Dear Parents and Carers

It has been a hugely busy but enjoyable week. The marvellous Learning Ambassadors are starting to make their mark and Head Girl Isobel even gave out her class’ shining star certificates this morning – it was lovely!

The Pupil Leadership Team will also be judging the Easter Egg decorating competition that is attached – please have a read. Your job (should you choose to accept it) is to boil an egg, and then decorate it in the most flamboyant way possible. Given the impressive entries into the Toilet Roll competition, I am very much looking forward to seeing what the WPA pupils can do!

Bag2School – WOW! Your donations were stupendous and to be honest, the van who came to pick it all up was extremely lucky to get it all in his very large long wheel base transit.  FOWPA are waiting to hear what we have raised but we THANK YOU for it all.

The ‘Our Wonderful Cornwall’ Photo Competition is still open too – don’t forget to send in your best photo of our county (it can be a countryside pic, a building pic, a seascape pic or an anything pic really – as long as it shows Cornwall) by Friday 23 April 2021. Entries should be sent to Janetkeat@wadebridgeprimary.co.uk as an attachment. I can’t wait to see them all!

This week saw the very last Early Friday finish. We will still be having a Friday deep clean,; the cleaners will just start at bit later on. From the first Friday back after Easter (Friday 23 April), the school days will all end at the same time. I will remind you of the finish times next week in a separate letter so that you can have it to hand, but as ever, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

There are egg-citing things coming up next week – we have the Easter Egg competition to prepare for and then bring in; we have the end of term coming up (Thursday 1 April is the last day of term and we are finishing early) AND the clocks go forward this weekend so it is even lighter in the evenings. Hurrah! 

Driving into School: Please remember that the Speed Limit is 10 mph and please remember that there is NO parking in school – it is for Drop Off and Pick Up only.  Thank you very much.

Last thing for today: A message from Connect Church Wadebridge about an Easter Trail:

Connect Church (formerly Wadebridge Christian Centre) are running 'The Seriously Surprising Adventure Trail' on Saturday 3rd April from 2-5pm. This will be a family friendly walk around Wadebridge ending at Connect Church: exchange your answer sheet for a prize and the end of the trail.

Link to answer sheet (print your own – we will also post on social media):
https://connectchurchcornwall-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/personal/izzy_connectchurch_uk/ERWyDT0vYkxGjUOcHVfGDj8BDGw12cBXadB78tPe1WFDvg?e=6egNdI

Link to map: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1oJs_na14aLFJsF_wEH2KIViYzVRxtnYz&usp=sharing

Phew! We hope that you have a wonderful weekend and can’t wait to see you on Monday.

Kindest regards

Ms Whitlock

Dear Parents and Carers,

It has been a fantastic week. We have seen some sunshine, done lots of fantastic work and are really settling back into the swing of everyone being back in school.

PUPIL LEADERSHIP
Wednesday’s assembly was very special as every pupil in Years 1-6 and all staff members got to vote for our newly expanding Pupil Leadership Team. We saw potential House Captains and Head Boys and Head Girls give some truly fantastic speeches, saying why they would be the right choice for the role that they wanted, and I have to say, the results were amazingly close. We now have a Head Boy (Tom), a Deputy Head Boy (the results were so close that we had to have two!) (Danny), a Head Girl (Isobel) and a Deputy Head Girl (Eliza). Hurrah! These pupils are everything that we could ask for in Pupil Leaders and I am delighted that it is these pupils who are our first ever Senior Pupil Leaders. They all wholeheartedly and thoroughly deserve their role and I cannot wait to work with them in leading the pupils throughout the school. You will see lots of them in the coming months!

The House Captains were just as closely contested. Every boy and girl that applied gave genuinely outstanding speeches, and we wished that we could appoint every single one of them.

