Cornwall Air Ambulance Fundraiser
Congratulations to our Nursery and Reception children who had a great time on their sponsored walk. All the children made masks, flags and banners and took on the challenge of walking or running 4 laps around our school field. We had a special visit from Andy, the pilot from Cornwall Air Ambulance, to say thank you for raising money for them.


FOWPA
Many thanks to FOWPA, our staff, children, parents and Regal Cinema for supporting the recent fundraising events at school. We will be able to share after half term how much was raised from these the Uniform Sale and Disco ahead of the next event, the FOWPA Quiz.

FOWPA are hosting a Non-School Uniform Day on Thursday 13th June. Children may come to school dressed in normal, casual clothes of their choice! In return, we would like to ask you for voluntary donations of luxury hamper items to be used as raffle prizes for the FOWPA Quiz Night on Friday 28th June. Suitable items for donation would be a bottle (alcohol or other), chocolates or biscuits, for example, so that we can put hampers together. FOWPA volunteers will be stood outside the school office at drop off on Thursday 13th June with trolleys to accept your wonderful donations. Please note that alcohol donations MUST be donated by an adult to either an FOWPA volunteer or brought directly into the secretary’s office (where other donations can also be made at any time). All proceeds raised from the raffle go back into supporting the children at WPA.

Thank you as always for your support.
The FOWPA Team


Online Safety
Please check the link sent by email today for some useful information and tips about keeping children safe online.


Car Park
When we return after half term, we will let you know about some changes to the car park for drop off and collection. Unfortunately, there is no perfect solution – I’ve heard it has been tweaked many times already! We will need everyone’s support in helping make drop off and collection as smooth and safe as possible. Look out for an email from me in the first week back to update you on the new arrangements.


Summer 2024 Bridge Schools Trust Parent and Carer Questionnaire
A reminder that the school survey closes today, thank you. Please check your parent email for the link.


PE Days
Please note your child's PE day below as some year groups have changed days. This is due to external providers such as Pro20 and DT Coaching having set days to come and deliver quality PE provision to our pupils. The children only have one day of PE (or split days in Year 3) but have 2 lessons during the school day to ensure they receive the required time.

Reception: Monday with Pro20 (please send children to school dressed in their PE kit)
Year 1: Thursday
Year 2: Monday (Pro20 Sports Academy)
Year 3: Monday and Wednesday (DT Coaching). 2 days due to split lessons.
Year 4: Tuesday
Year 5: Friday
Year 6: Thursday


Class Photos
On Wednesday 5th June, the school photographer will be in during the morning to take class photos. Please ensure your child is wearing full school uniform on that day. If they have PE, they will need to bring in their PE kit to change into on that day. Thank you for your co-operation.


Important dates coming up:

Monday 3rd June: Back to school

Tuesday 4th June: 14:00-16:15 Year 5 and Year 6 Quad Games at Wadebridge Secondary School – please complete form recently sent by email

Wednesday 5th June: Class Photos – Children need to wear their full school uniform to school

Thursday 6th June: Year 6 Sponsored Dance-a-thon

Friday 7th June: Community Day for Royal Cornwall Show – School closed for children

Monday 10th – Friday 14th June: Year 1 Phonics Screening Check Week

Monday 10th June: (pm) Choir singing at St Breock Care Home

Tuesday 11th June: Year 4 Multiplication Check

Thursday 13th June: FOWPA Non-Uniform Day

Friday 14th June: 09:00 SEND Coffee Morning

Friday 14th June: (pm) Year 6 Transition – KS3 Team and Year 7 Buddies visit.


Thank you for all your support this half term.
We look forward to an exciting final half term of the year, seeing everyone back on Monday 3rd June.

With very best wishes,

Chris Wathern 

To commemorate 40 years since the passing of Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman CBE, Concern Wadebridge hosted a poetry competition for all Wadebridge area primary school aged children. The theme of the poetry competition was ‘Wadebridge.’ The competition was sponsored by Bricknells who provided the first-place prizes for the best written entries for Key Stage 1 & Key Stage 2 children. There were also special prizes for the most creative entries.

