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Headteacher
Chris Coyle-Chislett

Email the Office
secretary@penpol.cornwall.sch.uk

Telephone Number
01736 753472

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 foundation of deep-rooted learning. Through our rich and relevant curriculum, we nurture community-minded, forward-facing international citizens of the future.”
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Year 3

Penpol Become ‘Supermovers’

The BBC have recently launched a new scheme called ‘Supermovers’ which aims to increase the physical activity levels of children in schools with the help of children TV stars and Premier League football mascots. This is done through a series of videos based heavily around areas of  the curriculum and involve singing and dancing.

For example there are videos that support the teaching and learning of; times tables, word classes, measures, shape, fractions, punctuation marks and much much more. As a school we have been trialling the videos through KS1 and KS2 with great success. Not only have the videos proved to be a very good teaching resource but also allow the children to be active in the classroom.

Physical activity helps with academic achievement, behaviour, concentration and self-esteem. Research has proven that just five minutes of moderate exercise can significantly improve engagement in lessons – BBC Supermovers

Below are some of our Year 4 children taking part and enjoying learning about verbs and adverbs.

It helps us learn – Amber

It helps me improve my movements and its really fun! – Lewis

In Year 5, Class 11 have been perfecting their 6 times tables with the help of Manchester United’s very own Fred The Red.

I love doing these videos as they are really fun and have helped me with my 6 times table – Connah

Its great, they help with times tables but also with getting us moving in the classroom! – Melissa

The catchiness and simplicity of the songs allow the children to be fully engaged in their learning whilst developing not only their times table knowledge but also their physical literacy. But most importantly they are actively learning with a smile on their faces – Mr Stanlake

CLICK HERE to have a go at all of the amazing videos with your children at home.

After a very successful introduction we hope to continue using the ‘Supermover’ videos alongside our daily wake and shake and in class use of ‘Just Dance’ to engage the children physically as well as mentally to both improve their wellbeing and academic achievements.

Year 3: Ready To Rock

Children in Year Three (classes 7 and 8), have started a terms worth of sessions, learning how to play guitar. With guitars on loan from Cornwall Music Education Hub (CMEH),the children are able to take the instruments home to practise becoming ‘Guitar Legends’.

“It is great learning to play the guitar! I have been practising every day” –  Fynn

All of the sessions are provided as part of our music curriculum offer with the hope that some of the children will cary on playing  instruments after the lessons have stopped. Children in years 4-6 have also been given the opportunity to join Penpol School’s guitar club, which has seen an immense popularity and all of the 30 spaces filled within a couple of days.

“I like to get up early in the morning and practise” – Alex

The children and I look forward to showing off their guitar skills to parents after Easter. 

Advent Boxes for Hayle Food Bank

Over the last month each class has been preparing an advent box for Christmas. However, these advent boxes are difference compared to those most children have at home because instead of taking a chocolate or treat out like traditional advent calendar, the children have been bringing food into class to add into their class advent boxes.

Across our fourteen classes, children have been generously bringing in lots of different foods to donate to those in need of a helping hand at this busy time of the year.

The boxes have since been collected by the Hayle Food Bank and are ready for redistribution to those who are supported by the great work done by one of our most local charities.

On behalf of the Hayle Food Bank and those who will receive these wonderful donations, we would like to thank parents and families for their very generous and kind support.

Hour Of Code 2017: A Hero’s Journey

Penpol School have been taking part in the international Hour Of Code this week.  The idea behind the Hour of Code is simple, to get every child around the world spending an hour learning a little bit about computer science and programming.  This year there are over 514 million children taking part in the Hour, from all around the world.

 

 
Countries where the Hour of Code is taking place this year

 

The challenge the children have been undertaking this year has been designed by the team behind Minecraft and is called Hero’s Journey.  On this challenge you have to write your own code to control the robotic ‘Agent’ who can then help your character complete the twelve levels.  You can try it yourself at home here.

Everyone in Key Stage 2 took part in the challenge with some children even going the extra mile to collect the hard-to-reach diamonds on each level.

It was really good fun!  I didn’t know that I could control my character Steve. – George, C14

The Hour of Code follows on nicely from the lessons the children are currently having in Computing where they are learning how a computer works and how we, as users, can write simple instructions to control the computers.  The children are really getting stuck into this logical way of thinking and really deserved their Minecraft inspired treat this week!

Well done Key Stage 2!

 

You can find out more about the Hour of Code here.

3D Decorations by Key Stage 2

This term every child in Key Stage 2 has made their own 3D printed winter decoration.

To explain how they did it, we’ve created a short video for you to enjoy.

 

It’s been such a fun process helping each child design and make their decorations and Paul and I have really enjoyed seeing their designs come to life.   It’s taken nearly five weeks to print them all and while we were waiting we’ve compiled some statistics from the project. – Mr Woolcock.

If you’re interested, you can read lots more about the project here:

And here they are, all 200 decorations!

