I am very much looking forward to starting as Headteacher at Wadebridge Primary Academy after Easter. I have thoroughly enjoyed my recent visits as part of the transition process. I’ve really noticed the warmth and positive relationships between staff and children, as well as the quality of education shining through. I would like to say a particular thank you to the leadership team and all the staff and children, as well as the wider Trust for their support.

I am passionate about creating an inclusive and supportive learning environment where children and staff can thrive and make a positive difference. I share the school’s commitment in meeting the unique needs of all children and ensuring they have a sense of belonging and wellbeing.

My family and I recently returned to Cornwall after 6 years abroad, where I was a Headteacher of British international schools in The Netherlands and Asia. Prior to this, I was Headteacher at Fowey Primary for 8 years.

In my free time, I enjoy playing the piano, singing, cooking and enjoying the great outdoors. I’m already looking forward to the weekly singing assemblies!

After Easter, I’ll be in touch again about some informal opportunities to come in and meet with me. I will be interested in getting feedback from parents about what we do well and what we could possibly develop. On a day-to-day basis, I hope to see many of you at drop off and collection as well as various events next term.

I look forward to continuing the school’s journey, building on the many successes, and helping to shape its future. I’m committed to working with the whole school community to meet our aspiration that children will learn, thrive and excel.

Best wishes,

Chris Wathern

Year Two Rainforest Café

Thank you to everyone  who joined us for our Rainforest café this week. It was wonderful to see the children excited to show you their learning that they have done over this term. There were lots of proud faces from the grown ups too! Thank you for all your kind donations we have raised over £100 that we will be use to hopefully adopt a rainforest animal. The children have been deciding which animal that will be. Not only this, the children did an amazing job in their class assembly to showcase all of their learning which included a powerful song ‘Anthem of the rainforest’. 

Year Three WOW Day

On Wednesday Year 3 had their Roman and Celt dress up WOW day. The children's costumes looked incredible, and the day was full of fun activities including baking Roman Rock buns, creating our own Mosaic masterpieces, and designing a Roman outfit. The day finished with an epic battle between the Romans and the Celts- the highlights of which will be shown at the upcoming Year 3 class assembly.

Bridge Schools Alternative Sports Day

On Thursday, six pupils from Year 5 and 6 went to Looe Primary School to join other schools from our Trust in an 'Alternative Sports' day. The children got to experience Ultimate Frisbee, Fencing, Street Surfing and mini Segways! Safe to say they really enjoyed themselves! The aim of the day was to promote teamwork and active participation, which our pupils certainly did! They were a credit to WPA.

On Wednesday the Y5 children were lucky enough to have a visit from the local police who came to talk to them all about online safety. During the session, the children discussed the different kinds of apps and games that can be accessed online, along with their age limits. It was interesting to see how many children access games that are above their age bracket. However, one of the key messages from the police was understanding that these games and apps will be used but it’s how to use them safely that’s important.

The children were presented with the acronym:

S – Stay safe
M– Don’t MEET up with strangers you have talked to online.
A – Think before ACCEPTING anyone online.
R – Not everyone is RELIABLE. They may not be who they seem to be.
T – TELL a responsible adult if you feel uncomfortable or worried.

This acronym is now displayed in the classroom for all to see! It was also wonderful having these important messages presented by people from our local services with stories that link to our community. The children were then allowed to ask questions about online safety and their jobs as the police. The session was extremely informative and opened our eyes as teachers to the importance of keeping our children safe online. As a whole, it was an exciting morning, especially when the children saw Mrs Callister and Miss Beckett locked up in handcuffs! EEK!

On the same day, Year Six had the exciting opportunity to work with members of the Royal Navy.
6B and 6W took part in two practical workshops: building a communication tower and making and launching a rocket. The children were deeply engrossed in both activities and were using and developing a whole host of invaluable skills including teamwork, resilience, effective communication and problem solving.

At the end of the workshops, the classes were given the opportunity to learn more about the different roles within the Navy, find out what day-to-day life is like and how they defend the seas. Curiosity and questions were in abundance. Just like their rockets and towers, it was wonderful to see enthusiasm and learning reach new heights.

Red Nose Day Cake Sale 2024

Thank you so much to everyone who has taken part in the Red Nose Day cake sale this week.

Whether you were able to send in a funny cake design or whether you purchased one of the goodies at playtime, we are really grateful for your support.

Well done to Betsy, Toby, Annie and Evie who won the baking competition and thank you to our School Councillors who helped us to judge and sell the cakes. Great teamwork!

