Year 5

Space Day For Our Budding Year 5 Scientists

24th May 201820th December 2017 by Nic Stanlake

This week the children (and teachers) in Year 5 have celebrated their learning within science this term by taking part in a Science themed Space day. The day was split into three activities including rocket building, space themed art and movie making.

Working in pairs, the children created an iMovie film sharing what they had learnt over the term. This involved collating facts, pictures and pieces of work before organising them into a short two minute film. The movies included their own music, headings and direction.

I loved using the iPads to make movies, I’m definitely downloading the app on my iPad at home! – Emi – Class 12

Whilst some of the children were busy planing and directing their own short movie, the rest were designing and building working rockets, which are set to be launched next week. Using lots of recycled bottles, tubes and pieces of cardboard, the children ‘junk modelled’ rockets which will be powered by water and air pressure.

I tried to make my rocket as streamlined as possible so it had the least amount of air resistance possible, and it worked! – Sam – Class 11

What was particularly pleasing was the effort children put into making their rockets aerodynamic to limit the amount of air resistance, something they had learnt about in their previous science topic on forces.

Due to poor weather, the launching of the children rockets has been postponed until next week where hopefully the conditions will be more favourable.

The third task for our Space Day required the children to ‘Space themselves up’ by adding their photos to a space scene; either in the form of an astronaut on a space walk, or steering a rocket to space. Some examples can be seen in the below.

We rounded off the day with a ‘space walk’ of their very own, down the catwalk as we held Penpol’s first space themed fashion show for the children (and adults) to show off their costumes.

Advent Boxes for Hayle Food Bank

19th December 2017 by Nic Stanlake

Over the last month each class has been preparing an advent box for Christmas. However, these advent boxes are difference compared to those most children have at home because instead of taking a chocolate or treat out like traditional advent calendar, the children have been bringing food into class to add into their class advent boxes.

Across our fourteen classes, children have been generously bringing in lots of different foods to donate to those in need of a helping hand at this busy time of the year.

The boxes have since been collected by the Hayle Food Bank and are ready for redistribution to those who are supported by the great work done by one of our most local charities.

On behalf of the Hayle Food Bank and those who will receive these wonderful donations, we would like to thank parents and families for their very generous and kind support.

Poppy’s Christmas card sent to No.10

18th December 2017 by Nic Stanlake

In November, Poppy H in Year 5, entered the George Eustice MP Christmas Card competition. Many children from schools take part and the winning design becomes George Eustice MP’s Christmas card that he sends to his colleagues, including the Prime Minister Theresa May.

Poppy’s design, although not the winner, was runner up and her Christmas card features on the back of the card sent out. Mr Penhaligon, on behalf of George Eustice MP, came to school to congratulate Poppy and give her a copy of the card, a personal letter and a special present.

Congratulations Poppy! Your design will be sat over the roaring fire on the mantelpiece at No.10 Downing Street.

Merry Christmas!

Hour Of Code 2017: A Hero’s Journey

15th December 2017 by Jacob Woolcock

Penpol School have been taking part in the international Hour Of Code this week. The idea behind the Hour of Code is simple, to get every child around the world spending an hour learning a little bit about computer science and programming. This year there are over 514 million children taking part in the Hour, from all around the world.

Countries where the Hour of Code is taking place this year

The challenge the children have been undertaking this year has been designed by the team behind Minecraft and is called Hero’s Journey. On this challenge you have to write your own code to control the robotic ‘Agent’ who can then help your character complete the twelve levels. You can try it yourself at home here.

Everyone in Key Stage 2 took part in the challenge with some children even going the extra mile to collect the hard-to-reach diamonds on each level.

It was really good fun! I didn’t know that I could control my character Steve. – George, C14

The Hour of Code follows on nicely from the lessons the children are currently having in Computing where they are learning how a computer works and how we, as users, can write simple instructions to control the computers. The children are really getting stuck into this logical way of thinking and really deserved their Minecraft inspired treat this week!

Well done Key Stage 2!

You can find out more about the Hour of Code here.

A Busy Week In The Sporting Calendar

13th December 2017 by Nic Stanlake

After an excellent sporting year, including back to back netball wins and an unbeaten start to the season for our football team, 2017 comes to an end. However, not before a final week of fixtures. 34 children pulled on the shirt last week and represented the school in 3 respective sports, 9 for the first time.

