Computing

Penpol School make their own 3D Winter Ornaments on our 3D Printer!

4th February 201917th December 2018 by Jacob Woolcock

This year, for the for the third time, we gave every child in Key Stage 2 the opportunity to design and refine their own 3D models on the computer, which we then printed out using our state-of-the-art Makerbot 3D printer.

This year the children had greater design freedom than ever before thanks to the fantastic new ‘Scribble’ tool on Tinkercad which lets the children draw their very own designs on screen, alongside their library of 3D shapes which the pupils have used previously. This tool was hugely popular and has resulted in us creating some really personal and unique decorations.

We’ve made a short video below to show the process of making our decorations, followed by a very large gallery underneath of every single decoration we printed this year!

This year we printed two hundred and twenty different decorations, which took a very very long time! You can see all of these decorations in the gallery below – see if you can spot yours…

This year there have been so many lovely designs and each one is completely unique. They’re all brilliant, but are there any that you particularly like?

Gallery of Decorations

(click a decoration to view it bigger)

Exploring 3D designs for this year’s Winter Ornaments

Jacob Woolcock 9th October 2018

What’s that noise coming from the Mac Suite?

Jacob Woolcock 20th November 2017

Enjoying every second of the Hour of Code

11th December 20184th December 2018 by Jacob Woolcock

Over the last two weeks each class in Key Stage 2 has taken part in the Hour of Code. For those unfamiliar, Hour of Code is a worldwide event which encourages school children to spend an hour having fun by problem solving through writing code.

Each year some amazing activities are created and this year schools around the world got to enjoy spending an hour Dance Party and coding their characters to dance their favourite moves.

But enough of me talking about it, here’s a fab video of the children enjoying choreographing their very own Dance Party!

– Mr Woolcock

This is the second year we’ve taken part in the international Hour of Code – you can read more about the children’s Minecraft adventure last year below:

Penpol are Finalists at the 2018 Edge Awards

Hour Of Code 2017: A Hero’s Journey

Penpol are Finalists at the 2018 Edge Awards

16th November 201816th November 2018 by Jacob Woolcock

Penpol School have once again been recognised for our pupils outstanding ICT and Computing work and have been shortlisted as a finalist for the Edge Awards 2018.

These awards celebrate the very best technology companies, digital content and entrepreneurs in Cornwall, along with the schools and colleges that help inspire and nurture the digital pioneers of tomorrow.

Penpol School have this year been recognised in the category of “Most Inspirational Educational IT / Digital / Multimedia Project” for our work with the 3D printed winter ornaments we’ve made.

The judges loved the fact that this project included the whole of Key Stage 2 and that it gave so many children the chance to use a technology (namely 3D printing) that they wouldn’t otherwise have had access to. They were blown away with the quality and charm of the decorations that our pupils had created.

We were the only primary school in the whole of Cornwall to make the finals and whilst we didn’t come away as the overall winner, we were treated to a fantastic video and some lovely words from the judges about our school:

"Penpol School is one of the leading schools for Computing and ICT in the South West. With forward thinking ideas and passionate teaching staff, their pupils learn to use technology with excitement and enthusiasm and the school gives them the confidence to embrace the technology around them. They believe that teaching both logical and creative skill sets will see the pupils thrive, whatever the future may bring."

Edge Awards

2018

You can watch the video below:

Class 14 write programs with their names

10th November 20189th November 2018 by Jacob Woolcock

This week we’ve started using the fantastic Scratch 3.0 software to build some pretty interesting programs. Starting with a basic idea of animating our names, we developed ideas and explored options to take our projects in different directions.

Within an hour we’d got 28 completely different projects including games, animations, musical performances and some very unusual pieces of abstract art! Everyone in class pushed themselves to try something new and to experiment, without fear of making a mistake. And when mistakes were made we celebrated them, because with Scratch a mistake is just the first step towards understanding how to make something work!

