Thank You, Brunel Community!

A huge thank you to our whole school community for coming together to support Children in Need 2025.

Thanks to your kindness, enthusiasm and generosity, we raised an amazing £130!

From our pupils and families to our staff team, everyone played a part in making this a success.

Your support truly makes a difference, and we are incredibly proud of what we achieved together.

Well done, Brunel! 

#ChildrenInNeed2025 #BrunelPrimaryAcademy #SchoolCommunity #ProudToBeBrunel #TogetherWeCan #FundraisingSuccess

What a busy and exciting week it has been in Year 2 and 3! The children have shown wonderful curiosity, enthusiasm and teamwork across all areas of the curriculum, and we are very proud of their hard work. A flurry of snow was enjoyed for a brief moment today!

English

In English, we have been learning to become questioners-asking and answering thoughtful questions about the texts we read. This helps us understand stories more deeply and builds confidence in reading comprehension.

We have also continued developing our descriptive writing skills. The children have been working hard to describe settings in detail, use accurate speech punctuation, and begin planning their own imaginative version of Jack and the Beanstalk. We can't wait to see where their giant adventures lead!

Maths

In Maths, the children have been practising working across 10s and 100s. They have been using practical strategies and place value knowledge to solve problems and explain their thinking.

Class Assembly

Rehearsals are well underway for our class assembly, ready to share with you on Monday afternoon. The children are very excited to perform and celebrate their learning with you.

RE

In Religious Education, we have been learning about Shabbat and how it is observed in the UK today. The children discussed family traditions, special meals, and the importance of rest and togetherness.

PSHE

In PSHE, our focus has been on how families may look different from one another but are all important. The children shared thoughtful ideas about what makes a family special and how we can appreciate the differences between us.

PE

Our gymnastics unit continues. This week the children have been practising linking jumps and travelling movements, working on balance, control and creativity in their floor routines.

Art

Our penguin and Antarctic scenes are looking wonderful. The children are using colour, shape and texture to bring their icy landscapes to life.

Science

In Science, we explored forces and magnetism. The children enjoyed predicting and testing which materials are magnetic and how different forces can make objects move.

Geography

In Geography, we learned about the physical features of Antarctica. The children were fascinated to discover that Antarctica-despite all its ice-is actually classified as a desert because it receives so little precipitation. We explored its mountains, ice shelves, and unique climate, linking what we learned to our Art too.

Design & Technology (Sewing)

A real highlight has been our festive stocking sewing project. The children have shown brilliant perseverance and growing confidence, supported by some wonderfully patient parents and grandparents.
If you are able to offer your help with sewing over the coming weeks, please do get in touch-your support makes such a difference.

We look forward to seeing you at our class assembly on Monday.
Next week brings even more excitement with our cinema trip and a special visit from a real Antarctic pilot!

Have a lovely weekend, and thank you for your continued support.

A fun filled week! 

What a wonderful week we've had in Tregantle Class!

On Friday, we enjoyed a fantastic trip to Saltash Library. Visiting the library is a great way to nurture our love of books and reading, and the children were so excited to explore a new space filled with stories. We listened to a brand-new story and learned how to use the special machine to check out a book-this was definitely a highlight! Every child was able to borrow a book to take home for the week, and we're already looking forward to returning on Friday to choose new ones.

In PE, we had lots of fun playing with the parachute. We worked together to bounce and catch balls, and even turned the parachute into a cosy little den that we could all sit inside. There was plenty of giggling and teamwork!

Outdoors, the children have been busy in the large sandpit, where lots of imaginative construction has been taking place. It has been lovely to see everyone working collaboratively, building, digging, and creating.

During Forest School, we linked our activities to our class story Room on the Broom. The children gathered natural materials to create their very own magic wands. Each wand was unique, and the children were very proud of their enchanting creations.

It's been a fun, active, and creative week of learning. Well done, Tregantle!

A huge thank you to the large number of our wonderful school community who turned out for the Saltash Town Christmas Light Switch-On on Friday evening.

It was truly incredible to see so many Brunel children looking so smart, festive and full of Christmas spirit!

Our children sang beautifully, filling the town with the sound of Christmas cheer.

Their performances of Silent Night, O Little Town of Bethlehem and The First Noel were absolutely magical and created such a warm, joyful atmosphere.

