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Headteacher
Chris Coyle-Chislett

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

Telephone Number
01736 753472

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

“Penpol pupils are curious, creative and courageous learners. Our school community believes in authenticity as the foundation of deep-rooted learning. Through our rich and relevant curriculum, we nurture community-minded, forward-facing international citizens of the future.”
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Year 5

Reading and Writing is Magic, and Magic is for Everyone

Our annual Reading and Writing Is Magic Festival has been nothing short of spectacular, filled with fun activities, challenges, and a whole lot of creativity! This week, we’ve been celebrating the life-changing power of reading and writing in every corner of the school, inspiring everyone at Penpol to embrace their imagination and explore the magic of words.

The key theme of the week was ‘Reading and writing is magic, and magic is for everyone’ — a message that has resonated throughout every activity. We’ve focused on the idea that every child has the right to…

  • Be creative 
  • Have a planet to read and write on
  • See themselves reflected in a book
  • Have some choice in what they read and write
  • Read and write for the joy of it

We had the privilege of hosting Cornish writer Ben Rowswell, who led energetic and inspiring assemblies for all year groups. His passion for storytelling was contagious, and everyone was excited to tap into their own creativity. You can learn more about Ben and his work here: Cornwall Adventure.

To keep the creative spark alive, every child has been given their own special notebook — a place where they can write freely and express their ideas throughout the year. It’s a space for independent creativity, giving each child the chance to freely write for the joy of it.

At Penpol, we believe reading and writing are truly magical, and this festival has been a perfect reminder of how important and exciting these skills are. Here’s to many more adventures with books, stories, and the endless possibilities of writing!

Penpol’s Got Talent 2024

As is tradition in the last week of term, our talented students from right across Penpol School put on a spectacular show for the whole school to enjoy today.  The incredible students taking part in Penpol’s Got Talent showcased their singing, dancing, gymnastics, tap dancing, yoyo skills and so much more!

Year One

Year Two

Year Three

Year Four

Year Five

Year Six

Penpol win the Mayor’s Cup

Last week the Penpol School boys football team continued their success at the Mayor’s Cup; making it 3 wins in 3 years.

The boys played wonderfully, winning league games against Connor Downs, St Piran’s, Bodriggy and fighting back to draw with St Erth conceding only 2 goals on their way to the final.

They spent most of the first half on the back foot with Bodriggy enjoying most of the possession with Penpol captain, Isaac,  having to come off injured in his last game for the school team. Also missing the game through injury was Alfie, whose team talk at half time turned the tide.

The game however, ended 0-0 and headed to the dreaded penalty shootout and I tell you what, Gareth Southgate and the England team should take note as both teams scored some excellent penalties. Unfortunately for Bodriggy, they went on to miss in sudden death. Up stepped Nicholas, the 3rd Year 6 pupil in the team making his last appearance, to confidently thrash home the winner- cue the celebrations.

Thank you to all at Hayle Football Club for the event and special thanks to Mayor June Lawrenson-Reid for hosting the event. The teams all played brilliantly, especially Bodriggy who would also have been worthy winners.

Purging Pollution with our Scratch Games

Our Year 5’s have been learning all about conservation, pollution and looking after Planet Earth this term.  As part of this exciting project they’ve been designing and coding their own pollution-busting games in Scratch.

Starting with character development, each student used a fun drawing tool called Make 8-Bit Art to create a selection of fish, some polluting objects like carrier bags and drinks cans and their own underwater scene for their background.

After this the coding began in Scratch with the first session focussed around getting the fish to swim across the screen.  The students explored using random generators to change the starting position, size and colour of the fish and how often they appeared. 

We then used this same idea to add our polluting objects, this time falling from the surface to the bottom of the ocean.  Once this was working we decided to add a variable to keep score of how many pieces of pollution were clicked on by the player.

This variable quickly led into another – this time creating a timer to keep track of the length of their game and create an element of competitiveness to see how many points could be earned in a short amount of time.

After these basics were created the children all had different ideas of where their games should go next.  To help them explore, test and create these extra features they all had two weeks to design and code anything they wanted in their game.  We had power-ups that gave extra time,  lives that were lost if you clicked a fish by accident, game over screens, high score boards and so, so many more ideas!  The children really ran with their games and created some absolutely fantastic projects.  You can explore all the games from Class 11 here and those from Class 12 here.

