Dreaming of desert islands...

We have had a busy and exciting week of learning in Duckpool class, with lots of opportunities for the children to build skills, be creative and deepen their understanding across the curriculum.

English & Reading
This week, the children have continued working hard in Read Write Inc, developing their reading fluency and comprehension!
In English, we began writing diaries, linking beautifully with our Geography learning. The children explored what life might be like on a desert island and used this to create imaginative and descriptive diary entries - a lovely thought amid some terrible weather of late! We have been really impressed with their ideas and effort.

Maths
In Maths, our focus has been on a combination of fractions, as well as multiplication and division, with lots of work on our times tables, too. The children have been focusing particularly on the 11x and 12x tables, and took part in mini-maths sessions throughout the week to build confidence and speed.

Geography
Our new Geography topic on deserts began this week. The children explored where deserts are found in the world and what makes them unique environments. This learning has supported their English diary writing brilliantly.

PE 
In PE, we refreshed our memories of some team games which we can play at break time and lunch times, in preparation for (hopefully) increasingly dry days ahead. We were also really proud of some of our class going to the table cricket final, in which Brunel came 3rd!

Computing
During Computing, the children worked on photo editing, learning how digital images can be created and edited. They showed great enthusiasm and creativity.

Science & RE
In Science, we launched our new topic on Electricity, beginning to learn about electrical devices and how electricity is used safely in everyday life, plus we made electrical circuits to light the bulb! I
In RE, we started a unit on racism, encouraging thoughtful discussions about fairness, respect and treating others kindly.

Art, Music & Languages
The children continued their Architecture project in Art, producing thoughtful and detailed work about Hundertwasser. In French, we learned about La Fête des Rois, and in Music, the children enjoyed a Classroom Jazz lesson, exploring rhythm and musical style.

PSHE & Assemblies
In PSHE, we began our new topic on relationships, focusing on positive interactions and friendships - how jealousy can be tough to deal with.

The week ended with our Achievers Assembly, celebrating the children's hard work and successes. Overall, it has been a fantastic week full of learning, creativity and enthusiasm. Well done to all the children for their excellent effort throughout the week!

Image courtesy of https://unsplash.com/@rpnickson

We have had a busy second week in Landaviddy class. On Monday, we enjoyed line dancing with Mrs Hillman in PE and learning the names for fruits in French. In Geography, we learnt about settlements - what a settlement is and the different types. During Computing lessons, we practised our digital drawing skills, to create a bag of items we would take with us to the International Space Station. In Science, we continued work on materials, where we conducted an investigation in the classroom. We were looking for objects we could describe as transparent, opaque, rigid or flexible. We will be working on an exciting DT project in the next few weeks - watch this space! 

In Maths, we have moved on to multiplication and division. All the children were very confident making and adding equal groups, which was great to see. In English, we have started a new unit on instructions. We have enjoyed looking at different examples of instructions, identifying features, writing commands with imperative verbs and constructing an introduction for a Lemonade recipe using rhetorical questions. We are hoping to make this next week!

Congratulations to Lowen and April for being chosen as Landaviddy's People of the Week. And a big well done to Ella and Alfie for achieving their 99 club badges this week. 

We hope you have a super weekend and look forward to seeing you on Monday. 

Mrs Wilkie, Mrs Lister and Miss Colton

Our first two weeks back! 

What a first few weeks we have had back! With some crazy weather and a pantomime, it has been quite the first two weeks back!

In our first week we were very lucky to have a theatre production of Snow White come to school. We absolutely loved the pantomime and joining in with all the songs. It was a great way to start our English unit all about Snow White and traditional tales. We will be using the pantomime as inspiration for writing our own stories.

We have also started our new big question in the wider curriculum: Who was Mary Anning? We have started learning some facts about Mary Anning and fossils. In Science we are exploring living things and their habitats. This week we were looking at things that are alive, dead, or never been alive. We explored our outside area and found plants, leaves, trees and other objects that we were sorting and classifying.

We have lots to look forward to this half term.

Just a gentle reminder:

Our PE days are Tuesday and Friday.

Please order your child's lunches on Thursday for the following week.

