We are loving the weather at the moment so we took the opportunity to go for an Autumn walk around the school grounds.

We looked at the fallen leaves, talked about where sticks came from; we heard birds, a trumpet playing and motorbikes; we saw bunting around the trees and named a Holly bush.

We also played a running game called 'Come and find me' - the children had to run around and then when she called, they had to find Ruth.
We all had lots of fun!

There were some gardening jobs to do in the garden too, as we planted our apple tree and some Spring bulbs.
Can you remember what bulbs we planted?

We have had another fantastic week of learning, and the children have continued to be enthusiastic, curious and engaged across all areas of the curriculum. It has been lovely to see them developing their knowledge and skills while also having lots of fun along the way.

In Maths, we have been learning about more than and less than, comparing numbers and thinking carefully about their value. We have also been developing our estimating skills by placing numbers on a number line. The children have enjoyed making sensible estimates and discussing how they know where a number might belong.

In English, we have been learning about irregular verbs and exploring how actions can be described using different verbs. The children have been enjoying identifying verbs and thinking about how they can use them to make their writing more interesting and descriptive.

In History, we have been learning about the famous Wright brothers and their pioneering achievements in flight. The children researched and wrote some interesting facts about them and enjoyed finding out more about how their ideas and inventions helped to change the way we travel.

In Science, we have been learning about our five senses and how they help us to understand and explore the world around us. The children have enjoyed thinking about what we can see, hear, smell, taste and touch, and discussing which parts of our bodies help us to use each sense.

In PE, we have continued to develop our ball skills, practising different ways of controlling, throwing and moving with a ball. During our Kixx sessions, the children particularly enjoyed the challenge of protecting their castles! There was lots of energy, teamwork and enthusiasm as they worked together and developed their football skills.

Forest School was another highlight of the week. The children worked together to collect natural resources and then used them to create a giant bug hotel. They showed fantastic teamwork and creativity and were very excited to think about which minibeasts might choose to make our bug hotel their new home.

In PSHE, we have been talking about what it means to be responsible and kind. We have explored the idea that our choices and actions can have consequences, both for ourselves and for others. The children have enjoyed sharing their ideas and discussing how we can make positive choices and show kindness to the people around us.

We have also had a very exciting visit from athlete Oli Adams, which the children absolutely loved. His visit inspired lots of enthusiasm, and we certainly seem to have some very keen surfers in the making! It was wonderful to see the children so excited and engaged as they listened to his experiences and learned more about sport.

It has been a busy and enjoyable week, and we are incredibly proud of the children's enthusiasm, curiosity and willingness to have a go. Well done, everyone, for another brilliant week of learning!

What a wonderful week which has been significantly drier than last week. The children have been amazingly patient this week with the changes in staff due to illness. I have had the pleasure of hearing all about our wonderful, hardworking children and what they have been getting up to in school.

In Maths, we are almost at the end of our Place Value unit. We have one more week before we move on to Addition and Subtraction.

This week, the Year 3 children have been estimating numbers on a number line up to 1,000, comparing and ordering numbers to 1,000, and counting in 50s.

In Year 2, the focus has been on using number lines to count in 1s and 10s to 100, estimating numbers on a number line and comparing objects.

In English, we have continued with our grammar focus. We have been identifying the subject in a sentence and looking at single and independent clauses.

We have found some of this quite tricky, but we have persevered and are looking forward to starting a new topic next week.

Our Science learning has focused on animal life cycles. We explored what a life cycle is, looked at the life cycles of different animals and worked together to put the different stages in the correct order.

In Computing, we have been identifying computers around our school as well as in our homes. We have discussed what makes a computer a computer and compared different types of computers.

We have also learnt that some computers use batteries while others need to be plugged into electricity, but they all need some form of energy input from one of these sources.

A huge well done to Kayden and Jack, who were chosen as our Pupils of the Week!

This week's value was being responsible. Kayden has shown real responsibility in his learning this week. He always tries his very best in every lesson and is not afraid to ask for help when he needs it.

Jack was chosen by Mrs Rowe, who has been so impressed with how well Jack has got on with his work this week.

Well done to you both! 

A big well done to Emily and Jack, who were awarded their badges for the 99 Club this week. What a fantastic achievement!

Well done to everyone this week. There were so many children showing our school values and working incredibly hard that we could have chosen more than one Pupil of the Week!

Have a lovely weekend, everyone! 

