Year 6

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

26th March 202420th March 2024 by Jacob Woolcock

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.

Conscription! Year 6 are heading to the front!

10th January 2024 by Nic Stanlake

As we have in previous few years, Year 6 headed to Bodmin Keep to explore the Military Museum. Bodmin Keep is the historical home of the DCLI; the barracks for which many of our ancestors signed up in and trained at as members of the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry.

To help immerse ourselves in to the lives of young soldiers we took part in two workshops. One, where we were able to explore their replica trench where we discussed the dismal living conditions and even had a go at heading ‘over the top’ ourselves. During the second workshop, we had the opportunity to look at ‘Somme’ letters that were written by soldiers in 1914 from the muddy battlefields on France. Here we really felt the emotion connected with these letters and the sensitivity with which we were going to need to write our own. We then had the chance to write pen some ideas to take back to school with us for our very own letters.

During our guided tour we learnt all about how the keep was used to train and house recruits who later went onto fight in France and Belgium as part of the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry before housing visiting G.I Joes in the lead up to the D-Day landings in 1944.

The building is rich with British Military history and a plethora of artefacts and replicas to explore and discuss including; Mary tins, a present from Princess Mary to serving soldiers in 1914; genuine WW1 clothing, helmets and boots; food stuffs from the time of WW1, including a VERY hard tac biscuit; and soldiers personal possessions, such as boot polish, button polishers and shaving kits. A new addition to the museum is a exhibit on the United Nations and the roll the British Forces play in peacetime; helping maintain the peace across the world and well as helping with natural disasters.

We had a truly awe-inspiring day where many of our current day to day difficulties were put into persecutive. We left feeling very grateful to live in the world in which we do and will be taking our first hand experience of the trench back to school with us and using it to help write our very own letters from the Somme.

Codeblocks at Christmas

11th January 202418th December 2023 by Jacob Woolcock

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

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

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

Year 6

Isaac

Class: 14

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

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

Verity

Class: 14

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

Hana

Class: 14

Rosie

Class 13

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

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

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

Jowan

Class: 13

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

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

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

Lola

Class: 13

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

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

Year 6 Gallery

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

Year 3

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

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

Penpol Celebrates Languages Day 2023!

15th October 2023 by Jack Emery

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 Penol

15th October 202315th October 2023 by Nic Stanlake

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.

Surf’s up with Y5/6 Surf Club

19th July 202319th July 2023 by Jono Peck

Surf’s up – During June and July, the Y5/6 went surfing with Hayle based surf school Shore Surf to learn to surf or improve surfing skills and also learn about key water safety messages and what to do if they find themselves in difficulty.

The first sessions had small surf due to glorious weather during June. Nevertheless, all were up and riding and learning key paddling and board manoeuvring skills.

” It was a really good experience and the coaches were really kind to us. ” – Felix.

” It was lots of fun and I caught one of the best waves I have ever caught!” – Ernie

The last two sessions however, we certainly had waves and were tested with over head high conditions. Some were even out back with an instructor but all were up and surfing and enjoying waves at last!

” It was very fun. I caught some good waves.” – Bruce.

” This was my first time surfing and I can now stand up!” – Flo.

Our thanks go to Shore Surf for all the sessions.

A Very Special Visit from Biffa

21st July 202316th July 2023 by Jacob Woolcock

Last week we had a very special visit from Biffa and their brand new Food Waste Recycling Truck.

Okay, you might be asking what’s so special about that? Well the Penpol Pumpkins have been spreading the word about the upcoming Cornwall Council Food Waste Collection all year as part of their award-winning FIRST LEGO League Innovation Project and as a special reward for all their hard work they’re actually the first people outside of Biffa to ever see this brand new vehicle in real life!

Not only that, but they also got to see the truck in action and even sit in the cab and use the horn! They learnt lots about the vehicle and asked plenty of interesting questions about the upcoming Food Waste collection.

After a tour of the truck the Pumpkins took great pride in sharing their Innovation Project Presentation with the team from Biffa in a real ‘full-circle’ moment. Nearly 10 months after originally coming up with the idea of promoting Food Waste Recycling they were able to share their learnings in front of the actual vehicle that will be used and with part of the team responsible for rolling it out right across Cornwall – amazing!

But Biffa were also here for another reason…

Thanks to an incredibly generous donation from the company, the Penpol Pumpkins have been able to buy 10 LEGO Robotics Kits to donate to other schools to enable them to take part in FIRST LEGO League too! These sets, offered as a gift from the Penpol Pumpkins and Biffa, will have a huge impact on hundreds of children in Cornwall who would not otherwise have been able to experience the powerful STEM learning experiences that this competition has to offer.

Talk about having a lasting legacy in Cornwall! Well done Pumpkins – and thank you Biffa!

Penpol Win the Treble!

