Head's Blog

Plaidy Win Sports Day

After a very grey start to the day, Plaidy were able to celebrate their win of the overall Sports day competition in the sunshine. It has been a while since Plaidy won, so there were lots of cheers and excitement. It was a very close competition all day. Plaidy won the Key Stage 2 competition in the morning and Hannafore won the Key Stage 1 competition in the afternoon; in the end, only 23 points separated all of the 4 four teams. As the only member of school not in one of our houses (I might have said that a few times before), I was very nervous in counting all of the points, so it was very tense when I announced the results!

We value competition and fun at Looe Primary and Sports Day is one of the highlights of the year. It was great to see the children supporting each other and helping out when things did not quite go to plan for some. There were a few falls and tears, but we all knew it was about taking part and being there for each other. Mrs Smerdon did a great job of organising the day again and the activities meant that everyone could take part. We even caught PCSO Billings taking part in the Foundation egg and spoon race!

Sports Day here at Looe is all about family and friends, so thank you to those who attended; it was lovely to see so many of you out on the field for the picnic lunch. Thank you too to the volunteers who helped to run the stalls and the raffle. We have not finished counting yet, but we are confident that we will have raised over £400 to go towards resources for our children that we would not be able to buy otherwise. Special mentions to Mrs Provost, Mrs Borlase and Mrs Ede for bringing it all together and thank you too you all for the wonderful donations of cakes, sweets and amazing raffle prizes. Check our Facebook page if you have won a prize. We are hoping to get our Parents and Friends up and running properly again soon, so if you can help in either a big or a small way, please let Mrs Juleff know.

This year's Sports Day did not disappoint yet again. Looe Primary at its best! Thank you to you all, but most of all to our fantastic children who never fail to bring joy and fun to our days at school.

Goodbye to Mr Arnold

A message from Mr Arnold

It does seem some time ago now since we said goodbye to Mr Arnold, but he sent a 'thank you' card recently, so now seems a good time to share our wonderful leaving assembly with you. The donations for a gift from all were very well received and he was given a number of gifts including a picture of Looe made from recycled items, a Tottenham Hotspur shirt with his name on the back, a voucher for a hotel stay and lots of chocolate (if you know Mr Arnold, you will know this was a good choice!). The assembly was a mixture of songs, cards, videos, jokes and yes, there were some tears! Mr Arnold says, 'To all my friends at Looe Primary, I just wanted to write to say thank you for the wonderful send off you gave me, I was completely blown away! The cards, songs, video, jokes, presents and amazing assembly were all so wonderful and I've enjoyed telling all my friends and family about it.' Good luck at Brunel Primary Academy, Mr Arnold.

Children's University Graduation Success

On Wednesday evening, I had the privilege of joining 13 of our pupils and their parents at their Children's' University Graduation Ceremony at Plymouth University. The ceremony celebrates children who give additional time to their learning and extra- curricular activities. In order to be eligible to attend the graduation ceremony, children have to achieve at least 100 hours of additional activities across a whole range of activities from guiding and scouting to sports and crafts. A number of these opportunities are provided at the school, but most of the children achieve their hours from the activities in which they participate in the community. The speeches from the University Chancellors were very inspiring, but it was a very proud moment for us all to watch the children to walk across the stage in their caps and gowns to receive their awards. Well done to all!

Easter Eggstravaganza!

Once again, our annual Easter egg competition drew some wonderful entries. It is a shame that we cannot show them all here. There were entries from every Year group and some of the art work and ideas involved were wonderful and very clever. We also enjoyed some of the puns that cam as part of the displays. We had 'eggstreme' sports, 'eggvolution', 'eggs factor' and space 'eggsploration' to name but a few!

The entries were all shapes and sizes, either on their own, or in groups, with the displays on some showing as much promise as the eggs themselves. All of the eggs were on display in the main corridor for the day and we would like to thank, Mrs Parnell and Mr Sands for choosing the winners. 1st, 2nd and 3rd places all received prizes, but I would like to say well done and thank you to all those who took part.

We're going on a Bunny Hunt!

