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

On Wednesday 20th March Year 3 had their Roman and Celt WOW day! This day celebrated all things Celt and Roman with activities throughout the day including baking Rock buns, creating Mosaic tiles, a Roman Numeral challenge and designing our own Roman or Celt outfit. The day finished with an epic battle between the Celts and the Romans! Everyone fought bravely and safely but we all died in the end! The battle highlights can been seen at our upcoming class assembly- a must watch!



Also this week we visited the Church to talk to Reverend Steve about how Christians celebrate Holy Week and Easter. Year 3 asked some really good questions and enjoyed looking around the Church. 


We look forward to starting our new topic- How does the World Survive and Thrive next term. 


The Year 3 Team 
 

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.

Week 5 - Marvellous Maps!

English

This week, the children have shown off their skills in their reading assessments and we were really proud of how well they listened to instructions and for their brilliant reading and comprehension. We then started our poetry unit and learnt about alliteration where words with the same sound are used for impact in writing. We had fun trying to learn some tongue twisters, like "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers"! 
The children came up with their own alliterative words, such as "dancing dog" and "Freddie fox". Children then took a poem about creatures under the sea and changed the adjective to one of their own. We had some great examples, including "squirty squids", "crusty crabs" and "shiny starfish". Next week, we will be writing our own poems about what is at the bottom of the garden. 

Maths

Children have continued learning about place value to 50 and have been looking at one more and one less than a given number to 50. For this, they have been learning to use number squares to 50 and have been able to find a number and work out one more and one less. We have been really impressed with their knowledge and how hard they have worked. 

Geography

We have been learning about maps this week and talked about where we find them - paper maps, on grown up's phones, in the car, in towns and cities, on the camel trail - they had some great ideas about where they were. We used Digimaps to find Cornwall and zoomed in to find Wadebridge and our school. We looked at the difference between a satellite image and a map and learnt what a key is. We then used our knowledge to go into the playground to look what features there are and to plot them onto a map. Next week, we will use this information to make a map of the playground. Children had to find different features and draw them in the correct place on their map, for example, the shed had to be to the left of the Year 2 classrooms and the climbing frame was next to a picnic bench. Children found it difficult at first not to draw the object from their viewpoint but to think of it as a "birds eye view". We studied some more maps in the classroom and talked about the difference. We are looking forward to drawing our maps next week. 

Reminders

We have a shorter week next week with it being Easter and break up on Thursday at 1pm. 

We will still have PE on Wednesday so please send your child into school in their PE kit. 

Library day is Thursday - please do bring your books back in to change for the holidays. 

Please make sure your child has their book bag every day so they are able to read with adults in school, thank you.

Have a lovely weekend!

The Year 1 Team

Thank you to all the parents and family members 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’.

Don’t forget we have an early finish next week (Thursday) before we break up for the Easter holiday.

Many thanks Year 2

Week 2 in Little Nursery

This week in Little Nursery we have been very busy Making our very own Ladybirds using a number of materials. We sat in a large group first and looked at different pictures of Ladybirds, we read 'What the ladybird heard' and we talked about where we would find a Ladybird and their different characteristics.




















We have been exploring capacity's during a food activity, by selecting, filling and emptying containers. The children used spoons to stir and empty the Rice Krispie mix into their selected cake case. Whilst doing this activity we talked about more, less, full, empty, little and big. Each child were able to chose their own colour cake cases, showing their growing sense of self through asserting their likes, dislikes, choices and decisions. 

Planting Sunflower Seeds

Welcome back everyone!

To start our wonderful topic of 'Things that grow' this summer term we have had lots of fun planting our very own Sunflower seeds. We are encouraging the children's exploration and curiosity of living things by carefully planting, watering and looking after plants they have grown from seeds.
The children had lots of fun planting their seeds this week we cannot wait to see them grow.

Design Technology

This week, Year 4 have had lots of fun learning how to make sling shot cars.  We looked at real cars to see how they were designed and noticed how racing cars were shaped differently to saloon cars.
We started off by making the chassis of our car and used lolly sticks to make the frame with dowels and straws to create the axles.  Next, we made paper templates for the upper body of the car and then cut them out in stiff card; remembering to include some tabs to allow for joining.

