Year 2

Special Visitors for Year 2

3rd November 2017 by Linda Ruffell

Mark’s Ark arrives at Penpol School

To coincide with their ‘Science’ topic “Animals including Humans’, Class 5 and 6 invited some unusual visitors into their classroom.

During the visit, the children heard a lot of interesting facts about how animals use their senses to stay alive and for those who were feeling very brave, were given the opportunity to handle and stroke some of the animals.

Lily and Zackery feeling very brave

The snake felt all cold and soft – Mia

I felt really scared to hold the snake and then I felt brave – Lily

The owl was my favourite because it looked really soft and cute – Abigail

Year 2 out and about!

4th October 2017 by Penpol School

On the 28^th and 29^th September, classes 5 and 6 visited Trevaskis Farm for a workshop to learn about how and where many of the fruit and vegetables we eat are grown. Did you know that raspberries grow up and strawberries down and out? That the pigs are the award winning British Lop breed and the South Devon cows are exported world wide?

Though dry, it was very, very muddy so wellies were essential but the sows and piglets seemed quite at home!

We also had a talk from the fishmonger and were shown the different types that are for sale. The Gurnard looked quite gruesome!

We finished off with a treasure hunt, following the clues around the farm to find a pot with a hidden seedling, we are wondering what will grow!

It was a great day! – Sonny

I loved the piglets but it was really muddy and I fell over! – Josie

What a great start to Year 2

30th September 2017 by Linda Ruffell

All of the children in Year 2 have had a very busy start to the Autumn Term. During the English lessons the children from Mrs Ruffell’s and Mrs Daniel’s Class have been looking at the story ‘A Lion in the Meadow’ by Margaret Mahy.

After hearing the story, the children enjoyed discussing the story setting, asking and answering questions and thinking of adjectives that they could use to describe their own animal character. The children from both classes thoroughly enjoyed all aspects of this story and worked hard to plan and write an interesting story of their own. Well done!

I enjoyed thinking of adjectives to describe the lion. Abigail

I would have been scared of the lion. Zachary

I have made up scary stories. Thomas

Penpol Students Star At Hayle Tennis Finals Day

27th September 2017 by Nic Stanlake

Sunday the 24th September brought around the much anticipated annual finals day at Hayle Tennis Club. Over the last year the school has rekindled its relationship with the tennis club by securing a whole school membership which allows teachers the use of the courts with their class. During the summer term of the last academic year the school also held a tennis themed non-uniform day and cake sale in order to raise funds for the club as a way of saying thank you for the coaching some classes have received and our school membership. I’m pleased to say we raised nearly £334 to support one of the most local clubs, with the PFA match funding the cake sale with some added extra bumping the total up to £534!

In the seven final matches Penpol school was well represented wth fifteen students ranging from the red ball competition for aged 8 and under to Under 14 singles and doubles. A huge success for the children and a reward for the hard work they put in on the court every week. It was also very pleasing to see friends and class mates going head to head but even more pleasing to see the level of sportsmanship as they congratulated each other and were happy for their own successes.

Alfie with his Green Ball, U12’s Trophies and Sportsmanship award

Lily with her U12’s and Orange ball trophies

Peter was awarded the Most improved player after only being at the club for a couple of months!

Jude and Alfie with their doubles trophy

Celebrating European Day of Languages at Penpol

26th September 2017 by Jacob Woolcock

Today marks the European Day of Languages, a day to celebrate the 6000+ languages spoken around the world. To mark the occasion at Penpol we’ve arranged a special non-uniform day where the children came to school dressed in the colours of their favourite flag.

Even more excitingly, Mr Emery and Mr Woolcock have arranged an entire day of language-learning challenges in the Junior Mac Suite for the entire school to participate in.

Throughout the day each class has had a twenty minute session using a fantastic website called Linguascope, where the children can take on their challenge in any one of nine different languages. While most children chose French, Spanish or Italian we did have lots who were really brave and decided to take on languages including Chinese, Russian and Arabic.

The challenge itself was a multiple choice quiz where the time for each question decreases as the rounds go by. A score of 30 or more is considered exceptional, yet Penpol pupils were often reaching the high thirties with several children achieving a nearly impossible 38 points!

With perseverance, accuracy and linguistic knowledge a mighty 38 or 39 points is achievable. It’s incredibly difficult, but today we’ve seen it happen several times! – Mr Emery

The highest score in each year group will win a special prize, with more details to be given to the children in their next assembly.

Reception: To be announced later this week!

Year 1: To be announced later this week!

Year 2: To be announced later this week!

Year 3: Freddie (38 points)

Year 4: Jake (39 points)

Year 5: Emma (40 points)

Year 6: Aidan (38 points)

I’m really happy that I’ve won, Morgan did really well too but I just managed to beat him in the end by one point!! – Connor, Year 2

Languages lift off at Penpol

22nd September 2017 by Jack Emery

Language lessons at Penpol primary school are already underway as we begin the new academic year. All classes have already enjoyed their first French lesson this year, with both Mr Emery and Michelle. Every student has already demonstrated lots of enthusiasm and eagerness to take part, which are key ingredients to having fun and gaining confidence in learning a language.

Reception students have already mastered the action “tire”(pull) and the different animals in French. Classes 1 + 2 very much enjoyed dressing up and acting out the classic French children’s story, “le navet enorme”(the giant turnip). Classes 3, 4, 5 + 6 are already enjoying being able to greet each other in French, with lots of students even making it part of their daily routine to greet Mr Emery in French outside the classroom.

Years 2 all the way to 5 have already taken part in singing “Alouette” ( the classic French song about a skylark), showing excellent knowledge of the body parts in French, with actions.

