A glorious start to May.

The children of Talland Class have been involved in several interesting activities this week which included researching and creating a timeline for the Maya civilisation. During this research, they were able to produce some amazing open questions about the civilisation: What was a typical meal for the Maya? How did the Maya protect their land? We will use these questions, and more, to help the children learn about the influences the Maya has had on contemporary society.

The children have loved digging into some horticultural work. They have managed to start planting crops in shallow beds, sowed some flower and vegetable seeds and spruced up the borders with a couple of shrubs. Who'd have known Talland Class had such 'green fingers'?  Well done, all!

English
Our English study has further developed the children's sentence structure. They are continuing to recognise complex sentences and beginning to use them confidently: for example, As the sun began to set, the children strolled towards the beach. 

Maths
The children have secured knowledge and understanding of decimals to thousandths. They used this knowledge to investigate percentages. They all recognise that percentages are shown by using the % sign.

best wishes,

Mr Parry, Mrs Swabey and the Talland Class team (Mrs Walters and Ms Rowlands)

This week's jokes:

Knock, Knock!
Who’s there?
Lettuce.
Lettuce who?
Lettuce in and you’ll find out.

What kind of bean never grows in a garden?
A jelly bean!

We have started our learning about our new focus story book 'We're going on a bear hunt' and when we went to St Anne's we listened to the story together before creating some bear faces.

The bear faces had to have one wet, shiny nose, two big, furry ears, two big goggly eyes; we're not scared!!

Fortunately, the Grannies and Grandads at St Anne's weren't scared either!

w/e 3/5/24

We really enjoyed our Science lesson this week, as we were learning about invertebrates. We went on an invertebrate hunt around the school grounds and found many creatures in their microhabitats. We took photographs, drew them and then classified them! 

We are looking forward to some Scientists joining us later in the term to do more on this topic in more depth!

Super scientists

It's been another full on week in Tregantle Class. KS1 started their new club 'multi-sports' on Tuesday after school. There was huge amounts of energy burned in fast moving games like dragon's treasure, cups and domes and cat and mouse. The hall was filled with fun and laughter!
Tregantle have been busy scientists this week. The Year 1 children have been learning about the parts of a plant. we had some very successful labelled diagrams of 'busy lizzies' (which we all thought was a really funny name) and we have learnt how to identify some flowers like poppies, pansies and buttercups. Our EYFS scientists have been delighted by the changes we've seen in our caterpillars this week. they have all moved to the top of the pot and have begun to make their cocoons. 
In maths the EYFS children have been working really hard all week to show their understanding of teens numbers in different ways. In the photograph you can see one of the children using cubes to represent the number 15 with a block of ten and a block of five. Fantastic! 
We are all super excited for our trip to Porfell Wildlife Park on Friday. Check out our blog next week hear all about it! 

We have reached the end of our latest topic, ‘What’s so special about clouds’. We have focussed on a range of themes including erosion, human impact on the coast, how clouds are formed, their influence on the weather and how to read maps. We finished this week by completing some personal research into questions we still had on the topic. We recorded our findings in our books and on a few clouds too! 

We have reached the end of our latest topic, ‘What’s so special about clouds’. We have focussed on a range of themes including erosion, human impact on the coast, how clouds are formed, their influence on the weather and how to read maps. We finished this week by completing some personal research into questions we still had on the topic. We recorded our findings in our books and on a few clouds too! 

This has been another exciting week for Talland Class. They particularly enjoyed discussing, exploring and making decisions about respect. This was based on our RE topic and how all faiths are accepted in society, more especially in Cornwall. The children's ideas were in abundance and this highlighted further questions to answer. Two pertinent ideas the children explored were: What does respect look like? (A smile, taking a bow to the King, a hand shake, etc.) and What does it sound like? (Singing Happy Birthday, etc.)

English
Talland have been focusing on English grammar this week. This will enhance their understanding of the text they read and will promote their writing skills. For example, the children explored the use of relative clauses. A relative clause is used for extra information in a sentence relating to the subject of the sentence. (Mr Parry, who teaches Talland Class, walked into the classroom. In this sentence, 'who teaches Talland Class' is the relative clause.)

