Headteacher
Chris 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
Nic Stanlake 
On Friday 14th February, Penpol School raised nearly £300 for The Cornish Air Ambulance though selling cakes and wearing something red. The Air Ambulance is a wonderful charity that provides life saving support all across the county.
More information on the Air Ambulance can be found here.
The long awaited announcement of this year’s first crop of ‘Super Six’ pupils took place this week with the awarding of 5 ties and certificates. Becoming a ‘Super Six’ is not simply about academic success but more so recognising excellent role models that demonstrate the shared values and ethos of the school.
The first five pupils have been presented with a certificate signed by all members of teaching staff as well as the Year 6 team. This means that the children’s awarding of the certificate must be agreed by all, a wonderful achievement and one to be very proud of. The children have also signed a contract to show that they now fully understand the responsibilities for their new role.
These particular children share a tremendous work ethic and constant drive to succeed and improve. Through both homework and classwork they have shown immense effort and diligence and we are wholly confident they will continue to set an excellent example for children at Penpol School as they wear their new ties with pride.
We look forward to seeing these children continue to develop and flourish at Penpol as well as looking forward to the opportunity to present more awards to deserving children. For any Years 6 wishing to find out what they need to do, they need look no further than the attached contract.
In Year 6 this term we have been studying Islam in RE. We have learnt all about the 5 Pillars, the importance of prayer, the Qur’an, fasting and the pilgrimage to Mecca.
We also had the opportunity to host Daya, for day. Daya is a Religious Education specialist who lives in Cornwall. During the day we had the chance to ask her a whole host of questions and discuss how not only Islam, but various different religions around the world have differing and interestingly similar beliefs.
The children talked at length about respect, respecting each others views and beliefs.
Throughout the day, we looked at the life of someone who follows the religion of Islam, a muslim, the importance of the mosque and the role it plays in Islamic culture. We also had the chance to dress in some traditional Indian clothing, learn some Indian dance and finally try some homemade potato curry along with the chapatti breads that we made in class.
Year 6 had the pleasure of welcoming Andrew for Aspdens, our school catering provider, this week. He spent the session talking to the children about cooking safety; origin of ingredients; the importance of understanding where our food comes from and how for it has traveled; and the benefits of a healthy diet.
As our Year 6 classes have been studying the Ancient Mayan Civilisation we decided to have a go at cooking some less traditional Mayan, but more delicious Mexican dishes. The children had to peel, dice, slice, grate and mix avocado, tomatoes, garlic, onion, fresh chilli and coriander to create both a spicy salsa and a cool guacamole before enjoying both with some home made tortilla chips Andrew prepared in the school kitchen before hand.
Some children were braver than others but lived to regret their choices when underestimating the strength of fresh chilli. Many of the flavours that Andrew introduced were unfamiliar to the children on their own, of course they had been exposed to them in other dishes but not many had eaten a coriander leaf on its own. It was not only interesting to see some off the children’s faces when tasting some of the ingredients but to hear the sensible conversations they had with each other about the different tastes the tongue can sense.
With more salsa and guacamole than tortilla chips our creations were sent to the school canteen for children to enjoy with their fajitas, which were on the menu for the day.
Nearly eighty years after thousands of children and young vulnerable adults were evacuated from cities across the country during WW2, our Year 6 children had a go themselves. To celebrate the end of our ‘Wartime Britain’ topic the children (and adults) dressed themselves in period clothing and lived the life of an evacuee for the day.
After being collected from the gate by a member of the British Army General, a U.S. Naval officer and our very own Land Girls they waved a teary goodbye to their parents before being subjected to a roll call and squeezing into a cramped school hall; much like the evacuees of 1939 would have been when they departed the trains.
