Weekly news 06 Dec 24.

It really has been a fantastic week at Darite this week. We started even before Monday with the Liskeard Lights Up festival. Lots of children (past and present) and their families proudly showed off the lanterns that they had made in the club after school. The photos looked amazing and it was wonderful to see the flag flying for our school. Thank-you to all the staff and families who made attendance at the event possible. We continued with our Reindeer Run in aid of St Luke's hospice on Wednesday. 39 children running around the playground in festive antlers made everyone smile and we managed to raise an enormous amount of £292.15 so far for the hospice. I know they will be grateful and the children should be proud of their efforts in the run. A huge thank-you to all the parents, carers, neighbours, relatives and acquaintances who sponsored the children so generously. The money will make a huge difference to the hospice. As you can see, another great week at Darite. Please stay safe and dry this weekend with the Amber warning and we’ll see everyone next week for the penultimate week of the autumn term. Just a reminder that school finishes at 1.30 on Friday 20th along with the other schools in the trust. Staff will be on site for the afternoon undergoing training but please can you let us know if you will be unable to collect your child at 1.30. Have a safe and good weekend. 

This week we have gone all Christmassy! The tree is up and the sparkles are out!
The children had a great time decorating our nursey tree, making it all very pretty to go in our role play area. In the tuft tray, we have been decorating Christmas trees with lots of different materials which will go on our Christmas display.
In cooking on Thursday this week, the children helped to make mince pies that they could take home and share. They scooped, rolled and identified the shape they were using.

Our book corner this week is Santa themed and we are enjoying the story "Father Christmas needs a wee" and "Alien's love Panta Claus"
In phonics this week, we have been using musical instruments to create different sounds such as stomping giant footsteps. We have been identifying words that start with a "P" or a "B" sound and listening to sounds in our indoor and outdoor environment.

In maths, we are exploring shapes and how we can contruct and make arrangements with them. The children have been naming numbers that they see and ordering numbers on the math table.

Just a couple of reminders that next Friday is Christmas Jumper Day and also our nursery nativity at 2.45pm.

Have a good weekend

The nursery team.

Christmas has officially commenced this week at Brunel Primary and Nursery Academy. This has included our own elf 'Brunelf' making his presence know around the school as he has been delivering Christmas books everyday to different classes. Catch up with all the latest news and events in our Brunel Bulletin. 

This week, our classroom has transformed into a world of gingerbread! The class have enjoyed making cards and gingerbread men tree decorations. Our new English topic of Hansel and Gretel is being immersed in well, given our classroom theme and our adored book corner has transformed too which is giving us all much joy!
Thank you to those who supported our Hunt the Issy evening and to those who entered our Gingerbread House decorating competition...winner to be revealed next week!

We returned from the Autumn half term and kicked off a busy November with some Halloween celebrations. The children worked collaboratively to follow a spooky recipe in the home corner, using their counting and number recognition skills. We also enjoyed looking at Halloween books and shared our own experiences from home.

This busy month also saw Bonfire Night. We made marks in a glittery tuff tray, copying patterns and creating some bright firework artwork using cardboard rolls.

We celebrated Remembrance Day learning about brave soldiers and using vegetables to print some poppy pictures. In our tuff tray we used various tools to scoop and weigh poppy coloured rice.

Children In Need gave the children an opportunity to engage in lots of Pudsey themed activities including lemon scented tuff trays and playdough.

We learnt about Road Safety, putting an emphasis on how the colours of the traffic lights give us instructions and help keep us safe.  We also spoke about 2D shapes and their properties using cars to move around different shaped tracks.

November in the ARC

It has been a busy month in the ARC. During the week after half term we celebrated Bonfire Night - we  had a go at using sparklers - it was great fun to try writing our names with them. The boys followed our safety rules brilliantly. 
This month we have welcomed another new member into our ARC: Sabrina has joined us and
we are all enjoying getting to know her. 
This month we have focused our literacy work on Julia Donaldson. We have been learning the stories, investigating rhymes, looking at the art work on Axel Scheffler. The children have chosen their favourite characters and turned them into prints. We are now working to create a 3D stand up model. 
All of our children are enjoying the new ride on toys in the hall. We have been going up in groups to use them and we are getting really fast!

November in the ARC

We have been very busy in the ARC this month. We celebrated Bonfire night

Test-tubes and VR

Earlier this week, Seaton class took part in a workshop about the ocean by Plymouth Aquarium. 

They started by learning about where energy comes from and the impact this has on fossil fuels and the environment. They learned about global warming and climate change and how this affected the wildlife in Plymouth Sound. 

They then became scientists and investigated the ph levels of different liquids using universal indicator. They predicted whether each liquid was acid or alkali and then watched as they changed colour. We were all most surprised by milk which turned out to be an acid. Ask them what other liquids they tested and what they found out. 

To finish off, they were all given VR headsets so that they could virtually explore the marine wildlife in the Plymouth Sound National Marine Park. They were able to spot crabs, starfish, sea grass, coral and even scuba divers. 
What a wonderful learning experience! 

Well we are finishing the last week of November already!  What a great week we've had.

In English the Year 1 and 2's have been planning and writing some amazing stories all about Christmas.  Reception have been exploring birthday parties and using their imaginations to draw and describe some delicious birthday cakes, party guests and book characters.

In maths, Reception have been continuing to develop their number knowledge, looking at numbers 1-5.  Year 1's have been beginning to explore 2-D and 3-D shape, recapping on shape names and properties.  Year 2 have been completing their last steps in their unit of work on addition and subtraction, explaining and solving a mixture of problems.

In our RE work this week we looked at the importance of Advent at this time of year, to Christian people.  The children discovered the meaning behind an Advent wreath and had a go at making their own.

