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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.”

Staff 8 – 6 Students

As is Penpol tradition, the departing Year 6 children had the opportunity to have the last word and take home The Pollard Cup. Unfortunately no one told the teachers. The final score finishing at 8-6 in favour of the more experienced side meant the Pollard cup will remain in the hands of the Penpol Staff team for another year.

The score never does the match justice with it being played in wonderful spirits with many wonderful goals scored. The children should be ex optionally proud of how they performed but it is the teachers who remain undefeated.

Teachers goals were shared out between Mr Emery, Mr Stanlake and Miss Burlington as well as Nay and Mr Curnow on their final day before they depart to pastures new.

Children’s goals were scored by Isaac B, Isaac L, Alfie and Bobby.

 

Penpol Panthers

That’s a wrap on the 2023-24 Cross Country season…

What an exciting and incredibly successful first season for the Penpol Panthers running club! The club has grown in numbers and enthusiasm since September, with runners enjoying weekly club sessions – come rain or shine!

Throughout the year, pupils have grown in resilience and built supportive friendships with their fellow Panthers as they’ve honed their technique through fun running games, endured the infamous bleep test and prepared for some arduous races.

The new club name and logo were designed with creative input from some of our own club members and earlier this month, we were very grateful to receive some very smart running vests. A massive thank you to the PFA for funding the purchase of the vests and to Exhibit 1 Clothing for printing them.

We have had over 35 different pupils from KS2 join our club sessions and represent the school at district and country races. A massive congratulations to every runner who has taken part this year!

It would be remiss of me not to mention some of our more decorated Penpol Panthers.

In their respective Penwith District school race meets, Niyah (Year 3) placed 3rd, 1st, 1st & 2nd; Fred (Year 4) placed 1st, 1st, 1st & 1st; Atia (Year 5) placed 1st, 1st, 1st & 1st; Theo (Year 5) placed 1st, 4th, 4th & 7th.

What’s more, in the county finals Niyah finished 3rd overall, Fred placed 1st and Atia came in at 2nd. Such a incredible achievements from these young athletes!

Finally, a big shout out and massive thank you to all of the parent support we’ve had this year – not least of all Ahsan for volunteering at both the club sessions and races across the season.

We look forward to another joyous cross country season beginning in September 2024!

Healthy Choices on the Menu at Penol

Earlier this week, we were visited by educators from the Council’s Healthy Cornwall team who worked with all of ur KS2 pupils . The idea for this session was the empower our children to make their own healthy choices when choosing what to fuel their bodies with. The Healthy Snack Family Challenge is attached below.

The session included 3 different activities: the tasting of different healthy snacks including, beetroot, dried apricot, sugar snap peas and humus; what a balanced diet looks like and how it contains lots of different food groups in moderation; and finally, shattering the myth that healthy food have to be expensive. The children all tasted different foods, with many doing so for the first time.

The children learnt all about the ‘Eatwell Healthy Plate’ and discussed how different food groups serve different purposes and how each are individually important to the growth, development and maintaining of a healthy body and mind.Our Year 5 and 6 pupils also took a more in-depth look at the calorie content of different foods, both healthy and unhealthy and took a closer look at the monetary cost vs nutritional output of each food.

They were particularly shocked at the sugar content of some their favourite drinks! With one even commenting “that’s why were encouraged to drink water!”

All children in KS2 then were gifted a free water bottle to celebrate their participation in which  was some  information to share with parents and a healthy snack challenge, all of which is included below. It has been wonderful to see so may children making healthy choices with their snacks continuing to celebrate the learning they have undertaken in science, PE and PSHE around health and wellbeing.

 

Surf’s up with Y5/6 Surf Club

Surf’s up – During June and July, the Y5/6 went surfing with Hayle based surf school Shore Surf to learn to surf or improve surfing skills and also learn about key water safety messages and what to do if they find themselves in difficulty.

The first sessions had small surf due to glorious weather during June. Nevertheless, all were up and riding and learning key paddling and board manoeuvring skills.

 

 

” It was a really good experience and the coaches were really kind to us. ” – Felix.

” It was lots of fun and I caught one of the best waves I have ever caught!” – Ernie

The last two sessions however, we certainly had waves and were tested with over head high conditions. Some were even out back with an instructor but all were up and surfing and enjoying waves at last!

 

” It was very fun. I caught some good waves.”  – Bruce.

” This was my first time surfing and I can now stand up!” – Flo.

Our thanks go to Shore Surf for all the sessions.

Penpol Win the Treble!

The Penpol School Boys Football team have followed up their successes in the Leading Edge Academy Trust Cup and The Penwith Schools District Cup with victory in the Hayle Mayor’s Cup.

After competing with local Hayle Schools the team made up on only Year 6 pupils sat a top the table and headed to the final. On their way to the final they were in red got form scoring over 20 goals in 5 games and conceding none.

They met local rivals Bodirggy again in the final after defeating them 1-0 in the round robin. The score was slightly different this time round with them wrapping the trophy up in style with an 8-0 victory. The final victory ensured they have been undefeated all season whilst more impressively not conceding a goal.

Their quality of their play was receiving applause and congratulations from spectating parents, teachers and players from other schools which is testament to the way they have gone about their football this year.

Hopefully their red hot form turns ice cold when they face off against the Penpol Staff in two weeks time.

Thank you to the Hayle Mayor and all at Hayle FC for an excellent afternoon.

