Newsletter 26.01
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LUDGVAN SCHOOL NEWSLETTER <strong>26.01</strong>.24<br />
LUDGVAN SCHOOL<br />
NEWSLETTER<strong>26.01</strong>.24<br />
LUDGVAN SCHOOL NEWSLETTER <strong>26.01</strong>.24
A word from the Principal...<br />
Dear families,<br />
This is our first newsletter since the festive period and already Christmas and New year seem such a long<br />
time ago!<br />
This term is often the most productive for our children in terms of their classroom learning as the busy<br />
Christmas festivities are over and the summer excitement of sports day, shows and transition are yet to<br />
come. The children’s productivity has been very apparent so far this January, with some fantastic learning<br />
evident in all classrooms and the progress from September is really clear to see.<br />
It has been a pleasure to welcome Miss Hutton into our staff team this term. She is covering Mrs Barber’s<br />
maternity leave in our EYFS class and is building fantastic relationships with the children and really<br />
accelerating their learning.<br />
Next week brings an exciting CPD opportunity for all of our staff who will be joining their colleagues from our<br />
other local Leading Edge Schools to take part in a workshop with Floyd Steadman. Floyd, a former<br />
professional rugby player, who now lives in Ludgvan, leads workshops focussing on unconscious bias,<br />
resilience and grace in adversity, which should prove to be really powerful.<br />
Kind regards,<br />
Mr Adam Anderson<br />
Principal
What’s Useful information...<br />
been going on...<br />
Term Dates 23/24<br />
12-16 February 2024 - Spring Half Term<br />
28 March - end of Spring Term<br />
EYFS & KS1 collection at 1pm<br />
Y3 & Y4 collection at 1.10pm<br />
Y5 & Y6 collection at 1.20pm<br />
15 April - start of Summer Term<br />
Diary Dates<br />
31 January - No after school clubs (normal collection times)<br />
8 February - FLS DISCO (KS1 3-4pm, KS2 4-5pm)<br />
6-8 March - FLS Mother’s Day Shop<br />
7 March - World Book Day<br />
15 March - Comic Relief<br />
22 March - FLS Easter Raffle<br />
11-13 June - Moana Performance evenings<br />
17 June 2024 - Inset Day<br />
26 June - Sports Day<br />
29 June - Mazey Day<br />
Parking<br />
Please remember to park safely and considerately at both ends of the school day and<br />
use the Community Centre path whenever possible. Thank you for continued support.<br />
School Lunches<br />
Please ensure you book your child’s lunch option online every day, including packed<br />
lunches. This can be done in advance for the whole term if preferred, but the<br />
daily deadline for bookings and amendments is midnight the night before.
Sports...<br />
HOCKEY<br />
Despite the snow last Thursday, the hockey club braved the elements for their after-school<br />
club in Penzance. A mid-day pitch inspection revealed a white pitch, but<br />
with full sun and temperatures rising, the snow was predicted to melt so the club<br />
went ahead. By the time we arrived, only a small patch of snow remained in the<br />
shadow of the dugout (but that still proved to be very exciting!)
Outdoor Learning...<br />
Outdoor Learning has been all go so far this term! Our big focuses have been map skills and<br />
the safe and productive use of different tools from drills and hammers to big garden tools.<br />
Our younger children have been getting familiar with our new electric screwdrivers, learning<br />
how to use them safely to insert and remove screws into wood.<br />
Year 2 have been focusing on using tools for ‘maintenance’. Our outdoor resources get a lot<br />
of use which results in plenty of wear and tear, our tarpaulins in particular. The children have<br />
been learning how to use an eyelet punch to replace and add new eyelets to the tarps. They<br />
didn’t believe me when I first said it was my new toy… but they certainly did by the end!<br />
Year 3 and 4 have been working on a desert island survival challenge. We’ve recapped shelter<br />
building and fire lighting - skills that are essential for survival! They are now working on mini<br />
raft building challenge using twigs and small branches, searching for suitable sticks to<br />
construct the raft and effective knot tying to bring it all together.<br />
Year 5’s biggest focus has been on navigation and map skills. You may have seen that a new<br />
permanent orienteering course has been set up around the school. Year 5 have been<br />
working hard to ensure the course has been set up correctly and the map corresponds<br />
accurately to the school grounds. As well as fine tuning their orienteering skills, they have<br />
been able to make adjustments both to the markers outside and on the maps to ensure the<br />
course is correct and ready to use for the other classes.<br />
Year 6 have been super busy completing a wide range of activities! We’ve had independent<br />
cooking of mac and cheese on the campfire - exactly what was needed in the cold weather!<br />
Orienteering skills have shown off completing our new course. The competitiveness certainly<br />
came out of them all! It’s the longest and most difficult course we’ve had in the school but<br />
they still managed to complete it in record time!<br />
Their latest project has been woodwork and tool use. Their challenge as part of their DT has<br />
been to plan and construct bird houses. Although we’ve only just started them, it’s great to<br />
see how far they’ve got already! I can’t wait to see the finished products!
