Going Underground!

On Wednesday 25th November, Class 5 had a great day out in Big Pit, Blaenafon, as part of our topic on "Energy". When we first arrived we watched an interactive presentation about mining and found out how big the South Wales coalfield once was.....they even used to mine for coal in Tenby!! It was a great presentation and we saw lots of the machinery they used and even experienced how they used to blast the coal face with explosives!
                       

Then it was time for us all to go underground! First of all we had to get kitted out with our safety helmets, safety belts and lamps.

Then, once we made sure all of our lamps were working we were ready to travel 90 metres underground in the cage with our guides, John and Ian.

We spent about an hour underground - it was so interesting to find out about how the men mined for coal. We even saw all of the stables where the horses lived underground but the best part was when we all turned our lamps off....we couldn't see our hands right in front of our faces! When our lamps were on though, we could see coal in the walls all around us, glittering in the light just like black diamonds!

When our underground tour came to an end, Ian told us how the miners would sing as they travelled back up to the surface as they were happy to be going home after a long shift. So we started to sing one of the songs we have been learning for Christmas.....the other people in the cage said we sounded like angels as they sound of our singing echoed around the mine shaft! Giving in our lamps and belts, we saw the two canaries, Maggie and Arthur and watched as the cage filled up with others making their way down the mine shaft.

Finally, we looked at the old pit showers where the miners would wash before going home and could see the lockers they would all have had to store their possessions.

We had a great day and would like to thank all of the staff at Big Pit for a fantastic day, but especially our guides, John and Ian, for making the tour so interesting - "diolch yn fawr iawn!". Also, a big thank you to Mr. Collingridge, Mrs. Langston and Mrs. Buick for helping on our trip to Big Pit.

Year 5 & 6 Enterprise Week

Year 5 and 6 came together for Enterprise Week and formed the company CO OP 65. Everybody worked really hard making the products and had good fun too.
         They were also helped in developing their understanding of business by Mr Bishop Scotti and we'd like to say a big thank you to him for all of his help. He also came into school to bake with the children so they had even more products to sell.
           On the morning of our Enterprise Sale, it was great to see the hall full of our parents and supporters. Thanks to you all CO OP 65 you managed to make a brilliant profit of £201.18!

A Booming start to Year 6

Welcome everyone to the class blog. We have had a busy start to the term. The class are really enjoying the topic The Blitz and the trip to the Imperial War Museum  was a great success.

Last week the children joined Father Edwin and the community for some first aid training and learnt how to use a defibrillator.

Sailing Into Year 5

Bright and early on Monday 7th September, Year 5 set off for the Mary Rose Museum at the Historic Dockyards in Portsmouth. Although the journey was quite long (2 and half hours!), the children were well behaved and spent their time playing, chatting and......eating loads of sweets!! It was a glorious sunny morning in Portsmouth and after a brisk walk we were welcomed at the Education Centre by Mary and Clare and started our first workshop "Henry's Heroes".

We were allowed to hold lots of artefacts which would have been on board ship with the officers and crew in Tudor times - games, books, drinking mugs, maps, money and..... they even all had to carry their own nit comb with them! Finally we all had the chance to dress up, either as a member of the crew or as an officer of the Mary Rose.

Some of us decided we would have liked to have been crew members while lots would have preferred to be officers, although life couldn't have been this much fun in Tudor times!!

After our lunch, we went into the amazing Mary Rose museum - there was just SO much to see everywhere! We enjoyed looking at the cannons and cannon balls, the skeletons - especially Hatch, the dog - the kitchen equipment, the crow's nest, the weapons

.... the list goes on and on BUT the best thing of all was the wreck of the Mary Rose herself!
As we got to the top of the museum, we were even able to try firing the longbows....that took a lot of muscle power!

       Finally, we went to our last workshop called "Gun Drill". Here, we split into teams and had to learn different jobs in order to successfully fire the cannon. We were all really good at our different jobs by the end, but we're not sure we would have liked to do it for real on board the Mary Rose because it was REALLY hard work!

Following our visit to the shop, we started to make our way back to the bus for our long journey home to Wales, tired but happy. We had a FANTASTIC day at the Mary Rose museum and would like to say a huge "diolch yn fawr" to all staff at the museum, especially to Mary and Clare. Also massive thanks to Mr. Collingridge, Mr. Johns and Mrs. McGurk who helped us set sail to the Mary Rose in Portsmouth.