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,

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! 

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?

Relax the Rules in Lantic!!!

What a fun end to a very busy half term!

We all enjoyed taking part in the BFA 'relax the rules day' at the end of the week. There were some wonderful outfits and accessories and funny back to front lessons! Some children even ate their pudding first at lunch time!

We have been very busy bees this week investigating what makes leaves fall off of trees!  Some children from Y1 and Y2 also went on an exciting able writer's day at Bishop Cornish School.  We have been creating promise/friendship cards in R.E. as we finish off learning about how we belong - you can look forward to those coming home after half-term.  In music, we finally got to start learning how to play the African drums...

We wonder what exciting things we will be learning next half-term... have a lovely, restful break and see you soon!

Relax the rules!

What a fun end to a very busy half term! We all enjoyed taking part in the BFA 'relax the rules day' at the end of the week. There were some wonderful outfits and accessories and funny back to front lessons! Some children even ate their pudding first at lunch time!

We have been very busy working on our phonics skills in Tregantle this week. We have taken part in a range of different phonics games making the children experts at all of the sounds they have learnt!

The Year 1 children completed their class story 'Fantastic Mr Fox' by Roald Dahl. The children have completed some wonderful character descriptions and book reviews which are ready to go on display in our book corner. 

After the success or releasing our butterflies last week, we have been very excited to welcome five new caterpillars into class! The children have been very observant in watching them move and eat.

We hope you all have a very enjoyable half term break! Fingers crossed for some nice weather!

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On Tuesday, we danced the afternoon away for our Archie Project ‘Dance-a-thon’. Fun was had by all as you can see from these photos! If you can make a small donation to help this cause in raising dementia awareness then please see ParentPay. Thank you.

Today, we have relaxed some rules in school. The children and adults have worn their relaxing clothes, funny spellings were put into the spelling test, the class have chosen relaxing places to sit in the classroom and an extended playtime may have been enjoyed! Ask your children about what other fun they enjoyed today.

I hope you all enjoy a restful half term break. Again, the class have worked so hard this half-term and have made me an extremely proud teacher! 

The Creative Class

During this week, the children have further developed their unique Maya patterns. Once completed, they will use these design ideas and paint them onto a  piece of fabric. They have used complementary colours,  observational skills to good effect and recognise repeated patterns. Talland Class have also used their observational skills during our history investigation about the Maya culture. They learned how to use pictures and objects to learn about another culture by asking open and pertinent questions - What are they doing in the ceremony? for example. 

English
This week has been another competition week. The children have been writing a Spooky Story of no more than 250 words to enter a national competition. Some of the starter sentences of the stories have been fabulous, for example, One dark stormy night.... and I didn't think the school was actually haunted until.... Thank you Talland Class for putting in so much effort.

Maths
Using addition and subtraction skills to solve decimal problems has been the theme for maths this week. The children's understanding of place value has increased incredibly throughout this week. They have learned to look carefully at the operation they need to use (+ or -) and whether they need to exchange values from one place value column to another.

best wishes,

Mr Parry, Mrs Swabey and the Talland Class team (Mrs Walters and Ms Rowlands)

This week's jokes: 

Where do birds go on summer holiday? The Canary Islands!

Where do bees stay on their summer holiday? An air bee and bee.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Beautiful butterflies

This week our learning about life cycles has reached its climax! We've been eagerly watching our caterpillars this term as they've eaten and grown into huge caterpillars - just like our story 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar.' It was amazing to watch them build their cocoon  - and then we waited. This week was the week when we witnessed the butterflies emerging from their cocoons and it was truly spectacular. Tregantle Class watched in amazement as the butterflies stretched their wings and began to move around. The butterflies remained in their net in the classroom for most of the week, until finally on Friday we took them into our garden and release them into the wild. It was very interesting to see how the butterflies reacted to being set free. A few were very brave and flew off immediately to find new homes. Some were more cautious and were quite still sitting in the sun before they tentatively made their way into the sky. It was a wonderful experience to watch this life cycle first hand - from tiny caterpillars to beautiful flying butterflies!  

A Creative Week

Talland Class have enjoyed exploring the Batik art form during this week. This is linked to our study of the Maya civilisation and to the beautiful colours they used in the materials they used: their clothing, in particular. The children noticed the use of complementary colours, shape and shading when they produced their own representations. 

English

During this week, the children have entered a poetry competition using their own unique poems. They have developed good confidence in using many poetry devices to good effect: metaphors and similes, for example.

Maths

The children's knowledge and understanding of place value is becoming clearer. Due to this, they have been able to add and subtract decimals to 2 decimal places.

best wishes,

Mr Parry, Mrs Swabey and the Talland Class team (Mrs Walters and Ms Rowlands)

This week's jokes:

Why should we always look up to the sun for positivity? – He always focuses on the brighter side of life.

What did the sun say to the ice? – You’re gonna have a total meltdown!

w/e 17.5.24

We had a great day on Friday, enjoying some cricket coaching! We learned loads and had such fun!

Also this week, we’ve observed Mental Health Awareness Week, with some FA football stars! 

Whilst the sun shines...

This week Lantic class have been learning how to jump in our PE lessons - jumping high and jumping a distance.  We were really good at jumping from 1 foot to 2 feet.

During science, we focused on trees this week and went on a leaf hunt, we then drew and labelled our leaves back in the classroom and looked at how we could classify them into different groups.

