As we approach the last few weeks of the autumn term, our focus moves to Christmas. However, there is still lots of non-Christmas related activity taking place across the school to share with you.

Multi-sports at Callington College
Yesterday, Class 3 took part in a multi-sports event at Callington College. Originally planned as a tag rugby event, the organisers had to change this due to the weather. Throughout the afternoon the children engaged in a series of activities led by sport leaders from the college. These students introduced games the children could play where they competed against each other. The afternoon concluded with a dodgeball competition. The children were brilliant throughout, participating with enthusiasm and appearing to have lots of fun.



Cross Country
Well done to all our runners who took part in the race last Friday. It is great to have so many children wanting to race. I must give a special mention to Jacob Bloye, who finished second. This is highest position a Harrowbarrow runner has achieved in over a decade, so well done to Jacob. Will we see a first by the end of the league season?

Rocksteady
Joe Spurrell from Rocksteady has been doing some brilliant work with our young musicians. Fortunately, they are keeping the volume low so the rest of the school are able to carry on working without feeling the need to spontaneously get out of their seats and start dancing!



Class 4 Parent Carer Invite
Class 4 have completed their sewing in DT lessons. On Tuesday 2nd we invite Class 4 parents and carers to an exhibition of their children's work immediately after school. The children will be very proud to show you their finished soft toy and the journey they have been on to learn about the different stages of designing and making in textiles.



Knitted Nativity
Today, Judith McQuillin from the local community presented a knitted nativity set to the school in our weekly assembly. Last year, at the church Christmas tree festival, Judith's work was on display and I commented on how lovely it was. Picking up on this comment, Judith has kindly knitted an entire nativity scene and given it to the school. This is very generous and we shall treasure it for years to come. It will now have pride of place near our  Christmas Tree in the corridor outside classes two and four.



Staffing Update
Just a reminder that our new school administrator Amy Souch starts in the school office on Monday. Amy comes from working in a secondary school office so joins us with lots of valuable experience.

Dog Fouling
Thank you to those parents who drew my attention to the recent spate of dog fouling on the pavement in front of the school. I have put a sign up to encourage dog owners to be responsible but, if this issue persists, please let me know and I will think about further action we can take.

Early finish
A reminder that, in line with other Bridge schools, we finish at 1.30pm on Friday 19th December. The spring term starts again on Tuesday 6th January.

We've had an exciting week full of learning and creativity! In Science, we've been exploring circuits-discovering how electricity flows and what makes a circuit complete. Students have been experimenting with switches, bulbs, and batteries to see how everything connects. In English, our imaginations have taken flight as we write fantasy adventure stories inspired by The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Everyone is creating their own magical worlds, filled with unique characters and thrilling quests. In Geography, we've been learning about migration-why people and animals move from one place to another, and how these journeys shape cultures and ecosystems. It's been a wonderful mix of science, storytelling, and global understanding. We can't wait to share more of our work soon!

What a week it has been! Nativity practice galore all wrapped up with the snow on Thursday when Class 2 managed to get out in time for the best part of the snow shower (?) in the morning. Can you believe it, we even managed a snow fight... of sorts!

In Literacy, we have all planned our traditional story in the style of the Gingerbread Man and cannot wait to begin using all our new language skills to write our story up next week. In Maths, we have finally completed our unit on Addition and Subtraction by completing our HOT TASK on Friday. I must say, I am very impressed with the progress everyone has made in their knowledge of addition and subtraction this term.

In Science, we continued our enquiry into the properties of material but setting up a fair test to compare the elasticity of different materials. In PSHE, we continued our unit on celebrating differences by discussing "Bullying." We discussed what bullying is and is not, and talked about what we could do if we see bullying in the school. Just have a look at some of the anti-bullying slogan they created for the gingerbread man's hat.

Finally, a very well done to:
> Finley for getting the Ready Award for his amazing work in Maths
> Ella for getting the Respectful Award for always using a respectful and polite voice in the classroom.
> Isla for getting the Safe Award for making sure our classroom is a safe environment for everybody by helping tidy up and following instructions.

This week has been full of exciting discoveries across our classes! In Year 5, we've been exploring the fascinating world of numbers, learning how prime numbers stand out as the building blocks of mathematics and how square numbers create perfect patterns. Year 6 has been diving deeper into fractions, mastering how to find equivalent fractions and why they matter in everyday problem-solving. Meanwhile, in science, we've turned our attention to population growth, uncovering how living things multiply and what factors influence their survival. From circuits sparking curiosity in our electrical lessons to patterns and proportions in maths, it's been a week of connecting ideas and seeing how numbers and science shape the world around us!

There has been a definite change in the weather this week with a flurry of snow yesterday and a notable nip in the air. Fortunately, the adverse weather conditions weren't extreme enough to force a school closure. If we are ever in a position where we need to close the school due to the weather, we will contact families as early as possible through a Showbie notification and an Arbor email. We will only close the school if we are unable to provide safe staffing levels or it would be unsafe to open. We may also consider later opening to allow staff extra time to complete their journey to work.

