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.
  

It has been another very busy week at Harrowbarrow with lots of exciting events.



Diwali
On Monday, we collapsed our curriculum to focus on the Hindu festival of Diwali. I am sure you have heard all about it from your children, but the day started with an assembly with a journalist from India joining us on a Teams video link. She talked about what was happening there as part of the Diwali celebrations and was dressed in her traditional clothes in preparation for the evening festivities. During the morning, the children rotated around classes to learn about the origins of Diwali and some of the associated traditions. In the photo above, Class 1 children were using a programmable device to make Rangoli patterns.


Art Exhibition
Thank you to all those who joined us for the art exhibition after school on Wednesday. We hope you enjoyed seeing the range of children's art on show. We had lots of lovely feedback, which suggests it went down well. We will be planning more of these events.

PSA Halloween Disco & Bake Sale
Thank you to the PSA who do a brilliant job of providing these school community events. Thank you also to all those who supported both the disco and the bake sale. As ever, the bakes looked incredible and I feel sure we have a few parent carers who could compete on The Great British Bake Off!

Harvest/Autumn Assembly
Apologies for having to cancel this today. As it turned out, the weather wasn't as bad as the forecast and we may have been able to do it. However, we couldn't run the risk of cancelling at the last minute. We have set a new date of 9am on Friday 7th November and are hoping to book the village hall for this. We will confirm after half term but please join us if you can.

Staffing Update
Thank you for all your generous contributions to Elaine Moyle's leaving gifts. Today, we presented Elaine with some flowers, a hotel voucher, a figurine and some fizz to thank her for all she has contributed to the school over the last 36 years. We have recruited Elaine's replacement, who will start on 1st December, once all pre-employment checks have been completed. I will share further details before they start. In the meantime, Lesley Connell will step back into the school office in the afternoons and we will be joined by Sarah Spence and Tracey Snell from the Bridge Central Office team for a couple of mornings each week. I will share office contact details after half term.

Parent Consultations
A reminder that if you haven't already done so, there are still slots available for you to book an appointment with your child's teacher after half term.

I hope you all have a safe and enjoyable half term and look forward to seeing you and your families again on 3rd November.

We'd like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all the parents and families who joined us for our art exhibition this week. The children were so proud to showcase their creativity, and it was wonderful to see such enthusiastic support from our school community. Your presence truly made the event special! In class, we've also been busy writing up our non-chronological reports, exploring how to organize information clearly and effectively. The children have shown great progress in their writing skills and have enjoyed researching and presenting their topics. Additionally, we've been celebrating Diwali, learning about the traditions, stories, and significance of the Festival of Lights. The children took part in some beautiful craft activities and thoughtful discussions, helping us all appreciate the richness of this cultural celebration. Thank you again for your continued support!

This week's spellings will stay the same as last week's ones. 

Year 6 and Year 5 now have access to White Rose Infinity.  This gives pupils a chance to review the learning from the previous week through a series of questions.  Pupils can access this at home by downloading the White Rose Infinity App and then scanning in the QR code.  Codes for Year 5 and 6 are below.  


Year 6 Infinity QR code 


Year 5 Infinity QR code

Thank you everyone who made time to join us on Wednesday for our Morning Maths session. Albeit brief, I hope it gave you an idea of the kind of language we use in our Maths learning and some of the strategies we practice to help us with our calculations. Please feel free to get in touch with me if you have any questions about Maths learning in the class.

This week, Class 2 had a great time reflecting on our learning from the Victorian Day last week. We thought about our experience on Friday and compared it to our daily experiences in school. We found a lot of differences between a Victorian school and schools today. However, we were surprised at how many similarities we found.

In Literacy, we have begun writing our own stories about an animal who has lost something just like Augustus. We have everything from a crocodile who has lost his dinner to a zebra who has lost her stripes. I cannot wait to read all the stories when they are finished! In Maths, we explored adding 3 digit numbers and adding to make the next 10.

In Science, we conducted our first experiment of the term. We discussed the importance of exercise for our body (we learned about the happy chemical - endorphin - that our brain releases when we get physically active) and conducted some experiments to find out what else we changes in our body when we get physically active.

Finally, a very well done to:

• Theo for getting the Ready Award for trying his very best and for being ready to learn during RWI sessions.
• Sofia for getting the Respectful Award for always listening respectfully when teachers give instructions.
• Lilly R for getting the Safe Award for always being kind and helpful in the classroom. 

This week has been full of energy and creativity as we've been rehearsing for our upcoming Harvest Festival, with some truly impressive solo singing performances from the children. In class, Year 6 have been mastering division methods while Year 5 have been exploring inverse operations with great enthusiasm. We've also been busy writing up our non-chronological reports on the Victorians, showcasing some excellent historical research and writing skills. A big thank you to all the parents who joined us in class this morning to see our maths work in action-it was wonderful to have you with us!


The spellings for next week will be suffixes again and will be: achieve, achievement, beauty, beautiful, careful, deceitful, careless, definitely, gentle, gently.