Choughs House Captains are Oscar and Holly
Cormorants House Captains are Rosie and Leo
Puffins House Captains are Connie and Jack
Swans House Captains are Teagan and Poppy

We also appointed 30 Bridge Ambassadors today! Every Year Group in Years 1-6 were tasked with appointing – through letters of application – Ambassadors for our Bridge Values. We now have in years 1 – 4 an Ideas Iguana, a Have a Go Hippo, a Find Out Flamingo, a Keep Going Koala and a Team Work Turtle. In Years 5 and 6 we have an Ideas Einstein, a Don’t Stop Darwin, a (H)ave a go Alexander, a Curious Curie and a Work Together Winston. They are a super group of pupils and we are really looking forward to them leading the learning across their Year Groups.

We also felt that the ambassadors needed a leader. It is a tricky job to lead a whole year group of learners and we thought that there needed to be someone to lead the Ambassadors and help them to fulfil their roles too. We have appointed Hannah as Head Ambassador. Hannah, just as all of the ambassadors do, embodies every single Bridge Value and we are delighted to see her in this role.

Every single leader appointed today completely deserves their role and we cannot wait to see them in action. I will take photos when it is NOT Red Nose Day…

A huge well done to all who went for the roles though – it is a very big deal to put yourself forward for something and it can be really hard when you are not successful, but I am so proud of every single Year 6 pupil who put themselves out there. The votes were genuinely very close indeed.

Just a few short reminders!

BAGS 2 SCHOOL
Collection of clothes on TUESDAY 23 March. Please bring your bags of clothes to school on Tuesday Morning for collection.

PARKING
Please remember that there is NO Parking on site for any parents apart from those in the Nursery. There is also NO PARKING at the Comp AT ALL. There is plenty of parking at the Cormac Offices and at least it is light both in the morning and the afternoon now!

SPEED & ZEBRA CROSSING
Please remember that the speed limit from the entrance to the school is 10 mph. Could you also please make sure that you are not blocking the zebra crossing at any time, or parking on the bend of the school drive. It causes a huge backlog and makes things run so much more slowly. Thank you so very much to all who are already not doing any of these things and for using the drop off and pick up lanes – it is very much appreciated.

Red Nose Day costumes and themes today have been BRILLIANT! The Reception Year Group Team DID come dressed as Breakfast (Sausage, Egg, Toast and Beans). There were some fantastic sights to see too – I must mention Flip and Flop, twins in Year 2 who actually came to school dressed as Flip Flops, complete with life size footwear. Fabulous! We took LOTS of pictures so please do look out for them on the blog and in the class pages and events page. Phew! We hope that you have a wonderful weekend and can’t wait to see you on Monday.

Kindest regards
Ms Whitlock

Dear Parents and Carers

What a wonderful first week back. I can imagine that the exhaustion levels are high, but I hope that you have all enjoyed the week as much as we have. Our cheeks are hurting from smiling so much (though it also could be due to the high winds over the last couple of days…).

I will not overload you with lots this week as I know that you have a weekend to enjoy, but I wanted to thank everyone who has arrived at the right time to drop off and pick up this week. It has been extremely busy, but we have really appreciated the effort that has been made.   Do please keep an eye on the drop off and pick up times as it is really important that we try and keep these times as tight as possible. I have set out the timings again below, just in case a reminder would help:

DROP OFF
Nursery – 0825 - 0845
Year R/Year 2/Year 4/Year 6: 0820 – 0835<
Year 1/Year 3/Year 5: 0830 – 0845
Year 4 – 0820 – 0835<

PICK UP (The timings in brackets are for the Friday pick up for the rest of this term)
Nursery – 1425 – 1445 (1225 – 1245)
Year R - 1425 – 1435 (1225 – 1235)
Year 1– 1435 – 1450 (1235 – 1250)<
Year 2 – 1430 – 1445 (1230 – 1245)
Year 3/Year 5 – 1455 – 1505 (1255 – 1305)
Year 4/Year 6 – 1445 – 1455 (1245 – 1255)

Please also remember that there is NO Parking on site for any parents apart from those in the Nursery. If your children are in Reception to Year 6, you are able to drop off only. There are two drop off lanes – one for KS2 and one for Reception and KS1. If you want to walk down with your child to drop them off, you must park outside of the school grounds (not on the road into the school) and walk them in. I know that it is a pain, but it really does help the traffic to flow.

