This week we have been practising for our sports day event on 24th June.  We have been working on running relays as well as working on the tug of war.  The children also had an amazing afternoon on Tuesday doing the colour run which was brilliantly run by Mrs Flashman and the PSA.

We have also been writing up our discussion texts.  Here is sample from Imogen 

Should we ban Fortnight?

In this discussion, we will discover some of the pros and cons of Fortnite.  Fortnite has been played for years from one person to a quarter of the world.  See what you think after reading this.  Some say no; others think we should.  After reading this, you many want to take away all non-educational video games away from your child.  The first video game was created in the year 1958 where as Fortnite was created in 2017. 

The spellings for this week are from the 100 words that Year 5 and 6 children should know.  They are: correspond, recommend, amateur, attached, community and available. 

Here are the KIRFs for this week:

The first week, a short week, but an action-packed week! This is the only way I can describe learning in Class 2 this past week.

In Literacy, we started by completing our neat copies of the information texts. We have some seriously brilliant pieces of work and can't wait to show them to you all. Then, we started our new unit of work. This half term, we are learning all about persuasive language. We will be using this to write persuasive letters later in the term.

In Maths, Year 1s continued learning more about multiplication and division by exploring arrays and dividing by sharing. In the meantime, Year 2s have continued exploring fractions.  

This half term, in Science, we continue our investigation into habitats. This week, we have started our journey into the mini world of microhabitats. We spend most of Monday afternoon in our forest school area, exploring the different microhabitats we could find there. It was quite an exciting afternoon of turning over logs and stones, and exploring hidden corners of the area to find some amazing hidden worlds. We also found a variety of minibeasts in these miniworlds. 

In DT, we started our new unit on cooking and nutrition. This week, we explored the difference between fruits and vegetables with Mrs Lane. We will continue learning more about how they are grown and learn how to prep them. We are really looking forward to using some of these fruits to make our own smoothies later in the term!

In Geography, we have started a new unit by the end of which we hope to answer the question: What is it like to live by the coast? We will be exploring the seas and oceans surrounding the UK, exploring the coastal landscape and diving deeper into the physical features of the Jurassic Coast.

On the left is a small snapshot of what we have been learning in Music this term. Last half term, we began exploring Pitch and Melody with Mrs Lane. We have all had fantastic fun learning about octobass and piccolo, and using a variety of instruments. We also learned to describe pitch and timbre.

This week, we put our skills to the test by writing graphic notations and creating voice to match them. Needless to say, Mrs Lane is super proud of what they have achieved so far.

Mrs Lane wrote, "The children have been using graphic notation and their voices to explore pitch and create a piece of vocal music - they all worked so well yesterday and very proudly shared their compositions - they have really grown in confidence which is lovely!"

This week we have been writing up our discussion texts.  We are nearly ready to publish some on the blog as we have written the first draft.  There have been some pretty heated debates about a wide range of subjects from firearms to animal testing.

We had our first swimming session at Mount Kelly.  The groups could use both the 25 metre pool and the 50 metre pool for the session.  The class worked hard during this time.

We had a visit from Mr Davey at Callington College to talk to the Year 6 about their transition to secondary school.  He was very informative and the pupils had plenty of opportunities to ask questions before they visit in July. 

This week's spellings are homophones so make sure that you know the meaning:  practice, practise, guessed, guest, allowed, aloud and lead. 

This term we are consolidating KIRFs from the previous term.  Here are some questions to work on

This week we have been researching our own discussion texts in class.  We are very passionate from a range of subjects from whether there should be animal testing to whether vapes should be illegal.  Watch this space for examples of our work after we have had a chance to write up our texts after half term. 

We have also been practising ready for the cricket tournament which has been rescheduled for Friday 13th June 2025.  We are keeping fingers crossed for the weather and for a sunny day this time. 

We have also been learning about Queen Elizabeth's royal progress and imaging what it would have been like to be there.  Here is the opening from Lexi's writing which starts, " As the clock struck 10:00, I knew it was nearly time for our own monarch to come to town.  I was strictly forbidden to go and see our monarch but my curiosity got ahead of me.  Very quietly, I dressed in my very best Sunday clothes."

Just a reminder that next half term is swimming.  We will be swimming on Monday 2nd June at Mount Kelly pool.  Please make sure you send your child in with a swimming costume, goggles and a towel on this date. 

 
 
This week Year 6 have been working incredibly hard on their SATs.  I have been really impressed with both the effort and attitude from them all week.  They now have a cricket tournment to look forward to on Wednesday.  This week we also had Alan in to teach us some badminton skills.  We started by throwing giant shuttlecocks but progressed quickly to rallies with raquets and normal sized shuttlecocks.  

Here is the KIRFs for Year 5 this week:

The spellings are going to be -ial words again.  The words are: initial, partial, social, initial, spacial, facial, artificial.

