During my morning 'meet and greet', I think I have managed to see most parents and carers since the start of the new academic year. If not, welcome back and I look forward to catching up with you next week. A special welcome to our new children and their families; we hope you have been made to feel welcome and the children have enjoyed the start to their primary education. Within days of our new reception children starting, I began to give tours of the school for prospective new families for September 2026. If you know of anyone looking for a school place for next September, please feel free to share my contact information so they can book a school viewing if interested: head@harrowbarrowprimary.co.uk

We start all new school years with a period of settling the children back into routines and setting expectations. After a six week break, I am always surprised at how quickly the children settle into the rhythm of school life. This year has seen an especially good start across the school, with smiley, happy children bounding into class, enthusiastic to learn at the start of the day. We look forward to celebrating the children's successes and achievements at our weekly celebration assemblies on Fridays. Please look out for praise certificates and ask your child to explain why they were awarded them.

We welcomed new teaching assistant and lunchtime supervisor Sarah Marley to our team last week. Whilst there are no other new members of staff, some staff are working in different roles. A reminder of the staff organisation for this year:

Class 1: Teachers - Tom Ottewell-Taylor, Abi Flashman & Jo Walker (Wednesday afternoons). Teaching Assistants - Angela Bushell, Stacy Vinson, Sarah Marley
Class 2: Teachers - Ati Charlesworth & Jo Walker (Tuesday afternoons). Teaching Assistant - Lesley Connell
Class 3: Teachers - Sam Watts & Andrew Hunt (Thursday afternoons). Teaching Assistants - Jo Cocking, Sarah Marley, Jo Walker, Brendan Thomas
Class 4: Teachers - Melissa Pinfield & Andrew Hunt (Monday & Tuesday afternoons). Teaching Assistants - Heather Thomson, Brendan Thomas

Lesley Connell is no longer working in the school office but remains as Breakfast Club and After School Club lead. For all office queries/communication, please now direct emails to Elaine Moyle: emoyle@harrowbarrowprimary.co.uk

Elaine does not work in the office on Fridays, so if your query or communication can wait until another day, please avoid calling into the office. I will be covering the office on Fridays but am also often involved in meetings or cover teaching.

In my role, I am fortunate enough to work with all the classes. This week, I particularly enjoyed teaching an art lesson to Class 3. The theme for their work this half term is 'drawing stories', with the aim of illustrating a piece of text at the end of the unit. The children started by looking at a tableaux and imagined it as a scene from a story. Here are some examples of their charcoal and chalk sketches:




We have lots of exciting learning opportunities planned for the term ahead and look forward to sharing these with you in the weeks to come. One of our new developments this year is the work we plan to do through our climate action plan. A copy of this can be found in the information tab on this website: www.harrowbarrowprimary.co.uk/Information/Climate_Action_Plan
If you feel you might be able to contribute to our work in this area, please contact us as we want to involve our whole school community.
I look forward to sharing more of the children's learning achievements in the coming weeks.

On Saturday 12th July, we held an open morning to show off our fantastic Early Years provision to prospective families. Over the two hours we were visited by multiple families whose children had the opportunity to explore the many wonderful delights of the classroom and outdoor area with their parents and carers. We were thrilled with the turnout and hope we will see all these families join Harrowbarrow in the future. A huge thank you to the Class 1 team for efforts in putting on this event and thank you to the PSA members who provided refreshments.





Music
Well done to all our junior children for their end of year performance last week. They had a lot to learn in a very short space of time and did an amazing job at learning words for the songs, the script and then all the dance and actions. Thank you to families who helped with costumes and, of course, thank you to Rachel Lane for her efforts to put the show together - it is a huge job. As you know, Rachel will be leaving at the end of term. It is fair to say, when we reflect on what she does for the children, Rachel is irreplaceable. Several parents have asked what is happening with music provision at the school next year. Abi Flashman will be the subject leader for music and we will continue to provide peripatetic music lessons through Harvey (guitars), Julie (brass) and Josh (piano). If you are interested in your child learning to play an instrument, please contact the school office. We also hope to continue the relationship Rachel has established with the Cornwall Music Service, who provided flute lessons to all our junior children this term through teacher Sally Butlin. These lessons culminated in Class 3 and 4 performing brilliantly to their parents and carers on Friday morning. Rachel has also had a teaching commitment which we have covered from September. I will be teaching both Class 3 and 4 on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons and Ati Charlesworth will become fulltime, teaching Class 2 on Wednesday afternoons. Other provision delivered by Rachel will be considered in September, once we have had time to reflect on our capacity to deliver some of these things.