The children have been amazing in the way they have already thrown themselves into their new routines and learning this year. Our class enquiries this half term are: ‘What Makes me Me?’ Penhallow Class; ‘What Makes our World go Round?’ Landaviddy Class; ‘Why do we Age’ Talland Class and ‘How Does my Body Work?’ Chaipel Class. Please look at the class blogs on the school website to see how the children’s learning is going.

Clubs have started well with running club, football club and gardening club underway. Gardening Club spent time this week looking at the new greenhouse and harvesting potatoes (see photo) which our school cook, Teresa, made into a delicious potato salad for lunch the following day.  Girls' Football club begins on Tuesday.

School Council Our School Council is a group of dedicated and passionate pupils who are committed to making our school a better place for everyone. School Council members are elected by their peers in our School Council elections which we hold every September. Well done to everyone who put themselves forward and to those who have been elected this year: Renley (Chair), Amelia E, Max B, Oliver, Iylah, Kara, Freya, Bella and Luke and to Flora and Ronnie who have been chosen as School Council members for pupil voice for PE and Sport. Information about our School Council can be found on this website under the ‘Our Children’ tab.

Planet Protectors The Planet Protectors are a passionate school group dedicated to helping stop climate change by promoting sustainability and environmental awareness within our school community. They meet half termly and will be helping us take action through projects like recycling, energy-saving campaigns, and eco-friendly initiatives, aiming to reduce the school’s carbon footprint. Well done to Hugh, April, Ella, Falcon, Emma, Anya, Amber, Arnie, Zach, Heidi, Max B, Amelia E and Renley who will be our Planet Protectors this year, reporting back to their classmates and leading by example to inspire pupils and staff to make greener choices and take part in protecting the planet for future generations.

Water Bottles As a Heathy School and a Sugar Smart school we encourage children to drink water throughout their day at school, rather than juice or squash. We would prefer that your child’s water bottle contains water only, to encourage healthy habits. This also helps us when there is a spill as water doesn’t stain! If there is a reason why your child cannot drink water, please let you child’s teacher know. Please note that this applies to their classroom drinks and not to their lunchtime drinks.

Have a good weekend.

Anthea Hillman

  This week at Storytellers, we have been learning more about our bodies, with a special focus on our teeth.

 The children have enjoyed exploring books and stories about teeth and talking about why it is important to look after them. We have also introduced new toothbrushes and practised brushing our teeth, learning how to brush carefully and keep our smiles healthy.

 Our role-play area has been a particular favourite, giving the children opportunities to act out visits to the dentist, take on different roles and talk about what happens when we visit the dentist.

 Through stories, discussion, role play and hands-on activities, the children have been developing their understanding of healthy choices while building confidence and independence in caring for themselves.

This week we have been exploring homes and pets. The children have been talking about where they live and about any pets they have at home or would like.
They have been busy making paper plate animals, fork print cats and they have created houses out of different shapes whilst been encouraged to recognise and name these shapes.

At story time this week we have enjoyed reading "Pig the Pug" and "It Wasn't Me".

At phonics the children have been listening to different sounds in their environment and trying to identify and name them. They have used their bodies to make different sounds
and tried hard to recognise initial sounds of words in a game of "Silly Socks".
 
In maths we have been been exploring and building with shapes and objects, completing inset puzzles and finding numbers in everyday life.

Have a good weekend

Julie and Sarah

.

Thank you to everyone who came in to visit during Art this week!  The children have moved on to the next lesson of creating paints using natural resources.  They picked berries, leaves, dandelions, soil, sand, grass and flowers to grind down, add water and paint onto paper.  They really enjoyed this!

Our history lessons have been focusing on what the word "Prehistoric" means and created a timeline that was presented on the playground!

In PE, hockey is going well and the children learned how to "push" and pass the ball safely.  In PSHE, the children brainstormed ideas of what a "Dream School" might look like! They decided that a dream school would be everyone being nice to one another!

We are all looking forward to the Festival of Words trip on Monday! 

What another busy and brilliant week it has been at Brunel! 

It has been wonderful to see so many exciting learning opportunities taking place across the school and our children continuing to show such enthusiasm, curiosity and determination in everything they do.

Our after-school clubs are now well underway, and we are incredibly proud of the range of opportunities available to our children. There are still spaces available in a number of clubs, so please do take a look and consider signing your child up. Clubs are a fantastic opportunity for children to try something new, develop their talents and spend time with friends.

A huge thank you to our staff who voluntarily give their time to run these clubs. Their willingness to provide these additional opportunities is just one of the many things that makes Brunel such a special school.

