Head's Blog

This afternoon, we had a visit from RNLI to share the work the institution does and how the children can keep themselves safe in and around the water. The children showed keen interest and asked some brilliant questions, chipping in with their knowledge of the local area and learning from previous visits from the Harbour Master and Morwagh.

Both classes have been out and abut in the village, Canute class to look at plants in the National Trust Field for their science lessons and Tregeagle class for Geographical field work to sketch maps of the local area.

Next week, Canute are off to visit Nancarrow Farm on Tuesday. We look forward to hearing all about their trip.

Have a lovely weekend, Mrs W

Penultimate week of spring term

It has been a busy week across the school, with lots of enhanced learning experiences both inside and out of school, I think Tregeagle class have spent more time learning away from their classroom than in it this week. It is great to be able to enhance learning with offsite experiences. This does require added planning and preparation for the staff involved but the benefits to the children far outweigh this and the children’s enthusiasm and pleasure of these experiences more than makes up for it.

Head over to the class pages to read about your child’s week in their class.

Next week is our final week of the Spring term. We will finish the term with the Easter service at St Savour’s at 12:30pm. We hope that many of you can join us for some Easter stories and singing. As this is the final day of term, we will finish at 1:30pm.

World Book Day

Great seeing the children arriving this morning in a variety of fantastic costumes ready to celebrate World Book Day. We started the day with an assembly, sharing favorite books, characters and finding out what a reader is - it turns out we are all readers!
Canute class joined Kael Tudor and Nicola Slater talking about their book One Goose Two Moose and learning how to draw the characters. In Tregeagle class, we joined the BBC live lesson to help make book suggestions for a pop-up library. We also managed to read 3 chapters of our class read: Bill's New frock by Anne Fine

Reading for pleasure is high on our list of priorities at school and with events like World Book Day, we have the perfect excuse to celebrate books and reading. I think our Borrow Box library subscription will be busy tonight with children finding their new best read inspired by today's events.

Mother's Day Service

We had a lovely afternoon in St Saviour's celebrating people who are special to us. Lots of preparation; practicing songs and poems and Open the Book team arriving in school this morning with flowers and greenery for the children to make posies meant we were set and ready to celebrate in style. The children sang their anthems supported skillfully by Mrs Butlin, read their poems aloud with clear voices and dictation and finally shared their posies with their special person. Just one of those moments that are so special to share with the children in primary school.

Easter is here

We have arrived at the end of a very busy term, upholding the tradition of Spring term being one of the busier terms of the year. This year however, I think Summer term might take the top spot.

Since the beginning of the school year, we have been working with the Fowey Port User Group to find ways of working together to encourage young people and children in our local area to get in and on the water. So far, we have welcomed The Harbour Master, Captain Paul Thomas, into school to talk to the children about what happens on our river and lifting the lid on how to run a working port. In addition, we had the crew from Morvargh spend a morning with us to share their experiences, discuss water safety and study at sea charts in and around our local area.

Behind the scenes, Mrs Hughes has been busy creating a 6-week water sports programme for Tregeagle class working with Fowey Harbour Commissioners, Fowey Gallants Sailing Club and Paddle Cornwall. In these sessions, 7- to 11-year-olds will start to build knowledge and understanding of water safety, specifically on and around our river. They will have the opportunity to take part in Paddleboarding, Kayaking, Sailing and Motorboating. As always when we are looking at providing extracurricular activities to the children, we reach out to our amazingly generous community and yet again we have been able to secure funding to dismantle any potential barriers so all the children in KS2 can have this fantastic experience.

We are incredibly grateful to:

Polruan Regatta Committee
The Nathaniel Symington Trust
The Polruan Ferry for transport

Thank you for all you are doing to ensure the children are given the very best opportunities to thrive in their environment.

Going forward, we plan to provide this as an annual offer to our Key Stage 2 class, something we are working with Fowey Harbour Commissioners to hopefully facilitate. Ideally, we would like to offer river-based opportunities to all children throughout the school so we are looking at ways to include the younger children going forward.

Tuesday was one very special day for the children in Canute class as they received a letter from Kensington Palace from The Prince and Princess of Wales. Before Christmas, the children wrote letters to the Prince and Princess telling them about life and learning in Polruan Primary Academy, walked to the post office to buy stamps and posted the letters in the postbox on the quay. The children were beyond proud to receive the royal letter and we have given it pride of place in the entrance hall of the school.

Achievement Assembly

Mathematician of the week:

Rylie for showing independence and resilience

Robbie for brilliant understanding of multiplication and division

Stars of the Week:

Liam for being a fantastic role model to younger pupils

Mya for her increased confidence to speak out in class

We finished the Spring term with the Easter service at St Saviour’s - thank you to those of you who braved the weather to join us.

