Headteacher
Mr C Coyle-Chislett
Email the Office
secretary@penpol.cornwall.sch.uk
Telephone Number
01736 753472
Follow us on Twitter
@PenpolSchool
Our Address
2 St George’s Road, Hayle,
Cornwall, TR27 4AH
Mr Emery 
This half term, Year 4 have been immersed into the world of Harry Potter, reading Harry Potter & the Philosopher’s Stone. In English, they have described Hogwarts using adventurous adjectives, similes and metaphors to really showcase the magic that conjures up Hogwarts castle. In addition, they have also experienced a Potions lesson with Professor Pearson, Professor Peckunia, Professor Emerald, Professor Cross de Morte and Professor Antonia. This involved concocting a potion, deciding upon its magical value and then advertising their potion to the masses.
To celebrate all of the fantastic learning which has been going on, Year 4 then celebrated a Harry Potter ‘dress up’ day! The school was awash with the four colours of each of Hogwart’s Houses: Gryffinfor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff & Ravenclaw.
The students were incredible and bowled us over with their enthusiasm and flair for writing this term. Their persuasive posters and adverts were of spell-binding quality. Check out the pictures and videos of the students and teachers having an incredible time below!
Today, Year 4 got a true taste of Roman army life, with Marcus Quintonius, a high ranking legionnaire, visiting Penpol Year 4 children for the day. Focussing on the Roman invasion of Britannia, students came into school armed with shields, swords and Roman legion attire, ready to join forces with the impressive Roman army.
To begin with, the Year group were greeted with Roman army commands: Consiste! (Halt!), Laxate (at ease), silentiurm! (Silence!) and Sin/ Dex (Left/ Right!), which would come in hand later on in the day.
Next, both classes were thrown into the melee and had to use their best codebreaking skills in order to crack a hidden location written by the emperor himself, Julius Caesar. The hidden message revealed one of Rome’s greatest engineering feats in the Roman empire – Hadrian’s Wall.
“I loved using my knowledge of Roman numerals to crack the code.” Joseph, Class 9
Next up, both classes got to play some classic Roman games, such as Rummy and Hadrian’s Wall card game. The atmosphere in both classes was as if you had walked into a Roman army barracks in the evening!
The grand finale, however, had to be experiencing what it was like to march like a Roman. Led by Roman Legionary Marcus’ booming commands, Classes’ 9 and 10 both marched up and down the playground, to embed their understanding of Roman commands. Next, the students practised forming the defence shape, which is the ‘testudo’, or the tortoise. This proved an effective barrier against incoming missiles aimed by the teachers.
All in all, the children had an excellent day immersing themselves in the Roman life and learning first hand how the Roman army worked.
Classes 9 and 10 had the privilege of a free Savvy Dance session at the wonderful Savvy Dance Studios in Foundry Square. Each Class got to experience a session of Commercial dancing , which incorporated a bouncy and poppy dance routine. Claire was fantastic at getting all sorts of contortions and body shapes from the students!
Upstairs, Charlotte led an upbeat yoga-style dance routine, which had the children showing off their flexibility and capacity to travel across the dance floor.
The afternoon was amazingly fun! Jay, Class 9
This was a brilliant opportunity for the children to draw upon the expert tutoring from Savvy Dance Studios and the students were incredibly grateful for this wonderful opportunity. Thank you Savvy!!
This week, the whole school celebrated European Day of Languages. With a wealth of languages being spoken along the corridors of our school, from Polish to French, Lithuanian to Portuguese, it was especially important to give all languages the recognition they duly deserve.
Students and staff were invited to dress up in the colours of their favourite country and rose to the call in spectacular fashion; by 9am, the whole school was awash with all the colours of the rainbow!
In the morning, KS1 students were invited to sample a French breakfast in the yurt with Mr Emery and six KS2 volunteers. Each class enjoyed singing in French and were then able to order from KS2 students, learning the basics such as ‘Bonjour’, ‘s’il vous plaît’ and ‘merci.’
“Miam miam!” Phrase of the day, which translates as ‘yummy’ in French
KS2 students showed off their already fantastic French skills by competing as a whole class on LanguageNut Live, where each student puts their knowledge of their current French topic to the test in real time against their peers. A huge well done to Reuben and Merryn from Year 3 who came top in their year group on animals and colours in French – Bravo!!
All classes in KS2 also competed in the European Day of Languages shirt competition.
This had all students creating a design to best represent European Day of Languages. If proven successful, they will have it printed on the official European Day of Languages T shirt next year and receive 30 T-shirts for them and their class. I have already received some extremely creative designs so far – keep them coming!
Finally, Mr Emery led each of the assemblies to round off a fun European Day of Languages. From the video of students and staff speaking a multitude of different languages, to singing one of the classic “Tu as un animal” (do you have any pets) song, the assembly encouraged students to be adventurous and have a go at speaking in another language. Whether that’s greeting Diane the dinner lady with a ‘Czesc’ (hello), asking how Mrs Bailie is – ‘como você está’ (how are you?) in Portuguese, or asking for a strawberry ice cream on holiday in France(une glace à la fraise s’il vous plaît). Using a language is fun and the students and staff of Penpol proved that again today.
