Summer 1 - Week 3 - Healthy bodies, healthy minds, healthy hearts... 

English

In English this week, the children came to the end of their emotive writing, learning journey. Their main ‘Big write’ was to write a recount in the form of the letter. Within the letter, the children had to recall the old man’s time in the war, the moment he lost his friend and the time he first laid eyes on his wife. The content of the letter embedded skills and knowledge learnt across the learning journey.

Once the children completed their letters, they wrote them up into their star writer books!

Our next learning journey is based on the genre ‘Myths and Legends’ – The children will explore the text ‘The Legend of Podkin One-Ear’.

Maths

In Maths this week, we began looking at our old arithmetic papers during our carousel activity. The children had time to look at questions marked incorrectly and re-attempt them. They had support in addressing misconceptions and setting next step targets.

For the rest of the week, the children continued their shape learning journey. The morning work supported this, where the children had the opportunity to develop their skills and knowledge of recognising and drawing angles accurately.

To end the journey, the children completed their end of unit assessments. They are then given their score backs and set targets accordingly.

Our next learning journey will be position and direction!

Wider  Curriculum

It was art, art and more art this week! The children began to make their insects/animals. They sculpted them using newspaper, tape and metal wire; all forming the body, head and legs.

Next, they used Modroc to protect and finalise the shape. They worked effectively to model the Modroc to fit their sculptures. Once dry, they would be ready to paint.

Some children still need to Modroc so we will continue this next week. However, the ones who were finished then went back to their sketch books to continue to develop their designs and explain their learning journey.

A special mention to Kyro and Harry who were sent to show their sketch books to Mr Wathern. These were then displayed in our shining stars assembly, WELL DONE BOYS!

Arena Health and Well-being Day

Year 5 on Friday, were lucky enough to have Arena in, to carry out a health and well-being day. The children engaged in a range of activities such as; ultimate frisbee, dodgeball, healthy eating orienteering, capture the flag and team building exercises.

We were incredibly lucky to have wonderful weather and it was great to see the children enjoying being active and working together outdoors.

We hope to have them back again soon!

Hope you have a lovely weekend,

Best Wishes,

Summer 1 - Week 2 and 3 - Amazing Africa

Over the last two weeks we have continued our topic based on' The World Outside our Window' by exploring a contrasting place to where we live in Cornwall -  the continent of Africa! We started by reading Handa's Surprise and discussed the setting and characters in the story. This led us to learning a wide range of facts all about Africa. We have looked at the 'big 5' animals that can be found there, what a carnivore, herbivore and an omnivore is,  the different types of homes that are there, the climate and the lovely fruits that Handa had in her basket. We really have been busy bees!

In maths, we have been blown away with how well they are getting on with learning their numbers up to 20. This week we have had a particularly focus on 1 more and 1 less of numbers up to 20.  The children have been true 'Have a Go Hippos' in their perseverance to understand this concept, and they are becoming more and more confident with this. Also, to help us recognise the numbers up to 20, we have been having a little game of bingo. Ask the children to tell you all about it! They absolutely love it and ask to play everyday! 

Reminders -

• Please ensure that bookbags come in daily.
  
• Sun safety - As we head into the Summer Term, we hope to see more of the sunshine and here are just a few reminders…

A busy couple of weeks!

It’s all go with our new topic, ‘Did the Cornish do a Proper Job?’ The children have completed Geography lessons where they located Wadebridge on a map and explored its locality within Cornwall. They then looked at map symbols and used this knowledge to make their own maps of Wadebridge!

This week we have been Historians and explored the history of the railway in our local area. The children learned that Bodmin and Wenford Railway had a branch line that went through Wadebridge and into Padstow. They were shocked to learn that the Camel trail was once a railway, and is now used by over 500,000 cyclists per year! We then learnt all about Tin Mines and the Tin Miners - the children had to find posters dotted around the classroom to add facts to their Tin Min Fact File. 

In PE we have been fortunate enough to have DT Coaching leading our lessons. They have been working on the pupils Striking and Fielding skills. They will spend a few weeks working on catching and throwing skills before being introduced to modified Cricket and Rounders games.

We are nearing the end of our English unit about the story, ‘The Mousehole Cat’. The children have been busy writing their own versions of the story, and adapting characters and settings. They have been using the 'Boxing up' technique for writing and planning each paragraph before writing it. We are so impressed with their use of vocabulary, adjectives, adverbs and sentence structures!

