Earth Day 2021

On the 22nd of April 2021, Knowle children (along with the rest of the World) celebrated Earth Day. Earth Day is an annual event to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First held on April 22, 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally by EarthDay.org including 1 billion people in more than 193 countries.

We collapsed lessons down for the day to enable us to learn more about how we can protect and restore our Earth. We know how our learning in Geography helps us to understand the Earth's physical and human processes, and Earth Day provided us with another opportunity to find out how we can make changes to our behaviours and actions to support global initiatives and priorities. 

We know how important looking after our World is. We had fun making seed bombs to grow wild flowers to support the wildlife. We reused plastic bottles, turning them into bird feeders for the school grounds. We collected litter from our playgrounds and importantly, we planted 10 trees kindly donated to us by Endsleigh Garden Centre... we did this because we know just how important trees are!

Take a look at some of the photos we took on the day.

On Friday 6th March, eight of our Key Stage Two children went to Brickfields to represent the school in a Quicksticks hockey competition. For all of these children, it was their first time playing competitive hockey. They were extremely brave and did us proud despite the terrible weather! We drew 2 of our games and lost the other 2. Below is a write up from the Plymouth School Sports Partnership  and a photo of the children.

On Friday 6th March we finally had our Level 2 Quicksticks event which we unfortunately had to cancel beforehand because of the bad weather we have continuously had, we had an amazing turn out even though the weather was still really bad, we had over 150 students across 15 schools at the event plus teachers and the leaders braving the weather to compete in the event.

The atmosphere was electric, everyone was trying to forgot about the weather and were trying their best to try and score vital goals to gain valuable points for their teams!

The games were close throughout the day with the scoreboard even closer, every goal was becoming more and more important throughout the day, once all the games had been played and the tables were being finalised it came down to Compton vs Kings in the final and Mount Wise vs Woodford in the 3rd vs 4th place play off.

Well done to Compton who finished the Level 2 Quicksticks event as champions, well done to all who braved the miserable weather and competed in the event, thank you to the amazing leaders who also stayed out all day to officiate and help run the event and thank you to all the teachers who came out to support and encourage your students!

On Wednesday 4th March 2020, 12 of our Key Stage One children represented the school in an indoor athletics competition at Eggbuckland Community College. It was great to finally have our younger children compete for the school and they thoroughly enjoyed their time. You can see a write up from the Plymouth School Sports Partnership and a score sheet below. 

Today we had the FIRST EVER PSSP KS1 Indoor Athletics competition. Eggbuckland CC hosted to 9 schools, who raced, jumped, balanced and threw their way to collect lots of points for their team.

We followed a similar format to the year 5/6 heats which we hold in November however, we switched the speed bounce for a balance beam. Each young athlete had to balance on one leg on the beam for as long as they could. The other field events were also Chest push, Standing long jump and Soft Javelin.

On the track the teams raced in the over/under relay, 4 lap parlauf, 1+1 and 4x1 lap relay. All of these events were scored and each team were given points based on how they did.

It was lovely to see so many smiley KS1 children giving athletics a go and cheering on their team mates. From the noise it sounded like you had a good morning!

Thank you to the leaders from Eggbuckland for their help in running the event.

On Thursday 13th February, three of our KS2 children attended an inclusive boccia event at Coombe Dean School. It was the first time these children had represented the school at a sporting event and they thoroughly enjoyed it! It was a relaxed competition and our children ended up winning two games and drawing six so they finished the day unbeaten! Well done boys! 

Below is a report from the PSSP:

A great morning of Boccia today at Coombe Dean. Teams from Holy Cross, Pomphlett, Goosewell, Knowle and Pilgrim all came along to take part in our very relaxed, friendly competition where we play against as many different teams as possible in the time we have.

These are always some of my favourite events as it is great to see so many children from different schools enjoying playing and trying a new sport. Some of the children who took part today had never played before but we had some fantastic Young Leaders from Coombe Dean on hand to teach them the rules and lead their games. I would like to say a huge thank you to the leaders for making this such an enjoyable event, and to Mrs Walpole for arranging the leaders for us.

