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Headteacher
Chris Coyle-Chislett

Email the Office
secretary@penpol.cornwall.sch.uk

Telephone Number
01736 753472

Our Address
2 St George’s Road, Hayle,
Cornwall, TR27 4AH

“Penpol pupils are curious, creative and courageous learners. Our school community believes in authenticity as the foundation of deep-rooted learning. Through our rich and relevant curriculum, we nurture community-minded, forward-facing international citizens of the future.”
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Jacob Woolcock

A Very Special Visit from Biffa

Last week we had a very special visit from Biffa and their brand new Food Waste Recycling Truck.

Okay, you might be asking what’s so special about that?  Well the Penpol Pumpkins have been spreading the word about the upcoming Cornwall Council Food Waste Collection all year as part of their award-winning FIRST LEGO League Innovation Project and as a special reward for all their hard work they’re actually the first people outside of Biffa to ever see this brand new vehicle in real life!

Not only that, but they also got to see the truck in action and even sit in the cab and use the horn!  They learnt lots about the vehicle and asked plenty of interesting questions about the upcoming Food Waste collection.

After a tour of the truck the Pumpkins took great pride in sharing their Innovation Project Presentation with the team from Biffa in a real ‘full-circle’ moment.  Nearly 10 months after originally coming up with the idea of promoting Food Waste Recycling they were able to share their learnings in front of the actual vehicle that will be used and with part of the team responsible for rolling it out right across Cornwall – amazing!

But Biffa were also here for another reason…

Thanks to an incredibly generous donation from the company, the Penpol Pumpkins have been able to buy 10 LEGO Robotics Kits to donate to other schools to enable them to take part in FIRST LEGO League too!  These sets, offered as a gift from the Penpol Pumpkins and Biffa, will have a huge impact on hundreds of children in Cornwall who would not otherwise have been able to experience the powerful STEM learning experiences that this competition has to offer.

Talk about having a lasting legacy in Cornwall!  Well done Pumpkins – and thank you Biffa!

Welcome Home Penpol Pumpkins!

We’ve made it safely back to Penpol School!

I’m sure in the days to come the children will be eager to share some reflections and memories of the last week, but for now we all need a good nights sleep and a bit of a rest!

Thank you all for the support and for following our journey via the live blog, it’s lovely to see just how much support the Pumpkins have had!

CORE VALUES WINNERS!!

I am thrilled to say that the Penpol Pumpkins have won an award for the Core Values at the international final of the FIRST LEGO League!!

We came fourth overall, with the team being recognised for their Inclusivity, Fun, Teamwork, Discovery, Impact and Innovation.

This isn’t just an award for their robot, or their food waste project or even their presentations. This is an award for THEM. These children who have put in so many months of hard work, who have faced and overcome huge challenges, who have bonded through shared laughter and friendship and who have represented Great Britain at the highest level these last few days.

This is an award for the Penpol Pumpkins 🎃

Lightning Round ⚡️

Well, that was intense!

The Lightning Round is a special event that only happens at large events like this, where teams are paired up together to complete the challenge in a slightly different way. For this competition the two teams were assigned at lunchtime and had only a few minutes to work together on planning a whole new mission strategy…

90 seconds, two tables, one scoresheet.

The aim is to work together to score as many points as possible between the two teams, who are in turn playing in a knockout match against another team. This requires a lot of planning, adjusting missions and running orders and working well under a huge amount of pressure (nobody wants to let the other team down!)

We were thrilled to be partnered with Team Bob from Greece, who are from FutureLab Robotics Academy. Working together the team “Bobkins!” Managed to make it through not just the first and second rounds, but also the quarter final, semi final and got right through to the final itself!!

After an excellent final run from both teams they came in third place with a remarkable combined score of 335! Well done Team Bobkins!!