This week, Storytellers have been busy learning how to keep our teeth strong, clean and healthy. The children explored a special dental role-play area, complete with mirrors, toothbrushes, and friendly storybooks about visiting the dentist. They enjoyed acting out check-ups, talking about what keeps our teeth strong, and learning why brushing twice a day is so important.

 

The highlight of the session was using discolouration tablets. The children were so excited to chew the little pink tablets and see precisely where they needed to brush more carefully. Looking closely in the mirrors, they spotted any tricky areas and worked hard to brush away the pink! This hands-on experience helped them understand why brushing properly is essential for keeping their teeth healthy.

We also spent time studying our teeth in the mirror, talking about the different shapes, how they help us eat crunchy foods, and what happens if we don't look after them.

Everyone was incredibly proud of their clean smiles and even more delighted to take home their brand-new toothbrush to keep practising at home.

A brilliant, bubbly learning experience for our little Storytellers! .

Storytellers have had a wonderfully busy day in nursery, full of baking, creativity and community spirit. The children worked together beautifully, taking turns to mix ingredients, spoon out cake batter and carefully decorate their sweet treats. Our art table was just as lively, with everyone colouring their own Pudsey Bears to help brighten up our nursery stall. When the cakes were ready, the children proudly helped set up the stall and were so excited to "sell" their bakes to families and friends. They showed fantastic confidence, lovely manners and a real sense of teamwork throughout the whole afternoon. We are incredibly proud of our little Storytellers for their hard work, enthusiasm and the joy they brought to our Children in Need fundraising.

Well done, everyone! We raised an amazing £99 as a group effort. 

It's been a busy week in school, filled with meaningful activities and plenty of colour! Thank you for sending your children in for a cosy day today in their PJs, spots, or bright colours. We are delighted to share that we raised £150 for Children in Need. As part of Anti-Bullying Week, pupils took part in thoughtful discussions in both assemblies and classrooms about what bullying means to us and how we can use our "Power for Good" to stand up against bullying, whether face-to-face or online. We were also very proud of the respect the children showed during the two-minute silence on Tuesday at 11am, as well as the interest and maturity they demonstrated during Rev Richard's Remembrance assembly in the afternoon.

Thank you to all the parents and carers who met with their child's teacher this week. It was a valuable opportunity to hear about the progress pupils are making, the learning they are enjoying, and the ways you can support them at home.

We are entering a very busy time of year and here are the dates of upcoming events for your diary. Further details will follow. Dates are also on our online events diary on this website.
• Christmas Gift MUFTI day - Wednesday 3rd December (see details below under Christmas Gift Room)
• Christmas Fair - Friday 5th December FOPS are currently busy organising our Christmas Fair which will be on Friday 5th December starting at 2.00 pm. We would be grateful for donations of raffle prizes, good condition toys to sell and teddies for the teddy tombola.
• Polperro Lights Switch On - Saturday 6th December The children will be making willow lanterns in school, kindly funded by the Polperro Christmas Lights Committee, for the Lantern Parade from the Village Hall (more details to follow).
• CHRISTMAS PERFORMANCES (in the school hall)
Penhallow Class Nativity Play - Tuesday 9th December at 11am and 2.00 pm.
Landaviddy Class Christmas Play - Thursday 11th December at 2.00 pm and 6.00 pm.
Talland Class and Chaipel Class Christmas Play (joint performance) - Monday 15th December at 2.00 pm and 6.00 pm.
• Christmas Jumper Day Thursday 11th December We are holding our Christmas Jumper Day in aid of the charity 'Save The Children' on Thursday 11th December. We ask for a £1.00 donation for this non-uniform day. We will provide opportunities for children to add some sparkle to a plain jumper if they do not already have a Christmas top to wear.
•  Christmas Gift Room On, Wednesday 17th December, during the school morning, Santa's Workshop will be opening its doors for the children to choose a special gift or two for someone they love. Each gift will cost £2 (maximum of 2 gifts per child). Santa's helpful elves will be on hand to wrap the presents, ready to bring home at the end of the day, perfect to pop under your Christmas tree! To help make this possible, we'll be holding a Christmas Mufti Day on Wednesday 3rd December. Children can come to school in their favourite festive clothes in exchange for a donation of new or unused items (2 items if possible). Gift ideas include chocolates, toiletries, socks, notebooks or any small items you'd be happy to receive yourself. (Please no alcohol, thank you!). All profits will go to the school.
• Christmas Lunch Wednesday 17th December The Christmas lunch will be held on Wednesday 17th December this year. The menu will be on Parent Pay shortly, we will advise you when.

