The Cornish school pupils heading to the USA hoping for Lego League glory

• Watch Sam Blackledge's report here.

A talented bunch of schoolchildren from Cornwall are getting ready for the trip of a lifetime as they travel to the USA to compete in the international Lego League.

The youngsters from Penpol Primary School in Hayle will jet off to Boston to pit their coding skills against fellow Lego enthusiasts from around the world.

Teacher Jacob Woolcock said: "You build the robot and you have to actually write that code to make it work. It doesn't do it by itself. They have to think logically about every single step.

"There's so much problem solving, creative thinking and fun involved. There's trial and error, crashing into things, things falling off the table, robots smashing on the floor.

"But at the end of it, you get this creation which they can then run around the board with and earn all these points because they put that work in. And it's really rewarding to see that come to life because they've created that and made it happen."

The competition consists of a series of tasks which will test the competitors' design, coding and innovation against 96 other teams from around the world.

The teams have also been challenged to come up with an innovative solution to a problem in their communities.

The Penpol group focused on food waste, and their work landed them first prize in the National Lego League Championship in Harrogate.

Jacob said: "I think when they realised that food waste wasn't being collected in Cornwall, but it was elsewhere, they realised that's potentially a huge source of clean energy that could be gathered.

"So they've been researching it, they've been emailing, they've been writing letters, they've met with the council and the council are now really keen to actually use their ideas to help promote the collection when it starts up later this year."