Heads Blog

Exploring Spirituality

We are spending a very thoughtful and reflective week this week, beginning to explore who we are as a school in more detail. Our focus for the week is spirituality. We know that spirituality can mean different things to different people and we have begun to think about what it means to us as a Church of England school in the context of celebrating God in all that we do.

The children have thought about how they think, how they reflect, how they like calm, peace and quiet in amongst their learning and activities.

We have been delighted to welcome Sean Hewitt to school this week. Sean is a local abstract artist and the children are working with him to look at the art of Andrew Goldsworthy. They are using this to create beautiful art work such as the circle of life art you can see here.

We can't wait to see what the finished product will look like by the end of the week.

We are getting very environmentally aware!

As part of a Bridge Schools Trust opportunity for pupils to eventually create a new piece of music that has its inspiration in the environment, the pupils at Trenode have been meeting professionals to help them to think about the impact of their actions on the environment and to help them to understand that even a few small changes in their lives can make a difference.

As well as a visit from Luci Issacson to show the children an electric car, they also had a visit from Nick Hart. When the children met Luci, they were asked to consider some pledges for things they could do at home. These included turning the tap off when they brushed their teeth, switching the energy supply to a green supplier (with their parents of course!), using electric cars when they grow up, cycling or walking to school etc. The children talked about what they found easy and difficult. They also talked about how they would like to see the world change in an environmental way, for the better and the pledges that they would like to make for the future. Nick also introduced some ideas about global warming and he steamed up his glasses to show condensation and then evaporation. Finally, he showed them a special metal water bottle which he left with the children as a prize. He explained that the bottle can be used in some shops and cafes to fill up your bottle for free if the shop displays a special symbol.

So, we will have a prize to give away soon and if you are wondering why the children are talking about changing your energy supplier, now you know why! We are really looking forward to creating the piece of music in the near future.

Our New School Council

Welcome to our new School Council. We held a democratic election after all of the pupils who wished to be a part of the School Council had an opportunity to give a speech or presentation. It was well done to all, as they were all confident speakers. We now have a wonderful team of representatives who have already begun to show that they would like to do all that they can to play their role in keeping this lovely school fun and happy and a great place to learn.

Together, we have agreed that the School Council aims are to:

- Enable all pupils at Trenode Primary to have a voice
- Ensure the school is the best place it can be for learning and stretching learning
- Help everyone to help each other
- Keep the school a happy, fun and enjoyable place to learn and care about each other
- Work as a team
- Fund raise for the school and for charity and to do all that we can to support the environment

These are great aims and all chosen by the children. I am sure you will agree that they are already doing a great job! We will keep you posted.

Beautiful Weather for Sports Day

Trenode Primary Academy is a wonderful family of children, staff and families and it is perhaps most obvious on the Annual Sports Day. It was wonderful that the sun shone and the children were able to show their support and encouragement for each other despite the competition. Congratulations to the green team, Fowey, for their success on the day. Thank you too to all of the support and help given on the day and for the Summer Fayre events that also took place.

The Trenode team were also in action at the Area Sports Day held at Liskeard Secondary School. Special congratulations to Olivia for winning the Year 5 sprint.

Easter Crafts

On Thursday afternoon, the children at Trenode took part in an Easter crafts afternoon, decorating eggs and making biscuits. This was organised by volunteers from the PTFA.

Cardinham train trip to Looe

When they reached Looe, they worked in teams to create sand sculptures, for a competition. They learned about creating symmetrical designs using natural materials.

Cardinham class went on an environmentally friendly trip to Looe on Monday. On the journey, they learned about carbon friendly ways to travel, and noticed landmarks along the way.

Science at Plymouth University

The children in Cardinham had a wonderful time at Plymouth University on Wednesday this week.

They took part in a wide range of science activities from making slime out of sea-weed, to programming ‘robots’ on ipads and experiencing virtual reality sky scrapers!

Mrs David was amused at the fun they had with some of the ‘retro’ technology there—including a ‘Pac Man’ game.

They made friends with a ‘Student Mentor’ who helped them to get the best out of the activities.

Bristol Zoo & Trip to Bath

Mrs David, Mrs Zaman and I returned yesterday from a very successful visit to Bristol, with 10 children from Cardinham class. I hope you have all seen the photographs Mrs David has been putting on Facebook, but here are some more!

On the first day, we visited Bristol Zoo, where we really enjoyed seeing all the different animals, and took part in a workshop about living in the Polar regions. We got to stroke a chinchilla and a polar bear! The next day, we went to the ‘We are Curious’ science museum and took a tour around our solar system in the planetarium. We also learned about the skills needed to become an astronaut!

After that, we crossed the river to the SS Great Britain, and found out all about crossing the Atlantic on this wonderful ship, designed by Brunel. For dinner we visited Zsa Zsa Bazaar, and at-tempted to eat them out of ice-cream! The final day was spent in Bath, visiting the Roman Baths, and dressing up as Ancient Romans. The children were a delight to spend time with—you must be very proud of them!

Welcome back everybody

I hope you all had a good half-term holiday. I have been out this morning with the school council, taking some photographs of our lovely school grounds.

We will be going to an 'Ethos and Values' conference on Friday, meeting up with children from all the other Bridge schools. The children will be giving a presentation to show the others what is special about our school.

It was very clear this morning how lucky we are to have such a wonderful outdoor environment!