• Contact Us

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.”

Healthy Choices on the Menu at Penol

Earlier this week, we were visited by educators from the Council’s Healthy Cornwall team who worked with all of ur KS2 pupils . The idea for this session was the empower our children to make their own healthy choices when choosing what to fuel their bodies with. The Healthy Snack Family Challenge is attached below.

The session included 3 different activities: the tasting of different healthy snacks including, beetroot, dried apricot, sugar snap peas and humus; what a balanced diet looks like and how it contains lots of different food groups in moderation; and finally, shattering the myth that healthy food have to be expensive. The children all tasted different foods, with many doing so for the first time.

The children learnt all about the ‘Eatwell Healthy Plate’ and discussed how different food groups serve different purposes and how each are individually important to the growth, development and maintaining of a healthy body and mind.Our Year 5 and 6 pupils also took a more in-depth look at the calorie content of different foods, both healthy and unhealthy and took a closer look at the monetary cost vs nutritional output of each food.

They were particularly shocked at the sugar content of some their favourite drinks! With one even commenting “that’s why were encouraged to drink water!”

All children in KS2 then were gifted a free water bottle to celebrate their participation in which  was some  information to share with parents and a healthy snack challenge, all of which is included below. It has been wonderful to see so may children making healthy choices with their snacks continuing to celebrate the learning they have undertaken in science, PE and PSHE around health and wellbeing.

 

Sleeping with the Sharks

To top off a school year filled with adventure, excitement and challenge, Year 2 pupils embarked upon an incredible opportunity to ‘sleep with the sharks’ at Plymouth’s National Marine Aquarium.

Following a joyous minibus journey up the A30 and across the Tamar Bridge, we arrived at the aquarium, which is located on the beautiful and historic Sutton harbour. Here, we were greeted with a warm welcome by the National Marine Aquarium staff.

The next stop on Year 2’s marine voyage was an ‘Inventafish’ workshop, in which pupils explored some fascinating ocean artefacts (including the jaw of a tiger shark, a giant turtle shell and a sawfish rostrum!) and learned about the adaptive features of a host of sea creatures. We discovered that both the turtle’s protective shell and the humpback whale’s baleen (the comb-like filter-feeding system) are made from keratin – the same stuff that our fingernails and hair are made of!

 

  

The pupils were then tasked to ‘inventafish’, using their creative imagination and prior knowledge of ocean animals to design, draw and write about a fictitious sea creature. We had venomous deep-sea creatures with octopus legs, petrifying bioluminescent lures and 30 foot-tall sea monsters that live by the light of the moon!

   

Following the workshop, we were treated to dinner in the aquarium’s Waves Café, which boasts a panoramic view of Sutton Harbour. The café with filled with excitement and glee and the pupils enjoyed their dinner and watched as the fishing ships pulled into the harbour.

 

After dinner, we were walked down to the Eddystone Reef Exhibit. This is the largest single viewing panel in the UK, but it’s also home to a stunning array of local sharks, rays and many more amazing ocean animals… It would also be our bedroom for the night!

We were incredibly lucky to be guided on a twilight tour of the aquarium – a fascinating chance to see what the fish get up to at night! The expertly knowledged and entertaining aquarium staff led a series of workshops and activities: we went on a treasure hunt for coral fish, learned about the complex biology of coral and met Cooper, the resident humphead wrasse, whose species can grow almost the size of a small car in the wild!

 

With beds made and pyjamas on, the children were treated to an ice cream while they watched Finding Dory on a big screen in front of the Eddystone Reef tank. We were then lulled to sleep under the moonlight tank, accompanied by the relaxing sound of water circling through the tanks.

After an early rise, we packed our bags and headed back up to the Waves Café for a buffet breakfast of toast and cereal. Before leaving, the pupils enjoyed a scour of the gift shop, buying a range of thoughtful gifts for themselves and others, which I’m sure will be cherished as fond memories of a wonderful aquarium adventure!

What an incredible experience and a huge effort from pupils, parents and staff alike to make it happen. A massive thank you to the National Marine Aquarium for hosting an unforgettable sleepover!