Reading records and books need to be in on a Friday to be changed.

Thank you!

Miss Bolger and the Year 1 / Year 2 Team

We have enjoyed a range of school assemblies this week. On Monday, Rev Richard led a thoughtful New Year assembly focusing on resolutions. This was followed on Tuesday by a lively singing assembly with Mrs Fitzsimmmons. On Wednesday, we held our first Reader, Writer and Mathematician Celebration Assembly of the year, and were pleased to welcome parents and carers of the children who received certificates. We ended the week with our Celebration Assembly today, where we recognised children who consistently demonstrate our school values, awarded 99 Club badges to pupils mastering their times tables, and celebrated Flora's recent triathlon success. If your child has an achievement to celebrate, whether in sport, the arts, or another interest outside of school, please encourage them to bring it in to share with us on a Friday.

Children's Mental Health Week 2026 We will be taking part in Children's Mental Health Week which this year is taking place between 9-15 February. This year's theme is 'This is My Place' where peers, families, schools and communities are encouraged to create an environment that gives children and young people a sense of belonging. As parents and carers, you play an important role in your child's mental health. There are free resources here which you may wish to look at beforehand. https://www.childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk/resources/#families

As part of Children's Mental Health Week, we will be spending the morning outdoors on Monday 9th February when all staff and pupils will take part in the Big Schools' Birdwatch and other outdoor wellbeing activities. Further details to follow.

Clubs Our new Girls' KS2 Football Club kicked off on Tuesday and was a great success with the girls thoroughly enjoying the session. A huge thank you to Mr Peters for stepping in at the last minute to run the club and for kindly agreeing to lead it for the rest of this term. Reminder: All other clubs will start next week.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend.

Mrs Hillman

This week, we have been learning about Augustus and His Smile. We sequenced the story, role-played the events, created a story map, and wrote sentences about each part of the story using adjectives to describe the characters and settings.

In Maths, we have been learning about addition and subtraction. We practised adding within 10 and across 10, using methods such as part-whole models, number lines, and tens and ones.

In RE, we talked about special places, and in PSHE, we discussed following instructions and learning from mistakes. We even made a jam sandwich!

In PE, we undertook gymnastics, learning basic movements. In Science, we have been learning about plants. In Music, we explored singing in a high pitch and a low pitch and sang a different version of If You're Happy and You Know It.

In Reception, the children completed some independent writing about their holiday, took part in PE, learned about a new artist, and will be completing a painting. They have also been working hard on their letter formation.

TALLAND'S BLOG 16.1.26

Is that week 2 of this first Spring term complete already? This term is going to fly by at this rate! It's been a great week full of learning, sport, art and wet plays! 

Here's a breakdown of our week:

Maths:
Year 5 have have moved on to their second unit of MULTIPLICATION and DIVISION where we have begun multiplying 4-digit numbers by 1- digit numbers. Next week we will be multiplying by a 2-digit number. They have also been identify 3D shapes. Why not ask them about faces, vertices and edges...
Year 4 have been multiplying and dividing by 7, 1 and 0. They have also begun solving problems involving the area of a shape.

English:
We have begun working on instructions where Talland have looked at what is needed to write  a successful set of instructions. We've played with different ways to write an engaging introduction and looked at how to use bossy verbs to help our audience understand what they need to do.  

Geography:
Talland explored the cities of the United Kingdom and had to find them in an Atlas which was a lot of fun .

RE:
We looked at the story of Noah and the Arc and what promise (covenant) was made by God to Noah. 

PE:
With Mrs. Hillman, Talland put their country boots on and danced away to country music. In PE, we put the tennis rackets away and used our arms and hands instead. WE got some pretty good rallies going!

ART:
We've had a great time experimenting with oil pastels, chalk, charcoal and different pencil leads to create some realistic looking drawings where, tone, texture and light have been our focus. 

CONGRATULATIONS to Renley, Max and Reuben this week for passing their next round in 99 club and well done to Amber and Taran for being noticed for showing our school values. So polite, hard working and kind!

That's all from us in Talland this week. We hope you have a fantastic weekend and can't wait to see everyone next week.

