Exploring the cold

This week in Tregantle Class we have been busy exploring our topic 'Ice and Snow' across lots of different areas of learning.

In art, we investigated cold colours and took inspiration from Kandinsky, creating our own beautiful circles using different shades of blue. The children loved experimenting with colour and seeing how different tones worked together.

In PE, we practised throwing a ball at a target. This was a fun and energetic session that really helped to develop our gross motor skills, coordination and aim.

In maths, we have been learning all about capacity. One exciting activity challenged us to see how many different items we could fit into a tiny matchbox - there were lots of clever ideas and surprises!

During our Forest School session, we became artists and scientists by making our own ice sculptures. We filled cups with interesting natural materials, added water and placed them in the freezer. We can't wait to see how they turn out when they are frozen and revealed.

Another fantastic week of learning, creativity and fun in Tregantle Class!

Year 2 have had a very busy and exciting November and December as we explored our topic, 'Festivals Around the World'.

In geography, the children learned about the oceans and continents of the world. They enjoyed exploring atlases, locating different countries and finding out where festivals are celebrated around the globe. We also learned about weather around the world and compared it to our own. The children kept a daily weather record, observing changes and using weather vocabulary to describe what they noticed.

In science, we learned about animal habitats around the world. The children explored how animals are suited to their environments and linked this learning to different continents and climates.

As part of our learning about festivals, we discovered Diwali, the Festival of Light. The children learned about how Diwali is celebrated and why it is important. In Design and Technology, we made mango lassi, carefully following a recipe and talking about hygiene and safety in the kitchen. Everyone enjoyed tasting their delicious drink!

We also learned about Bonfire Night and the Gunpowder Plot. The children found out why fireworks are used to celebrate and created their own firework pictures using printing techniques, experimenting with colour and pattern.

In December, our focus turned to Christmas. We talked about how Christmas is celebrated in different parts of the world and what makes it special. In DT, the children made Christmas cupcakes, practising measuring, mixing and decorating skills.

In art, the children learned about watercolour techniques, practising careful brush control. They used these new skills to create beautiful Christmas cards, showing fantastic creativity and attention to detail.

We also put on an amazing Christmas play, "Shine, Star, Shine". The children worked incredibly hard to learn their lines, songs and dances, and performed with confidence and enthusiasm. It was a wonderful celebration of teamwork and creativity, and we are so proud of everyone's efforts.

Finally we finished with our annual trip to the theatre to watch a very festive performance of Raymond Briggs' Father Christmas. It has been a fantastic two months of learning, creativity and celebration.

Well done Year 2 for your enthusiasm and hard work across all subjects!

Welcome back to all our pre-school children and families, and a very warm welcome to those children and families who have joined us in the new year.

We hope that everyone had a lovely Christmas break, we have enjoyed catching up with the children and hearing all their wonderful festive stories. 

We can't quite believe we are already Spring Term 1, especially with the recent very wintery weather! Our new enquiry question this half term will be 'How can we show kindness?'

 We will be discussing what we think kindness is, and how we can show kindness.  We will also explore friendships and our emotions.

The first week back seen a very unsettled routine with late starts and early closures due to the weather, but the children all came back happy and ready to start.  The older children have already shown great kindness towards our few new younger starters, with helping them around pre-school, and playing alongside them.

We wish all our families a happy new year.

The Pre-School Team. 

Welcome Back Landaviddy! 

It has been lovely to see the children back in school, ready for an exciting Spring Term. Already we have had a crazy week -  weather wise! But even with all the disruption, we have enjoyed being back together. 

We concluded our previous enquiry 'What was new about the Stone Age?' by completing a Kahoot quiz and launched our enquiry focus for this half term, 'How far can you travel?'. We came up with lots of questions and ideas about what this could mean. In Computing, we have started a new unit on Data Handling, where we will be exploring the International Space Station (ISS). Our first lesson this week, had us using interactive digital maps to discover their home on the ISS. 

During English, we have been rounding off our work on poetry, where we produced our own shape poetry inspired by a snowflake. We used alliteration and similes, as well as some amazing vocabulary to capture the attention of our reader. We are all really proud of the poems we created. Well done everyone. In Maths, we have been rounding off our unit on Addition and Subtraction by making estimations, using inverse operations and making decisions on the best strategies to use when problem-solving. 

Congratulations to Ella and Finn for being chosen as Landaviddy's People of the Week! 

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

Mrs Wilkie, Mrs Lister and Miss Colton

TALLAND'S BLOG 9.1.26

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! We hope you had a magical Christmas and had a fantastic welcome to the New Year! It's great seeing everybody and hearing about some lovely Christmas stories. Really excitingly, it's also brilliant to welcome our new children: Renley, Taran and Max. They're a great addition to our class and we can't wait to become part of their story.