The children spend the day, writing postcards to their loved ones at home, building model spitfires, making and baking bread and butter pudding using a rationed recipe and completing for the hotly sought after marble championship trophy. A highlight for most of the children were the repeated staged blackout; where the children had to make out the lights and close the blinds before diving for cover under desks when the air raid siren went off. Luckily, all were false alarms and we didn’t have any casualties. At the end of the day we were joined by some parents who came to collect their children from the brief evacuation before spending some time enjoying their children’s learning with them; as well as their bread and butter pudding and well rehearsed air raid drills.
As the festive period begins and we all start eating chocolate for breakfast (myself included) why not have a go at an advent calendar of a different kind.
My Active Advent is something you will be doing in class with your teachers but why not have a go at home, particularly over the weekends and as we get closer to Christmas when the holidays begin!
This post will be added too with videos and photos of you guys getting active over the next few weeks! The calendar can be found at the bottom of the page. We are also behind on two days, so just like your chocolates, tine to catch up!
Enjoy!
On Sunday 11th November, ten Y6 pupils represented Penpol School in the Hayle remembrance service. This two part service started at St Elwyns Church where two children read poems as part of the service. These poems were once that they had written themselves in class the week previous.
The service then proceeded to parse down to the Hayle War Memorial. It was here the children listened to the names of people from Hayle, who had given their lives during WW1 and WW2 and listened to the last post. After the minutes silence the children laid a wreath on behalf of the Penpol School Community and planted crosses in front of the memorial.
The importance of Remembrance Sunday is particularly significant for the children in year 6 who have spend this term studying ‘Wartime Britain’ as a topic. This has involved poppy art, wreath making, writing letters from the trenches and writing remembrance poems.
The service was well respected by all the pupils who attended alongside members of the community where their maturity and manner where positively commented on by numerous members of the public.
Tuesday brought about the opening round of fixtures for our netball team. The children travelled to Mounts Bay Academy where they participate in the Penwith Schools High-5 netball league.
The team consisted of a mixture of year 5 and 6 children, many of whom were playing for the first time.
The match started positively for Penpol but unfortunately they couldn’t make their dominance count with Gulval leading 1-0 at half-time. The second half seemed much more comfortable for the children with them begging to play with confidence and freedom.
An excellent performance from player for the match, Vinnie, who played at both GK and GS was rewarded with two points.
Unfortunately it wasn’t enough as the team fell to a 3-2 defeat. Plenty of positives to take from the game which was played with big smiles on their faces!
If you’d like to give netball a go, netball club in on a Thursday with Mrs Turner for year 5 & 6.
Jake (Class 13) is a very talented young footballer who plays for his local club, Hayle. He has recently been working his way through the Plymouth Argyle player pathway. Starting here at home in West Cornwall before moving to Brannel in Mid Cornwall and latterly the Centre of Excellence in Ivybdrige.
In the last few weeks Jake has been on trial with the academy where they have been monitoring not only his level of skill but also his attitude towards both his football and schooling. It is with great pleasure that I can confirm that Jake has met the expectations of the club and has signed his first contract with the Academy, one of only two players from Mid & West Cornwall!
A tremendous achievement for such a hardworking young man! Keep it up Jake, we are all super proud of your achievements to date!
Last weekend Emi, Class 13, travelled to Cardiff for the National Nipper Surf Life Saving Championships. Emi competes for Hayle Surf Life Saving Club, where she has been a member since the age of 8, alongside a number of other pupils at Penpol.
Emi competed in 6 events all within the Under 11 category achieving brilliant results and personal bests along the way. In her favourite event, the board race, Emi, smashed 4 seconds off her personal best finishing 10th place out 97 participants! Placing her in the top ten nationally for her age group; an amazing achievement.
Emi also competed in: the board relay where she secured a 7th place finish out of 50; the board rescue, 19th out of 50; tube rescue, 21st out 50; flipper, 32nd out of 50; medley relay, finishing 30th!
Really well done Emi, a fantastic achievement!
More information and full results from Hayle Surf Life Saving Club can be found at this linked page- http://hayleslsc.co.uk