Manager Emma Burt said: “We were delighted to receive over 100 entries. I would not only like to say thank you to St Breock Primary School & Nursery and Wadebridge Primary Academy for promoting the competition but also to Bricknells for sponsoring the event. A special mention to Cathy and Kevin Daisy, our John Betjeman memorabilia volunteers who came up with the idea of the competition and helped me with the hard task for judging all the brilliant entries. All the winning entries will now be on display at The John Betjeman Centre for the half term holidays and until the end of June. Please come and see the talent for yourselves.”


Congratulations to our children:

Best Written Poem Key Stage 1: Lennon 

Best Written Poem Key Stage 2: Daisy 

Highly Commended: Tom

KS2 SATs
Well done to our wonderful Year 6 children. They approached the assessments this week with a determined and calm attitude. Today they have certainly let their hair down (and given it a rinse too) as they finished the week with some water fun. The warmer weather certainly added to their afternoon!

Summer 2024 Bridge Schools Trust Parent and Carer Questionnaire
Your feedback is really important to us as we work in partnership to achieve the best possible education for the children. Please check your email to complete a Trust-wide questionnaire that each school is sending out. For Q20, I would really appreciate your views on the key strengths to celebrate, as well as areas we could develop even further for all our children. Your time in completing this questionnaire is valued and will help us continually improve. Please complete by Friday 24th May, thank you. 

FOWPA Disco – Wednesday 22nd May
A reminder of arrangements:

14:15 – 15:00 Reception, Year 1, Year 2 and Year 3 (in school time)
15:15 – 16:00 Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6

Children are invited to wear party clothes into school. Please note that Year 6 will need to wear their PE kit to school and bring a change of clothes if they are going to the Disco.

We will have a couple of quieter areas should children want to have some time out from all that dancing!

Don’t forget to complete a permission slip if your child is in Year 4 - Year 6, as the Disco takes place at the end of the school day. Spare letters are available from your class teacher/office. For this fundraising event, we would welcome a suggested donation of £1.50. Please ensure your child brings into school a water bottle that can be topped up. A small snack will also be provided.

Lost Property
Thank you to FOWPA for organising the nearly new uniform sales this week. Next Monday-Wednesday after school, we will be putting out all the lost property by the main entrance. Please do take a look to see if anything belongs to your child. Anything that isn’t collected will be donated to a local charity/clothes bank.

House Points
Congratulations to this week’s winners, Choughs!

Swans – 365
Choughs – 369
Cormorants – 281
Puffins – 331

Important dates coming up:
Monday 20th May: Year 1 and Year 3 Trips
Monday 20th May: Year 2 PE instead of Wednesday (please wear PE kit)
Wednesday 22nd May: 14:15-15:00 Reception-Year 3 Disco; 15:15-16:00 Year 4-Year 6 Disco
Friday 24th May: INSET Day – School closed
Monday 27th – Friday 31st: May Half term
Monday 3rd June: Back to school
Tuesday 4th June: 14:00-16:15 Year 5 and Year 6 Quad Games
Wednesday 5th June: Class Photos
Thursday 6th June: Year 6 Dance-a-thon
Friday 7th June: Community Day for Royal Cornwall Show – School closed for children

A reminder that school is closed next Friday 24th May for INSET. It’s a four-day week for the children before the May half term break.

Have a relaxing weekend.
Best wishes,
Chris Wathern

Whilst it’s been a shorter week, it has certainly been a full one (and the sun came out too which was a bonus). I had the pleasure of showing another headteacher working in Cornwall around our school. We were both impressed with the calm and purposeful atmosphere in and around the classes. From seeing how well our Big Nursery and Reception children are settling into their new rooms to the quality of teaching and learning as we toured the school. We also saw politeness in abundance; such an important quality. From greetings to opening doors, the children should be rightly proud of themselves.

