Year 6

Penpol Pupils extend Be Internet Legends with their own ideas

11th February 202022nd April 2019 by Jacob Woolcock

This half term we’ve been revisiting our learning on E-Safety and reminding ourselves how to stay safe online using the five sections of the Google Be Internet Legends scheme. We’ve dived into each of these five areas, had some fascinating and honest conversations and we’ve managed to ensure we all know how to stay safe when using the internet.

But towards the end of the sessions lots of children started asking about other elements of Online Safety – areas which perhaps weren’t covered in the Google program. This got us thinking…

“What would we add to Be Internet Legends if we were Google?”

We explored this question and quickly realised that we could enhance the Be Internet Legends program by adding even more valuable and important information of our own. Each child made a plan of what they’d like to include along with an idea for the Inter-Naughty (baddie!) who would play against the character of Legend in the game.

Using Keynote and the shapes tool, the pupils then created their own Inter-Naughty characters using triangles and clever colour shading to try to mimic the unique style of the other characters.

With an idea and a fabulous character in hand, the children then set about using a Keynote template to create their own poster, designed to fit into the current set of five made by Google. They considered colours, key words, messages and style and ended up creating these absolutely stunning posters which wouldn’t look out of place next to the real things.

It’s been a really enjoyable project learning about being safe online this half term, made even more so by the children taking their imagination and creativity to new heights by making their own posters and lessons for others. Many even designed the level of the Interland game along with sketches of the island itself.

It’s been great to see so many brilliant ideas and terrifying Inter-Naughty characters and these new posters will remain on display in the Mac Suite for the whole school to see.

Penpol Pupil auditions for the Royal Shakespeare Company

11th February 20209th April 2019 by Jacob Woolcock

A couple of weeks ago one of our Year 6’s went up to London to audition for the lead role of ‘Dennis’ in the new stage adaptation of ‘The Boy in the Dress’. The auditions were with the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company, held at Toynbee Studios.

After a tense fifteen minute wait to be called in, Ethan performed his audition piece and he felt it went really well.

“When I sang ‘We Are The Champions’ and everyone clapped for me I felt really proud of myself because I’d practiced for so long on it and before going in I had so many nerves, so it really bought my mood up when I got to sing.”

Ethan thinks that about 8 other people were at the audition, but excitingly he was chosen for a call back!

We’re all keeping our fingers crossed for you Ethan.

Super Surf Life Saving Results for 6 Star

7th May 201927th March 2019 by Nic Stanlake

Last weekend Emi, Class 13, travelled to Cardiff for the National Nipper Surf Life Saving Championships. Emi competes for Hayle Surf Life Saving Club, where she has been a member since the age of 8, alongside a number of other pupils at Penpol.

Emi competed in 6 events all within the Under 11 category achieving brilliant results and personal bests along the way. In her favourite event, the board race, Emi, smashed 4 seconds off her personal best finishing 10th place out 97 participants! Placing her in the top ten nationally for her age group; an amazing achievement.

Emi also competed in: the board relay where she secured a 7th place finish out of 50; the board rescue, 19th out of 50; tube rescue, 21st out 50; flipper, 32nd out of 50; medley relay, finishing 30th!

Really well done Emi, a fantastic achievement!

More information and full results from Hayle Surf Life Saving Club can be found at this linked page- http://hayleslsc.co.uk

Announcing Music in the Marquee 2019

11th February 202019th March 2019 by Jacob Woolcock

The last four years have seen sell out performances at our annual Music In The Marquee concerts from Little Chix, Yellow and last year’s return performer Bradley Johnson.

I’m delighted to say that this summer we will be hosting our fifth concert in the marquee, on Saturday 20th July 2019. Each year we ask the children which music they are enjoying and what sort of act they’d like to see play in our marquee at the end of the Summer term. This year one name kept coming up in each class we spoke to and that was the one and only Ariana Grande.

So, with great excitement, I’d love to introduce you to The Ariana Grande Experience performed by the incredibly talented singer Leanne Kyte. Leanne is a singer/dancer from North London who studied musical theatre for two years in California. Since coming back to the UK she’s been on tours around the country, has performed in the US and Canada and has received rave reviews for both her singing and dancing.