This week was ‘Science Week’ and my goodness we have seen some fabulous experiments and lessons. We even saw a live experiment in our first live Shining Stars Assembly this morning with Year 5 showing us how to make a rocket fly. It even worked first time, which was a relief!

This week also saw us looking at the effect of litter and waste on our environment. We looked at what we can do to make our school the most beautiful it can be (picking up all of the rubbish) and we looked at how we can help save the environment. There were some lovely ideas, but the one thing that seems to be working really well is that we now have lights monitors in every class, who turn the lights off every time they leave the classroom or see an empty classroom with lights on. Many a teacher this week has been plunged into near darkness as a child cracks open the door and turns the lights off, but we are getting there in terms of them checking now… Some Year 3 girls have also formed their very own (elite) litter picking team, and the outside areas that they use are looking spotless! Thank you, Year 3s!&

Next week is also not quite a normal week as on Friday 19 March it is RED NOSE DAY!

And as you know, we love any opportunity to dress up, so…. Our theme this year is 'let's get laughing'! What we would like you to do is come to school on Friday dressed in your funniest and craziest costumes (for example, the Reception (year group, not Caroline and Marcia…) Team are thinking about dressing up as breakfast. I am very much looking forward to seeing how that turns out.  We will write again to remind you next week but get your funniest and craziest thinking caps on please.

We are also going to be celebrating World Autism Awareness Week in the last week of term (29 March – 1 April). Watch this space as more information will be coming out soon.

We hope that you have a wonderful weekend and can’t wait to see you on Monday.

Kindest regards
Ms Whitlock

Dear Parents and Carers

We have made it! We will all be together again on Monday (though in our own Year Group Bubble…). I have seen so many excited faces today (and that was just the teachers) and I know that the Teams meetings in Years 1-6 went really well. We hope that you are as excited as we are, but I wonder if you could please read this short message out to your children:

Dear Everybody at WPA,

Hello you lovely lot! We have missed you SO much and we literally cannot wait to see you on Monday. I just wanted to reassure you that everything will be the same as when you were last in school. Your teachers will be the same, the TAs will be the same (though we are also welcoming Mrs King back into Year 3), your classrooms will be the same and your class will be the same. You will be able to see everyone who you have missed since January and they will be able to see you. Phew!Don’t worry if you are a bit wobbly; there will be lots of familiar faces to greet you on Monday and it is even supposed to be sunny! If you are not wobbly, please can you make sure that you help those who might be. <

Take good care this weekend, and get lots of sleep. Make sure that you go to bed nice and early on Sunday night and that you eat a good breakfast on Monday so that you are ready for the day. 

P.S. If you are in Years 2, 3, and 6, please remember to come to school in your PE Kit, as you have PE. 

Lots of love, Ms Whitlock

Thank you. We have also attached some lovely messages that the staff at WPA want the pupils to know. Have a read!<

As I mentioned in my letter, we are needing to still be really tight about making sure that we have as few people on the school grounds as possible, so please remember that there is NO Parking on site for any parents apart from those in the Nursery. If your children are in Reception to Year 6, you are able to drop off only. There are two drop off lanes – one for KS2 and one for Reception and KS1. If you want to walk down with your child to drop them off, you must park outside of the school grounds (not on the road into the school) and walk them in. At least it promises to be good weather to start us off!

Please also remember to wear a face covering if you are outside of the car when on the school premises.