Coffee Sessions
I really appreciated being able to meet you during this week’s coffee sessions. Thank you for the opportunity to share a bit about my experiences as well as how we will continually develop our fantastic school. I was also grateful for your feedback, questions and ideas about what’s working well and what we can do together for the future. From each of the sessions, one message came out clearly, and that’s the chance to have regular opportunities to come into school. Watch this space!

Summer 2024 Bridge Schools Trust Parent and Carer Questionnaire
Your feedback is really important to us as we work in partnership to achieve the best possible education for the children. Please check your email with the link to complete a Trust-wide questionnaire that each school is sending out. For Q20, as mentioned at this week’s welcome coffee sessions, I would really appreciate your views on the key strengths to celebrate, as well as areas we could develop even further for all our children. Your time in completing this questionnaire is valued and will help us continually improve. Thank you. 

House Points
Congratulations to this week’s winners, Swans, earning 282 points.

Swans – 282
Choughs – 276
Cormorants – 238
Puffins – 237

Our overall leaders this year so far are Choughs, with an impressive 10,577 points!

Good luck Year 6!
Good luck to our Year 6 children next week as they complete their end of KS2 SATs. We are really proud of what they have already achieved throughout their primary years, both in the subjects that are assessed, and those areas that aren’t. Go Year 6!

Events next week
Monday 13th – Thursday 16th May: Year 6 SATs

Thursday 16th May: Census Day - Change of school lunch menu

Thursday 16th May: Deadline for sign-up for May half term Bridge Kids Holiday Club

Thursday 16th May (after school): FOWPA Uniform Sale

Friday 17th May (after school): FOWPA Uniform Sale


Have a relaxing weekend.

Best wishes,

Chris Wathern 

Courage

At the start of our Shining Stars Assembly today, we were treated to hearing music performed by Oscar, Phoebe, Imogen, Hana and Merryn.

The theme this week has been ‘Courage’ and it was fantastic to see the children show this in abundance taking to the stage to play in front of everyone. We look forward to offering this regular slot in our Shining Stars Assembly for children to showcase their skills. I know many of the children are very keen to sign up.

Teachers also recognised other acts of courage this week across the school. It is something we will continue to remind children of and support them with; especially to speak up (politely) for what they believe in or where they see unfairness.

The range and quality of learning around the classes this week has been impressive. I’ve seen amazing letter writing ‘from the trenches’ in Year 6 to Year 3 writing their own version of the Sand Horse story. Equally impressive has been the amazing Modroc artwork in Year 5.

A special well done to our youngest learners in the school (and a huge thank you to the staff) as they began the process of moving classrooms, as we re-purpose our EYFS environment. They have taken these changes in their stride.

Next week, one of the areas I want to explore further is the experience our children have at playtime and lunchtime. It’s such a crucial part of our children’s experience at school that I’m keen to see what is working well and what can be improved. I’ll be following this up with a discussion with the School Council to get their invaluable feedback.

House Points

Congratulations to this week’s winners, Puffins, earning 439 points. Our overall leaders this year so far are Choughs with an impressive 10,301 points!

Donation

We are really grateful to the Padstow Harbour Commissioners for their generous donation of £1000! We will be considering how best to use this for the benefit of our children.

Events next week

Monday 6th May Bank Holiday (School closed)

Tuesday 7th May 14:30-15:15 KS2 Parents/Carers Coffee Afternoon with Mr Wathern (Hall)

Tuesday 7th May 15:25 Year 4 Porthpean Residential Meeting for parents (4B classroom)

Thursday 9th May 08:45-09:30 EYFS/KS1 Parents/Carers Coffee Morning with Mr Wathern (Hall)

Thursday 9th May 14:15-15:00 EYFS/KS1 Parents/Carers Coffee Afternoon with Mr Wathern (Hall)

Friday 10th May Year 3 Alternative Sports Day

Friday 10th May 08:45-09:30 KS2 Parents/Carers Coffee Morning with Mr Wathern


Have a relaxing long weekend and we look forward to seeing everyone back next Tuesday.

