The Summer Term has already started with an action packed week.

In English, we have been finishing our persuasive argument about who should appear on the next £10 banknote. Through the power of democracy, we chose as a class to focus on Queen Elizabeth 1. Ask your children what reasons they have decided to include her. 

In maths, we have been focusing on reasoning questions and we spent a few days looking at telling the time and timetables. 

In PE, we started our unit on football. The children were practicing their dribbling skills in the sunshine and we focused on tactical skills on whether to dribble or pass. 

Our new geography topic is 'Would you like to live in the desert?' Please see the knowledge web below. We started by looking at different biomes across the world and finding out what the main features of a desert are.

The week ended with Brunel day; what a fantastic day it was! We started by completing a reading comprehension all about him and then answering grammar questions focused on his life. After that, we learnt about on of his creations: Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol. We then practiced our drawing skills by creating a piece of art work which showed our talents in cross-hatching, stippling and shading. In the afternoon, we went down to Lantic Class and helped them to make trains in groups. I was overwhelmed by how mature the year 6 children were. They were brilliant role models and helped the young children extremely well. 

With SATs week fast approaching (12th -15th May), I will be holding a parents information evening on Wednesday next week (30th April) to explain all about it and answer any questions. I hope to see you all there.

Have a brilliant weekend!

Science and Engineering

The Summer Term has already started with an action packed week of events running alongside the normal curriculum. These have included: a writer's workshop and a visit from the Royal Science institution delivering science in a memorable way for children, and adults, to remember. The week culminated into a whole day of learning about Isambard Kingdom Brunel. As you can see in the pictures, the children worked effectively in small groups to build a bridge which would bridge a 30 cm gap and hold the weight of a model vehicle. The children were amazing. They talked extensively about how they could strengthen their bridges by using triangular and cylindrical shapes. The element of surprise and achievement shows magnificently on their faces when they tested out their very own bridge structures. 

best wishes,

Mrs Swabey, Mr Parry and Mrs Walters.

What a Brilliant Brunel Day!

Today, the children at Brunel Primary and Nursery Academy have had a truly unforgettable time celebrating our very first Brunel Day — marking the month in which Isambard Kingdom Brunel was born and honoring the incredible legacy of the man who inspired the name of our school.

It was a fantastic day full of STEM and art, where creativity and curiosity came together. Our pupils learned all about Brunel’s life and the remarkable impact he had on engineering and design.

They had the chance to design and build bridges, create stunning artwork, and best of all, collaborate across year groups to build their very own trains! A huge shoutout to Jane in the kitchen, who added to the magic of the day with her delicious train-themed biscuits at lunchtime  — a big hit with everyone!

The day wrapped up with a joyful celebration of learning, showcasing all the amazing things the children had achieved together. Another incredible week at Brunel Primary and Nursery Academy — we’re so proud of our brilliant learners!

w/e 25.4.25

Welcome back! We hope you all had a restful and joyful Easter break. It’s been wonderful to see the children return full of energy and enthusiasm for the term ahead. They’ve settled beautifully back into their learning routines and have already made a fantastic start. Here’s what we’ve been up to this week:

English – Wow Words Galore!

In English, we’ve been diving into some exciting vocabulary work, focusing on Tier 2 ‘wow’ words to really boost our descriptive writing. These words help children to express themselves more precisely and powerfully. We’ve been exploring their meanings, using them in sentences, and discussing how they enhance our writing. You might hear some impressive new words popping up at home!

Maths – Multiplying the Fun!

Maths has been buzzing this week! We’ve been:

• Practising our times tables in fun and interactive ways,
• Exploring length, converting between units (like metres and centimetres),
• And continuing our work on fractions, developing our understanding of parts of a whole.

The children have shown great resilience and reasoning skills—brilliant work all round!

History – Illuminated Beginnings

Our new history topic is titled "How Hard Was It to Invade and Settle in Britain?" We launched it with a creative and engaging ‘Wow Starter’—exploring illuminated lettering, just like the early medieval manuscripts. The children were fascinated to learn about their history and significance and even had a go at designing their own!

RE – Exploring Muslim Festivals

In Religious Education, we began learning about Islamic festivals and their importance to Muslims around the world. We’ve started to look at the values behind these celebrations and how they are observed. The children have shown great respect and interest—ask them about what they’ve discovered so far!