“In my game I have lives which I’m quite impressed about since it looks complicated but actually when you think about it it’s pretty simple.  What I did is when I was trying to figure out the lives I broke it into different stages – first of all doing the variable code to make it work and then if something else wasn’t working because of it I would figure out why and improve it by fixing the bugs.”

“I’ve added a score too, when you’ve finished the game it’ll come up with your score at the end”.

Luke (red-fish-235)

“In my game I’m proud that I could make it work at all!  I’ve never thought of myself as being particularly good at coding but I really pushed myself and I’m so proud that I managed to get it working. I loved exploring the other games from people in my class to get ideas – they were all just so good! I think if we combined everyones ideas into one we could make a game that would go viral!”

Isla (red-fish-227)

“I’m really proud of my game because I didn’t know if I’d be able to manage all of the coding but I did in the end and I’m really happy with what I’ve done!  We’ve spent four weeks doing this coding of the game and it’s already starting to look really good!”

Evangeline (red-fish-251)

“Throughout my time doing Computing at school its really inspired me to push past my limits and start doing it at home too.  Inside of me it’s really sparked an interest for coding!

Inside my game I am most proud of my lives system (which mimic the variable Health) which means that I have five lives which link to five hearts on screen.  Every time Health goes down a heart disappears until there are none left at which point it’s game over.

At home I also added a shop which I’m really happy with.  It’s not finished yet, but it’s basically a way to use the points gathered by collecting rubbish to spend in the shop.  You can buy extra time, plastic per second (which means you get more plastic to fall) and an upgrade which gives you even more boosters.”

Ned (red-fish-220)

Hayle Schools team up for the 2024 Careers Fair!

This week we were joined by staff and students from Bodriggy Academy Hayle Academy for our annual Careers Fair.  But what would a Careers Fair be without some careers?! Well, luckily we had over 40 different professions represented from across Cornwall, giving our students an incredible insight and inspiration into future job opportunities.

Check out this video to see more from this exciting event!

 

The Dragons and the Six Super Stars both come back from Culdrose with Trophies!

Last week our Year 6 and Year 5 Lego Teams (the Six Super Stars and the Dragons respectively) took part in the Cornwall finals of the FIRST Lego League.

With thirty other teams taking part each day it was wonderful to see the event getting bigger and better every year in Cornwall.  But of course more teams also means more competition for our own Penpol pupils!  They completely rose to the occasion though with both groups sharing two excellent presentations and each taking part in three brilliant Robot Games runs.

This is the story of how our students got on at RNAS Culdrose…

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 550 points on offer this year and a score of anything over 200 is considered exceptionally good – especially for primary teams!

The Dragons

Never under-estimate how much pressure it takes to be a Robot Games Engineer.  Not only are you lining up your robot and ensuring your code works perfectly, but you have a whole world of excitement, pressure and expectation building around you.  Those two and a half minutes determine a huge part of your whole teams score in the competition – so it’s a lot of pressure!

Not that you’d know if from watching the Dragons though.  They stayed cool under pressure, re-ran missions that didn’t work quite right and communicated throughout to ensure they got the very best score possible in each game.  And all that hard work paid off on the third and final run as, to much cheering and support from their fellow team members, the robot managed to achieve it’s best run and got a score of 265 points when it mattered the most – catapulting the team to second place on the Robot Games scoreboard.

245

Round 1

230

Round 2

265

Round 3

The Six Super Stars

In the Robot Games you are given three opportunities to get your best score possible – but the Six Super Stars did theirs on the very first run!  To much cheering and excitement their robot pulled off the perfect run, completing all the missions they had planned and scooped up a brilliant score of 265 points.  This took the pressure off the other two runs, allowing the students a chance to soak up the atmosphere and enjoy the moment.  This was a real team success as every member had the opportunity to launch at least one mission in the two and half minute timeframe.

They even engaged in some friendly banter with the the Year 7 team from Hayle Academy, which included some team-members from last years Penpol Pumpkins.  This caught the attention of BBC Spotlight who sent their reporter Johnny Rutherford who featured the team on his report in the evening news!

265

Round 1

225

Round 2

205

Round 3

Part 2: Innovation Project

The Innovation Project is a chance for the children to identify a problem linked to the annual theme (Creativity and Hobbies 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.

