Visit from the Scarlets

Class 5 were really privileged on Wednesday 21st January, as we welcomed two special visitors to our class.....Mr Andrew Walker, Head of the Medical Department at Scarlets rugby and Rhys Priestland, Scarlets and Wales outside half!!

                                  The children were so excited to see a Welsh rugby player standing before them in their classroom and for the first ten minutes Rhys was inundated with requests for his autograph....even Mrs Jones got in on the act!

        As part of our work on the topic "Champions", Mr. Walker spoke to the class about the fitness and nutrition regimes followed by the professional rugby players.

He talked about the importance of a healthy diet for top class sportsmen and women. We learned the Scarlets' rule for a healthy meal is....." a palm of protein, a fist of carbohydrate and a thumb of good fats". Rhys told us that one of his favourite meals is grilled chicken salad with avocado.

Mr Walker also told us about the importance of drinking plenty of fluid so that your body is hydrated. In fact, if any of the Scarlets players are not fully hydrated when they arrive at Parc y Scarlets, they are not allowed to train or play rugby! We then heard about the importance of looking after the bodies of the players, keeping them fit and injury free. Rhys told us about lots of the exercises he has to do every day and also about the exercises he needed to do to recuperate from his torn Achilles injury.

We heard from Rhys and Mr. Walker that a team of about 35 people work behind the scenes looking after the fitness and health of all of the players.

We all had a great morning listening to our special visitors and we learned a lot of interesting facts about professional sportsmen. We would all like to say a HUGE "thank you" to both Mr. Andrew Walker and Rhys Priestland for their time and for helping us with our topic. 

We are all going to be cheering for Wales in the Six Nations and will be really excited if we see Rhys running out onto the field in the red of Wales. We were sorry to hear that Rhys is leaving Wales but we wish him success and happiness in his new club.

Year 6 are getting creative

Our trip to the Welsh National Museum of Art was thoroughly enjoyable and engaging. The children saw many pieces of art from different periods and the workshop on Impressionism was very interesting. The children had the opportunity to draw their own impressionist picture. 

Year 6 have begun to learn their Welsh Folk Dance for the Eisteddfod. They have also begun to learn a Scottish dance called 'The Flying Scotsman'. We attempted a modern dance to T REX We like to Boogie, but as they say practice makes perfect!

Every Tuesday Richard from Cardiff and Vale rugby development, has been putting Year 6 through their paces and developing their rugby skills

Year 6 are on the go!

Our topic Skin Deep began with the children learning about microbes and designing their own microbe using play dough. This was completed with great enthusiasm and a gallery of photos are outside our classroom.

We have been investigating the properties of yeast and had yeast races between yeast mixed with just flour and water and yeast mixed with flour, water and sugar. The children worked well in groups of 3 and the classroom smelt lovely!

Year 6 have been learning about hand hygiene and we investigated microbes on our hands. The class rubbed olive oil on their hands and then cinnamon. One group washed their hands in cold water, one group in warm water and one group in warm water and with soap. The latter showed the children the importance of washing hands in warm water and with soap.

Children in Need was a great success, all the class dressed up and designed great posters for the day. 

The children enjoyed the tug of war, boys against girls and then against the teachers. The strength of Year 6 was outstanding and the teachers were beaten much to their delight!

Visit to the Glamorgan Archives

On Wednesday 12th November, Class 5 visited the Glamorgan Archives in Cardiff as part of our topic on the First World War.

We were welcomed by Rhian who began by telling us about the terrible life and conditions of trench warfare during the First World War.

All of the children then imagined they were soldiers in a First World War trench, and wrote a postcard home to their family describing their daily life and how they were feeling.

Then we were told about the effects of war at home, including how life changed for women and also the requisition of schools for military hospitals.

We were then shown entries made in Pendoylan School's log book during the War years, recording how the children also helped the War effort. One extract also talked of celebrations to mark the end of the War....school being shut for the remainder of the week!

Finally all of the children were really lucky to be able to handle 100 year old artefacts, including the actual log book from Pendoylan school, a Christmas card sent to the trenches and, incredibly, the diary of a serving officer from the Great War.

We all had a fantastic morning at the Archives, learning lots about the War and it's effect on local people. A huge thank you to Rhian and all of the staff at Glamorgan Archives.