We've also been very busy with our Year 2 Reading SATs - the children coped really well and took them in their stride!  The should be proud of their efforts.

In RE, the class learnt to to understand what it means to belong to the Jewish community, they drew a Jewish family having their Shabbat meal and then wrote what the family do on Shabbat.  Perhaps you could ask your child what they learnt?

Over this week we have been learning to tell the time... we have really been working really hard on quarter past and quarter to the hour!!  We have also had a go at building tractors from various construction toys.  

As the sun was shining, we started to weed our patio area... it's looking good already!! 

On Friday, we were very lucky to have a Cricket Chris come in to explain and show the children how to play rapid cricket - we had great fun!  Locally, the children can play All Stars Cricket (5-8yrs) at  St. Stephens Cricket Club - Fri 10th May - Fri 28th Jun 2024 17:30 - 18:30. All Stars Cricket provides boys and girls from 5-8 years old with non-stop fun. The activity and game based programme is suitable for all skill levels, providing your child with the foundations to begin a lifelong love of physical activity and cricket, while making friends in a safe and enjoyable environment.

These two boys impressed me with their achievement at the weekend. This week, we have continued to learn about explanation texts: ‘How animals have adapted to their habitats.’ In maths, we finished our Fractions unit and have started Mass and Capacity. We have enjoyed our art lessons where we have continued be inspired by Henri Rousseau’s jungle paintings and consequently have planned our own piece in his style. Thank you to those that came to support the Reading Café. I know some couldn’t make it or forgot so you are welcome to come to the year 5/6 one next month.

As part of Mental Health Awareness Week, your KS2 child will be coming home from school with a copy of My Brilliant Place To Be Me. This is a journal for 8-11 year olds, designed to help them to explore and nurture their well-being. It is full of activities and information, created to encourage the children to:

• Become more aware of their emotions, and recognise and name their feelings
• Understand that all feelings are OK
• Become better able to manage uncomfortable feelings with simple self-soothing strategies and by seeking help
• Identify the people in their lives who can help them if needed

Year 6 have been absolute troopers this week. They have successfully completed their final lessons of revision before the SATS begin on Monday. Everyone has focused, worked hard and had some fun along the way.

It’s not all been revision though. Aryton did a super job of leading this week’s Reading Assembly to the whole of Key Stage 2, the bowling team have started their journey towards world domination in the filed of lawn bowls and Mrs Williamson has been teaching Year 6 the finer points of rounders ready for several matches between Pendower and Seaton in the final few weeks of term.

We have also made a great start on our new topic ‘Why should we remember the Maya?’. Keep reading the blog for regular updates on our voyage of discovery into the Central America region that was home to this fascinating civilisation.

To finish off our week, we had a visit from Peter the Paramedic and his ambulance. We had a tour of this unique vehicle and the equipment carried within it. The children also had the opportunity to stretcher two of their classmates a short distance. This was a task involving teamwork and a lot of trust. Needless to say, they rose to the challenge admirably. We look forward to welcoming Peter back to Brunel in the coming weeks to deliver first aid training to the Year 6s.

Key information:

·       SATs begin on Monday 13^th May and conclude on Thursday 16^th May.

·       All Year 6s are encouraged to attend Breakfast Club on these days so they are in school and settled in advance of the tests. There is no charge for this facility.

·       For those children not going to Okehampton, a letter will be coming out next week detailing the activities they will be enjoying week commencing 20^th May. Feel free to email Mrs Morris for more information or to discuss any queries you may have jmorris@brunelprimary.co.uk

Year 6 have been absolute troopers this week. They have successfully completed their final lessons of revision before the SATS begin on Monday. Everyone has focused, worked hard and had some fun along the way.

It’s not all been revision though. Aryton did a super job of leading this week’s Reading Assembly to the whole of Key Stage 2, the bowling team have started their journey towards world domination in the filed of lawn bowls and Mrs Williamson has been teaching Year 6 the finer points of rounders ready for several matches between Pendower and Seaton in the final few weeks of term.

We have also made a great start on our new topic ‘Why should we remember the Maya?’. Keep reading the blog for regular updates on our voyage of discovery into the Central America region that was home to this fascinating civilisation.

To finish off our week, we had a visit from Peter the Paramedic and his ambulance. We had a tour of this unique vehicle and the equipment carried within it. The children also had the opportunity to stretcher two of their classmates a short distance. This was a task involving teamwork and a lot of trust. Needless to say, they rose to the challenge admirably. We look forward to welcoming Peter back to Brunel in the coming weeks to deliver first aid training to the Year 6s.

Key information:

·       SATs begin on Monday 13^th May and conclude on Thursday 16^th May.

·       All Year 6s are encouraged to attend Breakfast Club on these days so they are in school and settled in advance of the tests. There is no charge for this facility.

·       For those children not going to Okehampton, a letter will be coming out next week detailing the activities they will be enjoying week commencing 20^th May. Feel free to email Mrs Morris for more information or to discuss any queries you may have jmorris@brunelprimary.co.uk

w/e 10.5.24

This week we enjoyed a visit from a paramedic and ambulance. We learnt about the different bags carried in the ambulance which could be needed in different emergencies, tried out the different stretchers, looked inside and heard how loud that siren is! The children also had a chance to ask some questions.