Have a lovely weekend. 

Hello Everyone,

This week we have been getting creative in our art lessons, looking at patterns and colours in our Tinga Tinga art and creating our own animals. 

In Geography we have been continuing to learn about the continents of the world and have focussed this week on Europe.

In English, we have finished our unit of work on Little Red Riding Hood, and have created our own innovated versions of the story.

Thank you to those who attended our parent/teacher consultations. It was lovely to find out more about your children, and to share their learning with you.

We hope you have a lovely weekend,

from The Penhallow Team.

Dear all!

We have been very busy as always in Year 3!  

We finished our art project where the children made their own papyrus paper and then designed their own scroll.  This half term as part of DT, they will be designing and making their own sarcophagus!

In English, we have been following the story of Tadeo Jones and the children will be writing their own version this week.


In maths, the children are still working on addition and subtraction!  Please do not forget that for homework, there are assignments set on Mathletics!

For Whole Class Reading lessons, the children have been learning about emotions which ties in nicely with our PSHE unit "families" and how to resolve conflicts!

In French, the children are learning about different flavour ice creams!  They used our Outdoor Orienteering Markers to find the days of the week in French too!

In Geography, the children are learning all about the River Niles and it's features!  They will be writing about the journey of a tiny droplet later this week!


We will begin our Christmas Service practise soon - please watch out for dates of when the service is at the church!

That is all for now!

Mrs Brewer, Mrs Miller and Mr Liddement.

A huge thank you to the large number of our wonderful school community who turned out for the Saltash Town Christmas Light Switch-On on Friday evening.

It was truly incredible to see so many Brunel children looking so smart, festive and full of Christmas spirit!

Our children sang beautifully, filling the town with the sound of Christmas cheer.

Their performances of Silent Night, O Little Town of Bethlehem and The First Noel were absolutely magical and created such a warm, joyful atmosphere.

They represented our school with pride, confidence and kindness throughout and their behaviour was exemplary from start to finish.

We are immensely thankful to every child who came along to perform and to all the families who supported this wonderful community event.

Your presence made the evening even more special, and it was heart-warming to see so many smiling faces joining together to celebrate the beginning of the festive season.

The Christmas period has officially commenced-and what a fantastic way to start!

We're excited to welcome families back for this half term's Parent Cafe at Brunel Primary and Nursery Academy.

It takes place this Tuesday at 9am.

This session will be led by Lucy King from the Cognition and Learning Team, who will be sharing helpful insights and support for our school community. Come along for a warm drink, a friendly chat, and valuable guidance. We can't wait to see you there!

We have had a wonderful week here in Lantic class where we have paid our respects for Remembrance day and created the most beautiful art work to display outside. We were very careful when we made our poppies.

In Maths, we have explored place value and learnt to count to 100! We have been comparing numbers using greater than and less than.

In English, we've been learning about Jack and the beanstalk, creating our own class story version which we rehearsed using actions. We have also been swimming every day this week which has been so wonderful and the children enjoyed this so much. They made so much progress it was amazing to see.

Next week, we will be getting lines sent home for the Christmas Play which is called 'The Fleece Force'. Be ready to receive lots of song lyrics to practise at home! Have a lovely weekend and we will enjoy more fun next week.

Mrs Scott, Mrs Quick and Miss Sleep.

Duckpool Update

What a busy week!

Firstly, it was Anti-Bullying Week, which we introduced with Odd Socks day on Monday to celebrate our differences.

We've commemorated Remembrance Day on Tuesday with a special assembly for everyone in our Brunel Primary community. There were poppies in abundance, which made a truly striking splash of colour on a dull November day.

There was also a cyber security workshop run by the RAF and organised by Miss Henning, which was a huge success.

Wednesday brought more excitement, for a group from our class went to Looe to film for next year's Beyond Paradise Christmas Special. Wow we can't wait to see it!

Then on Friday we supported Children in Need 2025 by collecting all our loose change to donate. Well, Duckpool, what a generous class you are! We were absolutely astounded by the amount collected. Thank you so much to our wonderful, supportive families. During the evening, we met at the Guild Hall for the Christmas Light Switch-on and the early chance to practise some carols. 

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Another busy week in Chaipel! Christmas play preparations are underway and the children have been given their scripts and song words to begin practising. We are going to perform a Polperro Primary favourite: SANTA'S ON STRIKE! Please could you support your child in learning their lines as the performance will definitely be one to remember!!