At times, we had to be very resilient Keep-going Koalas, especially when our car designs didn’t go to plan.  We had to solve problems which arose when some of the parts broke because the joints weren’t strong enough to hold the car’s shape.  It was not easy to line up the paperclip hook with the elastic band flinger so that the car moved forward in a straight line.
Once they were finished, there was great excitement for race day!  We tested the cars to see whose car would travel the farthest.  After several heats hotly contested heats, we found our winner.  Louis took first prize with an impressive performance as his car travelled the whole length of the classroom. 
Miss Bragg reminded everyone how to show good sportsmanship and explained that she would award a prize, not only for the winner but for someone who showed encouragement and support to others.  Miss Bragg was pleased to award Daisy with the prize for being very sporting and positive towards others.

We not only learnt a lot about how to make an effective design, we also learnt how to be resilient and how to win and lose with good grace.

Spring 2 - Week 4 - Year 5 are keeping S.M.A.R.T! 

English

This week in English, the children performed an oral discussion. They gathered research based on the theme ‘Should exotic animals be kept as pets’, in pairs they looked closely at the positive and negative impacts. Next, they picked a side and navigated an oral debate. They were given sentence stems to support with how they could lead into their arguments. Finally, in pairs, they performed to the class. The purpose of this lesson was to allow the children the opportunity to gather information for their persuasive writing.

In the follow-on lesson; the children wrote persuasive texts arguing their side of the argument. They broke it down into 3 main arguments and used evidence and statistic to support. We then came back together at the class, where we modelled a conclusion for the children discussing the success criteria and its contents. Towards the end of the week, we moved onto setting descriptions, the children used the map from the story ‘Shark Caller’ as inspiration to write about their settings. Their aim was use to a range of stylistic devices to enhance their descriptions. As a result, they were then able to write a detailed recount of their own arrival on the Papua New Guinea island, detailing all they could see, hear, taste, touch and smell.

Maths

In Maths, the children continue with their perimeter and area learning journey. This week, we started to look at the perimeter of polygons and rectilinear shapes before moving onto the area. The children now know that the perimeter is the outside of the shape and the area is the inside.

The children were also able to articulate that for working out the area they needed to know their times tables! EEEEK. Please do continue to encourage your children to access TTRS at home, it is such a great tool in building your child’s fluency in recalling multiplication facts. Another great resources which myself and Mrs. Callister advocate is flash cards. They removed the pressures of speed and allow the children to really pinpoint to the facts that they do not know.   

Towards the end of the week, the children completed this term PUMA assessments which has a mixture of arithmetic and reasoning questions. This is where the children have the opportunity to show off all they have learnt across Spring Term.

Wider Curriculum

In Wider Curriculum this week we have been Scientists exploring FORCES. The children completed an investigation, answering the question ‘Does the mass of an object affect the force of gravity?’ – The children were given a range of balls all of a different mass, they dropped the balls from the same height, recording the speed in which they fell. “The heavier and bigger the object the bigger it’s gravitational pull” – Lochy 5B. During the lesson, the children also learnt lots of interesting information about gravity and its founder Sir Isaac Newton.

Next, the children explored Air resistance, completing another investigation with a parachute drop. The focus within these lessons was the children’s ability to observe, record and explain their findings in a conclusion.

Online Safety Visit

On Wednesday the 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 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!

Important Dates:

·      Parent’s evening – Tuesday 26^th March / Wednesday 27^th March 2024, please book your appointment on arbor.

·      Wednesday 20^th March 2024 – Year 5 children will be performing their music piece to parents lead by our music man Tony at 2:40pm

Spring 2 - Week 4 - In the Navy!

On Wednesday, Year 6 were visited by two members of the Royal Navy. We learned about the purpose of the Navy which includes protecting our waters and shipping lanes around the world. They also provide aid and assistance to people who have experienced natural disasters. We completed two activities with them. The first, challenged the children to make a flare and the second to make a tower that had to be: taller that 6 foot, free standing and able to bear the weight of a ‘satellite’. The children demonstrated great team-work, resilience and perseverance when completing these challenges.

English
This week, the children have been applying the skills they have learned over the past unit of writing to write an ending to our class story ‘Darwin’s Dragons’. This includes using a variety of sentence types to keep their writing interesting and using parenthesis to add extra detail. Next week, they will be drawing upon the book to write their own fantasy fiction stories.

Maths
We have spent the past couple of weeks learning about statistics. The children have learned to interpret and draw: line graphs, dual bar charts and pie charts. We finished the unit by learning how to find the mean and how to find the total when given the mean. We’re now moving onto our next unit of learning which is Shape.

