Year 1

Step into the World of ‘Swop’: A Virtual Author Visit with Lucy Noguera!

23rd March 202520th March 2025 by Clare Sara

Year 1 had an exciting and engaging virtual author visit with Lucy Noguera today, where they had the special opportunity to meet the inspiration behind the main character of her books, Swop!

The children were full of fascinating questions for Lucy, such as, “How long did it take you to write Swop: The Daring Dinosaur Detective?” and “What inspired you to create these characters?”

Lucy took us on a journey through her creative process, sharing insights from the very first spark of an idea to the moment her books were published.

We’re now eagerly awaiting our delivery of Dyslexia-friendly copies, which will be a fantastic addition to our school library’s dyslexia section.

A huge thank you to Lucy Noguera for such an inspiring visit! We’re excited to get started on the special Science detective mission you set for us, linked to our Digging for Dinosaurs topic. We can’t wait to put our detective skills to the test!

Here’s a wonderful creative drawing by one of our talented students, inspired by Swop, now proudly displayed in our Class 4 book corner! What a fantastic way to bring the story to life! 🌟📚

Exploring the Wonders of Science: Year 1 Learners Dive into Discovery During Science Week!

23rd March 202513th March 2025 by Clare Sara

A Week of Wonder: Classes 3 & 4 Make Science Sparkle!

What an incredible week it’s been for Classes 3 and 4 as we’ve dived into a whirlwind of fun and fascinating experiments! From making our own rainclouds to cleaning up shiny pennies, and even creating explosive fizzy pops — we’ve truly been hands-on with Science!

We’ve been busy predicting, observing, and recording every step of our exciting experiments. But that’s not all! We even grew our very own rainbows! 🌈 It’s been a week full of colour, creativity, and curiosity — a Science adventure like no other!

Here our some of memories from this week:-

World Book Day 2025

6th March 20256th March 2025 by Nic Stanlake

On Thursday, 6th March, Penpol celebrated World Book Day with a day full of collaboration, creativity, and a shared love of reading.

Children and staff, from Nursery to Year 6, were invited to dress as a character from one of their favourite books. The school was filled with a host of Hogwarts students, a few ‘wimpy’ kids, some magical Matildas, a couple of gangster grannies, and even half a pack of crayons!

The day was filled with excitement, and there was a real buzz around the school as both children and adults shared their favourite stories. ‘Book bingo’ took over the library, while book reviews and recommendations were exchanged across the school and between classmates.

In the afternoon, pupils explored our outdoor spaces in search of hidden surprises. Scattered around the school were photos of familiar faces, and children worked together with their reading buddy classes to navigate the area. Using orienteering maps, they set off on a mission to discover the favourite books of staff.

If you weren’t able to find them all, don’t worry! They will remain up around the school grounds until the end of the week, or you can take a look below!

Creativity in Full Bloom with Author and Illustrator Maia Walczak!

6th March 20256th March 2025 by Rebecca Best

On Tuesday 4th March, we were absolutely thrilled to welcome the incredibly talented Maia Walczak, an award-winning children’s book illustrator, author and artist from Cornwall. Every child at Penpol had the fantastic opportunity to take part in a workshop that truly sparked their creative writing.

Before Maia’s visit, each class explored Maia’s work and created their own vibrant portraits in her distinctive style! Maia was absolutely blown away by the children’s’ incredible creativity and effort!

Maia captivated the children as she shared the fascinating journey behind her books. She revealed what inspired her to write her stories, walked through the planning process and showed them the beautiful final products of her hard work. Her visit not only brought her books to life but also perfectly complemented the writing process we teach here at Penpol. The children were inspired and their imaginations soared as they took part in a fun and engaging hands-on activity.

We were so inspired by Maia’s books that we’ve created a wordless book section in our school library to celebrate her work! A big thank you to Maia for sharing her incredible talent with us – it was truly an unforgettable experience.

Click here to see Maia’s website if you would like to have a look at her books.

Tens, Ones and Lots of Fun in Year 1!

7th March 20253rd March 2025 by Rebecca Best

In Year 1, we’ve been working hard to understand place value up to 50. We’ve been using a variety of manipulatives, including base ten, to help us visualise how many tens and ones are in different numbers. This hands-on approach has made learning about numbers both fun and engaging!