Best wishes,

Chris Wathern

It's been a very busy week here at WPA. Here are some of the highlights.

Eco Council

Our fantastic Eco Council led Monday's assembly marking Earth Day. They challenged everyone to play their part in making the school and Wadebridge litter free.

Fowey Festival

Congratulations to all children who entered the Fowey Festival competition recently. In our assembly we proudly presented certificates to children who were recognised by the judges.

FOWPA (Friends of Wadebridge Primary Academy)

I really enjoyed meeting with some of the committee members and hear about the fundraising and social events planned for the rest of the year. We’re really lucky to have such a dedicated team supporting our school community, whether through organising events or obtaining grants to help all our children at school.

Upcoming events:

Thursday 16th and Friday 17th May (after school) - Uniform Sale

Wednesday 22nd May - School Disco

14:15-15:00 Reception - Year 3
15:15-16:00 Year 4 - Year 6

Friday 28th June - Quiz Night at Wadebridge Town Hall (TBC)

Further details about these events will be sent out shortly.

RNLI

We were really grateful to the RNLI for their visit to speak with KS2 on Wednesday. The children were given a detailed explanation of the different flags they will come across at the beach. It was wonderful to see how well-informed they already were, but a little reminder never hurts. Two eager volunteers were selected to dress up as lifeguards; they really looked the part. Everyone was really attentive and showed great respect for the important messages shared.

Football Success

We are so proud of our Year 5 and 6 football team who competed on Tuesday. Despite not playing that many matches as a team, they showed great teamwork throughout the five rounds, winning the first four games without conceding a goal. What a fantastic achievement! Although we came runners up in the end, every player gave their all on the field. Thank you to the team for representing our school with such dedication and upholding our values.

Welcome Coffee Morning/Afternoon

You are warmly invited to come along to one of my welcome coffee mornings/afternoons in the school hall. I’ll share a bit about myself and the focus for the term. If you’re not able to come, I'm often around on the gate in the mornings should you want a chat. I will also be sharing the slides by email following the sessions.

There's no need to sign up, but if you can possibly attend the session according to your child's year group, that would help with numbers. If that isn't possible, please do still come along. If you have children across the school, you only need to come along once as the content will be the same in each session.

EYFS & KS1

Thursday 9th May 08:45-09:30 
Thursday 9th May 14:15-15:00

KS2

Tuesday 7th May 14:30-15:15
Friday 10th May 08:45-09:30

I’m hoping we can run regular coffee mornings throughout the school year. Not only might these be an opportunity to meet up with other parents and members of staff, we could also offer various workshops based on your feedback.

Dates

Please look out for the email today with dates for the rest of the term. If there are any updates, we will let you know as soon as possible. Key dates can also be found on our website under ‘Events Diary’.

Have a great weekend.

Chris Wathern

It has been a joy to welcome your children back to school this week. I’ve been so pleased to see their enthusiasm as soon as they get into school completing their early morning maths. Making every moment of school life count is vitally important, and so it’s pleasing to see this week’s attendance at 96%. Our overall attendance target for the year is 97%, so we aren’t far off. Thank you for your continued support.

Thank you to everyone for making me feel so welcome. I’m looking forward to continuing to get to know the school better, and build those all-important relationships with children, staff, parents and the wider community.

I’ve spent a lot of this week starting to get to know the children and staff. Going around the classes, it has been wonderful to see the wide range of learning taking place, such as the children in Big Nursery waiting patiently for butterflies to emerge from their chrysalises. It was impressive to hear them explain the lifecycle of a butterfly using all the rich scientific language.