Just a reminder that we are starting swimming on the first Monday after half term at Mount Kelly pool. 

And just like that we are done with the penultimate week of the half term...
Class 2, as usual have been busy learning and having tons of fun... and making the most of the glorious sunshine. 

In Literacy, we have completed writing our draft Information text. next week, we will be editing them and writing out the next copies. In Maths, Year 1s have been counting in 2s, 10s and 5s, while Year 2s have been using fractions to find the whole.

In ICT, we continued our enquiry into algorithms by planning our own set of algorithms.

History this week has been all about Amelia Earhart and her amazing solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. After recapping what we already knew about her and her adventures, we roleplayed at being one of the many people in that field in Ireland years ago when her plane landed after her grueling journey across the Atlantic Ocean and relating our own eyewitness account. Then, we had a go at writing down our account accounts. On the left are extracts from the eyewitness account written by Sophie (top) and Maddie (bottom). We also had a lot of fun recording our eyewitness accounts and watching them together.
 

In Science, we continue our enquiry into different habitats. This week we looked at a variety of habitats around the world and investigated how these habitats are suited for some animals and not others. We also discovered how each habitat provides the living thing with all the things it needs to survive - all the MRS GREN.

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

What a busy week we have had in Class 2! 
First day back, we were joined by the Year 1s from Class 1 for a lovely workshop with our MHST worker Hannah on Sympathy, Empathy and Conflict Resolution. We had a very informative session where we not only shared our understanding of friendship but also began to explore how we might better help each other by allowing ourselves to empathize with others around us.

We also started Thursday with a special assembly to mark the 80th anniversary of VE day before we set off for our swimming lessons. Besides the assembly, we also got the chance to reflect and talk about the significance of VE day for us today. In the afternoon, we also heard some comments from children around the country celebrating VE day. 

In Literacy, this week we continued to explore Information texts. We had a go at writing some fantastic exclamation sentences and explored the use of the past tense. In Maths, Year 1s completed their unit on Place values and have now started a unit on Multiplication and Division. Year 2s have continued exploring fractions. This week, we looked at quarters and thirds.  

In ICT, we continued to explore algorithms and have begun looking at how computers can use algorithms to make predictions (machine learning). In History, we all became History detectives as we investigated an artifact - a very old document in French. We had some very lively discussions around the origin of the document and what clues we could find in it. It turned out to be Bessie Coleman's pilot license. 

While the pilot's license gave us a lot of facts about Bessie Coleman, it left us with more questions than answers. So we pooled our detective heads together again and with the help of the Internet, we found more details about this amazing woman. 

Finally, we had a lovely end to a very busy week with an exciting badminton taster session with a coach from Tavyside Badminton. We started with some games around not only throwing and catching, but also around listening and following instructions. Some of us got rather competitive as we matched our hand-eye coordination with speed to complete a variety of tasks set for us. 

This week started with the May Day at the village hall with the theme being 80 years since VE Day.   The May Day dancers performed a dance inspired by the Lindy Hop as well as more traditional May Day dances to music from the 1940s.  The group did fantastically well and managed some tricky routines. 

Next week is SATs week.  Year 5s will be with Mr Hunt in the library for the time that Year 6 are taking their SATs tests.  They will continue to work on their Maths with him.  This means that there are no spellings for next week and the Kirfs are only for Year 5. 

There is a date for Years 6 to look forward to .  On Wednesday 21st May, Mrs Flashman will be taking a group of Year 6 to play cricket for the day at Landhydrock.  

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.

As you may know, we have been focussing our Art lessons on sculpture this half term.


We have been looking at the work of a few sculptors with permanent or temporary work displayed in Plymouth. We have looked at LOOK II, by Antony Gormley, who also sculpted The Angel of the North. This can be seen on West Hoe Pier.


We have had an even closer look at the work of Jyll Bradley, particularly The Hop.
An exhibition of her work can currently be seen at The Box.


We had a go doing warm-up sketches of The Hop, responded to cut out photos of it, then used acetate to collage our own versions. We also imitated Jyll Bradley’s work using our light box and brightly coloured transparent objects.


If anyone is interested in seeing some fabulous local sculptures, please see the link below where The Box have provided a list of permanent exhibits which can be seen around Plymouth.


https://www.theboxplymouth.com/outside-the-box/public-art/permanent-public-art-in-plymouth

This week we have been clearing the outside area ready for Cotehele planting.  Now we just need to keep them watered before they are used for the garland at Christmas.  It was hard work but it is looking good.  


Here are the Kirfs for this week.  Year 5 have been working on tenths and hundredths as fractions and decimals.  Year 6 have been recapping different areas such as percentages of amounts and multiplying decimals. 