Year 5 visited by The Beach Guardians

Yesterday our 2 Year 5 classes had some very special visitors. We were joined by the Beach Guardians. Beach Guardian is a community interest company that aim to ‘engage, educate and empower against plastic pollution. Based in Cornwall they perform regular beach cleans and conduct educational work shops and we were lucky to have them bring their workshop to Penpol School.

During the work shop the children had chance to sift through the sand and take a look at many of the plastics which had previously been collected from the beach. They also had chance to look at some of these micro-plastics under the microscope as well as design a poster to encourage people to do what’s right and take their litter home with them.

We also discussed the impact of physical geography as well as the human impact and discussed how currents can take plastic waster all over the globe. They shared with us a bottle that was produced and  Malaysia which washed up at Perranporth.

The aim of the session was to motivate the pupils to continue ti spread the message of our topic teaching this term- improve health and well being of both people and planet.

If you’d like to find out more about their work or how you can get involved please follow this link

https://www.beachguardian.org/

 

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.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.

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.

Local Beekeeper Creates a Buzz in Year 2!

On Tuesday 21st February, Year 2 were visited by Tamsin Harris, who has been a beekeeper since 1998 and currently keeps 109 hives in the local area. Tamsin has extensive knowledge and experience in the craft of beekeeping and also runs her own business, ‘Bee Special’, which produces a wide range of products from her hives, including beeswax candles, furniture polish, candle rolling kits, balms and salves.

Tamsin Harris of Bee Special had a selection of honey and beeswax items for sale.

Tamsin delivered an interactive workshop with the children, in which they learned about the different roles of bees within a colony. This involved the children dressing up as beekeepers, Queen bees, baby bees, worker bees, cleaner bees, guard bees and hive-fanning bees!

. .

The children then explored a virtual hive, layer by layer and frame by frame… The eagle-eyed were able to spot the infamous Queen bee amongst her workers!

To top off the day, pupils had the exciting opportunity to design and make their own honey flapjacks, using a selection of delicious local honeys.

 

 

Bright Lights and Big City Sights

This last week 44 of our Year 6 pupils boarded the coach and headed off on our big city adventure. An early 7 am departure began the 4 day-long residential trip to our nations capital; for many their first trip for a number of years therefore bringing more challenge than usual.

Our first stop for the fun-filled (and I mean filled) week was at the Natural History Museum where the children had chance to explore through time. From the age of the dinosaurs through to present day. This tied very nicely into our current science topic of ‘Evolution and Inheritance’ where we could see first hand the work of Darwin. Before heading off around Piccadilly Circus before dinner at the Rainforest Cafe.

Wednesday meant PM’s questions, we were however not invited so a tour of Westminster Palace and an opportunity to meet our local MP, George Eustice, was on the agenda. Due to Parliament being in session we were unable to enter the House of Commons but we were able to tour the House of Lords; We were also able to walk the footsteps monarchs from Queen Victoria through to Queen Elizebeth II take through the annual ceremony of the state opening. The palace has so much history and security, which the children were equally interested in, but for that reason we were unfortunately not allowed to take photos inside.

We then headed off on our marathon sightseeing walking tour. Parliament Square- Westminster Abbey- St James Park- Buckingham Palace- The Mall- Horseguards Parade- Whitehall- Downing Street- Parliament Square. Again linking to our learning during the Autumn term in our topic of Wartime Britain.

The weather was very warm, hitting highs of 34 degrees on the Friday, so it was a quick whip back to the hotel for a shower and to out on the glad rags for a night in the West End. The Lion King was truly magnificent. Pizza Express- Covent Garden- The Lion King.

The late night previous led to a later and slightly more relaxed start. A walk from our hotel to Wembley Stadium along the famous Wembley Way. We took our boots but they wouldn’t let us in!

It was then off to the Zoo. A late addition to the itinerary after we were unable to book a guided tour of Wembley Stadium – apparently the Harry Styles Tour is more important – and it certainly didn’t disappoint. Fan favourites were the penguins, gorillas (including some familiar ones), big cats, monkeys and goats (I mean, who doesn’t love a petting zoo!)

