This half term has flown by. We have crammed a lot into six weeks including work around children’s internet safety this week.

Talland Class had an amazing trip to Paignton Zoo yesterday where they saw all the different animals in all of their different ecosystems and habitats. They enjoyed a workshop in front of the lions where they got to hear them roar and learned lots of fun facts. See the class blog for photos and more information.

Alice Bywater, National Trust Ranger, came to speak to Talland and Chaipel Classes this afternoon about the National Trust’s conservation work in our local area. The children listened really well and asked some excellent questions. They will be using what they have learned as part of the science, art and writing project we are running with the Orwell Society, which we will be sharing with Orwell Society members later this year at their annual conference which will be held in Polperro.

Cross Country There were more personal best results at the Fursdon Farm race on Friday. As usual the team ran brilliantly in spite of the freezing conditions.

Fantastic Footballers Congratulations to our football team who played incredibly well again on Tuesday and won 9-2 against Antony School.

Parent/carer consultations – diary date Consultations will be held the week of 3rd March either in person or on TEAMS. Appointments will be available as follows:
Penhallow Class: Monday 3rd March 1-4:00 pm; Wednesday 5th March 3:30 – 5:30pm
Landaviddy Class: Monday 3rd March 1-4:00 pm; Tuesday 4th March 3:30-4:30pm; Wednesday 5th March 3:30 – 5:30pm
Talland Class: Wednesday 5th March 3:30 – 5:30pm; Thursday 6th March 1pm-4:30pm
Chaipel Class: Tuesday 4th March 1pm-4:30pm; Wednesday 5th March 3:30 – 5:30pm
We will email you immediately after half term with information regarding how to book an appointment.

World Book Day Competition This year World Book Day is on Thursday 6th March. Information about this year’s Extreme Reading competition and school World Book Day activities can be found in a separate letter (sent yesterday and attached).

Friends of Polperro School (FOPS) Quiz Please see attached flyer for details of the FOPS  Quiz which we are holding on Friday 28th February to raise funds for the school. We hope to see you there. Tickets are on sale at the main gate or the office.

Half Term Activities (details of all activities are on flyers attached)
• Football Pro-20 are running some Football Courses in the area during the February half term period.
• Hugs Foundation Activity Day Bodmin The Hugs Foundation supports families when a parent/ carer has a terminal illness and they are running some fully funded equine and forest school activities available as an activity day at the hugs foundation during half term week. They ask a £5 booking fee for this as numbers are limited, but can waive this for families who need us too.
• Looe Mini Miler The Looe Mini Miler fun run takes place at 10am on Sunday 2nd March. The race, which is organised by the Looe Pioneers, is suitable for children aged 4 and above. No entries on the day.
• National Trust Tree Planting in Fowey The National Trust is creating a new woodland at Coombe Farm in Fowey on Wednesday 19th February and is inviting families to come and plant trees there with the aim of extending and joining up existing areas of woodland.

Friday is an INSET day and then it is the half term break. We look forward very much to seeing everyone back in school on Monday 24th February.

Have a wonderful half term break.

Mrs Hillman

Lo

Hello Everyone,

We have enjoyed a variety of learning tasks which have helped to improve our wellbeing in Penhallow. After watching a clip from the film ‘Inside Out’ we were able to name and describe different feelings and emotions. We  read the story ‘The Colour Monster’ and created feelings jars using colours which helped to describe different feelings. We also learnt a song, linked to these ideas. The children’s vocabulary has really improved throughout these activities. 

We have all been really proud of our reception children recently, who are beginning to write their own words and captions, using their recently acquired phonic knowledge. We even caught some children writing for fun during choosing time. Well done reception!

Year 1 have been working very hard in maths this week, adding and subtracting numbers to 20. They have been using number lines and drawing on their knowledge of number facts to represent their knowledge in different ways. We have written fact families using addition and subtraction and used bar models and part while models to record number sentences.

During our Geography lesson this week, we went outside to observe different forms of clouds. We located different areas of the UK on a map, and learnt about seasons and weather patterns in the UK.

We all had a lovely end to our week, with a day of birdwatching, yoga, and outdoor learning. All of this, combined with a fascinating visit from a Hindu lady, who brought in a huge selection of artefacts which helped us to understand her religion and beliefs, has made sure that we have had a very varied and interesting week.

