Storytellers dived deep into learning as we celebrated World Ocean Day with our curious and caring little explorers.

The children were introduced to the wonders of the ocean, discovering the incredible creatures that live beneath the waves, from turtles and starfish to whales and colourful fish. We discussed the importance of keeping our oceans clean and how we can all contribute to protecting sea life by making small, thoughtful choices.

As part of our learning, the children participated in a special ocean cleanup activity. Using a sensory tray filled with water, sea creatures, and pretend rubbish, the children carefully removed the litter to make the ocean safe again. They worked together to sort the “okay ocean” items from the rubbish, showing amazing teamwork and developing a real understanding of the impact pollution can have.

Through stories, songs, and sensory play, our little ones began to understand the role they can play in caring for our planet. We are so proud of how engaged and thoughtful they were – true ocean protectors in the making!

World Ocean Day at Storytellers was a wonderful opportunity to explore nature, encourage responsibility, and spark a sense of environmental awareness that we will continue to build on in our everyday learning. 

We are exploring under the sea and answering our enquiry question "Who lives under the sea?" over the next few weeks.
The children have enjoyed exploring and learning about different creatures that live in the water and have made some paper plate fish and some sponge painted shark silhouettes.
The children have been busy developing their fine manipulative skills by rolling out clay and using the cutter to make fish. They then decorated them to make their very own rainbow fish like in the story.

At story time we have been reading the story of "Rainbow fish" and "Mr Seahorse" and we have enjoyed exploring non fiction books and naming different sea creatures.

In phonics,  we have been practicing our speech sounds, matching objects to initial sounds and using mirrors to explore the way our mouths and tongues move as we make different sounds with them.

 In maths we have been exploring repeats such as repetitive stories or songs e.g. Twinkl, Twinkl or "Run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me i'm the gingerbread man". We have been making patterns such as lines.

Just a reminder that it is sports day next Wednesday 25th June at 10am. Nursery will be running the first race at 10am, hope to see you all there!

Have a lovely weekend

Julie and Sarah

It has been a super week at Brunel Primary and Nursery Academy with a huge amount of learning opportunities for our children. Please enjoy catching up with everything that has happened across the week by browsing through this week's edition of The Brunel Bulletin. 

It was lovely to see so many of you at the Polperro Festival on Tuesday. Thank you for coming and being part of a really special day. Please see the class blogs for photos.

The children have had a busy, sporty week, doing each activity for the Bridge School Games  and practising for Sports Day next Wednesday 25th June from 10-12:00. Please ensure that your child’s PE kit is in on the day. We look forward to seeing you there. Please come into the school via the field gate. T

Garden Update Everything is growing really well in the greenhouse thanks to the hard work of our volunteers Mr and Mrs Peters and Gardening Club children with Miss Randle, Mrs Wilkie and Mrs Fitzsimmons. You are invited to look round the garden during our school fair (see below).

FOPS Summer Fair – Monday 21st July at 2pm FOPS are busily organising this year’s Summer Fair. Monday 30th June will be a MUFTI day where we will be asking for donations of an item matching your child’s house team colour to create hampers for raffle prizes. Children can wear their own clothes and this could include wearing their house colour. Please see attached posters for suggestions of what to send in for your child’s colour on the day.

Orwell Society School Award We are proud to be one of just two schools in the UK that have been awarded the prestigious Orwell Society School Award for 2024–2025. Inspired by George Orwell’s deep love of nature - nurtured during his childhood holidays in Polperro - our exciting project aims to bring the natural world to life for our pupils. With support from local experts and organisations like the National Trust and Cornwall Wildlife Trust, children in years 4-6 have learnt about Cornwall’s unique environments, including Bodmin airfield and even a nearby temperate rainforest. They have transformed their learning into a creative “found” sketchbook, imagined as Orwell’s own, filled with nature notes, detailed drawings, descriptive writing and poetry, all produced by the children. There will be an exhibition of this work, including the “found” sketchbook, in October when the society holds their annual conference in Polperro. Please click here to find out more about the project.

School Uniform Thank you to Mrs Kane who has raised £15 for the school at a nearly new uniform sale recently. We have a large selection of preloved school uniform available for a suggested donation of just £1 per item. While you might have seen a few things on the rail by the school office, there is actually much more available in a range of sizes – plenty of everything! It's a great way to save money, find what you need and help reduce waste. Before heading to the shops, please consider taking a look. Just ask at the office for the size you need. Giving these clothes a second life helps keep perfectly good uniform out of landfill.

MHST SilverCloud Please find attached a poster about free NHS online support for those supporting an anxious child, teen or child diagnosed with ADHD. This is a very busy half term with more exciting events coming up including trips for all classes and the year 6 residential trip to the Ultimate Adventure Centre in North Devon at the beginning of July. These and other important dates are on our events diary on the website.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Hillman

Making art and Bridge School Games! 

