We are a group of Year 6 students from Penpol School in Cornwall, UK who are taking part in the FIRST LEGO League for the second and final time. As Year 6’s we’ll soon be leaving Penpol and going our separate ways to Secondary School.
Our journey started with spending our lunchtimes in the Mac Suite, working hard on designing our robot, researching food waste and recycling across the county for our project and developing our ideas to present our findings. Today we’re thrilled to discover that all our hard work has paid off and that we’ve been invited to Massachusetts, USA to represent Great Britain in an International Competition!
Our teacher, Mr Woolcock, asked us to read some lines for a video – but we didn’t realise what we’d be saying until they came up on the screen. These are our genuine reactions to discovering that we’ve been invited to America!
This website will tell you all about our journey so far, as well as sharing some way that you can help support us as we travel across the Atlantic to take our message of recycling Food Waste to America!
Two years ago we started out as two separate teams, the Creative Coders and the LEGO Leaders. That year we took part in the Cargo Connect season challenge where we competed virtually in our Regional Competition and then attended the National Final in Harrogate. That experience galvanised our passion for FIRST LEGO League and from the moment we got back to school we were already thinking about taking part again next year!
When September came around and the new season, Superpowered, was announced we knew we had to combine forces into one super-team and try to get back to the National Final again. The Penpol Pumpkins were born. We won the Champions Award at our Regional Final and before we knew it we were back in Harrogate. Incredibly though, our journey hasn’t ended yet! We came first in the Innovation Project (in the whole country!) and then finished in second place overall. This means we get to fulfill our wildest dream – actually going to an international event with our team.
February 2022
Cornish Regional Final
Virtual
Despite not leaving Penpol, we were able to take part virtually against 24 other schools in Cornwall. The judges loved our energy, enthusiasm and songs.
Winning the Champions Award meant we got to automatically advance to the National Finals in Harrogate.
Robot Performance
1st Place
Champions Award
1st Place
March 2022
England + Wales Final
Harrogate
This was our first proper event as part of the FIRST LEGO League and it opened our eyes to just what's possible and just how exciting the competition is.
Whilst we didn't come away with an award, we came back more inspired, determined and enthusiastic than ever!
February 2023
Cornish Regional Final
RNAS Culdrose
Getting to take part in our Regional Final in real life (rather than virtually like last year) was an awesome experience in itself.
But winning the Champions Award really was the icing on the cake as that meant we got to go back to Harrogate!
Champions Award
1st Place
April 2023
Great British Final
Harrogate
We represented Cornwall at the Great British Finals and came away with the top award for our Innovation Project and came Second in the competition overall!
This achievement is made even more impressive as we were up against primary and secondary schools.
Innovation Project
1st Place
Champions Award
2nd Place
June 2023
International Open
Massachusetts, USA
We can't wait to head to Worcester, Massachusetts in June to take part against 96 of the best teams in the whole world!
Regardless of the outcome, we know the experience alone will be absolutely life-changing.
Yeah, we get this a lot! Our (now award winning) Innovation Project was inspired by the amount of pumpkins that are left to go to waste after Halloween each year. This got us thinking about Food Waste in general and how bad it was that 35% of bin bags in Cornwall contained food waste.
Did you know that when food decomposes in landfill it released tons of Methane gas into the atmosphere? That greenhouse gas is 25x worse than Carbon Dioxide. It doesn’t have to be like this though, that same Methane can be harnessed and used as a clean, renewable energy just by recycling our old food waste!
Anyway, you don’t want to read tons of writing when you can just watch our presentation, right? Look – it’s just there ➡️
You’re right! We’ve designed, built and adapted a robot made out of LEGO to take part in a series of challenges on a large game board. Not only that, we’ve written complex code to ensure the missions are completely successfully without having to interrupt the robot while it’s moving!
This requires a huge amount of problem solving and logical thinking – as well as figuring out some clever tricks to try and score more points on the board! Our highest score we’ve managed to get in school is 295 out of 410, but we haven’t quite been able to replicate that at a competition event yet. We’re practicing hard and hope to reach that goal when we get to America!
