Celebrating Year 6 Success at Dreadlock Escape Rooms

Last week, our fantastic Year 6 pupils at Blisland Primary Academy marked the end of their SATs with an exciting trip to the Dreadlock Escape Rooms in Bodmin. After weeks of hard work, determination, and resilience, it was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate their achievements in a fun and memorable way. The group took on the challenge of the ‘Detention’ escape room, where they worked together to solve puzzles, crack codes, and complete tricky challenges to break free.

Teamwork, quick thinking, and perseverance were key, and the children rose to the occasion brilliantly. Mr Smith and Mrs Pengelly were on hand to offer some guidance (and perhaps the occasional clue!) but it was the children’s cooperation and problem-solving skills that led them to success. The escape room experience was not only an exciting reward but also a great way to build confidence, strengthen friendships, and encourage creative thinking outside the classroom.

The children thoroughly enjoyed every moment, and it was clear they relished the chance to take on a new type of challenge.

A huge thank you must go to our wonderful PTFA, who kindly supported this trip financially. Without their generosity, this memorable celebration would not have been possible. Well done Year 6 – we are so proud of you!

Tregantle Class Weekly Round-Up

What a fantastic week it’s been in Tregantle Class! Our learners have burst into action with fun and focused activities across the curriculum. This year’s Bridge Games, our inter-trust competition, took a sporty twist— with a Wimbledon theme! The children have been absolutely buzzing, diving into tennis themed challenges: from racket coordination drills to mini court games. The enthusiasm has been contagious, and the whole class is rooting hard for Brunel to take home the trophy. We’ve seen impressive teamwork, cheering, and true sportsmanship in action! We got hands-on with our number work this week through a dentist inspired maths session. The children counted all 20 teeth in their paper-mouth models, sorting them, adding them up, and even spotting imaginary “cavities” as subtraction problems. They practiced their skills with precision— ready for the dentist and mastering maths at the same time! With this gorgeous weather blessing us, lessons have spilled beyond the classroom walls. We’ve used the sun-drenched playground for emergent writing, group puzzles, and even some outdoor reading. The fresh air and bright sunshine have made our week truly delightful. A huge well done to everyone in Tregantle Class for your enthusiasm, effort, and smiles this week!

Sports Week
In addition to all the learning that has taken place this week (check out the Year Group Newsletters attached) it has been an amazing Sports Week for all our Nursery to Year 6 children. The weather has certainly been on our side as spectators were treated to a Wimbledon inspired games. Thank you all for coming! Well done to all the children for demonstrating so many sporting and school values. We have been so impressed by the determined and enthusiastic spirit alongside the responsibility, manners and positive behaviour on display. A huge thank you to Mr O’Dwyer, Mrs Smerdon and our wonderful Y5/6 Sports and Play Leaders for their organisation and support. Congratulations to our overall winners, Cormorants, stacking up an impressive 1000 points.
1st Cormorants – 1000 points
2nd Puffins – 900 points
3rd Swans – 850 points
4th Choughs - 750 points

Well done everyone!

Year Group News
To see more of the learning that has taken place recently, take a look at the fortnightly year group newsletters on the class pages.

Year 6 Residential
What an unforgettable adventure! Our Year 6s had the most incredible time on their residential trip to London. Not only did the children impress us, but the general public too. What lovely moments to have the public come up to us commending the children’s behaviour and attitude.

Day 1 began with an early start as we travelled up to the capital. Our first stop was the magical Harry Potter Studios, where we stepped into the wizarding world, saw the elegant ladies from Beauxbatons and the Durmstrang students, explored the Forbidden Forest, and even boarded the Hogwarts Express!

Day 2 was packed with sightseeing and excitement. We climbed aboard HMS Belfast, walked past iconic landmarks including Tower Bridge, the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace. We took in the views from the London Eye, enjoyed a well-earned ice cream, and had a delicious meal at Pizza Hut before ending the day with the spectacular Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre. We then travelled home with tired feet and big smiles!

For children who remained in Wadebridge, they had an unforgettable week packed with adventure, teamwork and triumph. They visited Lanhydrock and enjoyed exploring the beautiful grounds and took part in a fun and challenging Survival Day building dens and more! They then spent a day with DT Sports, competing in a range of exciting races and activities. All children had a wonderful time. Our next few weeks will be spent preparing our wonderful play.
From the Year 6 Team

Year 1 Stay and Learn – Friday 27th June
We look forward to seeing family members of Year 1 at their Stay and Learn next Friday. Doors open from 08:30, with a start time of 09:00. To help the morning drop-off routine, any Year 1 families driving are encouraged to park in the staff car park (double parking is fine).