Garland
Year 5 pupils participated in the annual Cotehele House flower garland workshop this week. During the summer term, children grew, cut and dried flowers which they used to decorate the garland. The children's garland will appear in the restaurant over the festive period. Whilst there, the children were invited to see the main garland in the great hall, which was being constructed during our visit; it has over 32,000 flowers on it! Both garlands are stunning and well worth a visit if you get the chance. Thank you to volunteer Julie Marples for joining me, ensuring we had enough adults.



Sports Coaching
The coaches from Pro20 have been providing some great afterschool and lunchtime clubs this term. They also teach a PE lesson to each class. Here are some wonderful action shots from Class 4, who have been developing hockey skills this half term.



Staffing Update
Our new school administrator, Amy Souch, will be starting in Monday 1st December. We look forward to welcoming her to the team. Amy will be in the office from 8.30am to 1.30pm daily. 

Online Safety
Some children have been overheard talking about the latest version of Grand Theft Auto which was released recently. This game is rated 18+ as it involves alcohol and drug use, coarse and offensive language, nudity, violence and use of weaponry. We don't know if the same children have accessed the game outside of school via friends, older siblings or unauthorised access, but want to flag this to all parents and carers. Please check you have the necessary safeguards in place at home to ensure underage children don't have access to this game. Thank you.

Road Closure
We have been made aware the road  down through the village (past the Old Post Office) will be shut for roadworks for the whole of next week. If driving, please allow extra time for the school run as the alternative routes may be slower and busy with detour traffic.

Another week has come and gone... and boy has it been a full week!

In Class 2, we are really enjoying our Literacy lesson as we write our class story about the runaway Snowman cookie. We have looked at past tense of regular verbs and been conscious of using them in our stories. We have also revisited our 2A sentences and used them (with some similies) to describe our main characters. In Maths, this week has been all about the tens and ones. We have been using a lot of deins to help us add and subtract numbers.

In Science, we conducted our first enquiry into the nature of some everyday materials and tested them for use in building a bridge. In Computing, we learned about algorithms and how we can decompose them to help us figure out what they do. In Geography, we have looked at the coldest places and located the North and South Pole. We also reminded ourselves of the 7 continents by singing along to the 7 continents song. If you would like to have a go, here is the YouTube link to the song:
https://youtu.be/KiXjGFOzY3c?si=JX2LKNtxTnuQjx3U

We have also started practicing our Nativity! Please check book bags to see if your child has a script to learn. I will also be posting the class song on Showbie soon.

This week has been another busy one across the school. On Wednesday, Class 4 competed in a netball tournament at Callington College against Calstock, Callington and Stoke Climsland schools. Rather than take a team of experienced players like the other schools, we gave all our children the opportunity to take part in a competitive team sport by fielding three teams. We may not have won the most games but the children were brilliant in their efforts and sporting conduct, which is reflected in the action photos below.


Callington College Transition Visit
To support transition to secondary school, two Callington College staff members visited Class 4 this week to talk about the college and answer children's questions. There will be a further visit in the spring term before Year 6 pupils visits to the college in the summer term.

Children In Need
The non-uniform day today raised £97.62 for the Children In Need appeal. Thank you for your support.

SPACE Parenting Programme
The NHS Mental Health Support Team are running a SPACE programme for parents and carers. Please see the poster below advertising the next session, starting in January 2026.

This programme is designed for parents/carers to better understand and support their children's emotions. The programme will help with understanding and managing emotions, it will offer practical approaches to support children and cover some coping strategies.

Design Technology
I just want to share a few more photos from Class 4 who are designing and making their own soft toys. This week they were learning to use running and cross stitches to add decoration. The children really impressed me with their ability to do this almost entirely independently without adult intervention. This demonstrates a high level of skill which I am sure the children could put to good use darning socks and doing other clothes repairs at home!


Next week we take on blanket stitching and stuffing.

Date Correction
In a change from my last blog post, please note the Christmas performance dates are 9th, 10th and 12th December, not the 11th as stated.

Here are some of this writing from this week.  We were using similes and comparative language to describe characters from the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. 

This week has been full of excitement and learning for our class! We kicked things off with a lively netball tournament that brought out everyone's team spirit and competitive edge. Alongside the sports action, we've started rehearsing for the upcoming school play, diving into scripts and getting creative with our roles. In the classroom, we explored the fascinating topic of population growth, discussing its causes, impacts, and what it means for the future of our planet. It's been a great mix of physical activity, artistic expression, and intellectual discovery!

What a jam-packed first week back it has been!

First of all, thank you everyone who made time to join us for our belated Harvest Festival performance at the Village Hall today. It was so good to see so many of you and to watch the children performing to all of you. Here is Class 2 again with their special autumn leaves they created in Art class for their special poem about Autumn leaves.

