The Penpol Times

Le petit déjeuner français!

12th May 201823rd April 2018 by Jack Emery

Having the confidence to order food and drink in French is fundamental to anyone wishing to visit France. This week, Year 4 completed their final lesson on the topic of food and needed to use everything they had learnt to order and serve food at a french café.

For one morning only, Classes 9 + 10 were treated to a French breakfast. They were able to sing a song in French (to the tune of a popular Taylor Swift song!), order food and drink in French and, of course, taste the foods typically associated with a French breakfast.

I was nervous ordering in French at the beginning but now I feel much more confident. Summer, Class 9, Year 4

Every student had a go at both ordering French food, as well as serving. Both classrooms were buzzing with French language, such as “je voudrais” ( I would like), s’il vous plaît (please) and the signature phrase “bon appetit” (used as a salutation to someone about to eat).

I definitely know how to order more in French next time I go to France! Oscar, Class 9, Year 4.

All of the students enjoyed the café atmosphere and certainly took pleasure from tasting the French pastries on offer with a glass of jus d’orange or jus de pomme.

I preferred eating the croissant today, it was tasty! Freddie, Class 10, Year 4

Check out some of the children singing and ordering food in French below.

Choral Speaking at Truro Music Festival

24th June 201820th April 2018 by Penpol School

‘Choral Speaking’ is working together as a team in order to ‘act out’ a poem using voices and sometimes actions.

Class 7 have been working on ‘Oh, Oh The Story Man’ for several weeks, ensuring light and shade, good expression and diction as well as a change of pace and tone, at times using individual voices as well as working as a whole class.

We attended the Truro Music Festival on Monday 12th March, where we performed our poem. Two other schools took park, reciting the same poem. Class 7 performed extremely well and won the shield, gaining 87 marks with distinction!

The judges said: “Good discipline today – loud/soft and the sound of the snail moment was lovely! The dragon moment was impactful too!”

Winners of the Penpol Times Easter Egg Hunt 2018

19th April 2018 by Jacob Woolcock

At the end of last term, a mysterious message appeared on the Penpol Times, along with a dozen hidden eggs! Nearly fifty children managed to hunt down all twelve eggs in order to unscramble the secret message contained within. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the secret message was actually ‘Happy Easter!’

Well done to our winners, who were chosen at random earlier today. They are James B from Class 3, Scott from Class 8 and Gabby from class 12. Well done to all three of you and enjoy your prizes!

Class 9 are Internet Kind

18th April 2018 by Jacob Woolcock

For our forth and final trip to Interland the children at Penpol School have been learning about how important it is to be kind and considerate online. This week, whilst learning how to Be Internet Kind we’ve been discussing a wide variety of topics including how positivity always beats negativity online and how a simple message can easily be mis-interpreted when you don’t understand the emotion it was sent with (i.e. try saying “whatever” in a happy voice, a sad voice, an angry voice and a joking voice – it has a totally different meaning!).

We also talked about how cyberbullies try to get other people to join in in order to strengthen their mean messages. We decided that it was always best to speak up to a trusted adult whenever we saw somebody being treated unfairly online and also that the best course of action was always to use kindness to help people who may be feeling upset.

Here are some photos of Class 9 enjoying the Kind Kingdom island on Interland as well as some really good advice from some of the children.

“It’s important to be kind because if somebody has been bullied online and a bystander isn’t kind to them then they could end up making the problem even worse. Without kindness we would end up with a world of mean people and nobody wants that!“ – Luke

“It’s not hard to be kind to others online and a quick message can make somebody feel much happier.” – Harrison

“Being kind is being nice to other people and yourself. That’s really important online because if you are kind to other people then they will be kind to you!” – William

“It makes other people happy when you are kind, and it’s just nice to be kind. If somebody was being cyberbullied you could send them a nice message to make them feel a little bit better and then you could tell an adult to get them some support” – Freya

All of the games that the children have been enjoying as part of the Internet Legends program are available to play at home for free on Interland here.

Is it a tree? Is it a log? No, it’s Taran’s moth!

18th April 2018 by Mark Pollard

At the start of the year, Penpol School’s answer to David Attenborough asked Mr Pollard if he could bring in some caterpillars and store them at the back of the classroom until they turn into moths. Not a problem came the reply. It was then that Taran revealed that it would take 7 months for this transformation to happen!

This week, after returning from Easter break, the ever-observant Taran found that one of the caterpillars had broken out of its chrysalis and had turned into a beautiful moth, which is incredibly well suited to match a certain environment, as it looked just like a piece of wood!

Hopefully it won’t be long until the others hatch and they can all live in their natural habitat on the tree outside the classroom window.

“When I first saw the moth I recognised it immediately and got super exited because it had hatched from a cocoon that had been in the back of the classroom since September.” – Taran

Year 6 Create an Animation for Mr Doyle

24th May 201829th March 2018 by Jacob Woolcock

Today was a very special day at Penpol – a day where we got to celebrate Mr Doyle and his 19 years at school, as well as a chance to wish him well with the next chapter in his life.

All of the children and staff got together in the morning for a very special assembly, where every year group presented Mr Doyle with something special for him to remember them by.

Below is the video that Year Six worked on with Mr Woolcock, set to the tune of 500 Miles. Each child has spent several weeks designing their own character in Photoshop, using nearly 30 different layers to allow the cartoon to become animated. By drawing the different elements on different layers they’ve managed to create some truly unique characters! They then got to grip with an amazing new program called Adobe Character Animator which is where the real magic happened. Stay tuned for lots more animations from our Year 5s and 6s after the Easter break!