We return to school after the Easter break on Monday 15th April.

Hope you have a lovely Easter break in our special corner of Cornwall.

Jane Wills

It has been a whirlwind of a short half term characterised by snow, rain and wind outside and lots of learning inside the building. Spring term is usually one of our most productive terms, with the children well settled in their classes, and this first half term has been no exception.

On Tuesday, we joined the rest of the country in celebrating Safer Internet Day with a shared assembly and different activities in class to support the children safely navigating the ever-changing landscape of the our online world. If you have any concerns or questions about internet safety, please contact school as we acess to a wealth of guidance to support different aspects of online safety.

Canute class went to visit one of the the local shops to find out more about which skills and knowledge is needed to run a shop. The enjoyed finding out how their maths skills are useful outside the classroom and on their return to class, set about creating jam sandwiches with their bought ingredients.

For Tregeagle class, swimming starts again on Wednesday 21st February. Mrs Hughes has sent out reminders about kit, timings and logistics today. Please make sure you let us know if you need support with this.

We will be holding Parent Consultations in the week commencing 26th February, boking forms will be sent home in the week after half term. We are continuing with face to face meetings so you have the chance to se your child’s work in discussion with their teacher.

After half term, it will be Canute’s turn to work with our Mental Health Practitioner o learn all about managing emotions and feelings through the Decider Skills. This will help develop a shared language to use across the school for children and staff to support strategies for managing “The Fizz”.

A huge THANK YOU to Christine for filling our planters with colourful plants which make us all smile whenever we round the corner.

We finished half term with a visit from Reverend Richard, who taught us how to make pancakes for Pancake day and the significance of Shrove Tuesday in the Christian calendar.

Achievement Assembly
Writer of the Week:
Tegan for accepting the challenge to write with Liam and producing some fantastic work to show her understanding of the power of words.
Robbie for taking time and care using all the learning in her independent writing.

Stars of the Week:
Ailla for showing responsibility in her interactions with peers
Indi for taking responsibility and showing great independence

I hope you all have a welcome break and we look forward to welcoming the children back to school on Monday 19th February at 8:45am.

Performances

The building is bursting with learning and it is a real pleasure to see how the children are embracing this with enthusiasm and positive attitudes. We are fortunate enough to have the excellent Mrs Butlin back with us for this term and the children are absolutely delighted with learning how to read musical notation to play glockenspiels. It makes for a bustling afternoon with excitement, dedication and noise, which cannot always be classed as musical, however all children are learning new skills, applying prior knowledge and they are thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to play an instrument.

Theatre Trip
On Thursday we had our trip to watch Aladdin the Musical at Theatre Royal in Plymouth courtesy of the Regatta Committee. What a performance this was! The children were transfixed. They were bowled over with the acting, singing, dancing, staging and the fantastic special effects, we are still pondering how the carpet was able to fly. For many of the children this was their first visit to the theatre, but probably not the last as they could not believe that this was real time and not a recorded film. Aside from the obvious links with music and preparing Christmas plays and performances, many of the children were inspired by how their learning in DT links with jobs in a theatre.

A HUGE THANK YOU to the Regatta Committee members who organised the trip and joined us for a very memorable experience. We looked up the stats on the show worldwide and the children are delighted to know that they are now part of the 15 million world wide audience - a lovely connection with the wider world.

Enjoy the weekend,
Jane Wills

January 2024

It has been a busy return to school following the Christmas break with lots of exciting learning opportunities for all the children.

Theatre trip
You should all have received your letter regarding the whole school trip to the theatre courtesy of the Regatta Committee on Thursday 18th January. This promises to be a super afternoon giving the children the opportunity to enjoy music and acting first hand. Please ensure you have completed the consent form and returned these to school by Monday 15th. You will need to make arrangements to collect your child from the carpark at the top of the village as the coach cannot drive down to the school. We anticipate the return to be at 6pm. If you have any questions, please contact Mrs Hughes.

Parent Pay
We seem to have an increasing number of children whose lunches have NOT been ordered on Parent Pay. The system was set up to help the kitchen become more efficient with food ordering and make the start of the day easier in the classrooms. This is relevant for children paying and who receive Free School Meals. If you have forgotten how to order please see the document sent in today's email.

Attendance
Our whole school attendance is currently 95.2% which is slightly above National. This is a positive start to the new year and we would like this trend to continue. From the leaflet we sent home before Christmas, you will be aware of our expectations for attendance and how attendance is directly linked to academic achievements. Please continue to refer to the guides provided to support your decision making regarding any absences and always contact the school if you are in doubt whether to send your child to school or not.