We hope you all have a lovely weekend.

From the Penhallow team.

TALLAND'S CLASS BLOG 7.2.25

We hope you've all had a tremendous week... we've had an absolute hoot! We've had children representing the school and competing in football matches, dodgeball tournaments and cross country competitions! Every child has done themselves and the school proud so a HUGE well done to these children! Not to mention, we've had the wonderful Tini in to speak about Hinduism to the children, which was incredibly insightful and so lovely to develop our learning about this culture and religion. After this, and to top it all off, we've had a lovely time today thinking about our well being. We began by finding some quantitative data for geography by conducting The Great Birdwatch where we found different types of birds that use our ecosystem. Then, the children took part in lots of fun activities like art, fire making, yoga and dancing. All in all, it's been a brilliant week!

CONGRATULATIONS to Heidi for earning her next badge in 99 club and WELL DONE to Tristan for being noticed this week for trying really hard with his learning and sharing a project with us that he has begun at home. The art he is producing is great and his story telling is highly engaging. Talland are excited to hear the next part!

That's all from us this week. We hope you have a lovely weekend!

Signing off from Mr. Langley, Mr. Bishop and Miss. Colton.

P.S. There will be no year 5 spellings this week as they are ahead of the game... YAY! They will have some fun with the year 5 and 6 statutory word list.


  

This week we were fortunate to welcome to school Muhunthiny (Tinni) Sivasothy, a remarkable Hindu woman with an incredible passion for sharing her culture, beliefs, and values with others. During a special whole school assembly, she spoke about the key elements of Hinduism: about its rich history, its colourful festivals, and the deep spiritual traditions that are part of daily life for millions of Hindus around the world. Following the assembly, years 4-6 took part in a workshop designed to give students a deeper understanding of Hinduism. Tinni emailed to say that she had thoroughly enjoyed visiting the school saying ‘all the students focused well, were enthusiastic to learn about Hinduism, were well behaved, and respectful.’ We were delighted to see how the children reflected on what they had learned, asking thoughtful questions and sharing their thoughts on the experience.

Children’s Mental Health Week
Wellbeing Morning As part of Children’s Mental Health Week, today, staff and children had a wonderful morning outside taking part in the Big Schools’ Birdwatch; toasting marshmallows around the fire in the school garden; practicing yoga and mindfulness and enjoying art activities involving nature. The children have asked that we have a wellbeing session every term which we intend to organize.

In addition to learning about mental health in class, on Tuesday, Rev Richard spoke about mental health in an assembly and how it is important to know yourself and recognise that there are things about yourself that may be different, but these things are an important part of who you are.

Football Success Congratulations to our football team who won 3-1 against Bishop Cornish School on Monday. Coach Langley said they played amazingly as a team, passing really well to each other.

Dodgeball Tournament Our year 3/year 4 team played very well yesterday at Callywith College against other Bridge schools, narrowly missing the final. Well done to all involved.

Upcoming dates
Reminder that Friday 14th February is an INSET day and half term is 17-21 February.

Have a lovely weekend.  

Mrs Hillman

This week we have been talking about animals and answering our enquiry question "Do all animals like the cold?"
We have been looking at different animals such as polar bear and penguins and the children have been comparing them to animals that live in the jungle or in our own homes.
They have made some wonderful polar bear pictures using sponges and a bear template and have been making all sorts of arrangements and objets in the tuft tray with the playdough.
This week the children have made paper plate musical shakers and we have taken part in lots of singing. The children have all been very confident in standing in fornt of their peers and performing a song for us.

At story time, we have enjoyed the story of "The penguin who wanted to fly". The children have really enjoyed this story and helped to decorate our book area and our very own Flip Flop the penguin.

In phonics we have been exploring jungle animals. We have been matching different musical instruments to different jungle animals, clapping out the syllables in words and the children have enjoyed a game of jungle eye spy!

In maths, the children have been recognising and matching shapes, continuing to notice different patterns and forming numbers and marks that represent their numbers.

Next week is the last before the half term break.
We finish on Thursday 13th as Friday is an INSET day.

