Year 5

Stone Age and Bronze Aged artefacts land in Class 11 & 12!

1st October 20191st October 2019 by Mark Pollard

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.

Organic and Mixed Media Art Experience for Year 5!

12th September 2019 by Jack Emery

Year 5 were treated to a week of organic art and mixed media Art with Tracey, an artist from St Ives.

With the amazon being a pivotal part of the Earth’s ecosystem, Year 5 are currently following artist John Dyer as he broadcasts live his travels across the Amazon. His project, ‘Last chance to Paint’ , aims to connect students to the environment and create a global art gallery which highlights what we stand to lose.

In this art session, the students used blackberries, which had been freshly picked by Mr Pollard and Mr Wise, to mimic the Yawanawa tribe’s version of organic art. Using modelling tools, the students created sketches of wildlife in nature, with the results surprisingly pleasant to the eye.

The variety between each piece of work was quite staggering, considering the only ingredients used were blackberries. Mr Wise, Class 12 teacher

Later on in the week, Year 5 were once again treated to another Art session, this time from local artist Tracey from St Ives. Tracey brought in a lot of different materials for the children to use in order to create mixed media art. Using a variety of materials, such as masking tape, coloured paper and doilies, the children were instructed to build up a surface formed from different layers.

I really liked using different colour paper to layer my work and make different objects stand out. Oliver, Class 11

Through lots of experimentation and creativity, both classes then drew different nautical scenes from the surrounding area, with St Ives harbour being a common landscape for the children to draw.
The students used different grading of pencil to add different tones to their work, as well as graphite, pens, pastels and finally paint.

My favourite part was mixing the paints to create the colour I wanted for my drawing! Lydia, Class 12

The final results speak for themselves! The children took great pleasure showing off their art work and it was interesting to see the degree of variety between every piece of art work.
A fantastic effort, check out the results in the gallery below!

Music in the Marquee 2019 – The Movie!

11th February 202018th August 2019 by Jacob Woolcock

This year we had our fifth Music in the Marquee concert here at Penpol School, this year featuring the amazing Leanne Kyte as The Ariana Grande Experience. As is fast becoming a tradition, we’ve made a very special short film of the evening to bring back all of those amazing memories!

As always, these events are held to help raise money for the Penpol Friends Association (PFA) and this year I’m thrilled to say that we’ve raised nearly four and a half thousand pounds – all of which will go to supporting Penpol School in the years to come.

Thank you all so much for supporting our school through events like these.

Year 5 have been learning about the Ancient Greeks

20th June 201920th June 2019 by Jacob Woolcock

This term both Year 5 classes have been learning about the Ancient Greeks. As part of this learning they have built their very own Greek Temples using Keynote on computer and have created these gorgeous animations for you to enjoy.

Each child took a different Greek figure and designed a temple just for them. They then did some research online to create a short fact card for each person.

So sit back, relax and enjoy learning about famous Greek figures whilst marvelling at some stunning animations. Well done Year 5.

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Yr 5 have an awesome time at Porthpean

21st May 201921st May 2019 by Mark Pollard

The eagerly anticipated Y5 Penpol Camp took place last week at Porthpean and what an enjoyable trip it was!

On the first day, the children (and the teachers) took part in climbing and archery before a feast of a tea – a delightful roast dinner. After a contented sleep, drifting off to the sounds of three tractors working away in the field next to us, we woke, had a full English and got on with the day.

Day 2 consisted of cycling, problem solving and a rather exhilarating high-ropes course. It was great to see children and adults push their comfort boundaries with this. In the evening, Penpol, led by dance expert Rocky, busted some moves on the dance floor at the disco before a peaceful sleep ensued.

After packing in the morning of the last day and another fine full english, it was down to the beach to take part in some paddle-boarding, kayaking or coasteering, complete with slate-made make-up!

It was a superb few days made all the better by the glorious weather and friendly experts who guided us through each activity. Thank you, Porthpean!

Announcing Music in the Marquee 2019

11th February 202019th March 2019 by Jacob Woolcock

The last four years have seen sell out performances at our annual Music In The Marquee concerts from Little Chix, Yellow and last year’s return performer Bradley Johnson.

I’m delighted to say that this summer we will be hosting our fifth concert in the marquee, on Saturday 20th July 2019. Each year we ask the children which music they are enjoying and what sort of act they’d like to see play in our marquee at the end of the Summer term. This year one name kept coming up in each class we spoke to and that was the one and only Ariana Grande.

So, with great excitement, I’d love to introduce you to The Ariana Grande Experience performed by the incredibly talented singer Leanne Kyte. Leanne is a singer/dancer from North London who studied musical theatre for two years in California. Since coming back to the UK she’s been on tours around the country, has performed in the US and Canada and has received rave reviews for both her singing and dancing.

Leanne will be playing two sets of live music on the night, the first being a hit-filled and family-friendly Ariana Grande tribute set including tunes both new and old including ‘Problem’, ‘No Tears Left to Cry’, ‘Into You’ and ‘One Last Time’, followed by a later set which will include other popular covers. As always with Music in the Marquee her two sets will be accompanied by local support acts to round off the whole evening’s entertainment. We’re delighted to confirm that this years support acts will include a return for the fantastic DJ Flo Selecta, a debut performance from acoustic singer Hannigan and also an incredibly exciting set from the local band Saltwater Cure – featuring our very own Mr Emery!