24th June 2023 by Nic Stanlake

The Penpol School Boys Football team have followed up their successes in the Leading Edge Academy Trust Cup and The Penwith Schools District Cup with victory in the Hayle Mayor’s Cup.

After competing with local Hayle Schools the team made up on only Year 6 pupils sat a top the table and headed to the final. On their way to the final they were in red got form scoring over 20 goals in 5 games and conceding none.

They met local rivals Bodirggy again in the final after defeating them 1-0 in the round robin. The score was slightly different this time round with them wrapping the trophy up in style with an 8-0 victory. The final victory ensured they have been undefeated all season whilst more impressively not conceding a goal.

Their quality of their play was receiving applause and congratulations from spectating parents, teachers and players from other schools which is testament to the way they have gone about their football this year.

Hopefully their red hot form turns ice cold when they face off against the Penpol Staff in two weeks time.

Thank you to the Hayle Mayor and all at Hayle FC for an excellent afternoon.

Keep Dancing! – Danceathon 2023

5th May 20234th May 2023 by Jono Peck

On Thursday 2oth April, the Penpol School community came together for an afternoon of dancing to raise funds for Shelterbox. This all began following the devastating earthquakes in Southern Turkey and Northern Syria in February this year. Our Year 6, as well as many of us, were upset by the event and wondered what we could to to help those families in need. We knew that Shelterbox, a Cornish based charity, was directly helping those families in these areas by providing emergency shelter and so decided that this was the perfect charity in which to raise funds for – https://shelterbox.org/turkey-earthquake/

Led by Y6, on a perfect sunny afternoon, all pupils across school danced in the style of Wake and Shake for 30 minutes non-stop on the KS1 and KS2 playgrounds. Parents, Guardians, family members and friends, as well as Penpol Staff, also joined in to make it a real community event. It was fantastic to see everybody smiling, dancing and fully embracing the Danceathon. To date, the school community has raised over £1200 for Shelterbox – an outstanding effort! So many of you donated towards this total but a special shout out must go to: Billy (£34); Zach (£40); Ivy (£30); Bobby (£55); Betty (£100); Sully (£31); Sabina (£40); Myla (£90) and Evie (£40) who raised great amounts! Many thanks also goes to Mrs Turner and Mrs Loughlin who led the dances all afternoon!

Kate from Shelterbox then attended Penpol on Friday 21^st April and hosted assemblies for the children to learn about the work they do and where the money will go. They were extremely grateful for the hard work and effort from us all and the money raised (£600 at that point). Kate showed us a message from Dave from Shelterbox who had been in Turkey during the crisis thanking Penpol for our efforts. The money we have raised will support families by helping them with shelter and an opportunity to rebuild their lives. Well done Penpol! Keep dancing!

Penpol Pumpkins awarded Best Innovation Project in Great Britain!

26th April 202326th April 2023 by Jacob Woolcock

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.

PENPOL PUPILS COMPETE AT THE NATIONAL FINALS OF THE FIRST LEGO LEAGUE

March 22, 2022

Read this Penpol Times Story

PENPOL COMPETE AT RNAS CULDROSE IN THE FIRST LEGO LEAGUE

March 18, 2023

Read this Penpol Times Story

“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 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 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!

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.

“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.

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Ernie

Judges Feedback for the Robot Games

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

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

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

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

Identify

Mission | Building

4 Design

Workplan | Innovation

2

4 Create

Functionality | Model

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.”

“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.”

“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.

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!

“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 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!!

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!

Categories Computing, DT, Science, The Penpol Times, Year 6

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Year 5 visited by The Beach Guardians

“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.”

Part 1: Robot Games

The Dragons

245

Round 1

230

Round 2

265

Round 3

The Six Super Stars

265

Round 1

225

Round 2

205

Round 3

Part 2: Innovation Project

The Dragons

31 points

out of a total of 40

The Six Super Stars

19 points

out of a total of 40

Part 3: Robot Design Presentation

The Dragons

29 points

out of a total of 40

The Six Super Stars

30 points

out of a total of 40

Part 4: Core Values

The Dragons

20 points

out of a total of 24

The Six Super Stars

20 points

out of a total of 24

The Final Scores

Year 5 Team

Year 6 Team

Year 6

Isaac

Class: 14

Verity

Class: 14

Hana

Class: 14

Rosie

Class 13

Jowan

Class: 13

Lola

Class: 13

Year 6 Gallery

Year 3

PENPOL PUPILS COMPETE AT THE NATIONAL FINALS OF THE FIRST LEGO LEAGUE

March 22, 2022

Read this Penpol Times Story

PENPOL COMPETE AT RNAS CULDROSE IN THE FIRST LEGO LEAGUE

March 18, 2023

Read this Penpol Times Story

Caio

Jenna

230

Points in Round 1

200

Points in Round 2

210

Points in Round 3

Ethan

Beginning

Developing

Accomplished

Exceeding

Felix

Ernie

Judges Feedback for the Robot Games

Identify