Have a good weekend

The Nursery Team














































Lor

A Wonderful Week in Landaviddy!

What a brilliant week Landaviddy class have had! On Wednesday, we were lucky enough to have a wonderful visitor, Muhunthiny (Tinni) Sivasothy, come into school and share with us about her beliefs as a Hindu. We loved listening to her stories and learning more about the Hindu faith. 

In Science, we have continued investigating shadows by conducting an investigation measuring the length of shadows and how they change. Can you remember what happened to the shadow when the torch was moved further away? In DT this week, we explored different materials and had a go at joining these together. We now know what we will need to make strong shadow puppets.

Today, we spent a lovely morning with the whole school in recognition of Children's Mental Health Week. We started off the day by completing the RSPB's Birdwatch and then participated in a range of activities throughout the morning, designed to promote mental health wellbeing. What was your favourite activity? 

In Maths, Year 2 have completed their unit on Money. We have explored how to find change and completed two-step problems. Year 3 have been exploring division by dividing 2-digit numbers by 1-digit numbers using flexible partitioning and finding remainders. 

In English, we have been progressing to finish writing our explanation texts on bees. We have particularly focussed on including subordinating conjunctions in our writing. 

Congratulations to Dexter and Oliver for being chosen as Landaviddy's People of the Week and a big well done to Dexter and Lowen H for achieving their 99 club badges this week. 

We hope you have a super weekend and look forward to seeing you on Monday, ready for the last week before half term arrives!

Mrs Wilkie, Mrs Phillips, Miss Bowden and Miss Colton

I don't know where to begin as this week has been so busy!

On Wednesday, we were visited by Muhunthiny (a Hindu speaker) who gave us a workshop on the Hinduism religion. We had a lovely morning, trying on the traditional clothing, learning about the religion and how Hindus live their lives, day to day. Our behaviour was impeccable and she is looking forward to visiting us again in the future.

ENGLISH
We have written our draft copy of our free verse poetry and are in the process of editng, improving and writing up our best copies: I look forward to reading them all.

MATHS
Y5s have been completing their multiplication and division this week, focusing on the short method of division. Y6s have been multiplying and dividing fractions by integers and are absolutely nailing the learning.

WIDER CURRICULUM
We have been exploring the construction of suspension bridges in DT. Lily has made a fabulous 3D model and Martha, Elsie and Ava constructed a bridge, spanning the length of a 60cm gap. The class will be moving onto designing and constructing their own model bridge in our final week next week. In Geography, Chaipel have been learning about energy sustainability, about the life and times of Gandhi in RE and in Computing, how to compress images to show how pixel quantity enhances an image without altering its size.

WELLBEING MORNING
Recognising that this week is Child's Mental Health Week, Polperro Primary had a fabulous morning ensuring positive mental health. We began with the RSPB National Bird Watch - dedicating an hour to watching and recording the birds that we saw in our area. After that, in our house teams, we then did four different activities designed to relieve stress and support our wellbeing. Ava embraced her love of art and took a piece of chalk to our playground! It was a truely wonderful morning and as a school, we have decided that we should do more mornings like this. 

Congratulations to our People of the Week, Isaac and Lily, for demonstrating our school values of being 'creative' and 'curious' as well as Lily for achieving her BRONZE in her 99 Club.

That's all from me this week. So have a lovely weekend and see you all for a four-day final week of half term from Monday.

Miss Randle, Mrs Clary, Miss Hodge and Miss Colton

Hello Everyone,

We have enjoyed working with clay this week in Penhallow, as part of our learning about the artist and sculptor Andy Goldsworthy. We chose objects to make imprints into clay, and then used them to make patterns on finger pots that we had made. We are looking forward to finding out how they have dried next week, so that we can paint them.

During our English lessons we continued to use the text; ‘Field Trip to the Moon’ by John Hare to inspire our writing. Year 1 have written some superb recounts, all about their trip to the Moon, while Reception have been busy writing labels, captions and even some onomatopoeia words, after watching a clip of a rocket taking off. They thought of some fantastic vocabulary and used their knowledge of phonics to write their own words.

We have been enjoying our new rocket role play area, and have been busy writing space log books, painting different planets and preparing for journeys into space. We have also used different construction materials to make additions and inventions for the rocket. 

