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Headteacher
Chris Coyle-Chislett

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

Telephone Number
01736 753472

Follow us on Twitter
@PenpolSchool

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 foundations of deep-rooted learning. Through our rich and relevant curriculum, we nurture community-minded, forward-facing international citizens of the future.”

Codeblocks at Christmas

This term the students in Years 3 and 6 have been creating their own 3D Winter Ornaments using the Tinkercad program.

The Year 3’s have been learning all about 3D modelling and how to adjust, combine and create using different 3D shapes, while the Year 6’s have been putting their coding skills to the test by creating their own 3D decorations using nothing but blocks of code!

This week, as one hundred and twenty 3D decorations go home, we wanted to share some of the behind-the-scenes of how these wintery treats were made…

Year 6

Isaac

Class: 14

I used three spheres for the body.  I used the move block and changed the z axis.  I then squashed a cynlinder for the base and I used the text block for my name and the size block to change the size.

For the hat I used a torus shape and a cynlinder, which I moved using the Z axis.

Verity

Class: 14

For my Christmas decoration I made a gingerbread man, it was very fun to make! At first I was quite confused, but then I got the hang of it and created this!

Hana

Class: 14

Rosie

Class 13

I used hearts instead of triangles to make the tree segments unique. I also did a green gradient. Then we were told that our designs are going to be printed in white and that we would haft to paint it.  For the tinsel I used dashes in text because there was no shape that would mimic tinsel very well.

This is where I got stuck on how to flip it upwards. This is where Harry told me I just needed to place a ‘select all’ block at the bottom.

I used two squares and moved it by the z axis (up) to create the pot top and I used a semicircle to make the tree stump. 

Jowan

Class: 13

Blue blocks make the shapes – if we didn’t have these we wouldn’t have anything on this page.

Purple blocks are vital if you want the objects to be in the right place to make something cool or cute.

Top tip: If you open the Blue blocks you can change the size of each block individually.

Lola

Class: 13

To make my snow monkey,I first had to place the body by using spheres all lined up on top of each other.  Next I did the ears to do that I used cones and adjusted the sizes.   Then I started doing the mouth because I want my monkey to be happy.  After that, I started doing the eyes with two spheres again it was quite hard at the start but then it got a bit easier.

On the next part of my code, I tried doing a tail it was really hard to do because you cant make it curve since we are coding it. I managed to do it by mixing up all the numbers and then it just turned out to look like a tail.

I think it’s safe to say the Year 6’s have truly outdone themselves this year, each taking home a beautiful and unique 3D winter ornament.

Year 3

Our Year 3’s have also been exploring the world of 3D designing in Tinkercad whilst creating their own two-tone winter ornament.

They’ve learnt how to master the different tools and iterated on their designs to make each one the very best it can be before they got printed.  How good do these look?!

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!

Electric LEGO Legends Compete at National Finals

Following their fantastic performance at the Cornish Finals at Culdrose, the Electric LEGO Legends had the opportunity to compete at a National level on Saturday, when they represented Cornwall at the British FIRST LEGO League Finals.

Our journey began with a ten-hour coach trip up to Harrogate along with our Year 6 team (the Penpol Pumpkins) and our friends from Truro High School for Girls (the Solar Savers).  Once we eventually arrived at our hotel for the night the team all gathered together for a meal and a chance to catch up with Oliver who met us up there.  Oli moved schools at the end of last term, so it was a real treat that he was able to join us for the competition and for a good catch-up with his friends.

After a good nights sleep (and a great breakfast buffet!) we boarded another coach and headed into Harrogate itself toward the Harrogate Convention Center where the competition itself was to be held.

Beginning

1 point for a team who are beginning to demonstrate the criteria.

Developing

2 points shows that a team is developing that criteria.

Accomplished

3 points is where a team has accomplished the particular criteria.

Exceeding

4 points is where a team has gone above and beyond and exceeded the expectation.

It’s fair to say that the Year 5’s were, understandably, very nervous when they arrived at the convention centre, but they quickly got stuck in to decorating their pit area to make it look more colourful and fun.  They added bunting, paper decorations and colourful wind turbines to match their Innovation Project theme all about wind power.

The morning started with a star-studded opening ceremony, during which team captains Lucas and Sophia got a chance to walk across the stage to represent the Electric LEGO Legends.

After this the team headed straight to the judging area to share their presentations with the judges.  Being the first team in was a bit scary, but getting the hardest part of the day our of the way early on was a great advantage as it meant a lot of those worries were able to be put to rest and the team were able to fully enjoy the rest of the day.

Despite the nerves the team felt confident going into the judging room and emerged half an hour later feeling really pleased with their presentations and buzzing with the judges feedback!

Their Innovation Project focussed on the theme of Wind Energy, in particular the fact that hundreds of thousands of new homes are built each year but only a few thousand wind turbines are built in the same timeframe.

The team proposed a solution whereby new houses would be built in pairs, shaped aerodynamically to funnel wind into a central, shared turbine.  This would allow houses to generate their own clean energy whilst also saving money – a double win!

In Harrogate my favourite bit was when all the people were doing the robots together – that was pretty cool! 

Seeing some of the more advanced teams tackling the really tricky missions a bit insane, I have no idea how their robot managed to do that!  I enjoyed seeing everyone struggle with the windmill task, but when I tried it I couldn’t do it either! 

Judges Feedback for the Innovation Project

The judges loved the fact the children had made their own 3D models in Tinkercad. They said the information was well documented  and the presentation was bright, colourful and all inclusive.