Around the World in 80 Grooves

29th March 2018 by Amanda Aspden

Classes 1 and 2 have danced themselves around the world with some amazing dances from India, Mexico, Russia, Hawaii, England and Ireland.

The dance show started with a song to welcome parents in different languages then started with Class1’s graceful Bollywood dance.

I liked the Bollywood dance best. It’s from India. You say hello by saying Nemaste. I liked the changing the lightbulbs bit – Enya

Next we went to Hawaii with Class 2.

I liked doing the Hawaii dance. I liked the beginning where we put our arms in the air. I loved wearing the grass skirts – Poppy

The fabulous dancers hulaed beautifully and some brave dancers came to the front and danced in a duo for the parents.

Class 1 then lept their way to visit Russia and do a sensational Cossack Dance.

I liked the Russian dance best because I liked going into the middle and doing my dance – Layla

The strong and athletic cossacks remembered all the dance moves amazingly well and really enjoyed shouting hey when they leapt into the air.

I liked the jumping bit and twirling bit with your partner. Dobrey dyen is hello- Isaac

Next Class 2 jetted of to Mexico.

With their own class made shakers, they shimmied and shook all the way around the hall to La Bamba.

I liked doing the Mexican dancing. I liked shaking my shaker – Scarlett-Jada

After Mexico, Class 1 came back home to do some English folk dancing in the form of an amazing morris dance.

I liked the Morris dance because it was really good. I like dancing in a circle and waving the hankies – Ruby

The girls skipped happily around waving their hankies in time to the music and the boys marched merrily shaking their bells.

I liked shaking the bells best. I liked dancing in a circle around Will my partner – Mason

Finally, to finish off the show, Class 2 stayed fairly close to home and did some brilliant Irish dancing with great stamps and cuts throughout.

I loved skipping forwards and back. I did a solo with Kieran and did some cuts – Tilly

The children have loved learning about different cultures and have throughly enjoyed learning some new dances. They shone in their performances and remembered all the dance moves like professionals.

We love Maths In Class 1

24th May 201828th March 2018 by Amanda Aspden

In class 1 we really love our Maths. Everyday we enjoy practising our counting with our monster numbers. We try to really understand what numbers are and have a go at representing them in different ways.

A sixteen is a ten and a six, a seventeen is a ten and a seven, an eighteen is a ten and an eight – Layla

Whether we are learning addition, subtraction, sharing, doubling, shapes, measuring, time or money etc we see it as a fun and fabulous challenge that that we can all succeed in.

It’s 3 O’Clock – Isaac

In Class 1 we recognise the importance of reasoning in maths and that it helps children to be able to explain their thinking, therefore making it easier for them to understand what is happening in the maths they are doing. It helps them to think about how to solve a problem, explain how they solved it and to think about what they could do differently.

I like adding numbers. I also like measuring in centimetres and meters – Derora

We use a mixture of board games, cards, shapes, bubbles, building materials, junk modelling, slime and gloop, swamp monsters, teddies, competitions, skittles, numicon, role play, computers, stop watches and measuring tapes to name a fraction of the ways we teach numbers and shape to the children.

I like doing 3 minute Maths because its easy. I do it with my brother. It’s his sheet. I do 3 + 3= 6, or 8+8=16, or 10 + 10= 20, or 100+100=200. I know half of 6 is 3, half of 10 is 5, half of 8 is 4 each. I play snakes and ladders and Daddy tried to catch me up but I winned – Joseph

I have made a hexagon prism out of the magnets. I know its a hexagon because it has 6 sides – Evan

We also recognise the importance of teaching problem solving. It allows children to use their maths skills in lots of contexts and in situations that are new to them. It allows them to seek solutions, spot patterns and think about the best way to do things rather than just following maths procedures.

I like adding and learning numbers. I like learning my bunny ears numbers. I know that double 2 is 4, double 3 is 6 and double 4 is 8 – Derora

In class 1 we explain the purpose of what they’re learning to constantly show them how math is useful in real life. We get involved in activities like cooking and baking, telling time, checking temperature and using money in role play situations.

I love Maths because I always count. I like them because I am learning them. We need to learn everything about them so our Mummy’s will be very very proud – Hana

Spelling Bee 2018

27th March 2018 by Nic Stanlake

Tuesday brought around the much anticipated Year 5 & 6 Spelling Bee final. Our upper KS2 children have been meticulously going over their spelling words for the last couple of weeks before taking part in a class-based sub competition. It has proved a huge success as it has in previous years. Each class provided 4 finalists, between them spelling over 200 words to book their place in the final.

The final brings around a different challenge with the children standing and delivering many correct spellings including treachery, pronunciation, catastrophe, alleviating and extraordinarily.

Finalists

Class 11- Zara, Emma, Lily and Issy.

Class 12- Piran, Ella, Gabby and Freya

Class 13- Lola, Jake, Ben and Taran

Class 14- Jack, Luca, Finley and Jude

It was a very close competition with the difficulty of words making even the teachers sweat. But the eventual winner came from Class 13 after a very closely fought battle with Jack, Class 14. Well done Lola, this years Spelling Bee Champion.

Year 5 Girls Swim Team Heading To School Games

27th March 2018 by Nic Stanlake

After a super successful swimming gala Zara, Emma, Miranda and Freya have qualified for the Cornwall School Games in June, our first competitors for more than 3 years!

They tasted both individual and team success at the gala where they won 2 individual silvers and 1 bronze and also a silver in the team relay.

Well done girls, were all super proud! Good Luck!

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