Outdoor Learning...
Broad and Balanced...<br />
EYFS<br />
Our topic has been ‘The Great Outdoors’ with a focus this week on seasons and weather. The<br />
children have had the opportunity to explore weather maps and talk about how to identify the<br />
weather and seasons; they even learnt a season’s song! Getting snow was rather exciting!<br />
The children went on a scavenger hunt and collected materials to create their own winter<br />
collage. They also started making pinecone bird feeders to hang outside in the<br />
garden hoping to encourage more wildlife to visit.<br />
In science the children collected materials from the garden and predicted whether they would<br />
float or sink, taking turns to place the objects into the water to see if their<br />
predictions were correct.<br />
In Drawing Club this week we have been reading “Dear Zoo”. The children have come up with<br />
their own ideas to bring the story to life. Some children used building blocks to create a zoo,<br />
working together as a team and trying out the animals inside.<br />
In Maths this week our focus has been - counting, ordinality and cardinality - rehearsing the<br />
order of the first 5 numbers and understanding that the position each number holds in our<br />
number sequence does not change. Some of the children have created their own number<br />
sequences by drawing number blocks, using cubes, magnets and building blocks.
Broad and Balanced...<br />
Year 1<br />
Our topic in Year 1 for this term is ‘How far can I travel?’ The children will be learning all<br />
about the 7 Continents. They have had fun finding out lots of new facts about Antarctica ,Asia<br />
and North America.<br />
They discovered that Antarctica is actually a desert and that nobody lives there. They made<br />
beautiful ice collages and had fun exploring the ice! The children learnt about China and had<br />
a go at making their own Great Wall. They learnt that dragons are an important part of many<br />
celebrations in China. Some of the children made Chinese dragons. We looked at some famous<br />
landmarks in America: The Statue of Liberty, The White House and Mount Rushmore.<br />
In our PE sessions the children are enjoying learning all about playing hockey and are always<br />
looking forward to their next session with Mr Fletcher!<br />
Within our art lessons this half term we are focusing on collage work.We have learnt about<br />
Henri Matisse a famous French collage artist. The children recreated his work on both a small<br />
and larger scale, producing some really fantastic pieces of artwork.<br />
Well done Year 1 we have had a very busy few weeks!
Broad and Balanced...<br />
Year 2<br />
Year 2 have made a brilliant start to 2024. We have been so impressed with how well they<br />
have come and settled back into school. To kick start the new year, we made new year’s<br />
resolutions, many of which included being healthier. As part of this, we have talked about our<br />
mental health. We have been doing some daily mindfulness, which includes guided meditation<br />
and yoga.<br />
Our new topic is ‘What makes Cornwall special?’ We have been learning about where Cornwall<br />
is and finding it on a map. We have learnt about Sir Humphry Davy and why he is famous.<br />
In computing, we have started looking at Venn diagrams and having fun exploring Seesaw!<br />
In art, we have loved making rubbings of objects we found in our local area. We have been<br />
busy making prints using natural materials like leaves and lichen.<br />
PE has been lots of fun with a mixture of yoga, gymnastics and building fitness.<br />
Keep up all the hard work Year 2 - you are all superstars!
Broad and Balanced...<br />
Year 3<br />
In Year 3 we have started our new topic looking at ancient civilisations, with a focus on<br />
Ancient Egypt. The children are already enjoying this topic and have been able to compare<br />
and contrast how this compares to life during the Stone Age, our focus in the Autumn term.<br />
This week they have been making board games to share some of their new knowledge about<br />
the Egyptians.<br />
In English we have been writing diary entries for our best day ever! Some children want<br />
lovely holidays in faraway places, but most were happy with a trip to the beach or swimming<br />
pool with a McDonalds afterwards! The children really enjoyed using a thesaurus to find<br />
synonyms to improve their writing. A few lucky children earned themselves a pen to write<br />
with for amazing joined up, neat writing.<br />
In Science the children have started a new unit looking at plants. This week they are<br />
investigating where plants grow best and what they need to grow well. They’ve all got great<br />
ideas about how we can investigate this. We have also completed a unit of French and the<br />
children are now confident in introducing themselves in French, asking how someone is and<br />
telling someone how they feel.<br />
Finally the children have enjoyed learning some music with Mr Richards. They have looked<br />
at Jazz and Swing and have used the instruments to play familiar scales, as well as make up<br />
some of their own in a swing style.<br />
A great start to 2024 Year 3, well done, keep up the good work!
