Summer 1 - Week 3 - Healthy bodies, healthy minds, healthy hearts... 

English

In English this week, the children came to the end of their emotive writing, learning journey. Their main ‘Big write’ was to write a recount in the form of the letter. Within the letter, the children had to recall the old man’s time in the war, the moment he lost his friend and the time he first laid eyes on his wife. The content of the letter embedded skills and knowledge learnt across the learning journey.

Once the children completed their letters, they wrote them up into their star writer books!

Our next learning journey is based on the genre ‘Myths and Legends’ – The children will explore the text ‘The Legend of Podkin One-Ear’.

Maths

In Maths this week, we began looking at our old arithmetic papers during our carousel activity. The children had time to look at questions marked incorrectly and re-attempt them. They had support in addressing misconceptions and setting next step targets.

For the rest of the week, the children continued their shape learning journey. The morning work supported this, where the children had the opportunity to develop their skills and knowledge of recognising and drawing angles accurately.

To end the journey, the children completed their end of unit assessments. They are then given their score backs and set targets accordingly.

Our next learning journey will be position and direction!

Wider  Curriculum

It was art, art and more art this week! The children began to make their insects/animals. They sculpted them using newspaper, tape and metal wire; all forming the body, head and legs.

Next, they used Modroc to protect and finalise the shape. They worked effectively to model the Modroc to fit their sculptures. Once dry, they would be ready to paint.

Some children still need to Modroc so we will continue this next week. However, the ones who were finished then went back to their sketch books to continue to develop their designs and explain their learning journey.

A special mention to Kyro and Harry who were sent to show their sketch books to Mr Wathern. These were then displayed in our shining stars assembly, WELL DONE BOYS!

Arena Health and Well-being Day

Year 5 on Friday, were lucky enough to have Arena in, to carry out a health and well-being day. The children engaged in a range of activities such as; ultimate frisbee, dodgeball, healthy eating orienteering, capture the flag and team building exercises.

We were incredibly lucky to have wonderful weather and it was great to see the children enjoying being active and working together outdoors.

We hope to have them back again soon!

Hope you have a lovely weekend,

Best Wishes,

Summer 1 - Week 2 and 3 - Amazing Africa

Over the last two weeks we have continued our topic based on' The World Outside our Window' by exploring a contrasting place to where we live in Cornwall -  the continent of Africa! We started by reading Handa's Surprise and discussed the setting and characters in the story. This led us to learning a wide range of facts all about Africa. We have looked at the 'big 5' animals that can be found there, what a carnivore, herbivore and an omnivore is,  the different types of homes that are there, the climate and the lovely fruits that Handa had in her basket. We really have been busy bees!

In maths, we have been blown away with how well they are getting on with learning their numbers up to 20. This week we have had a particularly focus on 1 more and 1 less of numbers up to 20.  The children have been true 'Have a Go Hippos' in their perseverance to understand this concept, and they are becoming more and more confident with this. Also, to help us recognise the numbers up to 20, we have been having a little game of bingo. Ask the children to tell you all about it! They absolutely love it and ask to play everyday! 

Reminders -

• Please ensure that bookbags come in daily.
  
• Sun safety - As we head into the Summer Term, we hope to see more of the sunshine and here are just a few reminders…

A busy couple of weeks!

It’s all go with our new topic, ‘Did the Cornish do a Proper Job?’ The children have completed Geography lessons where they located Wadebridge on a map and explored its locality within Cornwall. They then looked at map symbols and used this knowledge to make their own maps of Wadebridge!

This week we have been Historians and explored the history of the railway in our local area. The children learned that Bodmin and Wenford Railway had a branch line that went through Wadebridge and into Padstow. They were shocked to learn that the Camel trail was once a railway, and is now used by over 500,000 cyclists per year! We then learnt all about Tin Mines and the Tin Miners - the children had to find posters dotted around the classroom to add facts to their Tin Min Fact File. 

In PE we have been fortunate enough to have DT Coaching leading our lessons. They have been working on the pupils Striking and Fielding skills. They will spend a few weeks working on catching and throwing skills before being introduced to modified Cricket and Rounders games.

We are nearing the end of our English unit about the story, ‘The Mousehole Cat’. The children have been busy writing their own versions of the story, and adapting characters and settings. They have been using the 'Boxing up' technique for writing and planning each paragraph before writing it. We are so impressed with their use of vocabulary, adjectives, adverbs and sentence structures!

In maths we are learning about time – a tricky concept at this age, but Year 2 are taking on the challenge! It has been wonderful to hear the children tell each other what time it is throughout the school day!

Please keep up with the reading and times table rockstars at home, it really does make a difference.

Thank you,

The Year 2 Team

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

Summer 1 - Week 3 - Designing and constructing!

English
This week, the children have been completed their extended writing piece for the animated story: Alma. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading the children’s recounts of this rather creepy story. Many of the children have managed to include figurative language, imagery, short, snappy sentences to build tension, descriptions of micro-expressions and ambitious vocabulary. Some children have written a dual narrative; most of their writing has been in 3rd person but a couple of paragraphs have been in 1st person (written from the perspective of the Alma Doll). It’s great to see the children experimenting with the motivations of this character - many children have opted for the doll to be sinister which makes for great reading!

Maths
We started this week by revising arithmetic style questions. The children were responsible for identifying areas they felt less confident in and working through targeted questions. It was fantastic to see so many children finding their weaknesses and turning them into strengths. Towards the end of the week, we worked on reasoning and problem-solving questions. These questions sparked some great discussions and it was interesting to see just how many different methods the children used to tackle the questions.

DT
In our wider curriculum learning, we have continued with our automata toys projects. The children have used hot-glue guns to construct a frame and have experimented with using different cams for the moving component of the toy. The cams didn’t always work straight away and it was wonderful to see children coming up with solutions to the problems they encountered. Finishing touches will be applied to the toys at the beginning of next week.

Reminders
Please keep encouraging your children to work through the CGP books which were sent home before Easter. Children who are not going on the residential should have received a letter informing you of the activities that they will be taking part in from Monday 17th – Wednesday 19th June. Please return the permission slips for the beach trip if you haven’t already. We’re also waiting on a few more permission slips for the school disco on 22nd May.

Enjoy you bank holiday weekend!
Best wishes,
The Year 6 Team

Year 3 Get Planting!

As part of our new topic- What Makes the World Survive and Thrive?- we have been busy sewing seeds and getting our Polytunnel into shipshape! 

We dug over the raised beds ready for seeds and planted a variety of vegetable seeds and flower seeds into seed trays.

As well as studying plants and how they grow as part of our topic, we are entering into some of the upcoming Royal Cornwall Show competitions with what we grow at school.  A slip has been sent home with information regarding bringing in recycled material and other items for these entries. 
 
This week we also began our 3 week Science experiment on how light and soil can affect a seeds germination and growth. We planted Runner Bean seeds in soil, tissue and cotton wool and have placed them in either direct sun light, artificial light or darkness. We will be checking up on the seeds each week to see which ones grow the best and why. 

Keep a look out for next weeks blog on our current DT project - designing and sewing our own cushions! 

Many thanks,
Year 3 Team 

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

Summer 1 - Week 2 - Algebra, check!

Congratulations to Finlay for coming 1st place in Fowey Festival's KS2 Poetry writing competition! Another well done to the Year 6 boys that represented Wadebridge Primary this week in a football tournament; taking home the 2nd place medal. We were visited by the RNLI on Wednesday. They reminded us of the importance of staying safe at the beach and what to do if we got into trouble in the water. 

English
Over the past couple of weeks, the children have been learning how to incorporate a variety of writing skills into their writing. Some of these skills include descriptive writing, imagery, figurative language, building tension, creating atmosphere and micro-expressions. We have been using the animated video Alma as a stimulus for writing and the children have seemed to really enjoy the genre of this story. We have been very impressed with their writing so far. Next week, they’re putting all the skills together to independently write a narrative.

Maths
We’ve been tackling algebra this week and, although many of us felt unsure at the start of the week, the children have grown in confidence. They have demonstrated that they can form algebraic expressions and equations and have solved both 1 and 2-step equations!

Art
We have continued with our Greek Gods and Goddesses collages and the children are producing some colourful, creative pieces of work.

DT
We have started cutting and constructing the frames for our automata toys. The children have also worked in pairs to come up with a design.

Reminders
Please keep encouraging your children to work through the CGP books which were sent home before Easter. If you haven’t already, please ensure your children’s form for the residential trip is handed back into school next week.

Enjoy you weekend.

Best wishes,
The Year 6 Team

Summer Term 1 - Week 2 - Life is a cycle of ends and starts!

English

At the start of the week, the children learnt about ‘Triggers’ for flash backs. Using the video as a stimulus, they created a transition that would lead them into a flash back about the old man’s time at war. Within the trigger, the children were encouraged to use a range of descriptive language devices in order to expand their sentences. Emphasis was placed on their final sentence which would set them up for writing their flash back on Tuesday.

Next, the children wrote a detailed flash back, recalling the time where the man had lost his friend in battle. We focused on emotive writing, detailing how the old man would have felt and what he would’ve been thinking at the time.

On Wednesday, the children then looked at a different part of the video; honing in on his wife. They used similes and metaphors to describe her…

“His wife was the two pillars that held him up in his time of need” – Seb

Finally, on Thursday, the children then wrote a recount of the day the old man met his wife. The romance that poured out in their writing made us well up, they were truly beautiful across the whole cohort. The level of sophistication in their vocabulary choices were outstanding!

Maths

On Monday, we looked at a Year 6 arithmetic paper – The children had the opportunity to have a go at the different questions that could arise and made links to our pre-teaches in morning work. We marked them as a whole class and discussed misconceptions or specific questions they found tricky.

For the rest of the week, we continued our angles and shape learning journey. The children looked at classifying angles, measuring angles, angles around a point and angles on a straight line. The children will then have the opportunity on Monday to draw angles, where we will tape the tables and the children can really immerse themselves in the process.

In morning work, we have continued to go over our level 1, 2 & 3 fractions. Please do ask your children about these and continue to develop skills and knowledge at home!

Wider Curriculum

In Wider Curriculum, it was all about Science!

On Monday, the children investigated different species and their life cycles. The children were broken down into four different groups: Amphibians, Reptiles, Insects, Birds. Each group then created an information leaflet about their species. They worked together to collate facts, diagrams, stages of life cycle, titles etc. Once their booklet was complete, we shared information and findings. From here, the children then wrote about the similarities and differences between the different life cycles.  

On Wednesday, the children explored the work of well-known naturalists and animal behaviourists; David Attenborough and Jane Goodall. They completed a double page spread, researching about their work, it’s impact, why it was so important and found about their main achievements.

Finally, on Thursday, the children looked at the stages from Adult to Old age. The children completed a spider diagram about the key changes and wrote some ‘Top Tips’ from staying healthy as you grow older.  

Important Information:

·      On Friday 3^rd May 2024 – The children have an Arena Health and Well-being Day where they will be completing a variety of activities such as; Healthy eating orienteering, ultimate frisbee, dodgeball, capture the flag and Zumba! *Children to come into school in PE kits as usual*

Have a wonderful weekend,

Best Wishes,

Summer 1, Weeks 1 and 2 - Busy Beebots!

What a start to the summer we've had - and with the weather we've had this week, it's actually feeling like summer term! 

We've had a really busy start to the term and here are some of the highlights:

English

Our class book is The Singing Mermaid by Julia Donaldson and the children are loving it just as much as we are! We have used the book to explore using question marks by thinking of questions to ask the Singing Mermaid and to explore exclamation marks in our writing by exclaiming over how mean Sam Sly was! We discussed emotions by focusing on how the Singing Mermaid felt when she was trapped in the fish tank and used these adjectives and ideas when writing a letter as the Singing Mermaid to our friends at Silver Sands letting them know what had happened and how we felt about it. The children have really embraced the story and we are seeing some great ideas and vocabulary in their writing. 

Maths

We have had a really busy 2 weeks in Maths - starting with counting in 2s, then in 10s and then in 5s. We then moved onto recognising equal groups, which included problem solving when the groups were not equal. We moved onto adding equal groups, using our skills of counting in 2s, 10s and 5s and the children are becoming more fluent in these. Why not play some games to use these skills as you're out and about over the weekend? Try counting pairs of socks or grouping their toys and seeing if they can show off their counting skills! 

Art

Last week, we used the primary colours to explore making secondary colours and used our sketchbooks to make a note of our work. We then made a printing stamp using different shapes of thin polystyrene, which we glued onto cardboard. The following day, we used our stamps with printing inks and rollers and made pictures in the style of Andy Warhol. We really enjoyed our arty week! 

Geography

This week, we returned to our learning of human and physical geographical features and looked at these in relation to the beach and seaside, identifying different features we can see on the coast. The children were very enthusiastic about these and shared their ideas as a class. We identified features such as, cliffs, hills, harbour, pier, lighthouse, ocean, beach, rocks, beach huts, shops and boats. We then used a picture of a local beach to describe what we could see, for example, there is a lighthouse on the pier or I can see cliffs above the ocean. Wow! Some great learning!

Computing

We had great fun in our computing sessions when learning about algorithms as we were able to get the Beebots out! We started by "programming" our Teachers to move around the classroom and then programming our friend to do the same. Then we learnt how to operate the Beebot (making sure we clear the instructions every time became very important!) and we programmed the Beebots to move to different places. We set a finish point for them and tried to instruct them to land on a spot. It was a good lesson in giving very clear instructions! The children soon learned what to do and have been able to write a short series of instructions for the Beebots this week. Amazing! 


PE

We are very lucky this term to have Pro20 delivering PE sessions and we have had 2 weeks of football - there are some awesome skills on show! We have played different games involving finding space and evading other children, which we have then put to good use when playing with a ball and children are now learning to evade other people whilst dribbling with the ball. We have had some mini games of football at the end of sessions, which have been great to see the children putting their new found skills into action - and some great sportsmanship on display too! 

Reminders

We have sent letters out re out trip to the Aquarium - thank you to those who have sent them back in. Please continue to send them in next week with your child.

Mondays are PE days so full PE kit please. 

Thursdays are library days so please send your child in with their library book ready to change. 


Have a lovely weekend and we look forward to seeing you again on Monday! 

The Year One Team

Summer Term 1 - Week 1 - Signs of Summer! 

English

In English this week we began a new learning journey on emotive writing. The children are exploring the video from literacy shed ‘The Piano’. Throughout the learning journey, the children will have the opportunity to write in different genres as well as investigating and using a variety of grammatical skills.

To begin the week, the children used their VIPERS skills to explore video and look at symbolism. They were presented with a range of ideas and discussed what this could symbolise and how it enhances the image in our heads. Next, the children learnt how to extend sentences using relative clauses, adjectival phrases etc. and wrote character descriptions for the old man in the clip.

Towards the end of the week, the children learnt about amplifications and how to use a range of literary devices to create them. So far, we have seen some lovely, descriptive language. We will continue to develop our writing over the next few weeks where we will end the journey by writing a recount in the form of a letter.

Maths

Maths varied this week, we had to complete our statistics learning journey before we moved onto angles. On the Monday and Tuesday, the children looked at two-way tables and reading time tables. They then finalised the journey by completing their end of unit assessments.

Mid-week, the children then began their angles and shapes learning journey. To begin their explored degrees, lots of this learning was recalling prior knowledge from Year 4. The children were confident in their recall and made notes of the declarative knowledge for the journey in their books.

To end the week, the children were involved in their weekly carousel, for these activities the children have the opportunity to look back at their arithmetic and reasoning papers and work on areas they find tricky. Teachers and TA’s are on hand to support, show methods etc.

Well done to those children who are continuing to access TTRS at home, keep up the fab work!

Wider Curriculum

We were scientists this week…

On Monday, the children learnt all about life cycles of humans. They learnt about the different stages and recorded key facts and information. During the lesson, the children were also introduced to different animals and their cycles, where we then made comparisons, noting the similarities and differences.

On Thursday, we then moved on to ‘Living things and their habitats’, where we explored the life cycles of common plants. Here the children looked at parts of a plant, how seeds disperse, what asexual reproduction in plants is, before embarking on an experiment. For the experiment, the children would be taking cuttings of a plant and replanting them to see if their grow. In their books they made predictions on what would happen to the plant based on the knowledge they had learnt from the lesson.

Please see this week’s home learning for further information!!

What a great start to a new term,

Have a wonderful weekend as always,

Best Wishes,