Upcoming Dates

Dear Parents and Carers,

I'm finding it hard to believe that this is my last ever half term as a teacher/headteacher. It's a daunting prospect after so many years as part of a school community. However, it's looking to be an extra special final few weeks with much to look forward to. Below are some of the events to which you are all warmly invited:

Early Help Team Coffee Morning - Thursday 20th June 

We would like to invite you to a coffee morning on Thursday 20th June at 9am to learn about the Early Help Services in our  area. Cornwall Council’s Early Help Team includes not only Family Workers and Youth Workers but also Parenting Workers,  who deliver a range of courses both face to face and online. The team will be attending the coffee morning to show you what is on offer, from single Bitesize sessions through to full 10 week courses, and how you can access them. You can also talk to them about the wider Early Help team and Early Help Hub Services.   Please email Mrs Linsley if you would like to attend senco@brunelprimary.co.uk

BFA Shorts and Shades Day  - Friday 21st June

Celebrate summer and wear your favourite hot weather outfits and accessories. Sensible shoes only - no flip flops. Instead of cash donations for this non-uniform day the Brunel Friends Association are asking that you send in items for the Summer Fair 'House Raffle'. If possible, please can your child bring in a prize related to the colour of the house teams, so Red, Blue, Yellow or Green. Please see the attached poster. 

BFA Summer Fair - Tuesday 25th June

Always a highlight of the summer term - more details will follow shortly.

Sports Day and Picnic - Tuesday 2nd July

Our sports day for the whole school will take place during the morning of Tuesday 2nd July, weather permitting. All parents and carers are invited to watch from the bank (picnic rug and sunscreen advised). You are then invited to stay for a picnic lunch with your children on the school field. Please book school provided picnic lunches in the usual way. Children whose parents/carers are unable to attend will picnic with their classmates. The children will return to their classrooms at 1.00 pm for afternoon school.

Last day of term for children - Tuesday 23rd July 

Please note that to bring Brunel in line with all other Trust schools the last day of term will finish at 1:30pm. Kids Club will be available as usual. 

Have a lovely weekend,

Welcome back to Summer term 2!

Thank you to those of you who joined us for our service at the church on Thursday morning.

During maths this week we have focused on sharing equally and unequally. We particularly enjoyed sharing the conkers between two squirrels! We have learnt that when sharing we need to give one to each person/ animal in turn, rather than giving multiples to begin with. 

In English, our story this week was 'The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch'. We have been writing character descriptions, sequencing the story and labelling parts of a lighthouse. 

In art we designed a bird that we are hoping to make out of paper mache in the coming weeks. We started to explore artist Jane Tomlinson and enjoyed looking at and discussing some of her artwork. 

This week we had our first PE session with our Arena coach. We will be working on various athletic skills in readiness for our Sports Day.

The theme for Show and Tell next week is: An item/object that you have found at the beach. Please bring the item/photograph in on Thursday morning or if emailing photos please send to rhorn@pelyntprimary.co.uk by 8:40am on Thursday.

Please find the curriculum map which outlines our learning for this half term in the uploads below. 

Enjoy your weekend!

Class 1 Team

Summer 2 Update

I can’t believe that we have already moved into the final half-term in Year 5! I hope that you and the children have had a great half-term  We have a whole range of fantastic learning opportunities planned for this half term and the focus in firmly on ensuring that the children are prepared and confident going into Year 6. Please see some of the important details below.

The Year 5 Mind-map - attached below is a mind-map which details what we plan to learn across the curriculum this half term.

PE Lessons - Our timetable for PE remains the same this half term. Our PE will be on Tuesday. Children can come into school in their PE kit on PE days.