Thank you Tracey Snell & Welcome back Caroline Lucock
On behalf of everyone at the school, a big thank you to Tracey who has supported Claire in the office whilst Caroline recovered from her recent operation. We look forward to welcoming Caroline back to school next Monday.

House Points
Congratulations to this week’s winning House, Swans. With all the points from Sports Week added on, Swan take the overall lead:
Swans – 10,876
Choughs – 10,837
Puffins – 9999
Cormorants – 9905

Things could still change though, with just 4 whole school weeks left before we crown this year’s House winners.

w/e 20.6.25

This week we have joined in with the Bridge Schools games each morning and earned LOTS of points for Brunel!

We also enjoyed a great art lesson, learning about 'Frottage' - creating texture with rubbings, then tearing the paper to create a picture!

At St Anne's, we celebrated International Save the Sea Turtle day with the residents. 

What an exciting day Storytellers Nursery had! Our little explorers have completed their sponsored Big Toddle, raising funds for the fantastic children’s charity Barnardo’s. Dressed as jungle animals, the children ventured through the woods on the hunt for a hidden lion, which led to lots of laughter, teamwork and adventure! Their determination and enthusiasm made it a truly special journey. After completing the walk, everyone returned to the nursery to celebrate with some well-earned scrumptious cake and proudly received their medals for taking part. We are so proud of our Storytellers toddlers for their fantastic effort – and it’s not too late to support them! Our JustGiving page is still open for donations, so if you’d like to help us raise even more for Barnardo’s, every contribution is hugely appreciated. Thank you to everyone who has supported us so far, raising a fantastic amount of £260!

Storytellers Nursery joined the global celebration of World Bee Day, a special occasion dedicated to raising awareness about the importance of bees and other pollinators. Bees play a crucial role in our ecosystems—helping plants grow, flowers bloom, and food crops thrive. World Bee Day reminds us of the vital role these tiny creatures play and encourages us all to protect their habitats.

To kick off our celebration, we gathered for a storytime that introduced the children to the magical world of bees. They learned about how bees make honey, pollinate flowers, and work together in hives. Inspired by the story, the children unleashed their creativity with a fun art activity. They painted bold black and yellow stripes onto sponges to create stunning bee prints and used cotton buds to add delicate wings and smiley faces.

Next, the little ones set to work making their bee hats. With great concentration, they carefully assembled their buzzing headwear, adding eyes, wings, and antennae. It wasn’t long before the nursery was filled with giggles and movement as the children buzzed around happily, fully immersed in their bee roles.

After a busy day of learning and creativity, we treated the children to a special afternoon snack. They eagerly spread delicious golden honey onto fresh bread, enjoying the sweet reward with their friends.

Storytellers dived deep into learning as we celebrated World Ocean Day with our curious and caring little explorers.

The children were introduced to the wonders of the ocean, discovering the incredible creatures that live beneath the waves, from turtles and starfish to whales and colourful fish. We discussed the importance of keeping our oceans clean and how we can all contribute to protecting sea life by making small, thoughtful choices.

As part of our learning, the children participated in a special ocean cleanup activity. Using a sensory tray filled with water, sea creatures, and pretend rubbish, the children carefully removed the litter to make the ocean safe again. They worked together to sort the “okay ocean” items from the rubbish, showing amazing teamwork and developing a real understanding of the impact pollution can have.

Through stories, songs, and sensory play, our little ones began to understand the role they can play in caring for our planet. We are so proud of how engaged and thoughtful they were – true ocean protectors in the making!

World Ocean Day at Storytellers was a wonderful opportunity to explore nature, encourage responsibility, and spark a sense of environmental awareness that we will continue to build on in our everyday learning. 

We are exploring under the sea and answering our enquiry question "Who lives under the sea?" over the next few weeks.
The children have enjoyed exploring and learning about different creatures that live in the water and have made some paper plate fish and some sponge painted shark silhouettes.
The children have been busy developing their fine manipulative skills by rolling out clay and using the cutter to make fish. They then decorated them to make their very own rainbow fish like in the story.

At story time we have been reading the story of "Rainbow fish" and "Mr Seahorse" and we have enjoyed exploring non fiction books and naming different sea creatures.

In phonics,  we have been practicing our speech sounds, matching objects to initial sounds and using mirrors to explore the way our mouths and tongues move as we make different sounds with them.

 In maths we have been exploring repeats such as repetitive stories or songs e.g. Twinkl, Twinkl or "Run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me i'm the gingerbread man". We have been making patterns such as lines.

Just a reminder that it is sports day next Wednesday 25th June at 10am. Nursery will be running the first race at 10am, hope to see you all there!