Our story has been shared quite a lot in the past few days, with the whole community rallying around us and offering support. You can explore some of our recent media appearances here:
With thanks to Press Association, our story has now been picked up by media outlets across the country! Here are links to just some of them below:
"Cornwall students fundraising for ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ US Lego competition trip"
Ada, James and Ethan were interviewed (live on air!) by Julie Skentelbery to hear how their Food Waste project has earned them a place in America, as well as discussing what going to America would mean to these students.
Mr Woolcock spoke to Jamie Reed during the breakfast show to share how proud he was of the students and everything they've achieved.
- Breakfast with Jamie Reed 00:00
PirateFM have been kindly sharing our story regularly on air, encouraging people to support us through our GoFundMe page.
- Penpol on Pirate FM 00:00
Spotlight came to visit us at Penpol to learn about our Food Waste project and how we're fundraising to get to America.
Basically, we need money. Lots of money.
Getting to America is going to be a very expensive trip and as a school it isn’t something we can do by ourselves. We don’t have a final price yet, but our teacher Mr Woolcock thinks it could be around the £25,000 mark to get all ten of us and our teachers to the competition and back – which would include flights, travel to and from airports, hotels, competition entry fees, food etc.
In order to raise the funds we need there are three different options and even if you aren’t able to support us financially, we hope you’ll be able to support us by sharing our story with others.
Current Progress
last updated on
Wednesday 24th May
Donate to the Pumpkins
Every donation received is gratefully received and will help us realise our dream of competing against the very best teams in the world in June.
We are pleased to accept donations through GoFundMe, available below.
Share the Pumpkin Story
Everybody can help the Pumpkins, just by sharing this page! Does your uncle work in a company who might like to sponsor us? Perhaps your best friend might be able to donate a few pounds?
Sharing this page with people you know could lead to incredible things - we'd be so grateful if you helped us spread the word.
Sponsor the Pumpkins
We will be proudly wearing our Pumpkin T-Shirts for the whole competition - and wouldn't it be cool if your company's logo was on the back?
We are offering space on our t-shirts to companies of all sizes, with sponsorships of £250 and above securing your logo on our shirts!
In exchange for your sponsorship you will receive the following:
Gold Sponsor: £5,000 +
- Your company logo on the second row of our t-shirts
- An invitation to chat with the team and watch their presentation
- A personalised thank you video after the Competition to share on Social Media
- An album of photos of the team in America which you will be able to share
- A mention in any website updates we share, thanking you for your sponsorship
- Our eternal gratitude!
Silver Sponsor: £1,000 +
- Your company logo on the third row of our t-shirts
- An invitation to chat with the team and watch their presentation
- A personalised thank you video after the Competition to share on Social Media
- An album of photos of the team in America which you will be able to share
- A mention in any website updates we share, thanking you for your sponsorship
- Our eternal gratitude!
Bronze Sponsor: £250 +
- Your company logo on the fourth row of our t-shirts
- An album of photos of the team in America which you will be able to share
- A mention in any website updates we share, thanking you for your sponsorship
- Our eternal gratitude!
Please be aware that in order to get our t-shirts printed, the deadline for getting your logo to us will be Tuesday 23rd May. You are welcome to sponsor us beyond this date and will still receive all the other perks mentioned above.
Why yes, we’re glad you asked!
Cornwall Council have kindly written a press release for us, which you can download below. There are also a bunch of photos of us at both the Regional and National finals that you can use with the story (and don’t worry, we’ve got parental permission for these images to be used to promote our team!).
Finally, if you want to speak to us properly please do email our teacher Mr Woolcock and he can sort that out. Interviews, quotes, soundbites – anything we can do to help spread our message and raise some money to get us to America.
Thank you for helping share our story! 🎃
Press Release
Cornwall Council have kindly written a press release about the the journey the team have been on to win at the National Final, along with quotes from the children and Council members.
Publicity Photos
Here are a small selection of photos from the team in action at Harrogate, which can be used for publicising their story and helping to raise funds for the team. Captions on each image will give you additional context.
Get in Touch
Please use the link below to give Mr Woolcock (our teacher) an email. He can arrange interviews, quotes or anything else you might want to help promote us and help us get to America.