Well done Class 14, you’ve worked incredibly hard here. Take a look below to see what some of the pupils made and what they thought of their Scratch experiments…

“With my project you can press the numbers on the keyboard all the letters will start bouncing around the screen and change colour. You can change the background colour too by pressing the Space bar. Then if you press the up arrow the letters will all glide back to their normal place and be the right way up so you can see my name again” – Theo

“I have made mine in the line and put music on, then all of the letters spread up in different directions and then all go back together again to ask each other questions. I used code to create my own animations.” – Melissa

“I got my letters to spell my name and then I’ve put some code to make them flash all different colours like a rainbow at different times. And then I’ve got this block of code which asks you a question and you can type an answer to speak to the program” – Izzy

“I have used pieces of code block to create my animation of “E, T and H” and all have their own special parts which make them very funny in all sorts of different ways. I like Scratch because you can go out of your comfort zone but if you make a mistake it’s a perfect opportunity to learn on how to do it so you don’t make that mistake again.” – Ethan

Exploring 3D designs for this year’s Winter Ornaments

30th October 20189th October 2018 by Jacob Woolcock

This half term we’re starting a big 3D printing project in Computing. Each class has been learning all about 3D design and how to create different models and designs using the 3D design software Tinkercad.

Each class have gone through some quick-fire challenges with limited time and blocks to push their creativity and design skills to the limits. We’ve seen some giraffes made of just two shapes, rockets made of 6 and even models of St Michael’s Mount made using just 4 basic shapes.

The children have really embraced the creative side of Computing with this project so far and are now starting to develop their own ideas for their 3D printer Winter Ornament.

Over the next couple of weeks each child in Key Stage 2 will design four different ornaments, evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each, pick their favourite and then make refinements to their favourite design. When they’re happy with their finished product, Mr Woolcock and Paul will make sure that all of the designs get printed before the end of term.

Class 13 create their own E-Safety animation!

18th July 201817th July 2018 by Penpol School

Over the last few weeks Class 13 have been building upon their knowledge learnt from their Online Safety lessons and have taken it upon themselves to share what they have learnt from the Be Internet Legends program with others.

In order to accomplish this they have worked in groups to create their own animation, based around the Be Internet Legends concept. By writing their own dialogue and designing their own cartoon character, the children have created a short movie which you can enjoy below. The animation itself has been created in a clever program called Adobe Character Animator, a piece of software which allowed the children to animate every aspect of their characters, from their eyes to their toes!

So, sit back, relax and enjoy Class 13 talking about how to become Internet Legends!

00:00

As well as this lovely animation, the other Year 5 and 6 classes are also working on their own short films so check back soon to see those as well.

In the meantime here are some more stories about the children enjoying the Internet Legends program.

Class 10 are Internet Smart

Jacob Woolcock 8th March 2018

Class 8 are Internet Alert

Jacob Woolcock 13th March 2018

Class 7 are Internet Strong

Jacob Woolcock 23rd March 2018

Class 9 are Internet Kind

Jacob Woolcock 18th April 2018

Thomas is an official Internet Legend!

6th July 20184th July 2018 by Jacob Woolcock

A few weeks ago Thomas came to see me with some fantastic drawings that he’d done after the Google Be Internet Legends assembly. He spent hours drawing and colouring his creations and put in so much effort that I thought it’d be nice to send a copy to the team who helped organise the assembly.

They were so impressed with his enthusiasm and knowledge of E-Safety that they asked him a few questions about what he’s been learning so that they could write a short blog post all about him and the other children here at Penpol.

A week later and a mysterious box arrives in the Mac Suite, with some very exciting goodies inside for Thomas, which we surprised him with in our Friday celebration assembly last week. I think it’s safe to say he was very, very happy with what was inside! It just goes to show how putting in a bit of effort and having a passion for something can often lead to unexpected and exciting things!

– Mr Woolcock

Inside the goodie bag Thomas found a Google T-Shirt, some really cool Google headphones, a notebook and pen, a handy hand pointer and a certificate to recognise his Internet Legends status.

Class 12 create their own E-Safety animation!

25th June 201822nd June 2018 by Jacob Woolcock

Over the last few weeks Class 12 have been building upon their knowledge learnt from their Online Safety lessons and have taken it upon themselves to share what they have learnt from the Be Internet Legends program with others.

So, sit back, relax and enjoy Class 12 talking about how to become Internet Legends!

00:00

As well as this lovely animation, the other Year 5 and 6 classes are also working on their own short films so check back soon to see those as well.

In the meantime here are some more stories about the children enjoying the Internet Legends program.