March 2025 Archives

Reception Children’s Exciting Adventure to Tehidy Woods!

31st March 2025 by Amanda Aspden

The Reception children had an unforgettable adventure this week as they set off on a trip to Tehidy Woods. Blessed with glorious weather—bright sunshine and a crisp spring breeze—the children eagerly embarked on their outdoor exploration, ready for a day filled with fun, discovery, and adventure.

Me and Hudson found rocks, sticks, a spikey leaf and there was a piece of rough on the rock. We found logs and mud and Hudson found a daisy – Jack

The first activity on the agenda was a wellie walk through the woodland paths. With their wellington boots firmly on (and a couple came off), the children splashed through muddy puddles, crunched through leaves and twigs and listened carefully to the sounds of nature all around them. The rustling trees, chirping birds and occasional scurrying of woodland creatures created a magical atmosphere that truly captivated their imaginations.

We go to Tehidy woods. We was climbing up some sticks. I found a squirrel. – Luca

Next, the children took part in a scavenger hunt, searching high and low for different natural treasures hidden within the forest. They excitedly collected leaves of all shapes and colours, smooth stones, pinecones and hunted for woodlice, worms, spiders webs and even a few feathers. The activity encouraged them to observe their surroundings closely and sparked lively discussions about the different textures, colours and patterns they discovered.

The excitement continued as some of the children had the opportunity to climb a few trees. With careful supervision, they tested their balance and coordination, building confidence as they clambered onto sturdy branches. The joy on their faces was clear as they experienced the thrill of climbing and looking at the world from a slightly higher perspective.

We were exploring. We finded nature like a giant fat slug and woodlice and ants – Arthur

To round off the adventure, the children worked together to build their own dens using sticks and branches found on the forest floor. Their creativity and teamwork shone through as they carefully arranged their materials to create cosy woodland shelters. Some children imagined their dens as secret hideaways, while others transformed them into woodland homes for small creatures.

The trip to Tehidy Woods was a fantastic opportunity for the children to connect with nature, develop their problem-solving skills and enjoy outdoor play in a beautiful setting.

Pupil Premium Statement (2024/2025)

28th March 202527th March 2025 by Tiffany Pope

Strategy Statement 2024-25(2)

Magical Mayhem at Penpol: A Spellbinding Adventure!

26th March 2025 by Jack Emery

This year, Penpol was once again transformed into a world of wizardry and wonder as students took part in an unforgettable Harry Potter-themed experience. From spellbinding potion lessons to thrilling Quidditch matches, the day was filled with magic, mystery, and a touch of mischief!

The morning began with an intriguing Potions lesson assignment set by none other than the formidable Professor Severus Snape. Students eagerly took on the challenge before heading into a hands-on practical session led by Professor Emery and Professor Lestrange, where they concocted their own mystical mixtures.

Creativity was in full force as students designed their very own dragons, complete with detailed descriptions of their magical abilities and unique characteristics. From fire-breathing beasts to shimmering, winged serpents, each dragon was as impressive as the next!

For those with a competitive streak, the excitement continued with a fast-paced Blooket Harry Potter quiz, testing their knowledge of the wizarding world. This was followed by a thrilling scavenger hunt, where students searched high and low for hidden magical creatures scattered throughout the grounds.

Of course, no Harry Potter event would be complete without a Quidditch match! Cheers and laughter echoed across the field as students took to their broomsticks (or at least, their running legs!) in a fierce but friendly competition to score goals and catch the all-important Golden Snitch.

With wands at the ready and imaginations soaring, Penpol’s young witches and wizards embraced the magic of the day, proving once again that the spirit of Hogwarts is alive and well! A huge thank you to all the staff and students who made this enchanting day so special.

Step into the World of ‘Swop’: A Virtual Author Visit with Lucy Noguera!

23rd March 202520th March 2025 by Clare Sara

Year 1 had an exciting and engaging virtual author visit with Lucy Noguera today, where they had the special opportunity to meet the inspiration behind the main character of her books, Swop!

The children were full of fascinating questions for Lucy, such as, “How long did it take you to write Swop: The Daring Dinosaur Detective?” and “What inspired you to create these characters?”

