Take a look above at the fantastic writing that has been produced this week in Yrs 5 and 6. The children have been writing a short consequence story, based on the novel Letters from the Lighthouse. They have worked hard at including relative clauses, correctly punctuated speech and ambitious vocabulary. We have just reached the point at which their main characters get stuck in a dangerous predicament. Will their characters be saved in time and will they have learned their lesson...?!

A Wonderful Week of Learning in Lantic Class!

What a fantastic time we have been having! The children in Lantic Class have been working incredibly hard and showing lots of enthusiasm for their learning. Here’s a little look at what we have been up to recently!

In English, we have been exploring our new WAGOLL (What A Good One Looks Like), The Three Little Pigs: A Twisted Tale. The children have loved listening to the traditional fairy tale and have been busy putting the story in the correct order using picture cards. They then used their sequencing skills to create their own story maps, helping them to remember the key events and think carefully about how stories are structured. We have also enjoyed exploring a different version of the story by listening to The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. This led to some fantastic discussions! The children had to decide which team they were on: Team Wolf or Team Pig! There were some brilliant ideas and thoughtful reasons shared as the children considered whether the wolf really was the villain of the story. It has been wonderful to hear them expressing their opinions and explaining their choices.

In Maths, the children have been working super hard on their addition and subtraction skills. They have shown fantastic determination and have been developing their confidence when solving calculations and using different strategies to help them. We have been particularly impressed with their understanding of number bonds to 10 and 100. The children absolutely blew us away with their learning! They have worked hard to recognise number pairs that make these important totals and have shown just how much they can remember and apply.

In History, the children enjoyed taking part in a debate about whether they would prefer to go to school in the present day or in the past. They used everything they had learnt so far to support their opinions and explain their reasons. It was wonderful to hear them sharing their ideas, listening to different viewpoints and using their historical knowledge to justify their choices.

In PE, we have been developing our throwing and catching skills as part of our striking and fielding unit. The children have been practising their coordination, accuracy and control as they worked on throwing and catching a ball. They have shown great effort and enthusiasm while developing these important skills.

In Science, we have enjoyed putting our learning into practice by building bridges! The children used everything they have learnt so far to design and construct their own bridges, thinking carefully about how to make them strong and stable. It was fantastic to see them exploring their ideas, solving problems and using their scientific knowledge in a practical way.

We are so proud of the effort, enthusiasm and resilience the children have shown across all areas of their learning. It has been wonderful to see their confidence grow as they share ideas, ask questions and take on new challenges. Well done, Lantic Class! Keep up the fantastic work!

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.

Whitsand Class Blog 

What a fantastic week we have had in Whitsand Class!

This week, the children have begun their exciting exploration of the traditional tale Hansel and Gretel. We have been focusing on describing the magical candy house, and the children have loved letting their imaginations run wild! They designed their very own candy houses before beginning to write descriptive sentences using adverbials of time. We have been so impressed with their creativity and enthusiasm so far, and we cannot wait to see how their writing develops!

In Maths, we have been exploring fact families and number bonds within 10. The children have been using Numicon to help them recognise different ways to make numbers and understand how numbers are connected. They have worked hard to build their confidence and develop their mathematical thinking.

In Science, the children put their knowledge to the test by revisiting their bridge-building challenge! Using materials from the builders' shed, they redesigned and improved their bridges, thinking carefully about how to make their structures strong and stable. Through fantastic collaboration and teamwork, they created some amazing structures. Well done, Whitsand Class!

Finally, in History, the children considered a very important question: would they prefer to go to school today or 100 years ago? After thinking about how school life has changed over time, most of the children decided that they would much rather attend school now! They explained how the love the colourful classrooms, interactive whiteboards, and football!

Well done to all the children for another wonderful week of learning, creativity and teamwork. We are so proud of their enthusiasm and the way they continue to challenge themselves across all areas of the curriculum.

Have a lovely weekend, everyone!

We have had another fantastic week in Tregantle Class, full of learning, creativity and lots of fun!

During our circle time, we met our very special Learning Gang! The children were introduced to six friendly characters, each helping us to develop an important learning skill: - Keep Trying Kangaroo – reminding us to keep going, even when something feels tricky. - Have a Go Horse – encouraging us to be brave and give new things a try. - Teamwork Tiger – helping us to work together and support our friends. - Ideas Iguana – inspiring us to share our ideas and think creatively. - Find Out Frog – encouraging us to ask questions and discover new things. - Change It Chimp – reminding us that we can try a different approach if something doesn't work the first time. The children really enjoyed talking about each character and thinking about when they show these important learning behaviours themselves. We are looking forward to seeing our Learning Gang help us throughout the year as we become confident, independent and enthusiastic learners!

