Personal Development at Penponds - more than school!
At Penponds we are proud to offer a programme to develop the holistic child through their personal development to prepare them for life in modern Britain and beyond .
Certain aspects, such as Relationships, Sex, Health (physical and mental well-being), Economic and wider safety including technology and media education are taught through our clearly defined teaching programme using the Brook Learn materials. Parents were consulted upon the development of the Relationships, Health and Sex Education Policy.
Other aspects such as Citizenship and Development of Character are taught constantly each day, through our school ethos supported by our school values (Creativity, Confidence, Caring and Curiosity), and focused rights chosen by the children (Right to a Voice; Right to an Education; Right to be the Best you can be, Right to Relax and Play; Right to meet friends and join clubs). These support positive behaviour choices from EYFS to Year 6, encouraging children to be the best possible version of themself. The Behaviour Policy upholds these expectations.
Children are supported in school through a Whole School Trauma Informed School (TIS) approach and can receive specific identified support from a qualified TIS Practitioner.
A carefully planned asssembly timetable ensures direct teaching of knowledge for personal development. Specific teaching of British Values is taught in assemblies supported by Picture News resources. See here
Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development is planned across our curriculum, enhanced through extra-curricular opportunities and special days such as Aspiration Day, Holi Rainbow Run, Bastille Festival; Climate Change, Charity fundraiser events and in assemblies delivered by school staff and visitors. Becky Lines from Transforming Mission Camborne delivers assemblies fortnightly to children focusing on developing character, learning right from wrong through morals and bible teachings. Our new approach to RE teaching encompasses a four step approach which includes Engagement, Investigation, Evaluation and Expression all steps encouragin self-reflection and opportnities to learn and be inspired by others. Find our more here
Wider opportunities for children are planned across the curriculum through trips, visitors, real/hands-on opportunities and extra-curricular clubs to support learning, life experiences, influence positive behaviour choices, understand importance of safety and inspire future life ambitions.
We have a motto of 'Enjoyable learning is memorable learning' and we foster and encourage an enjoyment in personal development.
We want children to be proud of the people they are now and the future self they will become.
See below to find out about Personal Development at Penponds.
Pull up your Odd Socks for World Down Syndrome Awareness Day!
On Tuesday 21st March we wore odd socks to school with our uniforms to raise awareness for Down Syndrome. Odd socks were chosen as a symbol by World Down Syndrome Day, because chromosomes are shaped like socks, and those with Down Syndrome have an extra one.
We 'Rocked our Socks!'
This day holds a very special place for Penponds and our families.
We were very excited to welcome top athlete Jessica Roper, GB Kickboxing Champion to Penponds School on Wednesday, 15 March 2023.
Jessica led a sponsored fitness circuit with all pupils and followed-up with an inspirational assembly, and question and answer session. The aim of the event was to inspire the children to be more physically active, but just as importantly, encourage them to discover and pursue their passion in life.
The event both connected the children to an extraordinary athlete role model and raised money to improve physical activity in the school, while also supporting both athletes and para-athletes, so that they can continue to inspire the next generation.
Thank you to all the families who sponsored the children in the worthwhile event.
Congratulations to William! We are so proud of you!
William played his cornet in the County Music festival on Saturday 18th March in the grade 1-2 class against 3 other children.
William played his grade 1 pieced called Strollin. The adjudicator commented on his very rhythmic playing as well as his clear tone...and he won!
The uniform William wore represented his brass band, the St Agnes silver band.
Well done William - what a super ambassador for Penponds!
Sing In - Choral Workshop
Penponds and Bishop Bronescombe schools represented Rainbow and joined forces this week at the Sing In Choir workshop, part of Truro Music Festival. We contributed to a choir of 265 children’s voice from across Cornwall! The children were excellent ambassadors for Rainbow and learned the skills to sing in a choir of that size, the importance of following the conductor and a new repertoire of music for warms ups and performances.
Cornish Community Tea - Tuesday 18th April - with Oll an Gwella
We are planning a community event on the first day back after Easter and would like you to be involved and to spread the word in the local community.
