A Fun Filled Week in Tregantle!

What a busy week it's been - we've been non-stop! The week started with our wonderful Harvest Festival celebration. It was so nice to come together as a school and community and take the time to give thanks for all that we have. The children's singing was breath-taking! Our EYFS children have begun the 'brighter smiles' project which has been very exciting. We have been learning how to clean our teeth effectively and are now brushing our teeth at school every day to support good oral hygiene. On Thursday we had a really great day observing mental health awareness day. The children looked magnificent in their yellow clothes and accessories and we took time out to practice some relaxation techniques while listening to calming music. We have also been busy learning some new songs about the traditional story 'The Princess and the Pea.' We are really looking forward to joining together with some other schools to sing our songs together next week. On top of all of these exciting things the children have continued to work incredibly hard in their lessons. The children are become experts at recognising and writing all of the sounds we have learnt and have started to blend these sounds to read simple words - amazing! 

This week we've really enjoyed learning some more about significate people of colour during our reading assembly.  We learnt some more information about Rosa Parks who Mr Woolner introduced earlier and then we learnt about Mary Seacole.

In English lesson we wrote out our own instructions for a healthy sandwich after looking at what makes a sandwich healthy.

In Science we learnt about transparent and opaque.  We needed to use this knowledge to help us find the best material to block out the sun's light whilst in space!

We are really looking forward to our swimming lessons next week - we need to remember our swimmers and towels!

Have a lovely weekend!

.

Our Harvest Festival

Brunel Primary and Nursery Academy recently held a heart warming Harvest Festival, bringing together pupils, families, and the wider community to celebrate the season of giving and gratitude.

The event, attended by Reverend Parkman from Saltash Baptist Church and Elizabeth from the local Foodbank, highlighted the importance of community spirit and support. The children showcased their talents by singing a variety of hymns, including the enchanting “I Am the Earth” and the playful “Cauliflowers Fluffy.”

As always our children's joyful voices filled the hall, creating an atmosphere of celebration and reflection on the abundance of nature and the generosity of others.

This year, the Harvest Festival was particularly meaningful as families contributed food and donations to support Saltash Food bank. Elizabeth expressed her gratitude for the overwhelming generosity shown by the Brunel community, especially during these financially challenging times. “Every donation helps us make a difference in the lives of those in need,” she stated, underscoring the vital role of community support. As the event drew to a close, headteacher Mr. Woolner thanked everyone for their contributions, emphasising how important it is to come together and support one another. “We are incredibly grateful for the kindness of our families,” he said. “Your generosity not only helps those in need but also teaches our children the value of compassion and community.” The Harvest Festival at Brunel Primary and Nursery Academy was a beautiful reminder of the strength that comes from coming together, especially in challenging times. What a wonderful celebration we had with the whole of our Team Brunel community.

Giving thanks for a fantastic week...

This week, we have been watching the two new chicks growing before our very eyes! In fact, they have developed their voices so much in order to ask for food that they have moved into the room next door to us (Finnygook) to ensure we have peace for learning! We are eager to see what the next week brings as the next batch of eggs are due to hatch on or around Monday...

As well as being fortunate enough to continue with our extra-curricular Time to Shine cricket sessions with Chris, and ASONE violin sessions with Sally, we have been particularly busy in our core subjects. In English we have completed our drafts of our Brunel biographies and have begun writing them up onto information posters. We have been promoting presentation and handwriting as a school; I think you'll be impressed with the transformation in some of our handwriting already this year. Watch out next week to see some completed biographies, complete with illustrations and images...

In maths we have been persevering with our place value unit. Our focus has been on rounding numbers this week - all the way up to rounding numbers within 1 million! It is a tricky skill to master, but is exceedingly helpful out in the real world to ensure that we can judge 'roughly' how many things we will need for a project, how much 'roughly' shopping will be etc.

Our Religious Education topic for this half term is 'Christianity: What Would Jesus Do?'. This week, we analysed Christian prayers and had a go at writing a short prayer of our own: some giving thanks and some making requests for support for ourselves, or others. We were really impressed with how caring and thoughtful Talland class members can be - a great example of our school values and Issy manners in action.