In PE, we started our session with some familiar favourites, including Follow My Leader, the Hokey Cokey and The Farmer’s in His Den. The children loved joining in with the actions and moving their bodies in different ways. We then tried a fun game of Clap, Boom, Grab, which everyone really enjoyed! To finish our session, we played our absolute favourite… parachute games! There were lots of smiles and excitement as we worked together, followed instructions and explored the different activities with the parachute.

As part of our learning for Black History Month, we have been discovering and celebrating the achievements of Black people throughout history. We explored the work of Alma Thomas, an inspirational African-American artist who was famous for her vibrant, colourful abstract paintings. We looked carefully at the colours, shapes and patterns in her artwork before creating our own colourful masterpieces. The children enjoyed experimenting with different colours and designs, expressing their creativity and producing some wonderful individual pieces of art. Through these activities, we have celebrated diversity, explored our creativity and begun to understand the importance of recognising and valuing different cultures and achievements.

Well done, Tregantle! We are so proud of the enthusiasm, creativity and teamwork you continue to show in everything you do. We can't wait for another week of exciting learning together! 

 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!

Sensational Science Investigations and New Novels!

This week, we made the use of the weather by getting outside within our science lesson. We we were learning about the force of friction and investigating the strength of friction on different surfaces. For this, the children used Newton meters to measure the force when they pulled along an object on various surfaces. Shoes may look an unusual choice for a scientific experiment, however, due to the rubber sole, they produce grip which makes the force easier to measure - strange but true!

Additionally, in English we have just begun drafting our stories inspired by the novel 'Letters from the Lighthouse'. The children have had a lovely time getting into their characters and coming up with all sorts of trials and tribulations that they may encounter. We can't wait to read what happens next!

Sensational Science Investigations and New Novels!

This week, we made the use of the weather by getting outside within our science lesson. We were learning about the force of friction and investigating the strength of friction on different surfaces. For this, the children used Newton meters to measure the force when they pulled along an object on various surfaces. Shoes may look an unusual choice for a scientific experiment, however, due to the rubber sole, they produce grip which makes the force easier to measure - strange but true!

Additionally, in English we have just begun drafting our stories inspired by the novel 'Letters from the Lighthouse'. The children have had a lovely time getting into their characters and coming up with all sorts of trials and tribulations that they may encounter. We can't wait to read what happens next!

Whitsand Class Learning Update 

It has been another busy and exciting week in Whitsand Class!

In Maths, we have completed our unit on place value and number and have now moved on to addition. The children have been exploring how we can use part-whole models to help us understand addition and identify the parts and the whole. We have been working hard to explain our mathematical thinking and are becoming more confident in using our models to support our calculations.

In English, we have come to the end of our Jack and the Beanstalk unit. The children have worked incredibly hard throughout the unit and have put lots of effort into their final writing. They have been trying their very best to remember and apply the key skills we have been practising, and we are so proud of the progress they have made. 

Our Science learning has been particularly exciting! We have been exploring waterproof materials and investigating which materials are best at keeping water out. The children enjoyed carrying out an experiment where they tested a range of different materials to see how waterproof they were, before recording their findings in a table. There was lots of careful observing, predicting and discussing… although some children may have got a little wet along the way! 

Well done, Whitsand Class, for another fantastic week of learning. We are so proud of your hard work, curiosity and enthusiasm! 

Another Fantastic Week in Lantic Class

It has been another busy and exciting time in Lantic Class! The children have been working incredibly hard and have enjoyed lots of practical and creative learning across the curriculum.

In Maths, we have been learning all about number bonds to 10. The children have enjoyed finding different ways to make 10 and practising writing number sentences to show what they know. One of our favourite activities was drawing around our hands! We used our fingers to help us find different number bonds and then wrote number sentences to match. The children were fantastic at spotting the different combinations and explaining their thinking.

In English, the children have been busy completing their final write. They have created their very own Wanted: Wolf! posters. The children have been working hard to make their writing interesting by using adjectives, conjunctions and adverbs of place. We have been very impressed with the vocabulary they have chosen and the detail they have included in their descriptions. There are certainly some very imaginative wolf posters in Lantic Class!

In History, we have been comparing schools in the past with schools today. The children have enjoyed thinking about what is the same and what has changed over time. We were especially excited to look at a photograph shared by Miss Price of Longstone (Brunel) School from around 50 years ago. The children were amazed to discover that our school once had a swimming pool! This led to lots of interesting conversations about what school life might have been like in the past.

In RE, we have been learning about synagogues and exploring their importance to Jewish people. The children have been discovering different features of a synagogue and learning about how it is used as a place for worship and community. They have shown lots of curiosity and have enjoyed asking questions and sharing their ideas as they develop their understanding of Judaism.

Well done, Lantic Class, for another fantastic week of learning! We are so proud of the enthusiasm, creativity and hard work you continue to show.

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. 