They represented our school with pride, confidence and kindness throughout and their behaviour was exemplary from start to finish.

We are immensely thankful to every child who came along to perform and to all the families who supported this wonderful community event.

Your presence made the evening even more special, and it was heart-warming to see so many smiling faces joining together to celebrate the beginning of the festive season.

The Christmas period has officially commenced-and what a fantastic way to start!

We're excited to welcome families back for this half term's Parent Cafe at Brunel Primary and Nursery Academy.

It takes place this Tuesday at 9am.

This session will be led by Lucy King from the Cognition and Learning Team, who will be sharing helpful insights and support for our school community. Come along for a warm drink, a friendly chat, and valuable guidance. We can't wait to see you there!

We have had a wonderful week here in Lantic class where we have paid our respects for Remembrance day and created the most beautiful art work to display outside. We were very careful when we made our poppies.

In Maths, we have explored place value and learnt to count to 100! We have been comparing numbers using greater than and less than.

In English, we've been learning about Jack and the beanstalk, creating our own class story version which we rehearsed using actions. We have also been swimming every day this week which has been so wonderful and the children enjoyed this so much. They made so much progress it was amazing to see.

Next week, we will be getting lines sent home for the Christmas Play which is called 'The Fleece Force'. Be ready to receive lots of song lyrics to practise at home! Have a lovely weekend and we will enjoy more fun next week.

Mrs Scott, Mrs Quick and Miss Sleep.

Duckpool Update

What a busy week!

Firstly, it was Anti-Bullying Week, which we introduced with Odd Socks day on Monday to celebrate our differences.

We've commemorated Remembrance Day on Tuesday with a special assembly for everyone in our Brunel Primary community. There were poppies in abundance, which made a truly striking splash of colour on a dull November day.

There was also a cyber security workshop run by the RAF and organised by Miss Henning, which was a huge success.

Wednesday brought more excitement, for a group from our class went to Looe to film for next year's Beyond Paradise Christmas Special. Wow we can't wait to see it!

Then on Friday we supported Children in Need 2025 by collecting all our loose change to donate. Well, Duckpool, what a generous class you are! We were absolutely astounded by the amount collected. Thank you so much to our wonderful, supportive families. During the evening, we met at the Guild Hall for the Christmas Light Switch-on and the early chance to practise some carols. 

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Thank you for your continued support this week and your generosity for providing some loose change for Children in Need today. In addition, thank you to all the parents who joined us for our Remembrance Service on Tuesday; it was brilliant to all come together for this very special date in our country's calendar. Just a gentle reminder that we will be meeting at Saltash Guildhall at 5:15pm tonight for the Christmas Light switch on. We hope as many of our families as possible will be able to join us. In the meantime, please find this week's edition of The Brunel Bulletin.

Remembrance

What a wonderful week we've had in Tregantle Class! Our learning has been full of creativity, kindness, and music.

This week, we explored a poppy theme for Remembrance Day. The children showed such thoughtfulness and respect during our special service on Tuesday. It was lovely to see everyone creating poppies in so many different and imaginative ways - our classroom looked beautiful and meaningful.

In music, we had a super fun lesson using the xylophones! The children explored how sounds can move from low to high and high to low, and they did a brilliant job following the conductor to create loud and quiet sounds.

During maths, we've been investigating shapes with four sides. Using lots of different equipment, the children made squares and rectangles - it was fantastic to see their problem-solving skills in action.

Our writing skills are also going from strength to strength! The children have been using amazing firework words such as pop, bang, and whizz to make their writing sparkle.

To celebrate National Kindness Day on Wednesday, the children made heartfelt thank-you cards for all the wonderful people who help us in school - from our cooks to our caretaker. It was a lovely way to show appreciation and spread kindness.

Well done, Tregantle Class - what a brilliant week of learning, creativity, and kindness!

This morning, Treyarnon class took part in a coding workshop funded by the RAF. 

They learned about the Caesar Cipher and how it could be applied to the internet. For example, the importance of a strong password and how people might use coding to hack them. 

What a fantastic week of learning we've had in Year 2/3! The children have shown such enthusiasm and curiosity across all of our subjects - it's been lovely to see them so engaged and eager to share what they've discovered.