Lucy took us on a journey through her creative process, sharing insights from the very first spark of an idea to the moment her books were published.

We’re now eagerly awaiting our delivery of Dyslexia-friendly copies, which will be a fantastic addition to our school library’s dyslexia section.

A huge thank you to Lucy Noguera for such an inspiring visit! We’re excited to get started on the special Science detective mission you set for us, linked to our Digging for Dinosaurs topic. We can’t wait to put our detective skills to the test!

Here’s a wonderful creative drawing by one of our talented students, inspired by Swop, now proudly displayed in our Class 4 book corner! What a fantastic way to bring the story to life! 🌟📚

Bringing Cornish Legends to Life: Year 6’s Journey to St Michael’s Mount

27th March 202518th March 2025 by Nic Stanlake

Tuesday brought not only sunshine but also Year 6’s exciting trip to St Michael’s Mount. In the coming weeks, they will be exploring Cornish myths and legends in English, and what better way to immerse themselves in local folklore than by visiting the very setting of one of the most gruesome tales?

Before making the short walk across the causeway, both classes took a moment to soak in the island’s grandeur from the mainland. They sketched the scene and began using their senses to capture details that would later enrich their descriptions back at school.

Once the tide had retreated, Class 13 made their way across first, arriving with only slightly damp socks before Class 14 joined later. On the island, the children got to work in the newly opened Learning Centre, which we had the honour of inaugurating last year alongside the St Aubyn family.

They began by learning, retelling, and story-mapping the tale of young Jack—a boy courageous enough to take on Cormoran and free the villagers from their fearful strife. This immersive experience will undoubtedly support them when they rewrite the story in the coming weeks, as they can revisit the key actions, vocabulary, and plot points through drama—and trust me, we had some truly terrifying giants!

The children also had the opportunity to explore the quaint village nestled at the foot of the mount. Through completing the ‘Harbour Challenge,’ they gained insight into how people live on the mount today while also uncovering its rich military and royal history.

Jelly Friends ‘Floating’ as they win the Cornish Champions Award

25th March 202517th March 2025 by Jacob Woolcock

"As we were called up to the stage we were all quite literally floating with excitement and our team were all buzzing - then the judges gave us a trophy and announced that we were going to Harrogate for the National finals!"

Evangeline

Class 14

Last year a team of nine students, The Dragons, arrived to RNAS Culdrose to take part in and experience the FIRST LEGO League. Far from being daunted, they embraced every opportunity and came away with an award for the Rising All-Star team – one which the judges ‘expect great things from in the future‘. Twelve months later (and now known as Jelly Friends) those same students returned to take part for a second year.

So the question is, did they deliver on that lofty expectation this time around? Well, read on and find out for yourself!

Innovation Project

Jelly Friends have spent the last six months working tirelessly on their Innovation Project, narrowing it down to a very specific problem: over half of the students at Penpol School said they were scared to go in the ocean in case they got stung by a jellyfish.

The thing is though, most jellyfish are absolutely harmless – just ask Evangeline! So the project took shape, the team would find a way to let swimmers know if the jellyfish nearby were safe, or if they might be a cause for concern.

Over the course of the project, they researched lots of different ideas before settling on a wristband which lights up red or green depending on if the jellyfish is a friend or not. This is then powered by underwater cameras linked to a Machine Learning project which Molly has coded in Scratch and Machine Learning for Kids.

Combined, this created Sting Safe and the team presented their idea to the judges at Culdrose. In fact, they were joined by more than the normal amount of judges as some other people got wind of what was happening and wanted to see for themselves.

During the presentation, Jelly Friends were joined by three visitors from Google Cloud who were at Culdrose to demo their own Machine Learning software. To say they were impressed by the team would be quite an understatement!

You can see the project in action by watching Molly explain it in this video:

Despite all the extra people in the room this didn’t prove a challenge for Jelly Friends who delivered their presentation in a confident and fun way for the judges, resulting in them getting nearly a perfect score for their presentation – a staggering 39 points out of 40!

39 points

out of a total of 40

The judges shared that they enjoyed their “in depth research whereby the team consulted lots of experts” and that their “use of Machine Learning was very impressive“. They were also impressed with how Jelly Friends were so “focussed on the problem itself and the impact of their solution“.