It is now the Chinese New Year, so this week, we have also learnt about the story of the great race, as well as finding out about some of the traditions involved in Chinese New Year. Reception have managed to write a list of some of the animals that were involved in the race.

Have a lovely weekend! 

From the Penhallow team.

TERRIFIC TAMAR TRIP!

We have had a lovely week of learning in Chaipel, topped off with our trip to the Tamar Learning Centre as part of our enquiry into bridge construction.

ENGLISH
We are at the stage of planning our free verse poetry and have compiled some effective poetic devices. Next week, we will be writing, editing and creating our final versions.

MATHS
Y6 have been completing our ratio unit and then multiplying fractions with integers as we further our fractions knowledge and the Y5s have been multiplying a range of numbers using grid and long multiplication methods.

WIDER CURRICULUM
In DT, we have been testing the strength of an unsupported arch bridge by experimenting with height and weight. In Geography, we have been debating on whether mega farms are a good idea and we have some strong opinions!

We ended our week with our trip to the Tamar Learning Centre and it was amazing! We had a tour along the Tamar bridge footpath, learnt how the Royal Albert Bridge was constructed and broadened our knowledge on the different types of bridges and their unique features.

Congratulations to Martha who was our Person of the Week, but really, WELL DONE to all Chaipelers as you did our school proud with your curiosity and responsibility today.

Enjoy your weekend,

Miss Randle, Mrs Clary and Miss Hodge.   

We have been busy organizing many trips and activities for the upcoming terms including Chaipel Class's trip today to the Tamar Bridge  as part of their DT learning.  Why not look at their class blog for more information and the other class blogs to see the learning across the school that has been taking place. 

Children’s Mental Health Week 3-9 February We will be taking part in Children’s Mental Health Week next week. The week’s focus is Know Yourself, Grow Yourself, with the aim to encourage children and young people across the UK to embrace self-awareness and explore what it means to them. As parents and carers, you play an important role in your child’s mental health. There are free resources here which you may wish to look at beforehand. https://www.childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk/resources/#families

As part of Children’s Mental Health Week, we will be spending next Friday morning outside when staff and pupils will be taking part in the Big Schools’ Birdwatch; toasting marshmallows and listening to stories around the fire in the school garden; practicing yoga and enjoying art activities involving nature. Children should come into school on Friday in warm clothing with a waterproof coat and wellies or old trainers. They should bring their uniform in to change into in the afternoon. If it rains, we will do wellbeing activities inside but will still go outside for the birdwatching.

RNLI MUFTI Day Thank you for sending your children in yesterday in something blue or sea-themed. We raised £74 for the RNLI in recognition of the Oars of Thunder’s success in the World’s Toughest Row.

Family Worker Drop-Ins, Thursday 6th February, 9-11 am Reminder that the Early Help Hub will be holding Family Worker Drop-In Sessions in our school from 9-11 am on 6th February 2025. If you would like to be able to talk in confidence, just pop along, they will be here to help and support you. They will be happy to discuss and advise on issues concerning your family for example, how to better understand your child’s needs & behaviours; positive parenting and how to keep your child safe; how to better understand the importance of routines for your family. To book a 30-minute slot, contact the school on secretary@polperroprimary.co.uk or call on 01503 272249.

Upcoming dates Reminder that Friday 14th February is an INSET day and half term is 17-21 February.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Hillman

This week we have finished discussing how we keep warm in winter. The children have been busy getting creative and have made lots of craft including  decorating a paper plate wooly hat. On the tuft tray they have explored "The little Polar Bear" story and have used props to support their play.
We have been making cotton wool pad snowmen and the children have been practicing their counting during a creative maths activity.

On Wednesday we celebrated Chinese New Year and the year of the snake. The children decorated lanterns, coloured in snakes and we had a snack of rice, noodles and prawn crackers which the children really enjoyed.

In phonics the children have enjoyed singing along to the song "The farmer claps her hands". They copied actions to the song and had to finish by putting all of the sequence of movements together. They have also explored voice sounds loud and quiet and we have been listening to sounds in our indoor and outdoor environment.