Maths:
In Maths, we have continued our work on addition and subtraction, building on our understanding of place value to help us add and subtract larger numbers confidently. The children have been using their knowledge of tens and ones to partition numbers and find efficient strategies for solving problems. It's been wonderful to see how they are becoming more independent in explaining how and why they chose a particular method.

English:
This week we began our new whole-school genre focus - traditional tales - with the much-loved story of Jack and the Beanstalk! The children have enjoyed retelling the story in their own words, identifying key features of a traditional tale, and practising their comprehension skills by retrieving and summarising important information. There's been lots of great discussion about characters, settings, and what lessons we can learn from Jack's adventure!

RE:
In Religious Education, we started our new topic: How do festivals and family life show what matters to Jewish people? We began by learning about Shabbat, exploring how Jewish families prepare for and celebrate this special day of rest. The children were fascinated by the traditions and rituals, and they reflected thoughtfully on what makes family time special in their own homes too.

PSHE:
Our new PSHE unit, Celebrating Difference, got off to a great start. We talked about how every family is unique, and how these differences make us all special. The children spoke beautifully about the love and care that families share, no matter what they look like or how they are made up.

Topic - 'Who lives in Antarctica?'
Thursday was a particularly exciting day as we launched our brand-new Geography and Art topic: Who lives in Antarctica? The children revisited the seven continents and discussed their relative sizes before using maps to explore the lines of latitude and locate the icy continent itself. In Art, we looked at cold colours to begin our Antarctic-inspired paintings and created our own adorable penguin families using oil pastels - they look fantastic! The children are already brimming with questions about life in such an extreme environment.

Science:
In Science, we began our new unit on Forces and Magnets. The children explored different types of pushes and pulls and thought about where we can see forces in action in our everyday lives. They are very excited to start experimenting with magnets next week!

It's been a busy and inspiring week of learning - well done, Year 2/3!

Please see the attached document for more about what we will be learning this half term in Mousehole class.

What a wonderful first week it has been back after the half term break.

We wish you all a wonderful weekend and hope you enjoy looking through this week's Brunel Bulletin.

Just a gentle reminder that next week we are marking Anti-Bullying Week with the theme ' The Power of Good.' On Monday, the children are welcome to wear Odd Socks to school as we celebrate us all being different and unique. On Tuesday, we warmly welcome our families and local community to join us for our Remembrance Service. The gates by the side of the library will open at 10:40am. We hope as many of our school community will be able to join us for this important date in our country's calendar.

Let's Celebrate! 

This week in Tregantle Class, we have been getting creative with the theme of celebrations and festivals. The children had a fantastic time making firework art, splatting coloured paint onto paper to create bright, explosive patterns that lit up our classroom!

We've also been busy crafting poppies in preparation for Remembrance Day next week. The children showed great thoughtfulness as we talked about the importance of remembering and honouring others. What a lovely way to think about special times of the year.

Our learning through play has continued to shine this week, too. In our music area, we've been linking music with phonics. The children were set the challenge of finding different sounds on the xylophone to create their own tunes - a wonderful way to explore sound and rhythm!

Over in maths, the children have been working hard to become experts at ordering numbers and matching Numicon shapes to the correct numerals.

Their confidence is growing every day, and it's been fantastic to see their enthusiasm and teamwork. What a fun, creative and inspiring week it has been in Tregantle Class! Well done, everyone!

Welcome back, everyone! We hope you had a lovely, restful half-term break. Thank you for all your support throughout Autumn 1 - the children have already achieved so much! A huge shout-out to the families who joined our Make a Difference Morning - the school looks fantastic thanks to your hard work tidying, painting and brightening our grounds. As we head into Autumn 2, we've got lots to look forward to:
Christmas productions & Christingle Service
Cinema & theatre trips
Educational visits & coding workshops
Remembrance Service - Tues 11th Nov, 10:40am (all welcome)
Dress Bright for Bonfire Night - Fri 7th Nov
Anti-Bullying Week & Odd Socks Day - from Mon 10th Nov
Saltash Light Switch-On - Fri 14th Nov
Open Day - Thurs 6th Nov, 9:30am

Plus, we'll be welcoming our School Improvement Partner on Tuesday 18th November to celebrate the brilliant progress being made across Brunel. Thank you, as always, for your continued support - it truly makes a difference.

Here's to an exciting and joyful half term ahead!