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

What an amazing first week back!

We have got off on a running start this first week of the term. In Literacy, we have begun a new unit on writing an information text. This week, we first looked at a variety of non-fiction books and discussed some of the common features they all shared. Then, we looked at an piece of information text to see what key elements we could pick out to include in our Writing Toolkit.

In Maths, Year 1s continue to explore Place Values to 50 while Year 2s have begun an exciting unit on Fractions.

In History, this term we are exploring the History of Aviation. This week, we explored the story of the Wright Brothers with Miss Walker and discussed their contribution to flight.

In the meantime, in Science, we explored the difference between things that are living, non-living and those that were once alive to start off our new unit on Living Things and their Habitats. And of course with the weather playing ball, we took the rest of the lesson outside to go on a "Things Hunt." We had some really interesting debates on the carpet about the difference between non-living things and things that were once alive. If paper is something that was once alive because it is made of trees, then is a basket ball the same because because rubber comes from trees?

This term, in Music, Class 2 are exploring Pitch and Melody and on Wednesday, we had a fun session with Mr Hunt, followed by a creative exploration of Jyll Bradley's installation at the Box to kick start our Art unit on Playful Making.

Key Dates and Information

MONDAY: PE
THURSDAY: Swimming 

Please find attached below, the KIRFs for this half term.

**KS1 Weekly Blog – Splashing into Summer!**

What a fantastic week we’ve had in KS1! Our week began with a splash as we had our **very first swimming session**! The children were amazing – full of enthusiasm, confidence, and smiles. It was wonderful to see everyone giving it their best, whether it was their first time in the pool or they were already little fish! We’re so proud of how well they listened, followed instructions, and supported one another. We can’t wait to see how their skills grow over the coming weeks.

In English, we’ve been diving into the world of fiction and non-fiction. The children have loved exploring different types of books, spotting the differences between made-up stories and real-life facts. We’ve been asking some brilliant questions and sorting texts into categories – future librarians and authors in the making!

Over into Science, we put on our explorer hats and went on a mini beast hunt! We investigated **microhabitats** around the school grounds, carefully looking under logs, leaves, and stones to discover where different creatures like to live. The children were so curious and respectful of nature – it was a joy to see.

**Forest Friends Club – Our First Adventure!** This week marked the exciting start of our **Forest Friends Club**, and what an amazing first session we had! The children began by exploring the forest area, getting to know their surroundings and spotting all sorts of natural treasures. There was so much excitement as we ventured through the trees, listened to birdsong, and discovered hidden corners of our woodland space. One of our favourite activities was making clay minibeasts and woodland animals. Using natural materials like twigs, leaves, and stones, the children got wonderfully creative and sculpted everything from snails and spiders to owls and foxes – their imaginations truly came to life! We also had a brilliant time with den building, working together to create secret shelters using branches, logs, and lots of teamwork. The mud kitchen was busy too, bubbling with muddy potions and messy creations, while the dinosaur small world setup inspired some fantastic storytelling and role play. It was a joyful, muddy, and magical start to Forest Friends – we can’t wait for our next session! Well done to all of KS1 for another week of fantastic learning and fun! 

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.

Welcome back to Class 4.  It is great to see everyone after the Easter break. 

This week, Year 5s have enjoyed their residential in Porthpean.  I think the highlight was Mr Watts dressed up in the evening as part of the entertainment. 

Here are the KIRFs for this term as well as the curriculum overview.  This term we are looking at the Tudors as our topic and Year 6 and their partner have been researching facts about the Tudors for a class book. 

In a few weeks, Year 6 have SATs.  Here is the SATs timetable for Year 6s for SATs week for your information. 

And before we know it, a whole term has ended... and Class 2 have had so much fun learning and growing together. 

In Literacy, we have almost all completed our own version of the poem Calico Pie by Edward Lear. We also had the chance to perform the first 2 stanzas of the poem in front of the entire school on Friday.

We ended our term with a big Maths Easter Egg Hunt on Friday. While Year 2s had a go at solving some Maths problems that they found inside their eggs, Reception and Year 1s went on a number hunt. We ended the hunt by 'feasting' on the chocolate eggs the easter Bunny had dropped off earlier!

We were also very lucky to be able to perform to our family and friends some of the songs we sing regularly in class during our Singing Assembly on Monday. If Class 2 families would like join in and sing with us, just follow the links below.

On Wednesday, Class 1 and 2 went on a class trip to the Box in Plymouth for a most educational workshop on toys. We had a wonderful guided tour of the exhibits where we saw a life-size replica wooly mammoth, wonderful artefacts from around the world collected by some awesome explorers and a virtual history Plymouth. Did you know that there are more than 600 shipwrecks in the waters off Plymouth Sound? We wrapped all up with an amazing STEM workshop about toys.