We had the most fantastic day at Looe Primary today.  We hosted an Alternative Sports Day for all of our Trust schools.  We had nearly 80 children attend the day and a range of exciting activities were delivered by Kernow Sports and Leisure who work with the children at Looe every week.  The children participated in mini segway, ultimate frisbee, street surfing and fencing which they enjoyed very much.  The street surfing was very hard, but they enjoyed it a lot!  It was great too because they could not really succeed without the help of a partner. The day ended with a large dodgeball competition.  All of the children represented their schools fantastically well, and both behaviour and engagement were excellent.  Well done to Wadebridge, Blisland and Trenode, who won 1st, 2nd and 3rd places for scoring the most points for their overall skill, technique and application in each event.  We are very much hoping that this can become an annual event.

I was invited to attend the official opening of the Looe Police Station Enquiry Office and I was delighted to be able to take one of our Year 6 pupils with me.  We met Alison Hernandez who is the Police Crime Commissioner for Devon and Cornwall and the Acting Chief Constable, Jim Colwell as well as many of the police officers and local councillors and people who give their time and skills to make Looe the wonderful place that it is.  Our pupil was asked if she would like to cut the ribbon and she was delighted to be asked.  It is a very proud moment when one of our pupils is able to talk so well and enjoy the company of people who are important to our lives and who welcomed her as a very valued member of our community.  It was a lovely event!

We love to fundraise here at Looe Primary and when we can link it to learning we like it even more!  Before Christmas, we took part in the Children's Hospice South West Santa's on the Run Fun Run.  We were delighted to raise £444.10 on that day and it was such a good afternoon with an elf in attendance and also some snow to slow everyone down as they were running.  it was a lovely way to head into the festive period and thank you to all of the parents and family members who joined in too.  The hospice will use the money to continue to support children, young people and their families living with life-limiting health conditions. 

On Friday, we took part in the NSPCC Number Day.  This year it was linked to our multiplication app TTRockstars, so we invited staff and pupils to dress as rockstars for the day.  We had some of the most amazing outfits and I am sure you will agree, they all looked fantastic.  We think Mrs Davies should come to school dressed like that every day.  Thanks to Mrs Davies' organisation, we raised £140 on the day and the children were delighted.  This money will help the NSPCC to continue running their Speak Out, Stay Safe Programme.  The children spent the day applying their maths skills to every day situations.  

We always enjoy an opportunity to dress up and have fun and these events show just how good we have become.  Thank you to everyone for their support and donations to these worthy causes.

As this week is Children's Mental Health Week and Online Safety Day takes place tomorrow, 6th February, we will enjoy more opportunities to consider our own lives and the lives of others, both in school, locally and in the wider world. 

We love playing sport at Looe Primary!  Dodgeball is one of our after school clubs this term, so we were delighted to take part in the growing number of competitive sports opportunities being provided by our Bridge Trust Schools.  This time, we were invited to Callywith College to join one of our coaches, Bobby from Pro20 to compete in teams of 6 with all 14 of the Bridge Trust schools.  Mr Bowden took the team and said that they played with great energy and enthusiasm.
We needed our skills of enthusiasm, excellence, creativity and determination to make this one work and whilst we did not come in the top 3, we are left looking forward to the next event in the spring.  Dodgeball is here to stay at Looe Primary.


Thank you to Mr O'Dwyer at Wadebridge Academy and Bobby of Pro20 for organising the event.

We had such a lovely day at Duloe Primary Academy taking part in a football festival organised for some of our local Bridge Trust Schools.  

The team played very well and with great spirit and determination to match our value this week.  They were delighted to win but it was about much more than that.  Mr Bowden accompanied the children and he told us all in our celebration assembly this morning that the team had shown so many great qualities both as individuals and as a team.  One of the teams did not have a goal keeper, so one of the Looe team offered to step in.  Mr Bowden was not impressed because in a penalty shootout competition that included the adults, Mr Bowden's penalty kick was saved by the same goalkeeper from our team!  He also shared how some team members passed the ball to other team members to give them a chance to score a goal, even when they could have kicked for goal themselves.  We gave them all a big clap in assembly and we have decided that we will be challenging our local schools to a few more events too, so that even more of us can get involved in all of the fun.  A big thank you too to Duloe Primary for organising the event.