Signing off from Mr. Langley and Mr. Bishop.

It was lovely to have a full week without any weather interruptions. It meant we could re-establish routines fully after the holiday break. Clubs started again this week with a record number of pupils attending the infant sports club. We also had Year 6 children start their Bikeability road safety course and today was the first cross country race of 2026.

Morning Maths

Following the positive feedback we had after inviting parents and carers in to join the children for their morning maths last term, we invite you to join us again in a few weeks time. To make it more manageable, we are inviting different year groups on different days:
Wednesday 4th February - Reception, Year 2, Year 3 and Year 5
Thursday 5th February - Year 1, Year 4 and Year 6
If you are able to join your child for this open door maths lesson, please come in with them at 8.40am and stay whilst they do their maths (until about 9am). We look forward to seeing you.

Art
Across the school, children have been engaging in their new art units. Once again, we hope to invite you in to see the outcomes at class exhibitions at the end of the unit. Class 2 have been experimenting with primary colours and mark making with different tools other than paintbrushes. Some even experimented on their school uniform!



Green Poster Competition
If your child would like to take part in this poster competition, we will collate entries in the school office and arrange for them to be collected by the Lions. Please leave entries no later than Monday 23rd February.

w/e 16/1/26

We have had a busy and exciting week of learning in Perranporth class, with lots of opportunities for the children to build skills, be creative and deepen their understanding across the curriculum.

English & Reading
This week, the children have continued working hard in Read Write Inc, developing their reading fluency and comprehension!
In English, we began writing diaries, linking beautifully with our Geography learning. The children explored what life might be like on a desert island and used this to create imaginative and descriptive diary entries. We have been really impressed with their ideas and effort.

Maths
In Maths, our focus has been on multiplication and division, with lots of work on our timestables, too. The children have been focusing particularly on the 11x and 12x tables, and took part in mini-maths sessions throughout the week to build confidence and speed.

Geography
Our new Geography topic on deserts began this week. The children explored where deserts are found in the world and what makes them unique environments. This learning has supported their English diary writing brilliantly.

PE 
In PE, we started gymnastics, focusing on balance, control and basic sequences. We were really proud of some of our class going to the table cricket final, in which Brunel came 3rd!

Computing
During Computing, the children worked on photo editing, learning how digital images can be created and edited. They showed great enthusiasm and creativity.

Science & RE
In Science, we launched our new topic on Electricity, beginning to learn about electrical devices and how electricity is used safely in everyday life, plus we made electrical circuits to light the bulb! I
In RE, we started a unit on racism, encouraging thoughtful discussions about fairness, respect and treating others kindly.

Art, Music & Languages
The children continued their Architecture project in Art, producing thoughtful and detailed work about Hundertwasser. In French, we learned about La Fête des Rois, and in Music, the children enjoyed a Classroom Jazz lesson, exploring rhythm and musical style.

PSHE & Assemblies
In PSHE, we began our new topic on relationships, focusing on positive interactions and friendships - how jealousy can be tough to deal with.

The week ended with our Achievers Assembly, celebrating the children's hard work and successes. Overall, it has been a fantastic week full of learning, creativity and enthusiasm. Well done to all the children for their excellent effort throughout the week!

It has been another busy week for Chaipel, and Science has been a key point in our learning: testing out more complex circuits and drawing series circuits using scientific symbols for our components. 

In Maths, we have been finding fractions of amounts and missing angles in triangles. We also worked through an arithmetic paper together and surprised ourselves at how much we have learnt since our last paper: adding and subtracting fractions, mixed numbers and long multiplication/division. Next week, we will begin our fraction, decimal and percentage unit.

For English this week, we have been writing a setting description for our farmyard in The Midnight Fox - well done to HENRY for being our Writer of the Week for your 'creative' use of figurative language. We have begun to write up our recounts of the sightings of the black fox in our Fox Spotter Journals and will continue this next week - as well as characterising speech  - as a build-up to our narrative writing.

We have learnt about some of the geographical features of North America in Geography and made 1980's animation (the old-style flipbooks) as part of our Computing as well as begun to learn how to refer to and speak about our family in French with Mrs Hillman.