We are planning a workshop day to prepare for our display entry for Trevithick Day. This year are focusing on the song, Cornwall My Home, by Harry Glasson. Each class is representing the imagery presented in the lyrics through poems, artwork, models etc.
In the morning, we will hold an assembly to learn about the history of Trevithick Day and about our chosen focus, the song, Cornwall My Home. We will also be visited by Cornish Acapella Male Chorus shanty group, Oll an Gwella. They will be teaching the children the song, Cornwall My Home, in class workshops and will be performing live too. Oll an Gwella are a fundraising group, who only recoup costs for transport and insist on charity donation for services for their chosen charities, Cornwall Blood Bikes and Penhaligan Friends.
In the afternoon, we will hold a Cornish Community Tea event, where we will sell teas, coffees, donated scones, cakes etc, Oll an Gwella will perform with the children and on their own, the children will share what they have been working on towards the school Trevithick Day display and hopefully we will have a lovely community event too.
All proceeds raised will go towards Cornwall Blood Bikes and Penhaligan's Friends.
See the video below to hear Oll an Gwella singing, Cornwall My Home and click the 'Trevithick Day' image to see a flipbook of our launch assembly for this event.
Spread the word!
You must consent to the use of advertising cookies to allow this YouTube video to show.
Click here to see our Trevithick Day and Cornwall My Home launch assembly
First Book completed for Ethan!
We are so proud of Ethan!
Ethan has read and more importantly enjoyed, his first chapter book! He has read Diary of a Wimpy Kid and is already a good way into reading the second book in the series!
To celebrate Ethan’s achievement, he spent Friday afternoon watching the movie of the book with Mrs Bailey whilst chomping on popcorn. Ethan spotted lots of similarities between the film and the book, but the character Greg did not look how Ethan expected he would look in the film compared to the book description. Keep reading Ethan and Mrs Bailey thanks you for a wonderful afternoon!
Our School Council: Rights Ambassadors, met with Les who was a pupil at Penponds in 1953 for the coronation of Elizabeth ll. Our School Councillors asked Les lots of questions to find out how Penponds School celebrated the coronation back in 1953 so that we can plan to celebrate in similar way for King Charles lll's coronation in May. It was really enjoyable to chat with Les and we even managed to look at some really old photographs and squeeze some football chat in too! Thank you so much to Les for giving up his time to come into school to chat with us again.
Choir to Memory Cafe - March
Penponds school choir entertained the clients at the Memory Cafe with a selection of new songs. Children sang for about twenty minutes and were then treated to squash and cake. After the refreshments, members of the school choir and memory cafe worked together to create spring time crafts. See the photos below. It was a lovely experience for all and we look forward to the summer visit!
We love reading at Penponds! As we prepared to celebrate World Book Day 2023, every night leading up to the big day , we shared a bedtime book virtually. The videos were posted on Facebook, here on our website and on Class Dojo to enjoy at home. Visit our reading page to see the videos
On the day children enjoyed a day full of celebrating reading - see the video below.
You must consent to the use of advertising cookies to allow this YouTube video to show.
Still thinking of Penponds...
Finley, who left us last year to go to secondary school, has been back in touch. It is always so lovely to hear from past students and see what they are getting up to now.
We were touched when Finley mentioned that after leaving Penponds, he had his school uniform upcycled into this beautiful cuddly. Finley wanted to always remember his time at Penponds and keep a little part of it with him to cuddle.
February 2023 - Trencrom Class - Fundraiser for Shelter Box - Turkey & Syria Appeal
After the recent tragic events in Eastern Turkey and Northern Syria, Trencrom Class decided to organise a school fundraiser. The children have been moved by this tragic event and as they are currently studying about natural disasters and have also had a recent visit from Shelter Box, they felt empowered to do something to help.
Trencrom have truly lived out their right to a voice (which is one of our school focused rights) and approached Mrs Bailey to organise an event. They want to ensure that other children across the world are receiving their rights, who after a tragic event such as this, are probably not receiving all of their rights, such as the right to nutritious food, clean water, healthcare, shelter even the right to relax and play.