Keep Dancing! – Danceathon 2023

On Thursday 2oth April, the Penpol School community came together for an afternoon of dancing to raise funds for Shelterbox. This all began following the devastating earthquakes in Southern Turkey and Northern Syria in February this year. Our Year 6, as well as many of us, were upset by the event and wondered what we could to to help those families in need. We knew that Shelterbox, a Cornish based charity, was directly helping those families in these areas by providing emergency shelter and so decided that this was the perfect charity in which to raise funds for – https://shelterbox.org/turkey-earthquake/

                 

Led by Y6, on a perfect sunny afternoon, all pupils across school danced in the style of Wake and Shake for 30 minutes non-stop on the KS1 and KS2 playgrounds. Parents, Guardians, family members and friends, as well as Penpol Staff, also joined in to make it a real community event. It was fantastic to see everybody smiling, dancing and fully embracing the Danceathon. To date, the school community has raised over £1200 for Shelterbox – an outstanding effort! So many of you donated towards this total but a special shout out must go to: Billy (£34); Zach (£40); Ivy (£30); Bobby (£55); Betty (£100); Sully (£31); Sabina (£40); Myla (£90) and Evie (£40) who raised great amounts! Many thanks also goes to Mrs Turner and Mrs Loughlin who led the dances all afternoon!

Kate from Shelterbox then attended Penpol on Friday 21st April and hosted assemblies for the children to learn about the work they do and where the money will go. They were extremely grateful for the hard work and effort from us all and the money raised (£600 at that point). Kate showed us a message from Dave from Shelterbox who had been in Turkey during the crisis thanking Penpol for our efforts. The money we have raised will support families by helping them with shelter and an opportunity to rebuild their lives. Well done Penpol! Keep dancing!

 

 

 

 

Year 5 Find Their Way Around Orienteering

Over recent weeks Year 5 have been learning how to orienteer. Some may say a dying skill with the maps we now have readily available on smart phones and watches but a valuable one none the less. We have been ;earning how to read a compass, grid references and also, most importantly, a map and its symbols.

Through PE we have had the opportunity to practice these geographic skills by racing around our school site to find the permanent control points. The children have loved the element of competition with their peers as well as the freedom to explore the school site.

The culmination of our block of orienteering was a day in the woods. We headed to Tehidy Country Park with our maps in hand and set to work on finding the control points set out around the 250 acre site (we didn’t cover it all though) The children had great fun zipping and zooming around in the hunt of the control points in small groups with their adults struggling to keep pace (no names mentioned!) hence the lack of orienteering photos.

After a well deserved lunch the children set to work building dens; here they had the opportunity to put their first school skills learnt back at Penpol into action with a plethora of different branches and trees to choose from.

In addition to den building we also out the children’s trust and communication skills to the test with a very carefully constructed ‘blind trail’. This consists of a partner leading their blindfolded partner through a boggy wooded section of Tehidy with only a guideline and their voice. Without clear instruction there was a risk of bumped heads on overhanging branches; soggy bottoms from the muddy sections and wet feet from the river crossing.

Success for Penpol in the LEAP Cup

On a sunny Monday morning both the boys and girls teams headed to Mounts Bay Academy for the first inaugural LEAP cup. Joined by the members of the Leading Edge Academy partnership, the teams played 3 and 4 games respectively. The girls team unfortunately came up a little short in their last game finishing with 2 wins and 1 loss which secured them second place. The boys were eventual winners with 4 wins and impressively without conceding a single goal.

As always, the name on the front of the shirt is more important the that on the back. This was demonstrated with exemplary levels of sportsmanship and teamwork; which for me is equally, if not more important the the trophy we can proudly now present in the School office.

Year 4 Go to Hogwarts!

To celebrate all of the fantastic learning which has been going on, Year 4 celebrated a Harry Potter ‘dress up’ day this Wednesday 22nd February.  The school was awash with the four colours of each of Hogwart’s Houses: Gryffinfor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff & Ravenclaw.

This term, Year 4 have been immersed into the world of Harry Potter, reading Harry Potter & the Philosopher’s Stone.  They have absolutely loved their Guided Reading sessions on this book and have really excelled at retrieving key information to help explain their understanding of the book.

In PE, all students have been learning the many complex rules of Quidditch thanks to our Mr Stanlake, our PE coordinator, training up our young Witches and Wizards in their first ever session. Since then, the students have relished the many challenges of this magical sport and have absolutely loved playing it!  From chasing the Quaffle, dodging bludgers and seeking the snitch, there has been plenty for all to get excited about- check out the action shots below!

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 Emery and Professor Peck.  This involved concocting a potion, deciding upon its magical value and then advertising their potion to the masses.

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 of the students and teachers having an incredible time below!

 

Year 5 Tackle Touch Rugby with Cornish Pirates

Year 5 have been braving the weather in recent weeks to get to grips with touch rugby. We have completed a 5 week block of sessions with Sam, the community coach from Cornwall’s only professional rugby team- the Cornish Pirates.

From not being able to catch a ball to now doing it so in full flow some children have developed their sporting confidence greatly. They have also developed their understanding of attacking and defending space; a skill which can be transferred to many other invasion sports. They have also build on their knowledge of touch rugby with many now moving on to join Mr Peck at touch rugby club. Those that may chose not too will however be taking their newly developed team work and communication skills back into the classroom.

As part of our PE curriculum offer we try to engage many different local clubs. With each year group receiving professional coaching from external sources at some stage during the year with some even attending professional settings; this opens the eyes of our pupils to the world of professional sport whilst also maintaining the most important aspects of physical education- engagement and enjoyment.