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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

“Penpol pupils are curious, creative and courageous learners. Our school community believes in authenticity as the foundations of deep-rooted learning. Through our rich and relevant curriculum, we nurture community-minded, forward-facing international citizens of the future.”

Reception Classes Visit the Maritime Museum

Classes 1 and 2 had a great time at the Maritime Museum in Falmouth.

We loved meeting Oceana, the sea sprite who told us a wonderful story of how she now lives in the lost land of Lyonesse. We helped her retell her story using instruments and learnt how she was rescued by merpeople and how Poseidon the God of the sea gave her the gift of being able to breathe underwater.

We looked at some treasures that Oceana had found at the bottom of the ocean which included part of a shipwreck, (possibly a pirate ship), a cannon ball, an old boot and a killer whales tooth.

We also learnt all about the different parts of a boat before making our own.

Next was the exciting boat races where we got the chance to race them on the boating lake.

We had a look around the museum and discovered all kinds of amazing monsters from the deep including a blob fish, angler fish, a fangtooth fish and a cock eyed squid.

We also had time to play on the rescue boats, jet ski, quad bike and life raft. We pretended to rescue each other from the ocean.

Finally we went to the top of the lookout tower and had a look at all the amazing boats in the harbour. We learnt all about sail boats, yachts and catamarans and found out that one of the super yachts in the harbour would need about 15 crew members to run the ship.

Class 1 and 2 would like to say a big thank you to all the staff at the maritime museum. We learnt so much, had lots of fun and had a great day out.

Platinum Picnic at Penpol

It was such a glorious sight to see the whole school on the field enjoying the sunshine and celebrating the Queens Jubilee.

Every child had a smile, younger children danced and played with children from the older years and there was a real festival feel.

It has been such a long time since we were all able to be together, but I am sure it is the beginning of many more events to come!

WAR DECLARED: All YEAR 6 children to be Evacuated!

81 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 2 of the newest members for he British Army 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 classrooms; much like the evacuees of 1939 would have been when they departed the trains.

It was here the children had chance to act in character and meet their fellow evacuees, discussing the contents of their suitcases as well as their preferred destination. Those without identification tags were labeled and sent on their way. The children then had some time to look at and try different games that evacuees would have played in the 40’s.

For the remainder of the morning we continued in character- between the air raid sirens- we wrote post cars home to share the news of out safe arrival and built model spitfires whilst learning about their significance during the Battle of Britain. In school groups the children followed a handed-down ration recipe to make some delicious bread and butter pudding.

At the close of the day the children were collected by their parents, their evacuation was much shorter than those during the war. Many parents came into class to sample some of their cooking but also sit and enjoy their child’s work from the last term, with the majority of literacy and topic being based heavily on our studying of Wartime Britain.

Year 2 visit to St Michael’s Mount

On a very windy, stormy Monday 6th December, year 2 went to visit St Michael’s Mount as part of their Castles topic.

After putting on our head-to-toe waterproofs, we got on the coach and drove through the elements to Marazion.

We pulled up, gathered our things together, and started the ascent to the Mount.

Battling against the wind and the cobbles, we arrived and were welcomed by the St Michael’s Mount team. They talked us through the grounds and gave us a scavenger hunt map, leading us to lots of intriguing and exciting sights around the castle and gardens. Unfortunately, during our journey the wind had grown too strong for us to continue the final leg of the climb into the castle itself!

While we waited in hope for the winds to ease, we began our search for some of the sights on our maps.

 

We found the Giant’s Heart and the Giant’s Well, nestled amongst the cobbles and Mrs Hocking delighted us all to a gripping cliff-top retelling of the myth surrounding the Giant and St Michael’s Mount.

 

After a bit of lunch in the Visitors’ Centre and a lot of fun and games, the weather improved and we were allowed to explore the castle to our heart’s content.