In maths, we have been exploring sequences of patterns and repeating patterns in addition to exploring numbers 1-5 and beyond.

Have a lovely weekend.
The Nursery Team

Hello Everyone,

We have been learning the story; ‘Field Trip to the Moon’ by John Hare, this week during our English lessons. We therefore went on a pretend trip to the moon in a space ship. Wearing our space suits and helmets, we travelled through space together, and when we landed, we explored the moon, recording our findings and observations about what we could see, feel, smell and hear. Next week, we will be writing a recount about what happened. 

In maths, we have been playing games and solving problems around the concept of doubles and near doubles. We have been practicing recalling doubles facts and then using them to find near doubles. We have used a range of ways to represent our understanding visually, and enjoyed drawing number lines and hunting for doubles in the outside area. 

During RE this week, we learnt about stories that have meanings to Christians, Jewish people and Muslims. This week we thought about the story of Jesus calming the storm. We discussed the concept of faith, and made a zig zag book to retell the story.

We continued our learning about the sculptor Andy Goldsworthy this week, during our art lessons. We collected our own natural materials outside, and used pictures and video clips of the artist’s work, to help us to create our own sculptures in a similar style. Our creations were both unique and impressive. Well done everyone!

In Penhallow, we already enjoy reading in a range of different ways. We listen to stories read out loud every day. We read individually, in groups and using ebooks. We enjoy choosing our own books from the library, and many of us choose to read during choosing time in quiet places in the classroom, such as our reading tent. In order to encourage our love of reading even further, we are also sending home each week, a book to read with some hot chocolate, some cookies and a teddy. A different person will take this home every week, so please enjoy your special reading time, whenever you happen to be given these goodies.

Have a lovely weekend!

From the Penhallow team.

Another week has flown by in Landaviddy class. We have continued our enquiry 'What is Light?' in Science, by learning about how the sun can be dangerous and discussing what we can do to protect ourselves from the sun. In Computing, we explored touch typing and the different elements found on a keyboard. We had a great music lesson too, where we were able to use the Ukulele's. 

In English this week we have been focused on developing our use of tier 2 and 3 vocabulary when explaining. We worked together to create a glossary of tier 3 vocabulary, specific to the honey making process. Today, we completed our plans for writing our own explanation texts, which we will write next week! We can't wait! 

In Maths, Year 2 have been exploring money this week by recognising pence and pounds, and had practise choosing coins to make amounts. Year 3 have been continuing to develop their multiplication and division knowledge by exploring multiples of 10 and beginning to multiply 2-digit numbers by 1-digit numbers.

Congratulations to Theo, Lowen J and Oliver for being chosen as Landaviddy's People of the Week.

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

Mrs Wilkie, Mrs Phillips, Miss Bowden and Miss Colton

In assembly on Tuesday we watched video of the Oars of Thunder completing their 3000 mile row across the Atlantic. In recognition of their success in this amazing challenge, the children would like to have a MUFTI day next Thursday, 30th January to raise money for the team’s chosen charity, the RNLI. The theme for the day, which has been chosen by the School Council, is ‘Wear something blue or to do with the sea’. In return for wearing no uniform, a minimum donation of £1 would be welcome.

Congratulations to our cross-country team who ran brilliantly in last week’s race at Cotehele. Many of them ran a personal best, including Flora who came a fantastic second in her race. The team were all extremely supportive of each other and their behaviour was exemplary. We are very proud of them all.

Well done also to our football team who played their first league football match on Monday against Brunel. Although the final score was 2-0 to Brunel, they played really well as a team and the result didn’t quite reflect how well they played. The next match is at home against Bishop Cornish School on 3rd February.

Our Planet Protectors have been busy improving school’s recycling by arranging for each class to have a blue recycling bin (kindly funded by FOPS). The Planet Protectors meet every Tuesday lunchtime and are encouraging the rest of the school to know what they can and cannot recycle.

Information regarding Fundamentals Dance Classes run by Former Polperro School pupil Hayley Bentley is attached to this blog. Classes are on Mondays, 4:30pm - 5:30pm for young people ages 4-10 at Lanreath Village Hall. A physical & creative outlet for young people to learn new dance techniques and embrace freedom of expression! First class is FREE and then the classes are 'pay as you go' £6 per session. 

