Padstow School News

The chicks have hatched! We now have 9 healthy (and quite noisy) chicks. The first, a black one, hatched out in the small hours of Tuesday morning (July 8th) and the last hatched on Wednesday. There is one black one, two stripy ones, 3 yellow ones and 3 brown. Once they had dried out in the incubator we transfered them into a children's travel cot with a heat lamp to keep them warm. They have now outgrown the cot so they will be going to spend the summer on the farm where they came from. They will come back to us in September and live in the school garden.

The children and staff have really enjoyed watching the whole process of egg to chick and we look forward to having the chickens in September.

We were invited to enter a Miniature Garden Competition last week, by the Rotary Club, as part of Padstow in Bloom. There were 52 entries altogether; all were of an extremely high standard, making judging a very difficult job! Eventually, the judges, Richard Sandry, Jean Stanton and Brian Chellew picked three winners: Zoe and Issey, both from year 2 and Harmony from year 3 who won vouchers for a family day at Padstow’s Maize Maze, Trelawney Garden Centre and Trevisker Garden Centre, respectively. All children who entered a garden in to the competition were given a prize. Mr Banks said “The gardens are fantastic; there are so many different imaginative ideas. Next year I think we will enter some miniature gardens into the Royal Cornwall Show!”

The children in Year 4  have been nurturing their green fingers and growing fruit, vegetables and herbs in the school garden to raise money to help Arbatu Ensesa School in Ethiopia repair their well.

So far they have grown and sold potatoes, radishes, shallots, lettuce and tomato plants grown from seed and are hoping to have strawberries, raspberries, spring onions, mange tout and black beans soon.

The sun shone for our Infant Sports Day last Monday.Children from the Reception Class, Year 1 and Year 2 took part in running races, novelty races, ball and spoon races and a shuttle relay. There were also toddlers races, a mums race and a dads race.The children from the junior classes came out to watch and cheer on the younger ones and there was a good turnout of family and friends to add to the atmosphere.The Junior Sports Day took place the following day and again the weather was dry and sunny. Children from years 3, 4, 5 and 6 competed in a sprint race, a sack race, a potato and spoon race, a skipping race, an obstacle race, a shuttle relay and distance races.  All children contribute points to their school houses, Chadwick, Harvey and MacFarlane (named after lifeboats), for each event they participate in.“It’s great to see the children enjoying themselves, improving their personal performances, skill development and fitness.”

Children in Year 5 had a special treat when they got the chance to decorate their own Easter eggs. Stuart Pate, the executive pastry chef at the Seafood Restaurant, and Jezzie Sproull PA at the Seafood School, volunteered to come in to school and explain to the children where cocoa beans come from and how chocolate is made. The children then filled their eggs with a selection of goodies, decorated the outer shell and finally wrapped them in decorative cellophane.

Our musicians were given a chance to showcase their talents at a special music evening held at the school. Mr Banks was keen for families and friends to see how well all the musicians are progressing. More than 50 musicians performed on the night playing solo pieces, ensembles and in the orchestra (some of the members are from St. Issey School) to an audience of over 100. It was a fantastic evening and everyone was very impressed with the children's talents.

We have had more musical success thanks to Harvey, John and Jake when they played their guitars at the Wadebridge Music Festival and the Burnham-on-Sea Music Festival. Between the three of them they won 5 awards. Thanks must go to guitar teacher, Kay Batory and Padstow School's music teacher, Helen Nicholls. Well done boys!

Stay Healthy Week was a big success! The children thoroughly enjoyed doing capoiera, yoga and thai kick boxing as well as making salads, fruit smoothies and bread. Unfortunately due to bad weather, the visit from the skate park had to be postponed for a week.

The children also kept 'Health Diaries' in which they wrote down all the activites they did to keep fit and all the foods they ate to stay healthy. At the end of the week the diaries were put into a prize draw. We had some fantastic prizes; a half day surf lesson for two people from Extreme Sports at Watergate Bay, a complete skateboard from SJ'z skate shop in Truro and a skate deck from Aces skate shop in Truro.

Harvey, Jake and Adam, entered the Saltash Music Festival on Friday 1st February and came away with 5 awards between them.Jake came first in the guitar solos for 11 and under with 85 points and Harvey and Adam came joint second with 84 points.

In the instrumental duets class, Jake and Harvey came joint second with 85 points.

We would like to thank guitar tutor Kay Batory and Helen Nicholls, who is a teacher at Padstow School, for their hard work and commitment to helping the boys succeed.Well done boys!

We are very much looking forward to Stay Healthy week next week.

There will be lots of exciting things going on like Thai Boxing, Cooking, Yoga and we even have the Skateboard Park in school on Thursday.

Look out for exciting pics and stories next week.