Early finish
We are proposing a change to the timings on the last day of term. From spring term, the final day of term will end at 1:30pm. So this term will end on Thursday 28th March at 1:30pm. The early finish time only applies to the final day of term, not half termly. Final day of this half term is Thursday 8th Febrary as Friday 9th is a teacher training day. We return to school following the half term break on Monday 19th February.

Spring term promises to be a busy, interesting term bursting with learning experiences. Please make sure you stay updated by checking your emails and logging in to the school website for class blogs and updates.

Kindest regards,
Jane Wills

Christmas Delights

Performances
It was a real pleasure to see so many of you for our Christmas plays in the village hall. The children were amazing as always and I am sure you will agree that we have quite a few very accomplished performers in school. Standing on a stage in front of lots of people can be scary and exhilarating in equal measure, it creates a sense of occasion, and it is a very valuable experience for the children to have. What a group of confident children we have in our school!

Staffing
At the end of term, we say farewell to Mrs Chasey. She will be missed by children and staff but we do understand that she needs more time to complete her house build. We will say goodbye with a special assembly on Friday morning and happy wishes for the future. In January, we welcome Mrs Louise Westacott, our new Canute class teacher, who will share the week with Mrs Fernie and be supported by Miss Taylor and Miss Talbot.

Fundraising
A huge Thank You to our fundraising team for organising refreshments, the sale of children’s Christmas decorations, a Christmas raffle and the very popular Gift room for the children. Their effort has raised an incredible £251. We extend our thanks to our generous local community for donations and supporting our Christmas events.

Theatre Trip
This year, we have joined forces with the Regatta Committee for their annual theatre trip for the children in the village. We will travel to Theatre Royal in Plymouth for the matinee performance at 2pm to watch the musical Aladdin on Thursday 18th January. More details to follow in the new Year.

Online Safety
Link to December Newsletter for useful parental guidance and tips for setting up new devices using privacy settings, navigating social media safely and reducing risks with online activities.

Achievement Assembly
Writer of the Week
Tegan for positive responses to feedback and making improvements to constantly uplevel her work.
Emmy for super use of Grandma Fantastic Vocabulary in her writing

Stars of the Week
Everyone for their fantastically confident performance.

Photos from the performances below.

Jane Wills
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Image Gallery

Documents

Fire station with Blisland School
On Monday, Canute class visited Polruan Firestation to find out more about the fire service and how fire engines work. This was another opportunity for the children to get together with Kensa Class from Blisland and reciprocate the visit Canute made to Blisland a few weeks ago. The children enjoyed showing the visitors around school and happily shared their space and resources for the reminder of the day.

Printing with Ellie Russell Hsieh
Tuesday was a special day for Tregeagle class as they hosted a visit from local print maker, Ellie Russell Hsieh organised by Mrs Phillips. The children spent a fantastic day learning about mono and block printing and have produced some beautiful prints inspired by their PE themed dance – “The Little Matchstick Girl” - Thank you to Ellie for sharing her expertise, passion and insight.

Snow!
Unexpectedly, we found the school covered in snow on Thursday - much to the delight of the children. For those children who were able to join us for the morning, it was a cold but fun start to the day with lots of rolling around, making snow angels and sliding across the playground. Good job we have lots of spare clothes and warm radiators.

Time 2 Move - Keeping active over Christmas
The Time2Move Holiday Programme for Christmas 2023 is now live. The programme offers fun physical activities, games and wider activities plus a funded meal for every child. All children are welcome to attend, and it is completely funded for children that are eligible for benefits-related Free School Meals. As a parent or guardian of a child eligible for benefits related free school meals you will need your child’s unique code in order to access the activities for free. You can access your child’s code quickly and easily at: www.cornwall.gov.uk/time2move Once you have this code you can search and book on activities here: www.activecornwall.org/T2MHolidayProgramme

Christmas Jumper Day
On 7th December, Christmas Jumper Day, children can come in wearing a Christmas jumper instead of their school jumper with their school uniform.

Photos
Reminder to order individual photos, last day for free delivery is 4.12.23.

Achievement Assembly
Mathematician of the Week
Jakson for resilience and stamina when things get tough
Ronnie for persevering in his learning exploration to find 6 different ways of making 10.

Stars of the Week
Antonia for her kindness, friendly nature and always smiling.
Irina for her kindness, positive attitude and supportive nature.

Have a lovely weekend,
Mrs Wills