In maths we are learning about time – a tricky concept at this age, but Year 2 are taking on the challenge! It has been wonderful to hear the children tell each other what time it is throughout the school day!

Please keep up with the reading and times table rockstars at home, it really does make a difference.

Thank you,

The Year 2 Team

Courage

At the start of our Shining Stars Assembly today, we were treated to hearing music performed by Oscar, Phoebe, Imogen, Hana and Merryn.

The theme this week has been ‘Courage’ and it was fantastic to see the children show this in abundance taking to the stage to play in front of everyone. We look forward to offering this regular slot in our Shining Stars Assembly for children to showcase their skills. I know many of the children are very keen to sign up.

Teachers also recognised other acts of courage this week across the school. It is something we will continue to remind children of and support them with; especially to speak up (politely) for what they believe in or where they see unfairness.

The range and quality of learning around the classes this week has been impressive. I’ve seen amazing letter writing ‘from the trenches’ in Year 6 to Year 3 writing their own version of the Sand Horse story. Equally impressive has been the amazing Modroc artwork in Year 5.

A special well done to our youngest learners in the school (and a huge thank you to the staff) as they began the process of moving classrooms, as we re-purpose our EYFS environment. They have taken these changes in their stride.

Next week, one of the areas I want to explore further is the experience our children have at playtime and lunchtime. It’s such a crucial part of our children’s experience at school that I’m keen to see what is working well and what can be improved. I’ll be following this up with a discussion with the School Council to get their invaluable feedback.

House Points

Congratulations to this week’s winners, Puffins, earning 439 points. Our overall leaders this year so far are Choughs with an impressive 10,301 points!

Donation

We are really grateful to the Padstow Harbour Commissioners for their generous donation of £1000! We will be considering how best to use this for the benefit of our children.

Events next week

Monday 6th May Bank Holiday (School closed)

Tuesday 7th May 14:30-15:15 KS2 Parents/Carers Coffee Afternoon with Mr Wathern (Hall)

Tuesday 7th May 15:25 Year 4 Porthpean Residential Meeting for parents (4B classroom)

Thursday 9th May 08:45-09:30 EYFS/KS1 Parents/Carers Coffee Morning with Mr Wathern (Hall)

Thursday 9th May 14:15-15:00 EYFS/KS1 Parents/Carers Coffee Afternoon with Mr Wathern (Hall)

Friday 10th May Year 3 Alternative Sports Day

Friday 10th May 08:45-09:30 KS2 Parents/Carers Coffee Morning with Mr Wathern


Have a relaxing long weekend and we look forward to seeing everyone back next Tuesday.

Best wishes,

Chris Wathern

Summer 1 - Week 3 - Designing and constructing!

English
This week, the children have been completed their extended writing piece for the animated story: Alma. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading the children’s recounts of this rather creepy story. Many of the children have managed to include figurative language, imagery, short, snappy sentences to build tension, descriptions of micro-expressions and ambitious vocabulary. Some children have written a dual narrative; most of their writing has been in 3rd person but a couple of paragraphs have been in 1st person (written from the perspective of the Alma Doll). It’s great to see the children experimenting with the motivations of this character - many children have opted for the doll to be sinister which makes for great reading!

Maths
We started this week by revising arithmetic style questions. The children were responsible for identifying areas they felt less confident in and working through targeted questions. It was fantastic to see so many children finding their weaknesses and turning them into strengths. Towards the end of the week, we worked on reasoning and problem-solving questions. These questions sparked some great discussions and it was interesting to see just how many different methods the children used to tackle the questions.

DT
In our wider curriculum learning, we have continued with our automata toys projects. The children have used hot-glue guns to construct a frame and have experimented with using different cams for the moving component of the toy. The cams didn’t always work straight away and it was wonderful to see children coming up with solutions to the problems they encountered. Finishing touches will be applied to the toys at the beginning of next week.

Reminders
Please keep encouraging your children to work through the CGP books which were sent home before Easter. Children who are not going on the residential should have received a letter informing you of the activities that they will be taking part in from Monday 17th – Wednesday 19th June. Please return the permission slips for the beach trip if you haven’t already. We’re also waiting on a few more permission slips for the school disco on 22nd May.

Enjoy you bank holiday weekend!
Best wishes,
The Year 6 Team