Robot Design

After sharing their Innovation Project the second presentation was all about the design of their robot and how the coding works. For this presentation the team were well prepared by sharing their collaborative Freeform board with the judges.

This document is something the Jelly Friends have been working on since September and documents their process from building the robot, testing the first missions and developing and refining the attachments that make the robot complete different tasks.

Their Freeform board is quite massive and has really shown just how much time and effort the team have put into their project this year. Using this helped the judges really see all of the progress they’ve made as well as the difficulties the team faced along the way.

"Going in to the judges room we had a bit of an idea what to expect from last year but it went a lot better than we all imagined and the judges were lovely."

Isla

Class 13

This year the team have really refined their robot to make it more reliable, accurate and powerful. Using techniques like creating a launch area guide using Duplo meant they didn’t have to learn individual lineups for each mission whereas using coloured lights between different stages of their code helped the problem solving that always happens when missions don’t quite go to plan.

32 points

out of a total of 40

The judges comments for this part of the presentation praised the teams “evidence of strategy, testing and iteration” of their robot, especially the “use of their troubleshooting light” which was implemented in their code. A real highlight though was how the Jelly Friends “addressed areas of improvement” from their robot last year, showing development and new learning over the course of this season.

Robot Games

The Robot Games is probably the most intense part of the competition, as you only get three attempts to show just what your robot is capable of. Programs that run perfectly in school will likely fail under the pressure of competition, and weird issues will arise that simply couldn’t be predicted. That said, every team is in the same boat, and it’s all to play for!

Jelly Friends had their first Robot Games match nice and early and were full of quiet confidence as the countdown rang out. 3, 2, 1, LEGO! And then, quite frankly, it all went wrong!

Each of their meticulously planned missions either failed a little bit or failed spectacularly, resulting in them having to rescue the robot from the game table several times – losing points along the way. When everything goes to plan, they can usually get a score approaching three hundred, but after match one, they were left with barely half that – 145 points.

Practice time followed and a chance to try to decompress and understand what went wrong. The team believed the lineups were to blame, resulting in the robot getting stuck in places it shouldn’t have been stuck. Changes were made, and the second round was a chance for redemption.

Or at least, that was the plan. Unfortunately, the second run, despite starting stronger than the first, also turned into a nightmare relatively quickly. Again, the robot got stuck, crashed into mission models, and generally didn’t work as it was programmed to work. More points were lost by having to retrieve the robot, and a score of 160 was eventually posted to the scoreboard.

Could it be that after so many months of building, coding, refining, testing, and improving that the robot was going to be where it all came unstuck for Jelly Friends? Well, if you think that, then you’ve clearly underestimated this team!

???

Class ??

In a truly remarkable show of resilience and determination, the four Robot Engineers decided to spend their lunch time debugging and refining the code for their robot. They realised the issue was with the gyroscope and set about correcting the problem. It took a good twenty minutes, but the team felt confident that they’d managed to fix the problem. Once that was done they even had time to adapt one of their robot attachments to improve its reliability.

And the reward for their effort? The final round proved to be the dream outcome – a perfect round where every single mission worked exactly according to plan. Finally, all of their months of coding and practice paid off and they achieved a simply staggering score of 290 points, much to the delight of everyone around – as you can see in the video here.

This set an incredibly high bar for other teams to meet and it was only in the final run of the day when their score was surpassed by Darite Primary, who managed to get an unbelievable 305 points – well done Darite!

145 Round 1

160 Round 2

290 Round 3

Robot Games

The Jelly Friends achieved the second highest score of the day in the Robot Games with a fantastic score of 290 points.

“It was really fun to have this amazing experience and go around looking and interacting with all the stands and people there at Culdrose. When we took our photos on stage, we all had our jellyfish hanging above Mr Woolcock.”

Molly

Class 13

Next Steps

Cornwall LEGO League: 1st Place

The Jelly Friends came first overall on Day 2 of the 2025 Cornwall Regional Finals and now progress to the UK National Finals in Harrogate!

They now have several weeks to refine their robot and presentations ahead of competing on the National stage!