Times-tables and Key Instant Recall Facts (KIRFs) – Much of the maths we do in Year 5 and Year 6 relies heavily on the children already knowing important number facts.  We call this ‘declarative’ knowledge.  We use the KIRFs in school to help the children learn and remember these important facts.  The most important facts that the children learn and remember are their quick addition and subtraction facts (eg: 13 - 6 =, 21 + 7=) and their times-tables facts (and corresponding division facts).  We do a lot of work in school to support your child to know these key facts and any support you can give at home to ensure that these facts are recalled automatically would be fantastic.

Relationships and Sex Education (RSE)

This year, we have continued to implement the Jigsaw PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) Programme in Year 5.

The Summer Term units are all about Relationships (unit 1) and Changing Me (unit 2) and they will cover all areas of statutory requirements for the delivery of Health and Relationship education which came into place for schools to follow from September 2020. The Changing Me unit includes lessons to help children understand the changes puberty brings and how human reproduction happens.

We sent a letter home with the children detailing the objectives we cover in Year 5, and have attached a copy of the letter below.

Supporting learning at home - We encourage learning at home to support the work we do in school and enable children to become more confident.

Our home-learning expectations are:

Daily reading (15 minutes) - reading which is recorded in your reading record will contribute towards your Reading Karate reward.

Times-tables and KIRF practice (20 minutes weekly) using Times Tables Rock Stars (TTRS) and the KIRF sheets (attached below).

Spellings (20 minutes weekly) - focusing on our focus spellings and the Year 4/5 and 5/6 statutory spelling lists (attached below).

Online learning - This will be set on Atom Prime (logins stuck in thy front of children's reading records)

This term we will be running additional 'booster' sessions for selected children in Reading, Writing and Maths.  To support these sessions we may send home a CGP Question Book for the children to use.  We will be in touch directly if we have selected your child for the additional booster sessions.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns please do get in touch.

All the very best, the Year 5 team.

Summer Term 2 - Week 1 - Sun, Science and Show!

English

In English this week, we began our poetry learning journey. The poetry unit is based on the ‘Tale of Three Brothers’ from the Harry Potter novel. To begin the journey, the children explored the tale, discussing its themes, characters, language and tone. They discussed with their learning buddies the impact of the animation and the effects it has on the reader/listener. For the first lesson, the children then explored different perspectives, focussing on ‘Deaths’ and then created a story map to match that point of view. The story map will then inform the rest of the journey, where the children will right a narrative poem using dramatic conventions.

Next, the children explored poetic devices and began collating a range of vocabulary ready to create their poems. They thought carefully about each of the brothers and their characteristics, along with the gift they were given by death. Within the lesson, we revisited the definitions of adjectives, similes, metaphors and personification.

In the following lessons, the children will begin to structure and plan their poems, by using their VIPERS skills to unpick a range of narrative poems.

Maths

In Maths this week, the children began their negative numbers learning journey. So far, they have learnt to understand negative numbers, count through zero and count through multiples with negative numbers.

The children our confident in their negative numbers and this is due to our morning work. The children have been exposed to negative numbers previously and can now use their tools from their morning work to be successful within the lessons.

In the mornings, children are being active with their next steps, seeking help from teachers to support their misconceptions. This fab to see!

Please continue to access TTRS at home, with negative numbers, counting through multiples, the fluency in times tables is important for this unit.

Wider Curriculum

In wider curriculum the children have been scientists. We have begun by looking at materials and their properties. We carried out an experiment where we looked at a range of materials and investigated whether they were transparent, magnetic or a conductor of electricity. The children made predictions and recorded their findings within a table. To end the lesson, the children selected a material, wrote about its properties and what products it would be best used for. All of this was evidence through the experiment!

In our next lesson, the children honed in on conductors of heat and insulators. The children once again completed an experiment, they were given three cups, filled with warm water and then three materials to wrap around. They had to discover which material would keep their teacher’s tea the warmest for the longest amount of time. With a stop watch, they timed how long it took for the water to cool, checking with a thermometer.