Broad and Balanced...<br />
Year 4<br />
The children have been working really well in all areas of the curriculum. They have loved<br />
learning about Ancient Rome in history lessons, doing written work, drawing pictures of<br />
leaders and making presentations.<br />
In Art, the children have designed collages, planning the colours they’ll use. I was really<br />
impressed with the children’s letter writing in class. They chose some interesting people to<br />
write to, such as Ronaldo, King Charles, Rishi Sunak to name a few. They started their letters<br />
with the reason for writing and what they would like.<br />
In Maths, the children have been developing their short division skills. They are all getting<br />
much more confident. The children have loved high jump in PE and have had lots of fun<br />
leaping over the bar.
Broad and Balanced...<br />
Year 5<br />
We have had a great couple of weeks in Year 5. We have jumped straight into science (and it<br />
got pretty messy!) looking at changes in state through chocolate.<br />
In English, we explored persuasive letters and aimed to persuade the prime minister to help<br />
us fight plastic pollution and other environment issues. The children have been very<br />
passionate in their writing, especially when looking at modal verbs where we created our own<br />
manifesto.<br />
In Art we have started our module on collage and we will be expressing ourselves through<br />
this medium and developing a final piece that represents our individuality through pictures,<br />
words, colours and patterns on the page.<br />
We are counting down in anticipation for our London trip in two weeks’ time!<br />
Well done for a great start to your term Year 5.
Broad and Balanced...<br />
Year 6<br />
This month has been our introduction to the WW2 topic. We have created diary entries from<br />
the perspective of Anne Frank, and explored writing in an informal way, whilst using<br />
terminology from that period of time. We then used Canva to create our own design for our<br />
diary pages in order to make them look more authentic. We are currently learning about the<br />
Blitz and how Britain was impacted by the air raids, as well as how British resilience was<br />
highlighted during these troubling times.<br />
In computing, Year 6 explored WW2 coding systems and how communication in code was<br />
vital to the war efforts. We looked at the history of the Enigma machine and how Alan Turin<br />
deciphered some of the most difficult codes ever experienced. Following this, the children<br />
then began writing their own Pig-Pen codes using a specific design of the alphabet, before<br />
moving on to the more widely known, ‘Caesar Cipher’.<br />
Our maths has focused primarily on ratio, and we have used scaled drawings within DT in<br />
order to attempt to create a bird house. Using our mathematical skills in scale was a little<br />
trickier when planning the dimensions of the bird house, but we got there in the end.<br />
We have also taken part in some Online Safety discussions based on being good digital<br />
citizens, and appropriate online behaviours when using social media and online games, within<br />
a gaming community.<br />
In music we have been studying Baroque opera, focusing on the composers Monteverdi,<br />
Percell and Pachelbel. A particular focus has been on Pachelbel’s Canon in D. As a class we<br />
have learnt to play a section of the music on our new keyboards by reading the sheet music.<br />
The music is split into four parts, which groups of the class taking on each part. We were able<br />
to practice our individual sections before piecing together to play in canon as a whole class.<br />
The difference from the start of our practice to our final performance was phenomenal!
Broad and Balanced...<br />
Ludgvan School<br />
PRODUCTION OF<br />
Music and Lyrics by<br />
Lin-Manuel Mirands, Opetaia Foa‘i & Mark Mancina<br />
Book Adapted by<br />
Susan Soon He Stanton<br />
Music and Orchestrations Adapted and Arranged by<br />
Ian Weinberger<br />
Based on the 12016 Disney film Moana<br />
Tuesday 11 th June – 6:00 PM<br />
Wednesday 12 th June – 6:00 PM<br />
Thursday 13 th June – 6:00 PM<br />
For Tickets Visit<br />
www.ticketsource.co.uk/ludgvan-school
Sports Day...<br />
RED RIVER SCOUT GROUP<br />
Want to try something new, learn new skills<br />
and meet a whole new group of friends.<br />
Each week with our help, children enjoy fun<br />
and adventure whilst developing skills for life.<br />
Why not be one of them?<br />
Join us at Crowlas Methodist Chapel:<br />
Beavers (5 ¾-8yrs) Thursdays 5.30-6.30pm<br />
Cubs (8-10 ½yrs) Thursdays 6.50-8.15pm<br />
Scouts (10 ½ -14yrs) Mondays 7-9pm<br />
VOLUNTEERS<br />
We are also looking for adult volunteers to help<br />
run our weekly meets or to support the group as<br />
a member of our Trustee Board. No experience is<br />
necessary and you can give as much of your time<br />
as able.<br />
For any enquiries, please contact Karen on<br />
07989132280 or email<br />
karen.stephens1@hotmail.com
Sports Day...
Sports Day...
Sports Day...
Sports Day...
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