We’ve been very busy in Foundation / Year 1 this week.
We have been learning even more about Julia Donaldson and her books. In Year 1, we have started using our comprehension skills to answer questions about different stories. In Foundation we have started writing key words to match a picture and finding words that rhyme.

In Maths, Year 1 have been making equal groups through sharing. We’ve also been learning all about doubles and have been singing songs to remember our doubles. Foundation have also been learning about groups and how we share to make them equal. Then Foundation were finding out how many were in each group.

In Art we have been exploring mark making and making different shapes with our pencils. We’re looking forward to practising making marks with different materials!

In Science, we have been learning about the seasons. This week, our focus was on winter. We talked about what happens to trees in winter and what appropriate clothing we can wear in the colder months. We then started looking at weather forecasts and made our own for the day. We were very happy that it was a sunny one!

This week, it has also been Bridge School Games. This is where all the schools in Bridge Trust take part in physical activities and we see what school scores the highest. Foundation/ Year 1 were brilliant. They showed great sportsmanship and had a really good ‘I can’ attitude. I’m excited to see how they do on sports day!

Year 1 have also finished their phonics screening and they have just been amazing. Their hard work truly does pay off!

Foundation / Year 1 Team

A fun week here in Preschool.

Last week was full of fun, learning, and special moments here in preschool!

Our phonics sessions were a big hit — we focused on the sound "b" as in "b-b-b-boot!" The children are really enjoying their phonics journey and are becoming so confident with their sounds. It’s wonderful to see them engage with enthusiasm and curiosity each day.
We also had an energetic session with Coach James from Kixx, helping us get ready for Sports Day. The children loved running, jumping, and practicing their teamwork skills — all while building confidence and coordination.

One of the most exciting events this week was the delivery of our brand-new climbing frame! The children couldn’t wait to explore it. It’s already proving to be fantastic for developing gross motor skills, encouraging turn-taking, communication, and so many other important areas of learning. Seeing the smiles and teamwork during play has been a joy!
On Friday, we took part in Wear Yellow Day to raise awareness for Cystic Fibrosis. This cause is especially close to our hearts, as one of the brave students in our school lives with the condition. The children looked bright and beautiful in yellow, and it was a meaningful opportunity to talk about kindness, empathy, and resilience.
To end the week on a musical note, we’ve been enjoying learning some of our school songs — including “You’ve Got a Friend in Me”, “Mary Poppins” favourites, and many more. It’s such a lovely way to bring everyone together and build our sense of community. Here’s to another week of learning, laughter, and growing together! 

Come back next week to see what we have been up to.
Mrs Whitty-Mutton

What a day Class 3 had on Friday. Although the weather was overcast with heavy rain at some points they didn't let that dampen their spirits. The sea conditions were perfect with a 4ft - 6ft swell and an inshore wind. Many of the children were able to stand up by the end of the lesson and all of them gained confidence in the water. 

Class 2 had a lovely visit to Kents Cavern. The children spent the day exploring the caves, learning about stalactites and stalagmites and digging for gemstones. At one point the torches in the cave were turned off briefly so the children could experience how dark it is at that depth!

The sun shone at last and Class 3 were able to hold their sports day. The children all had a wonderful time and loved the friendly competition with their friends. The parents tug of war is definitely being done again next year!

We have had another jam packed week in Landaviddy class.

Practise for the Polperro Festival has been well underway! We can't wait to share with you all our hard work. We finished off our previous enquiry with Geography, where we looked at the different tools meteorologists use to collect weather data. Can you recall what we would use to determine wind direction or rainfall? We have started a new enquiry - 'Does Polperro Always Stay the Same?', which we were already very enthusiastic about. 

In Maths, Year 3 have been working on Money, adding and subtracting pounds and pence, ready for their final lesson next week looking at finding change. Year 2 have continued work on fractions, exploring the equivalence of two quarters and one half, as well as recognising and finding three quarters. 

Congratulations to Benjamin, Iylah and Brody for being chosen as People of the Week! And a big well done to those who achieved their 99 club!

Please find attached this half term's Knowledge Web, KIRFS and Homework Grid. Of course, should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. 

We hope you have a marvellous weekend and look forward to seeing you next week. 

Mrs Wilkie, Mrs Phillips, Miss Bowden and Miss Colton

Final week of our miniature playgrounds!

It’s been a busy and exciting  week in Year 5 Talland Class as we completed our miniature themed playgrounds! After weeks of planning, designing, and building, this week was all about finishing touches, problem-solving, and adapting our designs to bring our creative visions to life.  As we moved into the final stages, we quickly discovered that not everything goes exactly to plan when building! Some materials didn’t work the way we imagined, certain structures weren’t strong enough, and a few of our features needed resizing or rethinking. But this didn’t stop us! We showed brilliant resilience by adapting our designs: swapping our materials when parts weren’t sturdy enough;  reinforcing structures with card supports or extra glue;  changing the shape or size of slides, swings, or towers to fit better in our models; adding extra decorative touches that matched our themes, like miniature flags, signs, and benches.  This stage really showed our design and make skills in action. We learned that designers often have to tweak their ideas during the building process—and that’s okay!

best wishes, Mrs Swabey, Mr Parry and Mrs Walters.

