Year 4

School Council Set To Work

14th May 201824th November 2017 by Nic Stanlake

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?

20th November 2017 by Jacob Woolcock

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

Year Four History Homework Challenge!

30th October 2017 by Colin Jones

In Year Four, the children have been learning about the Romans and their time in Britain. Whilst learning, about the Roman Army, the children were really interested in this aspect and as a result, last week, the children were set an optional homework challenge. The children were tasked with making a historically accurate Roman shield. The teachers in year Four were overwhelmed and delighted with the response. Due to the outstanding quality of the work produced, all children who participated were given a golden ticket.

They look amazing in the classroom and some have even been used in Roman Army marching drills. The teachers would like to thank everyone who helped the children create these fabulous shields and we look forward to the products of the next challenge.

I really enjoyed making the shields – Tom – Class 4

Gramm…..azing work in Year 3 and 4!

30th October 2017 by Colin Jones

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.

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

3D Class Mascot Challenge

18th May 201827th September 2017 by Jacob Woolcock

Last week our 3D design work started in earnest in the Junior Mac Suite. To get the children learning all about the Tinkercad 3D design program they were set a challenge: to design the best class mascot to sit on their teacher’s desk.

Everyone in Year 4, 5 and 6 had the chance to build whatever they thought their teacher would like the most with the winning design being secretly chosen from each class. The winning model was then 3D printed overnight and the children were delighted to see the finished model the following morning.

It looked even better in real life than it did on the computer, I hope Mr Pollard likes it! – Trystan

Below are photos of all the winning designs from the competition, click on them to view them full-size!

Class 9 (Y4) – Jake

Class 10 (Y4) – Martin

Class 11 (Y5) – Ethan

Class 12 (Y5) – Maggie

Class 13 (Y6) – Trystan

Class 14 (Y6) – Aidan

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

C’est magnifique! – Class 8’s Fashion Show

20th June 2017 by Elizabeth Nidds

A little slice of France came to class 8 this week! On Tuesday, Class 8 were very excited to invite the children and teachers from Class 3 to a very special fashion show performed entirely in French. Since Easter, the children have been busy preparing for their show in their weekly French lessons and have really impressed both their French teacher Michelle as well as the adults in class 3 and 8.

The children dressed up in a range of outfits including sports kits, school uniform, roller-skates, onesies, pyjamas, wetsuits and even grass suits! After walking up and down the catwalk in their costumes to songs chosen by the class, each child described their outfits in detail and then answered questions by Class 3 about their outfits.

Everyone was really impressed with the fashion show and below we have included some photos as well as the french the children had to learn in preparation for the show.

Je porte une robe multicolore et des chaussures blanches (I am wearing a multicoloured dress and white shoes) – Rebecka

Je porte une t-shirt de foot blanche, un short de foo blanc, des chaussettes bleues, ds chaussures noires (I am wearing a white football shirt, white football shorts, blue socks, black trainers) – Isabella

Je porte une chemise de rugby noir, un short de rugby noir, des chaussettes noires, des chaussures noires (I am wearing a black rugby t-shirt, black rugby shorts, black socks and black trainers) – Ronnie

Conscription! Year 6 are heading to the front!

“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.”