TALLAND'S BLOG 9.1.26

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! We hope you had a magical Christmas and had a fantastic welcome to the New Year! It's great seeing everybody and hearing about some lovely Christmas stories. Really excitingly, it's also brilliant to welcome our new children: Renley, Taran and Max. They're a great addition to our class and we can't wait to become part of their story.

Here's a breakdown of our week:

Maths:
Year 5 have been solving problems involving CUBED numbers and multiplying and dividing by 10, 100 and 1,000. 
Year 4 have been multiplying by the 7 and 9 times tables... why not quiz your child on those times tables... 

English: 
Talland have written their Myth/Legend story up in best this week and have illustrated their Hero/Heroin's and Villain's. I'm so impressed with their stories; they're so creative!

PSHE: 
This term we're focusing on hopes and dreams so Talland have been thinking about what their hopes and dreams might be for the future and whether or not having money would help them accomplish their dream. 

PE: 
Dance is on a Tuesday with Mrs. Hillman and Tennis is on a Wednesday with Mr. Langley.
Talland have had lots of fun dancing with Mrs. Hillman and I've been playing tennis with them. We learnt about the forehand and how accurate we can be when striking the ball.

SCIENCE: 
Our enquiry question is: ' Who's got the Power?' this term so we are investigating electricity. Today we were thinking about which appliances would require power from electricity and whether they were powered by batteries, mains or both. Question: If you could only have five appliances in your house, what would they be?

CONGRATULATIONS to Riley, Taran and Max for settling in so well this week. We celebrated them in assembly for bringing such great energy, curiosity and kindness to the class. The rest of Talland have been so warm and welcoming - it's been lovely to witness. 

That's all from us in Talland this week. We hope you have a great weekend and can't wait to see everyone next week.

Signing off from Mr. Langley and Mr. Bishop.
 

Welcome back, and Happy New Year to you all. We are delighted to welcome our new families and six new pupils to our school community.

Thank you for your patience and understanding when the school opened later than usual on Tuesday and again yesterday when we closed early as a precaution due to the storm. Our caretaker, Mr Sands, has been checking the school premises and repairing any damage caused by the weather. I am pleased to report that the greenhouse remains intact which means the children will be able to continue growing their own fruit and vegetables as planned when Gardening Club resumes next half term.

Clubs The Girls' Football Club for pupils in Years 3-6 will begin on Tuesday 13th January. Other clubs will start the week commencing Monday, 19th January as follows:
Monday: Lunchtime Mindfulness and Colouring Club (Mrs Wilkie) for all year groups
After School Running Club (Miss Bowden and Mrs Turnbull) for years 3-6. This club is open to anyone who likes running however it will not run when the Cross-Country League races are on - next races 16th January)
Tuesday: Lunchtime Construction Club (Mrs Lister) Reception/Y1/Y2
After school Girls' Football Club (Y3-6) starts 13th January
Thursday: Lunchtime Choir (Mrs Butlin) Y2-6
After school Art Club (Mrs Fitzsimmons) Reception/Y1/Y2 (limited numbers, 1st come 1st served)
After school Football Club (Mr Langley) Y3-Y6

Please inform us by email or phone call, which clubs you wish your child to attend, by midday on Wednesday 14th January. For all clubs, once signed up children will be expected to attend every week unless they have written parental permission not to, or are absent. This applies to both lunchtime and after school clubs. Please note that gardening club will resume after half term.

What I wish my parents or carers knew..': A guide for parents and carers on managing children's digital lives The children's Commission has published a really useful guide 'What I wish my parents or carers knew..': A guide for parents and carers on managing children's digital lives. Written with children's input, it offers practical advice on setting firm, protective boundaries online and supporting children's safety and wellbeing in today's digital world. Click here to access the guide.

These are the main messages for you at the moment as we start back and we will send out further correspondence as needed, with a regular update each Friday. Further information regarding school is available on the Head's Blog and class blogs on our website and information about dates can be found in the Events Diary on this website.

Have a great weekend.