Just like in previous years the event will raise money for the Penpol Friends Association and will also feature a fully licensed bar, BBQ, soft drinks, and food for everyone to enjoy. I hope you’ll agree that Music in the Marquee 2019 is already shaping up to be a phenomenal night of entertainment.

We are opening this event to the whole community, but want to give our Penpol parents the first chance to get tickets. For this reason we’re offering you a special pre-sale of tickets, starting TODAY! Tickets are priced at £9 for adults and £6 for children. Please note that all children must be accompanied by an adult.

Please return this slip and money to the office to secure your tickets. Music in the Marquee has been a sell out for the past four years and tickets will be on a first come first served basis.

Penpol, it’s NASA calling!

13th March 201912th March 2019 by Mark Pollard

This week, on Monday at 2pm our time (10am at the NASA space centre in America) Year 5 had the opportunity to Skype call with an actual NASA scientist (he even has the email address @NASA.com which Mr Pollard and Mr Wise were very impressed by).

The children had a range of excellent questions to ask Martin, whose job it is to look at molecules floating into the farthest reaches of our universe. These included ‘Which is your favourite planet and why?’ ‘Have you ever seen the NASA supercomputer?’ and the ever interesting ‘How do you go to the toilet in space?’

It was interesting talking to Martin as he is based in America and works for NASA. I learnt that there is a difference between types of meteor and also that it takes around 13 years to become a NASA scientist! – Fifi

We are very grateful to Martin for giving up his time and hopefully he has just had a hand in giving someone a lifetime of interest in the subject.

Cooking with Chartwells an enjoyable treat for Year 5 and 6!

12th March 201912th March 2019 by Mark Pollard

Last week, Year 5 and Year 6 were fortunate enough to have a cooking masterclass with Karen from Chartwells. After talking about cuisines and dinners from around the world and different types of foods it was over to the children to create some delicious, healthy food of their own, in the form of rainbow wraps.

They’re called rainbow wraps because there are lots of different coloured vegetables inside it to give it colour – Lily

Thanks to Karen for coming in, who will now be doing more cooking with the other classes in the school in the coming weeks.

How can we Recognise Fake News?

11th February 20208th March 2019 by Penpol School

‘Fake news’ is a huge topic at the moment and believable but untrue content online has become more and more commonplace. Luckily, this week in our E-Safety lessons we are learning all about being Internet Alert, which means recognising what is real and what is fake, as well as being able to develop strategies to keep ourselves safe from false and misleading information.

To start our sessions the children were issued a research task, to learn as much information as they possibly could about the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. If you haven’t heard of this rare animal then I wouldn’t be surprised, especially as it’s completely made up. In a sneaky twist, the children were actually researching from a fake website, trying to learn how some octopuses can live in trees when the children all know that they actually live in the sea.

This proved an excellent introduction to the fact that, sadly, not everything you read online is true. This particular website was made many years ago as a way of teaching children this very lesson.

The children then explored the concept of mis-information and fake news further, discussing how photographs and even videos can be misleading and not always what they appear to be. We discussed how this related to the idea of phishing too, which we learnt all about in our E-Safety lessons last year.

"I thought the tree octopus was very convincing because all of the facts sounded pretty real and the picture looked very convincing. It showed me that not everything that looks convincing is actually real."

Zara, Year 6

The children have once again shown themselves to be very aware of how to stay safe online and also able to hold sensible and mature conversations with their peers about how they can help each other to protect themselves online.

"I learnt that not everything that we see online is real. And that we should always watch out for scams and fakes."

Ariana, Year 5

We finished the sessions this week with a game of Reality River on Interland as a way to recap our learning and to ensure we are all making the right choices when it comes to understanding what is real and what is fake.

What is our Online Persona?

11th February 20201st March 2019 by Jacob Woolcock

We are spending this half term focusing on the internet and how we can keep ourselves safe whilst online. Over the next six weeks we’ll be looking at online safety from a variety of different aspects, starting with looking at the information we choose to share online.

We’re basing our work on the Be Internet Legends project from Google, which builds on the lessons the children had last year.

To begin with we are looking at our ‘Online Persona’. This is how you appear online to other people, based on the information we have chosen to share. We’ve talked about the risks of over sharing our personal data and also the way other people might see what we’ve shared and draw conclusions about us.

This learning has been very thought provoking for the children and has seen us address lots of really interesting topics in whole-class discussions. A particularly interesting activity has been to ‘create a persona’ for a made up person, by giving them loads of personal information and then choosing what should and shouldn’t be shared online with the world.

Below are several of the characters that have been created this week, along with lots and lots of personal information. This information could range from general facts like their favourite colour right down to specific details like their date of birth and their phone password.

The children have then used the highlighter tool to mark green any information which they would feel safe sharing online with the world, or red for any information which they think should stay private. We talked about how information can be changed from red to green later on, but can never be changed back from green to red as when it exists on the internet, it can never really be deleted.

“You should never share really personal information online, even with just your friends. Always tell a responsible adult at home if somebody is asking for personal information that you don’t want to share.” – Zara

“I have learnt that sometimes when you post something other people can get sad or upset if I’m not careful. So in the future if there is a photo I want to share I will go to the people in it and make sure they are all right with me sharing it.” – Ethan

“I have learnt about keeping myself safe on the internet and learnt to always tell your parents or teachers or family about it if something silly comes up on Youtube.” – Poppy

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.”