Celebrating Black History Month Through Dance!

What a fantastic day we've had at Brunel today! A huge thank you to Laura Fleet from Ballare Dance School for delivering such wonderful workshops, bringing history, culture, music and dance to life for our children.

Tregantle & Whitsand explored Caribbean carnivals, learning traditional dance steps and creating their very own colourful carnival parade with ribbons, instruments and pom-poms!

Lantic & Marazion travelled back to 1948 to learn about the Windrush generation, exploring their journey to Britain and celebrating the cultures, music and traditions they brought with them.

Seaton & Treyarnon discovered the incredible Katherine Dunham, known as the Queen of Black Dance. They explored her pioneering dance techniques before performing routines and cheering each other on! Laura was full of praise for our children, commenting on how polite, enthusiastic and engaged they were throughout the day.

She was particularly impressed by the children who volunteered to help tidy everything away! A wonderful day of learning, celebrating diversity and embracing new experiences.

Thank you, Laura, for making it so special!

Degemer An Jydh – Seize the Day!
#TeamBrunel #BlackHistoryMonth #BallareDance #DegemerAnJydh

What another successful week it has been at Brunel!

There have been so many exciting learning opportunities taking place across the school, and it has been lovely to see the children demonstrating our school values and making the most of every opportunity to Seize the Day! This week, children from Issy's Brunel Nursery and Seaton Class have enjoyed visits to St Anne's. It is always wonderful to see our children taking their learning beyond the classroom and making connections within our local community.

Our School Council and Eco Council have also been busy this week, sharing ideas, taking responsibility and making a real difference to school life. We are incredibly proud of the enthusiasm and commitment they are showing in helping to make Brunel an even better place for everyone.

We have also enjoyed another successful Open Day this week, welcoming prospective parents and families into school. It has been a pleasure to show visitors around Brunel, share our vision and values, and give them a glimpse of the wonderful learning experiences our children enjoy every day.

Thank you to our children and staff for helping to showcase our school so positively.

Individual School Photographs – Monday 19th October A reminder that our individual school photographs will be taking place on Monday morning. We will begin at approximately 8:30am with photographs of children who are in our Nursery but who do not attend on a Monday plus children who have siblings who are not at Brunel, before moving on to individual and sibling photographs of children in school throughout the morning. Please ensure your child arrives looking smart and wearing their full school uniform. We are looking forward to seeing lots of lovely smiles!

Parents' Evenings – Next Week Our Parents' Evenings are taking place next week. If you have not yet booked an appointment, please log in to Arbor to select a suitable time. These meetings are an important opportunity to celebrate your child's achievements, discuss their progress and talk about their next steps in learning. We look forward to welcoming you into school. Just a reminder that we are hoping that our dance workshops will take place next week. The deadline for payment of £1.50 is today. Please log on to ParentPay to pay this voluntary donation if you haven't already.

Half-Term Reminder – School Closes Thursday 22nd October Please remember that our final day of school before the half-term break is Thursday 22nd October. School will be closed to all pupils on Friday 23rd October for a staff INSET Day.

Thank you, as always, for your continued support. It has been another fantastic week at Brunel, and I am incredibly proud of everything our children and staff continue to achieve together. Wishing you all a lovely weekend and please enjoy reading through the Brunel Bulletin.

 Our Little Lighthouse Has Come Home! 

We are delighted to share that our beautiful St Luke’s Little Lighthouse has returned home to Brunel this week and is now taking pride of place in our KS2 foyer!

Our Little Lighthouse has come home!

Our lighthouse was lovingly designed and decorated by our talented children, who worked alongside local artist Jo Beer to create something truly special. The finished design celebrates the wonderful heritage, landmarks and community of Saltash.

We are incredibly proud to have been part of this fantastic project, supporting the amazing work of St Luke’s Hospice and helping to raise awareness of the difference they make to local families. It is wonderful to have our lighthouse back at Brunel, where it will serve as a lasting reminder of our children’s creativity, teamwork and community spirit.

Next time you visit our KS2 foyer, please take a moment to admire it! A little lighthouse with a very big message!

Degemer An Jydh – Seize the Day!

As we come to the end of another busy and exciting week at Brunel, I wanted to take a moment to thank you all for your continued support. It has been another wonderful week filled with opportunities for our children, and we are incredibly grateful for the fantastic school community we have.

Harvest Festival

A particular highlight this week was our wonderful Harvest Festival on Monday. It was lovely to welcome so many families into school to celebrate together. A huge thank you to everyone who generously donated items for Saltash Foodbank. Your kindness and generosity will make a real difference to families within our local community, and it was a fantastic opportunity to remind our children of the importance of helping others.

Helping Hands Club

I would also like to say a special thank you to the wonderful parents and volunteers who continue to give up their time on Wednesday afternoons to support our Helping Hands Club. Your hard work and dedication are making such a positive difference to our school environment. We really do appreciate everything you do to help make Brunel an even better place for our children.

Parent Workshops

This week, we have also enjoyed welcoming our Year 4 and Reception parents into school for our information workshops. To our Year 4 parents, we hope you found the Multiplication Tables Check (MTC) workshop useful and that you now feel more confident about how you can support your child with their times tables at home.