Mrs Hillman

What a crazy first week back of this Spring term! Even though we had a late start on Tuesday and an early finish on Thursday, we have managed to learn so much. 

In Maths, we have been adding and subtracting mixed numbers and multiplying fractions by integers. We are really making progress and looking forward to moving onto finding fractions of an amount next week.

In English, we have begun to immerse ourselves in the North American narrative THE MIDNIGHT FOX  by Betsy Byres. We are focusing on writing in character and will eventually re-write the ending through the perspective of the protagonist.

Our enquiry this half term is HOW DOES NORTH AMERICA COMPARE WITH EUROPE? and we have begun to identify the countries in North America and the differences in their climates. For Science we are looking into electricity and have been creating and testing simple circuits. Next week we will learn how to draw circuits using technical diagrams and symbols.

Congratulations to Tristan and Joey for being our People of the Week, demonstrating our school values and to Immy for achieving her 77 Club badge.

That's all from us so have a lovely weekend and see you all on Monday!

Miss Randle and Mrs Clary

What a first week back to nursery it has been! From ice and snow to high winds it has certainly been an eventful few days.

We have enjoyed welcoming all of the children back after the Christmas break and have been exploring Winter, what happens in winter, why it is cold and exploring which animals like the cold weather.

The children have been welcoming in the new year by making calendars to take home and creating painted ice skates.

We have enjoyed reading the stories "Snowball" and "The Snow Thief" at story time.

In phonics, the children have been listening to and trying to remember sounds, copying sequences of movement and exploring words that rhyme.
In maths, we are forming and learning to write numbers and creating marks that represent these numbers.

We hope you all enjoy the weekend ahead and will see you Monday.

Hello Everyone,

A happy new year to you all.

We have had a short but busy week.
First of all, we welcome 2 new children into Year 2. Well done Penhallow, you have been very kind and welcoming to your new friends.

We have launched our new class enquiry question; 'What happens in the sky above us?' We have started to learn about the life of Amelia Earhart, the American aviator, who was one of the first women to gain her pilot's licence and fly across the Atlantic. As you can see from the photo, we are in the process of making an aeroplane for our role play area. We have enjoyed checking passports, flying through the air and bringing people their snacks and drinks whilst on board.

This week, we have also enjoyed a science lesson, in which we were able to investigate the flexibility of different materials. We used our skills of measuring accurately to find out how far different objects would stretch. 

Have a lovely weekend!

From The Penhallow Team

As we come to the end of the autumn term, we would like to take a moment to reflect on what a truly special few months it has been for our Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 children.

It has been a joy to welcome so many new faces into our school community. The children have settled beautifully into our way of life and it has been lovely to see them grow in confidence day by day. Across all three year groups, the children have demonstrated our school values through their kindness, respect and resilience, alongside a real curiosity, love of learning and enthusiasm for everything they do. They have shown great bravery in taking risks, trying new things and challenging themselves, and as a result have made wonderful progress both socially and academically.

This week has yet again been a very busy one, filled with festive cheer. From decorating amazing crowns ready for our Christmas dinner, to enjoying a special assembly led by Reverend Richard, the children have embraced every moment. Our Christmas craft day was truly magical, with lots of glitter, creativity and goodwill, and we ended the week on a high with our much-anticipated Christmas party.

Thank you so much for organising food to bring in and help make the party extra special. We have also been blown away by your generosity and the incredibly kind and thoughtful gifts we have received - thank you, it really does mean so much to us.

We would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. We hope you enjoy making magical memories together and spending some well-deserved family time. We look forward to hearing all about what you get up to in 2026 and welcoming the children back for another exciting term ahead.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from all of the Penhallow Team

Merry Christmas!

We have made it to the end of a very long Autumn Term! Landaviddy have had a great final week, with crown making on Tuesday. This was lots of fun and got us into the festive spirit, ready for Christmas Gift Shop and Christmas lunch on Wednesday. But the fun did not stop there! On Thursday, we had our annual Christmas Art Day, where we made a bunch of different christmas themed crafts. Needless to say, it has been a busy week at school and we are all feeling ready for Christmas! 

