The Penpol Times

Hour Of Code 2017: A Hero’s Journey

15th December 2017 by Jacob Woolcock

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

Countries where the Hour of Code is taking place this year

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

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

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

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

Well done Key Stage 2!

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

Martin Zooms into 3rd Place

29th June 201815th December 2017 by Jacob Woolcock

Martin has been racing at the local kart track ‘Coast 2 Coast’ where they race every week to obtain points for the season championship. He is the youngest racer and was delighted to finish third in the final race of the year. However, next season he has his sights set firmly on achieving first place.

I really like go karting because it’s great fun. The best thing is racing other people because it’s very exciting – Martin – Class 10

In addition to this series, Martin is in training for a national competition in his own kart which takes place at Clay Pigeon Raceway in Dorset. This is a professional circuit where he obtains speeds upward of 50 mph in his race-tuned kart!

Watch out Lewis Hamilton, you’re about to be overtaken!

Student of The Year For Taekwondo Star

15th December 2017 by Nic Stanlake

It was a double achievement for Martynas as he has achieved his 9th ‘Kup’ in Taekwondo. Not only that, out of all of the students who take part in his Taekwondo classes, Martians was awarded student of the year for 2017 which was a remarkable achievement.

After demonstrating some of his moves, it is clear he has worked exceptionally hard to develop the skills required. He has also demonstrated a high level of determination and commitment as he trains once a week as well as practising at home every day.

I like Taekwondo because it keeps me fit. It also teaches me to be disciplined and respectful

Keep up the great work Martynas, I look forward to seeing your certificate for achieving the 8th Kup in the future!

Wake Up Shake Up – Fireball!

24th May 201814th December 2017 by Jacob Woolcock

KS1 Children have really enjoyed this terms “Wake Up and Shake Up” routine.

All children from Reception and Years 1 and 2 have been rocking out their dance moves to the sound of ‘Fireball’. Children can be seen jumping, clapping, and grape vining across the playground and by the smiles on their faces you can see that they are all enjoying a fun way way of keeping fit.

“I love dancing and wiggling. My favourite bit is shouting “Fireball”. Georgia – Class 4

“I like dancing, jumping and running”. Nicholas – Class 4

“Its a really good song and I like the tune. It makes me feel happy”. Dylan – Class 5

“We do it every morning to help our bodies keep fit”. Emmy – Class 6

You can watch this terms routine below:

A Busy Week In The Sporting Calendar

13th December 2017 by Nic Stanlake

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

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

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

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

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

Year 6 get creative for Christmas

13th December 2017 by Mark Pollard

Festivities have entered the classroom at Penpol, with Year 6 planning and creating their own festive hats. Some created hats with a festive theme, whilst others came up with their own idea.

As well as this, the children have also been making their own tree decorations, making Christmas houses with Caroline. They have sanded and painted them and will look great on the tree!

We had great fun making the hats and the houses – Sammy

Winter Woodland Magic

11th December 2017 by Penpol School

On Monday Class 5 were very excited as they set off to see the magical Winter Woodland show.

They encountered fairies in the woods, tied ribbons around the wishing tree and munched on a bag of sweets.

We all then settled down on comfy cushions in the big tent with blankets and a hot chocolate to listen to Old Man Winter tell the magical story of twin sisters who go in search of their lost parents, encountering friends and danger along the way, including a mad hare, a mysterious stag and Uncle Christmas!

Fabulous! Ben

The children had a wonderful time, thoroughly enjoying the show and joining in with the singing!

It was brilliant and I loved it! Chloe

I want to go every year! Dylan

3D Decorations by Key Stage 2

18th September 20184th December 2017 by Jacob Woolcock

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

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

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

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

And here they are, all 200 decorations!

School Council Set To Work

14th May 201824th November 2017 by Nic Stanlake

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

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

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

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

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

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

We as a school council will do this by:

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

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

The following positions have been filled.

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

What’s that noise coming from the Mac Suite?

20th November 2017 by Jacob Woolcock

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

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

So what is it doing??

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In the meantime, back to the printer for me!

– Mr Woolcock

Purging Pollution with our Scratch Games

“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.”