Have a lovely weekend

Julie and Sarah

It has been a super week at Brunel Primary and Nursery Academy with a huge amount of learning opportunities for our children. Please enjoy catching up with everything that has happened across the week by browsing through this week's edition of The Brunel Bulletin. 

Last week our children competed in the Bridge School Games. This annual event involves children trying to score as many points as they can in several events based around a theme. The theme this year was Wimbledon. Scores are then submitted to see which school has the highest overall score. Our children have been competing in activities such Racquet Run, Tennis Side Step Shuttles, Ball Kid Bedlam, Tennis Toss and Game, Set, Catch. Congratulations to Trenode, the overall winners this year. I would like to make a special mention of Harrowbarrow Year 3, Year 4 and Year 5 who came first in the Racquet Run, Tennis Toss and Tennis Side Step Shuffles respectively across the Bridge Schools. To find out more about the activities, please ask your children or watch this video of the opening ceremony:

Opening Ceremony of Bridge School Games 2024-25


Tomorrow, we look forward to welcoming you all to watch the children compete at our annual summer sports evening. Postponed from Tuesday due to the weather, we are optimistic the weather will be favourable tomorrow. Races start at 5pm so please ensure your child is delivered to the covered playground for 4.50pm, ready for teams to process to the school field. After the competition, the PSA has organised a summer fete, with plenty of refreshments and activities.



This year, instead of raising money for the school, we will be supporting one of our families as they attempt to fund important medical treatment. For further information or to make a direct donation, please follow this link: www.gofundme.com/f/help-give-my-auntie-a-chance-life-saving-cancer-treatment?attribution_id=sl:6a3829e3-89a3-4c8c-8cab-01abf6ef1922&lang=en_GB&ts=1747720989&utm_campaign=pd_ss_icons&utm_content=amp13_t1-amp14_t2&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=messenger&v=amp14_t2

A huge thank you to the PSA, who have been working tirelessly to organise this event and the recent colour run, which proved a huge success both in terms of money raised and enjoyment for those watching and the children taking part. Here is just one of the amazing photographs from the event.




Overall, you raised in the region of £1,700 for school funds, which is simply staggering. Thank you to all those who made donations and supported their children to secure sponsors. We look forward to sharing with you how the money has been spent for the benefit of the children.

Some dates for your diary:

Thursday 26th June: Reserve sports evening
Wednesday 2nd July: Orchestra to perform to their parents at 3.30pm

It was lovely to see so many of you at the Polperro Festival on Tuesday. Thank you for coming and being part of a really special day. Please see the class blogs for photos.

The children have had a busy, sporty week, doing each activity for the Bridge School Games  and practising for Sports Day next Wednesday 25th June from 10-12:00. Please ensure that your child’s PE kit is in on the day. We look forward to seeing you there. Please come into the school via the field gate. T

Garden Update Everything is growing really well in the greenhouse thanks to the hard work of our volunteers Mr and Mrs Peters and Gardening Club children with Miss Randle, Mrs Wilkie and Mrs Fitzsimmons. You are invited to look round the garden during our school fair (see below).

FOPS Summer Fair – Monday 21st July at 2pm FOPS are busily organising this year’s Summer Fair. Monday 30th June will be a MUFTI day where we will be asking for donations of an item matching your child’s house team colour to create hampers for raffle prizes. Children can wear their own clothes and this could include wearing their house colour. Please see attached posters for suggestions of what to send in for your child’s colour on the day.

Orwell Society School Award We are proud to be one of just two schools in the UK that have been awarded the prestigious Orwell Society School Award for 2024–2025. Inspired by George Orwell’s deep love of nature - nurtured during his childhood holidays in Polperro - our exciting project aims to bring the natural world to life for our pupils. With support from local experts and organisations like the National Trust and Cornwall Wildlife Trust, children in years 4-6 have learnt about Cornwall’s unique environments, including Bodmin airfield and even a nearby temperate rainforest. They have transformed their learning into a creative “found” sketchbook, imagined as Orwell’s own, filled with nature notes, detailed drawings, descriptive writing and poetry, all produced by the children. There will be an exhibition of this work, including the “found” sketchbook, in October when the society holds their annual conference in Polperro. Please click here to find out more about the project.

School Uniform Thank you to Mrs Kane who has raised £15 for the school at a nearly new uniform sale recently. We have a large selection of preloved school uniform available for a suggested donation of just £1 per item. While you might have seen a few things on the rail by the school office, there is actually much more available in a range of sizes – plenty of everything! It's a great way to save money, find what you need and help reduce waste. Before heading to the shops, please consider taking a look. Just ask at the office for the size you need. Giving these clothes a second life helps keep perfectly good uniform out of landfill.