Today we were very lucky as Sophie from Yoga Blend came into school for the morning to deliver 20 minute taster sessions for each Key Stage Two class. The children really enjoyed themselves and Sophie commented on how well the children behaved and how engaged they were.  Yoga Blend run child, adult and family sessions and they are based on Mutley Plain. Sophie and the Yoga Blend team would love to see the children (and their parents!) again soon for more yoga! Talk to your child tonight about what they did during their yoga session!

On Tuesday 28th January, some of our KS2 children attended an indoor rowing event at Plymstock School. For all of these children, it was their first time using a rowing machine. They gave it their everything and we are very proud of them. Below is a write up from the PSSP, a list of results and a photo of the children. 

Primary Indoor Rowing Championships 2020

312 children from 30 PSSP primary schools came along on Tuesday 28th January 2020 to take part in our annual Indoor Rowing Championships. 

We are extremely grateful that Mr Rob Pearsall, Head Teacher at Plymstock School, offered to host the event for us again this year, and we were also very fortunate to have 15 students from Plymstock School’s Leadership Academy to support both the PSSP and the children taking part.

As well as the indoor rowing races, we also had some taster activities set up in an adjacent hall.  Children were able to show off their best moves on our dance mats, have a go at paddling on our kayak ergos and see what it’s like with more than one person in a ‘boat’ on our ergo sliders.

The primary schools were split into Minor, Intermediate and Major categories, based on the number of children on roll in Key Stage Two.  We started our Championships by running all the individual races - each child tries their hardest to row the farthest in 2 minutes.  This is by no means an easy feat; the sheer determination from everyone who took part was clear to see and the support from their friends and team-mates was incredible! 

On Tuesday 14th January, some of our KS2 children took part in a high five netball event at Marjon University. For some of the children, it was their first time playing competitive netball but they thoroughly enjoyed their morning. The children persevered and were incredibly resilient considering the level of competition at the event. Unfortunately in our heat, we came 4th out of 5 schools which was not enough to go through to the next phase of the competition but the children still came back with smiles on their faces! 

On Wednesday 11th December, three of our KS2 children represented Knowle at an inclusive Boccia event which was held at Plympton Academy. The three boys all said they thoroughly enjoyed the event and would go again! Below is a photograph and a write up from the PSSP.

A fantastic turn out this morning for our final PSSP Inclusion Boccia event this side of Christmas. 11 teams representing Chaddlewood, Thornbury, Laira Green, St. Mary’s, Yealmpstone Farm, Knowle, Wembury, St. George’s, Lipson Vale and Woodfield all came along to Plympton Academy to take part in our friendly competition. On arrival the children were greeted by our fantastic team of young leaders from Plympton Academy. They were on hand all morning to show the children how to play and lead all of the games. This event provides all of our teams with the opportunity to meet new people, develop new skills through trying a new sport but most importantly, we focus on the fun of just playing. We also use this event as an opportunity to celebrate the School Games value of Determination: we spoke about the importance of practicing and everyone agreed that the more they played, the better they were becoming. I would like to say a huge thank you to our leaders, who once again helped to make this event so enjoyable for everyone.

On the 13th November 2019, some of our KS2 children attended an athletics event at MAP. Mr Bemister and Miss Kane were really impressed with the talent, perseverance and teamwork on show. Some of the children won their individual races but unfortunately this wasn't enough to finish in the top two. We are incredibly proud of the children's efforts! Below is a picture of the children, a spreadsheet showing the results and a write up from the PSSP.

Our next indoor athletics event was held at Marine Academy on the 12th November, we had 3 teams enter this event and these teams were Marine Academy Primary, Victoria Road and Knowle Primary.

As soon as the events all started you could see that it was going to be a very competitive competition, all participants were shouting and cheering on their teams from start to finish.

Once again it was a very close competition, things were starting to heat up on the speed bounce with a number of participants getting very high scores and attempting to gain more points for there teams.

At the end of the competition it was MAP who came out on top with a score of 82 points followed closely by Victoria Road with a score of 72 points and followed closely again by Knowle with a score of 62 points it was a very close event!

Thank you to all schools and participants who took part and a big thank you to the Marjon students and the Sports Leaders from MAP.

Thank you to Marine Academy for hosting the event!