Staffing
Rachel Lane has been a feature of Harrowbarrow School for a long time and we will miss all she contributes. She has built a reputation for music provision at the school, which you would be hard to find in many similarly sized schools in Cornwall. We thank Rachel for many years of dedicated and passionate music teaching on top of all the other things she has done during her time at the school. We wish Rachel all the very best for the future.
Next year, we are able to increase our support staff provision across the school, which is always welcomed as teaching assistants play a vital role working with all children as well as those who require additional support. I am delighted to announce the appointment of Sarah Marley to the posts of teaching assistant and lunchtime supervisor from September. As a qualified teacher, with a background in STEM and environmental projects, Sarah's appointment will add a lot of additional expertise and we welcome her to the team. She will mostly work in Class 3 and Class 1.

Pupil Progress
Whilst academic outcomes in maths and English are only one way of measuring the impact a school has on children's education, they are an important indicator. This year, the children have risen to the high expectations of staff and performed strongly in many areas. I am pleased to share some of the highlights below.

EYFS: percentage of children securing a Good Level of Development - above the national average
Year 1 Phonic Screening Check: percentage of children passing this check - above the national average
Year 2 Writing: percentage achieving the expected level - above the national average
Year 4 Multiplication Tables Check: the average score for the cohort was above the national average
Year 6 Reading: percentage achieving the expected level - above the national average

Thank you to all the staff and children in achieving these fantastic results.

As we edge towards the end of term there are still some exciting events to look forward to:

14 - 18.7.25: Year 6 residential to Brecon Beacons
14.7.25: Choir to sing to Harrowbarrow Luncheon Club
21.7.25: Infants to sing to parents/carers in the covered playground (we will using this occasion to say a final farewell to Rachel Lane and present her with some gifts so please feel free to join us)
21.7.25: Year 6 leavers presentation in Class 4
22.7.25: Last day of term for pupils - please note school finishes at 1.30pm

Last week our children competed in the Bridge School Games. This annual event involves children trying to score as many points as they can in several events based around a theme. The theme this year was Wimbledon. Scores are then submitted to see which school has the highest overall score. Our children have been competing in activities such Racquet Run, Tennis Side Step Shuttles, Ball Kid Bedlam, Tennis Toss and Game, Set, Catch. Congratulations to Trenode, the overall winners this year. I would like to make a special mention of Harrowbarrow Year 3, Year 4 and Year 5 who came first in the Racquet Run, Tennis Toss and Tennis Side Step Shuffles respectively across the Bridge Schools. To find out more about the activities, please ask your children or watch this video of the opening ceremony:

Opening Ceremony of Bridge School Games 2024-25


Tomorrow, we look forward to welcoming you all to watch the children compete at our annual summer sports evening. Postponed from Tuesday due to the weather, we are optimistic the weather will be favourable tomorrow. Races start at 5pm so please ensure your child is delivered to the covered playground for 4.50pm, ready for teams to process to the school field. After the competition, the PSA has organised a summer fete, with plenty of refreshments and activities.



This year, instead of raising money for the school, we will be supporting one of our families as they attempt to fund important medical treatment. For further information or to make a direct donation, please follow this link: www.gofundme.com/f/help-give-my-auntie-a-chance-life-saving-cancer-treatment?attribution_id=sl:6a3829e3-89a3-4c8c-8cab-01abf6ef1922&lang=en_GB&ts=1747720989&utm_campaign=pd_ss_icons&utm_content=amp13_t1-amp14_t2&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=messenger&v=amp14_t2

A huge thank you to the PSA, who have been working tirelessly to organise this event and the recent colour run, which proved a huge success both in terms of money raised and enjoyment for those watching and the children taking part. Here is just one of the amazing photographs from the event.




Overall, you raised in the region of £1,700 for school funds, which is simply staggering. Thank you to all those who made donations and supported their children to secure sponsors. We look forward to sharing with you how the money has been spent for the benefit of the children.