In order to improve for next time the judges suggested conducting more research on the final project and sharing your ideas with your classmates and parents to get additional feedback.

Identify

Problem | Research

2

2

Design

Ideas | Planning

2

2

Create

Innovation | Model

2

2

Iterate

Share | Improvements

3

2

Communicate

Presentation | Solution

2

2

The second presentation of the day was the Robot Design Presentation, where the team shared their ideas and code that led to their robot.  They shared this through lots of large A1 sized posters with screenshots of their code, photos of the robot and notes that helped explain each part to the judges.

By talking through several key missions in detail they were able to clearly share how they’d iterated on and improved various elements of their robot from the attachments to the code itself.  These improvements and refinements went down very well with the judges – especially their use of a permanent attachment which made the transition between runs much quicker.

My favourite part of the day was probably the Robot Games, because I really enjoy it and think it’s really fun.  Being able to practice loads and then working out where to improve is really rewarding because you can then try and make the robot even better by making it quicker and more reliable. 

Taking part in the Robot Games in front of everyone was fun but also a bit frightening because we had a camera right behind us pointing at us – but we couldn’t look back because we were concentrating so much on the robot!!

Judges Feedback for the Robot Games

The judges remarked that they really enjoyed seeing the large, colourful posters the children had made as it was nice to see the coding printouts and explanations

They were also impressed to see that the robot utilised a permanent attachment which reduced the need for changeover time, allowing the children to perform more missions without the need to change attachments.

The judges suggested that next time the children might consider utilising sensors to help them gain more points at the table.

Identify

Mission | Building

3

3

Design

Workplan | Innovation

2

2

Create

Functionality | Model

3

3

Iterate

Testing | Improvements

3

3

Communicate

Explanation | Evidence

2

3

Once the presentations were done, we had the rest of the day to explore the STEM Expo, watch the other teams doing their Robot Games and of course get in some practice for our own matches.  Seeing some of the other teams robots was really inspiring and has given the Electric LEGO Legends plenty of ideas for next year.

In the STEM Expo next door we got to explore loads of cool technology and got the chance to play and explore too.  We watched a 3D film about space, rebuilt a human skeleton and even raced balloon cars!

Seeing the experience of being in Harrogate was awesome.  The Year 6’s told us it was really good and that’s why they wanted to go again and they were right – I thought it was really, really good! 

I would love to do it again, especially because looking around and seeing the different schools was really interesting – meeting lots of new people and learning lots of new things.

Throughout the day the children exemplified the six Core Values of FIRST LEGO League, including Discovery, Innovation, Impact, Inclusion, Teamwork and Fun.  These six values are vital to a successful team as it’s a way of measuring just how well they work together, how they support each other during challenges and how they’re using what they’ve been doing to create a positive change – both in themselves and the wider community too.

It was particularly lovely to see these children discovering so many new and exciting things at the event, exploring all corners with big smiles on their faces and embracing challenges as they came up.

Judges Feedback for the Core Values

The judges were impressed with the Core Values demonstrated by the team, drawing particular attention to the way they made decisions through a democratic process of voting in the team.  They also highlighted the good harmony between the team members whilst they were presenting and simply loved how enthusiastic and bubbly they all were together!

Discovery

team explored new skills and ideas

2

Innovation

team used creativity and persistence to solve problems

2

Impact

team applied what they learned to improve their world

2

Inclusion

team demonstrated respect and embraced their differences

3

Teamwork

team clearly showed they had worked as a team throught their journey

3

Fun

teams clearly had fun and celebrated what they have achieved

3

My favourite part was probably the Robot Games, because it was very intense and I thought that kinda felt pretty good to me.  I felt like I was doing something pretty big because everyone was there watching and cheering me on!

It felt pretty good when we managed to get the missions to work and everyone was watching us do good on the missions. 

That made me feel really proud of the team.

The trickiest part of the day was the Robot Games.  Going from practicing in the controlled atmosphere of the Mac Suite to taking part in a huge hall with thousands of people watching and cameras everywhere is very tricky!  This was undoubtably a barrier as the team found that their first two Robot Games rounds didn’t go as well as they’d hoped – the noise in particular proving a big distraction.

However, they still scored a very solid 130 and 135 points in those two matches.  They also rotated team members which ensured that they all had a go with running and launching the robot.

After these two matches the team headed to the practice table and spent time analysing and adjusting their starting positions for the robot.  Even a subtle movement to the left or right can have a real tangible impact on the performance of the robot.

After spending some time perfecting these lineups they were ready to go back to the arena for the third and final match, at which they scored an incredible 185 points!  It really does show that hard work and perseverance pays off!

135

Points in Round 1

130

Points in Round 2

185

Points in Round 3

For a first year team the Electric LEGO Legends performed incredibly well.  They took challenges in their stride and embraced every opportunity.  It was wonderful to see them working so well together and increasing in their confidence throughout the day as they spoke to more and more people. 

Well done Electric LEGO Legends – let’s see what next year has in store for us!

Penpol Pumpkins awarded Best Innovation Project in Great Britain!

For the Penpol Pumpkins the journey to Harrogate for the Great British finals started over a year ago.

In fact, I’d pinpoint their starting point to the moment we left the Harrogate Convention Center last February having taken part in the 2022 England + Wales Finals.  As we were crossing the road James S turned to me and asked if he could please do it again next year, because he’d had so much fun.  A gentle rumble of agreement spread through the children and before we’d even got back to the coach I’d said yes, they can take part again next year if they really want to.

