February 2018 Archives

Penpol School: SNOW UPDATE [Closed on Friday 2nd March]

24th June 201828th February 2018 by Mr Woolcock

[Mar 1st 12.40]: Due to the on-going severe weather forecasts & safety of pupils/staff, My Doyle has decided to close the school on Friday. Take care and see you on Monday.

[Feb 28th 12.40]: Mr Doyle has made the decision that the school will be closed tomorrow. Stay safe in the snow.

[Feb 28th 11.00]: Just a message to let everyone know that Penpol is closing at 1pm today (Feb 28th) as further snow is forecast for the rest of the afternoon.

Please check local news and your texts for updates regarding the situation tomorrow.

Don’t forget your warm hats and gloves if you’re outside later!

Introducing Music in the Marquee 2018

24th May 201827th February 2018 by Admin

mitm 2018 letter

Announcing Music in the Marquee 2018

24th May 201827th February 2018 by Mr Woolcock

The last three years have seen sell out performances at our annual Music In The Marquee concerts from Bradley Johnson, Little Chix and last years Yellow. I’m delighted to say that this summer we will be hosting our fourth concert in the Marquee, featuring a somewhat familiar face…

Each year we ask the children which music they are enjoying and what sort of act they’d like to see play in our marquee at the end of the Summer term. This year the overwhelming majority of children told us they’d like to hear Ed Sheeran, with some of the older children asking in particular if Bradley Johnson could make a comeback. I am delighted to say that when I spoke to Bradley he was thrilled that we wanted him back to perform again.

So, for the second time, I’d love to introduce you to Bradley Johnson! Bradley is a singer/songwriter from Liverpool who first came to national attention as a finalist on the X Factor back in 2011 when he amazed judges with his version of Ed Sheeran’s The A Team. Since his television debut he’s been working on his own material and has been crafting his skills to become the UK’s finest Ed Sheeran tribute act. He made his first trip down to Cornwall for a sell-out show in our Marquee back in 2015 and can’t wait to come back again later this year. Bradley says: “I loved playing at your school last time, I still remember it as one of my favourite gigs. I can’t wait to be back again this year, with even more tunes for you all to enjoy!”

Bradley will be playing two sets of live music on the night, the first being a hit-filled Ed Sheeran tribute set including tunes both new and old including ‘Shape of You’, ‘Bloodstream’, ‘Thinking Out Loud’ and ‘Perfect’, followed by a later set which will also include other popular pop and rock covers as well as a selection of his own material. As always with Music in the Marquee his two sets will be accompanied by local support acts to round off the whole evenings entertainment.

Just like in previous years the event will raise money for the Penpol Friends Association and will also feature a fully licensed bar, BBQ, soft drinks, and food for everyone to enjoy. I hope you’ll agree that Music in the Marquee 2018 is already shaping up to be a phenomenal night of entertainment.

We are opening this event to the whole community, but want to give our Penpol parents the first chance to get tickets. For this reason we’re offering you a special pre-sale of tickets, starting TODAY! Tickets are priced at £8 for adults and £5 for children. Please note that all children must be accompanied by an adult.

Please return this slip and money to the office as soon as you can to secure your tickets. Music in the Marquee has been a sell out for the past three years and tickets will be on a first come first served basis.

Relive last years Music in the Marquee:

Music in the Marquee 2017

Mr Woolcock 21st July 2017

French Email Exchange Excites Year 6 Students!

26th February 2018 by Mr Emery

Year 6 Students at Penpol have begun to take part in an email exchange with a French primary school during Mr Emery’s French lessons. The students have already sent and received two letters each to a French primary school located 60 km outside of Bordeaux in South-West France.

Year 6 students wrote a quick introduction about themselves in French before Christmas to the French school, Octave Cazauvieilh. They were able to talk about their hobbies, saying what they like and dislike doing on the weekend. Every Tuesday, Year 6 students would hopefully await word from Mr Emery to see if there had been a response from their French pen-pals. After a few weeks, Classes 13 and 14 received their first responses from their pen-pals, which of course was written in French!

In the Spring term, Year 6 then wrote a description about what they look like, with a picture they drew of themselves. They also included extra details about their interests they wanted their French pen-pal to know about. Finally, they created a postcard to show off to their pen-pal the local area, with Godrevy and its lighthouse featuring prominently on most of the postcards.

Their letters were posted by mail this time and the French school were delighted with the response that had been sent from their Penpol pen-pals.

Most recently, Penpol have just received a Guess Who game. The game included a class photo of all the students in the French year 5 class, as well as a description of each one. Using the French descriptions of each student, Penpol’s Year 6 classes rose to the challenge.