Maths
The children have further developed their understanding of decimals. They can now relate decimals to fractions and are beginning to grasp the relevance and importance of place value. We have now covered decimals up to thousandths: 

O . t  h th
2 . 1  4  5             
for example.


best wishes,

Mr Parry, Mrs Swabey and the Talland Class team (Mrs Walters and Ms Rowlands)

This week's jokes:

What word becomes shorter if you add two letters to it? Shorter

What do you call a train carrying bubble gum? A chew-chew train.

w/e 26.4.24

On Thursday, we visited Saltash library for an exciting Live Lesson from the aquarium. We enjoyed seeing and learning about the different marine life and loved the fun facts shared!

We also took a look at the books in the library - lots of the children would love their library cards, so please do pay them a visit! You can even apply online and reserve your favourite books! https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/libraries-museums-and-archives/libraries/join-the-library/ 

More photos below!

Three new Cafes for Brunel families

The KIRFs Cafe will be held at the start of each new half term. Thank you to those parents and children who have come along so far, we hope you found it useful.
What are KIRFs?
KIRFs (Key Instant Recall Facts) are pieces of mathematical knowledge that we want the children to learn off-by-heart or be able to work out very quickly (within 3 seconds).
They are designed to support the development of the mental skills that underpin mathematics.
They are particularly useful when calculating, be it adding, subtracting, multiplying or dividing and include facts such as number bonds, counting on, back, times tables, equivalence of units of measure, and square numbers.
Each year group is allocated key facts to focus on throughout the year, in line with age related expectations. These should be practised for rapid recall.Check out the website and class blogs for the newest KIRFs each half term.
Reading Cafe (monthly) Parents, children and siblings are invited in on the following dates to share stories, recommendations and chat about books along with Miss Pentreath and our Reading Pioneers. Tuesday 23^rd April- Year R, 1 and 2 Tuesday 14^th May-Year 3 and 4.Tuesday 18^th June-Year 5 and 6.
At the first of the Parents Cafes, held last week, we welcomed Matt Wilmott, Autism Advisor from the Cornwall Autism Team, to talk about Autism and effective adaptations which can be made both within school and at home. Parents and Carers had the chance to network with other parents, ask questions and look at some of the resources we use to support neurodivergent children

We look forward to welcoming you at cafe events in the future and welcome suggestions for topics.

Wonderful Tregantle

What a hard-working week we’ve had! Our Year 1 children have been writing the class version of the story Christopher Nibble. We have changed the character to Fluffy Nibble and the place to ‘Carrotville!’ They have worked so hard to increase their stamina for writing. In maths the children have a new tuft tray with a weekly maths challenge. This week they have been showing their knowledge of doubling and halving. The EYFS children have been exploring in the garden this week. The BFA have kindly bought us some new resources for our mud kitchen which we have enjoyed using. We have seen some wonderful writing this week; all of the hard work in phonics is paying off as we can see from the wonderful ‘have a go’ writing! We all enjoyed another music lesson from the specialist music teacher Mrs Butlin this week. We worked on creating rhythms and identifying loud and soft, fast and slow music.

Music to our ears...

This week in music, Mrs Butlin taught the class how to write musical notes - Quavers and Crotchets (quick and slow notes).

Year 6 have returned to school in a positive and upbeat mood. We have got stuck into revising our reading comprehension skills and the fundamentals of grammar ready for the SATs next month.

Both maths classes are working towards the end of the taught units in order to allow some time for revision of the maths curriculum and to fine tune our arithmetic abilities.

We’ve also had the thrill of football and netball matches - with both teams winning. Some Year 6s have started soft ball on Thursday afternoons, and the Reading Pioneers have started a new book. Feel free to ask the Softballers and Pioneers about their activities and if they would recommend them.

We have another couple of weeks of our current topic ‘What’s so special about clouds?’  and will spend the final two weeks ensuring we have answered all of the questions we had at the beginning. Who knows, we may have some budding meteorologists in our midst.