In Maths, we have continued with our unit on Addition and Subtraction. It is so amazing to watch the children not only get more confident with their mental maths, but know what resources they can use to help them with their calculations. In Literacy, we have begun a new unit. This term, we are writing a traditional story based on the story of the Gingerbread Man. We have had oodles of fun learning the story and performing it for each other using our actions to help us remember key events. 

We had our first Dance lesson with Miss Walker during PE. We worked on remembering a set of actions, repeating and linking them. In RE, we looked at the significance of the Christmas story for Christians. In Science, we recapped our understanding of the difference between materials and objects, and went on a material hunt around the classroom.

Finally, a very well done to:
> Harriet for her Ready Award for her excellent work in Maths.
> Roux for his Respectful Award for his immaculate presentation.
> Freya for her Safe Award for always being such a kind and caring member of the classroom.

Welcome back for the second half of the autumn term. It was lovely to see so many of you today at the rearranged autumn/harvest assembly. Thank you to all those who were able to attend for a parent consultation this week and hopefully Class 1 parents have signed up to an appointment time for next Wednesday. We have reduced the length of these sessions for the first consultation of the year and narrowed the focus to talking about how the children have settled into the new school year and to discus their learning attitudes and behaviours. To complement this, we want to share children's learning progress through further opportunities for you to come into the classroom to see what your children have been learning. We did this last half term with our maths morning and art exhibition and are planning further opportunities in the weeks ahead.

Design Technology
This half term, we have design technology lessons in all classes. I am fortunate to have the opportunity to teach this subject to both junior classes, which also provides me with some lovely photographs for my blog!



Class 4 are designing and making stuffed toys. For the first week, they came up with a design and made a template they used to cut out the fabric. These photos show Rudy's strawberry design.



Class 3 are learning about 'pavilions' and used the first week to make structures through a trial and error approach using match sticks and plasticine. Lowenna and Joey worked together to create the first design and Penny and Madeleine made the second. They are both very elaborate and required a lot of teamwork. I look forward to sharing more in the weeks ahead and hopefully we will be inviting you to an exhibition of children's work before the end of term.

Rocksteady Bands
Our Rocksteady bands started this week with music teacher Joe Spurrell. Once he set up his equipment in the library, which looked like a recording study with everything he had, the children were very excited to join Joe for this first session.

As always, there are lots of exciting learning opportunities in the weeks ahead, culminating in our festive events at the end of term. This year, in a change with tradition, we are planning a whole school Christmas performance at the village hall. Further details will be shared nearer the time, but for those needing to take time off work to attend, here are the dates and performance times:

Here is some writing from our history this week.  We have been reflecting on the importance on the census and what information it gives us about the time. 

This week, Year 6 have been tackling the challenge of long division, showing great determination as they break down complex problems step by step, while Year 5 have been developing their reasoning skills by working out missing numbers in a variety of contexts. Both year groups have also begun exploring the magical opening of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, discussing the atmosphere and characters introduced by C.S. Lewis. In history, the children have been learning about the importance of the census and how it helps historians understand the past, from population changes to the types of jobs people once had-an exciting blend of maths, literacy, and historical thinking!

The spellings for next week are: admit, admittance, begin, beginning, beginner, committed, forgetting, forbidden, permit and permitting. We have access to White Rose Infinity for homework. This generates 5 questions based on the Maths learning for the week. The questions change each time you scan the code so you can use it several times during the week. As this is new, it would be great to get your feedback as to how effective it is with pupils. You just need to download the White Rose app to use.  You can find the QR code on the Showbie chat for this week.  

We had a wonderful bright start to the week when we came together to celebrate Diwali on Monday.

We started the day with a video call with Miss Parul Abrol, a journalist from India, who talked to us about her understanding and own experiences of the festival of light. Then we had a morning of wonderful Diwali themed activities - making firework rangoli patterns, using our Botleys to trace kolam patterns, learning about the story of Diwali and making clay diyas. We finished off with a sumptuous lunch of Indian food that Mrs Paradise and her team had prepared.  

In Literacy, we have completed our draft stories and will be writing up the neat copy when we come back after the half term break. In Maths, we have moved on to subtraction and have had a few fun sessions of using a variety of strategies to subtract a variety of numbers.

In wider curriculum, this week has been all about reflecting on our learning and recapping some of the key concepts we have learned. We really enjoyed learning about the happy chemical, endorphin, that our brain creates when we get physically active.

Thank you everyone who made time to join us for the art exhibition in Class 2.

It was lovely to see you all and share the amazing Autumn collages the children have created as part of their final art piece for the half term. We have been on an incredible journey of discovery - we have done live drawings, created Autumn colours using found natural things, explored nature journaling, explored drawing using all our senses, sketched oodles and oodles of Autumn leaves and finally explored wax resist paintings of our Autumn leaves.

And we have loved every minutes of it... as can be evidenced by the final products in class!

Thank you for all your support this half term. Have a well earned break and see you fresh and ready for more adventures next half term.