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'Mathemagician' Pays a Visit
Thu 21 Mar 2024Yesterday, Jon, the 'mathemagician', paid us a visit.
First, he introduced himself at our Wednesday assembly. During the day, he visited each of the classes and performed a number of 'tricks'. However, the tricks were not really magical, but were based on mathematical and logical principles. Jon was kind enough to explain how some of the tricks worked. Who said that maths is boring!
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British Science Week
Fri 15 Mar 2024Following last year’s successful Science Farm LIVE digital event, again this year we were invited to step into the welly boots of a farmer and a farm vet to discover, via live video links, how they spend their days, to explore key STEM topics in a real-life context and to gain first-hand experience of the world of work.
KS1 spent some time with Farmer Fiona to learn how she cares for her animals and how she grows food for them. In this session, we learnt about a cow’s digestive system, nutrition, food chains and habitats.
KS2 spent some time on call with Dr Claire, a farm vet. We watched as she carried out an inspection of a cow’s teeth, and headed out on a poo walk to hunt for invertebrates that are an essential part of a farm’s ecosystem.
So, from 11 a.m. on Thursday 14th March, we joined Dr Claire for an action-packed morning of cow care and emergency calls.
In the session from 11 a.m., we observed a cow health check being undertaken and compared a cow’s digestive system to ours. Then we were introduced to some brand new calves to learn how their nutritional needs change throughout their lives before delving deeper into digestion as we headed into the field to conduct a cow poo check and hunt for the fascinating invertebrates that are a crucial part of a farm’s ecosystem.
In the afternoon session, we saw some cows being scanned to see if they were pregnant and learnt how farmers care for their cows’ hooves. We also hoped to catch a live calving and witness how Dr Claire responds to the emergencies to which she may be called.
In addition, we learnt all about animal lifecycles, reproduction and inheritance.
Dr Claire will also set lots of extra challenges to complete before, during and after the sessions so that we got a taste immersed of the world of work.
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Athletic Adventurers
Sat 09 Mar 2024Crossing the wild and windy moors on a stagecoach…well, on a minibus actually…a team of Year 3s and Year 4s travelled to the leisure centre in Bodmin to take part an athletics meeting.
We joined with pupils from five other schools across North Cornwall that had sent representatives in our category. No sooner had we entered the hall, then we were off and running – and jumping and throwing!
We participated in a number of track and field events – relays, obstacle races, vertical jumps, standing jump, (soft) javelin and ball push - hardly having time to catch our breaths, such was the fever pitch of activities.
Thanks to Mr Mould for organising the team and driving the minibus, and to Mr L for tagging along with us.
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World Book Day
Thu 07 Mar 2024We celebrated World Book Day in style. There was a rich diversity of characters represented from the world contained between the covers of our favourite books.
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Adventurers Visit George and Charlotte
Thu 07 Mar 2024The copper in the mine is all mine, all mine…
At 9 a.m., we boarded one of the coaches in Mr Tilley’s well-appointed fleet, belted up and set off for our destination full of expectation and excitement. After a short detour owing to a road closure, we arrived at Morwellham Quay and alighted into bright sunshine. First, we were escorted to a room where we watched a video about the history of Morwellham, which focused on the Victorian period. We learnt that Morwellham was at its busiest in the 1860s when mines in the Tamar Valley were some of the biggest in the world. Having learnt about mining, we were eager to take a ride into the mine just down river from the quay. We walked the short distance to the ‘station’ where we boarded the carriages of a train pulled by an electrically powered engine.
We entered the mine at one of the entrances to the Deep Adit. From time to time, we stopped to view life-sized dioramas of the miners at work, and the water-wheel which was used to pump water from out of the lower levels of the mine. One of the ways in which ore was extracted was by lighting fires next to the rock face and quickly cooling the heated rock with water. The rapidly cooling rock would crack and split. Later, productivity was increased with the introduction of gunpowder into the process; although the process of extracting the ore was still a laborious task: at first, the holes into which the gunpowder was loaded were made with a drill bit and sledge-hammer, but the innovation of drills powered by compressed air meant that the process was rendered a little easier (if considerably more noisy) for the miners.