We rounded off our first week in style by participating in a morning of alternative sports. Pendower and Seaton had a go at archery, American Football and capture the flag. The last two sports demanded positive teamwork from all of the children – a challenge they rose too admirably.

Year 6 have returned to school in a positive and upbeat mood. We have got stuck into revising our reading comprehension skills and the fundamentals of grammar ready for the SATs next month.

Both maths classes are working towards the end of the taught units in order to allow some time for revision of the maths curriculum and to fine tune our arithmetic abilities.

We’ve also had the thrill of football and netball matches - with both teams winning. Some Year 6s have started soft ball on Thursday afternoons, and the Reading Pioneers have started a new book. Feel free to ask the Softballers and Pioneers about their activities and if they would recommend them.

We have another couple of weeks of our current topic ‘What’s so special about clouds?’  and will spend the final two weeks ensuring we have answered all of the questions we had at the beginning. Who knows, we may have some budding meteorologists in our midst.

We rounded off our first week in style by participating in a morning of alternative sports. Pendower and Seaton had a go at archery, American Football and capture the flag. The last two sports demanded positive teamwork from all of the children – a challenge they rose too admirably.

Finally, an apology for any confusion around the non-uniform day for Pendower as a reward for winning the attendance trophy. The children can come to school on Friday 26^th April in their home clothes. Well done on having such super attendance. 

The children of Talland Class have settled into the new term with enthusiasm, increased confidence and a willingness to learn. This is fabulous to see and experience and will put them on a good grounding to achieve their targets in all subjects this term. Well done, Talland.

During this week, the children have revised their knowledge and understanding of fractions (finding common denominators, for example), learned how to use the possessive apostrophe with greater understanding (Mary's coat, for instance) and have developed their knowledge of the history of the Tamar River through creating and annotating an historic timeline beginning from 936 AD when King Athelstan drew a boundary at the Tamar between Wessex and Cornwall. The children added their own specific important event on the timeline: for example, 2014 The year I was born and 2023 The year I adopted my dog. This week has set a solid foundation to build-on the children's learning for the rest of the Summer Term.

best wishes,

Mr Parry, Mrs Swabey and the Talland Class team (Mrs Walters and Ms Rowlands)

Why do magicians do so well in school? They’re good at trick questions.

What kind of school do you go to if you’re… …an ice cream man? Sundae school.
…a giant? High school.
…a surfer? Boarding school.
…King Arthur? Knight school.

Summer Term

What lovely weather we’ve had this week to welcome the children back to school for the summer term! It has been wonderful to spend time outside in our fantastic school grounds. We have thrown ourselves into Tregantle’s new topic ‘What is life like on the farm?’ The children have been learning about the different types of farms including arable, livestock and dairy. The children were very interested to find out how farmers work so hard to produce food for us. In our science learning we found out about seeds and how they grow. We have even planted our own potatoes! As part of our learning on life cycles we have welcomed five caterpillars into our class! We will be observing them carefully over the coming weeks as they grow and change into butterflies. The EYFS children have started learning the text ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ whilst the Year 1 children are learning ‘Christopher Nibbles.’ On Wednesday Trgantle class had a music lesson from a visiting specialist music teacher. They learnt some great body percussion and kept to the beat of several pieces of music. We were lucky to take part in an alternative sports day on Thursday. The weather was perfect and the children absolutely loved trying some new games like ‘island attack’ and archery. Please see attached the curriculum overview for the summer term for more details of our areas of learning.

Summer term week 1

The children have settled back into school well after Easter break this week. We have very much enjoyed starting our topic: 'Why are Rainforests important to us?'

We have looked at what we already know and would like to find out. We discovered the layers of the rainforest and researched what is special about each layer.

On Thursday, we took part in our alternative sports day. We played Lacrosse, Archery, Capture the Flag and Dartmoor 3 ball. The children have all worked extremely well, thoroughly enjoying each activity and being great Teamwork Tigers!