Gweek Letter Year 4
Pony Riding at the Standing Stones Stables
Month: June 2021
Year 6 Activity Week- ‘BBQ, sleepovers and orienteering’
The biggest disappointment upon hearing our proposed camp at Porthpean was cancelled was that the children would not have the chance to stay away from home. This is often the biggest cause of anxiety for the children and a real milestone to reach; we did however manage to squeeze in a sleepover at school on Thursday night!
After our trip to the beach the children (and adults) whizzed home for a quick shower before returning to school for an evening of games and barbecued food! It’s always good to get photos of them in their most natural state- eating!
We are legally allowed to call the sleepover just that now as all children got at least some sleep. However, come breakfast and the 9.15am start for orienteering, it was clear some got more than others. The faces truly represent the morning mood for most- a stark contrast from 12 hours previous!
For the orienteering activity the children used a pre-drawn ordinance survey map of the school and some of our permanent orienteering signs. Each pair wrote their own general knowledge question before using the map to find the remaining questions. Once they’d woken up, they were buzzing around the school site answering questions from “Name of the American president?” to “Name of Peppa Pig’s brother?”- I won’t say which but Mr Peck only knew one of those!
With the children getting their second wind shortly after break, on completion of the orienteering course (winners pictured above, well done girls) we rounded off a brilliant activity week with some exceptionally competitive games of 40-40 in. A great way to finish what has been a fantastic week. Thank you to everyone involved, the places we’ve been, the staff who’ve been there and special thanks to the children for their exceptional efforts and behaviours- without them it would have been us adults playing in the Jungle Barn on our own, beating ourselves at cricket and boule and riding the Thunderbolt without a hand to hold!
Year 6 Activity Week- ‘Sun, Sea and Sand’
What a beautiful day! The sun was shining and the light was perfect for photography! With energy levels weaning after what had already been an eventful few days, we made our way to Hayle beach with wetsuits, towels and beach paraphernalia in tow. We had arranged, what turned out to be, a brilliant day on the sand and sea with Lizard Adventure.
The children had the chance to push themselves to their limits of comfort, for some that was paddling a double kayak and for others it was backflips off the mega sup. The joy of weeks like this are the smiles we see constantly pinned from ear to ear and the personal challenges we see children overcome. Both equally rewarding.
The children had the chance to try their hand at stand up paddle boarding, very on trend. It was easy if you had balance, if you didn’t, well, they spend a lot of time climbing back on.
For some it was the relative safety of the MEGASUP. Which was much calmer…until one person lost their balance and everyone was climbing back on! The MEGASUP required close communication, exceptional team work and also the ability to wrestle when it came to ‘last one standing’ – no prizes for guessing the winner!
The final of the three water based activity was kayaking, again requiring teamwork and communication in the doubles although there is photo evidence of some people not pulling their weight! Pirating aside, the children paddles around the water with ease battling the testing wind and turning tide.
Whilst half the children took to the sea the other children did their bit to protect the environment by conducting a litter sweep of the beach. The children were then tasked with building an environment themed beach sculpture. There were a host of differing designs highlighting the effects of climate change, threat to wildlife due to plastic pollution and some more ‘abstract’ pieces. A week to late for Mr Biden and Johnson though!
Once the litter was picked, and sadly there was a sizeable amount, the children had chance to play, enjoying some beach cricket, some sun and the new fan favourite, boule!
The behaviour again, was exceptional and the company was great to keep. As the week progresses I know I keep having a new favourite day! Great fun has been had by all so far and special thank to the team at Lizard Adventure! Next up… The ‘sleepover’
Year 6 Activity Week ‘The Best Day of the Week?’
On Wednesday, the Year 6 children boarded the bus and headed off to Flambards with sick bowls in hand! With the drizzle falling in Hayle, we were fortunately greeted with cloud-breaking sunshine on our arrival in Helston. There is a slight lack of photos from today due to 3 different reasons. One, a misbehaving camera. Two, the difficulty of capturing faces as they whizzed around, back to front and upside down and finally, I spent most of the day on the rides with the children!!
Some children decided to ease themselves in gently with the tea cups and some decided to avoid the queues they expected later in the day and head for the crown pleasers; The Thunderbolt, The Hornet, The Skyraker and Skyforce!