In Maths this week, Chaipel began the week with learning how to calculate using the long division method - challenging at first, but by Thursday, we were pretty good at it! We ended the week with Shape and are now beginning to confidently use a protractor. This will continue next week, along with probelm-solving using all four operations. 

In English, we have completed our non-fiction, double-page spread on the relationship between the Sun, Earth and Moon and have moved onto immersing ourselves in our next unit - writing a Mayan narrative (with a twist) based on the Maya folktale, THE HERO TWINS! 

In our Wider Curriculum, we have investigated the qualities for a saviour in RE, tinkered with creating a soundtrack in Computing, developed our target skills in Dodgeball and begun to learn about why we need energy in Science.

As part of Anti Bullying Week, Chaipel looked into the importance of using our 'powers for good'; we wore Odd Socks on Monday to celebrate our recognition that everyone is different and unique but equally important.

POLITE REMINDER
Next Thursday is our highly-anticipated school trip to I CAN COCOA in St Ives. We will be leaving school at 8:30am so please could you make sure that children are in school by 8:15am. We will leave St Ives at about 3pm and return to school by approximately 4:30pm. 

Congratulations to Isaac and Tristan for being our People of the Week, demonstrating our school value of 'being curious' when it comes to their learning.

I have attached this half term's homework grid as well as the KIRFs and the Curriculum Spellings that need to be learnt. 

Have a lovely weekend and see you all on Monday!

Miss Randle and Mrs Clary.

This week has flown by in Landaviddy class. Christmas play preparations have begun! All the children were given their parts and scripts on Thursday, and we practised our first rehearsal today. Please make sure you are practising your lines at home as we will be spending time rehearsing over the coming weeks. In PE, we have been enjoying building upon our ball skills in Netball with Mrs Hillman. Finally, during PSHE we have been considering responsible and irresponsible choices, particularly regarding friendships.

During English this week, we designed and described our own Stone Age character ready for our own narratives. We have started to plan our stories and can't wait to start writing these next week. In Maths this week, we have been working hard on column addition and subtraction. All the children have demonstrated excellent determination and all grown in confidence when applying this written method. Next week, we will build on this by learning how to use the method when exchanging.

Please find attached below this half term's Knowledge Web and KIRFS (this will be sent home next week).

Congratulations to Finn and Jemima for being chosen as Landaviddy's People of the Week.

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

Mrs Wilkie, Mrs Lister and Miss Colton

This week in Year 1 has been full of exciting learning across all areas of the curriculum!

In English, the children have been focusing on instructional writing. They have been working hard to write clear, effective opening sentences for instructions, thinking carefully about using bossy (imperative) verbs and ensuring their writing is easy for the reader to follow. The class has enjoyed exploring real-life examples of instructions and discussing what makes them successful.

In Maths, we have been developing our understanding of place value, particularly tens and ones. The children have been using practical resources such as dienes and place value charts to build, partition, and compare numbers. This hands-on approach has helped them deepen their confidence with recognising how numbers are structured.

During PSHE, Year 1 have been looking at differences between people and discussing what makes us all unique. The children have shown great maturity while exploring how differences should be celebrated and how kindness and respect help everyone feel valued in our school community.

In PE, the children have been having lots of fun creating their own firework-themed dance sequences. They have experimented with different movements to represent fireworks-such as spirals, bursts, and fizzing actions-while working both independently and in small groups. Their creativity has really shone through!

The class has also been busy practising their Nativity songs, and their enthusiasm has been wonderful to see. The children are learning the words beautifully and are excited to perform for families very soon.

As part of our History learning, Year 1 have been exploring the timeline of Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot. They have been learning about the key events, why Bonfire Night is celebrated, and how life in the past was different from today.

We also enjoyed singing with Mrs Butlin, where the children joined in with songs and actions, developing their listening and performance skills.

In Art, the children explored texture by creating rubbings using leaves, classroom objects, and textured materials. They experimented with colour and pattern, and produced some fantastic detailed rubbings to share with the class.

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It has been a busy and productive week in Year 1, and we are incredibly proud of everything the children have achieved!

Reception have been busy showing us their fantastic phonics knowledge, completing assessments and also learning about Remembrance Day!

TALLAND'S BLOG 14.11.25

It's been a fun, busy and action packed week in Talland! We've had auditions, scripts have been handed out and we've had art of plenty! 

Here's a break down of our week:

Maths: 
Year 5 have moved onto decimals, where they are continuing to add and subtract. They're now investigating how that works whilst decimals are involved. They have also been calculating angles from a straight line.
Year 4 have also moved onto decimals. They have begun to recognise how decimals are linked to fractions. They have also explored different lines of symmetry.