The Dragons

For their Innovation Project the Year 5’s conducted a survey all about art and found that 80% of children in school loved to draw.  The only problem was that three quarters of those children often didn’t draw because they didn’t have any good ideas of inspiration of what to create.

The Dragons set about fixing this by creating a Scratch project called the DrawingRandomiser which gives people an idea of what to draw – often with some very funny results!

They shared this project with the judges in a short comedy sketch that they’d written together and gave the judges a chance to try their project for themselves.

For this presentation there was nowhere to hide and the team all had to be really brave in their confidence – something they truly excelled at in the run up to the competition.  On the day they were able to speak confidently and proudly to the judges (in fact one of the organisers told us it was hard for the judges to get a word in because the team were so confidently explaining everything they’d been doing!).

31 points

out of a total of 40

The judges praised their “unique idea to encourage creativity for all people” and thought they “adapted to failing technology very well” when their laptop couldn’t get onto the internet.

The Six Super Stars

The Year 6 Innovation Project also revolved around the theme of art, but with a slightly different focus.

After lots of planning meetings and discussions, the team identified the problem that quite often people struggle to draw because they don’t know how to.  To help with this problem they decided to create a book that students can use to learn how to draw different things with friendly, step-by-step instructions.  They chose popular things to draw such as animals and using iPad they created illustrations and instructions to help even the most beginner artist create some beautiful pictures.

Having made this book the team then created a presentation to share with the judges which featured lots of comedy and some great acting too.  They also had a printed copy of their book to demonstrate what the finished product would look like in the future.

They were full of confidence in the judging room and ensured that each team member had the opportunity to talk and reflect on the journey they’ve been on over the course of the competition.

19 points

out of a total of 40

The judges enjoyed their “unique, acted presentation” and said their “excellent, enthusiastic teamwork” was evident throughout whilst describing and solving their “novel problem”.

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.

The Dragons

When it came time to share their Robot Design presentation the Year 5’s decided on an ‘interview-style’ approach where they took it in turns to ask questions for each other to answer about the robot, coding, mission strategy and testing they’d done.

This fun approach meant the children were able to talk naturally without having to learn a script beforehand and gave them plenty of opportunities to highlight their coding and strategy for their missions.

29 points

out of a total of 40

The judges shared that it was “well presented” and that the team “explained thoroughly what could go wrong and the how to avoid mistakes during the missions.” 

The Six Super Stars

For their Robot Design presentation the Year 6’s created and shared A1 posters which featured their code, photos of the robot and attachments and important information about their robot.  This meant they were able to clearly articulate the journey they’d been on with their coding, including the decision making strategy behind changing their robot design from the standard ‘Advanced Driving Base’ to a more unusual ‘Coop Bot‘ which they found after doing lots of online research into effective robot designs. 

They took this starting point and adapted the robot for their own mission strategy by creating an assortment of interesting attachments to help them earn points.

30 points

out of a total of 40

The judges said their presentations were “novel, funny and charming” as well as their “detailed explanation of design, issues and solutions”.

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.

The Dragons

As a team, the Dragons really embodied their Core Values over the course of the day.  They supported each other throughout, from cheering during the Robot Games matches to supporting each other in the presentations if they stumbled on any lines.

They demonstrated the impact they’ve had through their project and shared all the discoveries they’d made as they learnt to build and code their Lego robot.

20 points

out of a total of 24

The judges were really impressed with how the team “supported each other and the most confident always encouraged the least confident” and said that “when asked about teamwork they all discussed how they organised as a team and how the team has supported each other learning new skills”.

The Six Super Stars

The Six Super Stars did a fantastic job sharing their Core Values during the competition – from supporting each other and exploring the STEM exhibitors together to being kind and courteous to adults and other teams. 

The judges picked up on their team spirit and gave them a rare Exceeding score of 4 points for both their Teamwork and Fun.  For every other score they got a 3 which shows that Discovery, Innovation, Impact and Inclusion were “consistently observed across the team“.

20 points

out of a total of 24

The judges praised their “excellent teamwork”, the fact they “worked out improvements and simplified their designs” and the fact that during their presentation there were “great answers by all members to questions”.

The Final Scores

As you can see from each of the four areas above, both teams did really well and embraced each and every aspect of the competition. I’m thrilled to say that they both returned to Penpol with a trophy to recognise their hard word.