PSHE – Building Positive Relationships

This week in PSHE, we’ve begun our focus on relationships. Through stories and discussion, we’ve explored themes such as kindness, empathy, and how to be a good friend. A thoughtful and reflective start to this important topic.

PE – Sprinting into Summer!

Our athletics unit kicked off with some energetic sprinting sessions! The children practised their starting positions, learned about technique, and gave it their all on the track. We’re very excited to welcome a coach from Argyle Community Trust starting next week to help us develop our skills even further.

Please remember: PE kits every Wednesday this term!

A Visit from the Royal Institution of Science!

One of the week’s biggest highlights was a special visit from the Royal Institution of Science! The children were wowed by exciting demonstrations and investigations linked to climate and global change. Not only were the experiments thrilling, but they also delivered important messages about looking after our planet. A truly inspiring experience!

This week and next we are welcoming new children to our Nursery family so everyone is busy helping them settle without their grown up, helping them to get used to a new environment and starting to making new friends.

Our new story for this half term is 'We're going on a lion hunt'!

We are secretly hoping that we don't find a lion, but you never know!

We'll be looking at the journey that the children take and the animals that they meet on the way as they hunt for a lion.

This book has a similar layout to another well known story; do you know what it is?

We have had a wonderful first week of the Summer Term here at Brunel Primary and Nursery Academy. The children have enjoyed a range of learning experiences including a visit from the Royal Institution and also Brunel Day 2025. All of the events from this week can be seen in this week's Brunel Bulletin. So what are you waiting for? Dive into this week's edition to find out what has been happening at our incredible school. 

Welcome back! 

The first week of the summer term has been packed with excitement, creativity, and a lot of learning in Tregantle Class! The children have thoroughly enjoyed the activities we’ve had planned to kick-start our new term, with plenty of hands-on experiences to spark their curiosity. On Tuesday, Year 1 took part in a fantastic Royal Theme Day to introduce their big question for this half term: “What is a monarch?” The children were dressed as royalty, donning crowns and regal outfits, as they learned all about the role of a monarch in society. They explored the history of kings and queens, discussed what laws they would make if they were in charge, and even got to design their own crowns fit for a king or queen! It was a fun and interactive way to dive into a key part of history, and everyone enjoyed stepping into their royal personas for the day. Wednesday was a truly thrilling day as we welcomed the Royal Institute for a special science show all about rocket science! The children were absolutely amazed by the incredible demonstrations, including exploding pots, mini rocket launches, and even flaming bubbles! The enthusiasm was contagious, and it was a brilliant learning opportunity to get the children excited about science. To wrap up our eventful week, we celebrated Brunel Day on Thursday. The children had the chance to immerse themselves in the world of engineering as they spent the day designing and making their own trains and bridges. They also learned about Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the brilliant engineer after whom our school is named. The children loved discovering more about his life and achievements, and it was inspiring to see their creative ideas come to life through their designs. We’re looking forward to another exciting term of learning and exploration in Tregantle Class. Please take a moment to read the attached overview of learning for this half term, which highlights all the fantastic learning we have in store! Here’s to a great summer term ahead! 

BIG NEWS – WE WON!

Brunel Primary and Nursery Academy are the WINNERS of the TerraCycle® and Sistema® Recycled Playground Contest

We are absolutely delighted to share that thanks to the amazing efforts of our entire school community – pupils, parents, staff and local supporters and businesses – we’ve done it!

In addition, a huge shout out to Ali Humphreys who really went the extra mile each and every week during the competition to collect the terracycling from our school, package it up and send it away. We collected over 1 ton of terracycling!

Thanks to your dedication and teamwork, we’ve won a brand-new playground with a frame made from 100% recycled materials for our children, which will be installed in the coming weeks! What an incredible reward for all of our hard work in caring for our environment  and coming together as a community. To celebrate this fantastic achievement, we would love for everyone to join us for the:

Grand Opening of the new playground -Tuesday 20th May at 10:45am Let’s celebrate the power of working together and creating something special for our children to enjoy for years to come!

Media enquiries: If you are a member of the press and would like to report on this incredible success story, please contact Stephen Clarke from TerraCycle at stephen.clarke@terracycle.com for more information. THANK YOU again to everyone who helped make this happen – this is YOUR victory too!

#TeamBrunel #TerraCycleChampions #CommunityPower #NewPlaygroundJoy #ProudMoment @sistemauk @TerraCycleUK Let’s celebrate together! We can’t wait to see you there! 