From the cake sale alone we have been able to raise £227 and we look forward to raising even more on Friday, when children are invited to wear their own clothes or something funny.

We've had the best day celebrating the magic of books and reading! 
Today the children came to school dressed in their pyjamas following the bedtime stories theme or dressed as their favourite book character. 
They had a chance to complete a range of World Book day activities, including a live event through The National Literacy Trust called 'The Great Big Footy and Booky Quiz'. 
Each class then buddied up with another class in the school to share their favourite stories.
We ended the day with a special assembly where children had to guess the teacher's favourite books. Watch below or pop over to our Facebook page to see the video. 
Happy World Book Day! 

This week, I have had the pleasure of accompanying children to the 'Wadebridge Festival of Music and Speech'.

Children across the school have been working hard to learn a poem (some of them being over 3 pages!) and perform it to an audience in the Town Hall. The children have impressed me with their ability to perform with clarity and confidence. It takes a huge amount of determination to stand in front of a room full of strangers! The children received fantastic feedback from the judge, such as "You really started to 'lift' the words from the poem". 

Well done to all of the children who took part in the poetry performance and musical performances too. 

On Wednesday, the Year 5 and 6 boys were out of school so the girls from both year groups spent the day together completing a number of activities.

They carried out the ruler reaction activity to test their reaction times. Then, they learned how to carry out data handling using the results that they had collected. They also completed the egg drop challenge! In small groups, they designed and engineered a 'carrier' for their egg. This carrier had to prevent their egg from breaking when dropped from a height. Most of the groups were successful and managed to keep their egg intact! In the afternoon, they sketched and painted dragons.

Everyone enjoyed the day and it was wonderful to see the Year 5 and 6 girls working so well together!

Meanwhile, the boys had the opportunity to head up to the Royal Cornwall Show Ground. Here, they participated in a range of military based activities led by the coaches at DT sport as well as sports leaders/captains from Wadebridge Secondary School.

The children had the opportunity to use their team building skills, unravelling themselves from a human chain and getting themselves in height order or order of their shoe size. They had the chance to play laser tag, using their strategy skills to defend themselves within the course and plan their defensive approach to protect their base. They even had the chance to build fire and make hot chocolate!

To end the day, the children then all took part in a military obstacle course, where they had to hop, dodge, sprint and weave between obstacles, before diving under a net and army crawling through the mud. The race was on for this, competing against other schools, teams, adults and even some teachers! We are incredibly proud of our boys and felt they represented WPA well.

Here is a reminder about the two important events taking place next week...

St Piran’s Day- Tuesday 5th March
To mark the occasion of St Piran’s Day on Tuesday 5th March we will be celebrating all things Cornish and invite the children to come to school dressed in the Cornish colours black, white and gold. Gool Peran Lowen! Please note that there is also a special menu for this day. You can make your booking via ParentPay.

World Book Day- 7th March

World Book Day is taking place at our school on Thursday 7th March and we would like to celebrate this day with all things book related! Our theme this year is ‘Bedtime Stories’ and we invite your child to come to school wearing pyjamas or onesies and bring along their favourite cuddly toy and their favourite book (please name them!). We know that some children enjoy dressing as a book character on this day, so of course if your child would rather do that, then go ahead! However, we do not expect parents to go to the expense of buying new costumes.

Children will take part in reading themed activities throughout the day within their class and will be buddying up with children from other classes in the afternoon for some paired reading over some hot chocolate and biscuits.

World Book Day celebrates the joy and value of books and reading. To help get them started on their reading journey, every child receives a £1 World Book Day Book Token that can either be exchanged for one of special £1 World Book Day books or used to get £1 off any book costing £2.99 or more. You can find out more about the books at www.worldbookday.com/books-and-tokens/books/ 

See you next week! 

Mrs Lee-Elkins 

Despite the endless rain this week, we have made a great start to the second half of the Spring Term and the school has been full of energy and enthusiasm!

The children have returned to school well and attendance is looking better this week with a percentage of 95%. We are getting closer and closer to our whole school target. RW have wowed us with 100% attendance (Mon-Thu). Go RW! 

On Wednesday, the Year 6 Girls took part in Our Girls Can. The day aimed to promote diverse, challenging activities and develop girl’s confidence in and through sport. They completed three different sessions: archery, laser tag and dance. 7 primary schools in the area also took part, so it was an excellent opportunity to meet other girls from other schools that will also be going to Wadebridge School in September. The girls really enjoyed the day and they did us proud - fully taking part in every activity and giving it their all in the final dance performance!