Fast forward to September and I naturally assumed they’d all have forgotten about this agreement.  How wrong I was!  

The first day of term and they were standing patiently outside the Mac Suite at lunchtime, asking if they could start working on their project.  Since then I can’t think of a single day when they haven’t been in the Mac Suite tinkering away with some part of their robot, researching ideas for their Innovation project, emailing companies for support, holding team-meetings or even painting cardboard pumpkins.  They have put in such an incredible amount of effort in the past two terms and the story on this page is entirely a testament to their determination, enthusiasm and perseverance.

Of course if you’re a regular reader of the Penpol Times you’ll know this wasn’t their first competition this season, they took their presentations and robot to the Cornish Finals at RNAS Culdrose and walked away with an overwhelming set of judges feedback, the Champions Award and a ticket to advance to the Great British finals in Harrogate.  You can read more about their experience at Culdrose on the link to the right.

Anyway, you didn’t come here to read my ramblings, so let’s hand it over to the Penpol Pumpkins as they share their highlights of the day, along with some additional information to give a context to the competition and their achievements throughout.

“The Robot Games is my favourite activity to do in the LEGO League because it’s very fun and gives lots of opportunities to learn and develop code – especially for people who might like to work as a coder or an engineer in the future.  I would like to become an inventor and invent things that could possibly help our world in facing climate change and pollution problems.”

“Taking part in the Robot Games helped me with my inventing because I was able to understand and develop my ideas with the code.  Imagine if rather than writing code for this robot I was actually writing code for a robot on Jupiter or something else that would help the planet in the future!”

Caio

The pressure is really on when you've got two camera people and two referees watching your every move during your 2 and a half minute match!

The teams each get three attempts at the Robot Games, spread across the day.  Because it’s just the highest score that’s counted it gives them a couple of opportunities to achieve their best result.

The game board is exactly the same as the one they practice on at school, but there’s something very different doing it in front of hundreds of people and with referees standing right next to you – talk about pressure!

The slightest change in alignment in the starting area can be the difference between glory and disaster, with the robot either heading straight to its intended target to complete the mission or veering wildly off into another mission and getting stuck!

Whilst it’s a high-pressure situation, the team were able to stay focussed and on task for each match, achieving a high-score of 230 points.  Whilst this wasn’t quite up to their ‘in-school’ record of 295, it remains an incredibly credible score which they should be very proud of.

During each match the teams were cheered on by their parents, Penpol staff and the rest of the Pumpkins.  This created an electric atmosphere during the three rounds!

The Pumpkins had plenty of support from their fellow team members and the rest of the entourage!

“The Robot Games is worth a quarter of the total points for the competition, which means it’s incredibly important.  As one of the blue team robot engineers, my job was to launch the Toy Factory, TV and Dinosaur missions – as well as changing between different attachments as quickly as I could.”

“On the day this was tricky, because EVERYONE was watching – it was even being live streamed! Hearing the audience cheering “PENPOL PUMPKINS!!” was nerve wracking, but really helped me get in the zone to complete my missions.”

Jenna

Between matches the children were able to take advantage of the practice tables, allowing them an opportunity to practice their lineups and even refine some of their code.  Jenna, Ada, Caio and Felix used this time really wisely to make some minor adjustments to their robot to ensure maximum accuracy.

The first match they played was even live-streamed to the world (with a video embedded down below).  But what’s more, Ethan was asked to give a live commentary on the match itself with host Tom Deacon.  He leapt at the opportunity and gave a play-by-play rundown of the teams progress as the match unfolded – a natural born presenter!

The referees and team members work together at the end of each match to ensure they all agree on the final scores.

230

Points in Round 1

200

Points in Round 2

210

Points in Round 3

“It felt kind of worrying doing the commentary – what if I messed up what I was meant to say?  But it was also really fun because I got to commentate for my team which was SUCH a cool thing to do.”

“I felt like the team did really well on the Robot Games matches because our speed was so much better than it was at Culdrose. I think that’s because we’d all practiced a lot more.”

“The day itself was so much better than last year because we knew what to expect and were able to really show off all our hard work – we even won an award!”

Ethan

Before we get into the next three parts of the competition, it’s worth having a quick reminder of how the scoring system works in FIRST LEGO League.  The children are graded against several different categories in each presentation, with a mark awarded from 1 point (beginning to show that criteria) to 4 points (exceeding that criteria by going above and beyond).  For a judge to award 4 points they have to specify a reason why they believe that team has gone above and beyond.

Beginning

1 point for a team who are beginning to demonstrate the criteria.

Developing

2 points shows that a team is developing that criteria.

Accomplished

3 points is where a team has accomplished the particular criteria.

Exceeding

4 points is where a team has gone above and beyond and exceeded the expectation.

The second element of the competition is called Robot Design and here the team completely re-worked their presentation from the Cornwall finals back in March.  Back then the judges gave them high marks for everything, with the exception of explaining the code they had written.  The judges felt they could have expanded on this more.

The team took this feedback on board and went about planning ways to better share and explain their code and how the robot itself worked.  They hit upon a great idea of using an iPad with videos, code and interactivity as a way of bringing their learning to life in an easy-to-explain way.

Using an app-style presentation made in Keynote, the Pumpkins were able to navigate to different missions and talk the judges through their code, attachments + reliability of their robot.

“A major part in our presentations was our Robot Design one. We used this presentation to also show off our Core Values and creativity in the presentation, all whilst talking about the design of the robot and how our code worked.”