Royal Institution for Science Visit!

 Welcome back! We hope you all had a restful and joyful Easter break. It’s been wonderful to see the children return full of energy and enthusiasm for the term ahead. They’ve settled beautifully back into their learning routines and have already made a fantastic start. Here’s what we’ve been up to this week:

 English – Wow Words Galore!

In English, we’ve been diving into some exciting vocabulary work, focusing on Tier 2 ‘wow’ words to really boost our descriptive writing. These words help children to express themselves more precisely and powerfully. We’ve been exploring their meanings, using them in sentences, and discussing how they enhance our writing. You might hear some impressive new words popping up at home!

 Maths – Multiplying the Fun!

Maths has been buzzing this week! We’ve been:

• Practising our times tables in fun and interactive ways,
• Exploring length, converting between units (like metres and centimetres),
• And continuing our work on fractions, developing our understanding of parts of a whole.

The children have shown great resilience and reasoning skills—brilliant work all round!

 History – Illuminated Beginnings

Our new history topic is titled "How Hard Was It to Invade and Settle in Britain?" We launched it with a creative and engaging ‘Wow Starter’—exploring illuminated lettering, just like the early medieval manuscripts. The children were fascinated to learn about their history and significance and even had a go at designing their own!

 RE – Exploring Muslim Festivals

In Religious Education, we began learning about Islamic festivals and their importance to Muslims around the world. We’ve started to look at the values behind these celebrations and how they are observed. The children have shown great respect and interest—ask them about what they’ve discovered so far!

 PSHE – Building Positive Relationships

This week in PSHE, we’ve begun our focus on relationships. Through stories and discussion, we’ve explored themes such as kindness, empathy, and how to be a good friend. A thoughtful and reflective start to this important topic.

 PE – Sprinting into Summer!

Our athletics unit kicked off with some energetic sprinting sessions! The children practised their starting positions, learned about technique, and gave it their all on the track. We’re very excited to welcome a coach from Argyle Community Trust starting next week to help us develop our skills even further.

 Please remember: PE kits every Wednesday this term!

 A Visit from the Royal Institution of Science!

One of the week’s biggest highlights was a special visit from the Royal Institution of Science! The children were wowed by exciting demonstrations and investigations linked to climate and global change. Not only were the experiments thrilling, but they also delivered important messages about looking after our planet. A truly inspiring experience!

w/e 4.4.25

As we come to the end of the Spring term, we haven't slowed down! And our Roman Chariots weren't slowing down either! We really enjoyed using the saws and making our chariots, and then racing them in the hall together!

This week, we also practiced our new playground game, Cups and Saucers and thought about our emotions when using the Internet.

And of course, we enjoyed our FANTASTIC overnighter to Dartmoor!

w/e 4.4.25

As we come to the end of the Spring term, we haven't slowed down! And our Roman Chariots weren't slowing down either! We really enjoyed using the saws and making our chariots, and then racing them in the hall together!

This week, we also practiced our new playground game, Cups and Saucers and thought about our emotions when using the Internet

We would like to wish everyone a very happy Easter - as the holidays are now upon us we would like to thank you for all of your continued support.
We hope you all have a chance to enjoy the better weather and some eggciting activities!

Don't forget to post some photos onto Tapestry!

End of Term!

This week, our Year 1 children embarked on an exciting and imaginative journey as they became both authors and illustrators. Inspired by the classic story The Little Red Hen, the children took the story's core themes of hard work, teamwork, and sharing and transformed them into their very own unique books. The process began by diving deep into The Little Red Hen story. Year 1 children explored the characters, the moral lessons, and the simple yet meaningful plot. But they didn’t stop there—they were encouraged to use their creativity and make the story their own. Each child had the chance to write their version of the tale. Not only did the children write the words for their stories, but they also illustrated their books. Armed with crayons, pens, and pencils, they carefully drew pictures that complemented their words. Once the books were finished, the Year 1 children couldn't wait to share their hard work with the younger children in EYFS. In a special reading session, each Year 1 child read their book aloud to an eager audience of EYFS students. They were thrilled to see the excitement on the EYFS children's faces, and the younger children enjoyed the experience just as much, asking questions and applauding their storytellers. This writing highlighted the wonderful progress our children are making, and we can’t wait to see how their creativity continues to blossom!