Our Helping Hands group has also been very busy this week! They have worked together to create a wonderful new Little Engineers Shed for our youngest children to enjoy during their lunchtimes. We cannot wait to see the imaginative building, designing and problem-solving that takes place there. Thank you to everyone involved in bringing another fantastic addition to our school grounds to life.

We were also delighted to hold the first Lighthouse Room Parent Café this week. It was a really positive opportunity for parents to come together, find out more about the support available through our Lighthouse Room and talk with members of our team.

Thank you to everyone who joined us. Finally, a reminder that our Reading Café takes place next Thursday, 1st October, straight after school. We would love to see as many of our families there as possible.

Come along, enjoy some time together and help us celebrate something that sits right at the heart of learning at Brunel – a love of reading!

Thank you, as always, for your continued support. We hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Degemer An Jydh – Seize the Day!

Another busy week of learning...

This week, the Yr5s and 6s have been learning about speech within texts. We have been practising coming up with our own direct speech, punctuating it accurately as well as adding action and emotion. This will help them to then insert dialogue into their own consequence story, inspired by the novel Letters from the Lighthouse.

Within maths, we are continuing to work through our Place Value unit which includes understanding the value of number, ordering and comparing number. Their books are looking beautiful - they are taking real pride in setting out their work correctly and explaining their reasoning in detail.

Friday 25th September

Rame Class continue to be amazing!

Some of this week’s learning:

This week in phonics we learnt the phonemes   i/n/m/d. We have really been practicing using the sounds we know to ‘robot talk, read the word- blending the sounds to read the word.  Only three weeks in their new school and they are achieving so much.

Continuing with our big question, this week we have been exploring what we like and what we dislike. We have explored how we grow and have ordered pictures from babies to the elderly. We have been outside exploring the bricks and trying to make massive, big, humongous houses!! The children used these amazing words!

We have started Mastering Number( our new maths journey) this week and the children have adapted to the formal lessons well. They have ‘blown’ Mrs Phillips’ socks off with their knowledge! Number blocks 1, 2 and 3 kept setting the children subitising challenges and they beat those challenges every single time! (Subitising is knowing an amount without counting).

Today we had bucket time, and we explored conkers in their shells, the children used wonderful vocabulary to describe the conkers, the adults then opened the shells to explore inside. We will use the conkers next week in our learning!

This is only a small fraction of what the children have been doing, and they continue to impress us every day!

Rame Class is the best!!

Have a lovely weekend

The Foundation Team 

Another busy week of learning...

This week, the Yr5s and 6s have been learning about speech within texts. We have been practising coming up with our own direct speech, punctuating it accurately as well as adding action and emotion. This will help them to then insert dialogue into their own consequence story, inspired by the novel Letters from the Lighthouse.

Within maths, we are continuing to work through our Place Value unit which includes understanding the value of number, ordering and comparing number. Their books are looking beautiful - they are taking real pride in setting out their work correctly and explaining their reasoning in detail.

Week 3 in Whitsand!

Our Year 1 children have been amazing mathematicians this week as we've been exploring greater than and less than. We made our own Numbergators using card and split pins, and the children loved using their hungry crocodiles to work out which numbers were bigger and smaller. They showed great confidence explaining their mathematical thinking.

In Science, we became investigators and carried out an experiment to discover which materials are the stretchiest. We tested a variety of different materials and found that rubber bands stretched much more than anything else. We also discovered that felt was one of the least stretchy materials, and the children enjoyed making predictions before testing each one.

Our History lesson sparked some wonderful conversations as we shared the fantastic feedback from parents about how school has changed since they were at primary school. The children were fascinated to hear about the differences and similarities, and they loved comparing school life then and now.

We're so proud of all the enthusiasm, curiosity and teamwork the children have shown this week. Well done, Whitsand Class – keep up the amazing work!

Autumn

We have had another busy and productive week of learning across the curriculum.

DT
The children have continued their exciting Viking longship project. They have been working incredibly hard to create each individual component that will eventually be assembled into a complete longship. So far, they have designed and created sails, carefully mixed paints to match the appearance of timber for the planks, and used saws safely and responsibly to cut out templates for the decks and masts. The children have also been studying authentic Viking designs to create historically accurate shields. Over the coming week, they will begin crafting the dragon heads that will complete their impressive models.

English
We have been exploring different ways to add detail and depth to our descriptions. Through grammar activities, vocabulary choices and varied sentence structures, the children have been developing their writing skills and learning how authors create vivid images for their readers.