Our final lesson of Art as part of our enquiry 'What was new about the Stone Age?', saw us collaborate to create handprints upon a cave wall. We created negative and positive images of our hands and enjoyed experimenting with colours. In English, we have been working on shape poetry and building up to writing our own versions about a snowflake. We explored similes, alliteration and personification. During Maths, we were finding complements to 100, which required us to apply our knowledge of addition carefully. 

Well done to Iylah for being chosen as Landaviddy's Person of the Week!

Thank you to everyone for your kind gifts and christmas well wishes.  We hope you have a magical Christmas and look forward to welcoming you back into school on Tuesday 6th January 2026. 

Mrs Wilkie, Mrs Lister and Miss Colton

TALLAND'S BLOG 19.12.25

And here it is - Talland's last blog for 2025! It's been a magical week kickstarting it with Talland and Chaipel's Christmas Production... WOW! What an incredible job they did! Thank you so much for helping them learn their lines and look the part! We've also had the Christmas fayre, Christmas Jumper Day, Christmas dinner and finished off with a festive movie today - it really has been wonderful! 

CONGRATULATIONS to Harley, Amelia and Benjamin this week for passing their next round in 99 club. WELL DONE to George for being noticed for an outstanding performance in the our Christmas show and fantastic work from Amber for being noticed for her brilliant learning behaviours, kind personality and for being a great member of Talland class.

That's all from us in Talland this YEAR. We wish you a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a  HAPPY NEW YEAR. We can't wait to see you all in 2026!

Signing off from Mr. Langley and Mr. Bishop.

The children have enjoyed a wonderfully busy week, rounding off their enquiries and taking part in a range of festive activities. These included Reverend Richard's Christmas assembly on Tuesday, Christmas Lunch on Wednesday, Christmas Art Day on Thursday, and class parties today. Talland and Chaipel Classes' Christmas performances on Monday were spectacular and provided a fantastic finale to a brilliant series of performances from all of the children.

House Points Our house captains have totalled the house points for this term. House Points are awarded to children who demonstrate our school values: Curious, Creative, Excellent, Responsible, Determined, and Enthusiastic. This half term, our focus has been on being Curious. Congratulations to Oak, who are currently in the lead with 100 points, followed by Willow with 88 points, Ash with 75 points, and Chestnut with 70 points.

Clubs The Girls' Football Club for pupils in Years 3-6 will begin on Tuesday 13th January. We will contact you during the first week of next term with details of other clubs available for the upcoming half term.

Fundraising We are delighted that our Christmas Gift Shop on Monday raised over £250. A huge thank you to FOPS for all of the organising and wrapping. We also raised £67 for Save the Children on Christmas Jumper Day and £139.51 for Cornwall Hospice Care, our School Council's chosen charity, from kind donations after each of the class performances.

Keeping Your Child Safe Online - Parental Controls Guides To help keep children safe online, we encourage parents and carers to set up parental controls on all devices your child uses. Please use this link https://www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls/ to access easy, step-by-step guides showing how to activate parental controls on a wide range of devices, apps and online platforms. These tools can help you manage screen time, privacy settings and the content your child can access, creating a safer online experience. This information is particularly helpful at this time of year, as many children may receive new devices for Christmas such as: smart devices (e.g. TVs, speakers like Alexa); mobile phones (Android or iPhone); games consoles; tablets, laptops, or PCs. Taking a few minutes to set up parental controls can make a big difference in keeping your child safe online.

Dates The new term starts on Tuesday 6th January. Half term will be from Monday 16th February - Friday 20th February with an INSET Day on Friday 13th February. The last day of the Spring term is Thursday 2nd April and the Summer Term starts on Monday 20th April.

A huge thank you for all of your support so far this academic year. The children have worked incredibly hard and all deserve a wonderful Christmas break.