Our singing for our nativity is sounding beautiful.  The children are working so hard and we are sure you are going to be very impressed.

Next week seems to be looking pretty normal at the moment but I think it may be the last one before the Christmas craziness starts!!

If you have any questions or queries then please ask.

Mrs Andrew, Mrs Fernie, Mrs Hicks, Miss Talbot

Yesterday morning, a few of our tiniest people were helped by some of our biggest people to decorate the Storytellers Christmas tree as part of the St Petroc Churches Christmas tree festival. Nursery and KS2 have been busy making decorations, which are now adorning the tree! It looks spectacular, and everyone can view their tree along with over 70 other beautiful trees in St. Petroc Church. It really is worth a visit as it looks amazing, or as one of our little ones said, ‘Wow…sparkly!’ 

Football Stars

A huge congratulations to Mrs Hannaford and her amazing Year 5 and 6 football stars. They took part in the Bridge Schools Football Tournament at Callywith College last Thursday. They won their heat and came second overall. They were also commended for their sportsmanship and manners- well done you are all superstars!

A reminder that there are parental consultation meetings this week. You can make an appointment with your child's teacher via Seesaw. 
Thank you to those of you who came to the Christmas Kahoot Evening. Great fun was had by all and it was wonderful to see so many of you in attendance. A huge thanks to Dave Cunningham of Dave's Chip Stop who provided the food at such a generous discount.
Please see below for our fundraising newsletter which details how much money has be raised so far and what we have spent it on/intend to spend it on. 
You should have received information about the 'Breakfast With Santa' event being held at the Infant and Nursery Base on Saturday 7th December. We hope to see as many of you there as possible.
We are looking forward to the Rainbow Mufti event on Friday 6th December. See Seesaw and Facebook for more details.

Congratulations to our super team of footballers from Year 5 and Year 6 who visited Callywith last week to take on teams from across the Bridge Schools trust. As always, the represented the school magnificiently and were fantastic sports. Well done. 

Congratulations to our super team of footballers from Year 5 and Year 6 who visited Callywith last week to take on teams from across the Bridge Schools trust. As always, the represented the school magnificiently and were fantastic sports. Well done. 

Crafty and Curious!

This week, Talland have been included in some lovely extra-curricular activities including table cricket and making lanterns for the Saltash Lantern Parade. Thank you to those parents who were able to join us in constructing the lanterns; it is always very exciting (and messy!).

Also, we have moved on in our 'Forces' science unit to learn about levers, pulleys and gears. The children were tasked with investigating pulley systems: they had to explain what they could be used for, and how they help. Some were very successful in being able to easily winch up some of the items on their desks! The children will be putting this knowledge to use in DT, in which we have started a railway project and are building a small electrical locomotive.

Talland get Technical!

Thanks to Hyett Education and Miss Henning, Talland got to experience what it is like to work as an engineer in the robotics sector today.

We first had to follow instructions to construct a small robot, then had to solve a series of design problems to allow a Lego figure to be attached, for the wires to stay clear of the wheels and to include a working headlight! The children then had to  produce some code to ensure that the robot did as they wanted it to do and moved where they intended.

It was a truly inspiring, and seriously fun, morning for all.

Hello Everyone!

It has been a lovely week of learning in Penhallow.

Reception have been very creative in their play this week and have built numerous castles using different materials. We went outside on the hill in nursery, used sand in the outside play area, and also perfected other designs using different construction materials in the classroom.

We have all been busy learning songs for our Christmas play. The singing sounds amazing! A few of the children have lines to practice, so thank you if you have been practicing at home. The fun starts next week, when we begin to practice the whole play, complete with acting.

There were some really interesting show and tell items this week, that got us thinking. Thank you so much for your pictures and artefacts. Next week, the theme is; a book from the past. If you would prefer, a picture of a book would be fine. Particularly if you would rather not send in a special book. Show and tell is on a Friday afternoon.

We enjoyed a lovely whole school lantern making experience on Monday. It was lovely to see the older children helping Penhallow, and supporting them so well. Thank you Chaipel, Talland and Landaviddy. Hopefully the weather will be kind to us on Saturday for the lantern parade.

Have a lovely weekend!

From the Penhallow team.

Thank you to everyone for coming in Christmas Mufti  and with gifts for the Christmas Gift Shop in a few weeks time. We were lucky to have some elves with us today too (Photo pending)!

This week, Landaviddy class went on a class trip to The Royal Cornwall Museum and Truro Museum. We had the most amazing time learning about the mummification process, exploring the Egyptian section of the museum and digging for clues to match to Egyptian artefacts. In the afternoon, we went to Truro Cathedral, which was fantastic! We were mesmerised by how big it was! See the photos below from the day!

Throughout the rest of the week, in English we have been working hard on our Egyptian traditional tales, inspired by Little Red Riding Hood. In Maths, Year 2 have finished their unit on addition and subtraction and will be starting work on Shape. Year 3 have continued Multiplication and Division this week, recapping multiples of 2, 5 and 10. 

Congratulations to Alfie and Lowen H for being chosen as Landaviddy's People of the Week. And a big well done to all the children who achieved their 99 club this week!

We have been working hard on our Christmas play this week. Please help support your child at home, by practising their lines. We will be continuing play practise next week. A letter has also gone home today about costumes for the play. I have attached this below for your information. We are asking for any costumes to be brought in a named bag by Friday 6th December. 

Please keep practising the songs at home. I have also attached the song lyrics for the songs we have covered so far.

We hope you have a lovely weekend and look forward to seeing you on Monday. 

Mrs Wilkie, Mrs Phillips, Miss Bowden and Miss Colton