We had an amazing time and loved being able to put all of our learning from this term’s topic into context. It was a delight to hear the year 2s buzzing around the rooms, pointing out different familiar features and interesting new ones, exploring, discussing and experiencing a real-life castle together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A particular highlight was looking out from the castle walls at the impressive vista below. Some of us had to overcome our fears to do it and it was definitely worth it!

There was still lots of exploring to do, but it was time to say our goodbyes to the Mount so we made our way back to the coach and to school.

What a fantastic way to round off this term’s topic!

Class 7’s Ancient Egyptian Day

To finish off this terms  history project, ‘Ancient Egyptians’, Class 7 held an Egyptian dressing up day.

During this day, the children were given the opportunity to reflect on their learning journey and also show off their creative talents by creating  their own scarab beetle and canopic  jars.

It was lovely to see the children arriving at school dressed as pharaohs, Tutankhamun, Cleopatra and Ramses II.

“I enjoyed making the scarab beetle out of clay”.  Harley

” It was great to see all of my friends dressed up as Ancient Egyptians”. Isabella

” It was lovely to see my friends having fun and using the clay to make canopic jars”. Luke

 

Riotous Romans Invade Penpol!

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.

 

Remember Remember… When Year 2 met Guy Fawkes!

Year 2 have been learning about  The Gunpowder Plot this term and loved meeting Guy Fawkes..     

Their knowledge of the event is remarkable and they successfully sequenced the events onto a timeline.

        

Year 2 enjoyed putting their Forest School Skills into practise with lighting a fire.

    

They also loved the Guy Fawkes trail and game.

       

Class 13 Visit Bodmin Keep

On taking a short break from studying WW2 within their topic of Wartime Britain, Class 13 moved their focus to WW1 and the commemoration of the Armistice. To help emerge themselves in to the lives of young soldiers we visited Cornwall’s military museum at Bodmin Keep.

The children learnt all about how the keep was used to train and house recruits who later went onto fight in France and Belgium as part of the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry before housing visiting G.I Joes in the lead up to the D-Day landings in 1944.

The building was rich with British Military history and a plethora of artefacts and replicas to explore and discuss including; Mary tins, a present from Princess Mary to serving soldiers in 1914; genuine WW1 clothing, helmets and boots; food stuffs from the time of WW1, including a VERY hard tac biscuit; and soldiers personal possessions, such as boot polish, button polishers and shaving kits.

 

After exploring the museum the children had chance to join the regiment, armed with their rifles (very much wooden replicas) they marched towards the enemy and took their place in the trenches and awaited the call to climb. On their lucky escape from the trench, the children sat and read some of the life stories of soldiers who left Bodmin and served, some not so fortunate to return.

After lunch we entertained two veterans, messers ‘Spanner’ and ‘Kelvin’ who taught us some basic knot skills and some far more important team building, leadership and communication ones too. The children learnt how to tie a ‘highway hitch’ before competing in a team drill to crown the fastest and best platoon in the regiment!

A truly awe-inspiring day where many of our current day to day difficulties were put into persecutive, from here we will be writing some remembrance poetry and letters from the trenches, so keep your eyes peeled for post from the Somme.

Year 3 – Mummification in Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt

As part of their history topic, year 3 started off learning about Ancient Egypt by turning some oranges into mummies!

Just like real Ancient Egyptian embalmers we started off by taking out all of the gooey insides and then used several paper towels to make sure the insides were nice and dry. Next we filled up our oranges with salt, just like the embalmers dried out bodies with natron. Finally, we wrapped up our mummies in bandages and put them somewhere warm to dry out. We will be checking on them  in a few weeks to see how the mummification process is going!

Year 2 become Kings and Queens

To coincide with their history topic, Castles, Kings and Queens, year 2 planned and participated in a very Royal Kings and Queens dressing up day. On this day, all of the children from class 5 and 6 arrived at school wearing capes, dresses, crowns and robes. During the afternoon the children sang Tudor songs, performed a Tudor dance and held a special banquet. A great day was had by all.