What a fabulous week of learning we have had. We have begun our new enquiry into our country's natural resources. We have investigated the main sectors of our economy and how ingredients that make a simple chocolate cake have been on an epic journey from the countries where they began as raw materials to the countries that turned them into manufactured products.

ENGLISH
We have edited, improved and begun to write up our persuasive letters in best copy. I am so proud of the effort that Chaipel have put into this piece of writing and look forward to reading each and every one of them. 

MATHS
We have completed our Fractions unit and we have come so far. We can compare, order, simplify, convert, add and subtract. For Y6s, it's Ratio next and for Y5s it is Multiplication and Division. 

WIDER CURRICULUM
Our investigation into Bhangra dance is coming on with us creating sequences using a range of motifs and travel steps. Tennis is also on the PE timetable for this half term with Mrs Hillman. We have learnt about bridge construction beam styles in DT and tested out our beams for strength using a range of weights and measures. In Science, we have located the reproductive features of a plant and will move our learning on next week to look at asexual plant reproduction.

Congratulations to Verity and Ashton for being our People of the Week, recognised for displaying our school values and to Dom and Elsie for achieving their next badge in their 99 Club.

Have a lovely weekend and see you all on Monday.

Miss Randle, Mrs Clary and Miss Hodge.

It’s been a very busy and productive couple of weeks since the start of term. Alongside the children starting their new learning journeys, we have been holding Pupil Progress Meetings to review all children’s progress and next steps. We will be holding our next round of Parent Teacher Consultations after the half term break. However, in the meantime, should you have any questions about your child, please don’t hesitate in contacting your child’s teacher.

Attached to the email coming home today, you’ll find your child’s fortnightly Year Group News, which highlights some of the teaching and learning from the last couple of weeks and what’s coming up next. Do take a look to see what’s been happening. A copy can also be found on the class pages of our website.

KS2 Cross Country
On Monday, the weather was kind and over 40 of our KS2 pupils represented Wadebridge Primary in the second Wadebridge Area School Cross Country event of the year. All WPA pupils ran with smiles on their faces and enjoyed themselves. Some good results and personal bests recorded. Well done to all!

Year 4 Stay and Learn – Friday 24th January 08:45-09:45 (Hall)
A reminder that all Year 4 parents are invited to join their children in Year 4 at our next Stay and Learn on Friday 24th January. Come and join your child to explore some maths problem solving together. No need to sign up – we look forward to seeing you there.

Coffee Morning & Maths Workshop – Monday 27th January 08:45-09:15
Mr O’Dwyer will be hosting an informal maths workshop and coffee morning after drop off on Monday 27th January. During the workshop, we will be will be sharing some information about what maths looks like at WPA and the approach we take to ensure pupils develop 'KIRFs' (Key Instant Recall Facts). You will also have the chance to have a go at resources such as Times Table Rockstars to aid with home learning. We look forward to seeing you there. 

Uniform
Thanks for rummaging through the lost property and collecting items. Any remaining clothing has been passed on to FOWPA for their nearly new uniform sales or a local clothes bank.

There’s a lot in the media about schools enforcing their uniform policies with detentions and the like. We don’t follow this path, but instead ask for your support in sending your child in wearing the correct uniform. Thank you for supporting our uniform policy, as on the whole, the children come to school in the right clothing. From time to time, we do need to remind children about certain accessories and footwear. A copy of our uniform list has been emailed home today; a copy can also be found on our website. We have amended the wording slightly by removing the “don’t wear this, etc.” so it’s clear (hopefully) what the uniform is, rather than what it isn’t.

As always, should you need any support with uniform, please don’t hesitate in speaking with a member of staff. Likewise, should your child need any reasonable adjustments to their uniform, please speak with your child’s teacher or our SENDCo, Mr Smith.

Volunteers
Would you like to help out at our school, maybe on a trip, hearing readers, gardening or something else you could offer? Keep a look out for a separate message next week with further details on how to register your interest.

House Points
Congratulations to this week’s winners, Swans. Overall, Swans maintain the lead:

Swans – 4063
Choughs – 3933
Cormorants – 3597
Puffins – 3473

Dates coming up this month:

Monday 20th January
(pm) Year 6 Secondary Transition PE Session
Year 6 Bikeability runs until Thursday 13th February

Friday 24th January
08:45-09:45 Year 4 Stay & Learn

Monday 27th January
08:45 Coffee Morning & Maths Workshop with Luke O’Dwyer

Thursday 30th January
09:00 Year 5 Assembly

Friday 31st January
Space Odyssey workshop for Y5 and Y6

With very best wishes,
Chris Wathern

w/e 17.1.25

What a fantastic week it has been in Daymer! The children have been working hard, exploring new ideas, and having lots of fun along the way.