Important dates:

·      WC: 17^th June 2024 – Sports week

·      WC: 8^th July 2024 – Art week

·      Wednesday 10^th July 2024 – Our girls can

·      Friday 12^th July 2024 – Reports will be given

Have a lovely, sunny weekend,

Enjoy the show if you’re going!

Best wishes,

Good to be back!

Tregantle Class have returned to school after the half term break full of energy and ready to learn for the final half term of the year!
Our Year 1 children have been very thoughtful this week during our learning about D Day. They took part in a reflection assembly and learnt about this significant event in our history. They then used their knowledge and creative skills to design a medal for the soldiers who fought in the war. 
In maths the Year 1 children have been getting active! We have learnt a really fun dance to help with our unit or work on position and direction with a focus on left and right, full, half and quarter turns and ordinal numbers. It's been a really fun way to learn these new things! In English we have learnt a list poem called 'Ten Things in a Wizards Pocket.' We are now changing the poem to be about a farmer!
Our EYFS children have been very busy writers this week. They have learnt the story 'The Three Little Pigs' off by heart and have been using this along with their amazing phonics knowledge to write some brilliant sentences about the characters in the story. In maths they have been learning how to identify odd and even numbers by finding pairs and then checking if there is one left over. What a busy week it's been! 

This week we have been exploring superhero’s and answering our enquiry question “can anyone be a superhero”
At story time we have been enjoying the stories of “Supertato” and “Supertato: Veggies assemble” The children have been busy making their own super potatoes to take home.
They have also been busy making superhero masks.

In phonics this week, the children have been listening to sounds they hear in their environment, clapping syllables of words and learning about rhyming words that they hear.

In maths we have been counting and grouping objects 1-5 and practicing writing numbers and creating marks that represent numbers.

It is INSET day today (Friday) but we look forward to seeing everyone back to nursery on Monday.

Have a good weekend 

Julie and Sarah

summer 2 - week 1 

What a great first week back we have had.

Our new big question this half term is: What’s it like to be beside the sea?

We have lots of wonderful learning planned this half term to explore this question.

This week the year ones have ben exploring a list poem, they have been reading and learning the poem Ten things found in a wizard’s pocket. The children have been writing sentences using adjectives and working hard to correct sentences with capital letters and full stops!

They have also been exploring fractions in maths this week and have tried so hard to recognise and find halves and quarters!

In History we explored seaside holidays then and now and we compared going to the beach in Victorian times to going to the beach now!

The foundation children have been impressing Miss Hughes with their phonic knowledge and have been writing sentences to match pictures about the seaside! The foundation children have been exploring sharing in maths and they have worked so hard.

In PE all the children have been learning running skills and the basics of tennis with coach Ryan!

The children have completed so much wonderful learning this week!

Please remember that tomorrow (Friday 7^th) is an INSET Day.

Have a wonderful weekend

Foundation /year 1 team.

Last year we purchased a set of litter pickers which the children loved and have been asking for replacements for, for many months. Thank you so much to the PTA who agreed to replenish our stock and this week we received a brand new set of 10 litter picker packs! We are looking forward to putting them through their paces over the coming weeks to keep our site clean and tidy!

What a start to the last bit of the summer term...

Year 2 Math's SATs are done!  Well done to all the children in Lantic class, you have been amazing!!

In English, we learnt the poem 'Ten Things in a Wizards Pocket' - we had great fund with actions to go with the poem - photo is showing the action to 'A dark night...'

On Wednesday we have had a session on self-esteem with Lyndsey from the NHS Mental Health Support Team - the children really enjoyed talking and writing about why and how they are great!

The children this week also learnt about the D-Day landings and why they were so significant to helping towards the end of the Second World War - perhaps you will commemorate the 80th Anniversary of the event over the weekend?

Spring and Planting Time

It is lovely to see some sunshine in between the rain. The boys have been able to get outside and plant the potatoes they chitted. We also managed to plant the carrots and Sunflowers that we grew indoors from seed.

