Headteacher
Chris Coyle-Chislett
Email the Office
secretary@penpol.cornwall.sch.uk
Telephone Number
01736 753472
Follow us on Twitter
@PenpolSchool
Our Address
2 St George’s Road, Hayle,
Cornwall, TR27 4AH
Each week whilst school is closed I’ll be bringing you a Friday afternoon assembly showcasing some of the diverse and exciting learning that’s being shared by Key Stage 2 on Showbie. As well as the assembly itself, this page also has a gallery where you can see the learning in more detail should you wish.
The Book Fair arrived at Penpol School on Thursday 5th March (World Book Day) and will be here until Wednesday 12th March!
You are able to use £1 World Book Day vouchers on books that are over £2.99 at the Book Fair.
There are hundreds of books from £2.99. Read all the latest books by your favourite authors and illustrators! Discover a book you’ll love at our Book Fair.
Earn 20% extra free with discounted gift vouchers, available online before the Book Fair at www.bookfairs.scholastic.co.uk/giftvouchers
Every book you buy at our Book Fair helps us earn free books for our school!
Love reading? Love our Book Fair!
Last term we started a brand new club at Penpol, App Design Club. In this club the children in Year 5 and Year 6 are invited to consider an idea or problem and how they might make an app to solve this. Following along with resources made by Apple, the children then learn how to write code using the Swift programming language as well as learn how to plan and design their own app.
In the first half term we had a live link-up with Mr Jenkins who teaches at Booth Wood Primary School in the Midlands. This connection allowed children from both clubs to have the chance to share their initial app ideas and to ask for feedback. This Focus Group session proved valuable as the children were able to adapt and refine their ideas as a result of this feedback.
Following this they then did market research and looked at similar apps to see what they could offer which would be a bit different.
When they had got a clear idea of their app it was time to move onto Phase 2 – the design.
Initially each child created a ‘wire-frame’ idea by sketching on the iPads. This showed roughly what the individual screens of their app would look like and how they would be connected to each other.
After this we were lucky enough to have a Skype conversation with Sabe who teaches in a city called Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. He led the club through a fun and exciting lesson on creating App Prototypes using the Keynote app. The children followed intently and by the end of the session they’d created a simple app to browse animal facts.
We’re now taking the ideas learnt from Sabe and using them to create working prototypes of our own apps. This process is going to take a little while as we are trying to pay close attention to how the app functions and how it looks.
Hopefully later in the year we’ll be able to share an update with everyone where the children can share their app designs with the world!
– Mr Woolcock
Sharing ideas in a Focus Group session with Booth Wood Primary school in order to develop and expand their ideas.
Club members following along with their App Designs carefully following the instructions from Sabe in the UAE.
This half term our year 5 pupils have been learning about Space and the Solar System. As part of this exciting topic, the children have been using their knowledge of our Solar System to create some video documentaries on the iPads.
However, obviously getting video footage of the actual planets is quite tricky. So instead the children have carefully re-created each planet using their own artwork and Augmented Reality.
They’ve then put these AR planets together in the video app Clips and added their own voiceovers, titles and special effects.
The children have worked phenomenally hard on this project and the videos below are testament to this. Please do jump right in and watch a few to get a flavour of our out-of-this-world Space Documentaries!
Each half-term, students from Classes 11 and 12 have written a letter or email to a penpal in France. The aim of the French penpal exchange, which has been running successfully for over two years, was for our students at Penpol to better understand the similarities, as well as differences, between school life in France and at Penpol. This opportunity also offers a platform for our students to use their French for a real purpose, being able to ask their French counterparts any questions they may have about life in France.
As Year 5 have recently been studying reflexive verbs to say what they do on a daily basis, the first series of questions sent to France were based on what time their French penpal got up, started school, finished school and how much homework they received. The responses from the French students provided plenty of discussion. Did you know that French students start school at 8.30am and don’t finish school until 4.30pm? However, though the school day is longer on most days, children in France only have a half day on Wednesday, followed by the afternoon off school to take part in extra-curricular activities.
As well as sending emails, which is first drafted in their books, then sent on to France, the children have also received and sent festive cards.
It’s great writing to someone from another country. It’s a fun way to practise French! Isabella, Class 11
Next up, Year 5 will be creating a guess who game centred on the topic of hobbies. Watch this space for more news about Penpol’s thriving Cornish- French email exchange!
On Wednesday the 6th of November, Penpol held our first ever Careers event. 30 different businesses and employees gave up their time to explain just what makes their job sector special, with hands-on demonstrations, interactive activities and a stream of answers ready for the children’s questions. The event was a huge success and we look forward to doing it again next year.
Special thanks must go to those people who gave up their time to inspire others. The exhibitors were very impressed with the children’s interest and described them as ‘eloquent, interested and a joy to talk to’.
On Thursday 14th November, some of our fantastic KS2 choir represented Penpol School excellently at the Camborne Music Festival. The Choir sang two pieces, Human – by Rag ‘N; Bone Man and When I Grow Up from the hit musical Matilda, written by Tim Minchin. The choir sang beautifully and were well received by the audience and adjudicator, receiving 84 marks and being Highly Commended.
During the piece When I Grow Up, there was a well praised solo and a number of duets and small group parts which were highly praised and wonderfully sang by the pupils. We look forward to competing at the festival again another year.
The successes of our school choir have led to a record number of members, which now total a staggering 57 pupils in Key Stage 2. If you missed the performance of the choir at the music festival, please look out for future Christmas Concert dates in the coming month. We shall be performing at the annual Key Stage 2 Christmas Concert at St. Elwyn’s Church on 18th December, as well as other venues in the lead up to Christmas.
Just before half term we finished an exciting and creative project which involved creating artwork on our iPads. We spent several lessons learning different techniques and building our drawing skills, which was put to good use in the final lesson where everyone created their own Artistic Adjective.
The goal was simple, pick an adjective and create a piece of Word Art which showed that word illustrated as if it were describing itself. So ‘chilly’ had to look really cold, ‘sleepy’ had to look really tired and ‘boring’ had to look really, well, boring!
The children had great fun creating these pieces of art. Keep an eye out around the school for a big Word Art display popping up soon…
Tuesday brought about the opening round of fixtures for our netball team. The children travelled to Mounts Bay Academy where they participate in the Penwith Schools High-5 netball league.
The team consisted of a mixture of year 5 and 6 children, many of whom were playing for the first time.
The match started positively for Penpol but unfortunately they couldn’t make their dominance count with Gulval leading 1-0 at half-time. The second half seemed much more comfortable for the children with them begging to play with confidence and freedom.
An excellent performance from player for the match, Vinnie, who played at both GK and GS was rewarded with two points.
Unfortunately it wasn’t enough as the team fell to a 3-2 defeat. Plenty of positives to take from the game which was played with big smiles on their faces!
If you’d like to give netball a go, netball club in on a Thursday with Mrs Turner for year 5 & 6.
On Tuesday the 1st of October, class 11 and 12 were fortunate enough to get their hands on some artefacts which are literally thousands of years old!
Made during the Stone Age and Iron Age, the children worked together to decipher what the items might have been used for. Items included large Stone Age axe heads, chisels and arrows.
Rhys said that he was excited about looking at all of the Stone Age items.
Devon said that it was great to actually hold items which had been handmade so many thousands of years ago.
Thanks goes to Dr M.G Weller – whose fine collection these items came from – and David Lay Auction House in Penzance, who kindly arranged for the loan to happen.