Some dates for your diary:

Thursday 26th June: Reserve sports evening
Wednesday 2nd July: Orchestra to perform to their parents at 3.30pm

Apologies for the delay since my last news update but, as always, it has been another very busy period at school. Firstly, I would like to congratulate Year 6 pupils on completing their SATs before half term. Not only did they have to endure four days of intense assessment under exam conditions, but many of them had been arriving earlier that usual since March to attend booster sessions. This shows a real commitment and determination to do their best. Thank you also to their parents/carers for dropping them off early. Our Year 5 pupils have also played their part, joining me for three weeks to have their daily maths lesson in the library. This allowed Year 6 to focus on year group specific areas that needed revising prior to the tests. It was a real pleasure to work with Year 5 and to see how determined they are to succeed as mathematicians too.
I have recently reported on work to develop our forest school area. Mark Cocking, our caretaker, completed resurrecting the polytunnel and building the forest school storage shed. Class 3 enjoyed using the forest school for their class treat recently, which they earnt through their collective efforts in the classroom. A big thanks to Mark for his efforts and to Tesco for funding the resources.

The first week of whole class flute lessons in Class 3 and 4 were quite painful on the ear! However, in only a short space of time Sally Butlin, the teacher from Cornwall Music Service, has managed to progress the children towards making some more harmonious sounds. We hope, by the end of term, to invite the children's parents/carers in to listen to them perform a simple tune.

Last week, Class 4 children completed a design technology unit they had been working on for 6 weeks. They designed and made automaton, mechanical devices using cams to create moving parts. The brief was to design and make an automaton to display in a shop window, advertising the products in the shop. The learning steps also included using glue guns and accurately measuring and sawing materials. The children were delighted when their designs worked at the end, which is testament to their perseverance and accurate construction skills. The finished automaton look amazing.



Last Friday, during our training day, teachers were learning to use a cloud based learning tool called Showbie. There is lots of exciting potential for children to use Showbie on our new iPads to support learning but also to share children's work with this parents and carers. Once we are fully up and running with Showbie in September, we hope to set it up so parents and carers can see their children's stored learning.

Bridge MAT like to gather the views of parents/carers through an annual online survey. This helps inform future decisions about school improvement priorities. The survey closes on Monday 7th July. Please take a moment to complete this survey by following the link: Summer 2025 Bridge Schools Trust Parent and Carer Questionnaire

Finally, some dates for your diary:

24.6.25 - Sports evening from 5pm
26.6.25 - Reserve sports evening in the event of bad weather
30.6.25 - Year 6 group to attend county championship cricket match in Taunton
7.7.25 - Year 6 transition day at Callington College

May is the month that always starts with a celebration through the annual Harrowbarrow & Metherell May Day festivities. Once again, our dancers contributed their efforts to this event through the long standing tradition of dancing around the Maypole. This year, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of VE Day, they started with a Lindy Hop style dance. Well done to all those who took part and thank you to Melissa Pinfield for coaching them. We also held a short commemoration of VE Day on the school field yesterday and held a minute silence.
Whilst December may feel like a long way off, preparations for the Cotehele flower garland have to start now. Each year we are invited to make the garland that hangs in the restaurant over Christmas. This also involves growing and drying some of the flowers. As our self-appointed head gardener, Sam Beagley in Year 6 has taken responsibility for tending, picking and drying the flowers. So far, he is doing an amazing job.




This week, as part of the history, Class 3 were making model wattle and daub walls to understand how Tudor houses were constructed. The children were relieved to know they were using clay instead of the traditional animal manure!




Making the most of the glorious sunshine today, our infant classes had a badminton taster session with a visiting sports coach. The children always enjoy trying something new and, who knows, maybe one of them will be a future badminton champion.




Health & Safety
Following a parental concern, please ensure dogs are on a lead and kept a safe distance from young children during drop-off and collection times.  Dogs are also excluded from the school site. Thank you for your cooperation.

I look forward to sharing more of the children's wonderful learning outcomes and the opportunities they have had next week.

What a glorious week of sunshine we have experienced. I have had the privilege of joining the children several times over the past few days at breaktimes and thoroughly enjoyed seeing them having fun on the school field. It is obvious that some children have had sunscreen applied before coming to school and are wearing sunhats but this is good opportunity to remind you all to think about sun safety. Applying sunscreen, bringing a refillable water bottle and sunhat would be sensible. Hopefully, the weather will continue for the May Day celebrations on Monday - good luck to all our Maypole dancers.
We are fortunate to have such fantastic outdoor facilities at Harrowbarrow, including our forest school. Last Saturday, Abi Flashman and a team of PSA and parent volunteers spent the day clearing the brambles and giving this space a makeover. They also developed a new sand play area for Class 1. A huge thank you to Tom Brittan, Sarah Marley, Leanne & Will Francis, Kym Lovejoy, Lily Urbanska, Leanne Chapman and Abi Flashman for giving up their time for the benefit of all children - we are very grateful. The end results are stunning.