English:
Talland have been looking at a range of poetry features and they've used these features to plan a poem for Ade Adepitan (a famous Para Olympian basketball player and TV personality). They wrote their poems independently today and they are sounding brilliant!

Art:
Talland have been using a range of crafting tools to calve their chosen animal/minibeast into soap - this was a tricky and long process. It took a tremendous amount of concentration and determination - we had some achy hands by the end. We also created animals out of wire - this was really fiddly. And, finally, today we began looking at how to created bubble writing and then cut them out... the final product will be shared on next weeks blog!

History:
We have begun looking at the end of the Roman Empire, the rise of the Anglo Saxons and the crossing of those vicious Vikings. It's really interesting - I don't know about you - but I love History!

PE:
With Mrs. Hillman, the children have been practicing passing skills within netball. With me, we have jumped into dodgeball. Children were learning how to pass and aim with accuracy... DODGE, DUCK, DIP, DIVE and DODGE!

CONGRATULATIONS to Zach this week for being noticed for his outstanding persistence with his handwriting!

That's all from us in Talland. We hope you have a brilliant weekend!

Signing off from Mr. Langley and Mr. Bishop.

Friday 14th November

Some of this week's wonderful exploration has included:

We have been practicing shoulder, arm, hand and finger strength by doing lots of gross and fine motor skills activities. Having strength is really important to be an amazing writer. So in English this week the children have been showing Mrs Phillips how amazing they are at holding their pencils with the correct tripod grip, we will continue to practice this lots. The children have drawn a picture of The Little Red Hen, in their books and then used oral blending and letter recognition to write a key word like /hen/ or /red/.

On Tuesday we had Remembrance Day, and all our activities were based on the day. We learnt and explored what this day meant, and we all stood to take part in the two-minute silence, which all the children did amazingly well, and it was very moving!

The children have been exploring Anti-Bullying week, we started with odd socks day on Monday and then we explored what bullying means and what we can do to ensure we are kind to others, how we can be good friends and also what to do if we feel we are being bullied.

Today we had a wonderful Children in Need Day and we all looked great in our PJ's. Thank you for all the donations. We explored why we take part in this day, and the children were so kind and thoughtful with their words during our children in need lesson.

We have started to practice our Christmas nativity concert this week, so apologies for the amount of Christmas singing you will be hearing at home over the next few weeks he he! More details about the performances will come out soon.

Have  a lovely weekend

The Foundation Team 

Thank you for your continued support this week and your generosity for providing some loose change for Children in Need today. In addition, thank you to all the parents who joined us for our Remembrance Service on Tuesday; it was brilliant to all come together for this very special date in our country's calendar. Just a gentle reminder that we will be meeting at Saltash Guildhall at 5:15pm tonight for the Christmas Light switch on. We hope as many of our families as possible will be able to join us. In the meantime, please find this week's edition of The Brunel Bulletin.

This week has been another busy one across the school. On Wednesday, Class 4 competed in a netball tournament at Callington College against Calstock, Callington and Stoke Climsland schools. Rather than take a team of experienced players like the other schools, we gave all our children the opportunity to take part in a competitive team sport by fielding three teams. We may not have won the most games but the children were brilliant in their efforts and sporting conduct, which is reflected in the action photos below.


Callington College Transition Visit
To support transition to secondary school, two Callington College staff members visited Class 4 this week to talk about the college and answer children's questions. There will be a further visit in the spring term before Year 6 pupils visits to the college in the summer term.

Children In Need
The non-uniform day today raised £97.62 for the Children In Need appeal. Thank you for your support.

SPACE Parenting Programme
The NHS Mental Health Support Team are running a SPACE programme for parents and carers. Please see the poster below advertising the next session, starting in January 2026.

This programme is designed for parents/carers to better understand and support their children's emotions. The programme will help with understanding and managing emotions, it will offer practical approaches to support children and cover some coping strategies.

Design Technology
I just want to share a few more photos from Class 4 who are designing and making their own soft toys. This week they were learning to use running and cross stitches to add decoration. The children really impressed me with their ability to do this almost entirely independently without adult intervention. This demonstrates a high level of skill which I am sure the children could put to good use darning socks and doing other clothes repairs at home!


Next week we take on blanket stitching and stuffing.

Date Correction
In a change from my last blog post, please note the Christmas performance dates are 9th, 10th and 12th December, not the 11th as stated.