A reminder of the drop off and pick up times are below (just in case!):

DROP OFF
Nursery – 0825 - 0845
Year R/Year 2/Year 4/Year 6: 0820 – 0835
Year 1/Year 3/Year 5: 0830 – 0845

PICK UP The timings in brackets are for the Friday pick up for the rest of this term:
Year 1– 1435 – 1450 (1235 – 1250)
Year 2 – 1430 – 1445 (1230 – 1245)
Year 3/Year 5 – 1455 – 1505 (1255 – 1305)
Year 4/Year 6 – 1445 – 1455 (1245 – 1255)

A quick message about Homework:
From next week, teachers in some year groups will be trialing use of Teams to set weekly homework tasks. Please keep an eye on your child’s Teams account (we will of course tell them that we are setting their homework via Teams) and look out for posts and messages from your teachers with more details. We would very much like to continue using Teams as a learning platform even though pupils are now returning to school.

I am genuinely really excited and I hope that you are too. Please remember that we are here to support you and to help in any way. Do get in touch if there is anything that we can help with, and until Monday; stay safe, stay well and take care.

SEE YOU ON MONDAY (giant smiley face),

Kindest regards
Ms Whitlock

Dear Parents and Carers

I am going to make this week’s blog very short indeed and we have sent you emails already today and there is a letter about re-opening attached.
I must celebrate the winners of the Toilet Roll Competition though – we had some truly wonderful entries and it was extremely difficult pick our winners but they are: Dolcie, Zofia and Olivia. Their designs are below and I have to say that I thought they were extremely creative (as were all of them to be fair!) and I thought that all of them were fab-u-lous – very well done to all who entered.

A massive well done too to ALL who took part in the 100 of something over the Half Term. We had lots of responses but to name a few; Evan found 100 plants and flowers; Molly Mae performed 100 acts of kindness; Sienna did 100 burpees and Evie did 100 Mountain Climbers (and we even have proof of these)!
Today was ‘Feelgood Friday’ and we most definitely felt good in school with lots of extremely smiley faces all day – in EVERY Year Group. We hope that you had fun at home too and that you took advantage of the good weather – which looks like it is going to stay over the weekend too – hurrah!&

On that note, please read the re-opening letter thoroughly, stay safe, enjoy the daylight and the sunshine and have a lovely weekend.
Kindest regards
Ms Whitlock

Dear Parents and Carers

We made it! No-one could have possibly predicted how challenging the last six weeks would be, and I cannot tell you how proud I am of every member of the WPA community. All of the wonderful WPA staff responded instantly to the challenge of getting remote learning up and running within 24 hours of the lockdown being announced. Parents and carers have been brilliant. Your support, your adapting of the new situation and your response to the current way of things has meant so very much to us. And some of the work that has been produced this half term, both in and out of school, has been exceptional. It has, however, been quite a journey. Everyone has had their days when they have felt blue; everyone has had times when that first step of day has felt really, really hard, but we have made it. If I didn’t have grey hairs six weeks ago, I certainly do now! We are definitely over the top of the hill though, and I love how the days are getting longer and the mornings lighter. I predict that before we know it, we will be basking in the spring sunshine and frolicking on the school field.

Mrs Keat has shown me the truly wonderful response to our toilet roll challenge – THANK YOU to all who have decorated and embellished and reshaped their toilet roll tubes. As you had until today to send in your designs, and I would hate for anyone to miss out (I am literally always the last person to enter a competition and so never want anyone to miss out) we have not yet picked the winners, but we will announce them early in the week after Half Term. However, never fear! We have a challenge for you to do over the Half Term Break. Your challenge – should you choose to accept it – is this:

In memory of the inspirational Captain Sir Tom Moore, who walked 100 lengths of his garden at the age of 100, WPA would like to challenge you to do 100 of something over the Half Term.

You could: do 100 star jumps (you could even do 100 each day!); do 100 skips; run 100 lengths of YOUR garden or read 100 pages of a book. Your challenge can be 100 of ANYTHING (within reason). Please let us know what you are doing or have done by taking a picture of what you are doing 100 of and upload it either to the Facebook Page or send it to us via the secretary@wadebridgeprimary.co.uk email address.  I am planning on napping for 100 minutes. Every single day.