On Tuesday our netball team made their way to Mounts Bay to partake in one of their regular league fixtures where they defeated Mousehole 5-0 to go into Christmas with 3 wins and just the 1 loss.

The football A team continued their scintillating form by defeating St Hilary by 8 goals to 1, meaning they go into Christmas undefeated scoring over 50 goals and conceding only 3. As we look forward to the New Year the small task of the regional finals in Bristol sits not to far away.

Penpol’s B team were unable to follow up their previous victory against Ludgvan going down 3-1 against St Hilary. However, this was an exceptional effort against their A team. The B team has been a real success this year with many of the players playing in only their second ever match after record numbers attending football club.

The 4th fixture of the week took place at Penzance Astro Park where 9 children braved the Cornish winter weather to play in 3 matches against Pensans, Trythall and Bodriggy. For 5 of the 9 they were playing competitive hockey for the first time and did exceptionally well with a 3-0 loss sandwiched by two draws. The next round of fixtures takes place in the New Year.

3D Decorations by Key Stage 2

18th September 20184th December 2017 by Jacob Woolcock

This term every child in Key Stage 2 has made their own 3D printed winter decoration.

To explain how they did it, we’ve created a short video for you to enjoy.

It’s been such a fun process helping each child design and make their decorations and Paul and I have really enjoyed seeing their designs come to life. It’s taken nearly five weeks to print them all and while we were waiting we’ve compiled some statistics from the project. – Mr Woolcock.

If you’re interested, you can read lots more about the project here:

And here they are, all 200 decorations!

School Council Set To Work

14th May 201824th November 2017 by Nic Stanlake

As we enter the second half term of the academic year, the school council have been elected and met for the first time. During this first meeting the children discussed the expectations of a school councillor as well as assigning themselves roles.

Some slight changes to the structure this year mean we welcome fourteen members to the committee including two children representing the infants in Key Stage 1. To aid the effectiveness of the overall council, we have also doubled the representatives from Year 5 and 6, as their experience of school life is greatly valued.

First on the agenda for this academic year was the expectations and vision for this elected group of councillors. After much discussion the children settled on the below vision statement.

Our vision is, for all children at Penpol School to be able to have a voice and contribute towards the continuous improvement of our school community.

The aim of the school council is to involve ALL students in helping to create and implement school policies and procedures that will benefit everyone in the school community. This will address the following areas:

To make changes in our school and school community.
To give pupils the opportunity to let adults know their feelings and opinions about things that affect them.
Pupils should also be able to have a say in decisions and to play an active role in making their school a better place for all.
Serve as the voice for the pupils of Penpol within the school and within the community.

We as a school council will do this by:

Talking to our classmates to gain ideas and suggestions.
Making sure that everyone’s views and opinions are valued.
Having regular meetings to share our ideas.

As part of the School Council all members have been elected into particular roles. This level of responsibility has been trusted to the council members after they were voted in by their peers, as people who are trustworthy, approachable, fair and honest to name but a few of the attributes required.

The following positions have been filled.

Chairperson- Will (Class 14)
Vice-Chair- Ines (Class 14)
Secretary- Juliette (Class 13)
Vice-Secretary- Miranda (Class 12)
Treasurer- Jude (Class 13)
Alerting team- Grace (Class 10), Rocky (Class 9), Thomas (Class 8) & Tess (Class 7)
Voting members (All KS2)
Committee members (All)
News Officers- Lily and Ethan (Both Class 11)
Teacher Support (Non-voting members) Mr Stanlake & Miss Simpson

What’s that noise coming from the Mac Suite?

20th November 2017 by Jacob Woolcock

Since the beginning of November I’ve been asked the same question time and time again: “What’s that noise coming from the Mac Suite, Mr Woolcock?”

It’s a very valid question as there has indeed been a pretty irritating noise coming from the Mac Suite for the last few weeks. The machine making the annoying noise isn’t finished yet though, in fact it’s likely to be making that same, annoying noise for a few more weeks yet.

So what is it doing??

Well, the machine is our Makerbot 3D Printer and it’s currently undertaking the biggest print-run of its life – printing out 200 unique and individual winter decorations which have been designed by the children in Key Stage 2.

Each child in the Juniors has been using an online program called Tinkercad to imagine, design and construct their own decoration, based on any theme they wish.