“After we’d finished our presentations I think we might have left the judges a bit speechless as they didn’t have ANY questions to ask us! I think we’d probably covered everything they needed to know which was amazing.  They told us it was a very good presentation, in fact they told us it was one of the best that they’d seen in all the years they’d been judging.”

Felix

Alongside the techie aspect of their presentation, there was also dancing, singing and a (slightly bizarre!) chanting each time a new mission was described.  This added to the sense of fun that was sewn throughout their presentations and the judges really enjoyed how involved everyone was in this.

A special mention here needs to go to Caio, Jenna, Felix and Ada who took centre stage in the presentation to talk through, in detail, many different aspects of their robot – from attachments to code, testing to reliability scores.  They shared the progress they’d made since Culdrose and discussed how they had made refinements to their code to shave off precious seconds and score more points.

The Pumpkins were interviewed by Prince Abdi and his camera crew, who were really keen to learn all about their Pumpkin theme and how their robot worked.

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Ernie

Judges Feedback for the Robot Games

The judges praised the team for their clear mission strategy, which was described clearly both verbally and through an interactive diagram on the iPad.  There was a clear explanation of the robot and all its innovative features, which went above and beyond the other teams on the day.

The judges also remarked that they enjoyed their use of an iPad with a app-type approach worked well enabling them to show clear evidence of their design, iteration and testing.  This particularly shone with their incredibly detailed overview of their design and mission strategy.

Lastly, the judges were pleased that every single team member was involved, remarking that each student went over and above expectations to deliver such a strong presentation.

The area for development identified was to consider explaining more of their initial design process, potentially including diagrams of other designs that they’d tried before settling on their current robot and attachments.

Identify

Mission | Building

4

4

Design

Workplan | Innovation

2

4

Create

Functionality | Model

4

4

Iterate

Testing | Improvements

4

3

Communicate

Explanation | Evidence

3

4

One particular area where the Penpol Pumpkins truly excelled was the Core Values.  These six values include Discovery, Innovation, Impact, Inclusion, Teamwork and most importantly, Fun!

Having worked with these children for the past two years, I could give countless examples of how each child has gone above and beyond in demonstrating all six of these values, but you’d get very bored of my writing.  Instead let me paraphrase a couple of examples the children themselves shared when talking to the judges:

Caio: “When we first started this project I’ll be the first to admit I really struggled at teamwork.  As time has gone on it’s a skill I’ve really improved at.  Whilst I’m still not perfect at it, I really get on well working in a team and supporting others.”

With the help of Mrs Allen and Mrs Woolcock, the Pumpkins had the most orange Pit Area in the whole competition!

“This competition has allowed me to be more open and honest about myself, for example I know that people can trust me and I can trust them.  When we first started none of us really knew each other but over time we’ve built such strong relationships and friendships with each other.”

“When we first heard that we had the best presentation in Great Britain it was an absolute shock to us because over time all of us had fun, designed amazing posters, had lots of laughter and genuinely enjoyed ourselves.  Even though we were having fun we managed to succeed, which I think shows that as long as you put in lots of hard work, you can have fun and not have to take things too seriously!”

James B

Jenna: “Two years ago I would have NEVER stood up in front of people to talk – let alone leading a presentation in front of a room full of judges or doing a school assembly!  I’ve discovered that I have so much more confidence than I realised and can do anything if I set my mind to it.”

Ada: “Working with Chelsea (our mentor from RNAS Culdrose) has had a great impact on me – she’s inspired me to become an aircraft engineer just like her in the future.  She has such a fun job and I’d love to be like her when I grow up.”

Ernie: “I’ve been able to enjoy taking a back-seat in the coding this year and instead worked more on the Innovation Project.  I’ve been able to mentor and teach other team members to help them learn how to code with the robot, which means everyone is included in the competition.”

Fellow teams, parents and even presenters were frequently seen taking selfies in the fab 'Don't be a Pumpkin' photo frame - complete with fun props!

“Miles and I contacted LEGO to see if would be okay to have 150 LEGO Pumpkins to hand out at the competition. We were overwhelmed that LEGO decided to give them to us and it meant that we could spread the message about Food Waste by talking to people about the problem and then giving them a little LEGO Pumpkin to remind them.”

“My proudest moment of the day was going up on the stage after we’d heard that we’d won the Innovation Project trophy.  It made me feel very excited because that’s one of the biggest awards to win – along with the Robot Games, Core Values and the Champions Award.”

James S

The Pumpkins embodied these values throughout the whole day, sharing their badges with other teams, talking to adults about the food waste recycling project and cheering on and encouraging other teams during their robot games.

As the day went on something lovely and unexpected started happening…  Other teams came by our Pit Area (the teams base for the day) and left little presents and notes for the Pumpkins.  These included some cool LEGO bookmarks, 3D printed key rings and lots of badges and sweets!  It was great to see how friendly other teams had been to us, something which I think is testament to how confident and open our team were with meeting and chatting to everyone else as the day went on.

The Pumpkins came back to their Pit Area to find these lovely laminated bookmarks (filled with LEGO Cards!) that Team Electric8 had left for them to say thanks for getting LEGO Pumpkins!

Judges Feedback for the Core Values

The judges felt that the teams presentation was amazing, particular the way they worked so closely together and complemented each other.  Their research was outstanding, including drawing information from industry experts, schools, parents and the council.

They were really pleased to see that the children were making an impact in their community by working with the council to develop and further push their ideas and felt it was clear that they all knew exactly what they were talking about and delivered that information in an excellent way.