Staffing update
It is with great sadness that I share the news Rachel Lane will be leaving Harrowbarrow at the end of term. Rachel has been an integral member of our staffing team for almost two decades but has decided to call time on her work at Harrowbarrow. Countless children have benefitted from Rachel's passion for music, which has become a feature of our unique identity as a school. It is fair to say Rachel is irreplaceable and will be greatly missed. Alongside all the wonderful music opportunities Rachel has provided, she has held many other roles over the years and we know she will miss all her work with the pupils, even throwing herself off the 'Leap of Faith' at Porthpean to the raucous cheers of the children! We wish Rachel the very best for the next phase of her career and thank her for all she has done for so many years. We will, of course, mark Rachel's leaving nearer the end of term with something appropriate.
It is also with sadness that we will also be saying farewell to teaching assistant Jane Carne at the end of this half term. Jane, who has a forest school qualification and is a passionate enthusiast of outdoor learning, is leaving to pursue opportunities elsewhere. We will miss Jane's contributions both in the classroom and outside it in the forest school and wish her all the very best for the future. We will also mark Jane's departure in an appropriate way before half term.

Other activities taking place across the school this week include all junior children starting whole class flute lessons. I had the privilege of joining Class 4 for their lesson but, disappointingly, couldn't get a sound out of my flute mouthpiece! The children were far more successful than me and, over the course of the term, will gradually start to play the flutes. During our art and design technology lessons we have had several classes making things. Infant art lessons have been about creative making, where the children make designs using a stimulus such as 'must fit in the palm of your hand' or 'must be contained in something'. The open ended nature of this has inspired some great creativity. In Class 4 design technology lessons the children are making automaton. This week they were measuring and cutting the parts in preparation for construction.

                                                                                                  

                                                                                               

Dates for your diary


12.5.25 - 15.5.25: Year 6 SATs week
21.5.25: Year 6 cricket tournament at Lanhydrock (details to follow for team members)
22.5.25: Year 1/2 multisports event at Callington College (details to follow)
22.5.25: Last pupil day before half term
23.5.25: Staff training day - school closed to pupils
2.6.25: First day for pupils after half term

On the first day, the children were out on the water enjoying stand-up paddle boarding and other water activities. In the evening they had a silent disco and participated in a performance with a piratical theme. Sam Watts reported that the children loved the silent disco and danced for ages. The evening performance was really good too, very active and engaging. The children had to follow the journey of a pirate by getting moustaches, walking the plank, sailing past merpeople and making it through stormy seas. There is a photo of a very unhappy Sam Watts dressed as a merperson but he may not thank us for sharing it!
On day two, the children enjoyed archery, high ropes and, for the first time, axe throwing. Year 5 children were learning about the Vikings earlier this year so I am sure they really got into the spirit of this.
We can't wait to find out what the children have been up to today and look forward to their return.

The summer term is always action packed with lots of sporting opportunities, trips, residentials and transition preparations. As well as the usual end of term junior performance, we have a new musical experience for all Class 3 and Class 4 children this year. A music teacher from Cornwall Music Service will be visiting once a week to teach whole class flute lessons. I am sure the sound of 34 flutes being played at the same time in Class 4 will be an enchanting and relaxing experience for all involved!
Year 1 and 2 children started their swimming programme this week and Class 3 had their first gymnastics lessons at Copper Valley Junior School. For health and safety reasons, this is a good opportunity to remind you that children must only wear stud style earrings and other jewellery is not permitted - we don't want children sustaining injuries through catching jewellery items on equipment during playtimes and PE lessons.
I look forward to sharing more with you in the weeks ahead.