We have got LOTS coming up. On Friday 26 February we are running a FEELGOOD FRIDAY! More details will be posted and sent to you on Monday 22 February (an INSET day so please do not try and come to school or do any remote learning) ready for the Friday. Our plan is for us all to enjoy a tech free day with tons of possible activities for all year groups. This means that if you have siblings in different year groups, they can do the same thing if they want to - all free of a screen! Pupils in school will be tech free too (though there will be no mixing of bubbles of course). Please make sure that you wear your PE kits on this Friday as we are definitely hoping to get outside.

It is World Book Day on Thursday 4 March. We have not quite finalised our plans for it yet, but we wanted you to put the date in your diary. You may remember that last year, World Book Day clashed with St Piran’s Day, so I have not yet had the opportunity to wear my best Miss Trunchbull outfit, but my fingers are crossed for this year.

St Piran’s Day falls on a Friday this year, on Friday 5 March. Get those black, gold and white patriotic clothes ready! We are going to organise some Cornish language activities and maybe make and eat some Cornish food and, of course, we will be singing The Song of the Western Men (The Trelawney Shout).

Please do feel free to have a practice of the words before the day; they are set out below.

A good sword and a trusty hand, A merry heart and true!
King James's men shall understand What Cornish lads can do.
And have they fixed the where and when? And shall Trelawny die?
Here's twenty thousand Cornish men Will know the reason why!

And shall Trelawny live? Or shall Trelawny die?
Here's twenty thousand Cornish men Will know the reason why!

Out spake their Captain brave and bold: A merry wight was he:
"If London Tower were Michael's hold, We'll set Trelawny free!
We'll cross the Tamar, land to land, The Severn is no stay: 
With 'one and all', and hand in hand, And who shall bid us nay?"

And shall Trelawny live? Or shall Trelawny die?
Here's twenty thousand Cornish men Will know the reason why!
"And when we come to London Wall, A pleasant sight to view,
Come forth! Come forth ye cowards all, Here's men as good as you!
Trelawny he's in keep and hold: Trelawny he may die:&
But twenty thousand Cornish bold Will know the reason why!"

And shall Trelawny live? Or shall Trelawny die?
Here's twenty thousand Cornish men Will know the reason why!

This week, I have seen more wonderful things than I can possibly write about so I will just mention the Year 6 WWII ‘make do and mend’ activity that they did today. They used pre-loved T-Shirts to make shoulder bags and they were wonderful. They were SO proud of their new, homemade bags and were delighted to show them to anyone who went within 10 metres of their classroom (no one got close, don’t worry). Quite frankly, they rocked them and I was quite envious of their skills.

I will put up an assembly on Monday 22 February for the week. There may even be another new challenge. Watch this space…
The only thing left for me to say is; enjoy the half term break as much as you can. We can do this. It won’t be long until we are back together and I, for one, cannot wait.

Stay safe, be careful of this wind (which may never end) and take good care of yourselves. We miss you and will see you soon.
Kindest regards

Ms Whitlock

Dear Parents and Carers

Thank you so very much for embracing Children’s Mental Health Week. I have seen some fantastic things – including the Oak Academy assembly on Monday – which have made me smile and be glad that it is Children’s Mental Health week this week.

Today, all in school were expressing themselves, which was fabulous! Thank you to all who have sent pictures in or complimented each other on the Teams sessions today – it was so lovely to see you all! I saw a lot of fantastic style today, including a Year 1 Rockstar (literally the whole shebang) and the most amazing Ana wig from Frozen – it was so realistic (and I was quite envious of it to be honest, as it was very lustrous)!

We have a lovely thing to share this week too – it will be on your teams from Monday; it is on the Assembly PowerPoint, and it will be an attachment on this Blog too. Mr O’Rourke, who has worked with probably every child in the school, has written and recorded an amazing song for you all. Please have a listen – it is very catchy, hugely enjoyable, and gave me goosebumps! A HUGE thank you to Mr O’Rourke for recording it and for writing it!