Here's a breakdown of our week:

Maths:
Year 5 have been solving problems involving CUBED numbers and multiplying and dividing by 10, 100 and 1,000. 
Year 4 have been multiplying by the 7 and 9 times tables... why not quiz your child on those times tables... 

English: 
Talland have written their Myth/Legend story up in best this week and have illustrated their Hero/Heroin's and Villain's. I'm so impressed with their stories; they're so creative!

PSHE: 
This term we're focusing on hopes and dreams so Talland have been thinking about what their hopes and dreams might be for the future and whether or not having money would help them accomplish their dream. 

PE: 
Dance is on a Tuesday with Mrs. Hillman and Tennis is on a Wednesday with Mr. Langley.
Talland have had lots of fun dancing with Mrs. Hillman and I've been playing tennis with them. We learnt about the forehand and how accurate we can be when striking the ball.

SCIENCE: 
Our enquiry question is: ' Who's got the Power?' this term so we are investigating electricity. Today we were thinking about which appliances would require power from electricity and whether they were powered by batteries, mains or both. Question: If you could only have five appliances in your house, what would they be?

CONGRATULATIONS to Riley, Taran and Max for settling in so well this week. We celebrated them in assembly for bringing such great energy, curiosity and kindness to the class. The rest of Talland have been so warm and welcoming - it's been lovely to witness. 

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

Signing off from Mr. Langley and Mr. Bishop.
 

Apart from the weather disruption, it's been a very calm and purposeful first week back to school. Thank you once again for your support yesterday afternoon and this morning.


Digital Safety
We regularly post and share with our community information to support children staying safe online and being digitally responsible. Dame Rachel de Souza, Children's Commissioner, has published a new guide to share with parents/carers - What I wish my parents or carers knew: A guide for parents on managing children's digital lives (link emailed home).
Please do take a look at this guide as part of our shared responsibility (schools, families and wider society) in balancing protecting children from online harm whilst enabling access to spaces that are now central to learning, socialising and play.

FOWPA - AGM & The Great Wadebridge Primary Academy Quiz
Our AGM is being held on Monday 26th January, 6pm - all welcome to attend. Location to be confirmed.

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.
From FOWPA

House Points
Congratulations to this week's winners, Choughs. Overall, Choughs maintain the lead:
Choughs - 5525
Puffins - 4907
Swans - 4659
Cormorants - 4232

PE Days from January 2026
Nursery: Monday & Tuesday
Reception: Friday
Year 1: Friday
Year 2: Thursday
Year 3: Friday
Year 4: Tuesday
Year 5: Wednesday
Year 6: Thursday

Best wishes,
Chris Wathern

Friday 9th January- Happy New Year

We have had a wonderful start back to school this week. The children must have had Christmas magic sprinkled on them as they have grown over the holidays and have come back so determined to explore and learn! 
Our big question for this half term is: What would it be like if the world were frozen?

THis week the children have explored polar regions and made pictures, they have made icicles from small parts, used pencil control to follow lines and make a snowy picture, painted lasagna sheets in frosty colours ready to make a polar collage next week and so much more! 

In phonics we have started to learn level 3 phonemes and write the graphemes and the children have been trying so hard to write CVC words that include our sounds of the day! 

In maths we have been exploring zero. We have completed activities including zero or not zero. The children are really beginning to use mathematical thinking and full mathematical sentences when answering questions! we have a class of mathematicians! 

In outdoor learning this week we went on an ice hunt! It had all melted by the time we got there but we found some wonderful things in our forest area. 

On Thursday we were so lucky to have M and M productions visit us and put on a wonderful pantomime- Snow White! We had so much fun and it has really got us excited to start our English learning journey on Snow White! Wonderful wow work coming soon! 

Welcome back, and Happy New Year to you all. We are delighted to welcome our new families and six new pupils to our school community.

Thank you for your patience and understanding when the school opened later than usual on Tuesday and again yesterday when we closed early as a precaution due to the storm. Our caretaker, Mr Sands, has been checking the school premises and repairing any damage caused by the weather. I am pleased to report that the greenhouse remains intact which means the children will be able to continue growing their own fruit and vegetables as planned when Gardening Club resumes next half term.

Clubs The Girls' Football Club for pupils in Years 3-6 will begin on Tuesday 13th January. Other clubs will start the week commencing Monday, 19th January as follows:
Monday: Lunchtime Mindfulness and Colouring Club (Mrs Wilkie) for all year groups
After School Running Club (Miss Bowden and Mrs Turnbull) for years 3-6. This club is open to anyone who likes running however it will not run when the Cross-Country League races are on - next races 16th January)
Tuesday: Lunchtime Construction Club (Mrs Lister) Reception/Y1/Y2
After school Girls' Football Club (Y3-6) starts 13th January
Thursday: Lunchtime Choir (Mrs Butlin) Y2-6
After school Art Club (Mrs Fitzsimmons) Reception/Y1/Y2 (limited numbers, 1st come 1st served)
After school Football Club (Mr Langley) Y3-Y6

Please inform us by email or phone call, which clubs you wish your child to attend, by midday on Wednesday 14th January. For all clubs, once signed up children will be expected to attend every week unless they have written parental permission not to, or are absent. This applies to both lunchtime and after school clubs. Please note that gardening club will resume after half term.

