day which will be on the morning of Wednesday 25th June with a reserve date of Friday 27th June. Further details of these events will follow nearer the time.

Wishing you a wonderful Easter break.

Mrs Hillman

This has been a busy week full of trips. On Wednesday, our Planet Protectors Club went to the recycling plant in Bodmin to research what happens to all of our recycling and why it is important to recycle. They will be sharing what they found out with the rest of the school in an assembly shortly. Year 5 visited Liskeard Fire Station to learn all about safety on the railways; online; on the roads; on the beach and when using electricity. They also tried their hand at choking prevention and CPR. This morning Penhallow and Landaviddy Classes had a really enjoyable trip to see ‘Little Red Hen’ at the Theatre Royal in Plymouth.

More Cross-Country Success
The Polperro team yet again did brilliantly well in last week’s Landrake Inter Schools Cross Country Race. Congratulations to the children who all completed their races, with or without shoes. Thank you to Mrs Turnbull for her wonderful team support this season and for running alongside the children too, and to parents and carers for transporting our runners to each race come rain or shine. An amazing effort all round from Team Polperro. A huge well done too to Flora who came a magnificent 34th in the Cornwall Cross Country Finals on Tuesday.

Clubs Please note that there are no clubs next week because of the football match, the disco and staff training.

Drop off and pick up Polite reminder when you are picking up and dropping off, please do not park or wait on the zigzag lines outside school. This is likely to result in drivers receiving penalty notices (a £75 fine). Cars are still blocking this area causing problems for children crossing the road.

FOPS Easter Discos Reminder that Easter Discos for the children on Thursday, 3rd April. 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.


The last day of term is next Friday 4th April and school will finish at 1:30pm. On Friday morning we will have a visit from the Easter Bunny. Monday 21st April is a bank holiday, therefore the first day of the Spring term for the children will be Tuesday, 22nd April.

Have a good weekend

Mrs Hillman

Thank you for sending your children in today in MUFTI. We  raised over £130.00 for Comic Relief from your generous donations. We’re so sorry that we didn’t have enough Red Noses for everyone who wanted one this year. We know some children were disappointed, and we completely understand. To make sure this doesn’t happen again, next year we’ll be asking families to pre-order their noses so we can get the right amount. Each box costs the school £60, and we have to be careful not to over-order, but we also want to make sure every child who wants a nose can get one.

FOPS Easter Discos Reminder that Easter Discos for the children on Thursday, 3rd April. We will be holding Easter school discos on Thursday 3rd April. 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. For the Cross-Country runners attending the awards ceremony at St Mellion, there is time for children to attend the disco beforehand as the event does not start until 7pm.

Time 2 Move The Time2Move Holiday Programme for Easter 2025 is now live. The programme offers fun physical activities, games and wider activities plus a funded meal for every child. All children are welcome to attend, and it is completely funded for children that are eligible for benefits-related Free School Meals. As a parent or guardian of a child eligible for benefits related free school meals you will need your child’s unique code in order to access the activities for free. You can access your child’s code quickly and easily at: www.cornwall.gov.uk/time2move Once you have this code you can search and book on activities here: www.activecornwall.org/T2MHolidayProgramme


End of Term Reminder that on the last day of term is on Friday 4th April and school will finish at 1:30pm. On the Friday morning we will have a visit from the Easter Bunny. 

Have a great weekend.

Mrs Hillman