Maths 
The class is completing the final stages of our place value unit. The children have worked hard to strengthen their understanding of number and will soon be using these skills to support their learning in our upcoming addition and subtraction units.

Art
Our new whole school creative sessions with Mrs Fernie and Mrs Hughes have focused on self-portraits. The children have been experimenting with different artistic techniques and considering how they can express their own characteristics and personalities through their artwork.

French
We have been revisiting key vocabulary, including the days of the week, colours and numbers to remind ourselves that we can speak French! This recap work will provide a strong foundation as we move on to more focused learning, tailored to where each child is currently in their language development.

PE
In our two weekly sessions, we have been developing our skills in tag rugby and a variety of ball games. We have been fortunate enough to have both PE sessions outdoors so far this term, and we hope the favourable weather continues so that we can make the most of our outdoor learning opportunities.

Working around lessons this week, I have been impressed by the level of effort from the children. This is only the third week back, but already we are seeing a high level of learning and some strong outcomes. As ever, it is great to be able to share some of this with our school community.

Art
Class 4 have been using a map as a background to sketch work. The focus has been on using soft B pencils to draw strong lines that dominate the page, distracting the viewer from the background. I think these dragon images certainly draw attention away from the maps behind.




Class 3 continue to use charcoal this week. After studying ancient cave paintings, the children created their own through different types of hand prints.
 

Writing
Both junior classes have been doing some paired writing this week. In Class 4, partners Jack and Anoud wrote this paragraph in the form of a non-chronological report about an outlaw:

In the heart of Sherwood Forest, lived Robin Hood, a selfless outlaw during the 1600. For years, his generosity to the poor was immaculate; he could steal from the noble for the unwanted. Since Robin was a kind hearted man, he was hated by the heartless sheriff of the state. He was often chased by the guards; he outran them by a fair distance. He will always be honoured in lots of books today. 

Clubs
It is great we have so many children wanting to join our after school clubs this term. Many of the clubs have been oversubscribed and children placed on waiting lists. We will try to ensure fairness by prioritising these children for clubs in the future. This term we are offering:

- First Lego League Lego Robotics Competition Team (Years 5 & 6)
- Musical Theatre (Years 3 - 6)
- Forest School (Years 3 - 6)
- Cross Country (Years 3 - 6)
- Multi Skills with Pro 20 Sports (Years 1 & 2)

In addition, our peripatetic music teachers are offering the following individual and group lessons:
-Rocksteady Band
-Brass
-Guitar
-Piano

If your child is interested in learning an instrument, please contact Amy Souch in the school office for contact details.

Snacks
In Reception, Year 1 and Year 2, the government provide free fruit and vegetables to ensure a daily healthy snack. Children have a range of healthy options to choose from, including bananas, apples, pears, oranges, tomatoes, mini cucumbers and carrots. This isn't provided for children in Years 3- 6. However, children are welcome to bring the same fruit or vegetable snack for their morning break. We ask that children don't bring crisps, chocolate bars, biscuits etc as we want to maintain the healthy eating culture established in the infants. For children attending after school childcare club, please feel free to send them with an equally healthy snack.

Security Fencing
Bridge MAT managed to secure Department for Education funding to replace our perimeter fencing, which was starting to fail in places. New fencing is currently being installed around the school field and will also be extended to the front of the school in the coming weeks. At the moment, the new fencing has made some wooded areas of our field inaccessible but these will be accessible through gates that have yet to be installed as the contractors are still awaiting their delivery. In addition, Sarah Marley has secured 135 native tree saplings through the Woodland Trust. These will be planted by the children in November, inside the boundary of the new fence.

I look forward to sharing more of the children's learning next week.

Another busy week

This week in Pendennis class we have been exploring colours using rainbow filters, messy water play and coloured carpet tiles. We are able to identify colours, and we are learning to spot patterns. The coloured water play also helps us with our hand eye coordination and our motor skills with pouring, as well as our maths too! 
In our This is Me topic, children have been using letters of all shapes and varieties to spot letters in our names. Some of us are able to put those letters together to build our name. We have also been playing board games together which builds on our social skills, helping us to wait and take turns as well as building our vocabulary. 
 

A very warm welcome to all our Year 3 children and families.

We are excited for a fantastic term ahead, filled with engaging learning experiences, new challenges, and lots of opportunities to grow and succeed.
Please find attached our newsletter, which outlines the learning and key topics we will be covering this term, along with important information regarding our class.

We look forward to working together and sharing a wonderful Year 3 journey with you.

Thank you for your continued support.