Lastly, the judges remarked that they wowed them with an amazing presentation that was so much fun – in fact the judges were crying with laughter! Brilliant.

The advice for developing this further was for the children to think about how they can pass this enthusiasm onto the younger children at school to keep the FIRST LEGO League momentum going for years to come.

Discovery

team explored new skills and ideas

4

Innovation

team used creativity and persistence to solve problems

3

Impact

team applied what they learned to improve their world

4

Inclusion

team demonstrated respect and embraced their differences

3

Teamwork

team clearly showed they had worked as a team throught their journey

4

Fun

teams clearly had fun and celebrated what they have achieved

4

Finally, the team shared a presentation with the judges called the Innovation Project.  Despite being relatively short, this was the culmination of nearly 8 months of hard work.  The team were inspired by the amount of pumpkins that were left to go to rot after Halloween and were struck by the fact that this was incredibly wasteful.

They soon realised that other types of food were also going to waste and after researching further they discovered that this was actually a huge problem.  Not only did 35% of bin bags in Cornwall contain food waste, but the Methane gas produced when the food rots in landfill is 25x worse than Carbon Dioxide for Global Warming. 

The real shame is that Methane can be used for good – even creating clean electricity and powering certain vehicles!

Following on from their Cornish Finals, the team created this wooden board with examples of their advertising campaign on. Sadly it lost the D in landfill on the 10 hour trip to Harrogate!

“It was a big thing to think of, but it kind of clicked when I mentioned my idea to the team.  They loved the idea of pumpkins and soon realised just how much food waste we could be dealing with.  It felt like it would be really good for the community as well as the competition, because we could spread for message about recycling food waste with our local community.

When we learnt that Cornwall Council were going to use our ideas to help them promote this across all of Cornwall, I felt like it was a big step forward for our ideas and goals.  It’s gone beyond being a part of a LEGO competition and we’re now going to be able to make a real difference in our part of the world!”

Ada

They conducted lots of research into this and initially designed a product for people to use at home to recycle their own food waste and harness the useful methane gas.  However, prototypes soon revealed that this wasn’t a great option and they began to look elsewhere for inspiration.

After some emails to Biffa, SUEZ and Cornwall Council the children learnt that there is a planned Food Waste collection coming later in the year.  This was it! The children realised they could help advertise and promote this service by creating a set of adverts – tv, radio, tiktok, posters, etc etc to get the publics attention and encourage them to stop sending their food to landfill.

They’ve created loads of adverts and have been sharing their message with everyone they met in Harrogate by giving out badges, LEGO pumpkins and discussing how important it is to recycle food waste.

The Pumpkins were full of energy heading into the Innovation Project presentation - armed with props, models and posters to explain their project solution.

“The funniest part of the presentation was definitely when Ethan was begging James to let him have a red panda – he gets funnier every time he does it!”

“My proudest part of the presentation was the part when I had quite a big part to say and I didn’t mess it up at all!”

“The judges said that in all their years of judging they’d never seen anything quite like our presentation. They way we conveyed our message to them through a play was something they really, really liked.”

Piran

In the last few weeks before the Great British Finals, the children had a visit from recycling team at Cornwall Council who came to see their presentation and adverts.  The council were blown away by the Pumpkins and are currently arranging for us to go on a tour of a food waste recycling plant as well as planning how we can work together to use the Penpol Pumpkins adverts as a way of actually promoting the new service to the whole of Cornwall.

Talk about making an impact!!

The Penpol Pumpkins pose for a team photo outside of Harrogate Convention Center.

Judges Feedback for the Innovation Project

Having earned an extraordinary 36 points out of 40 on their Innovation Project, the judges were so impressed with their enthusiastic presentation and the range of different media across all platforms used to deliver it.

The Penpol Pumpkins had talked with a number of different users, professionals and Cornwall Council to research and develop their project, which led to them being able to share a clear definition and communication of the problem.  They also loved how there were so many different iterations of the solution in terms of different Food Waste collection adverts being communicated across many different platforms.

Finally, the judges wanted to let the team know that they had a simply amazing presentation, which they deeply enjoyed, including acting, song and lots of laughs.  They clearly demonstrated how this had impacted on them and how they were making a difference in their community.

The next step for the team should be to think about how they can further improve their ideas by taking on more feedback from others and then how they can maintain their current level on enthusiasm as the project with the council continues.

Identify

Problem | Research

4

3

Design

Ideas | Planning

3

3

Create

Innovation | Model

4

4

Iterate

Share | Improvements

4

3

Communicate

Presentation | Solution

4

4

Of course, the biggest recognition of the student’s hard work came at the end of the day when it was announced that they had won the Innovation Project award! The Penpol Pumpkins and their mission to reduce food waste is OFFICIALLY the best Innovation Project in the country this year.  What a massive, massive achievement.

Penpol Pumpkins, we are incredibly proud of each and every one of you.  Congratulations!

“The moment they announced that we’d won the Innovation Project was exciting.  I didn’t even realise what was happening for a few seconds – everything was a blur!  Once I realised that we’d actually won I leapt up and ran to the stage to collect our trophy.”

“I was very shocked, but also very proud of our team because I knew how hard we’d all worked to get this achievement and how much time and effort we’d all put in over the years.  It made me feel very overwhelmed but in the best possible way.”

