AoLE - Spring 2024 REC

Our whole school topic this term is called 'Cynefin Cwmlai'. Under this umbrella, Reception's topic title is 'Ble Wyt Ti?'.  This is an Humanities based topic. 

Humanities is central to learners becoming ethical, informed citizens of Wales and the world. In contemporary and historical contexts, investigation and exploration of the human experience in their own localities and elsewhere in Wales, as well as in the wider world, can help learners discover their heritage and develop a sense of place and cynefin. It can also promote an understanding of how the people of Wales, its communities, history, culture, natural environment and landscape, resources and industries, interrelate with the rest of the world. Contemplating different perspectives will in turn help promote an understanding of the ethnic and cultural diversity within Wales and as part of Wales’ national histories and the  experiences, in and outside the classroom, will help them become ambitious, capable learners, ready to learn throughout their lives. 

The Humanities Area of Learning and Experience seeks to awaken a sense of wonder, fire the imagination and inspire learners to grow in knowledge, understanding and wisdom. This Area encourages learners to engage with the most important issues facing humanity, including sustainability and social change, and help to develop the skills necessary to interpret and articulate the past and the present and this topic has certainly covered all of this.

To start our topic the children took part in a  Welsh workshop with Huw.  They enjoyed watching Huw clog dancing and participated in a traditional Welsh clog dance.  He also showed them how to play the harp and a pibgorn. The  pibgorn is made up of a wooden pipe and the horns of a bull. One horn is used as a mouthpiece and another to form a bell end which helps amplify the sound. The children loved hearing this and enjoyed hearing the story of 'how the Eisteddfod began'.  

Eisteddfod 1st March 2024 - Our Winners

Our Eisteddfod artwork was based on the drawing of 'Wally the Walrus in Tenby' by Dorian Spencer Davies. Our mini Winter topic had covered the story of a sad polar bear in the arctic.  We learned about other animals that live in the arctic and linked Wally to Tenby when he had visited there .  All the children loved hearing about Wally's adventures and many of them had been to Tenby to see him.

On 11th March we went to Cardiff Castle to gain an insight into how people lived in Medieval Wales.  We had a guided tour of the Castle and a workshop full of action, games and storytelling based on knights and dragons.  It was an amazing day and all the children enjoyed themselves.

Next it was time to learn about our school and its environment.   Cwmlai Primay School was built in 1911  so not as old as the 'Keep' at Cardiff Castle or the Victorian House built by the Bute Family.

The children enjoyed completing observational drawings of the front of the school building.

We looked at photographs of the children as babies and compared them to how they look now and discussed the changes. We looked at the photographs and had to guess who it was. 'Pwy wyt ti?'

Ble Wyt Ti?

We looked at places in Wales which the children had visited and plotted them on a map.  From this we could see that lots of children had visited Tenby, Saundersfoot and Newquay, all in West Wales. These places have caravan parks to stay in, beautiful sandy beaches and are only 2hrs away by car.