1. family and parenting
2. children

Issue 48
th
13 February 2015
FROM THE HEADMASTER
We have rounded off the last week before half term in fine form, cramming every day with
something interesting and worthwhile at all levels of the school. We cannot look at this week,
though, before mentioning the hugely successful Cross Country event last Friday. I had been
primed to be impressed but I was genuinely (and almost literally!) blown away by the positive
atmosphere and the scale of the whole thing. It was great to see runners of all abilities giving their
best and against such a stunning backdrop too. It made me really sit up and realize just what a
spectacular part of the world we live in and how lucky we and our children are to be a stone’s throw
from it all. I would like to wholeheartedly thank all those parents who helped marshal and all the
staff who put hours of effort in to make the event happen. Particular thanks to Sabine Thorne who
masterminded the whole thing while on maternity leave and to Mr Hunt and Mr Hilton for their
efforts setting the course up.
So on to this week. I had the pleasure of seeing part of the Street Dance activity with Years 1 and
2 on Monday and I was amazed and ashamed in equal measure; some of the moves your children
were watching and replicating were simply incredible while I was left to consider my own
inadequacies on the dance floor- to be beaten in a dance off by a 5 year old is a depressing
thought! Thanks so much to Kayleigh for all her efforts so far this term; the children are loving it
and doing really well!
The Dolphins enjoyed an exciting visit to see an Octopus (fictional I hope!) at Budehaven
Community School on Tuesday, the U11 girls and boys enjoyed sporting success on Wednesday
and Year 5 and 6 had a fantastic educational trip to Bodmin Jail yesterday! Today we had an
absolutely wonderful Assembly from Year 1 full of singing, dancing, Mardi Gras and pancake
flipping. What a brilliant way to round off the first half of term.
We are sorry to have said goodbye to a few of our pupils who are moving on at half-term and we
wish them all the best at their new schools. While I would never claim that things are always
perfect at St Petroc’s, I do hope that every child who comes here enjoys their time with us. It is
such a close community that each member of the school becomes a special part of it and we are
sorry to see anyone leave. It would be foolish of me to ignore the fact some of you might have
heard a few mutterings from leaving parents. All I would ask is that if you have any issues or
concerns yourself then please come and talk to us about them rather than allowing them to build up
into something bigger. We will always listen to you and try to do our best to address anything that
is raised; we just have to know about it first! On that note thank you for your response to the Parent
Reps Group idea. I hope that I can get this up and running shortly after half term.
I am hugely excited about the next few weeks and months. The future looks bright at St Petroc's
and I am sure you will notice many positive changes over the coming terms. The first of these
should be easy to spot: we are having some new signs put up soon after half term which I have no
doubt will look splendid! I do hope you all enjoy a restful week with your families.
Dan Thornburn
Headmaster
headmaster@stpetrocs.com
FORWARD DATES
Term Resumes
rd
Monday 23 February
Years 5 & 6 High 5 Netball
Tournament
Budehaven School
th
Tuesday 24 February
4.00 p.m.
Years 3 & 4 Sculpture Trip
Rosemoor Gardens
th
Thursday 26 February
9.00 a.m.
Year 4 Assembly
th
Friday 27 February
8.40 a.m.
Second Orders
th
Friday 27 February
LITTLE TURTLES
The Little Turtles have been making Valentines cards this week for their loved ones
using heart shapes to make the prints onto card. They made some pink play dough
at the beginning of the week, where all the children taking part had a go at mixing in
the ingredients.
Can we please remind parents that it would be really helpful to have their
child’s clothes labelled with their names to avoid any mix ups, thank you.
SEA LIONS
The Sea Lions children have also made some Valentines card this week, sticking hearts onto
paper and writing over the letters of their name inside. They have been playing with animals
in the sand tray, and have been exploring the texture of cooked pasta for their sensory
activity.
SCHOOL BUS INFORMATION
If you wish your child to use the minibus as a one-off or on a regular basis please inform the School office who will add your child to
the list as well as inform the Bursar and driver. Thank you for your co-operation.
.
FRIENDS’ WINE & WISDOM EVENING
The annual Friends’ Wine and Wisdom evening will take place
in the school hall on the evening of Friday 13th March. This is
a great night with tickets costing only £5 per person which
includes wine and nibbles! 8 per team maximum and a pay
bar. If you don’t have a full team, don’t worry we can pair you
up on the night with other teams. Tickets will be available
after half term.
GIVE AS YOU LIVE
Just a reminder that if you are online shopping please sign up to our Give As You Live website first.
https://www.giveasyoulive.com/charity/stpetrocs
Give As You Live is an online shopping portal through which
1000’s of stores will donate a % of every pound you spend to
St Petroc’s. It’s simple and free to use and you will be raising
valuable funds for the school as you shop. Many of you
signed up before Christmas and we are already seeing the
funds raised coming through to us. Thank you!
DOLPHINS
This week some of the Dolphin children had a fantastic time at
Budehaven School participating in an Octopus’s Garden
obstacle course. The children demonstrated good physical
skills such as jumping, running, dancing and skipping. They
listened to positional language and went under, over, on top
and around obstacles. The children have also been busy
pretending to be pirates and designing their own treasure
maps and chests.