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas

Anthea Hillman and all of the staff at Polperro Primary Academy

We have reached the last day of term and i'm sure everyone is excited about the Christmas break ahead!
It has been a busy week at nursery. On Tuesday afternoon we enjoyed joining the school for a special Christmas assembly with the Rev Richard.
The children all sat so beautifully and listened really well. 

We enjoyed Chrsitmas dinner on Wednesday where the children wore party hats that they had decorated and today (Friday) the children have had a great time at our nursery party where they have played party games and had a party food lunch.

We are wishing all of our chidren and their families a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and we look forward to seeing you all when we return in January.
Monday 5th January is an INSET day so we return and will see everyone on Tuesday 6th January 2026.

Julie and Sarah

What a week it has been in Landaviddy class! 

Our Christmas play, Lights, Camel, Action! was a hit! We are so proud of the enthusiasm from all the children and all their hard work paid off. Everyone was just amazing! Thank you to those who came to watch and support the class. We hope you enjoyed it! 

During Computing this week, we have been filming our Stone Age stop motion animations. As you can imagine, the children thoroughly enjoyed using their chosen objects and backgrounds, to create their animations. In History, we have been looking at Neolithic tools and artefacts, making assumptions about what life must have been like due to the evidence discovered. In particular, we revisited Skara Brae and explored a range of objects that archaeologists had uncovered. During Art this week, we used natural materials to mark make, just like Stone Age artists! As well as using a variety of spices as pigmented paints. This was a lot of fun!

In English, we have just started a new unit on shape Poetry, starting by discussing a range of poetry and identifying features. Today, we explored a poem called 'Snow is Falling' and discussed our likes and dislikes. We have been subtracting 2-digit numbers from 3-digit numbers, which required a lot of determination. 

Congratulations to Dexter and Brody for being chosen as Landaviddy's People of the Week. And a big well done to Darragh for achieving his 99 club. 

We hope you have a wonderful weekend and look forward to seeing you on Monday, for our final week before Christmas!

Mrs Wilkie, Mrs Lister and Miss Colton

TALLAND'S BLOG 12.12.25

WOWZERS.. This term is flying by! I can't believe we only have one week to go until we can jingle off on to our Christmas Holidays! I also can't believe it's Chaipel and Talland's Christmas Production THIS MONDAY! We did our first dress rehearsal in front of a live audience today and I think it's fair to say - the children smashed it! The children of Polperro were truly captivated!

Here's a breakdown of our week:

Maths:
Year 4 and 5 have both been looking at ways to solve problems involving multiplication and division. They were also lucky enough to show off their mathematical skills in a little Maths quiz! 


English:
Talland have begun planning to write their own Legend story. They have thought of their setting, hero/heroine, villain/villainess and have decided which writing techniques they are going to focus on in each paragraph. 

History:
We looked at how Britain changed after the Vikings arrived. How they conquered many parts of Britain, even beating King Alfred in Wessex. The Danelaw arrived and many were baptised, converting to Christianity as part of a bribe from King Alfred.  How long will peace last? 

Computing:
Children worked collaboratively to create a webpage for a book review. They reviewed their favourite books, authors, summarised these stories and gave them a rating out of 5.

RE:
Linking to History, Talland looked at why Christians choose to get Baptised, what process they go through and what are the vital pieces of traditional equipment required to carry out the ceremony.   


CONGRATULATIONS to Reuben and Emma this week for passing their next round in 99 club. Also, WELL DONE to Emma this week for being noticed for her consistent and excellent attitude towards learning and her kind manner.

That's all from us in Talland this week. We hope you have a great weekend and can't wait to see everyone next week.

Signing off from Mr. Langley and Mr. Bishop.

Thank you for sending your children in wearing Christmas Jumpers yesterday. School is feeling very Christmassy and so far the performances by Nursery, Penhallow Class and then Landaviddy Class have been amazing. We can't wait for Talland and Chaipel Classes' joint performances on Monday, the Gift Shop and Christmas Lunch on Wednesday and our Annual Christmas Art Day on Thursday.