Dates for your diary next week:
Monday 7th Oct - 1pm Harvest Assembly held in the hall (all parents and carers welcome to attend)
Wednesday 9th Oct - 2.30pm Parent Cafe being hosted by Mr Woolner (come along and have a chat, raise any questions you may have, share suggestions) 
Thursday 10th Oct - Mental Health Awareness Day (Children are welcome to wear something yellow to school)

Following Instructions

Another busy week has flown by! The highlight has definitely been our English lessons which have focused on instructions. The children carefully followed the instructions to make Paddington's favourite snack - a marmalade sandwich! They were absolutely fantastic at using the instructions to carry out each step and Paddington kept a watchful eye on their progress! It was agreed that the best part of all was eating the yummy marmalade sandwich at the end!
We are all looking forward to planning our own instructions for making a different sandwich next week.
 

All Things Orange...

This week in Lantic Class we have been very busy making marmalade sandwiches to help us with our instruction writing.  The children really enjoyed making them however, some were less keen when eating them!!  Paddington must have a different palate than the children...

In Science, we helped astronauts as we discovered they wear nappies!!  We needed to find out what was the most absorbent material - we found that cotton wool was slight better than sponge at soaking up water.

During history, we learnt how the Great Fire of London started.  We discovered that it was over 350 years ago (long before Mrs Stevens and Miss Sleep were born!) in 1666 in our capital city, London.  It started when a spark from the Bakery oven lit up the wooden buildings along Pudding Lane (it had been a hot summer and the buildings were built very close to each other).  We also experimented creating flames using chalks in our art lesson today.

In Guided Reading we sequenced how to make a jam and peanut sandwich after watching a video where we saw how important it is to make sure the instructions are VERY clear.

And what we've noticed is lots of our learning is orange based! The colour not the fruit... 

It has been another great week for Daymer class!

On Monday, half of the class went to St Anne's to celebrate Active Aging Week! They joined in with some chair yoga and stretched their brains with a tricky quiz! It was great fun!

We celebrated National Poetry Day 2024 by taking part in a Guinness World Record attempt for the world's largest poetry lesson! Please see the post below this one for a special recording for the children and a copy of the poem and THANK YOU letter!

On Wednesday, we enjoyed learning more cricket skills with Cricket Chris and on Tuesday we learned dodging skills in PE (netball).

In Science, we've been learning about three different types of rock (igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic) and how they are formed. We've already modelled some in edible form and are learning a song, with actions to help us remember. So this week we put on our safety specs and investigated which rock would make the best material for a statue of Mr Woolner! What a crazy idea!

On Thursday, we learned about Harvest thanks to the NFU live lesson, ahead of our Harvest Assembly on Monday.

The children have been developing their SHAPE for learning well this week - can they tell you what this means?

On Thursday next week, we are celebrating Mental Health Awareness day, where the children are welcome to wear something yellow and we will be exploring different ways of keeping mindful. There is also a Parent Cafe next Wednesday at 2.30pm. 

What another amazing week at Team Brunel!

We have had another fun packed week at Team Brunel! It has been a super busy week with our Nursery children visiting St. Anne's, our Year 1 and 2 children following instructions to make marmalade sandwiches, our Year 3 and 4 children taking part in a Guinness World Record on National Poetry Day, new chick arrivals in Year 5 and Year 6 writing letters to Michael Morpurgo; it has been yet another incredible week at our wonderful school. 

In addition, the whole school community have been getting excited about our Terracycling campaign! Our bin has been emptied twice this week and we have featured in the local paper. If you missed the article you can read it here:

It has been another great week for Marazion class. We have celebrated National Poetry Day 2024 by taking part in a Guinness World Record attempt for the world's largest poetry lesson!
In maths, we have continued to work on place value and year 3 have just began their journey with addition and subtraction where they worked with key vocabulary and have applied number bonds within 10 ready to use their key knowledge across hundreds soon.
In Geography, we learnt about different volcanoes, where they are in the world and what 'active', 'dormant' and 'extinct' volcanoes are.
We enjoyed learning more cricket skills with Cricket Chris and dodging skills in PE (netball). 
In Science, we've been learning about three different types of rock (igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic) and how they are formed. We've already modelled some in edible form and are learning a song, with actions to help us remember. So this week we're going to put on our safety specs and investigate which rock would make the best statue.

On Thursday, we learn about Harvest ahead of our Harvest Assembly on Monday.

The children have been developing their SHAPE for learning well-can they tell you what this means?

On Thursday next week, we are celebrating Mental Health Awareness day where they children are welcome to wear something yellow and we will be exploring different ways of keeping mindful.