We’ve enjoyed working with our partners, which not only helped us with our place value understanding but also allowed us to develop our Penpol Value of Friendship. By collaborating and discussing our ideas, we’ve been able to improve our Oracy skills, explaining our thinking and listening to others.

It’s been wonderful to see the children excited to share their discoveries and we’re looking forward to continuing to build our mathematical and communication skills together!

Fruitastic Fun: Year 1 Children Explore Healthy Me with Fruit Kebabs!

6th March 202528th February 2025 by Rebecca Best

This term in PSHE, Year 1 children have been learning all about staying healthy. To bring their learning to life, they took part in an exciting Design and Technology lesson where they designed and made their own fruit kebabs!

The lesson began with the children designing their perfect fruit kebabs. They explored different types of fruit and discussed which ones would make a tasty and healthy treat. Once the designs were complete, the children got to work preparing and assembling their fruit kebabs, carefully selecting the fruit before threading it onto skewers.

After all the hard work, the children were able to enjoy the fruits of their labor by tasting their delicious creations. They loved evaluating which fruits they liked or disliked and shared their thoughts with their classmates.

The children thoroughly enjoyed the hands-on experience, and the highlight of the lesson was, of course, eating the tasty and nutritious fruit kebabs they had created! It was a fun and educational way to learn about healthy eating.

Frozen Frenzy: The Great Dinosaur Ice Break!

6th March 20254th February 2025 by Clare Sara

Class 4 had a smashing time today in our science lesson! First, the children eagerly revealed what was hidden inside the balloons. Many enthusiastic helpers volunteered to remove the balloons from the freezing ice.

We began by using our skills to record predictions. Carefully, we worked as a team to set up three controlled methods to figure out which would be the best way to free the dinosaurs from the ice quickly. Each method was timed to find out the results.

Then came the frenzy of smashing the capsules over and over again to free the dinosaurs (don’t worry, no dinosaurs were harmed in the process! 😊).

After all the fun, it was time to record our results. In third place, after 19 minutes and 42 seconds, we decided the ice egg near the heater was no longer in the running. The hot water method impressed us with a time of 9 minutes and 21 seconds, with one child noting, “…the water is now cold because the ice has melted, making it go from hot water to cold water.” But, in first place, with a super speedy time of 1 minute and 56 seconds, was the smashing, crashing, and bashing of the ice capsules!

What a frosty, fun-filled lesson it was!

Year 1’s Roarsome Dinosaur Hunts in Writing!

16th January 2025 by Rebecca Best

This week, Year 1 have been busy crafting some truly roarsome stories in English! Inspired by Michael Rosen’s We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, the children wrote their own adventure: We’re Going on a Dinosaur Hunt! Their imaginations soared as they journeyed through yummy crumbly sausage rolls, cheesy pepperoni pizza, and even slippery smelly bananas, all in search of dinosaurs!

The children have really embraced the Penpol Values of Creativity, thinking up wild and wonderful ideas to make their stories come alive. We are especially proud of how they’ve shown the Penpol Value of Resilience by writing a whole story from start to finish. What a fantastic achievement!

The excitement reached new heights when a dinosaur visited the classroom, making the stories feel even more alive and thrilling!

Well done, Year 1! You’ve all proven yourselves to be fantastic writers with dino-sized imaginations!

Year 1 Roars with Creativity

15th January 2025 by Rebecca Best

Year 1 have been having a dino-mite time developing their art skills, and this term, we’ve been learning about printing! Using bubble wrap, we created fantastic textured prints to make dinosaur scales—how cool is that? The bubble wrap gave our dinosaurs a scaly effect, bringing them to life in a whole new way.

This activity was the perfect way to showcase our Penpol Value of Creativity, as we explored new techniques and unleashed our imagination. What a fun and creative way to bring dinosaurs to life on paper!

Oh dreidel, dreidel, dreidel!

15th January 202515th January 2025 by Rebecca Best

The Key Question Year 1 are exploring in RE this term is: “Who is Jewish and how do they live?”

This term, we’ve had a lot of fun learning about the dreidel, a traditional Jewish game. Jewish people play dreidel during the festival of Hanukkah, which celebrates the Festival of Lights. We’ve also been singing the dreidel song:

I have a little dreidel,
I made it out of clay.
And when it’s dry and ready,
Oh dreidel, I shall play!

THE JELLY FRIENDS American blog

IT’S NOT SAFE FOR THEM IN THE CITY: Send them to the countryside!

“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.”