CONGRATULATIONS to Skye and Everly for being our People of the Week, demonstrating our school values and being positive role models.

HOMEWORK
I have attached the homework grid and KIRFs for this half term!

That's all from us so have a lovely weekend and see you all on Monday.

Miss Randle and Mrs Clary.

  We've launched the New Year at Storytellers Nursery with an exciting new topic, **Space**, and the children have been absolutely fascinated from the very start!

This week, our young explorers have been learning all about light and dark, discovering how light changes the world around us. We've enjoyed experimenting with torches, dark dens, and light tables, watching with delight as shadows appear, move, and change shape. The children loved creating their own shadows and seeing how they could make them bigger, smaller, or disappear altogether.

Alongside our investigations, we've been introducing some new and exciting space-themed vocabulary. Words such as space, star, moon, sun, dark, light, and shadow have been popping up in conversations and play, helping to build language skills and spark curiosity about the world beyond our planet.

These activities have supported the children's natural curiosity, encouraged questioning, and promoted early scientific thinking - all through hands-on, playful exploration. It's been wonderful to see their confidence grow as they experiment, talk about what they notice, and share their ideas with friends.

 We're looking forward to continuing our space adventure over the coming weeks, with plenty more opportunities to explore, imagine, and learn together.

Friday 16th January

Another amazing learning filled week in Foundation!

This week, in English,  we have continued our story of Snow White and we have used our oracy and sequencing skills to sequence the story. We then separated into groups and with an adult we practiced acting a part of the story. We then performed our acting to the rest of the class! The children were amazing.

In maths we have been concentrating on subitising 0-5. Miss Wilson has been helping the children learn how to subitise in fun ways and the children have completed some lovely activities after each lesson to show how much they have learnt.

In outdoor learning this week we braved the wind and rain and went stick collecting. Ince we had the right size sticks we made snowflakes but winding string around the sticks to hod them together. They are currently hanging in class drying, ready for us to paint next week.

In PE we started gymnastics. This week we have explored holding our bodies in a stretch pose or a curled pose!

The children have also collaged snowflakes, which currently hang I our class and are beautiful. They have made polar scenes, had library time exploring books and sooooooo much more!

The Foundation Team 

Year Group Newsletters
To see what learning has been happening in classes, and what's coming up, please take a look at the Year Group Newsletters emailed home today. Copies can also be found on the class pages of our website.

Staffing News
Next week, we are looking forward to welcoming back Hannah O'Dwyer into Nursery - she has been greatly missed. We are also pleased to share that Mrs Graham (Class 4W teacher) is expecting her first child and is likely to begin her maternity leave at the beginning of May. I'm sure everyone will join me in offering our congratulations.

Term 2 Curriculum Maps
Next Monday, please look out for a separate email with all the year group Curriculum Maps for this term.

KS2 Cross Country
On Monday, over 50 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 6 Stay and Learn - Friday 23rd January
We look forward to seeing family members of Year 6 at their Stay and Learn (Fantasy Fiction) next Friday 23rd January. Doors open after morning drop off for refreshments, with a start time of 09:00. To help the morning drop-off routine, any Year 6 families driving are encouraged to park in the staff car park (double parking is fine).

Bridge Kids/Lunch Club Makeover
We are excited to share that we are currently working on improving the provision and physical environment of our 'Bridge Kids' wrap-around care. These enhancements will include a fresh coat of paint, a vibrant wall mural, new furniture, and a range of engaging games to create a welcoming and stimulating space for the children. Those who attend Lunch Club will also benefit from these improvements along with a range of children who use this space within the school day. Photos to follow!

KS2 Playground Project
After much work behind the scenes, we are excited to announce that our KS2 playground project is now in full swing and almost ready to be very much improved. The children have been consulted about what they would love to see added and, while a roller coaster won't be making an appearance, we can reveal that table tennis tables, a new selection of bikes, and exciting new playground markings will be! This project is designed to better engage our children and provide a safe space where they can be imaginative, creative, and active together. Please see attachment in today's email for further details. We really hope you will be as excited as we are about this new venture.
From Mrs Callister

The improvements we are making to our play and lunch provision couldn't have happened without the support of FOWPA and everyone who has contributed to our fundraising efforts. If anyone would like to help with future fundraising events to support projects like this, please email fowpa@wadebridgeprimary.co.uk or take part in events such as the quiz - see below!