Geography
In our wider curriculum learning, we have been Geographers! We have compared and contrasted the physical features of Great Britain and the Galapagos Islands. We have also considered the impact that human activity is having on physical geography. We looked at the impact globally and then more specifically on the Galapagos Islands. We carried out an experiment with ice cubes that demonstrated that ice melting will cause sea temperatures to rise. We have also considered our carbon footprint and what we can do to reduce greenhouse emissions.

Reminders
For homework this week, children need to complete: Punctuating Speech (pages 56 & 57) in their SPaG books and Statistics (pages 82-87 ) in their maths books.

Best wishes,
The Year 6 Team

Week 4 - Dressing up fun! 

Another fun filled week and topped off with Red Nose Day celebrations today. The theme was "do something funny for money" and we started the week with our WPA Red Nose Day Bake Off event. We had lots of entries from Year 1 who had clearly been busy over the weekend creating some funny yummies that were sold at break times and raised a good amount for Comic Relief. Well done to everyone who took part and thank you to everyone who bought a cake. Thank you also for your donations today, which will be added to our cake sale money and sent to Comic Relief. Today, we read about the history of Comic Relief in our guided reading lesson and the children then worked in house teams to answer questions about what they had read, using their retrieval skills to find the answers. They worked brilliantly together and there was some great teamwork on show as well as some great retrieval skills.  

RE

We started the week by welcoming a special visitor - the lovely Daya - who came in to talk to the children about Islam and how Muslims live. She spoke to the children about the headwear Muslim girls wear and some of the girls were more than happy to model it! She then let the children dress up in different outfits she had brought with her - prayer caps for the boys and beautiful dresses for the girls. They watched a video of the inside of a Mosque in London and watched how Muslims pray - facing East towards Mecca (we learnt that this is a very special place for Muslims who are encouraged to visit once in their lifetime). We learnt that Muslims pray 5 times a day and the children acted out how it is done. Daya was very impressed with the knowledge the children already had of Islam from their learning in RE so far this term. They were able to tell her there were 5 pillars of Islam and she talked a little about these. We finished off with some traditional Bhangra dancing, which is surprisingly energetic and the children had a great time trying this and a form of Bhangra ballet. What a great way to start the week off! 

English

We have been retelling the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, using our adventurous vocabulary, exclamation marks and suffixes to make our stories more interesting. The children have worked really hard on them and are looking forward to showing you them on parents evening. 

Science

We created our bean diaries last week and this week we have been closely observing the beans we are trying to grow on the wet paper towel. Children were very excited to observe that some of their beans have started to germinate, whilst others are yet to do so. We have been keeping a close eye on our cress plants too and these are growing nicely - we were a little worried at the start of the week as there was no growth in half of the plants but now each pot has some seedlings in. We have been recording our findings in our diaries. We will continue to observe the growth of the cress and beans over the next 2 weeks.

Reminders

Parents evening will be on Tuesday 26th and Wednesday 27th March - please continue to book your appointments via Arbor. If you have any issues with booking, please speak to the office who should be able to help you. 

No dressing up days next week so normal school uniform all days but Wednesday, which is PE kit please. 

Have a lovely weekend.
The Year One Team

Spring 2 - Week 4 - We're digging our learning.

Our focus story this week has been 'The Enormous Turnip'. The children have learnt the story and have looked closely at the characters and the setting. They have been able to sequence the story and both classes have created the own versions of the story. For this, they thought long and hard about the characters in the story.  We then discussed the vocabulary that they wanted to use and made the story map together. We were  very impressed with how well the children learnt and adapted the story.

In the creative area,  the children had a good look at some different root vegetables and were then able to create observational drawings of different veg as well. They took their time looking carefully at the colours and the shapes of the vegetables, using their pencils to sketch. They then added detail and definition using charcoal, finally adding a little colour using a coloured pencil. We have some fantastic artists is Reception. I'm sure they would love to show off their observational drawing skills at home too! 

In maths over the last two weeks we have been focusing on number bonds to 10, as well as ordering numbers to 10. Today we carefully placed the number cards in order on the carpet. We then asked then children to close their eyes whilst we stole one of the number cards. The children were so good at recognising which number had gone missing. Well done Reception. 