To get their creative juices flowing I showed each child how they could make a unique and beautiful Snowflake design, which a lot of children actually ended up choosing as their final decoration. However, each child could also design their own decoration with their own choice of colours too.

Since then, myself and Paul have been busy making sure that all 200 decorations get printed. It might seem like a simple task, but in reality it’s far from it! Each 3D model takes around 50 minutes to print and as they all use two colours we also have to stop the printer to change the coloured plastic mid-way through each print. Sometimes it’s a little easier, for example when five children have all chosen a red base and a white top layer, as all five can be printed at once during a morning. But for the most part it’s been a case of setting countless alarms, reminding teachers to pause the printers, scrambling under the table to find the next colour plastic and hoping that the 3D printer doesn’t jam after 4 hours of printing (thus ruining the prints!).

Plenty of late nights and early mornings have been spent coming back into the Mac Suite to set more prints off in the dark, but we’re finally getting towards the end. We’ve now printed over 120 decorations and they are looking INCREDIBLE.

When all the decorations are printed we’ll be giving the children a chance to bring in a small donation of 50p to cover the cost of the plastic filament in return for taking their decoration home to keep forever. The children are already excited about this!

As to what the decorations actually look like? Well, you’ll just have to wait until December to find out. It’d ruin the surprise to share all the photos of them now, but as soon as we’ve got all 200 ready to go we’ll update the Penpol Times so you can see how great they look!

In the meantime, back to the printer for me!

– Mr Woolcock

Year 5 Celebrate Being Different!

17th November 2017 by Nic Stanlake

In line with National Bullying Awareness week, our year 5 children have been paying particular attention to ‘What makes me, me?’

From discussing favourite fruits to individual interests, the children had a very good awareness of individuality and regularly display mutual respect for each others individuality.

On Wednesday, the children conducted a social experiment in school by wearing odd socks without explaining the reasoning behind it.

The enjoyment, laughter and novelty of wearing odd socks was great to see. However, what was more pleasing was watching the children in the playground replying to questions such as, “Why have you got odd socks on?”… With answers like,”…because I have and their different, just like you and me.”

Penpol School- Champions of Cornwall!

17th November 2017 by Nic Stanlake

Our talented football team travelled to St Austell to take part in the England Schools County Cup. After sealing their qualification with a final penalty defeat to Parc Egos only two weeks previous, the boys set their sights on the top prize.

Drawn in a group with Carclaze, St Mewan and St Breock the competition started well for the boys in black. A nervous 1-0 against St Austell based Carclaze allowed the boys to settle and trust their style of football. By the time their second match came about the free flowing Penpol had passed themselves into an early 3-0 lead before finishing the game 5-0 winners against St Brock (Wadebridge). This was followed by another strong performance against St Mewan, again St Austell based, controlling the game at 1-0 a late goal from St Mewan made the final minutes tense. Before an even later winner ensured the Penpol team progressed from the group with maximum points.

Group 2

Penpol	1-0	Carclaze
St Breock	0-5	Penpol
Penpol	2-1	St Mewan

As the competition moved into the knockout stages the boys began to practise their penalties, after defeat in the previous competition robbed them of the trophy. But they were not required in the semi-final as the ‘Boys in Black’ beat local rivals Alverton 4-0 and secured their place in the final.

Semi-Final

Penpol

4-0

Alverton

In the final the boys came up against a familiar team, St Breock, who they had beaten 5-0 earlier that afternoon. The final turned out to be a much more competitive game that its predecessor. However, two very well worked team goals allowed the Penpol School football team to lift the trophy for the first time in many years.

Final

Penpol

2-0

St Breock

Victory is one thing, however it is the manner in which it took place that is really impressive. I couldn’t be prouder! – Mr Stanlake

I’m really happy, it was a great day and a brilliant performance from all the team… and now its time to go home and sleep! – Dylan, Captain – Class 14

The quality of football was exceptional drawing applause from many teachers and spectators. Playing in what is perceived as ‘the right way’ with the ball on the floor and smiles on their faces. Next up- the regional competition in Bristol in the Spring!

What an absolutely amazing bunch of talented, respectful and wonderful young gentlemen. They played like true professionals, trusting each other with every precision pass. Each goal was a collaborative effort and the overall way they behaved showed real strength both as a supportive and connected team. To say I’m proud is an understatement. They are an absolute credit to themselves and the school. Well done! – Mr Doyle

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