This week my Headteacher's award has gone to Eliot for impressing us with his determination to continually improve his writing and Sidney for being a great role model. As we look towards the End of KS2 Assessments, Miss May has been supporting the children to identify their next steps to improve their writing. Our Y6 cohort is made up fantastic children (and staff!) who are working incredibly hard to achieve their absolute best. Well done Year 6! 

Next week I am looking forward to taking groups of children down to the Town Hall for the Wadebridge Speech and Music Festival. I will keep you posted with how we get on! 

Please do have a read of the blog below for the many, many events taking place this term. 

Best wishes, 

Mrs Lee- Elkins 
Acting Headteacher 

Welcome Back!

I hope that you all had a fantastic half term break. It has been great to see the children back in school today following the Inset Day and Half Term. The teachers had a busy inset day where Miss Beckett gave us some useful Maths updates and Mrs Keat shared ideas about the importance of celebrating Art within our curriculum and how we can support children to use sketchbooks to explore and showcase their learning. 

A big welcome to any new families who have joined us this term too. It's always good to see new faces around the school! I am also really excited to welcome back Mrs Stephens (previously Miss Bishop) and Mrs Smerdon, who have both returned from Maternity Leave and will be teaching in 3W.

I will write to you on Friday with my usual blog, but here is a quick update with the exciting events taking place this term.

St Piran’s Day- Tuesday 5th March

To mark the occasion of St Piran’s Day on Tuesday 5th March we will be celebrating all things Cornish and invite the children to come to school dressed in the Cornish colours black, white and gold. Gool Peran Lowen! Please note that there is also a special menu for this day. You can make your booking via ParentPay.

Book Fair- 26th February

We are pleased to announce that the Scholastic book fair will once again be held in the school library in the week beginning 26th February. The Book Fair will be open to browse and buy books every morning that week from 8am-8.30am and afterschool 3.10-3.30pm in the school hall/ Library. All classes will also have the opportunity to visit the Book Fair during the week to browse.

World Book Day- 7th March World

Book Day is taking place at our school on Thursday 7th March and we would like to celebrate this day with all things book related! Our theme this year is ‘Bedtime Stories’ and we invite your child to can come to school wearing pyjamas or onesies and bring along their favourite cuddly toy and their favourite book (please name them!). We know that some children enjoy dressing as a book character on this day, so of course if your child would rather do that, then go ahead! However, we do not expect parents to go to the expense of buying new costumes. Children will take part in reading themed activities throughout the day within their class and will be buddying up with children from other classes in the afternoon for some paired reading over some hot chocolate and biscuits. World Book Day celebrates the joy and value of books and reading. To help get them started on their reading journey, every child receives a £1 World Book Day Book Token that can either be exchanged for one of special £1 World Book Day books or used to get £1 off any book costing £2.99 or more. You can find out more about the books at www.worldbookday.com/books-and-tokens/books/ These tokens are valid from Feb 15th and will be given to the children today.

Red Nose Day- Monday 11th March and Friday 15th March

Red Nose Day is back! Let's do something funny for money! Or in our case Yummy! This year, we would like to launch a ‘Red Nose Day Bake Off’ to raise money for Comic Relief. The money we raise could help put food on plates and roofs over heads, keep little ones safe and support families affected by conflict and climate change. At WPA, we are going to bake up a storm! To enter, you must send your comical creation (the funnier the better) into school on Monday 11th March. Please ensure that you include a list of ingredients with your bakes so that we can be aware of allergies. The funniest yummy bake will be awarded a prize, and then all the funny yummies will be on sale in the hall at playtimes throughout the week. Please send your child to school with 50p if they would like to buy a tasty treat.

On Friday 15th March (Red Nose Day) children are invited to come into school in non-uniform and are welcome to be in fancy dress if they choose, after all, the theme is 'Do something funny for money!', but please do not go to any extra expense. If you could like to make a donation towards comic relief on this day, you are more than welcome to send your child to school with some change, however, the bake sale is our fund raising event this year so please do not feel obligated.

Parents' Evening- Tuesday 26th March and Wednesday 27th March

We will shortly open the bookings for the 10 minute meetings so please do log on to Arbor to confirm your appointment.

This week our focus for 'Shining Stars' is PE Superstars- I look forward to updating you on Friday about who has received awards!

Many thanks,

Mrs Lee- Elkins

Acting Headteacher