The Build 2025-26
6th March 2026 - session 13
Today we finally got to drive the car, but before we could drive the car we had to follow some safety rules. First, we had to put on boiler suits to protect our arms and legs. Next, if you were driving the car you would have to wear gloves to protect our hands, a helmet to protect our heads and googles to protect our eyes. Next we went outside to test the car and had 2 people carrying the front and 2 people pushing the car and the rest led the way through. Lots of people were staring because they had never seen the car before. A few people wanted to go first and only 2 for pushing. When you got in the car you had to check your helmet and check your seat belt. Next, the pusher turned on the car engine and the drive turned on the switch at the front and shouted switch on. Finally, The pusher pushed the car whilst the driver pressed a red button on the steering wheel (to make the car move).
Then the teacher shouts on your marks GO! And then the pusher does 3 steps whilst pushing the car and the driver pushes the red button and moves straight for 5 seconds and turns 180 degrees and finally arrives in the yellow box (just yellow cones). Once every one had driven the car we pulled it back inside. It was extremely fun and if your child comes to St Paul’s C of E Primary School in year 6 then they can join in fun Greenpower.
27th february 2026 - session 12
Today, we displayed our different designs and chose the best one to decorate the side of our car. We chose the design that we liked the most of our name, the GREEN TERRAS with the assorted flames and leaves. We also talked about how we could make our designs better.
Our car and t-shirt designs are really coming to life and we are excited to let everyone know that we now have confirmed sponsorship from:
- Love Your Logo
- Surrey Signs
We have also had a response from Blue Peter and are awaiting a message back from their production team as well as waiting for confirmation of sponsorship from Enterprise Van Hire.
We have written a letter to Sir David Attenborough and hope we may have a reply soon!
Surprisingly we got the privilege of racing at Brooklands (a museum for cars and planes, the Concord) as well as the Goodwood racetrack. This event is taking place on the Wednesday 10th June 2026 and the parents of any Green Power children are aloud to come and spectate with a reduced price from £27 down to £5!! After that the families are permitted to wander around the museum for the rest of the day (also in the £5).
We have now entered into 2 competitions:
- Brooklands (10th June)
- Goodwood (28th June)
Next we we will finalise our designs and then we will start our journey to become first class drivers!!!
Oh - one more thing - we now have a 3D mascot for the car made by Hudson with his 3D printer!!
13th february 2026 - session 11
We had a great session which comprised of team work and discussion, bringing all our ideas together to create a real plan moving forward for our designs.
6th february 2026 - session 10
Today, we started to review our sponsorship letters and car designs. Last week, we all got designated a company which we had to persuade to help us. We wrote to TAMIA, Wickes, Surrey Signs, Love Your Logo, MACS Autocare and Blue Peter. We were very proud of our letters and we do hope that some of the companies will sponsor us.
We also thought about our car designs and we decided what to put on our bodywork. We think we want to use a water based paint to spray paint the panels and then add vinyl stickers to add detail.
Our homework this week is to make final designs for the logo, moto and team name so we can start to prepare our t-shirt design and car bodywork design.
We were hoping to start driving today but it was pouring with rain so that will have to wait!
29th january 2026 - session 9
Today in our lesson we focused on sponsorship. We thought about local companies and which would be an asset to us. We came up with a list:
1) Love your logo - t-shirts
2) Wickes - safety equipment and tools
3) TAMIA - paint
4) MACS Autocare - spare wheels and lubricant
5) Surrey Signs - vinyl stickers
6) Enterprise - Van hire
23rd january 2026 - session 8
We started this session with showing our homework to our group - research about different types of electricity. We had a good chat about this topic and what we found out. We made posters, powerpoint presentations and fact sheets. Leon even made his very own circuit!!!
Next, we put a couple of people in the car to measure where we should fit the seat and after that we ensured all the screws were tight so it would not slide backwards when we drive.
There were a couple of problems but we did manage to fix them with our team work!
16rd january 2026 - session 7
Today, we worked so well together and talked all out how the electrics of the car worked and the importance of fuses. We talked about what a closed and open circuit is and what components we need to make a circuit. We looked at the motor and the batteries of the car and got to understand the switches used to start and stop the car.
We learnt such a lot in the session and to top it off, we finished tightening all the bolts of the car including the roll cage -which was the most tricky bit we have encountered so far.
9th january 2026 - session 6
After a lovely Christmas break, we shared our amazing research projects about endangered species. We all chose different animals, from swifts to red pandas. It was great to hear so many amazing facts and how we may be able to help these species when the world works together.
After, we continued to build the body of the car - its getting really exciting as we are so close to finishing the build now.
9th December 2026 - Session 5
Today, we used all our skills to finish off building the last parts of the body of the car, using communication to ensure efficiency and understanding.
We also started to attach the seat belt to the seat and systematically check that all the nuts and bolts were tightened on the frame of the car.
AS well as finishing the car frame, we started to talk about driving and safety as well as the use of practical maths when designing our bodywork. Mr Tanton explained that we will be discussing the electrics and how the car works next week as well as starting to think about our design process.
For homework, we are going to brush up on our shape skills, including learning about parallelograms, trapeziums etc.
19th December 2025 - Session 4
Today, we finally finished building the seat of the car and made sure that all the nuts and bolts were tightened.
Then, we started to build the frame of the car and used the larger spanners, size 13 to tighten the frame bolts and realised we also had to you the size 19 to take off the wheel in order to to fix the final bolts in place. Finally, we also started to attach the roll bar to the car.
Next session, we will tighten the bolts and attach the seat to the car.
12th December 2025 - Session 3
This week, we started this session finalising our logo, motto, team name and car name. We finally agreed on:
Team/Car name: The Green Terras
Motto: Rising from the ashes, stronger as one
Logo The flaming phoenix and leafy falcon.
We discussed why aluminium was really important. It is light, strong and durable. We saw that the bodywork has lots of holes and we worked that the holes, not only made the body work lighter but also made it stronger. We used a bit of paper to prove this fact. A straight piece of paper falls and is weak whereas a concertinaed piece of paper is much strong and can hold a heavy load without crumpling.
Next, we continued to build the car, continuing with the seat. We needed to make sure that we had all the correct components, not missing the washes on BOTH sides. WE worked as a team and realised that communication and organisation was very important. With all our hard work, we have now almost finished the construction of the seat and only have some tightening to complete and final adjustments to carry out.
5th December 2025 - Session 2
Today we looked at the different tools that we need to build the car, such as spanners and Allen keys.
We talked about the different ends of spanners, ratchets and allen keys and which to use in different situations. For example, if you need to screw a bolt on in a tight place, you could use the ball end of an allen key or a ratchet spanner.
A very simple way to remember which way to tighten the bolt is ‘righty tighty, left loosey’. We also learned about nuts, bolts and washers and to tighten them.
A nylon nut stops bolts from coming undone when driving. We looked at button screws and Allen keys and how you would use them in a car for extra comfort.
We were then shown the manual and talked about technical drawings, which are a great way to write instruction manuals without needing different language translations. We looked at the instructions and tried to figure out how to build the seat for the car and how to screw on the bolts.
28th November 2025 - Session 1
Today was our first session and, once we had introduced ourselves, we brainstormed ideas for our name, straplike and logo. We also thought about our concept and what we wanted our environmental theme to be, such as ideas about pollution, endangered species and plastic in the ocean. As well, we discussed what we will be working on throughout this year in GreenPower, like drawing logos, building the car and racing it. Even though it was only our first session, we came up with some great ideas, thanks to our team work, active listening and compromise.