Here’s a little peek into what we’ve been learning this week:

English We’ve been focusing on using adverbials of time and place to make our writing more exciting and clear. The children have impressed us with sentences like “Later that morning, the boy met Om's family” and “Inside the spooky cave...”

We’ve also been developing our skills in characterisation. The class explored how to “show not tell” emotions by describing feelings like joy, anger, and surprise, and thinking about how a character might move, speak, or react in different situations.

Maths Times tables have taken center stage in Year 3 and 4 this week! Plus, the year 4s discovered what a 'perfect number' is - hence the puzzled faces in the photo above!

Art The children tried out some line drawings of animals as they furthered their work on prehistoric art. Don't they look great?

PE In PE, we’ve been continuing with our dance theme inspired by wind. This week, the children explored the technique of canon, where each dancer performs a movement one after the other. Their creativity shone as they worked together to choreograph a beautiful and flowing routine.

Science Our mini water cycles, which we set up in the classroom last week, have been fascinating to observe! Each day, the children have monitored and recorded changes, noticing condensation, evaporation, and precipitation in action. It’s been a great hands-on way to explore the water cycle. We have finished our work on States of Matter and are moving into our new unit, which is 'Light'. 

RE and PSHE In RE, we learned about the Holy Trinity and discussed how Christians understand God as completely Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The children had thoughtful questions and showed a lot of curiosity. In PSHE, we focused on setting personal goals for the term / year. The children thought carefully about what they want to achieve and how they can work towards their goals.

Thank you for your continued support. It’s wonderful to see how enthusiastic the children are about their learning. We can’t wait to see what the next week brings!

Weekly Blog - 17Jan 25

It really is never dull at Darite! Following the snow and ice last week, this week brought a visit from Ofsted on Tuesday! We were told of their visit on Monday and everyone in the school pulled together to really show what Darite is all about. We were so proud of all the children on Tuesday who showed our guests exactly what they do at Darite. We were all so proud of them all. We cannot share the outcome of the inspection at this time but as soon as we are able to, I will let you know how we got on. I would also like to express my thanks to everyone who was able to complete the survey sent out and give their thoughts on the school to the inspectors on the playground. Thanks also to those in the wider trust who were able to support the school this week. Darite is more than just a school, it is a true community. Also this week, Class 2 had their second session with the Eden Project and their healthy lunch competition. The children were buzzing when they saw the entry that the school won with shown to the other schools and work is well underway on this year’s competition. Class 1 meanwhile have been looking at Haiku poetry in preparation for entering a “Flyku” competition – more on this soon! Good luck to our cross country runners at Cotehele today. I can’t wait to hear about the event on Monday. 
Gardening Club were very privileged to be visited by Philip from St Cleer Gardening Club. He brought seeds and a lot of expertise! He showed us how to use cardboard tubes instead of plant pots and then we put them into half of a plastic bottle so that they can be kept hydrated. He will be back next month to help us plant runner beans, pumpkins and geraniums.

The children of Talland Class have had a magnificent introduction to their topic in reference to the Alps. They attended school in warm clothing to assimilate life in the Alps during the Winter. During the week, they learned how to geographically locate the Alps using maps and also identified the Continents of the World together with the countries bordering the mountains: Switzerland, France and Germany, for instance. The highlight for the children was toasting marshmallows to eat during the afternoon session. A quote from one 10 year old, 'It's hot but it's also delicious.'

The maths topic, fractions, has been a pleasant challenge for the children. They have been focusing on finding common denominators to enable the addition of 2 and 3 lots of fractions, for instance:
.

A great deal of perseverance was shown by all of the children during the maths sessions.


During English, the children have been creating their own character and setting in anticipation for writing their own version of Hansel and Gretel. The description many of the children have been using is amazing: eyes like emerald balls; the isolated, lonely mountains are barren rocks on the sea shore eroding away with each crash of a wave; and so on.

Best wishes, Mrs Swabey, Mr Parry, Mrs Walters, Mrs Payne and Miss Rowlands.

What a fantastic week it has been at Brunel Primary and Nursery Academy!

