Spring 2024 Term 1 Newsletter

Head of School Welcome

Dear Parents/Carers

Welcome to our newsletter which provides a useful summary of all we've got up to at school and ensuring our parents/carers are kept fully informed of vital information and key calendar dates.

A very warm welcome to the first newsletter of 2024! Where has the first half term gone! In this term's newsletter, we hope to have captured some of the highlights and also to share some of the exciting term ahead.

Don't forget, our school website remains a first port-of-call for essential information on Mawgan-in-Pydar Primary School and we endeavour to keep this fully updated throughout the academic year.

Finally, we operate an open door policy and always welcome parents to get in touch either by phone or email at hello@mawgan-in-pydar.org.uk so we can resolve any issues in a mutually agreeable manner together.

Diary Dates...page 1

Royal Shakespeare Company

This year we are delighted to be a part of the RSC Associate Schools programme again. This partnership between Hall For Cornwall, Treviglas Academy and the Royal Shakespeare Company goes from strength to strength year on year. This year our Year 5 and 6 pupils will benefit from this.

Four of our brightest young talents have been chosen to benefit from development throughout the year - Kaia, Billy, Isla and Toby. They are attending three workshops exploring acting techniques. They will form part of a Young Ensemble group with pupils from other schools in a production of The Twelfth Night at Hall for Cornwall. All of our Year 5 and 6 pupils will also take part in this production later in the year, performing a scene. We will share more details nearer the time.

To get into the spirit of Shakespeare, we are taking our Year 5 and 6 pupils to Treviglas next term to watch an edited version of Romeo and Juliet - we can't wait!

We also have three pupils - Kaia, Orla and Lee taking part in the Treviglas production of Peter Pan's Neverland next half term.

We are looking forward to seeing all of our Year 5 and 6 pupils perform on the big stage this Spring/Summer.

Drumming

Music is a huge part of Mawgan-in-Pydar school as many of you know.
Year 3 and 4 have had the pleasure this term of having Djembe drum
lessons with Mrs Brock every Friday morning.

They've learnt about the parts of the drum, the history of djembe drumming and then have learnt various rhythms and songs which they play both as a call and response or all together. They've learnt about the bass and the tone, about key vocabulary like 'Ostinato' and have practiced playing solos to fit within a 4 beat bar. The last few lessons they have begun to look at notation, looking specifically at the different lengths of notes.

All pupils are thoroughly enjoying these lessons and look forward to Fridays.
These will continue next half term with a concert to share with parents at the end of the sessions to show all of their brilliant new learning.

Singing

This week, the Newquay male voice choir, Ol an Gwella joined us to sing some well known Cornish songs, including teaching us some verses in Kernewek (Cornish!). As always, they are a true inspiration to our pupils who thoroughly enjoy singing with them and putting Makaton to the range of traditional songs they sing. Some of the songs we sang were 'Cornwall my Home', 'Drunken Sailor', 'Trelawney', 'South Australia' and 'Harry's Song'.

Pupils who want to, will be taking part in the annual St Piran's day celebrations again in Newquay this year, the first being on Friday 23rd February at The Hotel Victoria and then the St Piran's Parade through Newquay on Tuesday 5th March.

Voice in a Million! On Wednesday 20th March, a quarter of our school, (yes a quarter...), will be travelling to London to take part in the prestigious Voice in a Million concert at Wembley Stadium. A group of 30+ pupils have been practising a range of songs since the beginning of this academic year in readiness for this amazing experience. MIP Choir will be joining school choirs from all over the country to be one diverse choir for one night only!

We are so proud of our choir members!

Sporting News

Congratulations again to all of our pupils who have taken part in sporting events this half term. The events we have taken part in are:

KS2 indoor athletics
Y3/4 basketball
KS2 cross country

There have been some amazing achievements during these events. All pupils have been brilliant ambassadors for our school, with members of the public commenting on their exemplary behaviour whilst off site and their team work and support for each other during the activities.
Up coming events for next half term are:

KS1 basketball
KS2 cross country
Y3/4 football festival

We also have swimming straight after half term for our Y3 pupils and selected Y4-6 pupils. We are looking forward to seeing how much they boost their swimming progress!
We are also really excited to let you know that Mrs Christopher will be running the London Marathon this year. She is busy training and we will all be cheering her on on Sunday 21st April - she is a great inspiration to our cross country runners!