Therefore, they planned a day of fundraising activities which was held on Wednesday 22nd February.
On this day, all children across the school were asked to bring in some loose change to spend on games and stalls organised by Trencrom. Games cost between 20p-50p per go.
All children across the school were invited to wear green non-uniform on this day too. This could be from head to toe in green or just an item of green. Those wishing to take part in 'wear green' donated £1.
All money raised has gone towards the Shelter Box Appeal for Turkey and Syria. The grand total will be announced shortly.
After school, there was a cake sale too.
Thank you so much for supporting Trencrom Class in this worthy cause. We are so proud of them putting others before themselves. Well done Trencrom!
Congratulations to our fabulous finalists for Youth Speaks!
All children spoke wonderfully and were all presented with a certificate, voucher and chocolate egg for getting to this stage. After much deliberation by the judging panel, the winning team was announced as Olivia, Janise and Laurie!
Well done - we are so lucky to have fabulous ambassadors for our school.
NSPCC Number Day
Penponds marked NSPCC Number Day with a relaunch of Times Table Rockstars! Children came to school dressed as a Rockstar and took part in the national TimesTable competition. Some of our younger children cam e dressed in with numbers, shapes and patterns too. We had a great day of Maths fun, all raising money for a worthy cause.
Children enjoy a tea party with Mrs Bailey, our Headteacher, when they excel in their efforts and share their love for reading. Hot chocolate, biscuits and cake are usually on the menu, as well as spending time talking about our favourite books and authors.
We were delighted to welcome Les and Helen into school this week to help celebrate Les' 80th birthday. Les attended Penponds from 1950(!) and said that his happiest years were spent here. He contacted us to ask if he could come into school on his birthday to take a photograph of himself at the old school entrance.
We were more than happy to do this but thought we could do more...
Les and Helen had a tour of the school, where Les pointed out what was the same and different - Godolphin Class used to be the canteen - we then walked around the outside and Les shared photographs of his time here and identified where these photos had been taken. We ended in the hall with a special assembly for Les to mark his birthday. We shared photographs of Penponds from years gone by and children identified similarities and differences. No birthday can be marked without a cake, so the children all sang 'Happy Birthday' while the candles were blown out off a Colin the Caterpillar cake - you can never be too old for a Colin cake!
While Les was here, he shared some brilliant photographs of how he and Penponds school celebrated the late Queen's coronation in 1953 with a pageant. So, we have invited Les to come back into school later in the year to help plan the coronation of King Charles III.
Les and Helen sent this email after the visit:
Les and I would like to take this opportunity to say a sincere thank you for today. It was very emotional for us both to see the effort that was made in welcoming us into your school and the assembly you arranged to celebrate his 80th birthday. The children singing happy birthday and the cake moved us both to tears. The genuine interest shown in his attendance at the school was greatly appreciated. Thank you again for making wonderful memories of this special day. Les looks forward to continuing his connection with you and the school.
To celebrate BBC Children in Need Day children and staff wore spotty or striped clothes to school today. Thank you to everyone who donated.
We are incredibly proud of our Penponds School Choir. This week they represented our school at The Camborne Music Festival – and we came back with a trophy!
The children were excellent advocates for the school and it was lovely to see our very own Chair of Governors, Mrs Alvine Holmes there too.
The children sang two contrasting pieces - Please Don’t Buy Me A… by Mark and Helen Johnson, a song about unwanted Christmas presents, sung with gusto and full of funny actions and a very poignant and reflective piece, Remember by Emily Bardon, a timely song about Armistice Day. The choir performed this piece today as well during our Remembrance service which included a respectful two-minutes silence.
See the video below
You must consent to the use of advertising cookies to allow this YouTube video to show.
Lantern Making
We made lanterns in school for the Camborne Lantern Parade on Friday 25th November. Children helped made a large lantern in the hall and their own lanterns to take along. Parents and Grandparents enjoyed coming into school to help. Thank you to our special visitor and expert, Amanda Lorens for coming in to help us.