Congratulations to our First Lego League Competitors

On Wednesday 12th March, Sam Watts took the Lego team to RNAS Culdrose to compete, with their Lego robot, against 60 other schools. They also had to complete a presentation on innovative ways to explore the oceans. The team of Rioch, Lexi, Caleb, Talan, Connor, Holly, Emmy, Poppy and Olivia did amazingly well, winning the judges award for their enthusiasm, motivation and all round positivity. Congratulations to the team and thanks to Sam for all his hard work preparing the children so well. Thank you also to Karen Brinson for helping out on the day.

Despite the cold weather, we have enjoyed some sunny days which has enabled us to take our curriculum outside more often. As part of their geography, learning about the seasons, Year 1 and 2 children went in search of signs of spring and captured this on their spring sticks.

Thank you to all those parents/carers who helped dress their children up for our World Book Day celebrations. We had some amazing outfits representing book characters and, looking around the school today,  I think the hair dye and face pant has finally worn off!

Music Instrument Lessons
If your child is interested in learning a musical instrument, we currently offer piano, guitar and brass lessons through our peripatetic music teachers. For more information, please contact the school office, who will put you in touch with the appropriate teacher.

Dates for your diary
18.3.25: Year 5/6 football team matches at Callington College
19.3.25: Class 3 visit to Farm & Country Day at county showground
21.3.25: Comic Relief fundraiser
21.3.25: Landrake cross country run
25.3.25: Final round of Year 5/6 football matches
28.3.25: PSA film night after school
31.3.25: End of term singing assembly in playground for parents/carers, followed by PSA bake sale (2pm start but further details to follow)
4.4.25: Last day of term - pupils finish at 1.30pm

A largely sunny and dry week following the half term break has been just the tonic for the children and staff as we returned to work this week. Due to other commitments, I haven't been able to do the morning meet and greet as often as I would like, but whenever I have seen the children around the school they have been so enthusiastic, cheerful and polite; it has been a real pleasure to spend time with them.

This week, Class 1 started their gymnastics programme at Copper Valley Junior School. The excitement was barely containable when Abi Flashman opened up all the climbing frames and got the gym equipment out. I will try and post some photographs in the future to share this opportunity which just isn't possible at Harrowbarrow.

Our Year 5 and 6 football team competed in the first matches of their tournament on Tuesday. Despite losing 2-1 and 2-0 against Sir Robert Geffery and Bishop Cornish schools respectively, the children were great. Like the Year 3 and 4 team before them, many of the children were playing their first ever match. Well done to Poppy, Belle, Caleb, Leo, Noah, Archie, Talan, Rioch, Eli, Jayden and Josh.

In September, we made some changes to our English curriculum. There has been a renewed focus on using high quality texts as the starting point for children's writing and improving their spelling and handwriting. At this halfway point of the year, we are already seeing significant improvements. This has been recognised by some of our professional partners who visit the school regularly to see lessons, talk to the children and look at their books. Here are a few examples of the impressive work we are seeing across the school:

Class 2 children have published their work in this brilliant book, with extracts shown from Penny and Jasper's stories. A copy of this book has been put in the library for other children to read.



Class 4 have been writing some mystery thrillers and I was particularly impressed by this piece from Leo.


Like a phoenix from the flames, our polytunnel is being resurrected after Storm Unis flattened it a couple of years ago. Thanks to the Tesco Community Grant Abi Flashman secured, damaged parts have been replaced and caretaker Mark Cocking has been rebuilding it. We expect a new plastic cover to go on in the next couple of weeks, ready for children to start growing plants as part of their science curriculum. At the same time, we have a new forest school shed we will be erecting to provide some storage and protection from adverse weather during forest school sessions.



Dates for you diary

4.3.25: St Pirans performance for Year 3 and 4 parents/carers at Cotehele
7.3.25: Final cross-country league race
10.3.25: Harrowbarrow World Book Day celebrations
12.3.25: Harrowbarrow team competing in First Lego League county championship at RNAS Culdrose
19.3.25: Class 3 trip to Cornwall Farm & Country day at Wadebridge showground
21.3.25: Harrowbarrow Comic Relief fundraising day (details to follow)

Advance Notice Reminder
Please note, all Bridge MAT schools finish at 1.30pm on the last pupil day of each full term. This is to give school staff time to organise and prepare for the term ahead. Harrowbarrow hasn't previously adopted this policy, although many schools now do it. To align Harrowbarrow with our partner schools within the Trust, we will be adopting this practice at the end of this term, on the last pupil day before the Easter holiday (Friday 4th April). We will send a reminder nearer the time.