I loved learning about the giant turnip – Hunter – Class 2

Year 6 have the unique opportunity of putting all of the French they have used over the years to the ultimate test: corresponding with their very own French pen pal from a French primary school. The small school, situated just outside of Paris, have already expressed their excitement about this exchange and are eager to learn more about our Year 6 students. Watch this space for more news, as Penpol students learn more about French culture and way of life.

With language club now up and running every Thursday, students at Penpol also have the opportunity of learning another language, whether it is extra French practice, or learning numbers 1-10 in Mandarin.

Finally, Penpol school will be celebrating European Day of Languages on Tuesday 26^th September, with all students competing in a whole school languages competition. The competition will be run by Mr Emery, with the aid of Penpol’s ICT teacher, Mr Woolcock. The aim will be for students to show-off their foreign language skills, ranging from French to Mandarin. The winners for each Year group will be rewarded with a prize in an assembly to conclude the action-packed day.

Watch this space for more news from languages over the next few weeks!

Penpol’s Got Talent 2017

24th July 2017 by Jacob Woolcock

Last Thursday there was great excitement in the school marquee as the children awaited the arrival of our three very special judges for this years ‘Penpol’s Got Talent. This year the auditions were amazing with children from reception through to year 6 demonstrating that they had the ability and confidence to dance, sing and play a musical instrument in front of a live audience.

Eventually, following four days of auditions, fourteen acts went through to the final. Judging the acts was a very difficult challenge for the three judges but eventually a decision was made.

This year’s winner was Leah who sang so beautifully that it gave the compere, Mrs Ruffell, goose bumps and left the three judges with tears in their eyes.

I liked all the singing and dancing, it was beautiful. – Isabella

I enjoyed watching all of the acts, especially my sisters singing group. – Patrick

I really enjoyed watching and listening to the drummer. He even had light up drum sticks. – Jonash

Green Fingers

30th June 2017 by Linda Ruffell

The children in Class 6 have been very busy learning all about plants and the conditions they need to grow.To help with their understanding we teamed up with ‘Sow & Grow ‘ to help the children learn to love healthy food by growing some of their own in class. The children were so excited when we opened the parcel and found a bag of compost, pots to the grow their seeds in and some cress, runner beans and baby carrot seeds. The pack also contained a chart to record the growth of the plants and a ‘Star Grower’ badge.

The children started off by filling their pots with composts and then carefully added their seeds.

The pots were then placed onto a sunny window sill to germinate.

Every morning the children would come into class and check their seed pot. There was great excitement around the room on the day the first shoots started to appear. Every week the children recorded the growth of the plant and eventually the ‘Star Grower’ was announced. Congratulations Harry!

Apart from growing seed in pots the children also made cress heads and a garden in the glove. The children found it a great challenge having to push the wet cotton wool balls into each finger and then carefully placing the seeds inside.

The gloves were then attached to a sunny window and all we had to do next was sit and wait for the roots and shoots to appear. Which wasn’t too long!

I really loved making the cress heads because the cress looked like hair – Finn

I liked making the cress head as you got to eat the cress after – Jasmine

I enjoyed all of it, especially watching my bean grow so tall – Summer

Announcing Music in the Marquee 2017

5th May 2017 by Jacob Woolcock

The last two years have seen sell out performances at our annual Music In The Marquee concerts from the brilliant Bradley Johnson and the fantastic Little Chix. I’m delighted to say that this July we’re going bigger and better than ever before, with an incredible four-piece band.

For our 2017 event I’d like to introduce you to the countries top Coldplay tribute band, YELLOW! Yellow are a four piece band from Portsmouth who formed ten years ago to celebrate and perform the music of Coldplay. The group all play their own intruments and manage to recreate the energetic and dynamic Coldplay sound whilst engaging audiences across the country. This July they’re making the trip down to Hayle especially for us. The band are a close group of friends and their friendship and passion for live music shines through on stage.

On Saturday 8th July the band will treat us to two sets of live music with the first offering a look at Coldplay’s recent dance-pop sound including hits such as ‘Adventure of a Lifetime’, ‘Something Just LIke This’ and of course, ‘Paradise’. Later on in the evening the band will return to the stage for a second time to treat us to a set of more classic coldplay songs including ‘Yellow’, ‘Sky Full of Stars’ and ‘Viva La Vida’. We’ll also have more music on the night with talented local support and plenty of chances to get the children dancing!

Just like in previous years the event will raise money for the Penpol Friends Association and will also feature a fully licensed bar, soft drinks, and food for everyone to enjoy. I hope you’ll agree that Music in the Marquee 2017 is already shaping up to be a phenomenal night of entertainment.

Tickets are on sale now from reception: £8 for adults and £5 for children.

See you there!

Penpol Pupils go on a Virtual Reality Expedition with Google!

26th April 2017 by Jacob Woolcock

On Tuesday Penpol School had a very special visit from Google who had some exciting new technology to show off to the children.

Google Expeditions is a new project designed to introduce primary school children to Virtual Reality in the classroom. Mark from Google bought 60 Google Cardboard headsets to Penpol along with 60 smart phones and tablets to get the system set up and running. Throughout the day every class, from Year 1 to Year 6, had the chance to get some hands on time with the technology by going on a virtual school trip!

Led by their class teacher, the children were transported virtually around the world to unusual and exciting destinations including the Amazon Rainforest, underwater deep sea diving, onto the vast icy planes of Antartica and even into outer space to see the Moon and Earth from a whole new perspective. The excitement amongst the children was electric, with loud gasps every time the teacher took them to a new location to explore.

Virtual Reality works by taking a 360 degree photo of a location and then using special software to make the viewer feel like they are in the middle of the action. With the Google Cardboard and attached smartphone the children can then explore their surroundings simply by moving their head. The classroom disappears and they are taken on an incredible school trip.