This week’s assembly does continue on the theme of wellbeing and looks at Children’s Mental Heath Week. It also mentions some of the wise words from Captain Sir Tom Moore and a quote from The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse.  Mrs Lee Elkins was delighted to be able to take the lead on this week’s assembly, and she does a worryingly good job!  I pop up at the end, but otherwise Mrs Lee Elkins has done all of the hard work. I hope that you enjoy it.

This week, I have seen some amazing team work from the Nursery children in the outside play area; some super PE from the Reception Teams session (who knew that there were so many shapes that you could make from beans?!?!); Year 1 have been reading the ‘Words and your Heart’ Story Book and have been practising their SPAG skills to write sentences to help make someone’s world a better place (literally heart-warming); Year 2 have been learning about weather and rain and have been collecting rain samples (at least they have had plenty of opportunity….); Year 3 have been set another exciting and challenging orienteering course and have done some amazing wellbeing Dancing; Year 4 have been writing Newspaper reports with great style and panache; Year 5 have been looking at explanation texts using some very interesting animals and Year 6 have done some really exciting work on coding like they used in WWII. Phew! 

We have all been sporting hard and hope that we have done well in the Cornwall Virtual Games – COME ON WPA!!!

One other thing!

I was contacted by a parent yesterday who asked if we could also promote a competition that they are running for the week. It is a lovely idea and if you like designing things (and wearing nail polish and looking after your nails), then this is for you! Please go to https://www.facebook.com/210557468988993/posts/3882223035155733/?d=n for details. 

Once again, if you are struggling to get online, or are finding it tricky with more than one child in the house and not enough devices, PLEASE let us know as if we can help, we will.

Enjoy the weekend as much as you can and stay safe.

Kindest regards

Ms Whitlock

Dear Parents and Carers

It has been a busy week! We have been busy finalising our plans for all staff to be able to take advantage of the LFD (Lateral Flow Device) tests that arrived this week and from Sunday, we are delighted that we will have this additional resource to help keep track of any virus in school. Whilst we are pleased to have this opportunity though, we are continuing with our very stringent cleaning measures and the ‘Hands, Face, Space’ mantra. All staff continue to wear masks outside of their bubbles and in any shared space and any parents and carers with children in school are really helping with this too. Thank you.

The work this week has been fantastic too! In and out of school, we have seen some wonderful things.  Nursery and Reception have continued their Wintery topic whilst also looking at the week’s weather (which thankfully has been diverse and, at times, extreme). Year 1 have produced some fantastic Emperor Penguin Booklets; Year 2 has seen some super Rainforest art work; Year 3 have been looking at rocks and volcanoes (including a fabulous looking volcano cake!); Year 4 have created and run some frosty ice experiments; Year 5 continue to create their fabulous Greek Myth based stories (not ALL are Greek myth based now, I will not lie) and Year 6 are carrying on with their ‘Do Spitfires really spit fire?’ WWII topic. I was lucky enough to catch a few minutes of a lesson where one of our pupils was telling the class about their Great-Great Grandfather’s time as a Prisoner of War. It was really moving in fact.

A huge thank you to all who have filled in the Parent Questionnaire set by the Bridge Mat – it is not too late if you have yet to fill it in and we would really appreciate any response. The responses that I have read today have been really useful for us moving forward and honestly appreciate you telling us anything that might help us to help you. As soon as we can, we will set timings for each year group’s live sessions, so that we are not all trying to be online and live at the same time and each week you should see, in whatever year group your child is in, an overview of the week for you to use to best plan what you might be able to manage. Please note that the message is still: whatever you can do is enough. We know just how hard this week has been; it seems a lot harder this week I think, and I know that a lot of parents, and teachers, are really feeling it. PLEASE remember that we are here to help; do get in touch if you need to.

The link for the parent questionnaire is here: https://www.bridgeschools.co.uk/Parent-Questionnaire-January-2021 

Now, this week’s assembly is about Mental Health. Next week sees Children’s Mental Health week 2021 and we are opening the week with a whole school (country!) assembly. All those in school will be logging onto listen to the Oak Academy’s assembly on Monday morning at 9am and we would love it if you were able to too. The link for the assembly is below:

https://www.thenational.academy/blog/join-our-assembly-for-childrens-mental-health-week-2021 

We also have loads of wellbeing and Mental Health Activities planned for the week – do look on Teams (Years 1-6) or Tapestry to see what you can do.