This week’s Shining Stars theme was ‘Being Respectful’ – one of our golden rules. It was a pleasure seeing children receiving their certificates in assembly today and all the different ways they have demonstrated respect. I know the staff had a difficult time choosing who to give them to, especially in Year 6 (pictured). A special mention to our Shining Stars from Reception, who came into their first proper whole school assembly for the first time. Both classes were role models to all children – well done!

Next week, we will be sharing some of the confirmed dates for various events this term. This will also include some informal opportunities to meet with me, for instance at a coffee morning/afternoon. I’m really keen to hear from parents as to what you value about this wonderful school as well as your thoughts on what we can do to make it even better.

Wishing you all a restful (and hopefully sunny) weekend.

Mr Chris Wathern

Despite the very dark and gloomy weather outside today, our school was filled with bright colours and Easter fun. 

The children had a great time at the Easter Obstacle Eggstravaganza. They all hopped into activities such as egg rolling, bunny hopping, egg throwing and of course the classic egg and spoon!

Thank you to everyone that donated towards Mrs Bryant's Sky Dive challenge. We raised a fantastic amount of money for Childrens Hospice South West which is a charity very close to our hearts. 

Thank you also to our Year 6 Sports Leaders and Leadership Team, they were fabulous!

Have a great Easter. We look forward to seeing you all on Monday 15th April.

Best wishes, 

Mrs Lee- Elkins 

I am very much looking forward to starting as Headteacher at Wadebridge Primary Academy after Easter. I have thoroughly enjoyed my recent visits as part of the transition process. I’ve really noticed the warmth and positive relationships between staff and children, as well as the quality of education shining through. I would like to say a particular thank you to the leadership team and all the staff and children, as well as the wider Trust for their support.

I am passionate about creating an inclusive and supportive learning environment where children and staff can thrive and make a positive difference. I share the school’s commitment in meeting the unique needs of all children and ensuring they have a sense of belonging and wellbeing.

My family and I recently returned to Cornwall after 6 years abroad, where I was a Headteacher of British international schools in The Netherlands and Asia. Prior to this, I was Headteacher at Fowey Primary for 8 years.

In my free time, I enjoy playing the piano, singing, cooking and enjoying the great outdoors. I’m already looking forward to the weekly singing assemblies!

After Easter, I’ll be in touch again about some informal opportunities to come in and meet with me. I will be interested in getting feedback from parents about what we do well and what we could possibly develop. On a day-to-day basis, I hope to see many of you at drop off and collection as well as various events next term.

I look forward to continuing the school’s journey, building on the many successes, and helping to shape its future. I’m committed to working with the whole school community to meet our aspiration that children will learn, thrive and excel.

Best wishes,

Chris Wathern

Year Two Rainforest Café

Thank you to everyone  who joined us for our Rainforest café this week. It was wonderful to see the children excited to show you their learning that they have done over this term. There were lots of proud faces from the grown ups too! Thank you for all your kind donations we have raised over £100 that we will be use to hopefully adopt a rainforest animal. The children have been deciding which animal that will be. Not only this, the children did an amazing job in their class assembly to showcase all of their learning which included a powerful song ‘Anthem of the rainforest’. 

Year Three WOW Day

On Wednesday Year 3 had their Roman and Celt dress up WOW day. The children's costumes looked incredible, and the day was full of fun activities including baking Roman Rock buns, creating our own Mosaic masterpieces, and designing a Roman outfit. The day finished with an epic battle between the Romans and the Celts- the highlights of which will be shown at the upcoming Year 3 class assembly.

Bridge Schools Alternative Sports Day

On Thursday, six pupils from Year 5 and 6 went to Looe Primary School to join other schools from our Trust in an 'Alternative Sports' day. The children got to experience Ultimate Frisbee, Fencing, Street Surfing and mini Segways! Safe to say they really enjoyed themselves! The aim of the day was to promote teamwork and active participation, which our pupils certainly did! They were a credit to WPA.