 

It was then back to the heart of the city and a ride on the London Eye. There was one notable admission in the two pods we had, but she was there is spirit and made it into one photo! It was such a clear and beautiful day with a view for miles and miles!

The London Eye really has that WOW factor and was the highlight for many. Once grounded we headed off for dinner, but not before a stroll around Leicester Square and China Town. Another WOW opportunity, even these little walks between activities and venues have such an impact on the pupils.

That then took us into our final day, another early morning that including breakfast, picking up of sweet papers, packing and picking up of more sweet papers. We then loaded ourselves onboard the bus once more and headed back to Kensington but this time for the Science Museum. Not as many pictures I’m afraid as I let the camera battery on charge in the hotel! We were however again able to link our day to our learning in school with links to both our Autumn term biology as well as our Spring term electricity/communication work.

The children were a credit to themselves, their parents and us as a school. Their manners and attitudes were commented on numerous times by serving staff in shops and restaurants as well as members of the public. Residential trips are a wonderful opportunity to see a different side to children but also provide difficult challenge particularly the heat this week and hustle and bustle of a capital city; but they were wonderful and will, I expect, sleep for days. Lots more photos to come but don’t worry kids (and adults), I didn’t take any of you sleeping on the coach…

Reception Classes Visit the Maritime Museum

Classes 1 and 2 had a great time at the Maritime Museum in Falmouth.

We loved meeting Oceana, the sea sprite who told us a wonderful story of how she now lives in the lost land of Lyonesse. We helped her retell her story using instruments and learnt how she was rescued by merpeople and how Poseidon the God of the sea gave her the gift of being able to breathe underwater.

We looked at some treasures that Oceana had found at the bottom of the ocean which included part of a shipwreck, (possibly a pirate ship), a cannon ball, an old boot and a killer whales tooth.

We also learnt all about the different parts of a boat before making our own.

Next was the exciting boat races where we got the chance to race them on the boating lake.

We had a look around the museum and discovered all kinds of amazing monsters from the deep including a blob fish, angler fish, a fangtooth fish and a cock eyed squid.

We also had time to play on the rescue boats, jet ski, quad bike and life raft. We pretended to rescue each other from the ocean.

Finally we went to the top of the lookout tower and had a look at all the amazing boats in the harbour. We learnt all about sail boats, yachts and catamarans and found out that one of the super yachts in the harbour would need about 15 crew members to run the ship.

Class 1 and 2 would like to say a big thank you to all the staff at the maritime museum. We learnt so much, had lots of fun and had a great day out.

Terrific Trevaskis

Class 1 had a lovely day at Trevaskis farm.

We learnt some names of different fruits and vegetables including some of the more unusual ones such as kumquats, moolis and romanesco cauliflower and learnt how and where they grow.

We found some chickens, the white chickens lay the white eggs, the brown chickens laid the brown eggs – Vinnie

We saw some interesting eggs of varying colours and sizes depending on the colour and breed of chicken or whether a larger bird had laid it, such as goose.

We saw vegetables, cabbages, carrots, cucumbers, they grow in the ground. Cassius

We walked past some gooseberry bushes and studied their buds then onto the kitchen garden where they usually grow the herbs, leeks and potatos.

Broccoli and carrots and onions, the need sunshine and water to grow and love – Henry

Next was into the polly tunnel where we saw some asparagus, rhubarb and sugar snap peas growing. We learnt that the strawberries grow up then down and the raspberries grow up in a curly wurly shape.

Strawberries have seeds on the outsides of them, raspberries have seeds on the inside – Maya

Strawberries have 200 seeds on the outside – Ferne

We met some animals including the South Devonside cattle, some British Lop pigs and piglets, some chickens, a very noisy cockerel, a goose, some sheep, some donkeys and some goats.

Pigs roll in mud to keep warm so they don’t get sunburnt, soil has nutrients which is something that the plants eat  – Jack

Class 1 would like to say a huge thank you to Bev and everyone at Trevaskis farm for showing us around and making our day fun packed and informative.