“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.”
Ada was selected to take part in the Amigo’s Tumbling Competition for her Gymnastic club, Phoenix in Camborne. Her gymnastic club Phoenix competed against the Zero Gravity gymnastics squad who travelled down from Saltash to compete.
Ada completed three solo tumble track runs and came an amazing 2nd place for her age category. This was Ada’s first official competition and she was delighted to come away with a silver medal. She is looking forward to many more competitions to come.
I love gymnastics because you can do really cool things. I can do a one-handed cartwheel and the splits – Ada – Class 3 – Year 1
The children in Year 6 have been working towards entering the prestigious ’99 club’ all year and, this week, 3 children managed to enter it.
To achieve this feat, the children must answer 99 questions, based on addition, subtraction, multiplication, adding or subtracting fractions and finding fractions or percentages of a number. All of that, and they only get 5 minutes to do it in (which equates to just 3 seconds per answer!).
However, this did not faze Ben, Ben T or Freya, as they answered all the questions correctly in the allotted time, with Freya, who was the first to finish, completing all of the questions in an incredible 3 minutes and 10 seconds (under 2 seconds per question!).
A huge congratulations to the 3 of them and hopefully they will be joined by other members soon.
I practiced a lot at home and I managed to beat my best time on the day! – Freya
Think you’ve got what it takes? Feel free to have a practice on the sheet below!
This week, Year 6 students had the opportunity of learning Spanish and enjoyed their first Spanish taster session with Mr Emery. With Spain being the third most popular country to visit in the World, lots of students were very enthusiastic to learn more about Spain and also learn some basic Spanish.
Classes 13 & 14 were given a short presentation by Inès from Class 13 on her experience being in a Spanish primary school in Gran Canaria. Students were amazed to hear that in Spain and the Canary islands, the school day finishes at lunch time, where school kids go back home for la comida (lunch) and, of course, la siesta!
After a cultural quiz on Spain, students then got to grips with the Spanish language by learning different types of food on the website Linguascope. Within 20 minutes, some students had already mastered the 40 different items of food, ranging from breakfast foods to vegetables and fruits!
Q and A with Inès
Inès tackles some GCSE Spanish
The overall winners from class 13
The students were then tested on how many different types of food they could remember by playing a whole class quiz on Kahoot.com. Students are given a time-limit to answer each question and are competing against each other for the top score.
After 30 questions, the winners from each class had been established. From class 13, Ben was the overall winner, with Inès second and Peter third.
It’s really cool to try a different language and learn about Spain. Spanish is now my new favourite language! Ben, Class 13, Year 6
From Class 14, Alfie won a very close battle between himself, Juliette and Finn. All three were the only students in class 14 to score 30/30, but Alfie’s faster reaction times saw him eventually come out on top.
Learning Spanish is much easier when you already know some French! That helped me win today! Alfie, Class 14, Year 6
Currently, only one third of Britons are now able to hold a conversation in another language. Yet with the budding enthusiasm shown by Penpols’ language stars, there’s a feeling that the tide is turning!
Class 2 were very excited this week to welcome a special visitor Mollie into our classroom to do some science experiments. Mollie showed the class lots of experiments all to do with colours.
The first experiment involved some skittles and warm water. A couple of children carefully arranged the skittles on a plate to make a circle, making sure that none of the same colour were touching. Then we added warm water and waited to see what would happen.
It was amazing! The skittles made a rainbow! – Jessica
Next we had a go at making some lava lamps. We put some water and oil into a bottle and then Mollie added some food colouring to each one. Some children also added some glitter to make the lamps sparkle!
I liked putting the glitter in. I chose silver sparkly glitter – Lola
In our final experiment, we had some special filter paper which we dyed with red cabbage to turn purple. When the paper had dried we had great fun using lemon juice, vinegar and bicarbonate paste to paint on the paper. The children were amazed to see how the paper changed colour when they painted it (lemon and vinegar turned the paper pink, while the bicarbonate turned it blue!)
We had great fun with our science experiments and would like to say a big thank you to Mollie for visiting us in Class 2!