Bodmin Jail: Crime and punishment

This week has seen a continuation of our fantastic violin and cricket sessions.

In English, we have started writing our biographies about Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The children are working hard to apply their skills in varying sentence starts, write using formal language and include an abundance of both fact and opinion.

We have been making our way through Place Value in maths; focussing on ordering and comparing numbers to one million this week. Our KIRFs for this half term are to be able to double and half numbers to 100. Don't forget, there are lots of suggested practice activities on a previous blog post.

Our busy week culminated in an incredibly exciting and informative trip to Bodmin Jail. Our guide, Gemma, took us through the 'Dark Walk' first; an interactive, immersive experience detailing why some of Bodmin Jail's previous inmates were imprisoned. We found out about smugglers, vagrants, murderers and thieves - all part and parcel of Cornwall's history. We then got to experience what jail conditions were like throughout the ages, focussing on the prison reforms of Victorian times. Finally, we had the option of finding out more about how prisoners, who were sentenced to the ultimate fate of hanging, were treated, along with the role of the executioner. Who knew that so much maths was involved in revolutionising hanging!

Spooky School Trip

We ended this week with a spooky tour of Bodmin Jail. The children learnt what the jail was like during Victorian times and had the chance to explore some of the cells and exhibits. They started off with a 'dark walk' through a virtual reality experience which was eerie and exciting. The most fun part was putting each other in the stocks!

In maths this week, we have learnt about factors, multiples and the formal methods for adding and subtracting. The children have taken part in some exciting challenges to explore their skills. Their favourite was the maze 100 from NRich.

In English, we have been continuing with our Brunel Biographies. Seaton class are fantastic at peer editing and giving each other advice. I was so impressed with their collaborative work. 

Have a great weekend!

Miss Burton

This week the children have enjoyed their cricket session with 'Cricket Chris' where they learnt how to throw accurately.

In English, the children all finished their amazing stories based on Paddington called 'Paddington in Saltash'.  The week started with an exciting letter from Paddington who was heading towards Saltash on a 'green train'... He asked the children in KS1 if they could recommend places to visit, so off we went around Fore Street and the surrounding area to see where he should visit.  We had lots of ideas, so then we imagined Paddington had visited Saltash and wrote a story. 

Our first 'scrap book' review was done this week and the children loved hearing why it was on of Z's favourite books.  He even read the book to the class - they loved it!

During Science, children looked for materials using their properties around the school.  The children were really good at suggesting what would be a good (or not so good!) material for a rocket.

Children have been busy in Year 1 and Year 2 Math's classes, both groups have been working on number and place value.

Don't forget our Harvest Festival assembly is coming up on Monday 7th October...
 

Crafts and creativity

This week Tregantle Class have been getting very creative! The children have been inspired by our story of the week 'Little red Riding Hood' and have made lots of things linked to the story using lots of different resources from around the classroom. We have seen a magical forest using the magnetic construction, Grandma's cottage and bed using junk modelling and some tasty treats to put in Little Red Riding Hood's basket all made with play dough! 
Our Year 1 children have thoroughly enjoyed experimenting with 'hot colours' in their art lesson. They carefully mixed red and yellow paint to make orange and used white and black to create different shades of their hot colours. They used their paints to create a 'hot colours' mood board. 
There has been some more fantastic writing form out Tregantle children. EYFS are continuing to work so hard on practicing the correct formation of the new letters that they are learning. Again they have been very resourceful in the classroom using paint, water and chalk to 'keep trying' with their letter formation - just like 'keep trying Kangaroo.' Our fabulous Year 1 children have now completed their own stories of 'Paddington in Saltash.' We had a wonderful walk down to Saltash Fore Street on Monday to gain inspiration for places for Paddington to visit on his trip to Saltash. The children chose Rowes the Bakery, the Leisure Centre, the train station and of course Brunel School! 
Year 1 enjoyed another exciting cricket session with Cricket Chris on Wednesday. He was very impressed with how our throwing and catching skills are developing! I think we are all in need of a restful weekend after a very busy week at school! 

Well, this week we have had a change in the weather, but it hasn't stopped us from going outside!

Although it has taken us a little longer to get 'booted and suited' we have still been able to come in and out depending on where we like to do our learning.

Some children prefer to stay indoors in the warm and dry but others have been keen to get outside to explore and find some puddles to splash in. We didn't have many puddles on the playground so we made some of our own!