FOWPA - AGM & The Great Wadebridge Primary Academy Quiz
Our AGM is being held on Monday 26th January, 6pm at the Pearl and Trawl - all welcome to attend.

The Great Wadebridge Primary Academy Quiz - Friday 30th Jan, 7pm, Wadebridge Town Hall
Get your team together, dust off those thinking caps, and join us for a brilliant evening of quizzing at The Great Wadebridge Primary Academy Quiz. Organised by FOWPA and hosted by everyone's favourite quiz master, Robin Moorcroft, it promises to be a night full of fun, friendly competition, and plenty of laughs. There'll be a bar open throughout the evening, prizes for the top teams, and a fantastic raffle featuring beautiful hampers packed with goodies. It's the perfect chance to enjoy a great night with friends and support a wonderful cause. Spaces are limited, so book your table early to avoid missing out. £20 per table - maximum of six people

Book your table here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1980033460381?aff=oddtdtcreator
Every ticket sold helps support Wadebridge Primary Academy, funding projects and resources that make a real difference to the children.

Donations Needed!
The FOWPA team is putting together a range of hampers to be used as raffle prizes for the upcoming quiz night at the town hall and we'd love your help. If your child can bring in a donation next week, please hand it to their class teacher. Suggested items include:
• Sweets, chocolates or biscuits
• Jam, marmalade or chutneys
• Bottles of soft drinks
• Toiletries such as bubble bath, shower gel, soap or body lotion
• Candles


We're excited to create some fantastic hampers for quiz night - thank you for your support.
From FOWPA

Allergies/Health Care Plans
A reminder that we are a nut free school. Should your child have any allergies that we haven't been made aware of already or they require a Health Care Plan (or an updated plan is needed), please contact the school office for further information. As you'll be aware, our school meals are provided by Caterlink. It is essential that if your child is having a school meal, you complete Caterlink's dietary requirements/food allergies form. If you haven't completed the form previously or your child's medical circumstances have changed, please collect a form from the office to complete.

House Points
Congratulations to this week's winners, Puffins. Overall, Choughs are in the lead:
Choughs - 5896
Puffins - 5299
Swans - 5004
Cormorants - 4532

Best wishes,
Chris Wathern

It has been a calmer week weather-wise at Darite this week thank-you again for your understanding last week. Thank-you also to those of you who have given us updated contact details for our system. Please remember, if you move house, phone numbers or email addresses, let us know so we can make sure we have details in case of an emergency. Thank-you. The children have really continued their learning well this week. Class 1 have been producing some great written work and I even learned a thing or two in their ICT lessons! Class 2 have all been getting into their DT project, helping Dr Smart at Exeter university by designing a product to safely hold archaeological artefacts in scanners! It is great to see the range of learning that takes place in school. Finally, can I politely remind you that Darite is a non-smoking or vaping site. This is for the safety of all members of the school.

Welcome to this week's edition of The Brunel Bulletin. This is your weekly update of all the latest news and events from our wonderful school. We hope you enjoy browsing through the 54th edition of our newsletter.

Hello Everyone!

We've been getting creative this week, by studying some of the paintings by Vincent Van Gogh. We looked in detail, at the painting 'Starry Night' and used oil pastels to recreate the painting. We tried to imitate the type of brush strokes that he used, and then practiced our skills of blending the colours with our fingers. We hope you like the results.

We completed our English learning journey, based on Amelia Earhart this week. Year 1and 2 children have showcased all of their knowledge about biographies, by writing their own biography, all about Amelia Earhart. Reception have also been using their skills to write labels, captions and sentences, and have shown us how independent they are becoming when writing. Well done everyone!

Our history lesson this week also linked with Amelia Earhart. We were able to spot similarities and differences between modern planes and Amelia's plane called the yellow Canary. We drew and labelled pictures which illustrated these differences.

We hope you have a lovely weekend!

From The Penhallow Team