Summer Reading Challenge
Today we were joined by Christine from Callington Library, who presented certificates to all those children who completed the summer reading challenge. Well done to all the participants.

Cross Country
At our weekly celebration assembly last Friday, I challenged the cross county runners, who were gearing up for their first race, to see if we could secure a top ten finish. Abi Flashman reported that all those who competed in the Great Trethew race did incredibly well but gave a special mention to Jacob Bloye who finished 4th. Next time, I shall challenge someone to win a race and see if this works again! Well done to all the runners and thank you to the parent carers for taking their children.

Morning Maths
Thank you to all those who attended our morning maths sessions this week. We hope this gave you a little insight into the work we do across the school at the start of the day. I'm sure your children enjoyed showing you what they do. I have had a lot of positive feedback so we will look for further opportunities for you to experience your children's learning in the future.

Art Exhibition
Just a reminder to join us for an exhibition of your children's art work on Wednesday 22nd October at 3.20pm in classes. If you have children in multiple classes, please visit each room.

Training Day and Half Term
Just a reminder that Friday 24th October is a staff training day so the school is closed to pupils. This will mean an early start to the half term holidays for the children!

Charity Haircut
Sophia Vinson is currently growing her hair to have it cut in aid of the Little Princess Trust. For further information and to find out how you can support Sophia, please see her poster below:

It has been another week full of learning, fun and discoveries in Class 2.

In Literacy, we have continued to look at book by Catherine Rayner and comparing them. Besides "Augustus and his smile," we have read "Solomon crocodile" and "Smelly Louie." We used the language in these books to help us explore similes. In Maths, we have continued with Addition and Subtraction by exploring number bonds. We have had oodles of fun using our knowledge of bonds to 10 to help us understand number bonds to 100.

In Science, we used our knowledge of a healthy balanced diet to design our own healthy balanced menu for the day. In Art, we continue to explore autumn leaves by experimenting with painting wax resist autumn leaves. In History, we continued our enquiry into how schools have changed by learning about what the school was like during the Victorian era.

To help us better understand this, we travelled back in time on Friday and had an entire day of experiencing a Victorian classroom. We had a paperless and screenless classroom. So, the children used slate and chalk for all their lessons while teachers gave / wrote instructions on a "chalk board." In the afternoon, children also got a taste of the life skills Victorian boys and girls learned at school. While Mr Hunt took the boys out for a lesson in woodwork, the girls stayed with me and Miss Connell for sewing lesson. Finally, we ended the day by playing some games children in the Victorian era might have played. Please find below some photos from this experience.

A very well done to:

• Jimmy for getting the Ready Award for his amazing efforts at writing neatly and especially for coming in early to complete his Morning Maths. 
• Harriet for getting the Respectful Award for making time to help keep our classroom neat and tidy.
• William for getting the Safe Award for trying his very best to use kind hands and for his honesty. 

This week in class, we've been writing parts of a non-chronological report using Tier 3 vocabulary to make our work more precise and informative. In Maths, Year 6 have been practising long multiplication, while Year 5 have focused on written methods for addition and subtraction. In Science, we've been investigating the best place to put a sunshade as part of our topic on light, exploring how shadows are formed and how light travels.

The spellings remain the same for this week. 

Here are the KIRFs for this week:

Writing
This week, I share some of the wonderful writing our children are producing. Writing is one of the most complex lessons for children as they have to think about spelling, handwriting, grammar and punctuation at the same time as creating work that is interesting and engaging; it takes a lot of effort to get it right. However, the Year 3 and 4 examples above demonstrate how successful the children are becoming.  They include similes such as 'the sea was as clear as crystal' and descriptive and powerful phrases like 'I went to a park with mysterious shadows lurking in the dark'. You will have the opportunity to read your own child's writing at our first parent carer consultation of the year. This will be an opportunity for you to find out how your child has settled and look at their learning books. The office will be sending a link for you to sign up to a session with your child's class teacher on the following days:

Monday 3rd November from 1pm: Class 3
Tuesday 4th November from 1pm: Class 4
Wednesday 5th November from 1pm: Class 2
Wednesday 12th November from 1pm: Class 1

We hope you will be able to join us.

Victorian Day
Today, Class 2 had a fantastic Victorian day in support of their history learning. This photo shows the children writing on slates in a much altered classroom. Unfortunately, Mrs Connell's learning was not up to standard so she was made to wear a 'dunce cap' at the back of the room. In the afternoon, the children were shown how boys and girls were treated differently in Victorian schools, with the boys doing woodwork and the girls needlework. We promise the cane was not used during the day, although I did model giving Ati Charlesworth five stripes across the hand!


Rocksteady Band
We have been overwhelmed by the response to the Rocksteady Band offer; although this shouldn't be surprising given the level of excitement it generated. As she has enough interest to make this viable, music lead Abi Flashman will now liaise with Rocksteady to set up these music lessons. We will try to schedule the Rocksteady lessons at the same time as our class music lessons so participating children will not miss out on other curriculum areas of learning. 

Wild Wellbeing
I am pleased to share this free half term holiday opportunity that may appeal to you and your children: