Welcome to the Year 4 page where you will find out about the great things taking place in our classes.

Home Learning
Maths Fluency: Learning times tables is really important. After all, they're the building blocks of maths, and with their multiplications mastered, they can do anything! Therefore, each child from Year 2 - Year 6 has a log in for 'Times Tables Rock Stars' (TTRS). This is a carefully sequenced programme of daily times tables practise online which helps your child learn their tables in a fun and engaging way. Please encourage your child to log on to TTRS as often as possible. Children's use of these apps are monitored closely by teachers. Each week, one child per class is awarded the TTRS Champion.

Reading: Throughout the school, we emphasise developing a love of reading and books. From Reception to Year 6, reading should take place daily. We are happy for children to read their allocated reading book, their school library book or any other reading material. In Year 4, the children are encouraged to take greater responsibility for their own reading. Due to the varying length of books, the children will be responsible for changing their own books weekly. They will be able to change their books during morning work, guided reading sessions and at free reading times. Class teachers keep a record of book changes to support the children and give reminders if needed.

PE
Our PE lesson is on a Tuesday. Please ensure that your child wears their PE kit to school every Tuesday.

This web page will be updated throughout the year with our fortnightly weekly news, termly curriculum maps and other useful information, so please do watch this space!

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Best wishes,

The Year 4 Team

Welcome to the Year 3 page where you will find out about the great things taking place in our classes.

Home Learning
Maths Fluency: Learning times tables is really important. After all, they're the building blocks of maths, and with their multiplications mastered, they can do anything! Therefore, each child from Year 2 - Year 6 has a log in for 'Times Tables Rock Stars' (TTRS). This is a carefully sequenced programme of daily times tables practise online which helps your child learn their tables in a fun and engaging way. Please encourage your child to log on to TTRS as often as possible. Children's use of these apps are monitored closely by teachers. Each week, one child per class is awarded the TTRS Champion.

Reading: Throughout the school, we emphasise developing a love of reading and books. From Reception to Year 6, reading should take place daily. Regular daily reading at home is so very important to help your child in becoming a fluent reader. We encourage parents to read and discuss literature with their children and believe that reading should be a shared experience where possible. We are happy for children to read their allocated reading book, their school library book or any other reading material.

PE
Our extended PE lesson is on a Friday. Please ensure that your child wears their PE kit to school every Friday.

This web page will be updated throughout the year with our fortnightly weekly news, termly curriculum maps and other useful information, so please do watch this space!

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Best wishes,

The Year 3 Team

Welcome to the Year 2 page where you will find out about the great things taking place in our classes.

Home Learning
Maths Fluency: Learning times tables is really important. After all, they're the building blocks of maths, and with their multiplications mastered, they can do anything! Therefore, each child from Year 2 - Year 6 has a log in for 'Times Tables Rock Stars' (TTRS). This is a carefully sequenced programme of daily times tables practise online which helps your child learn their tables in a fun and engaging way. Please encourage your child to log on to TTRS as often as possible. Children's use of these apps are monitored closely by teachers. Each week, one child per class is awarded the TTRS Champion.

Reading: Throughout the school, we emphasise developing a love of reading and books. From Reception to Year 6, reading should take place daily. Regular daily reading at home is so very important to help your child in becoming a fluent reader. We encourage parents to read and discuss literature with their children and believe that reading should be a shared experience where possible. We are happy for children to read their allocated reading book, their school library book or any other reading material. 

PE
Our extended PE lesson is on a Thursday. Please ensure that your child wears their PE kit to school every Thursday.

This web page will be updated throughout the year with our fortnightly weekly news, termly curriculum maps and other useful information, so please do watch this space!

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Best wishes,

The Year 2 Team

Welcome to the Year 1 page where you will find out about the great things taking place in our classes.

Home Learning
Each child has a Phonics folder that is included within their reading packet. This folder has key information about Phonics along with grapheme charts and tricky words. Each week, the children will be sent home with Phonics learning, in addition to regular reading.

Reading
Throughout the school, we emphasise developing a love of reading and books. From Reception to Year 6, reading should take place daily. Regular daily reading at home is so very important to help your child in becoming a fluent reader. We encourage parents to read and discuss literature with their children and believe that reading should be a shared experience where possible. We are happy for children to read their allocated reading book, their school library book or any other reading material.

PE
Our extended PE lesson is on a Friday. Please ensure that your child wears their PE kit to school every Friday.

This web page will be updated throughout the year with our fortnightly weekly news, termly curriculum maps and other useful information, so please do watch this space! If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Best wishes,

The Year 1 Team

Learning in Reception
As you know, children in Reception are on the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum (EYFS). This curriculum is predominantly play-based and celebrates the whole child's learning and development in a holistic approach. Our planning comes from the children - through careful observations and assessments of their play, noting the gaps in their knowledge and primarily from their interests in an overarching 'topic'.

In school, we typically have a daily 30-minute phonics lesson, a 30-minute maths lesson and a short topic taught session. In addition to this, we have 10 minutes reading a day. We support the children's writing development with weekly small group guided writing sessions. This is where the children can apply their skills and knowledge of letters and sounds from their daily phonics lessons. The rest of the day is child-initiated play in the learning environments inside and outside. We call this COOL time (Choosing Our Own Learning)! This allows children the time for totally uninterrupted play; they can apply their learning from the taught sessions in a range of different activities and contexts. This ensures the learning is meaningful to them and that it becomes embedded. We try to ensure that the children have a minimum of 1.5 hours in the morning and the same again in the afternoon.

In line with our school values, we promote the Characteristics of Effective Learning through our learning characters: Ideas Iguana (Creativity), Have a Go Hippo (Enthusiasm) and Keep Going Koala (Determination).

Morning routines
Each morning, we ask that the children are dropped off at the green gate into the Reception area between 08:30 and 08:45. The children will then independently enter their classroom to organise their belongings and get ready for an exciting day of learning. This time of day is a busy time for teachers so we ask that any messages are passed on via the teacher on duty who will then pass the information on to the class teacher. If you have any further concerns or questions then an appointment can be made via the office.

End of day routines
At the end of the day, please come to the same green gate at 15:10, so that we can dismiss your child to you and pass over any messages about the day. If you are ever unable to collect your child, please either phone the office or pass it on to the teacher on the gate in the morning. We will not send any child home with anyone different unless we have had a message to do so and the adult has your collection password.

Things to bring to school
As well as wearing school uniform, your child will need a waterproof coat, pair of wellington boots, book bag with reading record and book, and a water bottle. In the summer months, please bring a hat and sun-cream. We also kindly ask you to leave a spare pair of clothes on their pegs just in case they are need to change or have an accident. Please ensure that every item is clearly named - including water bottles and packed lunch boxes.

Reading books - changed on a Monday and Thursday / library books on a Monday
Throughout the school, we emphasise developing a love of reading and books. From Reception to Year 6, reading should take place daily. Your child will soon receive a reading packet and a reading record. It is really important that these are brought into school every day in their book bags. We will change your child's reading book every Monday and Thursday. By practising re-reading the same book over a few days, it will help your child to become more confident with the text and fluent. The children will visit our wonderful school library on a Monday morning, where they will get to choose their very own book to take home. They will need to return their library back to school every Monday morning, in order to change it for a new one. We kindly ask you support your child with taking good care of our reading and library books at home, so that we can keep them in a nice condition for everyone to enjoy.

PE - Every Friday
As independent changing for PE is part of the of the Early Years curriculum, we will be supporting and encouraging children to get changed for PE at school. Please leave your child's P.E. kit on their peg. We will send home the kits for regular washing.

Snacks
Free fruit will be provided for all of the children in Reception. However, if your child would like to bring their own fruit then they are more than welcome to. We kindly ask you to bring in a snack for the afternoons. In order to promote healthy eating, we do ask that children only bring fruit to school.

Lunch
The children are entitled to receive a free school lunch each day. Please ensure you order your child's lunch via ParentPay. Alternatively, your child is welcome to bring their own packed lunch.

Showbie
We know that the children often get up to some amazing things out of school too. If you have visited somewhere interesting or achieved an award (swimming, karate etc.) then please let us know and upload onto Showbie. We love to celebrate all types of learning and achievements. We share WOW moments and whole class special events, as well as key milestones of learning and development on the individual child on Showbie.
 

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Best wishes,
The Reception Team

Hello Everyone,

Great fun was had this week during our science lesson, where we made and tested paper helicopters. We learnt about how adding weight to the helicopters, changed the speed at which they fell, and then recorded our results in a graph.

Reception have been learning all about space. They have been busy using different painting techniques to paint the different planets of the solar system. They have also enjoyed singing songs and taking part in listening activities all about space stories. Our role play area has been filled with children visiting our space station and making and recording observations. 

During English this week, we have used two film clips to help us with our learning. The first, is a clip called 'Baboon on the Moon' and the second, 'Man on the Moon'. We have been using skills such as making predictions, explaining and reasoning, as well as developing our vocabulary to describe feelings. We wrote letters to the man on the moon, using the English skills that we have been developing. 

We are all so pleased with how well the children are improving their reading skills so far in Penhallow. Please keep practicing your reading as often as you can. We are so proud of your progress. Well done everybody.

Have a lovely weekend,

from The Penhallow Team