Some action shots!
Some children found the day/ combination of rides and sugar too much to cope with! However, another great day was had by all children (including the big ones!)
Sticky Jam Sandwich Fun in Year 1
Jam 3
Jam 5
Jam 6
After reading ‘The Giant Jam Sandwich’ in our ‘Talk Through Stories’ session, Year 1 explored instruction writing whilst making jam sandwiches. They focused on sequencing, using time connectives and imperative verbs.
Apart from watching their teachers get messy whilst they followed the classes vague instructions, their favourite part was of course eating them.
Jam 4Jam 5
Jam 6
Year 2 visit Penzance Gym Club
This week, all of the children in year 2 participated in their first gym session at Penzance Gym Club.
All of the children received expert coaching, whilst learning how to balance on the beam, jumping from a vault and also participating in a variety of stretch routines. All of the children had a great experience and can’t wait for their second visit next week.
Year 6 Activity Week- ‘In to the woods we go…’
Tuesday brought about a trip to Tehidy woods, again an excellent day right on our doorstep!
We set off in the hunt for the illustrious lesser-spotted Tehidy Treacle Bear, but had to bid our time with a morning of activities: den building, raft making and a blind trail.
On the children’s arrival, we were fortunate to find an already constructed blind trail (thanks Mr Peck!) Navigating this took excellent team work and careful communication and on reflection, I know who I’d not want to be leading me through the woods with a blindfold on! The children had to work in pairs to guide each other around a roped route…with varying success!
Next on the list, deep in Treacle Bear territory, was den building. Most woodlands are a brilliant places to build dens but Tehidy may be the best around! We, as adults, had the opportunity to sit in on in-depth planning meetings where floor plans and designs were discussed before witnessing the children building some breathtaking structures (none of which resembled the plans!)
After no successful sightings of the bears we headed down to the stream to craft some prototype rafts, less planning this time round, just more elastic bands! Races were had, races were lost and races were won and then there were the racers who cheated and gave it an extra throw down stream. Competition aside the children had great fun splashing in the stream! I wasn’t the only one to get wet feet!
With everything prepared for our final venture into the depths of the woods, Mr Peck made the children aware of the various animal actions (just incase we spotted anything) and we donned our camouflage war paint (some needing encouragement) and set off on a wet and wild adventure!
Unfortunately we were unsuccessful in our quest to spot the wildlife we were hoping for, we had plenty of false alarms as well as a host of French squirrels and insects in the river, legs flailing helplessly! However, a lot of fun was had and we headed home tired, wet and smelly (and I mean SMELLY)
Year 6 Activity Week- ‘Another day in Paradise (Park)’
Year 6 kicked off their activity week in style as they spent the day exploring Paradise Park. There was much to do, see and find including the breathtaking bird displays, dinosaur trail as well as an opportunity to create some enrichment treats and toys for the birds to enjoy!
The day kicked off early with EXCLUSIVE use of the Jungle Barn where many fears were conquered and slides were slid down by the children… and adults! Keep up!
Once we’d sweated out the morning blues we headed outside to talk about some of the birds and how we could provide them with their daily entertainment! Oskar demonstrated his ability to talk to animals as he held and fed one of the exotic birds; the lads also got to experience one of the bird’s party tricks albeit not as pleasant!
We then had an opportunity to explore the park. So much to find and see as well as the obligatory ice-cream and train ride! All aboard!
A wonderful day to start our activity week and great to be supporting a (very) local business who do such a brilliant job for endangered birds around the world! Thank you Mr Reynolds and team!
Kids Invent Stuff visit Penpol School
Last week Penpol had a very exciting visit from Ruth and Shawn – otherwise known as Kids Invent Stuff – to talk about all things engineering, inventing and creating!
The day started with the whole school having the opportunity to enjoy an assembly with Ruth and Shawn, where they introduced a challenge for us all to take part in.
The challenge is simple – to invent something new that utilises wearable technology, a switch or a bicycle. This competition is being run to celebrate the IETs 150th anniversary and entries from schools all around the world will be collected up, carefully considered and then one will actually be built in real life! It’s very exciting and over the course of the day our students showed just how creative their ideas are.
Below are some pictures of the visit, including some of our Year 5’s working away on their own invention ideas.
