Welcome back.

Well, the last few weeks have certainly seen a lot of changes: the whole country is socially distancing, children are temporarily no longer in school, daily learning takes place at home, the clocks have gone forward, the evenings are lighter and thankfully the sun has been shining.

This has not been the usual Easter break and return to the summer term! But here we are welcoming you back to the new term, with you all based at home. For us, this feels extremely strange. We miss the children immensely and also our daily interactions with all of you.

We hope you have been able to enjoy Easter and a little bit of chocolate! I know I am going to need to get back into my daily PE session with Joe Wicks to burn off some of my treats!

As teachers, we are still learning and developing our new way of supporting your child’s learning. Your child’s class page has this week’s learning suggestions ready for you. We’ve already loved receiving some of your emails where you have shared your learning at home and sometimes sent us photos. 

Over the next few weeks the best advice we can give is do not put too much pressure on yourselves as parents. Like many of you I have faced this new challenge of supporting my child’s learning at home, working from home and still being at school, carrying out the usual household chores, responding to the demands of a nearly 2-year-old and trying to put this whole surreal situation into perspective. A mammoth task for anyone! I have certainly not mastered it yet! So, in this unprecedented time we advise you to just do your best. Find a routine that suits your family and also the needs of your child. 

It is a good idea to establish a good routine and a level of structure to your child’s day, without being too regimented. Include plenty of opportunity for exercise, free play and curiosity. Plan together how it will go and agree your time schedule and work expectation. As best as you can allow them to have fun with what they do/learn. I have seen so many fun and positive outlooks on how we can spend our time during this awful situation and I would love our children to have some fun and positivity amidst this worrying time.

The teachers have provided opportunities to develop maths, English and topic work skills and we encourage you to follow your own curiosities too. The teachers tell me they have been developing and refining their own skills in things like cooking, gardening and learning more about things they are interested it. For children these are fantastic life skills too, so share your interests and learn something new together.

Head teacher’s challenge:

Each week I will ask a simple question, provide a riddle or brain teaser for you all (children/parent teams). All you need to do is decide the answer and write it down. I will then look forward to receiving all of your answers in person when school returns to normal! There will only be one per week so, write the answer down on a piece of paper and keep them safe. 

I will try to start nice and simply and then hopefully get you all thinking! I like the idea of providing a short and simple conversational starter.

Here goes:

14.04.20 

Question 1~ In the Springtime, what bell can’t you hear ringing in the countryside?

I’ll make sure I have some prizes ready for the correct answers. It’s not compulsory, just a bit of fun.

I have already learnt the harsh lesson of never taking anything for granted and I am so appreciative of some of the smallest things in life. This picture below was created recently by one of my 6 year old pupils. It’s a beautiful watercolour. Quite simply it brightened my day. Hope it brightens yours too.

29th October 2019.
The children were shocked when they entered the classroom and realised that it had been transformed into a rainforest! Giant spiders watch down on the learning in the class and vines hang from the walls. 

The children really enjoyed the first day back after half term, where they were immersed in learning what it might be like in the rainforest.

There was great excitement throughout the school when the Library Van arrived! 

We are so keen to develop a love of reading, so were thrilled at the arrival of the library van and the prospect of new books on our shelves. Groups of children went out to the van to choose some new books for our school library. We returned old books and excitedly filled our shelves with new ones.
 

We can’t wait to get reading them.

We’re going on a Bunny Hunt!!!!

Volunteers working on the Looe Live Community Zone are raising funds for a new Looe Live Community Chest to help support local groups, organisations and events that improve community life and good causes in Looe. Funds raised would be ring fenced to support the future of the Community Zone as part of the Looe Live Festival, but also provide a fund to support other community events and activities throughout the year, that will enhance the town socially, environmentally and culturally.

Not sure what to do with the children over the Easter holidays??? Let them join in the fun of trying to find the little gold bunnies that have been hidden around Looe in participating shop windows.

There are 20 gold bunnies to find, 5 in shop windows in West Looe, and 15 in East Looe. Each participating business will also have a poster in their window.

Entry forms are on sale at the Looe Tourist Information Centre from April 1^st from 10.00 – 15.00 Mon - Fri at £1.00 per sheet. Once the sheet is completed, please return to the TIC with a contact name and phone number on the reverse.

Prizes for three lucky winners returning their correct forms by Friday 19th April. The winner will be announced on Easter Sunday on East Looe Seafront following the Beach Easter Egg Hunt.

We hope you will enjoy the hunt and appreciate your support.

There will be a gold bunny on display in the Tourist Information Centre so that the children will know what they look like!! GOOD LUCK!!!

What a fantastic first day back at school! Both schools joined together to enjoy a day centred around the story of Cinderella. The day began with storytelling in the hall, where each of the teachers had a role to play! The children thought this was hilarious. We certainly have some talented actors amongst our teaching staff!

The day continued with a range of activities to inspire the children to write their own stories later in the week. Collaboratively, the Reception and KS1 children looked at alternative versions of the story and generated a range of vocabulary to describe the thoughts and feelings of the characters. The KS2 children focused on story structure and language. Everyone had a great day and really benefited from working together.

We finished the day with a sharing assembly so that the children could explain to the rest of the school what they had been learning about. I was so impressed with the range of vocabulary they generated and explored. I can't wait to read their own stories.