We are being determined

We have been working hard at trying some new events and doing things a little differently here at Looe Primary since the beginning of term.  We have been looking at how to get on well and support each other with everything that we do and we thought that we could do this by enjoying each others' company as much as possible through some new experiences.  So far we have been experiencing fencing, segway, bowling and field gun racing.  These activities have also helped us to think about our school and Trust values.  Today, in assembly, we decided that determination was perhaps the key to the other values of curiosity, creativity, excellence, responsibility and enthusiasm.  We felt that you could achieve all of these values if you were determined.  We also talked about the Goby fish, the sea creature who represents our value of determination.  It is very adaptive to its environment; perfect for when you are trying new things we felt!

We also have an open afternoon for parents this Wednesday (27th Sept.), so we are all hoping that the parents will be determined and adapt to their new classroom environment too!

Our School and Trust Values

Our School and Trust Values mean a great deal to us, but we felt we needed to give them a great big refresh.  The children were involved in this work with a professional artist and we are working hard to ensure that we can all remember them and why they were chosen.  All classrooms have a display of their own now, but we asked a former pupil Maisie to create her very own display for us.  Maisie is a talented artist and is currently studying for a degree at Plymouth University.  We have been so impressed with the display that she has created, so we have shared some of it here.
Our values are:
Creative:  We chose an octopus because they are very intelligent creatures and can solve problems and fit into tight spaces.  They can use tools and they can change shape because they have few bones.
Curious:  The lobster is the sea creature we chose.  Lobsters can live for as long as 100 years.  They cannot see or hear well, but they have an exquisite sense of touch.  They are also sensitive to changes in temperature and they can smell with their feet!  They have also learned to avoid anything that will cause them pain which we felt means they need to be curious to be able to do this.
Determined:  The unusual Goby was the choice here.  Goby's live on the shoreline and they can determinedly swim and walk up rocks to get to rockpools.  They are prey animals and are in the largest fish family across the world.  They are very adaptive to different habitats.  The Goby fish in our environment are dull in colour, but we thought we would celebrate the vibrant colours that they can achieve.
Enthusiastic:  Dolphins were the obvious choice here.  They are energetic and live in large pods; they are very sociable and work together to hunt.  They give awe-inspiring displays and surf the waves for fun.  Dolphins are altruistic and will help other dolphins and other species.
Excellent:  Surprisingly, the children chose a blue shark for this value.  They have a keen sense of electromagnetism and can detect a heart beating from miles away.  They migrate incredibly long distances in search of food and dive to very deep depths.  They always try their hardest.
Responsible:  Our final sea creature, the whale was chosen because they look after their young very well and protect them for far longer than other marine animals.  They sing magical songs that are their complex way of communicating and the calves whisper to their mothers.  Whales are not predators; they feed by filtering through their gills.  Caring and responsibility go hand in hand we all felt.

The sea creatures will be on display in every classroom and we will continue to celebrate our association with our rich coastal and seaside environment through our values.  We are very excited!  A big, big thank you to Maisie for all of her time and inspiration.

Getting ready to compete

It is only day 2 but we were raring to go with our exciting new initiative for the Year 4, 5 and 6 children.

We have been looking for some different experiences for the children that keep them active, and to inspire them and help them to understand that there are so many activities that they can join in with.  We will be trying lots of alternative sports at school this year and today we started with the arrival of our very own field gun.  This is a popular sport in Devon and Cornwall and once we have learned how to race with the equipment, we will begin to compete in a local league with the hope that we can reach the finals that are held on Plymouth Hoe in June on Armed Forces Day.  Children will enjoy learning the skill as part of their PE lessons.

The children have to work hard, they have to work as a team and they have to be self-disciplined to make the race from one end of the track to another, taking apart the gun from its chassis and racing it through an obstacle at each end of the track before putting it back together again. It's a tradition that has lots of history; and after all of the fun that we had in the sunshine today, I am very hopeful that we will achieve our goal.

Maybe we will have to invite the parents to have a go!  Are you up for the challenge?  Be prepared to get very sweaty!