School Council Set To Work

As we enter the second half term of the academic year, the school council have been elected and met for the first time. During this first meeting the children discussed the expectations of a school councillor as well as assigning themselves roles.

Some slight changes to the structure this year mean we welcome fourteen members to the committee including two children representing the infants in Key Stage 1. To aid the effectiveness of the overall council, we have also doubled the representatives from Year 5 and 6, as their experience of school life is greatly valued.

First on the agenda for this academic year was the expectations and vision for this elected group of councillors. After much discussion the children settled on the below vision statement.

Our vision is, for all children at Penpol School to be able to have a voice and contribute towards the continuous improvement of our school community.

The aim of the school council is to involve ALL students in helping to create and implement school policies and procedures that will benefit everyone in the school community. This will address the following areas:

  • To make changes in our school and school community.
  • To give pupils the opportunity to let adults know their feelings and opinions about things that affect them.
  • Pupils should also be able to have a say in decisions and to play an active role in making their school a better place for all.
  •  Serve as the voice for the pupils of Penpol within the school and within the community.

We as a school council will do this by:

  • Talking to our classmates to gain ideas and suggestions.
  • Making sure that everyone’s views and opinions are valued.
  • Having regular meetings to share our ideas.

As part of the School Council all members have been elected into particular roles. This level of responsibility has been trusted to the council members after they were voted in by their peers, as people who are trustworthy, approachable, fair and honest to name but a few of the attributes required.

The following positions have been filled.

  • Chairperson- Will (Class 14)
  • Vice-Chair- Ines (Class 14)
  • Secretary- Juliette (Class 13)
  • Vice-Secretary- Miranda (Class 12)
  • Treasurer- Jude (Class 13)
  • Alerting team- Grace (Class 10), Rocky (Class 9), Thomas (Class 8) & Tess (Class 7)
  • Voting members (All KS2)
  • Committee members (All)
  • News Officers- Lily and Ethan (Both Class 11)
  • Teacher Support (Non-voting members) Mr Stanlake & Miss Simpson

 

What’s that noise coming from the Mac Suite?

Since the beginning of November I’ve been asked the same question time and time again: “What’s that noise coming from the Mac Suite, Mr Woolcock?”

It’s a very valid question as there has indeed been a pretty irritating noise coming from the Mac Suite for the last few weeks.  The machine making the annoying noise isn’t finished yet though, in fact it’s likely to be making that same, annoying noise for a few more weeks yet.

So what is it doing??

Well, the machine is our Makerbot 3D Printer and it’s currently undertaking the biggest print-run of its life – printing out 200 unique and individual winter decorations which have been designed by the children in Key Stage 2.

 

Each child in the Juniors has been using an online program called Tinkercad to imagine, design and construct their own decoration, based on any theme they wish.

To get their creative juices flowing I showed each child how they could make a unique and beautiful Snowflake design, which a lot of children actually ended up choosing as their final decoration.  However, each child could also design their own decoration with their own choice of colours too.

Since then, myself and Paul have been busy making sure that all 200 decorations get printed.  It might seem like a simple task, but in reality it’s far from it!  Each 3D model takes around 50 minutes to print and as they all use two colours we also have to stop the printer to change the coloured plastic mid-way through each print.  Sometimes it’s a little easier, for example when five children have all chosen a red base and a white top layer, as all five can be printed at once during a morning.  But for the most part it’s been a case of setting countless alarms, reminding teachers to pause the printers, scrambling under the table to find the next colour plastic and hoping that the 3D printer doesn’t jam after 4 hours of printing (thus ruining the prints!).


Plenty of late nights and early mornings have been spent coming back into the Mac Suite to set more prints off in the dark, but we’re finally getting towards the end.  We’ve now printed over 120 decorations and they are looking INCREDIBLE.

When all the decorations are printed we’ll be giving the children a chance to bring in a small donation of 50p to cover the cost of the plastic filament in return for taking their decoration home to keep forever.  The children are already excited about this!

As to what the decorations actually look like?  Well, you’ll just have to wait until December to find out.  It’d ruin the surprise to share all the photos of them now, but as soon as we’ve got all 200 ready to go we’ll update the Penpol Times so you can see how great they look!

In the meantime, back to the printer for me!

– Mr Woolcock

Sandwich fun

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.

 

 

Jacques a dit…on va dehors!

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

Let’s hope for more sunshine next week!

 

 

Gramm…..azing work in Year 3 and 4!

After the teachers in Lower Key Stage Two participated in an inspiring training session, Year Three and Four have been focussing on grammar this week. Each class have been doing fun grammar games and activities.

In class eight, the children have been recapping word classes. The children needed to know what verbs, adverbs, adjectives, nouns and proper nouns are. Each group of children wrote down a word of a certain type and made human sentences, discussing and discovering what happens when words are moved about. We also learnt that if you start a sentence with an adverb, we call it a fronted adverbial.

In Year Four, we have been playing games and completing activities about conjunctions.  We have been finding out the differences between subordinating and co ordinating conjunctions and have applying this in our writing, placing conjunctions at different points in the sentences.