CALLING ALL BEACH LOVERS!
We would like to get involved with a local community project aiming to clean up our
beaches and raise awareness about the damage being done to the marine
environment by the ever-growing tide of plastic pollution. It would be wonderful if we
could all start collecting bottle tops from our local beaches, string them together and
bring them into school as Beth and Eva’s dad is happy to collect them on our behalf.
RECEPTION
The Reception children have been learning about the Chinese New Year this
week. Dragons have featured heavily in our activities; especially our resident
dragon who comes 'out of his cave' around this time of year. Children got inside
him and took him dancing across to visit children in Dolphins. They accompanied
him with their junk modelled musical instruments. The children in Dolphins were
delighted to see him and proudly showed us their own dragon models they had
made. George told the younger children the story of Nien, the Chinese dragon
who was afraid of the colour red.
YEAR 1
Year 1 have been learning about Mardi Gras and Pancake
Day. They wrote some beautiful acrostic poems along with
making beads and masks. The class finished off with a super
assembly for the parents. Well done Dave Miller for winning
the pancake tossing competition but I think there might have
been some dodgy scoring going on!
YEAR 2
In four teams the Year 2 children had to design,
make/construct and paint a rocket. The children had to work
in teams, listening to each other’s ideas; they then had to
decide on the best junk to use to make a stable rocket.
Although most of the children insisted on finding their own
junk that they had brought in, rather than the best junk for the
job! Constructing the rocket proved tricky, but they continued
to persevere. The final stage was the painting of the
rockets….they are all now suspended from our ceiling in our
classroom, you are all very welcome to come and have a
look!
YEAR 3
Year 3 have had a busy week with Maths and English. Jago
having received a certificate for working well in Maths and the
girls creating a shop role paly activity to find change from £10.
In English we have read and created calligrams and their
apple calligrams can be seen below. Today they worked on
love hearts for Valentine’s Day tomorrow.
YEAR 4
On Thursday, Year 4 was given the opportunity to design and
make their own Roman shield. We looked at the features of
Roman shields and incorporated those ideas into our designs.
The shields needed to be rectangular with a curved top and
bottom. The designs were predominately symmetrical with
eagle feathers, arrows and laurel leaves making up the key
features. Our colour palette was simple, with red, blue or
green as the top choices for the background and we used
gold to highlight the design.
YEARS 5 & 6
We had a very enjoyable trip to the Courtroom Experience at
The Shire Hall, Bodmin. The children were very engaged
throughout and as jurors on the day gave a NOT GUILTY
verdict for the murder of Charlotte Dymond after hearing all
the evidence. The Court Ushers then informed us that
Matthew Weeks had been found GUILTY of the crime and
hanged. There were a large number of artefacts to view and
it was fascinating to see that Charlotte Dymond’s death
certificate stated that the cause of death was murder at the
hands of Matthew Weeks dated and signed before the trial
had taken place. The Usher then took us down to the holding
cells below the Courtroom which were very cramped and
damp.
We then visited the casket holding the remains of St Petroc
and the Vicar was very welcoming. He showed us a Norman
th
font and allowed the children to play on the 18 Century Pipe
Organ. The final part of our trip was a drive past the jail
where Matthew Weeks was hanged and then a visit to
Charlotte Dymond’s grave at the Church of Davidstowe. We
learned an added dimension to the mystery was that flowers
have been put on her grave over many many years.
It was a thought provoking day and the staff at the Courtroom
were very impressed by the children’s responses.
SPORT UPDATE
U11 Football v St Joseph’s (W) 2-0
U11 Football v Polwhele (D) 1-1, (L) 1-4,
The U11 boys played a three way against Polwhele and St
Joseph’s. First up we had a great first half with all to play for
ending in a 1-1 drawer. We swapped the team around to
allow them to play in different positions and unfortunately
Polwhele got a couple of lucky breaks and scored some early
goals which led to a final score 4-1 to Polwhele. Second game
against St Joseph’s was a much better performance with
some small tactical changes made by the team which put St
Joseph’s under lots of pressure and the final score 2-0 to St
Petroc’s. Special mentions go to Thomas for man of the
match defending and Oli R for commanding his goal area
well.
SPORT UPDATE
U11 Netball v St Joseph’s (W) 20-0
U11 Netball v Polwhele (D) 2-2
v Polwhele U11’s
St Petroc’s Year 5 girls took the leading role in this fixture,
against as it turned out some Years 7 & 8 from
Polwhele. Height was therefore definitely an advantage for
the opposition but the girls fought hard and came back from 01 down at halftime to finish with a 2-2 draw.
v St Joseph’s U11’s
This was an ideal opportunity for the two ISA National finalists
to have a competitive rehearsal. This was clearly how the girls
were feeling and they really wanted to play well. From the
start of the whistle they were fast, accurate and showing the
skills we have come to expect from this team. Kitty hardly
missed a shot but with Daisie’s dynamic presence in centre
court the St Joseph’s girls were completely out played. All the
girls deserve a mention individually, as the team would not
function so well without every-one of them. A superb platform
from which to move to High Wickham.