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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 4

Class 9 are Internet Kind

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.

Huge Medal Haul For Our Super Swimmers

Over the last couple of weeks our swim teams have been competing in the Penwith Swimming Gala’s at both Year 3 & 4 and Year 5 & 6. As always, it was a pleasure to travel with these children to represent the school alongside 18 others from the area. All children took part in their individual events including, front crawl, back stroke, breaststroke and butterfly (Yr 5 & 6), as well as the relay events. Many of our children placed 1st or 2nd in their heat and qualified for the finals.

Penpol School were very well represented in the finals, present in 23 of the 36 finals collecting many medals in the process.

Year 3 & 4 results

Both Joe and Ronnie picked up Bronze medals for the boys in the front and backstroke with Amber collecting Bronze in the Yr4 girls front crawl.

Out of the 18 teams present our Year 3 girls and Year 4 boys both finished 3rd in the team competition.

Year 5 & 6 results

I returned from the year 5 & 6 gala with a pockets bursting with Penpol winning 14 medals.

Miranda and Zara both won silver medals for their front crawl and backstroke whilst Freya won bronze in the breaststroke. Emma was not to be left out either following up her 4th place in the butterfly with her part in a silver medal relay performance bringing the year 5 girls total to 7.

The year 6’s collected 3 individual bronze’s  through Jude, Finn and Eva before the Year 6 boys collected a bronze medal each for the relay.

Overall our Year 6 boys came third for their age group and the Year 5 girls came second and qualifying for the Cornwall School Games in June.

The results of the combined competition proved how success the gala had been for Penpol School as we came in 3rd behind the very competitive teams from St Ives and St Uny. However, 3rd placed out of 18 teams is an outstanding achievement.

 

Well done everyone, and good luck to the Year 5 Girls team at the school games!

 

Penpol Languages Survey- We Value Your Feedback

With the final term at Penpol School almost upon us, it’s the perfect time to reflect and evaluate on the year so far.

All students here at Penpol have one hour a week of French, as well as the opportunity of attending after school language club on Thursdays. Year 6 are currently involved in an email exchange with Octave Cazauvieilh, a primary school situated on the outskirts of Bordeaux in the South-West of France. We also celebrate students achievement in languages by awarding a Star of the Week badge in both Infants and Juniors.

As a way of evaluating languages at Penpol, please would you be so helpful and spare a moment to complete this short questionnaire below.

Click Here

Your opinion is very valuable and you can be assured that your completed questionnaire will be totally anonymous.

Many thanks,

Mr Emery (Penpol Languages Co-ordinator)

Class 10 are Internet Smart

This half term we are looking at staying safe online, using a brand new set of resources from Google called ‘Be Internet Legends‘.  This week we’ve been looking at the first aspect, Be Internet Smart, which focuses on knowing what information is safe to share online and who we could be sharing with in order to stay safe.  We’ve also talked about being respectful online and remembering that comments and photos you post online tend to stay there for a very long time.

It’s been great to see how much the children have remembered from our online safety lessons last year, showing just how switched on our pupils are already when it comes to e-safety – Mr Woolcock

Remember children, if you see anything online which worries you or makes you feel a bit uneasy, you can always tell an adult!

“You need to be really careful who you share things with, any personal information should only be shared with people that you know in real life.” – Clarissa


As well as learning all about this, we’ve played the Mindful Mountain game on Interland to really help the children cement their new found knowledge!

“I think Interland is really fun and that everyone should play it to help them learn about staying safe online!” – Charlie

 

“You can be safe by not sharing personal information with the wrong people.” – Caleb

“I think Interland is a good way to learn about sharing because it’s safe and fun at the same time!” –  Grace

Announcing Music in the Marquee 2018

The last three years have seen sell out performances at our annual Music In The Marquee concerts from Bradley Johnson, Little Chix and last years Yellow. I’m delighted to say that this summer we will be hosting our fourth concert in the Marquee, featuring a somewhat familiar face…

Each year we ask the children which music they are enjoying and what sort of act they’d like to see play in our marquee at the end of the Summer term. This year the overwhelming majority of children told us they’d like to hear Ed Sheeran, with some of the older children asking in particular if Bradley Johnson could make a comeback. I am delighted to say that when I spoke to Bradley he was thrilled that we wanted him back to perform again.

So, for the second time, I’d love to introduce you to Bradley Johnson! Bradley is a singer/songwriter from Liverpool who first came to national attention as a finalist on the X Factor back in 2011 when he amazed judges with his version of Ed Sheeran’s The A Team. Since his television debut he’s been working on his own material and has been crafting his skills to become the UK’s finest Ed Sheeran tribute act. He made his first trip down to Cornwall for a sell-out show in our Marquee back in 2015 and can’t wait to come back again later this year. Bradley says: “I loved playing at your school last time, I still remember it as one of my favourite gigs. I can’t wait to be back again this year, with even more tunes for you all to enjoy!”

Bradley will be playing two sets of live music on the night, the first being a hit-filled Ed Sheeran tribute set including tunes both new and old including ‘Shape of You’, ‘Bloodstream’, ‘Thinking Out Loud’ and ‘Perfect’, followed by a later set which will also include other popular pop and rock covers as well as a selection of his own material. As always with Music in the Marquee his two sets will be accompanied by local support acts to round off the whole evenings entertainment.

Just like in previous years the event will raise money for the Penpol Friends Association and will also feature a fully licensed bar, BBQ, soft drinks, and food for everyone to enjoy. I hope you’ll agree that Music in the Marquee 2018 is already shaping up to be a phenomenal night of entertainment.

We are opening this event to the whole community, but want to give our Penpol parents the first chance to get tickets.  For this reason we’re offering you a special pre-sale of tickets, starting TODAY! Tickets are priced at £8 for adults and £5 for children.  Please note that all children must be accompanied by an adult.

Please return this slip and money to the office as soon as you can to secure your tickets. Music in the Marquee has been a sell out for the past three years and tickets will be on a first come first served basis.

Relive last years Music in the Marquee:

Sphero Rolls into Penpol School

One of the reasons we visit the BETT Show in London each January is to try and find exciting and innovative ideas to bring back into the classroom at Penpol.  This year we’ve returned with a dozen brand new Sphero SPRK+ Robots for the children to get to grips with.

These small plastic robots are pretty clever, despite their simple appearance.  Each robot can move at up to two meters a second, controlled remotely via iPad and can run complex sequences of code written by the children.

To get to grips with these new resources the children in Key Stage 2 have been spending time learning how to connect to the devices, how to steer and drive them and of course, having a little bit of fun along the way.  It’s pretty exciting to have a Computing lesson without being sat in front of a computer!

“It’s a great thing to have races with, if you watch the video we did in the hall it was educational to learn how to code but also fun to race them.” – Phoenix, Class 13

“They’re very fun to play with and they’re great to have races with.” – Jake, Class 13

“I like the Spheros’ because they’re fun and great to learn with and I can’t wait to tell my mum that we had a really fun day in Computing with Mr Woolcock!” – Jowan, Class 13

 

I think it’s safe to say we’re looking forward to writing lots of interesting programs for the Sphero in the future.

“The Spheros’ are really fun and educational at the same time, I’d recommend them to anyone!” – Joe, Class 13

 

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.

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.