Our trip to the Botanic Gardens!

On Tuesday 24^th February years 5 and 6 visited the National Botanic Garden of Wales. We left approximately 9:00 am, for a fun day of exploring. When we arrived it was a perfect day to go and explore, the sun was shining and everyone was excited!

First we learned about fair-trade, fair-trade is a simple yet incredibly important idea - it's all about giving the people who produce the things we buy a fair price for their products.

When we finished learning about fair trade we then went into the tropical house. The tropical house had a plant that grows pineapple; the pineapple was a red colour. As it was not ready to eat yet, we know this because of the colour of the fruit.

As we strolled through the magnificent grounds we spotted an outside museum full of trees. They were not any ordinary trees, they had signs to tell us how old the trees were. One was over three hundred years old.

They had a great gift shop and we all enjoyed having a look through it and buying something to remember the trip.

After an amazing afternoon we hopped back on the bus and headed home. What an awesome day we had at the Botanical Gardens of Wales!

By Hana Malik

Our trip to the library

This week the children from Mrs Ward’s class and the children from Mr Hall’s class found themselves on a school visit to the same place. Very unusual except that the visit was to the Library a great place for all ages.

Both classes were very excited for different reasons .The children in Mrs Ward’s class were returning books from their last visit and looking for new books for our topic “Where in the World”. Mr Hall’s class were on a quest to find books of their own personal choice.

The best part of the visit was the way the children interacted with each other. Mr Hall’s children were fantastic reading stories to the younger children and talking about the books and the younger children loved listening to the story and spending time with the older children. Mr Hall’s class were also very patient as we walked back to school as some of the younger children were tired and needed encouragement up the hill back to school.

I think that all staff present were very proud of all of the children and the care and respect they showed each other. Congratulations to them all.

Penalty Shoot Out

On Thursday the 11th July, 37 children from Years 5, 5/6 and 6 took part in the Maes-y-Coed  Penalty Shootout.  We all walked up to the Maritime Astroturf.  We were split up into two groups of 18 and 19.  The first group were split into four groups. The 19 children went over to the other side of the Astroturf to take penalties against a guest goal keeper AKA Mr Hall.  The children needed to get at least 3 to get to the next round.  Lots of money was raised for our school and our local football club.  Many thanks to Barclays Bank.

Written by Annaleigh Hall and Ffion Davies

Llangrannog 2013!

Llangrannog report 2013

Llangrannog was a great experience and we particularly enjoyed the mud run and tobogganing although other activities such as the disco were not as enjoyable. The bedrooms were comfortable - ours had a toilet, large sink, small sink, shower 3 bunk beds and one single bed all complete with pillows and mattress cover. The walk down to the beach was nice and the views were phenomenal, we particularly liked the sunset and the ice-creams. Two café’s sell ice-cream, the beach hut was the best with a small queue. Although a few activities are messy they are all safe and best of all great FUN! We really enjoyed all the activities and would have regretted it if we had not gone.

The food was good and the dinner ladies friendly they made their best effort to accommodate fussy eaters or allergy sufferers. There is a huge dinner hall so no need to worry about finding a seat however as other schools are there we recommend that you get to the queue 5-10 minutes early, allergy sufferers are entitled to jump the queue and bring a friend as long as they have an allergy pass.

There is a small park for use in-between activities and there is also a field, sports hall and Astroturf. There is normally a bell for mealtime and activities although don’t rely on them as sometimes they are not set off.

Water and squash are free and supplied at all times in the main hall but there is a vending machine although they have been known to take money and not provide a product or change, furthermore there are slush puppies available at mealtimes at £1.00 each.

The horse riding was very good and the horses were kind and obedient all, the staff were patient and understanding of fears although we strongly recommend doing all of the activities. As long as you listen to the horse riding instructors and all other staff the weekend will be much safer and better for you. The high rope course was scary but fun and the climbing wall also is great fun as long as you listen. The skiing was very funny and the skis and ski boots were easy to get on although we recommend getting a shoe size bigger as the boots rub badly.

Overall we enjoyed our experience and would recommend Llangranog to others.

By Trudy Pounder and Alice Sparkes

Mr. Hall, Year 6

Girls Football

Girls from year 5 and 6 classes participated in the New Directions South Wales 6 a side football tournament at the Cardiff City House of Sport.

They were in a group with Lytchard, Cwmlai, Newton, St Josephs Catholic and Tonypandy and were unbeaten in all games. They won 5 games and drew 1 qualifying for the finals day on May 1^st.

Finals day:

Girls played:

Pontybrenin Lost 3-1

Evenlode won 4 -2

Ysgol Y Wern won 2-1

Quarter final – drew 1-1 with St Davids then lost on penalties!!!!

Pontybrenin went on to win the cup after beating us in the group game and that was the only game Maesycoed lost over the two stages!!!!

Golf Festival

Year 5 took part in a golf festival at the Maritime Astro Turf on 26th April.

The pupils participated in a variety of activities related to golf. The children practised their putting and striking skills and played lots of competitions against each other. Hopefully a few of the children will take up golf in the future.

Science Week

The children were investigating  - Why apples go brown?
Children suggested different solutions to this common problem and investigated their solutions and recorded their results.  These results were recorded in a table and on a graph.
They found out that to slow down the browning process they needed to add citric acid which denies the apple oxygen which is the cause of the browning.