Reminders - If you have not booked in a parents consultation slot with us, please log on to Arbor and book a slot if you are able too. 

Have a wonderful weekend. 

Best wishes,

The Reception Team 

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.

RE in Year 3

This half term we have been studying Christianity and in particular Holy Week.

We have learnt about the days that led up to Easter Sunday and how Christians celebrate Easter. 

In small groups the children designed and created their own 3D models of Palm Tuesday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. 

I am sure you will agree that they look fab! Well done Year 3!

Pirates versus Merfolk

Year 4 were very excited to find out that they were going to learn and perform a proper play to a live audience.  Performing the play linked to our English unit which was all about plays; how they are written and how the stage directions help the actors to perform their roles.

We started off, like all professional plays do, by holding auditions.  The children were very keen and brave to put themselves forward for roles and we realised that we had many budding actors within Year 4.

We started our rehearsals and it wasn’t long before all the characters had learnt their parts off by heart.  It was impressive as some of the characters had a lot of speech to remember.  Next, we learnt how to use the voice to act in character and we used the stage directions to get on and off the stage.

After lots of rehearsals and a few tweaks, here and there to the play, the day of the performance soon arrived.  The performers looked amazing in their wonderful costumes and with a bit of added face paint, the actors arrived on stage.

The performances went smoothly and without a hitch!  There was not a sign of nerves and everyone remembered their lines and stage directions.  The songs were sung with enthusiasm and with a genuine joy to be performing to an audience. They really brought the performance to life.

Performing the play to an audience boosted everyone’s confidence to speak clearly and with expression. Year 4 thoroughly enjoyed the experience and can’t wait to perform again.

Spring 2, Week 3 - it's been a busy week! 

We've had such a fun week and seem to have packed all sorts in! 

St Piran's Day

The children looked great in their black, white and gold outfits and having enjoyed an assembly all about St Piran and all things Cornish the day before, we were ready to celebrate the day. Most children enjoyed a pasty for their lunch and in the afternoon, they took part in some traditional Cornish singing. They asked if we could sing "Cornwall My Home" and "Trelawney" ("The Song of the Western Men"). They spontaneously threw their arms around each other and swayed in time to the song!! 

World Book Day

Another fun packed day and the children enjoyed coming to school in their PJs - although some had fabulous outfits on too! - and bringing in their teddies and favourite books. During English, we shared our favourite books and talked about them, deciding whether they were fiction or non-fiction depending on their features. Children had time to share them in small groups and as a class, talking about their favourite parts of the book. In the afternoon, the Year 6s joined us for some shared reading. They read books to the Year 1s and some Year 1s even read stories to the Year 6s - it was wonderful to see them together, sharing stories and having a good chat about the books. As a treat, all children had a biscuit and hot chocolate so it was a lovely afternoon! We then had an assembly that featured a quiz where different staff members had filmed a short clip about a favourite book and children had to guess who it was - they were pretty good at it too! 

All of this has been on top of our "normal learning" and we've been busy with this too! 

English

We drew story maps of Jack and the Beanstalk, shared them with friends and retold the story using them. Children then worked in small groups to act out the story and performed them to the rest of the class - we have some budding actors and actresses in our midst! 

Maths

We continued our learning of place value to 50 and have been counting in 10s to 50 and building different numbers using dienes and rods and tens frames. The children are really enthusiastic about working with these bigger numbers. 

Science

Continuing with our question of "What's at the bottom of the garden?", we have been looking at the different parts of a plant and comparing different plants. This week, we planted some cress seeds carefully into little pots of soil. They are on our windowsills in the classroom and we are looking for signs of germination. The children also planted beans onto a wet paper towel in a sealed bag and we have sellotaped these to the classroom windows. We are observing carefully to see when these germinate too. We are very excited to see what happens! 

Reminder  - It is Comic Relief on Friday 15th March and it is non-uniform day. If you would like to send in a donation, please do feel welcome to but please do not feel you have to. 


Have a lovely weekend and we look forward to another fun packed week next week!

The Year 1 Team

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.

H1 Hea#LETGIRLSPLAY

This week, we celebrated St Pirans Day. The children listened to sea shanties sang by the fisherman in their boats out at sea.

They made their own Cornish flag, looking carefully at the pattern and colours on it.

The children also made their own pasties, they chose their filling and Miss Brown showed them how to crimp the pastry to keep it sealed. Gool Peran Lowen