It was great to try and work out who your pen-pal was from their descriptions and photo. Juliette- Class 14

Fun was had by all and great progress was made on the current topic, All About Me.

I learnt lots of extra new words to try and find out which pen-pal was mine from the picture. It was lots of fun! Ines- Class 13

Watch this space for the next flurry of emails between the French and Cornish school over the next couple of months.

Think you can spot Anaelle? Read her description below and find her in the picture …

J’ai les cheveux blonds. J’ai un pantalon gris, un T-shirt blanc et des chaussures noires. Anaelle, CM1- Octave Cazauvieilh School

Eva: Computing Star of the Week

15th June 201823rd February 2018 by Mr Woolcock

This week all of the Key Stage 2 classes have been getting to grips with our new Sphero Robots. Year 5 and 6 have been experimenting with writing code for these devices and Eva in Class 14 has shown an exceptional amount of inventiveness and creativity with her work. She has taken the task in her stride and has even completed several challenges including making her Sphero roll around a triangle shape with correct angles and side lengths. On top of this she’s shown what a great team player she is by working incredibly well with others, supporting them when they needed help and cheering them on when their robot was working.

Well done Eva, keep it up!

Stars of the Week

15th June 201823rd February 2018 by Mrs Turner

Infant Star of the Week

Class 1 – Reception – Alfie

Alfie has had an amazing week. He has done some great caption writing and is starting to form sentences. Alfie loves a challenge and completed some really difficult maths questions with only little help this week. He is really hard working and has great attention to detail. Alfie won’t hand his work in until it is perfect. Great effort this week Alfie keep up the great work.

Miss Aspden

Junior Star of the Week

Class 14 – Year 6 – Lucas

The overall Junior Star of the week is Lucas. Lucas has been extremely helpful around the classroom and always willing to lend a hand wherever it is needed. He has given up his own time to tidy the classroom and is always one of the first to offer to help his teacher and others in the class. Not only has Lucas been a fantastic role model with his helpful attitude but he has also made an exceptional effort in class – doing extra homework and always trying his hardest. Well-done Lucas!

Mr Wise

Class Stars of the Week

Class 2 – Reception – Oakley

Class 2’s star of the week is Oakley. Oakley has made a huge effort this week with his phonics by joining in with all our activities as well as doing all of the actions in our song. He has been listening really carefully to instructions and setting a brilliant example to others by taking care with his work – particularly his writing! Well-done Oakley!

Miss Nidds

Class 4 – Year 1 – Caio

Caio has had a fantastic week and been working really hard in math’s. He is very good at counting forwards and back wards in 2’s, 5’s and 10’s and today has been working on number bonds to 20 and 30. Great work Caio keep it up!.

Miss Ryan

Class 6 – Year 2 – Elijas

The star of the week for year 2 is Elijas. Over the past six weeks. Elijas has been working very hard, both inside and outside of school. Due to his perseverance and determination regarding his ‘Phonics’ knowledge’ Elijas has made great progress with his reading and writing skills. He is a very kind and caring boy who always offers to help out around the class and demonstrates good behaviour at all times. Well done Elijas and keep up the hard work!

Mrs Ruffell

Class 8 – Year 3- Eemahnee

This week, Mrs Connors and Mr Jones would like to award Star of the Week to Eemahnee Wingell. Eemahnee has worked so hard, particularly in English. Her story writing is creative, well thought out and executed. She has persevered with using inverted commas to punctuate direct speech and has shared her lovely ideas during class discussions. Eemahnee is always willing to listen to new ideas and give her very best to every aspect of her school life. She is also a very loyal and caring friend. Well-done Eemannee.

Mrs Connors

Class 10 – Year 4 – Corey

Corey is a member of the class who could get this award every single week. He is always polite and well mannered and always gives his best no matter what the challenge is. Corey knows his own weaknesses but doesn’t let that stop him from putting maximum effort in and wanting to improve. Class 10 have recently started a reading challenge, which Corey has excelled in and is now the one to beat. He reads every night and continually gets 10/10 on his spellings.

Keep it up Corey!

Miss Simpson

Class 12 – Year 5 – Freya

Freya always works hard and with enthusiasm in all subjects. She has a lovely manner with all her peers and she is respectful and kind. She is a great role model in class in how to be a super learner and a good person to all. I have been very impressed with the quality of her vocabulary and varied punctuation and sentences in story writing recently. She has also been ‘gymtastic’ in gymnastics when modelling movements with poise and balance. Freya has been bringing in some amazing homework from the homework grid, particularly artwork. She has been very helpful and enthusiastic in class. Keep up the great work Freya!