Volunteers working on the Looe Live Community Zone are raising funds for a new Looe Live Community Chest to help support local groups, organisations and events that improve community life and good causes in Looe. Funds raised would be ring fenced to support the future of the Community Zone as part of the Looe Live Festival, but also provide a fund to support other community events and activities throughout the year, that will enhance the town socially, environmentally and culturally.
Not sure what to do with your children over the Easter holidays? Let them join in the fun of trying to find the little gold bunnies that have been hidden around Looe in participating shop windows. There are 20 gold bunnies to find, 5 in shop windows in West Looe, and 15 in East Looe. Each participating business will also have a poster in their window.
Entry forms are on sale at the Looe Tourist Information Centre from April 1st: 10.00 - 15:00 Mon-Fri at £1.00 per sheet. Once the sheet is completed, please return to the TIC with a contact name and phone number on the reverse.
Prizes for 3 lucky winners returning their correct forms by Friday 19th April. The winner will be announced on Easter Sunday on East Looe Seafront following the Beach Easter Egg Hunt.

We hope you will enjoy the hunt and we appreciate your support. There will be a gold bunny on display in the Tourist Information Centre, so that the children will know what they look like.

Looe Womens' Day at the Sardine Factory

To help Looe Town Council and the Sardine Factory to celebrate International Womens' Day and the Looe Town Celebrations of the wonderful women of Looe, the Year 2 children spent the morning at the Heritage Centre. They took part in a wide range of activities to learn about the history of Looe, to understand the importance of the fishing trade to the town and to learn about some of the women who have shaped the history of the town, both today and in the past.

The children walked to the Sardine Factory (and back up the hill!) and they were so well behaved and enthusiastic for all that they learned. Before they went, they were asked to think about a female role model who had made a difference to them and they carried out more work on this at the Heritage Centre. Charlie picked our very own Mrs Hodges and we all agree that she is an amazing role model!

We Are A Good School

We had a great Celebration Assembly this morning, including the sharing of some of the Year 4 greatest buildings that have been produced as part of their topic. We had everything from the Pyramids, to the Shard and even the Tamar Bridge!

Thank you so much to all of the parents and families who have helped to make these models.

We are going to try to get as many of them as possible on display in the reception area over the next few days. Pop in and have a look if you can.

We were also able to share our new banner. We hope you like it!

World Book Day

Look what's happening today! One of our favourite days of the year. I can't quite believe that these two managed to get out of the zoo, but don't worry because we are safe. We have so many super heroes in school that we do not need to worry! Not only that, we are used to these two mischief makers and have a pretty good idea for how to tame them - the occasional biscuit or piece of cake works wonders!

Thank you so much to parents and children for the creative costumes; we will be sharing them all in assembly this afternoon and it was good to see so many of you at the reading breakfast this morning. If you have not been able to attend a reading breakfast yet, please do try as they are lovely occasions to get together and read.

We will have more pictures of the children and their costumes soon and thank you to Miss Hearnden for organising another amazing World Book Day.

Now … I'm off to read my book! My favourite is the Whales' Song by Dylan Sheldon. Have a great day everyone.

Values Conference

Bridge Schools Values Conference: 1st March

It has been lovely these last few weeks to be able to prepare for the publication of our Ofsted report, and to now to celebrate it with you. It is also great that the school, staff and pupils have settled back in to our usual routines. On Friday last week, I led a Values Conference on behalf of the Bridge Schools Trust. Children and adults from all 14 schools in the Trust met at the beautiful St. Wenn church to talk about, and take part in activities based on the 6 main values of the Trust. These values are excellence, determination, creativity, enthusiasm, responsibility and curiosity.

By the end of the day, we had explored these values in detail and had agreed that they are very important, not just in our schools, but in shaping who we become as individuals and in guiding the paths that we may tread in life. The quality of discussion and outcomes for the children was outstanding and inspiring. The aim now, is to continue this work in each of our schools over the next few months.

Ofsted report published

I am delighted to announce today that following our recent Ofsted Inspection in January, Looe Primary Academy is now a 'GOOD' school. The inspection was a comprehensive inspection of all aspects of school life. This is wonderful news and demonstrates the determination of all to provide the very best possible teaching and learning opportunities for all pupils without losing sight of the caring and supportive ethos that makes our school learning environment so positive and rich. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all parents and carers who completed the Ofsted parental survey and who took the time to talk to inspectors.

Most of all, the pupils were as wonderful as usual. There was lots of activity; they were engaged and were a credit to themselves and to the school. It is pleasing to know that they feel safe and well looked after and the inspectors shared that, 'pupils behave well and demonstrate good attitudes to their learning.'

Thank you to the staff team who work so hard to provide what we knew all along - that Looe is a 'good' school! The report is in the 'Information' tab on the website and at available at the Ofsted site.