Christmas Gift Shop Reminder that on Wednesday 17th December, during the school morning, Santa's Workshop will be opening its doors for the children to choose a special gift or two for someone they love. Each gift will cost £2 (maximum of 2 gifts per child). Santa's helpful elves (thank you FOPS) will be on hand to wrap the presents, ready to bring home at the end of the day, perfect to pop under your Christmas tree!

A Busy Week for our Planet Protectors This week, our Planet Protectors helped us check how much electricity we use as part of our school's climate action plan. We now have a fantastic team of pupils who remind staff to switch off any equipment that isn't needed, such as screens and lights. They already collect paper for recycling at the end of each day, and every Monday they help keep our school looking lovely by checking the grounds for litter. Well done, Planet Protectors!

Fundraising It was lovely to see so many of you at the Christmas Fayre last week which raised over £630 for school. On Wednesday evening, our Christmas Wreath making event held at the Village Hall raised an amazing £600. Huge thanks to our FOPS team who made both events happen. With funds raised this year we have just bought a class set of styluses for IPads which support our children in their learning, and trikes for Penhallow Class.

Poppy Appeal Year 6 collected £86.60 for the Royal British Legion's Poppy Appeal this year; thank you for your generous donations.

Time 2 Move Christmas activities are now live for bookings. Time 2 Move offer a wide range of activities across the county for children and families. To find out more, head to the website Time2Move Holiday Programme - Active Cornwall. The programme is open to all children, with fully funded places available for those receiving benefits related free school meals.

Diary Dates The last day of term is on Friday 19th December and school will finish at 1:30pm. Monday 5th January is an INSET day, therefore the first day of the Spring term for the children is Tuesday, 6th January.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Mrs Hillman

Hello Everyone,

We just wanted to start off by saying how fantastic the children were for our two performances of 'Knock Knock'. I am sure you can agree that they all sang incredibly well and spoke so confidently - we are so proud of each and every one of them, well done! Thank you to all the friends and family members who came to watch us and we hope it's got you in the festive spirit.

In English, we have been using interesting vocabulary to create an acrostic poem about Christmas.

In Science, we went on a winter walk to spot various materials around the school environment. Then back in the class we sorted different materials focusing on their properties.

In Maths, we have been consolidating our number, shape and measuring knowledge so show how much progress we have made so far.

Understandably, the children have been super busy this week and have managed the various changes to our 'normal' day very well so we hope you all enjoy some moments of rest.

We hope you have a lovely weekend,

from The Penhallow Team.

What a lovely week we have had in Chaipel! Our English best copy write-up is incredible and I cannot wait to read each and every one of them! Everyone has put in so much effort and the complex sentences I have read so far has blown me away. For English next week, we will wrap up our investigation into sustainable energy in the UK by writing a poem.

In Maths, we have been finding common denominators and adding and subtracting fractions as well as identifying and calculating angles in a triangle.

In RE, we have been 'asking questions to Mary and Joseph' about the birth of their baby and if they really believe that Mary has been carrying the Messiah! We completed the learning by writing a newspaper report on that eventful night - directly quoting the happy parents! In Geography, we have been investigating which areas of the UK produce which types of non-renewable and renewable energy and in History, we have compared how the Mayan civilisation was ruled with that of Anglo-Saxon England. 

We performed our Christmas play dress rehearsal infront of the rest of the school on Friday and it was a huge success! We have taken the feedback postively and will apply it in our performances to our parents on Monday.

CONGRATULATIONS to our People of the Week - Aria and Tristan - for demonstrating our school values and being positive role models, and to Leo for achieving his 77 Club badge for his times tables.

That's all from me so have a lovely weekend and see you all on Monday for our final week before Christmas!!

Miss Randle and Mrs Clary

What a wonderful start to the week we had with our nursery nativity on Monday afternoon. The children were all amazing dressed in their costumes and sang beautifully and it was so lovely to see so many parents and carers joining us. A big thank you to Jolene who has started volunteering with us on a Tuesday and Friday morning and who came in to help with he play.