We have enjoyed looking at the Seasons and making Leaf/Clay impressions. 

As we have also been looking at using are senses this term, we enjoyed using our ears to hear different sounds in the outside environment.

Sunshine and smiles to end the term

Year 3/4 ended their Learning Adventure with a visit to Pendennis Castle, Falmouth.

Year 6 SATS

A huge well done to our 2 Year 6 pupils for completing their SATs. They came in early for breakfast and revision and applied themselves tremendously making everyone proud. We then celebrated by taking them to McDonalds on Friday (at their request) and they had the afternoon outside playing and relaxing which was very well deserved. I'd like to say a special thanks to all the staff during SATs week who allowed Mr. Abraham and myself to support Year 6 and to all the children who showed respect, patience, and support during this time.

Swimming

We have now finished our swimming lessons for this year for the whole school. The children have progressed very well over the weeks but we'd still like to encourage parents to take their children swimming to become even more confident. Living by the coast, means that this is a life skill and we want to children to be confident and safe when swimming. We finished the swimming sessions looking at what to do if you are not safe in the water and how to get help or help others. 

Upcoming Assessments for other year groups

Week commencing 10^th June - Year 1 phonics screening. Children will read 40 words as part of this assessment to assess their understanding of sounds and word recognition. Please continue to read with your child as much as possible, to support their fluency skills.

Week commencing 10^th June - Year 4 multiplication check. Children will have to recall 25 multiplication questions on an iPad with 6 seconds to answer each question. Please use the QR code which was sent out to practice this with your child. Also, you can use TTRockstars to build up their speed and confidence. 

PTFA

Freezer Fri-Yay has already brought in over £120 over the last 4 weeks and we'd like to thank-you for this support. It has been a very big hit with the children. We will continue with this until the end of the summer term.

Our school disco raised just over £90 last week!

The PTFA bought board games for the school as part of our social skills development once a week. School council took ownership of collating the games requests and they are being enjoyed thoroughly each week.

We will be looking at booking in an alternative sports day including mini-segways in first half term back for the whole school using money raised by the PTFA in the summer term. 

We have nearly finished our Great Fire of London enquiry question and I have been amazed by how much knowledge the children have retained and applied in their writing and across the curriculum.

During DT, the children designed a Tudor house that would have been suitable during 1666 and labelled what items they would need to create their house. They then made their house choosing their own materials. This included using our tool bench to saw wood for the Tudor design, using a hot glue gun to attach the items securely and problem solving how to make their roof remain the shape they wanted it to. 

We then evaluated our house applying our writing skills to talk about what we were pleased with and what we could do to improve it further.

Mrs. Pike loved how each house was unique and how independent the children were making their decisions with their design. Mrs. Pike was told by the children that her only job was to manage the hot glue gun and the tool bench to make sure everyone was safe as the children "knew what they were doing" with everything else. She listened and it is safe to say that the children proved that they did know what they were doing as their houses were outstanding!

Happy Half Term!

We have had a lovely last week in Chaipel. We evaluated our tie-dye T-shirts and were thoroughly happy with the outcomes! 

For Computing, we completed our investigation into using Micro:bits to record the temperatures of a range of rooms over a 5-day period. We then used a spreadsheet to input the data and then chose how to present our finding for analysis. Some represented using a line graph whilst others chose bar charts.

The House Captains and Vice Captains got together to count up the house points so far. It was very close, but the running order is...

Oak
Willow
Chestnut 
Ash

Well done to all for showing our Bridge School Values in order to receive a house point - you are all most EXCELLENT!

We completed our enquiry into WHAT DO ALL LIVING THINGS HAVE IN COMMON? with a Kahoot quiz. Chaipel thoroughly enjoyed it and the results showcased everything that we had learned this half term.

That's all from me so have a lovely half term break and see you all back, ready for the final half term where we will be looking into Crime and Punishment with a distinctly Cornish theme!

Miss Randle and Mrs Clary.