What I wish my parents or carers knew..': A guide for parents and carers on managing children's digital lives The children's Commission has published a really useful guide 'What I wish my parents or carers knew..': A guide for parents and carers on managing children's digital lives. Written with children's input, it offers practical advice on setting firm, protective boundaries online and supporting children's safety and wellbeing in today's digital world. Click here to access the guide.

These are the main messages for you at the moment as we start back and we will send out further correspondence as needed, with a regular update each Friday. Further information regarding school is available on the Head's Blog and class blogs on our website and information about dates can be found in the Events Diary on this website.

Have a great weekend.

Mrs Hillman

Welcome back after the Christmas break. I hope you all managed to have some time to rest and relax at Christmas, whether it was with friends, family or others. This half term is a short one but we have lots to look forward to. We have a full half term with visitors, events and amazing learning. Watch this space for more details. Lots of our children received a letter from Anna Gelderd (our local MP) thanking them personally for their entry into the Christmas card competition. They should all be proud of themselves for their efforts! What a week for weather it has been from snow and ice at the start of the week, to a storm on Friday, it really has been an interesting start to the term! Thank-you to you all for your understanding in these challenging weather conditions. I know that decisions to close or open the school have a large impact on all of you. The safety of children, families and staff is paramount. Can I please urge you all to ensure that we have at least two contacts for each child including emails. This is to allow us to contact you in case of an emergency. Finally, following interviews this week, I am delighted to let you know that we have appointed Mrs A Colquhoun as a replacement for Miss Bawden. She has been working in the school for a while now and already knows the children and has many years of experience that she will bring to Darite. She will be a welcome addition to the team at Darite.

What a crazy first week back of this Spring term! Even though we had a late start on Tuesday and an early finish on Thursday, we have managed to learn so much. 

In Maths, we have been adding and subtracting mixed numbers and multiplying fractions by integers. We are really making progress and looking forward to moving onto finding fractions of an amount next week.

In English, we have begun to immerse ourselves in the North American narrative THE MIDNIGHT FOX  by Betsy Byres. We are focusing on writing in character and will eventually re-write the ending through the perspective of the protagonist.

Our enquiry this half term is HOW DOES NORTH AMERICA COMPARE WITH EUROPE? and we have begun to identify the countries in North America and the differences in their climates. For Science we are looking into electricity and have been creating and testing simple circuits. Next week we will learn how to draw circuits using technical diagrams and symbols.

Congratulations to Tristan and Joey for being our People of the Week, demonstrating our school values and to Immy for achieving her 77 Club badge.

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

Miss Randle and Mrs Clary

Ice and Snow

Welcome back everyone! It's been wonderful to see Tregantle Class full of smiles and enthusiasm as we've started the new spring term.

What an interesting week it's been - from icy mornings to stormy afternoons, the weather has certainly kept us on our toes!

Our new topic, 'Ice and Snow,' has been the perfect way to embrace the chilly start to the year. The children have been fascinated exploring how ice is formed - and with the frosty weather at the start of the week, we had the perfect real-life example right outside our classroom! There's been lots of fun and imagination too: we've been playing in our class 'igloo' and creating our very own beautiful paper snowflakes.

We've begun our new story, 'Lost and Found,' which is all about a penguin who becomes lost and the adventure that follows. The children have really enjoyed meeting the characters and sharing their ideas about what might happen next.

It's been a fantastic start to the term - full of curiosity, creativity, and excitement. It's great to be back learning together at school!

Today, our wonderful children at Brunel Primary and Nursery Academy enjoyed a truly inspiring Aspiration Day. We were delighted to welcome a fantastic number of volunteers from our parent body and wider town community into school to share their experiences and talk about their occupations.

The children were engaged, curious, and full of thoughtful questions as they listened to the many different journeys and careers represented.

It was a powerful reminder of how important it is for our pupils to see the wide range of possibilities open to them and to dream big about their futures.

It really was an incredible day, and it would not have been possible without the generosity of time, enthusiasm, and support from our community.

A huge thank you to all the parents, volunteers, and community members who came into school and helped make this day so special for our children.

Happy New Year!

We hope you have had a wonderful Christmas break with your families and friends. We are looking forward to a wonderful Spring Term here at Brunel. 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 53rd edition of our newsletter. We have had a wonderful week back to school which has included our Aspiration Day today.