At storytime this week we have enjoyed the books "Five Little Reindeer" and "Aliens love Panta claus"

In phonics we have explored musical instruments by banging, shaking, playing them loudly and quietly and have been naming them.
We listened to sounds in our indoor and outdoor environments on a sound walk and grouped initial sounds.

In maths we have been ordering numbers including those that are larger.

It will be another busy week next week and will include Christmas dinner on Wednesday and our party on Friday.
A reminder that next Friday 19th is the last day before the holidays and we close at 1.30pm to all children.

See you soon

Julie, Sarah and Jolene

Hello Everyone,

It's looking very Christmassy in Penhallow this week, and we have been practicing hard, for our Christmas performance. We are looking forward to seeing you on Tuesday at 11:00 or at 2:00.

This week we have also enjoyed decorating the classroom, and learning about a different nativity character each day. We have also been practicing our Christmas songs with plenty of enthusiasm.

As you will have read in the letter that went out this week, as part of our RE learning this half term, we will be visiting Polperro Methodist church on Wednesday afternoon. As the weather has been quite wet recently, please can you make sure your child has a waterproof coat available for our walk to and from the church. 

During our English lessons this week, we have started to learn the story of 'The Magic Snow Globe'. We have written some lovely setting descriptions of a Wintery scene. Some of our older children in the class have used similes and alliteration, while all of us have been able to use noun phrases including some fantastic adjectives. 

As always , there have been plenty of hands on learning activities in Penhallow. This week, this has included investigating magnets, which has linked to our learning about the North and South Pole. We have also been investigating ice and materials for keeping warm which has linked to our learning about polar animals.

We look forward to seeing you next week.

From The Penhallow Team

Another week comes to an end in Landaviddy, and we have finally entered December! This week, we have focused on Christmas play rehearsals and refining the songs for our performances which will take place on Thursday 11th December at 2pm and 6pm. If you haven't done so already, please make sure your costume is in by Monday 8th December, ready for our dress rehearsal on Wednesday next week. 

During Wider Curriculum lessons this week, we were thrilled to take on the role as archaeologists in History, where we analysed specimens of ancient Stone Age poo to determine Stone Age diets. YUCK! We learnt about how diets changed from the Palaeolithic to Mesolithic and enjoyed using tools to examine evidence. In Computing, we began planning for our own Stone Age inspired stop motion animations. We can't wait to bring these to life next week! 

In English, we have been writing up our final Stone Age stories using pen, which has been a big thrill and required a lot of patience. Next week, we will assess our writing and start a new unit focusing on some christmassy shape poems! We have continued working hard on addition and subtraction in Maths, adding 2-digit and 3-digit numbers together, using the column method.

Congratulations to Esme and Tommy for being chosen as Landaviddy's People of the Week. And a big well done to Theo for achieving his 55 club! 

We hope you have a great weekend, despite the weather, and look forward to seeing you next week! 

Mrs Wilkie, Mrs Lister and Miss Colton

Another week has flown by and Chaipel have been busy. Our Mayan narratives are now complete and we have been editing and improving a section we like the most. Next week, we will write up our work in best and assess our writing targets for next half term.

In Maths, we have been identifying and comparing equivalent fractions, learning how to simplify and plotting fractions on a numberline. We have had some real 'lightbulb' moments and Joey now, "really likes fractions!" RESULT!!

In our Wider Curriculum, we have been exploring why Christians believe Jesus was the anionted one in RE, learning about the Mayan writing system - including designing our own glyphs - in History, and identifying major cities in the UK and how they get their energy in Geography.

NEXT WEEK
We will be practising our play most of next week and will need all costumes in by WEDNESDAY 10th. It is looking really good now and we can't wait to entertain parents on the 15th. 

Congratulations to Immy - who achieved her 66 Club this week - and to Leo and Joey for being our People of the Week, demonstrating our school values and being role models to their peers.

Finally... 
Thank you to all who came to our Christmas Fair on Friday; we value your continued support.

That's all for this week,
Miss Randle and Mrs Clary.