Miles

And if by any chance you’re wondering what the best Innovation Project in Great Britain looks like, here’s a little peek!  (This was recorded after a ten hour coach trip and without unpacking all the props and posters they’d usually share during their presentation – but still, I think you’ll get a pretty good flavour of what they’ve been up to!)

Of course, getting all these wonderful students to Harrogate is no small task, and we couldn’t have done it without the kind and generous support of our sponsors: Rowe IT, The IET, Paradise Park, Penpol Friends, LaserMaster, Atlantic Pools, Adam Masters General Builders, Fugro, Cornwall Stairs and Philps.  

A massive thank you to them all!

 

Penpol Compete at RNAS Culdrose in the FIRST LEGO League

Last week we took two teams to the Cornwall Finals of the FIRST LEGO League, held at RNAS Culdrose. We have our team of Year 5’s – the Electric LEGO Legends (who were competing for the first time) and our returning team of Year 6’s – the Penpol Pumpkins.

Because of some logistical issues with getting 19 children to Culdrose on the same day we ended up taking one team each day (with the kind help of Hayle Academy letting us share their minibus!).  The Electric LEGO Legends were up first, on Wednesday 8th March.  What they didn’t know was that this was the secondary school day and they were up against 12 other schools – mostly secondaries!

On the Thursday we then took our Year 6’s up to Culdrose where they took part in the competition against 24 other schools!

What follows below is a peek at each day, sharing news of each teams Innovation Project, Robot Games and lots of other fun things they explored on the day…

 

Part 1: Robot Games

The Robot games is a fun challenge where the children have to design, build and code their very own robot to complete different missions. There is a maximum of 410 points on offer this year and a score of anything over 200 is considered exceptionally good - especially for primary teams!

Electric LEGO Legends

The team had a clear strategy of getting some quick points on the board with the TV and Wind Turbine missions, before heading out to try and achieve some more complex missions too.  They had three attempts to get their best score in just two and a half minutes!

When the final run was over the team were triumphant with their highest score being 205 points.  This stayed the top score for the whole day until the very last team, Nexus, who deployed their  incredibly nifty robot which scored an astounding 260 points on its run!

205

Round 1

145

Round 2

160

Round 3

The Penpol Pumpkins

The Pumpkins have used the same robot they took to the competition last year, meaning they spent longer working on the code itself rather than building a new robot.  They managed to complete almost every mission, but had to cut this right back to fit inside the two and a half minute timeframe.

Over the three runs the children had a high-score of 240 points, thanks to some super-quick work in switching the attachments and a perfect lineup for several of the trickier missions.  They very nearly came top of the charts in the robot games, save for an incredibly exciting final run from Darite School who pipped us to the post with a stunning score of 245.

190

Round 1

240

Round 2

180

Round 3

Part 2: Innovation Project

The Innovation Project is a chance for the children to identify a problem linked to the annual theme (Energy for this season) before researching, creating, refining and presenting their own innovative solution. This takes the form of a five minute presentation to the judges and a ten minute question and answer session afterwards.

Electric LEGO Legends

The Electric LEGO Legends have been exploring electricity this year and how we can use renewable sources of energy rather than non-renewables.  They initially took a keen interest in electric cars and considered basing a project around that, but eventually settled on an idea of building sustainable houses by including a vertical wind turbine alongside a pair of houses.

The judges enjoyed the teams presentation and praised the enthusiasm and interest shared by the team whilst they gave their presentation.  They also loved how the team had consulted with experts in the field and how they’d reflected honestly on the project they’ve created thus far.

The team scored a very credible 32 points out of a total of 40 for their project and received a lot of positive comments from the industry judges.

32 points

out of a total of 40

The Penpol Pumpkins

The Penpol Pumpkins were inspired by the day after Halloween and how many pumpkins are left on door steps to rot and then eventually get thrown in landfill.  They soon realised that it wasn’t only pumpkins that were thrown away in the rubbish – in fact 35% of all black bin bags in Cornwall contain food waste!

Their presentation was focussed on the idea of promoting the upcoming Cornwall Council Food Waste collection by creating an advertising campaign to encourage people to recycle food rather than sending it to landfill.

Having learnt from last years performance, the team opted to deliver their presentation as a play where they all took on different roles.  Having seen these children last year and then again at Culdrose, the difference is quite simply staggering.  The judges agreed and awarded the Pumpkins 39 points out of 40. Incredible!

39 points

out of a total of 40

Part 3: Robot Design Presentation

The last part of the competition was the Robot Design Presentation. This name is slightly deceptive as it isn’t just about the robot that the teams have built. Yes it is largely about this, but it is also a chance to share the story that the children have been on since starting their journey in the competition. This is a chance to share their learnings, their new skills, their strategies, plans and anything else that they want to with the judges.

Electric LEGO Legends

For this presentation the team took an innovative approach and based it around an ‘interview-style’ format where the team asked each other questions about their robot, the way it was coded and how they approached each mission.

This presentation proved really interesting as it allowed the children to share lots of relevant information and impressed the judges with their learning so far.

The judges commented that they were “all involved, testing each challenge and working together to solve puzzles” and that they were very strong at “learning and adapting” as their robot and coding skills developed.

31 points

out of a total of 40

The Penpol Pumpkins

For their Robot Design presentation the Penpol Pumpkins created large A3 posters with code snippets, attachment photos and other commentary on them.  These then formed the core of their presentation as they were able to discuss in detail how different parts of the robot functioned and explain their overall mission strategy.

The team also took some time during the presentation to offer some honest reflections on what the competition means to them and how they’ve grown as individuals and as a team over their two years competing.