Leanne will be playing two sets of live music on the night, the first being a hit-filled and family-friendly Ariana Grande tribute set including tunes both new and old including ‘Problem’, ‘No Tears Left to Cry’, ‘Into You’ and ‘One Last Time’, followed by a later set which will include other popular covers. As always with Music in the Marquee her two sets will be accompanied by local support acts to round off the whole evening’s entertainment. We’re delighted to confirm that this years support acts will include a return for the fantastic DJ Flo Selecta, a debut performance from acoustic singer Hannigan and also an incredibly exciting set from the local band Saltwater Cure – featuring our very own Mr Emery!

Just like in previous years the event will raise money for the Penpol Friends Association and will also feature a fully licensed bar, BBQ, soft drinks, and food for everyone to enjoy. I hope you’ll agree that Music in the Marquee 2019 is already shaping up to be a phenomenal night of entertainment.

We are opening this event to the whole community, but want to give our Penpol parents the first chance to get tickets. For this reason we’re offering you a special pre-sale of tickets, starting TODAY! Tickets are priced at £9 for adults and £6 for children. Please note that all children must be accompanied by an adult.

Please return this slip and money to the office to secure your tickets. Music in the Marquee has been a sell out for the past four years and tickets will be on a first come first served basis.

Cooking with Chartwells an enjoyable treat for Year 5 and 6!

12th March 201912th March 2019 by Mark Pollard

Last week, Year 5 and Year 6 were fortunate enough to have a cooking masterclass with Karen from Chartwells. After talking about cuisines and dinners from around the world and different types of foods it was over to the children to create some delicious, healthy food of their own, in the form of rainbow wraps.

They’re called rainbow wraps because there are lots of different coloured vegetables inside it to give it colour – Lily

Thanks to Karen for coming in, who will now be doing more cooking with the other classes in the school in the coming weeks.

How can we Recognise Fake News?

11th February 20208th March 2019 by Penpol School

‘Fake news’ is a huge topic at the moment and believable but untrue content online has become more and more commonplace. Luckily, this week in our E-Safety lessons we are learning all about being Internet Alert, which means recognising what is real and what is fake, as well as being able to develop strategies to keep ourselves safe from false and misleading information.

To start our sessions the children were issued a research task, to learn as much information as they possibly could about the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. If you haven’t heard of this rare animal then I wouldn’t be surprised, especially as it’s completely made up. In a sneaky twist, the children were actually researching from a fake website, trying to learn how some octopuses can live in trees when the children all know that they actually live in the sea.

This proved an excellent introduction to the fact that, sadly, not everything you read online is true. This particular website was made many years ago as a way of teaching children this very lesson.

The children then explored the concept of mis-information and fake news further, discussing how photographs and even videos can be misleading and not always what they appear to be. We discussed how this related to the idea of phishing too, which we learnt all about in our E-Safety lessons last year.

"I thought the tree octopus was very convincing because all of the facts sounded pretty real and the picture looked very convincing. It showed me that not everything that looks convincing is actually real."

Zara, Year 6

The children have once again shown themselves to be very aware of how to stay safe online and also able to hold sensible and mature conversations with their peers about how they can help each other to protect themselves online.

"I learnt that not everything that we see online is real. And that we should always watch out for scams and fakes."

Ariana, Year 5

We finished the sessions this week with a game of Reality River on Interland as a way to recap our learning and to ensure we are all making the right choices when it comes to understanding what is real and what is fake.

What is our Online Persona?

11th February 20201st March 2019 by Jacob Woolcock

We are spending this half term focusing on the internet and how we can keep ourselves safe whilst online. Over the next six weeks we’ll be looking at online safety from a variety of different aspects, starting with looking at the information we choose to share online.

We’re basing our work on the Be Internet Legends project from Google, which builds on the lessons the children had last year.

To begin with we are looking at our ‘Online Persona’. This is how you appear online to other people, based on the information we have chosen to share. We’ve talked about the risks of over sharing our personal data and also the way other people might see what we’ve shared and draw conclusions about us.

This learning has been very thought provoking for the children and has seen us address lots of really interesting topics in whole-class discussions. A particularly interesting activity has been to ‘create a persona’ for a made up person, by giving them loads of personal information and then choosing what should and shouldn’t be shared online with the world.

Below are several of the characters that have been created this week, along with lots and lots of personal information. This information could range from general facts like their favourite colour right down to specific details like their date of birth and their phone password.