Well done to our School Council: Rights Ambassador children! They attended and represetned the CRF Youth Conference at the Fibre Hub. They were a perfect ambassadors for our school and contributed to issues affecting our local community.
Message from George Le Hunte:
Thank you for attending our 2022 CRF Youth Conference at the Fibre Hub on Friday. 57 students, plus staff, were there from 10 Camborne & Pool schools. It was a wonderful event in a great venue. Please thank all your students that attended for their brilliant engagement in the conference & for their immaculate behaviour. I am sure they learnt a lot and I hope they pass that on to all their colleagues at school.
Thank you for partaking in our Youth Conference.
George Le Hunte
Camborne Regeneration Forum
What's On?
On Monday 20th June we had our an Aspiration Day in school!
Children were invited to come to school dressed up as their dream future self.
We explored what is needed to achieve these goals in term of education and qualifications needed (if relevant) and personal attributes and characteristics. We also looked into lifestyles, economics, mortgages, holidays and money.
To make this even more real for the children, parents and friends of the school delivered workshops around their chosen careers and professions. Children also had their photographs taken in their cotumes, using a green screen. A suitable background for their future self was then super imposed. See the video below.
Thank you to all, who gave up their time for the children.
You must consent to the use of advertising cookies to allow this YouTube video to show.
Learning about Plastic Pollution with Cornwall Plastic Pollution Coalition
Science Workshops with The Royal Institute
Live Music with professional Opera singer - Simon Bailey
We were delighted to welcome Simon Bailey, international bass-baritone opera singer (and Mrs Bailey's brother-in law) into school today. Simon spoke to children across the school about: *alternative careers and job opportunities
*to think outside the box
*to follow their dreams with hard work
* live out our school vision of 'Aiming High, Achieving Our Best'.
He shared his own journey of being a boy who grew up in musical family and the love for singing and the stage. He shared how he started out, his education and where he is now, travelling and singing across the world.
The children also experienced live music and listened to Simon sing, He explored his use of voice and range and took questions from the children.
To find out more about Simon Bailey visit www.simon-bailey.com or go and see him currently performing in the Welsh National Opera tour of Don Giovanni - nearest venue to us is Plymouth Theatre Royal Don Giovanni Mozart | WNO
Click the image to see our Flipbook about our time hatching the ducklings
Rainbow Holi Red Nose and Spoon Race
We were due to be fundraising like the rest of the country for Comic Relief a few weeks ago, but as so many children and staff were not able to be in school due the Covid-19 outbreak we decided to postpone it to Friday 1st April – we didn’t want so many missing the fun! It was also the Hindu festival of Holi. Many of our children have been learning about Hinduism in their RE lessons and we felt that we would try and mark both events together. Holi is the festival of love, colours and spring and it is traditionally celebrated by people getting very colourful by throwing powder paint and getting very messy and colourful! The One Show took part in the Red Nose and Spoon Race Challenge and we felt that we could do our own version in school and link it to learning about Holi too.
We have re-introduced certificates for children each week for good manners/behaviour at lunchtime. The children get to sit on the ‘top table’ with a friend of their choice.
Dr Bike – Sustrans
A big thank you to Dr Bike for his enthusiasm and hard work with us! He spent all day servicing bikes, often working with children to explain what he was doing - and why. Children were encouraged to take part and learn how to maintain their bikes ina safe way. It was great to see so many bikes in school. The children were encouraged to partake in the Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel week promoting being active and more energised - help the environment by replacing a car journey!
Lesson in bike maintenance
Click on the below image to see all about our work on British Values!
Developing the Rainbow Promise
School councillors from across the Rainbow schools went to a special meeting tasked with creating a list of 30 things you will do/expereince/achieve in your time at one of our Rainbow Schools. The list was full of wonderful ideas from the children and the final article will be shared soon! Watch this space! Thank you School Councillors: Rights Ambassadors!
1/4
Sharing ideas
2/4
Rainbow Promise - development stage!
3/4
Time for a break - biscuits and juice time
4/4
Finished ideas - 30 things to do before you leave a Rainbow School