The judges were impressed with their journey and their robot, commenting that it was a “superb team effort from start to finish!”

36 points

out of a total of 40

Part 4: Core Values

The final of the four areas that teams are marked on is called the Core Values. These values include Discovery, Innovation, Impact, Inclusion, Teamwork and Fun. Throughout their presentations, their robot games and the day itself the teams are being judged on these six areas.

Electric LEGO Legends

Despite being a first-time team at the competition, the Electric LEGO Legends made a big impact on the judges with their teamwork, enthusiasm and matching team t-shirts!  The judges were very impressed that they’d all taken time to learn how to code and how the team had a “real buzz and enthusiasm” throughout the day.

20 points

out of a total of 24

The Penpol Pumpkins

There’s really no other way to put this, the Penpol Pumpkins blew the judges away with their Core Values and scored an unimaginable full marks in this area!

The judges said they were “simply exceptional” and demonstrated this throughout the whole day with exemplary behaviour, a positive attitude and a real drive to compete at the very highest level possible.

24 points

out of a total of 24

The Final Scores

As you can see from each of the four areas above, both teams did exceptionally well and embraced each and every aspect of the competition. By being such strong all-rounders I'm delighted to final standings for each team...

Cornwall LEGO League: 1st Place

The Electric LEGO Legends came first overall on Day 1 of the 2023 Cornwall Regional Finals and now progress to the UK National Finals!

Cornwall LEGO League: 1st Place

The Penpol Pumpkins came first overall on Day 2 of the 2023 Cornwall Regional Finals and now progress to the UK National Finals!

Photo Gallery

Below are some extra photos from the day, kindly shared with us by LPhot O’Barrow from the Royal Navy.

3D Printing our Wonderful Winter Ornaments

BUILDING WITH BLOCKS IN TINKERCAD

This half term our Year 3’s have been learning how to use Tinkercad to create 3D models and objects on their computers.  This clever program lets you create anything you like in three dimensions, which can then be sent to a 3D printer to turn digital designs into real world objects.

To start with our students were introduced to the basics of Tinkercad (including how to resize, rotate, recolour and arrange 3D shapes).  They then applied this learning to a series of fun (and slightly bizarre!) challenges – including building a Giraffe in 8 blocks, a favourite food item in 6 blocks, a spaceship with 4 blocks and a self portrait with 2 blocks (and the awesome Scribble tool!).  To make it even harder then only had a few minutes for each challenge!

These fun and low-stake challenges helped the children explore the program and encouraged them to create multiple designs very quickly, rather than spending hours on each project.  That meant when we came onto designing our Winter Ornaments the children were able to rapidly prototype different ideas before choosing their favourite.

But rather than me telling you about that here’s a video from some of our Year 3’s talking about the project…

DESIGN, REFINE AND PRINT

Once the children had designed a few different winter ornaments it was then time to refine those designs to ensure they looked as great as possible (and that they would print out nicely on our printer).

Part of this process involved checking the dimensions to ensure they all fit inside a 60mm box and also the tricky task of choosing which colour combination they’d like to use!

Lastly, we added a hole to the top to ensure our decorations could be hung up if desired.

After that all that was left was to print them out.  An easy task you might think? Well, given we had 113 to print and each one takes nearly an hour it was touch and go whether or not we’d get them all done by the end of term!

Thankfully we managed it and below you can see a gallery of every single decoration designed by our Year 3’s and Year 6’s this year.

DECORATIONS GALLERY

Constructing Egyptian Pyramids in Minecraft

This half term we’ve been building Pyramids in Minecraft Edu in our Computing lessons.  Mr Woolcock and Paul have created a shared world where we were all able to work together and build pyramids for our Egyptian Pharaohs.  We researched what would be inside a pyramid and learnt about the traps and secret rooms designed to stop thieves and included these in our designs.  We even created secret chambers full of canopic jars, golden treasures and scrolls of knowledge for the mummies to take with them into the afterlife.

Welcome to our Pyramids!

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Here are some more photos of all of our pyramids, along with some extra information about each one.

Class 7

Xander, George and Maverick

This is a maze which is to trick the people that try and break in and take all the gold.  There are pressure plates on the floor and when you step on one they open up a trap door and you fall down!  At the centre of the maze there is lots of treasure which was buried with the god Osiris.

Sorrel, luna and noah

Our pyramid is for Thoth.  We made a patten in the wall which was meant to be a hieroglyphic.  We’ve added lots of gold and treasures inside our pyramid along with a red carpet which feels very royal.  We put some chests in there too with lots of important things in them like precious gems and golden objects.

Koby, Lili, Daisy, Xanthe, Lowenna and Frankie

We’ve built secret tunnels under the pyramid so if people try to get in they’ll come straight out the other side!  There are some other traps too that are supposed to catch people trying to break in.

Lexi, Alice and Alice

We put two chambers into our pyramid one is full of treasures and is where the sarcophagus is placed.  The pharaoh would have been buried with all of their treasure.  There are secret tunnels to get into the chambers to stop anyone naughty coming in.  It’s designed to be really scary in the tunnels!

Bobby, Daisy and Casey

This is where the mummy would be placed in the pyramid.  We have put gold inside for him so he can take it with him to the afterlife.  We put torches inside so it’s not completely dark and so he can see the gold in the afterlife.