On Thursday 17th October, our children competed in another cross country event! This time, it was the Level 2 competition at Staddiscombe playing fields. Yet again, the children showed brilliant courage, stamina and determination. We had some children finish in the top 20 which is an incredible achievement! Below are the results and a write up from the PSSP for the event. 

34 Schools competed in our annual Level 2 Cross Country event yesterday. The schools were split into Minor and Major teams and ran in their year group/ category.

The weather held off for all the races with a little shower during the results presentation. Every runner did fantastically, trying their best and saving a bit of energy towards the end for some sprint finishes.

It was lovely to see the amount of support and cheering from their team mates when they saw them running around the corner for the last leg of the course.

A big thank you to all our leaders from PHSG and a huge well done to all our winners for each category. 1st and 2nd place for each race will advance to the DWSG on the 18th March, with 3rd and 4th place winners advancing to the 'Festival race' at the DWSG on the same day.

On Wednesday 2nd October, 12 of our KS2 children went to Coombe Dean for the Cross Country warm up event. We were lucky to experience some sunshine for this event! Mr Young and Mr Greenslade were incredibly proud of all of the children as they gave it their all. Every race had approximately 100 children in and some of our children finished in the top 30 so they should be proud of themselves. Below is a write up from the PSSP, a document showing the results and a couple of photos of our children racing!

Our second Cross country warm up saw 18 teams race in our longest course to gain vital points for their team. Every runner did incredibly well to complete the course with some fantastic sprint finishes.

The atmosphere was incredible and it was lovely to see the support of teammates when they saw their friend run through the gate towards the last lap of the course.

A huge well done to all our top three runners to cross the line and a big thank you to the leaders from Coombe Dean for all your support with the course.

On Wednesday 19th September, six of our children represented Knowle Primary at a football event at Goals. The children showed excellent teamwork and determination skills and as a result, they came 2nd out of 10 teams! One of the children said 'I hope we get to play as a team again, we were great!'. Callum was given a medal for special recognition as he stood out for encouraging not just his own team, but children from other teams. Well done Callum!

Below is a write up from the PSSP.

What a fantastic start to this years’ program of Primary Inclusive Football. 10 teams came along to Goals this morning to take part in our friendly, round-robin event.

Teams from Widey Court, Marine Academy Primary, Prince Rock, St. Budeaux Foundation, Mary Dean’s, Montpelier, Yealmpstone Farm, Compton, Knowle and Cann Bridge all came along to take part in our Football festival that celebrates Respect, Determination and Self Belief.

This event is not only an opportunity to represent their schools and compete but we also use it as an opportunity to celebrate all of those outstanding sportsmanship qualities. In this competition, 5 points are allocated for a win, 3 points for a draw and 1 point for a loss. Everyone who takes part receives a certificate but we also award a very special medal to an individual on every team; this unenviable task of selecting just one player falls to the teachers from each school – they are looking for some outstanding displays of sportsmanship, respect or determination. Well done if you were the lucky recipient today – you must have done something extra special to really impress your teacher!

We were incredibly lucky to have some fantastic young leaders from Devonport High School for Girls – they did a brilliant job of refereeing/keeping scores and collating all of the results – thank you all so much – this event ran so smoothly thanks to all your hard work.

At the end of the event, the scores were tallied, and the winners announced… Congratulations to Widey Court, who were our overall winners today and to Knowle Primary who were a very close second. Some of the matches today were so close that we needed to look back over the number of goals scored to be able to collate the final results. Full table of results below.

Well done to all of the teams today – you all played brilliantly, and I hope that you all enjoyed the event as much as we did. 

We had an amazing time with the donkeys last week. The sanctuary staff told us lots of interesting facts about donkeys and we loved having the chance to get up close and personal with them! The staff were so grateful for the money we had raised and asked to us to extend our thanks to you. 

In total we managed to raise £244.65!

Thanks to all who contributed to the cake sale and gave £1.00 on the day.

The Food is Fun team were back again but this time they were working alongside our parents. We had a few great days looking at healthy options and cooked a range of delicious meals. Thanks to those parents who took part, and thanks for all of those tasty treats!

We look forward to running another workshop in January so if you're interested, please speak to either Tania or Mrs Walters in Year 2. It would be great to have you on-board!

Welcome to the gallery! Please enjoy browsing the children’s work.