...and so the year 6 team made it through their first day and night. The dry weather meant that the river activities could be enjoyed in full. Look at those faces. This morning brings a hearty breakfast and more challenges that will build up the skills ready for the final racre tomorrow!

River adventures, climbing trees, relaxing with friends...that's what year 6 residential is bringing to our wonderful team. Day 1 almost in the bag. Time to dry off and tuck into jacket potatoes followed by board games and relaxing into the evening. 

Our fantastic Year 6 team are on a 3 day adventure this week at Dewerstone Cottage. I have no doubt that the team work and outdoor learning will both challenge and inspire them. 

This week at nursery we have been exploring autumn leaves on the tuft tray. The children talked about what colours they saw and explored sounds that they made using words such as crunchy.
We have been discussing what animals you might see in autumn and the children then made some paper plate owls. They have enjoyed fruit and vegetable printing in the paint.

At story time, we have enjoyed stories such as "The Leaf Thief" and "The Enormous Turnip" and the children have enjoyed reinacting parts of the story in their play.

In maths, we have been using pine cones to count and order, looking at quantities and have continued to explore shapes.

A reminder that we have a Bags2school collection on Tuesday 14th. If you have any used but good quality clothes, shoes, bags or belts then please bag them up and bring them to nursery before 9am on the day.

Have a good weekend

Julie and Sarah

Last week we enjoyed looking through lots of our autumn treasure bags, with so many different items found by the children.

The children talked about what they had found, the different colours and textures of each item and if they knew what we called them.  We talked about how the Conker husk is hard and spiky, and that when they fall from the tree the conkers will fall out. We even had an apple that had been found fallen from an apple tree. 

We went on a welly walk around the  school field and found lots of acorns and special leaves for our collection.  

For art this week, we enjoyed using leaf shaped stamps, with red, yellow and orange paint to create a wonderful autumn print. 

We have started to introduce phonics into our morning sessions now the children have all settled back into our routine.  Phonics in pre-school uses activities to focus on sound recognition, rhythm and rhyme, and environmental sounds.  This helps support children's communication and language development too.  Last week we used sound stories to listen and identify different autumn sounds.

 During our music lessons with Lantic class we used our body to move in different ways depending on pace and beat of the music. We have also been practicing our 'Big Red Combine Harvester' song for the harvest festival service on Wednesday.

Next Monday 13^th October Tempest photography are coming into school for individual and sibling photos.  If your child has an older sibling/s then you are to take them to the school for 8.45 for their photos.  If your child has no siblings in school but you would like a photo of them, you are welcome to take them across for 8.45 to have their photo and then drop them in to pre-school if it is their session day.

If you have any questions then please do come and speak to us.

The Pre-School Team.

At Storytellers, the children have been celebrating the move into autumn and the harvest season by exploring the wonderful world of vegetables and their many different colours. They enjoyed looking closely at a variety of vegetables, noticing the bright greens, deep reds, sunny yellows and earthy oranges that remind us of autumn's rich tones.

Inspired by what they saw, the children created their very own harvest-themed collages using a mixture of seeds and pulses. This activity encouraged lots of patience as they carefully placed each seed, while also helping to strengthen their pincer grip - an essential skill for early writing and fine motor development.

 The children were so proud of their colourful creations, which captured the spirit of autumn and celebrated the harvest in a fun and creative way. 

Storytellers have been busy investigating shapes in lots of fun and creative ways. We started by examining the various shapes we could use to build a house, and then attempted some challenging shape puzzles to test our problem-solving skills.

 We went on a shape hunt around our environment, spotting circles, squares, triangles and more hiding all around us. The children also enjoyed creating colourful shape pictures using paint and cotton buds - a fun way to practise their pincer grip and strengthen little fingers ready for early writing. 

 The week finished on a very yummy note - baking scrumptious shaped biscuits to share with our families.

 Activities like these aren't just fun - they help children recognise shapes all around them, build early maths skills, strengthen fine motor control, and use their imagination in creative ways. And of course, the biscuit-making was a delicious way to bring all that learning together!.

Castilly Henge and Life Skills 

We have been very fortunate this half term to be invited out in the local area to support our learning. 

As part of a project with the Cornish Heritage Trust, pupil's visited Castilly Henge to find our about the archaeology work they are carrying out. We were able to visit before the site opened to visitors. After the trip, we had a visit from an artist to create one of the 7 standing stones using a wicker sculpture and printing techniques. This will be displayed at Castilly Henge for their opening. 

We also went to Bodmin Fire Station for life skills. This is a great opportunity to learn important safety information including: first aid, road safety, online safety, electrical safety and railway safety. They get to learn from people who work in these fields. 

It has been a busy start to the term!