To our Reception parents, we hope you enjoyed our Phonics workshop and gained a better understanding of how we teach early reading at Brunel and how you can support your child's reading journey. Thank you to everyone who attended. Working together really does make such a difference to our children's learning and progress.

Looking Ahead – Individual Photographs
A reminder that individual school photographs will be taking place on Monday. Please take a moment to read this week's Brunel Bulletin, where you will find further information and important reminders.

Parents' Evening – Bookings Opening Soon! Our Parents' Evenings will be taking place during the final week of this half term, and bookings will open on Monday 12th October through Arbor. I would strongly encourage all parents and carers to book an appointment with their child's class teacher. These meetings provide a valuable opportunity to celebrate your child's achievements, discuss their progress and identify how we can continue to work together to support their learning. We really do value these conversations and hope to see as many of you as possible.

Finally... Thank you once again for everything you do to support Brunel. Whether it is attending school events, volunteering your time, supporting learning at home or simply encouraging your child to come to school each day ready to learn, it all makes a difference. We are incredibly fortunate to have such a supportive school community, and I never take that for granted. I hope you all have a wonderful, restful weekend, and we look forward to welcoming everyone back on Monday. 

We were incredibly proud to see two of our children invited to the Sherwell Conference Centre at the University of Plymouth for a special celebration of the wonderful work our children have undertaken alongside The Orwell Society.

It was a real honour to share the evening with Richard Blair, George Orwell’s son, and Quentin Kopp, son of Georges Kopp – Orwell’s commander and close friend during the Spanish Civil War. Their presence made an already memorable occasion even more significant. During the evening, Mrs May-Bracey and Mr Woolner spoke passionately about the difference this opportunity has made to children across Bridge Schools.

Over the past few years, our children have explored Orwell’s legacy through inspiring learning experiences, workshops, literature, nature, science and creativity. Most importantly, they have had opportunities to follow in Orwell’s footsteps – learning about the places, people and experiences that influenced his life and writing, while creating work and memories of their own. 

We are incredibly grateful to everyone at The Orwell Society and the University of Plymouth who has helped make these experiences possible. For our children to have their work recognised and celebrated in this way was a very proud moment.

A wonderful example of what can happen when schools, universities and communities work together to inspire the next generation.

As we come to the end of another busy week at Brunel, I wanted to share a few reminders about what we have coming up next week.

On Monday, the NHS team will be in school to administer the nasal flu vaccinations to those children whose parents and carers have already provided consent.

Also on Monday at 2:30pm, we will be holding our Harvest Festival. Families are warmly invited to join us as we come together as a school community to celebrate Harvest.

Thank you so much for the incredible generosity already shown through your donations. The gates will open at 2:25pm for you to be able to join us.

On Thursday evening, we are looking forward to our Cats Theatre Trip. We know this will be a fantastic experience for the children attending. Before we reach the weekend, we are also incredibly proud that some of our Year 6 children will be representing Brunel at the George Orwell Project at Plymouth University this evening.

It is a wonderful opportunity for them to represent our school and share the fantastic work they have been involved in.

We hope you enjoy reading this week's Brunel Bulletin, which once again celebrates just some of the many things happening across our school. 

Thank you, as always, for your continued support.

We wish all of our Brunel families a wonderful and restful weekend, and we look forward to seeing everyone again on Monday.

Degemer An Jydh – Seize the Day!

What a brilliant Reading Café we had tonight!

It was wonderful to see our children come together to celebrate their love of reading and share their enjoyment of books.

The atmosphere was fantastic, with children excitedly talking about their favourite stories, characters and books.

A huge thank you to our wonderful Reading Pioneers for helping to make the event so special, and to Miss Pentreath for organising such an incredible experience for our children. We are so proud to continue inspiring our children’s love of books and nurturing a lifelong love of reading.

Thank you to everyone who helped make our Reading Café such a wonderful success!

What another busy and brilliant week it has been at Brunel! 

It has been wonderful to see so many exciting learning opportunities taking place across the school and our children continuing to show such enthusiasm, curiosity and determination in everything they do.

Our after-school clubs are now well underway, and we are incredibly proud of the range of opportunities available to our children. There are still spaces available in a number of clubs, so please do take a look and consider signing your child up. Clubs are a fantastic opportunity for children to try something new, develop their talents and spend time with friends.

A huge thank you to our staff who voluntarily give their time to run these clubs. Their willingness to provide these additional opportunities is just one of the many things that makes Brunel such a special school.

Our Helping Hands group has also been very busy this week! They have worked together to create a wonderful new Little Engineers Shed for our youngest children to enjoy during their lunchtimes. We cannot wait to see the imaginative building, designing and problem-solving that takes place there. Thank you to everyone involved in bringing another fantastic addition to our school grounds to life.

We were also delighted to hold the first Lighthouse Room Parent Café this week. It was a really positive opportunity for parents to come together, find out more about the support available through our Lighthouse Room and talk with members of our team.

Thank you to everyone who joined us. Finally, a reminder that our Reading Café takes place next Thursday, 1st October, straight after school. We would love to see as many of our families there as possible.

Come along, enjoy some time together and help us celebrate something that sits right at the heart of learning at Brunel – a love of reading!

Thank you, as always, for your continued support. We hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Degemer An Jydh – Seize the Day!

Coming up this week at Team Brunel...