We have been busy in Chaipel, this week, preparing for our performance at the Polperro Festival next Tuesday. Our humorous Tudor play captures what we have learnt about the life of Henry VIII and I am sure that the audience will been thoroughly entertained!

ENGLISH
We have completed our balanced argument best copy write-up. It outlines the growing concern and the need to raise awareness on how to do more to fight Climate Change; Chaipel have written some poignant, thought-provoking arguments. Next week, we will be focusing on perfomance poetry, studying the Cornish poet Charles Causley - in line with our Cornish mining enquiry.

MATHS
Y6s are working on a travel project, incorporating a range of skills which are needed to plan a holiday. Y5s have been revisitng multiplying by 10,100,1000 and will be moving onto dividing next week. We are ensuring that core areas of mental maths fluency are embedded in the run-up to their final primary-school year.

WIDER CURRICULUM
Our play perfomances have taken up most of our afternoons, however, we have investigated air resistance in Science. We made paper aeroplanes and then flew them to see which design reduced air resistance the most. We pooled all our skills together in PE for a dodgeball tournament and investigated the history of Cornish mining - creating time line to show the rise a fall of mining in Cornwall.

TRIP
Just a reminder that our class trip to The Box is on Friday (20th). It is in normal school hours but children will need to bring a packed lunch, snack and water bottle.

I have attached our Knowledge Web and homework grid for this half term. Our KIRFs are to practise our times table fluency and children have a range of websites which they can practise on.

That's all for this week so have a lovely weekend.

Miss Randle, Mrs Clary, Miss Colton and Mrs Hodge 

A great start to the week when our swimming club defied the weather and used the pool in their wetsuits (see photo).

We have had a very busy week preparing for next week’s School’s Day at the Polperro Festival. We are looking forward to seeing you there on Tuesday 17th June from 11am - 2:45pm. On the day please send your child in with a packed lunch, drink, filled water bottle, sun hat and suncream as the weather is going to be fine.

Approximate timings are below.
11.00 – 11:20 – Welcome and singing
11.20 – 11:40 – Taekwondo Demonstration
11.40 – 12:00 – Young Musicians
12.00 – 13:00 – Lunch (12.15 – 13.00 Magician Performance for the children)
13:00 – 13:15 – Solo and Group Singers
13.15 – 13.30 – Penhallow Class performance
13.30 – 13.45 – Landaviddy Class performance
13.45 – 14.05 – Talland Class performance
14.05 – 14.25 – Chaipel Class performance
14.25 – 14.45 – Singing finale

Children may be collected from their teacher following the final singing session. Children not collected from Big Green will walk up to Polperro School in time for 3.15 pick up.

Summer 2025 Bridge Schools Trust Parent and Carer Questionnaire  Here is the link to the Bridge Schools Trust Parent and Carer Questionnaire which closes on Monday 7th July Summer 2025 Bridge Schools Trust Parent and Carer Questionnaire. Your feedback is really important to us and we would really appreciate your views on the key strengths to celebrate, as well as areas we could develop even further for all our children. We would really appreciate your time in answering the questions as your responses will help us to continue to improve.

Bridge School Games The children will all be competing in the 4th annual Bridge Schools Games next week so please ensure that their PE kit is in school as they will be taking part in different Wimbledon-themed challenges across the week. Polperro were the champions in 2022 and we are looking forward to competing again this year against the other schools in the Academy Trust.

MHST Summer Wild Wellbeing Sessions Please see attached details of MHST Summer Wild Wellbeing sessions being run throughout the county. These are nature-based, creative, practical workshops where children can learn about the Five Ways to Wellbeing: Give, Connect, Take Notice, Be Active and Keep Learning whilst outdoors in nature. These sessions are open to children aged 5-12, each session will be approximately 2 hours long. Sign up details are included in the attached poster. Sign up will close one week before the session date, or when the session reaches capacity, whichever comes first.

Have a great weekend.

Mrs Hillman

Sarah from the Liskeard and Looe Foodbank joined us at Pelynt this week to promote the work of our local foodbank and go through some basic recipes with the children.

As a school we are able to refer families to the foodbank, including extra support over the summer holidays. If you, or anybody you know, needs support please speak to Mr Hannah, who will be able to organise everything with complete confidentiality. 

We love our visits to St Anne's and we think they love having us too!

It can be hard to think of different activities to take but they always laugh when we take a bag of puzzles and all of the pieces fall out on our journey up!

Everyone works together to identify which piece belongs where and then we all have a go at putting the puzzles back together.

It really has been another busy week here at Brunel. From residentials to exciting learning opportunities and WOW starters to sports competitions, it has been a fantastic week for our children. Please enjoy reading through this week's Brunel Bulletin.