Have a great weekend.

Mrs Hillman

Another week has gone by and we are well into our enquiry for this half term, 'What Natural Resources Do I Depend On?' We have been looking into different types of trusses - the framework for supporting bridges - and have been making our own out of art straws. We have been creating Warren, Pratt and Lattice structures.

MATHS
We have been nailing long and grid method multiplication (Y5s) and scale factors and problems involving ratio (Y6). Imogen has really got the hang of long multiplication and her presentation is absolutely amazing. Well Done!

ENGLISH
We are looking into free verse poetry and have been learning how to write similes and metaphors for effect. Harry, WOW!  The glistening sun is a lion's mane, sparking the sky with a glow of warmth. The mountain peak is a missile: white as a dove, lighting up the sky with thick, opaque smoke.

COMPUTING
We have been investigating pixels in computing, recognising how bit patterns represent images as pixels. The children created an image on squared paper and then recreated it on Excel spreadsheet. They have done an amazing job.

Congratulations to Aria (99), Verity (Bronze) and Dom (33) for achieving their next badges in their 99 Club and to Harrison and Nuala for being Chaipel's People of the Week for demonstrating our school values.

POLITE REMINDER
Our trip to the Tamar Learning Centre is on Friday, so could you please make sure that any permission slips are back in school on Monday. It is just for the morning so lunchtime will be as normal. 

I've attached this half term's Homework Grid, KIRFS and Knowledge Web.

That's all from me, so have a lovely weekend and see you all on Monday.

Miss Randle, Mrs Clary and Miss Hodge.

TALLAND CLASS BLOG 24.1.25

Another fabulous week in Talland class. The children have been great and we've had lots of fun!

Here's a brief run down of our week:

Maths
Year 4 have successfully completed their unit on AREA. Next week they are moving onto LENGTH and PERIMETER.
Year 5 have continued to work on fractions. This week we've investigated equivalent fractions, improper fractions and mixed number fractions.

English
We have been exploring explanation texts, finding the features and thinking about key vocabulary that can be used. Talland have done a fantastic job of up levelling sentences to make them sound scientific and interesting.

Music
The children have been learning the 'C' cord and have tried to maintain a rhythm whilst performing together.

PE
In dance, Talland have been creating a routine in their groups and in tennis, we have been learning how to use a forehand and a backhand.

Geography
We had a look at different biomes around the world and found out that the UK's main biome is a temperate one. Why not quiz your child to see if they remember what it is... Maybe, go and explore one? If you do, be sure to take some pictures and send them in!

Art
We created a mood board about print screen art. We found inspiration from some images we found and thought about what is needed to make our own print screen successful. 

CONGRATULATIONS 
A huge well done to Jamie for being nominated as our mathematician of the week, Skye for writer of the week and Grace for reader of the week. Also, great work from our 99 clubbers (Jamie, Joey, Arnie and Everly), who managed to successfully complete their 99 club. Last but not least, and gaining his hattrick this week, well done to Jamie (again) for being celebrated as our person of the week for his excellent enthusiasm towards work and his curiosity during our writing sessions.

That's all from us this week. We hope you have an amazing weekend and look forward to seeing you bright and breezy on Monday.

Signing off from Mr. Langley, Mr. Bishop and Miss. Colton.

P.S In coming trip alert...
  

  

This week we have been talking about how we keep warm in winter. The children came up with some great answers such as wearing appropriate clothing such as coats, scarves, gloves and hats and it was suggested by some of the children that we should all have hot chocolate for snack to warm up after been outside to play!
We made vegetable soup on Thursday where the children practiced chopping and cutting with the knives before cooking it all up and letting them take it home.
They have been practicing pencil control on the writing table and have been getting creative by making snowmen with warm scarves and collaged welly boots.

At story time we have been reading "William's Winter Wish" and in phonics we have been talking about going to the dentist. The children have been naming and rembering different sounds in a game of sound bingo, clapping the syllables in words and exploring how our mouths move when looking in the mirrors.

In maths, we have been recognising and forming numbers on the chalk and white boards and learning about different shapes and making arrangments.

Have a good weekend

The Nursery Team