What a busy and exciting week we have had in Tregantle Class! Phonics

This week, we have been very busy in phonics, continuing to learn a new sound every day. We are so impressed with how well the children are remembering their sounds and applying their learning in class. It has also been wonderful to hear that so many of you have been watching the phonics videos at home — what fantastic support! It was especially lovely to welcome our EYFS parents into school on Friday afternoon for a fun phonics session with Mrs Orchard and Mrs Grinsted. Thank you so much for engaging so brilliantly and joining in with all the activities. We think it is safe to say that you are now officially phonics experts!

Maths
In maths, we have continued our learning about subitising and developing our number understanding to 5. The children have been enjoying spotting quantities without needing to count each object, as well as exploring different ways to represent numbers. We have also been learning some new rhymes to help us remember how to form our numbers correctly. The children have loved joining in with these and are becoming more confident with their number writing.

PE Fun
We had a really fun PE lesson this week! We enjoyed moving our bodies like different animals and challenging ourselves to think about how each animal might move. We also had lots of fun playing parachute games, working together and developing our listening and coordination skills. It was certainly a lot of fun!

Settling In
We are incredibly proud of how settled the children are becoming in school. They are really making the most of all the wonderful opportunities available to them, both in the classroom and out in our garden provision. We are already looking forward to more fun and learning next week!

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.

We are so pleased to have been gifted our new school tee shirts!

Brunel school is one big happy family and now we feel even more part of it!

Thank you, Mr Woolner!

It has been another busy and exciting time of learning in Whitsand Class!

In Maths, we have reached the end of our unit on place value. The children have worked hard to develop their understanding and have enjoyed taking part in a range of consolidation activities to revisit and strengthen their learning. It has been fantastic to see them applying their knowledge in different ways and becoming increasingly confident with place value.

In English, we have been exploring exclamation marks and coordinating conjunctions. Whitsand Class particularly enjoyed getting active with their learning! We danced along to music before working with a partner to create an exclamation mark using our bodies.

We also had fun finding two independent clauses that could be joined together using the coordinating conjunction 'and'. There was plenty of movement, laughter and some very creative ideas as we experimented with our sentences!

In RE, we explored the inside of an Anglican church. We looked carefully at some of the different features we might find inside a church and discussed their purpose and importance. The children then used what they had discovered to draw and label the different features. It was lovely to see them taking such care with their drawings and thinking carefully about what they had learned.

Well done, Whitsand Class, for another fantastic week of learning!

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 a fantastic week we have had in Lantic Class!

In Maths, the children have been working hard comparing numbers using the greater than (>) and less than (<) symbols. They have also been practising counting in 2s, 5s and 10s with increasing confidence. We especially enjoyed taking our learning outside, using the school environment to explore numbers and solve practical maths challenges together.

In English, we have continued our hunt for the wolf! The children have been busy writing sentences using the conjunction if and adverbs of place to describe where the wolf might be hiding. We were impressed by their imaginative ideas and their growing confidence in using new vocabulary within their writing.

Our Science lessons have allowed us to become young scientists. We investigated the flexibility of different materials by testing and comparing a variety of objects. The children made predictions, carried out their tests carefully and discussed their findings like real scientists.

It has been wonderful to see so much enthusiasm, determination and teamwork across all areas of learning this week. Well done, Lantic Class, for another super week of learning and discovery! We are very proud of you all.

The children continue to settle brilliantly into school life and it has been lovely to see their confidence growing each day. Our classroom has been full of busy learners, with lots of exploring, playing, talking, creating and making new friends.

We have been busy learning new sounds this week and the children have worked incredibly hard to remember them. We have been practising saying our sounds clearly and recognising the pictures that help us remember them. The children have also enjoyed working with Fred the Frog and are beginning to develop their early blending skills. It is wonderful to see how enthusiastic they are becoming about phonics! 

In maths, we have continued to practise counting accurately. The children have been learning the importance of counting one object at a time and making sure that we don't miss anything or count something twice. We have been looking for opportunities to count throughout the day, both during our maths sessions and within our continuous provision. The children are becoming increasingly confident with their numbers and are beginning to apply their counting skills independently during play.

We enjoyed taking our learning outdoors this week with a fantastic leaf hunt! The children loved searching for different leaves and talking about their colours, shapes and sizes. They were fantastic explorers, carefully looking around our outdoor environment and sharing their discoveries with their friends. We also had lots of fun during PE with our parachute games. The children worked together to move the parachute up, down and around while listening carefully to instructions. There were lots of smiles and laughter! These games were a wonderful opportunity to develop our physical skills as well as learning how to work together as a team.

It has been particularly lovely to see the children's friendships developing. They are becoming more confident when approaching one another, inviting friends into their games and sharing ideas during their play. We are seeing lots of lovely examples of children helping each other, taking turns and beginning to solve little problems together. The children are becoming increasingly familiar with our routines and are growing in independence too. It is wonderful to see them making choices about their learning and confidently exploring everything that Tregantle Class has to offer.

What a busy and successful week it has been! We are incredibly proud of all the children and the progress they are making. Well done, Tregantle Class — we can't wait to see what next week brings!