MHST SilverCloud Please find attached a poster about free NHS online support for those supporting an anxious child, teen or child diagnosed with ADHD. This is a very busy half term with more exciting events coming up including trips for all classes and the year 6 residential trip to the Ultimate Adventure Centre in North Devon at the beginning of July. These and other important dates are on our events diary on the website.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Hillman

Making art and Bridge School Games! 

We’ve been very busy in Foundation / Year 1 this week.
We have been learning even more about Julia Donaldson and her books. In Year 1, we have started using our comprehension skills to answer questions about different stories. In Foundation we have started writing key words to match a picture and finding words that rhyme.

In Maths, Year 1 have been making equal groups through sharing. We’ve also been learning all about doubles and have been singing songs to remember our doubles. Foundation have also been learning about groups and how we share to make them equal. Then Foundation were finding out how many were in each group.

In Art we have been exploring mark making and making different shapes with our pencils. We’re looking forward to practising making marks with different materials!

In Science, we have been learning about the seasons. This week, our focus was on winter. We talked about what happens to trees in winter and what appropriate clothing we can wear in the colder months. We then started looking at weather forecasts and made our own for the day. We were very happy that it was a sunny one!

This week, it has also been Bridge School Games. This is where all the schools in Bridge Trust take part in physical activities and we see what school scores the highest. Foundation/ Year 1 were brilliant. They showed great sportsmanship and had a really good ‘I can’ attitude. I’m excited to see how they do on sports day!

Year 1 have also finished their phonics screening and they have just been amazing. Their hard work truly does pay off!

Foundation / Year 1 Team

A fun week here in Preschool.

Last week was full of fun, learning, and special moments here in preschool!

Our phonics sessions were a big hit — we focused on the sound "b" as in "b-b-b-boot!" The children are really enjoying their phonics journey and are becoming so confident with their sounds. It’s wonderful to see them engage with enthusiasm and curiosity each day.
We also had an energetic session with Coach James from Kixx, helping us get ready for Sports Day. The children loved running, jumping, and practicing their teamwork skills — all while building confidence and coordination.

One of the most exciting events this week was the delivery of our brand-new climbing frame! The children couldn’t wait to explore it. It’s already proving to be fantastic for developing gross motor skills, encouraging turn-taking, communication, and so many other important areas of learning. Seeing the smiles and teamwork during play has been a joy!
On Friday, we took part in Wear Yellow Day to raise awareness for Cystic Fibrosis. This cause is especially close to our hearts, as one of the brave students in our school lives with the condition. The children looked bright and beautiful in yellow, and it was a meaningful opportunity to talk about kindness, empathy, and resilience.
To end the week on a musical note, we’ve been enjoying learning some of our school songs — including “You’ve Got a Friend in Me”, “Mary Poppins” favourites, and many more. It’s such a lovely way to bring everyone together and build our sense of community. Here’s to another week of learning, laughter, and growing together! 

Come back next week to see what we have been up to.
Mrs Whitty-Mutton

What a day Class 3 had on Friday. Although the weather was overcast with heavy rain at some points they didn't let that dampen their spirits. The sea conditions were perfect with a 4ft - 6ft swell and an inshore wind. Many of the children were able to stand up by the end of the lesson and all of them gained confidence in the water. 

Class 2 had a lovely visit to Kents Cavern. The children spent the day exploring the caves, learning about stalactites and stalagmites and digging for gemstones. At one point the torches in the cave were turned off briefly so the children could experience how dark it is at that depth!

The sun shone at last and Class 3 were able to hold their sports day. The children all had a wonderful time and loved the friendly competition with their friends. The parents tug of war is definitely being done again next year!

We have had another jam packed week in Landaviddy class.

Practise for the Polperro Festival has been well underway! We can't wait to share with you all our hard work. We finished off our previous enquiry with Geography, where we looked at the different tools meteorologists use to collect weather data. Can you recall what we would use to determine wind direction or rainfall? We have started a new enquiry - 'Does Polperro Always Stay the Same?', which we were already very enthusiastic about. 

In Maths, Year 3 have been working on Money, adding and subtracting pounds and pence, ready for their final lesson next week looking at finding change. Year 2 have continued work on fractions, exploring the equivalence of two quarters and one half, as well as recognising and finding three quarters. 

Congratulations to Benjamin, Iylah and Brody for being chosen as People of the Week! And a big well done to those who achieved their 99 club!

Please find attached this half term's Knowledge Web, KIRFS and Homework Grid. Of course, should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. 

We hope you have a marvellous weekend and look forward to seeing you next week. 

Mrs Wilkie, Mrs Phillips, Miss Bowden and Miss Colton