Mr Peck

Class 13 – Year 6- Lilly

This week’s star of the week for Class 13 is Lilly. Lilly always strives to do her best in all aspects of her learning. Her confidence is growing and she shows this by putting her hand up during class discussions more frequently. She is also very helpful in class and very polite to everyone she talks to including the dinner ladies. Well-done Lilly keep up the brilliant work!

Mr Pollard

Languages Stars of the Week

15th June 201823rd February 2018 by Mrs Turner

Infant Languages Star of the Week

Class 4 – Year 1 – Bruce

Bon effort Bruce! What has been very impressive in French this week has been Bruce’s willingness to share his knowledge of French to others in the class. This week, we have been learning about the different weather we usually get during each season… in French of course! His accent is improving week by week and he has tried really hard singing songs in French lessons. An excellent effort Bruce, keep up the hard work!

Mr Emery

Junior French Star of the Week

Class 8 – Year 3 – Finn P

Finn is a very motivated student who tries his hardest in all aspects of French. This week, Finn really shone and quickly got to grips with recognising different items of clothing in French. Despite not winning in Jacques a dit (Simon says), Finn showed excellent perseverance and came runner-up twice. Students enjoyed the excellent weather outside and it’s incredible to see how well all students are able to follow instructions in French while playing French games outside in the school playground. Well done Finn for all your hard work in French!

Who will be next week’s Junior Star of the Week?

Mr Emery

Around The World With Class 2

22nd February 2018 by Miss Nidds

Since Christmas Class 2 have been learning about the different continents and countries all around the world. The class have learnt about their own country, as well as others such as China, Mexico, Hawaii and the Arctic. The children have enjoyed looking at lots of photos and videos to see what different places look like and even have a travel agents in the classroom where they can pretend to book holidays!

The class also got the chance to use Google Earth in our IT lessons with Mr Woolcock to look at some different places and really enjoyed the randomise button which showed them lots of different places all over the world.

I liked looking at the places on the computer. I went to China. China is a big country – Hunter

The class have also been thinking about the different ways people travel around the world and some children have been busy making hot air balloons in the afternoons.

We have to put the paper and glue on first. We wait for it to dry and then paint it. I painted mine purple -Kensa

Here are some pictures of the finished balloons!

Class 2 have also been learning about the different animals that live in different countries and the children particularly enjoyed learning all about the animals that live in the Arctic and Antartica! Some have put their artistic skills to use by drawing some great pictures during free choice.

My picture has reindeer in it – Tilly

As a class, we have also been learning about different celebrations from around the world. Before half term, we celebrated Chinese new year in class and tried some different foods from China using chopsticks. We had great fun trying to use them!

The children have also been busy practising some dances from different countries and we are looking forward to showing off our moves to parents in a few weeks time!

Sphero Rolls into Penpol School

24th May 201821st February 2018 by Mr Woolcock

One of the reasons we visit the BETT Show in London each January is to try and find exciting and innovative ideas to bring back into the classroom at Penpol. This year we’ve returned with a dozen brand new Sphero SPRK+ Robots for the children to get to grips with.

These small plastic robots are pretty clever, despite their simple appearance. Each robot can move at up to two meters a second, controlled remotely via iPad and can run complex sequences of code written by the children.

To get to grips with these new resources the children in Key Stage 2 have been spending time learning how to connect to the devices, how to steer and drive them and of course, having a little bit of fun along the way. It’s pretty exciting to have a Computing lesson without being sat in front of a computer!

“It’s a great thing to have races with, if you watch the video we did in the hall it was educational to learn how to code but also fun to race them.” – Phoenix, Class 13

“They’re very fun to play with and they’re great to have races with.” – Jake, Class 13

“I like the Spheros’ because they’re fun and great to learn with and I can’t wait to tell my mum that we had a really fun day in Computing with Mr Woolcock!” – Jowan, Class 13

I think it’s safe to say we’re looking forward to writing lots of interesting programs for the Sphero in the future.

“The Spheros’ are really fun and educational at the same time, I’d recommend them to anyone!” – Joe, Class 13

Investigating volume with Year 6

20th February 2018 by Mr Pollard

This week we have been investigating the volume of different cuboids, using blocks to help find ways to create a shape with the same volume as another.

The children found many ways to make a cuboid with an area of 36cm cubed, including Ben W’s findings that a cuboid measuring 0.75cm x 24cm x 2cm would match that criteria!

It was enjoyable to investigate in a fun and immersive way.