Cornwall County Council, via SUSTRANS (Sustainable Transport, the people who run walk to school week and so on), have also sent through a lot of activities that they have devised that do not require the use of a screen (hurrah!). Please see below for a link to these too (they come up in You Tube):

Video links: Primary School Playlist: http://tiny.cc/6xi8tz

Once again, if you are struggling to get online, or are finding it tricky with more than one child in the house and not enough devices, PLEASE let us know as if we can help, we will.

Thank you so much for your continued support. We miss you all. Please don’t forget to be kind to yourselves and we hope to see you soon. Even if it is not straight after Half Term (latest guidance is back to school at the earliest 8 March).;

Enjoy the weekend as much as you can and stay safe.

Kindest regards

Ms Whitlock

The RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) are holding a National event called the Big Garden Birdwatch.

It is completely free to sign up for at the following web address https://www.rspb.org.uk/ 

They are asking people of ALL ages to count the number of birds that they see in their gardens, for one hour, over the weekend 29th Jan - 31st Jan.

All you have to do is register at the website and you can request resources either electronically or by post.

Best wishes and happy bird watching!

Dear Parents and Carers

Thank you so much for all that you have done this week in terms of making sure that pupils are accessing work, attending Live Team meetings, checking back and watching meetings if you miss the live ones, sending in work, emailing us and picking up the ‘phone if we call. We know just how challenging it all is and we have been amazed by the impressive quality of so much of the work that has been sent and uploaded. The pupils in class, whether they are here for one day or all week have been amazing too and I have seen some truly magnificent work. Year 6 today were drawing Spiderman and the ones that I have seen uploaded are SO much better than anything I could ever do. I was lucky enough to listen to some of Year 5’s story openings this morning and there was some seriously good work in there. I feel some book deals coming on…. Nursery children have been working very hard on their winter topic; Reception children have been working really hard on their winter topic and have been exploring how best to melt ice in very inventive ways. Year 2 have been writing their own version of the Slowly, Slowly, Slowly story and are doing very well indeed (my story would have been quietly, quietly, quietly, crept the mouse I think…). Year 4 made Viking Shields and this was a VERY popular activity – we saw some stupendous ones! Year 3 and Year 1 have made some super edible things this week (Year 1 did not find the penguin sadly, as he has decided to stay in Antarctica) and I have also had some really positive feedback on the orienteering that Year 3 have been doing too. One parent said that the whole family got out of the house to complete the orienteering course that was plotted around the town and that they ALL loved it. Good work all!

Once again, if you are struggling to get online, or are finding it tricky with more than one child in the house and not enough devices, PLEASE let us know as if we can help, we will.

My assembly for this week is varied (!). I talk about some news that has happened this week and I start to teach the beginning of a very catchy Cornish Song ‘Harry’s Song For Cornwall’ and I am predicting that you will LOVE it. And, you can then sing it for the rest of the week after Monday. I also decided to read a lovely book that I heard in a Nursery session this week (It’s amazing what you can hear in a school corridor). Do give it a listen next week for some (hopeful) light relief.

I wonder if I could also please ask you a favour. We would like to know how we are doing with our remote learning provision.  If you get a minute, please could you complete the questionnaire linked below. It will really help us to know if we need to tweak anything but also helps us breathe a sigh of relief if you are happy with what we are doing.  Thank you.

https://www.bridgeschools.co.uk/Parent-Questionnaire-January-2021

We miss seeing everyone in school. We cannot wait to be all together again, but for now, please take care and keep doing what you can, when you can. Don’t forget to be kind to yourself.  This is the most important thing.

>Enjoy the weekend as much as you can and stay safe

Kindest regards

Ms Whitlock