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.

This week at nursery we have continued to find out all about winter and why it is cold. The children have been busy outside exploring ice where they have talked about what they have seen and how the ice felt, using language such as cold, icy, slippery, frozen and melting.
Inside on the tuft tray they have attempted to create there own snowmen and on the funky fingers table have been using tweezers to pick up Pom Poms and placing them in order 1-10.

At storytime the children have enjoyed stories such as “The smiley snowman” and "Guess how much i love you in the winter"
In phonics we have been learning to name different sounds and then try to recall what we have heard. The children have been exploring different sounds during a game of "The vet says" and have used musical instruments to represent animal sounds.

In maths, the children have been demonstrating their counting abilities and representing their numbers by mark making and forming numbers.
We have looked at sizes, big, medium and small and have been sorting and comparing amounts on the maths table.

Have a great weekend

The nursery team

End of week 2

This week we have continued to be explorers!  When we came to school on Monday some of our polar animals had been frozen! we had to work out how to free them and this was great fun. We used pipettes and warm water, and we soon got them out! We also explored painting ice outside it was so much fun! 

In outdoor learning we used a graded paint sheet and explored our natural area to see if we could match natural items to the sheet! 

In English this week Miss Hughes pretended to be a penguin whilst the children thought of brilliant questions to ask the 'penguin'. Once we had lots of questions, we then used different sources such as books, fact files, the internet and nature programs to answer our questions. The children thought of some amazing questions. 

In maths we have been exploring 'one more' the children have had great fun exploring this topic, especially when we played the bus game!! 

We have explored so much this week! 

Year 6 are steaming ahead!

This week, Year 6 worked with Rebecca Catterall, who is the Development Officer for the Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership, in conjunction with the University of Plymouth. We took part in their 'Day Trips to Happiness' project.

We met Rebecca and Sally - with her wonderful pink hair and guitar - at Gunnislake train station and we took the train to Bere Ferrers. When we arrived in Bere Ferrers, we were met by a lovely gentleman named Chris, who owns much of the land down there.

Chris runs a B&B down there and has been collecting train memorabilia for decades! He allowed us to use one of his carriages to do some fun activities; we made 'parcel pets' edible poetry and Sally composed a song for us, which we sang together!

After lunch, Chris showed us the signal box and we all had a go at changing the signals - much strength was needed for this!

At the end of the day, we got the train back to Gunnislake and walked back to school along the back roads, exploring our local neighborhood - Year 6 were an absolute credit to their families and to us. A member of the public, who had been on the train while we were there, made a point of popping in to see Mrs Cox to tell her how wonderful the children had been!

Year 6 crack the code!

Year 6 were fortunate to have a visit from Robert Wiltshire, who is the Youth Programme Coordinator for Tech Cornwall. Mr Wiltshire showed the children how to use the microbits, connected to our Ipads.

We learnt how to write simple codes that would turn on and off various LEDs. We also learnt how to change the colours of the LEDs as well as alter their brightness.

Being able to do this meant that the children could then create patterns and shapes which would change and repeat on the microbits.

If the children want to practise at home and program for free, they can visit:

https://microbit.org/

Microbits can also be borrowed free-of-charge from your local Library.

For information about your nearest Library, please see below:

https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/libraries-museums-and-archives/libraries/

15th January - Welcome back Foundation / Year 1!

Happy New Year! We have had a great start back to school in Foundation/Year 1.

We are focusing on the big question ‘what can I explore today?’ in our curriculum this half term. We have begun our Geography lessons working as explorers and geographers to find human and physical features in our local environment.

We have also started our new English Learning Journey focusing on the book ‘The Emperor’s Egg’ by Martin Jenkins. The children have really enjoyed learning facts about the Emperor Penguins. Our favourite fact is that the Daddy penguin has to look after the egg and keep it warm for two whole months before it hatches! We all agree that this would be a tricky job. We have been developing our English skills by sequencing the story, role playing as penguins and Year 1 have even begun to write a recount of how a baby penguin is born.

In Maths for Year 1, our focus is shape. We have been exploring 2D and 3D shapes and sorting them based on their properties. We have also been making our own 3D shapes using stickle bricks and making 2D shapes using peg boards.
Foundation have been focusing on representing 1,2,3,4 and 5! They have been using five frames to find the numbers and also been practising their number formation.

We are set for a very good term. Well done for a great start Foundation and Year 1.

Foundation/ Year 1 Team

Happy New Year and welcome back after the festive period; it already feels like it happened months ago! This weekly blog post will replace the newsletters, sharing information about all the wonderful learning experienced by the children and highlighting future events.
In addition to my weekly blog, teachers will complete a blog relating to their classes. They will also use these to share relevant class information. Please try to check these blogs once a week but, to begin with, we will email you a notification and link to new posts.