Class 7 have been learning how to create a clear set of instructions using the features they have been learning about in English. They learnt that in order to have a good set of instructions you need to include the following:
Headings
Sub-headings
Method
Bullet points
Numbers
Pictures
We began by working together as a whole class and and created a set of instructions on ‘How to Make a Cup of Tea’. This helped us learn the best way to set out our instructions.
After that, the children applied what they had learnt and created instructions on ‘How to Make a Jam and Honey Sandwich’. The children used the ingredients needed to make their own sandwich.
Wow! I loved making my jam sandwich. – Luke
Everyone really enjoyed it. Needless to say, lots of great sets of instructions were completed in their literacy books.
Class 5 ventured into Tehidy woods to experience the seasonal changes of Autumn and to do some sketching for their art topic ‘Mother Nature’.
Back at school the children used a view finder to choose an area of their sketches which had lots of detail. They then drew what was in the finder and coloured it in.
The children then had to arrange the images to make a pattern.
The results speak for themselves!
I liked the sketching in the woods. I thought I couldn’t do it but then I saw the yellow bits and I could then match them up yo make my pattern – Remy
It was a bit difficult to make a pattern but I like my finished work especially the flower bit – Ruby
This week, students have been enjoying the dry weather by learning French outside. Classes 3, 4, 7 and 8 were involved in a series of activities and competitions which tested their understanding of instructions and knowledge of body parts in French, which is the current topic they are learning about with Mr Emery.
At the start of each lesson, students followed Mr Emery around the school via instructions in French, until reaching the playground area. Out in the fresh air, students began by doing a number of fun warm-up activities in French, from star jumps to the Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes (tête, épaule, genou, pied) song. Following the warm-up activities, students then moved on to the more challenging competitions, such as “la souris contre le chat” (very similar to duck duck goose) and “Jacques a dit” (Simon says).
From class 3, Hazel held her nerve and won the Simon says competition, showing an excellent understanding of body parts in French.
It was really fun learning French outside. I really like winning too! – Hazel – Class 3 – Year 1
Upon returning to the classroom, students were able to recap what they had learnt about body parts in French by drawing and labelling their own monsters. With all classes having sung a French colour song with Michèle in the Harvest assembly, they were also keen to add plenty of colours to their monsters.
Alex, from Class 3, also enjoyed counting the number of heads in French on his monster, going all the way up to “quinze”, (15, pronounced ‘cans’).
When asked at the end of the session what was their favourite part of the lesson, the overriding response was “learning French outside!”
I loved having lots of space outside to play games in French! – Sienna – Class 4 – Year 1
Elsie is a member of Saints Boardriders in St Ives. They go surfing every Saturday morning come rain or shine and Elsie has really enjoyed it this year. At the end of the year they hold a presentation and Elsie won most improved surfer for her group out of around 25 children!
I love surfing, it’s very exciting – Elsie
Elsie catches a superb wave and surfs it all the way to the shore
I like surfing big waves. I don’t get scared – Elsie
This half term Year 1 have been learning the basics of coding by giving instructions to the popular ‘Angry Birds’ characters. In order to help these birds reach their target (the green piggies!) the children have to give them the correct directional instructions to move along the level. These instructions start off quite simply, but before long the children are giving twelve step answers to get the bird to the target.
“I love how happy the bird is when he gets to the pig!” – Penny, Class 3
An example level from halfway through the Angry Birds puzzles
Using perseverance, logical thinking and imagination the Year 1’s have shown a huge amount of Learning to Learn skills and have proven that just because something is difficult at first they don’t need to give up. Practice makes perfect and solving these puzzles has helped instil a real love of learning in a lot of these children.
Fantastically talented Sabina and her team from Penzance Gymnastic Club won a brilliant bronze in her first ever Vault and Floor Competition.
I felt a tiny bit nervous and a little bit shy – Sabina
She may have been a little bit nervous but this did not stop Sabina doing her very best. Taking part in the 5 to 6 year old category, Sabina did incredibly well, competing against five other teams from all over Cornwall.
For my routine I had to do a sit and tuck, roll my arms backwards, do a forward roll and then I finished in a lunge in a wide shape – Sabina
Sabina loves gymnastics and we are very proud of her achievements. Well done Sabina!