Once the ore had been extracted, it was sent to the dressing floor. Here the ore was sorted according to size and then broken by women (known as bal-maidens) using sledge-hammers into pieces the size of large eggs. The ore containing a high copper content was placed to one side and the pieces of ore containing smaller amounts of the metal was passed on to the children (usually girls of seven or eight years of age earning three or four pence per day) to refine further until the pieces are about the size of a marble. We had a go at breaking some ore. We were exhausted after only a few minutes at the task; it didn’t require a lot of imagination to know how we might have felt after a shift of twelve hours! At least we were allowed to take some copper ore as a souvenir of our visit. From the dressing floor, the ore was then usually transported to South Wales to be smelted into pure copper. As it takes four tons of coal to produce one ton of copper, it made more economical sense to take the copper to the coal rather than bring the coal to the copper!
Although the labour of children was exploited in the mine and on the dressing floor, some children were lucky enough to attend a school, founded by Elizabeth Rundle in the 1830s, where they were drilled in the three Rs – and, of course, their duty to God and the monarch. Discipline was strictly enforced, often with the application of a cane to the tenderer parts of the anatomy, or, perhaps less physically painful but no less humiliating, the donning of a dunce’s hat. Attendance was not compulsory, and parents had to pay a penny per week per child for the privilege.
One of the most interesting and amusing activities of the day was dressing in clothes of the Victorian period. At this time, more so than today, there was a clear distinction in the quality and elegance of the clothes worn by people at different levels of society: silk, satin and lace compared to cotton, linen and shoddy. Dressed in our Sunday best, we posed for a photograph outside the chandler’s shop once owned and run, very successfully, by Jane Martin.
We certainly enjoyed our visit to Morwellham Quay and thank Miss Mars for organising the trip, and to Mrs Gubbin, Mrs Lamble, Mrs Mart and Mr L for accompanying us on the visit.
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Songfest 2024
Thu 07 Mar 2024Again this year, we were delighted to be taking part in Songfest, that grand celebration of music and community.
This year, Songfest had a close connection with the region, paying tribute to our county’s rich Celtic heritage, and its deep-rooted link to the sea. The chosen theme for this year’s performances was ‘Sea Shanties’. Steeped in a long maritime tradition, these enchanting songs reflect Cornwall’s enduring relationship with the watery expanse that surrounds it.
Under the expert musical direction of Angela Renshaw and Patrick Bailey, these timeless songs sought to bond a new generation of children to our region’s rich cultural inheritance.
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Train Journey into the Past
Sat 02 Mar 2024Last Friday, the first day of March, Pioneers set off on an adventure to Exeter.
As we left the village on the minibus, the heavens opened and we were assailed by a hail storm, the icy spheres beating a rattling tattoo on the roof of the bus. Fortunately, the storm was a brief one.
We weren’t going all the way to Exeter on the minibus: we completed the last part of the outward journey on a train on the Dartmoor Line (reopened in November 2021), which we boarded at Okehampton station. The journey, which took about 40 minutes, took us to Exeter Central station, a short walk from the Royal Albert Memorial Museum.
The museum, described as a jewel in a Venetian casket, was opened in 1868 and contains many different collections, many of local, national and international importance and outstanding historical or cultural significance.
Perhaps the best known exhibits are the ones about the natural world and human creativity over the millennia, and the various cultures of the world: there is a wonderful assemblage of fossils and minerals (not to mention the stuffed animals), and human artefacts, including tools and costumes across the ages. After exploring the museum, rumbling tummies were insistent that it was time for lunch.
Snaking along sun-bathed streets, we made our way to Exeter cathedral and had our lunch on a sunny cathedral green. After lunch, we entered the cathedral and completed the Saints Treasure Hunt.
Each of the ten saints in our hunt have symbols that represent them (for example, the fishing net of Saint Andrew). The saints had ‘lost’ these symbols, and it was our task to search for them hidden around the building; it didn’t take us too long to find all the missing items. With satisfied smiles on our faces, it was time to make our way back to the station to catch the train back to Okehampton. As we weaved our way through our fellow pedestrians to the station, we took the opportunity to pass the ‘house that moved’. The ‘house that moved’ is a 700-year-old Tudor merchant’s house that was moved (intact) in 1961 90 metres from the corner of Edmund Street to West Street to allow for a new road layout. However, we don’t think that it really would qualify as a mobile home!
At Exeter Central, we had just enough time to have a quick snack and a pit-stop before our train departed. In what seemed like no time at all, we arrived at Okehampton, clambered onto the minibus and were on the road back to school. Thanks to Mr Mould for organising the trip, and to Mrs Langford, Mrs Mart and Mr L for accompanying us. It had been a grand day out!