As we head into the Easter break, we want to extend our warmest wishes to all of our families. We hope you have a wonderful, relaxing time together. Thank you once again for being such a vital part of our school community. We truly appreciate everything you do, and we look forward to another fantastic term ahead!

Space Art

As the Spring Term closes, the culmination of various art techniques based on the Dutch artist Teis Albers, who is known for his works with a strong graphic composition, shadows, some mystery and a nostalgic mood, finally started to make sense for the children. As you can see in the pictures, the children have captured the mystery and nostalgia in their own artistic creations. To produce their master pieces, the children made a printing pad using card and assorted materials. This supported the production and the diversity of textures evident in the children's paintings. The children painted one colour on the printing pad and printed it on to a piece of card. They then repeated this procedure with a different colour. From this, a unique space background was created ready to add the children's ideas of future inventions: flying cars, for instance. The children have had so much fun over the term learning, adapting and creating with many new artistic techniques.

Have a fabulous Easter break, Talland Class!

best wishes,

Mrs Swabey, Mr Parry and Mrs Walters.

Dear Parents and Carers,
As we come to the end of another fantastic term at Brunel Primary and Nursery Academy, we want to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support. This term has been filled with a huge amount of exciting learning experiences for our children, from attending residentials and school trips to participating in engaging workshops delivered by visiting experts. It has been a joy to see them thrive and immerse themselves in these opportunities.

We are incredibly proud of how our children are demonstrating their Issy Manners so brilliantly and how they are truly embracing and understanding our school values. Their kindness, respect and enthusiasm for learning continue to shine through in everything they do.

A special thank you to our School Council and Eco Council for the fantastic work they are doing to shape and improve our school. This term, they have led some exciting changes, making a real difference to the school community and we are so grateful for their dedication and hard work. We would also like to extend our thanks to you, our wonderful parents and carers, for your involvement in school life.

Your support in attending Parent Cafés, Reading and Math's Cafés and workshops delivered by our staff has been invaluable. Your engagement in your children’s home learning is making such a positive impact and we truly appreciate it. In addition, a huge thank you to the team of volunteers that helped in school today during our Making a Difference morning. We feel incredibly fortunate to have such a strong and supportive school community.

Our sincere gratitude also goes to our Governors and The Bridge MAT for their continued support in striving to make Brunel the best place it can be for our children. As we break for the Easter holiday, we hope you all have a restful and enjoyable time with your families.

We look forward to welcoming our children back to school on Tuesday, 22nd April. In the meantime, please enjoy the final Brunel Bulletin of the Spring Term.

What a busy week it has been at Team Brunel. With the Storytelling Caravan and Space Odyssey Dome making a visit to our school as well as a theatre trip by train. It has yet again been quite a week at our wonderful school. Sit back, relax and enjoy this week's edition of The Brunel Bulletin.

w/e 28.3.25

Wow, these weeks are flying past, they're so jam packed! Let's see what's been going on this week!

It started off with the most AMAZING visit to the Space Dome - as we lay on our backs admiring the night sky, we were transported to space stations, moons, meteors and even back in time! A wonderful, memorable experience had by all!

English - we are planning our balanced arguments about digging up our school field for the Roman remains - will they turn out to be genuine or not? Will we lose our field?

On Monday, some children from each class visited the 'Story Caravan', a truly magical place full of awe and wonder! What a special treat!

History - we learned about Hadrian's wall and Vindolanda fort - some amazing artefacts from Roman times have been found there and we analysed some of these to see what we could learn about the Romans that lived there. Fascinating stuff!

In RE, we learned about the weird and wonderful Penzance festival of Golowen. We were all really taken by the Obby Oss! What a strange creature it is! It looks like a really exciting festival, too!

Science - we learned about how different surface textures affect the speed of objects moving down them - we used ramps and toy cars to experiment with the hypothesis that a rougher surface creates more friction and will therefore slow the car down. We were right!

Also on Friday, Year 4 were taken over to the library to take part in 'Biowatch' and do some arts and crafts about the world around us! Can they tell you all about it?

Have a lovely weekend and we'll see you all back on Monday for the final week of term!

We have been thoroughly enjoying the spring sunshine and being able to open the doors and venture outside without wellies and waterproofs!

For a change we got out all of the bikes, trikes, scooters and push along toys.

The children enjoyed a different type of play and were developing a different range of skills and muscle toning as they played.