At the end of last term I had hoped to share this image of the Cotehele flower garland but ran out of time. Last year, we worked with Cotehele gardener Hannah Milburn to plant flowers at Harrowbarrow, which were then dried and used by some of our Year 6 pupils to make the amazing garland you see on the left. This was hung in the restaurant at Cotehele over the holiday period.

It was lovely to welcome the children back last week and I have been really impressed by the way they settled seamlessly back into their lessons; perhaps, like me, they needed some order and routine after the festive period. We have a very busy term ahead with some things having already started. This week a Year 3/4 football team played two matches as part of a five week tournament against other schools at Callington College. Despite clawing two goals back to draw level with Bishop Cornish, the team eventually lost the first game 5-2. By the second game, against Copper Valley, they really started to find their feet and managed an excellent 2-2 draw. Well done to Jack, Archie, Spencer, Abigail, Max, Sophia, Seth V and Jacob.

Securing funding for resources that enhance teaching and inspire young people has become increasingly challenging in recent years. However, I am delighted to share some exciting news on successful grant applications that are going to enhance our curriculum offer. Sam Watts, as science and computing lead, has secured funding through the Enthuse Partnership at Cornwall Spaceport for science equipment to support investigations and also funding from our local Community Chest to purchase a class set of programmable Bee-Bots (below) and a Sphero Indi. In addition, Abi Flashman secured support through Tesco's community fund to resurrect the polytunnel after Storm Unis flattened it. There will also be a new forest school storage space and covered area to support our outdoor learning provision.  

We have lots of exciting opportunities to look forward to in the term ahead:

- Class 4 have a Viking day planned with a visiting historian.
- Class 3 are visiting the Immersive Dome in Plymouth.
- Members of the choir will be participating in Songfest.
- Bikeability road safety lessons will be held for older junior children.
- Class 3 are competing in a multi-skills sporting event at Callington College.
- Cross country league races continue for junior children.
- Class 4 and then, after half term, Class 1 will be having gymnastics lessons at Copper Valley Junior School.
- The Lego club will be competing at the First Lego League county final at RNAS Culdrose.
- Class 3 are participating in a Farm & Country day at Cornwall County Showground.

There will be other activities shared as plans are finalised but it will, as always, be a busy and exciting term.

Finally, I would like to share an exciting accolade secured by Rachel Lane, our music lead. Harrowbarrow Primary Academy has secured a Music Mark accreditation. This recognises all the high quality music education at Harrowbarrow, including weekly lessons, singing and instrument clubs, peripatetic music lessons and performance opportunities. Well done to Rachel. 

Happy New Year and welcome back to school!

It was lovely to see the children back to school today, refreshed and ready to learn.
Please see the newsletter attached to find out what we will be learning about this half term.

We really enjoyed December for many reasons but mainly due to performing our play 'Christmas with the Aliens'.
It was hard work and we needed to practise lots but it was a really spectacular performance enjoyed by many of our families and friends.
It built up our confidence with speaking in front of an audience and despite some nerves, we totally smashed it!

In Science we carried on learning about habitats and learnt about the creatures that live in polar and desert habitats.

In literacy we were learning the story 'The Elves and the Shoemaker'. We really enjoyed writing about what our naughty elves had been up to in school and at home. 

Finally, as a Christmas treat, we had our annual trip to the theatre to watch Raymond Briggs 'Father Christmas'.
Some of us had never been to the theatre before and it was a wonderful, magical experience. We even had snow!

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and look forward to seeing you all again in 2025!

November was another busy month!

Our new question was 'What festivals happen around the world in the Autumn?'
We have located different countries and continents on the map and had great fun exploring atlases and maps.

We learnt about Diwali and how this is celebrated in many countries. We linked this to our healthy eating in DT and made mango lassi. We really enjoyed making and tasting this!

We also learnt about the Gunpowder Plot and discussed how it is celebrated in the UK. We made some great firework pictures on the I-Pads learning how to select different colours and different sized brushes.

In Science we started to explore different habitats. We learnt about oceans and rainforests and thought about how the creatures that live there adapt to living in that environment.

We also completed a local history project which helped us to find out why we decided to change our name to Copper Valley Academy.
We explored maps of the local area and looked at pictures of locals towns and villages that we know, mainly those linked to copper mining.
We created some amazing watercolour paintings of these places.

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2024

We had a really busy half term learning about rocks and soils in science, volcanoes and other natural disasters in geography, learning how to design, make and evaluate lanterns in DT, the Holy Trinity in RE, how to name some verbs in French and write reports on volcanoes based on the book Escape from Pompeii...phew time for a couple of weeks' rest!