On Thursday, Year 3 had the opportunity to dress up in their best ‘ancient Egyptian’ outfits as part of their topic this term.
![](https://www.penpolschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/DSC_0792-1536x1024.jpg)
On Thursday, Year 3 had the opportunity to dress up in their best ‘ancient Egyptian’ outfits as part of their topic this term.
The reception classes had a great time at Heyl gym.
Louise, our personal trainer, taught us how to do proper squats and we did some bear, frog and duck walking. We also learnt how to swing the kettlebell properly so that it worked on our full body strength.
The children had fun going into competition with each other and practised their endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, coordination, agility and balance.
The reception classes would like to thank Louise and everyone at Heyl gym. We had a great time.
On Thursday 24th November, the Year 6’s of Penpol School donned their 1940’s attire and were transported back in time. On arrival, their labels were checked and destinations confirmed. Roll call was taken and they were escorted into the school building to await further instruction. Whilst waiting, they were given the opportunity to meet their fellow evacuees, discuss their destination and make sure they had the government stipulated items in their suitcases, sharing these with their peers.
Upon inspection and arrival at their destination, the evacuees had the opportunity to write back to their loved ones at home to let them know they’d safely arrived and how they were doing. The evacuees then spent the rest of the morning creating model spitfires; learning of their importance in the war, playing some 1940s children’s games and cooking up a storm with our lovely land girls and their authentic rations dessert recipe. Blackout procedures were followed to a ‘T’, throughout the day, when the air raid sirens sounded and all evacuees were safely accounted for thereafter.
During the afternoon the cooking continued and the pupils explored the Blitz through some beautiful artwork. Parents were then invited in for the evacuees to share their ‘Wartime Britain’ work from the past term with some 1940’s music to set the scene and the rations dessert sampled.
Who is Muslim and how do they live?
Why does Christmas matter to Christians?
The festive season started early in Truro Cathedral, which was decorated with a truly magnificent Christmas tree, stood some 20ft tall!
The children enjoyed a Christmas workshop, which involved collaging angel Christmas cards. Each pupil was then given a decorative star, on which they wrote the name of a person who is special to them. These stars were later hung upon the cathedral’s Christmas tree.
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We were then taken on a magical tour of the building, learning and acting out the Nativity of Jesus along the way. Children were enthralled by the story, which developed their understanding of why Christmas is important to Christians.
After enjoying our lunch in the Cathedrals choir vestry, we continued our religious journey to the Carnon Downs Islamic Community Centre. This is the only masjid (another word for mosque) in Cornwall. One of the centre’s aims is to educate Muslims and Non-Muslims, both young and old, about the true teachings of Islam; “Peace”.
One of the masjid’s Imams, Mohammad, gave us a warm welcome into the beautiful building. Children demonstrated their respect for others’ beliefs and practices by taking off their shoes before entering the centre. Mohammad then enlightened us with an introductory presentation on Islam; he explained the Five Pillars of Islam, demonstrated passages of the Quran in Arabic and answered some very insightful questions from our pupils about their beliefs and practices.
“Why do Muslims pray?”
“Do Muslims celebrate Christmas?”
“Do you believe in Jesus?”
We were then taken on a tour of the masjid by one of their volunteers, Abdul-Bari, who showed us the washroom and prayer rooms. Our visit was wonderfully concluded with an Adhan (an Islamic call to public prayer). The children watched with wonder and fascination as Mohammad and Abdul-Bari demonstrated their daily prayer, facing east in the direction of Mecca.
Following this trip, Year 2 pupils wrote some wonderfully detailed recounts of the visits to these religious buildings, demonstrating the impacts of the experience. They have continued the pursuit of their enquiry questions in English lessons, in which pupils have been making connections between Islam and Christianity by discussing and writing about the similarities and differences of their beliefs and practices.
However, afterwards, it was then time to explore the ancient Egypt area…
One of the tour guides from the museum told us all about (and showed) their different Egyptian artefacts, a sarcophagus and a real mummy! We even got the chance to draw on some papyrus paper!
On Sunday 13th November, six Y6 pupils represented Penpol School at the Hayle Remembrance Service. The first part of the service took part in St. Elwyns Church before we paraded down to the war memorial. After listening to the names of all the local people who had fallen, we heard the last post and stood in silence to remember them. We laid a wreath on behalf of Penpol School.
The service was particularly significant to the Y6 pupils as we have been learning about the impact of WWI and WWII in our Wartime Britain topic. We have also been making our own poppies and wreaths and writing poems based on Flander’s Fields. The local community praised the respect and maturity of our Y6 pupils. It was also nice to see so many other past and present Penpol pupils representing their local clubs at the service who were equally respectful and role-models for our school and community.
The reception classes had a lovely morning sharing stories with Mummy’s, Daddy’s and Granny’s.
The children had chosen some books from the library the day before that they said they would like to read with their parents.
We read stories about pirates, bugs, the tooth fairy, aliens, wild things, plants, recycling, the deep blue sea, crocodiles and snails, as well as the old favourites such as Winnie the Witch, The Highway Rat and The Scarecrows Wedding.
After enjoying our stories, the classes proudly demonstrated their fabulous phonics knowledge to parents. The children taught the parents how they learn phonics in class and introduced them to Fred, who can only say words in sounds.
The children loved sharing their classroom with their parents and enjoyed listening to all the exciting stories.
We look forward to welcoming you to the next book and a bagel session.
The reception classes had a great time at Tehidy Woods.
We loved foraging for different treasures and found most of the things on our scavenger hunt list, including snails, slugs, woodlice, leaves of all different colours, animal foot prints, spiders, twigs, rocks, flowers, ants, birds and birds nests.
After that built some fairy dens and tried to find the magic faraway tree.
Next we had a quick game of 40 40 and hide and seek, then had a little wonder down to Otter Bridge.
Finally we ambled back with just enough time for a little play and some more exploring before we made our way back on to the bus.
Lots of fun was had by all.