The children have then used the highlighter tool to mark green any information which they would feel safe sharing online with the world, or red for any information which they think should stay private. We talked about how information can be changed from red to green later on, but can never be changed back from green to red as when it exists on the internet, it can never really be deleted.

“You should never share really personal information online, even with just your friends. Always tell a responsible adult at home if somebody is asking for personal information that you don’t want to share.” – Zara

“I have learnt that sometimes when you post something other people can get sad or upset if I’m not careful. So in the future if there is a photo I want to share I will go to the people in it and make sure they are all right with me sharing it.” – Ethan

“I have learnt about keeping myself safe on the internet and learnt to always tell your parents or teachers or family about it if something silly comes up on Youtube.” – Poppy

Super Sixes Announced!

17th January 201917th January 2019 by Nic Stanlake

The long awaited announcement of this year’s first crop of ‘Super Six’ pupils took place this week with the awarding of 5 ties and certificates. Becoming a ‘Super Six’ is not simply about academic success but more so recognising excellent role models that demonstrate the shared values and ethos of the school.

Our five pupils have been presented with a certificate signed by all members of teaching staff as well as the Year 6 team. This means that the children’s awarding of the certificate must be agreed by all, a wonderful achievement and one to be very proud of. The children have also signed a contract to show that they now fully understand the responsibilities for their new role.

These particular children share a tremendous work ethic and constant drive to succeed and improve. Through both homework and classwork they have shown immense effort and diligence and we are wholly confident they will continue to set an excellent example for children at Penpol School as they wear their new ties with pride.

We look forward to seeing these children continue to develop and flourish at Penpol as well as looking forward to the opportunity to present more awards to deserving children. For any Years 6 wishing to find out what they need to do, they need look no further than the attached contract.

Below are some photos with some very proud parents who we were glad could join us for the assembly on Christmas jumper Day!

Year 6 Evacuated Back To WW2

16th January 201918th December 2018 by Nic Stanlake

Nearly eighty years after thousands of children and young vulnerable adults were evacuated from cities across the country during WW2, our Year 6 children had a go themselves. To celebrate the end of our ‘Wartime Britain’ topic the children (and adults) dressed themselves in period clothing and lived the life pf an evacuee for the day.

After being collected from the gate by a member of the Home Guard, a U.S. Naval officer and our very own Land Girls they waved a teary goodbye to their parents before being subjected to a roll call and squeezing into a cramped school hall; much like the evacuees of 1939 would have been when they departed the trains.

I really enjoyed WW2 day, I loved making the food. It was great to have the opportunity to dress up in clothes that I borrowed from my Granddad! Throughout the day we had to hide under the tables when the air-raid siren went off, It was especially funny when the parents came in and had no idea what to do! – Jamie, Class 13

It was here the children had chance to act in character and meet their fellow evacuees, discussing the contents of their suitcases as well as their preferred destination. It was in the hall where the children also had to opportunity to look at some genuine WW2 artefacts including a British Army parachute, an army helmet worn during the Battle of Arnem and some U.S. Navy standard issue items.

Once the children had been sorted in the classes for the evacuation they had the opportunity to write a postcard home to their loved ones. The purpose of this was to reassure their loved ones of their safe arrival in the countryside.

For the remainder of the day the evacuees had the opportunity to create 2 pieces of artwork; one Blitz searchlight themed.

The children also tried their hands at some ration inspired baking. using a genuine ration recipe book the children worked under close supervision from the Land Girls to make bread and butter pudding. A dish very popular during the war as it used up many left over ingredients but also those readily available during the tough time.

Evacuee day was so much fun, my favourite part was making the origami spitfire! Closely followed by baking the bread and butter pudding. It gave us an insight into how people survived with rationing during the war- Abi, Class 14

At the close of the day the children were collected by their parents, their evacuation much shorter than those in the war. Many parents came into class to sample some of their cooking but also sit and enjoy their child’s work from the last term, with the majority of literacy and topic being based heavily

These day’s are brilliant, it’s great to see so many of the children and adults getting involved. It’s lovely to come in and look through my child’s work in the classroom as its not something I often get the opportunity to do. Thank you!- Parent

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

4th February 201917th December 2018 by Jacob Woolcock

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

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

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

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

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