Fred, Poppy, Charlie and Darcey

We’ve got a staircase inside the pyramid which takes you up to a large maze where people might think the treasure chests are hidden, but it’s a trap!  They’re actually hidden under the pyramid.  This traps thieves inside the pyramid.  We’re really proud of the fact it has two levels and the fact we’ve added ancient books to give the pharaoh lots of knowledge in the afterlife.

Edwin, Logan and Arthur

It was designed so explorers who come in through the entrance will fall into a trap.  There’s an empty chest filled with really rubbish items which will trap the robbers into a chamber.  We’ve made it really confusing so nobody can get into steal the mummy or the treasure!  It’s full of traps and surprises!

Class 8

Grace, Izzy, Merryn and amelia

This is a hidden part of our pyramid where there’s lots of gold and things inside.  There are false lights in a fake corridor to distract people trying to break in!  The gold is hidden in a secret place behind a trap.

Rory, Darcey, Noah and Charlie

We made an upstairs in the pyramid, but didn’t quite finish it off yet.  But there’s also a dungeon room below the main room where there are spider webs, creepy things and stuff like that.  Our pharaoh was the god of the underworld so we made his dungeon look like the underworld.

Massimo and Jack

We really enjoyed making the pyramid!  We thought “what would an ancient Egyptian think about when the pyramids was created?”  We thought the answer would be glory, cool secret stuff and valuable treasure.  On the top of our building there’s loads of gold and I made the Egyptian symbol of life out of gold!  We also really enjoyed making the secret entrances behind the hieroglyphics.

Maddison, Nevaeh and Lucy

I liked creating the portals for each Egyptian God because I could figure out blocks would best show off the different gods.  We also really liked making the secret rooms which were so important in the pyramids to store things safely for the afterlife. 

Zak, Pearl, Isaiah and Ethan

The trap in our pyramid has a little hole in the middle of it, so if anyone is silly enough to walk in the middle they’ll fall through!  Our little room is really important because you can only fit really special things inside it.  There is a secret treasure chest hiding under our bridge!

Sam and Logan

When you first go in through the passageway there’s a real sense of Ra’s power.  We used glowstone to represent the sun.  I liked the front of our pyramid a lot because it’s so three dimensional and it looks absolutely massive – but still smaller than a real pyramid!

Noah, Dexter, Bailey and Koen

The room in the back corner is a secret space where we’ve hidden some gold treasure.  Another room has other important things in it like a backdoor, a desk and lots of ancient Egyptian scrolls.  We’ve also added some exploding traps to stop anyone coming in!

Evie, Freya, Alayah and Everly

In this room the Egyptians could practice their mummifications!  They need to be perfect so that people they were mummifying could get into the underworld.  We also put in a trap door in the so we can get down into the secret room where the mummification happens.

Exploring Energy and Innovating Ideas

Today our Year 5 and Year 6 LEGO League teams were fortunate enough to have not one but two very special guests around to help mentor and support them with their competition preparation.

Our team mentor, Chelsea from RNAS Culdrose, has kindly agreed to visit every Thursday to help coach both teams.  She’s a familiar face at Penpol now having worked closely with our teams last year as well – in fact she asked if she could come back this year!

Alongside Chelsea we also had another very special visitor – somebody who has travelled slightly further than Culdrose to join us…

Alejandro Buitrago is an engineering student from the University of Technology and Engineering Careers (UTEC) in Lima, Peru.  He is currently travelling around Europe and through a happy coincidence ran into Mr Woolcock.  Upon chatting, Mr Woolcock discovered that Alejandro is in the middle of a degree in Renewable Energy Engineering – which just so happens to be the exact theme for this years LEGO League competition!  

Alejandro very kindly agreed to spend an afternoon with us and spent time working with our Year 6’s over lunchtime and our Year 5’s this afternoon.

Y6's took time out from Evacuee Day to learn about Energy
A lot of Energy-themed prototyping and idea development with the Y5's

During this time Alejandro kindly answered questions, shared a wealth of knowledge and inspired the children to pursue and develop their innovative ideas for the Innovation Project.  By the end of the day the library was covered in hand-drawn sketches, coloured paper, glue sticks, cardboard boxes turned into prototypes and assorted LEGO constructions.  All the signs of a good afternoon!

A massive thanks to both Chelsea and Alejandro for their support.

Year 6 Photos

Fantastic Fireworks in Year 1

This week Year 1 have been learning all about fireworks by writing poetry and creating digital art.

The children started on Tuesday by getting used to drawing on the iPads with the Logitech Crayons. They used Keynote to draw some colourful, bright fireworks using lots of small mark making around a central point.

These fireworks were then all put together into one large image (with the help of our Year 6’s!) to create the lovely animation you can see above.

In their English lessons the children were learning about verbs to describe movement and the -ing and -ed suffixes.  They considered which of these words would best describe fireworks and then used them to help with their pattern poetry.

You can see their wonderful verbs and poems by clicking on the pictures below.

Behind the Scenes of Maths Mania in Scratch

Scratch is a great program that lets us build our own games, animations and tools.  Using brightly coloured blocks of code we can control individual objects (called Sprites) as well as being able to combine multiple elements into more complex programs.  However my favourite thing about Scratch is that you can make just about anything you like if you use your imagination.

That’s exactly what happened last week when I heard this…

“Mr Woolcock, can I show you this game I’ve been making at home?”

Below is a video of that particular game, complete with play-by-play commentary!

I can’t overstate how much creativity, problem solving and complex logical thinking are involved in bringing a project like this to life – it’s absolutely ace.

If you’d like to have a play of this game (or the prequel – Grammar Castle) you can use the buttons below.