Year 5 Team

The Dragons came second overall in the Robot Performance category with a score of 265 points, as well as taking home the Breakthrough Award which "celebrates a team that made significant progress in their confidence and capability in both the Robot Game and Innovation Project and are a shining example of excellent Core Values."

Year 6 Team

The Six Super Stars came top of the charts in the Robot Games section, beating over 30 other teams with their incredible score of 265 points.

Because of this excellent score they take home the Robot Performance Trophy.

Penpol Celebrates Languages Day 2023!

On Wednesday 4th October, Penpol School celebrated European Day of Languages for its 6th time. We are so fortunate to have so many languages being spoken as either a first or second language by our students.  For this reason, European Day of Languages is a prime opportunity to shine a light on each of these languages which represents our diverse learning community here at Penpol.

Back by popular demand, the French café was a favourite amongst students and staff. Like last year, KS2 students were invited to sample a French breakfast in Class 9 with Mr Emery and his year 4 group. Each class enjoyed singing in French and were then able to order from KS2 students, learning the basics such as ‘Bonjour’, ‘s’il vous plaît’ and ‘merci.’ KS2 students then put their French linguistic skills to the test to then host their KS1 reading buddies in their classroom.

Finally, at the end of the day, Mrs Curnow and Mrs Best had KS1 enthralled with a reading of ‘Goolan’ to celebrate the Cornish language.  In addition, Mrs Best and Mr Jones serenaded the children with songs featuring Welsh, Cornish and French.  Mr Jones and Mr Emery led a European singalong in KS2, which culminated in a school record of 8 languages being sung in one song. This rounded off a fantastic day which marked an important day in the school calendar.

A huge ‘Meur ras’, ‘diolch yn fawr,’ ‘merci,’ ‘gracias,’ ‘dzien dobry,’ aciu’ and ‘obrigado’ to all of those who helped to make the day a huge success.  

Healthy Choices on the Menu at Penpol

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.

 

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/

 

Year 5 Residential at the Mount Batten Center

Last week the majority of Year 5 headed on the Train to Plymouth for a three day residential; not content with the one mode of transport we then headed across Plymouth Sound on a ferry. The Mount Batten Centre is a Water-sports centre based right on the water front. Here we spent the week orienteering, bell boating, giant SUPing, climbing and abseiling.

Rafting

The children set off in their white water rafts on to the calm waters of Plymouth Sound where they had to work together in teams  to paddle and steer around the buoys to race each other in a friendly race. They then had the opportunity to jump in, a real challenge for some but one in which the children accepted.

Climbing

We had the opportunity to take advantage of the onsite climbing and bouldering wall. Again an activity that required strength, flexibility and teamwork as the children were responsible for ‘spotting’ and belaying their friends and class mates.

Bell Boating

The bell boating was quite leisurely. That was until we payed a game where you had to drop your paddle between the two boats and crawl to the back to catch it before we paddled off without it!

Abseiling

It was on the abseiling and ladder that many children felt uncomfortable but many a fear was conquered. The still images of the ladder do not show how violently it wobbles as you try to climb it! The sheer nature of the ladder meant that every run the children climbed was a huge step in conquering the fear of heights some possess. The abseiling was not only fun and exciting but provided the opportunity to look over over the sound to Barbican and beyond. The abseiling was the firm fan favourite amongst the children.

SUP

The giant stand up paddle boards should be renamed to ‘ the giant sit on paddle boards’ as standing and balancing with 7 to 8 other people was neigh on impossible but boy did the children give it go! The paddle boards again required a huge amount of team work as well are core strength.

Beach Clean

One evening we went for a wander and stumbled upon a small beach; here the children decided to perform a beach clean. This was particularly pleasing as in class we have been studying the topic of conservation and the dangers of plastic pollution. We found lots of different things which we disposed of safely as well as some shells and sea glass to bring home with us.

Orienteering

After the extensive work we have undertaken learning how to orienteer at school, this was a walk in/near the park. The children needed to use their map reading skills to find some clues. These clues were then work different amounts of ‘Mount Batten Money’ which the children exchanged for different materials to protect and safely bring an egg down to land from the balcony- here we had differing levels of success.

School residential are a wonderful way for the children to show a slightly different, more relaxed side to themselves. The provide a wonderful opportunity to spend a night or two away from family, some for the first time and try lots of different things they would maybe never have done before. Residentials are brilliant and this one was no different.