“Today has been the best day ever!” Louis, Class 12
A huge thank you to everyone who made the day such a great success! Check out the photos from the day, as well as the video of students and staff speaking in different languages.
This term, Year 4 have taken great joy from learning outside in our wildlife garden. From Science through to Music, the wildlife garden has provided the perfect setting to enjoy not just forest school, but also all of their learning.
Just before half term, Class 9 wrote a description of the wildlife garden from each of their perspectives. The class really enjoyed sharing their descriptions in the mini amphitheatre. This task drew out all of the benefits of looking after the fantastic wild areas that we are lucky in our community to have, a particularly poignant topic of discussion with the G7 summit taking place this week.
I really like spending time in the wildlife garden. It makes me feel happy and calm. Alex, Class 9
In Science, Year 4 have also been learning about habitats and had to create a powerpoint/ pic collage on what habitats could be found in the wildlife garden, along with the features and residents of each habitat. Students were particularly surprised to find centipedes, tadpoles and even a wandering Wilf (our very own resident school dog) in the wildlife garden.
Finally, Year 4 have taken dusted off their vocal chords and sang a classic song, ‘Let it Be’, by the Beatles, a song which we studied last half term in music. It was a great song to finish off last half term and listen to students singing in a big group again. Enjoy the video below!
These past few weeks, Year 4 have taking amazingly well to the activities set for remote learning. Their perseverance and creativity has been awe-inspiring and it’s been wonderful to see the exceptional work being shared on Showbie.
Having completed the book ‘Iron Man’ by Ted Hughes, this week, we have been focussing on the RSPB’s ‘The Big Birdwatch.’ From creating alluring bird feeders full to the brim of nutritional food to entice birds into their gardens, to keeping a tally of all of the birds that pay a visit to their gardens and then drawing their favourite birds. The children have blown us away with their ingenuity and clear fascination for the wild outdoors. This has been shared by the children through their photos, sketches, collages and models of their favourite birds (as shown below).
In addition, Year 4 have complete a weekly summary quiz of the topics they are studying and this has proven a clear favourite time of the week on Google Meet. Students definitely proved this week that they were up to speed with their Cornish wildlife!
It’s been a great few weeks of learning and it’s clear Year 4 have really enjoyed the taking part in the ‘Big Birdwatch’ – well done Year 4!
Today, Year 4 celebrated the rise of the Roman Empire in true fashion. Armed with shields, swords and Roman legion attire, the excitement from the students entering school was palpable.
To begin with, the Year group were greeted with Roman army commands: Consiste! (Halt!), Laxate (at ease), silentiurm! (Silence!) and Sin/ Dex (Left/ Right!), which would come in hand later on in the day.
Next, both classes were thrown into the melee and had to use their best codebreaking skills in order to crack a hidden message written by the emperor himself, Julius Caesar. The hidden message revealed one of Caesar’s greates quotes to date:
“It is better to create than to learn! Creating is the essence of life.” Julius Caesar
After exploring this quote and thinking deeper into what Caesar’s quote means, creating is exactly what the students did next. After having designed mosaics the day before, the students were tasked with creating a Roman mosaic. This proved lots of fun and the results are already looking promising.
The grand finale, however, had to be experiencing what it was like to march like a Roman. Led by Mr Wise’s booming commands, Classes’ 9 and 10 both marched up and down the hall, to embed their understanding of Roman commands. Next, the students practised forming the defence shape, which is the ‘testudo’, or the tortoise. This proved an effective barrier against incoming missiles aimed by the teachers, as you can witness in the video below.
All in all, the children had an excellent morning immersing themselves in the Roman life and learning first hand how the Roman army worked.
Here at Penpol, we have a rich community which stretches far and wide, beyond the school gates. For three years, we have been in contact with Madame Jourdain’s Year 5 classes, at Le Bourg primary school in SW France. We have been exchanging letters, information about our lovely school and area, sending over games and passing on cultural differences between the two countries.
One aspect which is very similar between the two countries right now is that French children are now, like us, working from home for the time being, rather than at school.
Maintaining connections during this rather strange time is a powerful thing – be it with family, friends, teachers, as well as our friends over the pond at Ecole Primaire le Bourg- and it gives us all a sense that we are in this together.
The children from Le Bourg primary school have sent messages, some in French and some in English, detailing what they are getting up to during this period outside of the classroom. I am also very excited to send some of our own messages in French/ English to let them know what we are doing during this time. Please feel free to send them in to your teachers if you have anything you would like to share in French…the more, the merrier! Also, if you feel like you need a refresher on some of the topics your teachers have been doing with you, with the help of Mr Woolcock I have uploaded a French and Spanish section with plenty of games and activities to try out and boost your confidence. You can find the French and Spanish section on the home learning section of the school website.
For now, check out the lovely message sent from their teacher, Madame Jourdain, as well as the letters from the Year 5 children below and see how you get on with some of the translations…
Mardi 7 avril, Tuesday 7th April
Chers correspondants, Dear friends letters, coorespondents
Nous aussi, nous sommes confinés et travaillons à la maison.
We are confined and we work at home.
Voici quelques activités que nous pratiquons en dehors du travail scolaire.
Here are some activities we do outside of school work.
A très bientôt. See you soon.
Les élèves de CM1/CM2 Mme Jourdain