Our children have been immersed in a variety of wonderful learning experiences, making every day an exciting adventure of discovery and growth. It’s always a joy to see their enthusiasm and dedication shine through in everything they do. We’re thrilled to announce that our extra-curricular clubs have started again, offering even more opportunities for our children to explore their interests and talents. A huge thank you to our dedicated staff for going above and beyond to make these clubs possible. Their hard work and commitment mean so much to our school community, and we are incredibly grateful.

We’d also like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all our parents and carers for your continued support with attendance. Thanks to you, our attendance over the last two weeks has been the highest of the academic year so far—a fantastic achievement! Let’s keep this momentum going as we work together to give our children the best possible start.

Don’t forget to stay up to date with all the latest happenings by regularly checking the events diary on our website. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and explore the Class Blogs for a closer look at the wonderful activities happening in school.

We hope you enjoy this week’s edition of the Brunel Bulletin, filled with all the latest news from our amazing school. Thank you for being such a vital part of our community, and we wish you all a wonderful weekend! 

We had a brilliant launch day for our topic: What is life like in the alps? The children came to school dressed in clothes for surviving on a mountain. 

In English, we looked at photos and videos of the Alps and used this to help us think of descriptive language to use in our Hansel and Gretel story. We were all amazed at how breathtaking some of the views are and I think we all have the Alps on our list of places to visit now. 

In geography, we recalled our sticky knowledge by completing a jigsaw of the countries the Alps pass through. Then we researched human and physical features of the different mountains. We found out that the tallest mountain was Mont Blanc, which means white mountain in French. During our research, we discovered all the different tourist attractions and activities that are available. Some thought the skiing and snowboarding looked particularly exciting; others preferred the idea of the wooden cabins and hot tubs. 

To finish the day off, we toasted some marshmallows which were delicious!

Welcome back!

Dear all

We have such a busy term planned this term!  Our topic question is "What is it like to live in the Rainforest" - you will find the curriculum map for all objectives being taught below!

We began our unit to matching facts in a "treasure hunt" which we really enjoyed!  We then wrote our "I Wonder" questions of all of the things we would like to find out about during this unit.

In English, we are learning about "The Jungle Book" story.  We wrote our character descriptions today and next week will begin our own version of the story.  In maths, we are learning about shape!  Year Two are covering 2D and 3D shapes and Year Three are learning about parallel lines, perpendicular lines, angles, horizontal and vertical lines.  There are assignments on Mathletics in relation to these topics so please encourage your child to access these.  We are also completing our TT Rockstars on the 5 x tables which includes multiplication and division.  It would be so helpful to support your child in learning these.  The KIRFS for the term are also attached below.

In science, the children have started their Microhabitat unit which they are enjoying.  This week they explored our grounds to find the different places where small insects live. 

In art, we are learning about the artist Pablo Picasso and his style of art - Cubism.  The children will eventually produce their own cubist art painting which I will post on this page once they have finished!  In French, the unit is "My Home" (Chez Moi) and the children learned the names of all of the different places where people can live!  I am learning the names alongside the children and have had lots of fun!

What a busy week it has been so far! We've had lots of exciting and interesting lessons.

In PSHE, we have been focusing on how to reach our goals. As part of this, we had a fun activity where we made jam sandwiches. The process wasn’t as simple as just putting jam between two slices of bread – we had to think about the 'stepping stones' to success, breaking down the task into smaller, manageable steps. This helped us understand how we can achieve our goals, whether they're big or small.

In Maths, we are continuing our work on place value. This week, we've been using bead strings and rekenreks to explore the concepts of tens and ones. We focused particularly on the numbers between 10 and 20, practicing how to represent these numbers using the tools. This hands-on approach has really helped us understand how the value of digits changes depending on their place in a number.

In English, we have been thinking about whales and how we can learn more about them. We’ve come up with some great questions that we’d like to ask Greenpeace. We’ve also been exploring what we would like to know about whales, which has sparked some very interesting discussions.

Finally, in PE, we have been practicing our balancing skills. Everyone had a turn walking along a bench to see how well we could maintain our balance. It was both fun and challenging, and we all improved as the lesson went on. 

In DT, Class 3 have been exploring how the Anderson shelter was used by the people of Britain during WW2 as a way of protecting themselves from German bombings. Looking at a range of sources and photographs from the time, they worked in pairs to design their own model Anderson shelter. In their designs they all thought carefully about the shape, scale and proportion of the shelter in relation to how they looked at the time. The inside of each shelter design was also considered with benches, bunk beds and posters added. It made the children all consider what they would bring to an Anderson shelter if they had to be in one for several hours.