The children have been working incredibly hard in their classrooms since the summer holidays. The new reception pupils have settled in to the class and have started their phonics lessons, while the year 1s have been learning about life in the past. Jays have been enjoying their history all about Ancient Egypt  and the human body. Eagles have been focusing on coasts and evolution. 

We have had several trips out and about including: Morwellham Quay, Gunwen Chapel, Porthpean beach, Bodmin fire station and Castilly Henge. All of these activities help pupils develop their understanding using first hand experiences. 

We have lots more planned in the next few weeks including Bikeability and secondary transition days.

On Tuesday 21st October we have an open morning, if you are looking for a school or preschool place, please come along! 

Primary School days are meant to be memorable. but I have a feeling that the residential visit to London for many of our Year 6 pupils last week was one of their most memorable experiences ever and hopefully one that will last forever.  With huge thanks to Mrs Davies for organising the experience and for all of the adults attending, including one of our governors, I think it is safe to say that they all had a wonderful time.  With over 29,000 walking steps on one day in particular, the visit was packed full of new things to enjoy and experience.  The main reason for the trip at this time of year was tickets to visit the Houses of Parliament and because it is the party conference season, the children were allowed to enter the Houses of Commons and Lords as there were no sessions on the day that they were there.  It meant that they could experience being in the chambers, rather than observing debates and questions from the viewing galleries.

They stayed very close to St.Paul's Cathedral and saw the outside art in the grounds, walked to the Tate Modern via the Millenium Bridge, went to the Tower of London and saw The Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre as well as their visit to the Houses of Parliament.  They walked and experienced the London Underground and they saw many of the other London sights on foot, such as the Embankment, Tower Hill and Paddington Station.  I am sure you will agree that it was an action packed few days!  They were all exhausted when they returned, but all smiling and very excited to share their time away with their families.  All adults reported how well the children coped and they were hard to miss in their brightly coloured group hats.  I think we all wished that we had been with them!

On Wednesday, we had our first class trip of the year to Dartmoor Zoo. We had a fantastic time. We started off the day with a close encounters workshop, where we got to see a cockroach, python and many other fascinating artefacts up close. After lunch, we explored the rest of the zoo and met their resident tiger, African lions and visited the reptile house. Our final workshop before heading home was a climate change problem solving activity, which really got us thinking. I have uploaded some pf the best photos from the day below.

In Maths, this week we have been using number lines to count and estimate numbers to 1000. This is often a tricky concept for the children, but they have all persevered and worked so hard.

In English, we finished writing up our postcards and have started our new unit on recount writing. We will be using our zoo trip as inspiration for our next piece of writing. 

Congratulations to Darragh, Rosie and Dexter for being chosen as Landaviddy's people of the week.

We hope you have a well rested weekend and look forward to seeing you. 

Mrs Wilkie, Mrs Lister and Miss Colton

This has been been a week of firsts. Our first school trip of the year took place this week, with Landaviddy Class visiting Dartmoor Zoo as part of their enquiry topic, "Who Rules the Animal Kingdom?" The children had a fantastic time exploring the wide variety of exotic animals that the zoo provides a sanctuary for - from tigers and lions to snakes, parrots, and meerkats. They also took part in two excellent workshops: Close Encounters, which offered a unique opportunity to get up close to reptiles and invertebrates, and Climate Change, a fun and thought-provoking sustainability challenge. You can see some lovely photos from the trip on Landaviddy's blog. We're very grateful to the Friends of Polperro School (FOPS) for generously subsidising the trip.

This week also saw the first meeting of our new School Council. The children have already shared some fantastic ideas, including suggestions for new playtime equipment and themed activity days. I'm looking into their requests and will keep you updated!

And finally, our new school choir met for the first time on Thursday. There was a great turnout and it was lovely to hear them singing some familiar songs together with such enthusiasm.

School Open Morning Do you know anyone looking for a school for their Reception age child in September 2026? If so, please pass them the attached information regarding our open morning on Wednesday 12th November, 9:30 - 11am.

Spooky Discos We will be holding Spooky school discos on Thursday 23rd October, the last day of this half term. Tickets will be on sale in the office from Monday and cost £3. The disco for Reception, Year 1 and year 2 will be from 3:15-4:15pm. Pupils should bring a change of clothes and will be able to change after school. KS2 (years 3-6) children should go home at the usual time of 3:15pm and then return to school for their disco which will be from 4:30-6:00pm.

Mental Health Support Team (MHST) Wellbeing Sessions Please see attached details of the MHST Wild Wellbeing sessions being run this October half term. These sessions are open to children aged 5-12, each session will be approximately 2 hours long. Details of how to sign up are included in the attached poster. Sign up will close one week before the session date, or when the session reaches capacity, whichever comes first.

Have a good weekend.

Mrs Hillman