The Penpol Times

WAR DECLARED: All YEAR 6 children to be Evacuated!

8th November 202214th December 2021 by Nic Stanlake

81 years after thousands of children and young vulnerable adults were evacuated from cities across the country during WW2, our Year 6 children had a go themselves. To celebrate the end of our ‘Wartime Britain’ topic the children (and adults) dressed themselves in period clothing and lived the life of an evacuee for the day.

After being collected from the gate by a member of the 2 of the newest members for he British Army and our very own Land Girls they waved a teary goodbye to their parents before being subjected to a roll call and squeezing into a cramped school classrooms; much like the evacuees of 1939 would have been when they departed the trains.

It was here the children had chance to act in character and meet their fellow evacuees, discussing the contents of their suitcases as well as their preferred destination. Those without identification tags were labeled and sent on their way. The children then had some time to look at and try different games that evacuees would have played in the 40’s.

For the remainder of the morning we continued in character- between the air raid sirens- we wrote post cars home to share the news of out safe arrival and built model spitfires whilst learning about their significance during the Battle of Britain. In school groups the children followed a handed-down ration recipe to make some delicious bread and butter pudding.

At the close of the day the children were collected by their parents, their evacuation was much shorter than those during the war. Many parents came into class to sample some of their cooking but also sit and enjoy their child’s work from the last term, with the majority of literacy and topic being based heavily on our studying of Wartime Britain.

Year 2 visit to St Michael’s Mount

30th June 20229th December 2021 by Imogen Robinson

On a very windy, stormy Monday 6th December, year 2 went to visit St Michael’s Mount as part of their Castles topic.

After putting on our head-to-toe waterproofs, we got on the coach and drove through the elements to Marazion.

We pulled up, gathered our things together, and started the ascent to the Mount.

Battling against the wind and the cobbles, we arrived and were welcomed by the St Michael’s Mount team. They talked us through the grounds and gave us a scavenger hunt map, leading us to lots of intriguing and exciting sights around the castle and gardens. Unfortunately, during our journey the wind had grown too strong for us to continue the final leg of the climb into the castle itself!

While we waited in hope for the winds to ease, we began our search for some of the sights on our maps.

We found the Giant’s Heart and the Giant’s Well, nestled amongst the cobbles and Mrs Hocking delighted us all to a gripping cliff-top retelling of the myth surrounding the Giant and St Michael’s Mount.

After a bit of lunch in the Visitors’ Centre and a lot of fun and games, the weather improved and we were allowed to explore the castle to our heart’s content.

We had an amazing time and loved being able to put all of our learning from this term’s topic into context. It was a delight to hear the year 2s buzzing around the rooms, pointing out different familiar features and interesting new ones, exploring, discussing and experiencing a real-life castle together.

A particular highlight was looking out from the castle walls at the impressive vista below. Some of us had to overcome our fears to do it and it was definitely worth it!

There was still lots of exploring to do, but it was time to say our goodbyes to the Mount so we made our way back to the coach and to school.

What a fantastic way to round off this term’s topic!

Class 7’s Ancient Egyptian Day

11th November 20229th December 2021 by Linda Ruffell

To finish off this terms history project, ‘Ancient Egyptians’, Class 7 held an Egyptian dressing up day.

During this day, the children were given the opportunity to reflect on their learning journey and also show off their creative talents by creating their own scarab beetle and canopic jars.

It was lovely to see the children arriving at school dressed as pharaohs, Tutankhamun, Cleopatra and Ramses II.

“I enjoyed making the scarab beetle out of clay”. Harley

” It was great to see all of my friends dressed up as Ancient Egyptians”. Isabella

” It was lovely to see my friends having fun and using the clay to make canopic jars”. Luke

Year 6 Netball Fever

9th November 20223rd December 2021 by Nic Stanlake

On Thursday 23 children made the relatively short walk to Hayle Academy to take part in a coaching clinic with 4 Year 10 pupils from Hayle; 3 of which were ex-Penpol pupils.

The Year 6 pupils performed admirably, showing many of our school values; respect, integrity and resilience. For many, the toughest part was understanding the different roles for players in different positions.

Exploring at Tehidy Woods

16th June 202223rd November 2021 by Amanda Aspden

Class 1 had a great time in Tehidy woods.

As part of our 360 curriculum, we are took the learning outside the classroom and experienced our local environment.

We builded dens for us for next time we go to the woods, with sticks, big ones and little ones. We did potions and we put leaves on a stick 5 leaves – Maya

Tehidy woods was the venue of our a scavenger hunt. We foraged, observed and hunted for treasures.

We collected some sticks and leaves to take back to class to make some leaf pictures and prints.

We made dens and made potions in the woods, me and Maya were witches and we were going to turn any bad monsters into frogs – Flo

The leaves called off the trees because its Autumn. We found leaves and sticks and we lifted up trees and we made dens for the fairies and the lion king – Maia

We built dens, made a birds nest sculpture and a fairy home using the things we find.

Finally we had a go on the rope swing.

There are squirrels in the woods and woodlice and beetles and foxes but I’ve never seen a fox. Reggie needed help lifting logs up so I asked other people to help him. I found a sweet chestnut- Jack

A great time was had by all in the terrific Tehidy woods.

Riotous Romans Invade Penpol!

19th November 2021 by Jack Emery

Today, Year 4 got a true taste of Roman army life, with Marcus Quintonius, a high ranking legionnaire, visiting Penpol Year 4 children for the day. Focussing on the Roman invasion of Britannia, students came into school armed with shields, swords and Roman legion attire, ready to join forces with the impressive Roman army.

To begin with, the Year group were greeted with Roman army commands: Consiste! (Halt!), Laxate (at ease), silentiurm! (Silence!) and Sin/ Dex (Left/ Right!), which would come in hand later on in the day.

Next, both classes were thrown into the melee and had to use their best codebreaking skills in order to crack a hidden location written by the emperor himself, Julius Caesar. The hidden message revealed one of Rome’s greatest engineering feats in the Roman empire – Hadrian’s Wall.

“I loved using my knowledge of Roman numerals to crack the code.” Joseph, Class 9

Next up, both classes got to play some classic Roman games, such as Rummy and Hadrian’s Wall card game. The atmosphere in both classes was as if you had walked into a Roman army barracks in the evening!

The grand finale, however, had to be experiencing what it was like to march like a Roman. Led by Roman Legionary Marcus’ booming commands, Classes’ 9 and 10 both marched up and down the playground, to embed their understanding of Roman commands. Next, the students practised forming the defence shape, which is the ‘testudo’, or the tortoise. This proved an effective barrier against incoming missiles aimed by the teachers.

All in all, the children had an excellent day immersing themselves in the Roman life and learning first hand how the Roman army worked.

Remember Remember… When Year 2 met Guy Fawkes!

30th June 202219th November 2021 by Emily Bodmer

Year 2 have been learning about The Gunpowder Plot this term and loved meeting Guy Fawkes..

Their knowledge of the event is remarkable and they successfully sequenced the events onto a timeline.

Year 2 enjoyed putting their Forest School Skills into practise with lighting a fire.

They also loved the Guy Fawkes trail and game.

Savvy Dance Experience for Year 4

16th November 2021 by Jack Emery

Classes 9 and 10 had the privilege of a free Savvy Dance session at the wonderful Savvy Dance Studios in Foundry Square. Each Class got to experience a session of Commercial dancing , which incorporated a bouncy and poppy dance routine. Claire was fantastic at getting all sorts of contortions and body shapes from the students!

Upstairs, Charlotte led an upbeat yoga-style dance routine, which had the children showing off their flexibility and capacity to travel across the dance floor.

The afternoon was amazingly fun! Jay, Class 9

This was a brilliant opportunity for the children to draw upon the expert tutoring from Savvy Dance Studios and the students were incredibly grateful for this wonderful opportunity. Thank you Savvy!!

Super Savvy

10th November 202110th November 2021 by Amanda Aspden

Class 1 had an incredible fun packed morning with the super savvy team in Hayle.

We practised our ballet moves with Clare and pretended to be cheeky pixies picking a lovely juicy apple from a tree then running away.

We had to lie on our tummies and I had to touch my hair with my feet. We had to take a apple from the farmers tree and run away – Darcey

It was so fun, we did exercises and dancing – Ashton

We danced the morning away with wings, wands and scarves to some beautiful ballet tunes.

Upstairs in the second studio we practised our street dancing to some upbeat dance tunes.

Clare and Ben were wonderful with the children as ever. There were smiles all round as the children pirouetted, twirled, stretched, skipped, jumped and practised different positions for their feet, legs arms and bodies.

We had to put our legs out straight. We have to point our feet up and down and had to creep and try to get the apple and we have to spin our scarves around. Then we had to walk side to side -Elsie

The children were really lucky to be given a ticket for another free trail class. Class 1 would like say a massive thank you to Clare, Aidan and Ben more making our morning so much fun and teaching us some great moves.

Splendid Standing Stones Stables

9th November 2021 by Amanda Aspden

Class 1 had a fabulous time at the Standing Stones Stables in Trink St.Ives.

We met Rolo, Buddy and James the gentle and patient ponies.

I liked riding the horse, the brown one – Jasper

We took turns in grooming the horses and learning all about how to care for them. We decorated James the unicorn with glitter, sparkles, gems and gave his mane and tail a good groom.

We had a go at waxing some saddles, colouring some unicorn pictures and filling up the nets with hay for the horses.

It was fun. I loved it. I decorated the horse with glitter and I rided on a horse, the white one, it felt like my dog because I have a dog called Tessa – Billy

After making a wish by the largest standing stone in Cornwall, we had a run around in the field then made our way over to the paddock. There we took it in turns to ride Rolo and Buddy. We also got to lead James around the paddock.

We had a lovely time and would like to say thank you to Natalie and all her wonderful staff for making our visit so much fun.

I liked going on the horses. My favourite one was the white one. I liked going on Buddy – Hazel

Codeblocks at Christmas

“Penpol pupils are curious, creative and courageous learners. Our school community believes in authenticity as the foundations of deep-rooted learning. Through our rich and relevant curriculum, we nurture community-minded, forward-facing international citizens of the future.”