Students at St Illtyd’s enjoy a variety of activities
Students at St Illtyd’s Catholic High School in Rumney continued their development and learning with a wide range of activities over recent months, including looking after the environment, embracing reading and reflecting on an adventure break.
It’s the Bees Knees
Over the summer and autumn terms, pupils from our Eco Club have been following the Bees Knees sustainability project in our weekly Eco Club sessions. All resources and lesson plans for the project have been kindly provided for us by First Campus.
In our sessions, pupils have been learning all about sustainability and biodiversity with particular reference to bees. Pupils have learnt about how important bees are for biodiversity and also about threats to bees.
A highlight of the project was being invited to Cardiff Metropolitan University’s Cyncoed campus to visit the beehives there. On the day, after an introduction to the beehives, everyone got kitted out in beekeeper outfits and got the opportunity to get up close to the beehives. It was a wonderful feeling to be so close to so many bees but knowing that we were safe inside our bee suits. The next activity was honey tasting and we found it incredible how different crops can produce different tasting honeys. Our final activity of the day was building bee houses which will take pride of place in our garden area at the school.
All in all, we all had an amazing day at Cardiff Metropolitan University. We would like to say a huge thank you to Alex Nita from First Campus for inviting us to be part of this project. We would also like to say thank you to Rob, Megan, Anna & Bethan for all their support on the day.
Luisa May, Community Focused Schools Co-ordinator
Free Books
This term, every pupil in the school was lucky enough to receive a free reading book. They could choose from a huge selection of modern literature, with popular titles such as ‘We Were Liars’ and ‘Shadow & Bone,’ and even authors such as Marcus Rashford and David Walliams. Pupils in Key Stage 4 (Year 10 and 11) were also given the opportunity to get a free copy of an exam text for English (Of Mice and Men, Heroes or An Inspector Calls) to help them with their revision. All of these marvellous books were brought to use by Caban Bookshop in Pontcanna. This has been a wonderful opportunity for our pupils and one that they have really enjoyed: some pupils are half-way through their new books already! We would like to thank Caban Bookshop for bringing the books to us and to Welsh Government for funding this initiative.
Mel Cooper, Literacy Co-ordinator and Teacher of English
Sailing Residential on-board Adventure Wales
At the start of July, a group of (then) Year 9 pupils went on a sailing residential on-board Adventure Wales, which is part of Challenge Wales. We would like to say a huge thank you to Kerry Rees, Youth Development Officer and all the staff and crew from Challenge Wales for looking after our group. We would also like to say a huge thank you to the Reardon Smith Nautical Trust for funding the residential. Final thanks also to Mrs Kaye (Assistant Head of Year 10) and Mr Weekes (Teacher of Geography) for accompanying pupils on this trip. Here, two of the pupils that attended the sailing residential recount their experience.
On the 4th of July, Linda and I went on a sailing residential with a few other pupils from our school. When we arrived at the boat we were introduced to our skipper, Andy, and other crewmates who taught us about health and safety and key things to know about the boat itself. We learnt about parts of the boat and how to use the toilet as it was different from a toilet at home. Once everyone was settled, we went into Cardiff Bay barrage where we had the opportunity to learn how to drive the boat, it was great fun as we had never done anything like it before. Once we got back, we had to prep food and clean up after it, we also played some great fun games like a treasure hunt where we had to find certain items in Cardiff Bay, it was a challenge! Over the next few days, we went through many adventures. We sailed across the Bristol challenge and close to the Severn bridge and sailed around Flat Holm and Steep Holm. It was an amazing experience, however some of us got a bit seasick as the boat was turning at a 45-degree angle, but we managed. We did fun activities like going on the dingy race and seeing who could do the best circle with the boat. We climbed the mast which was incredible as we had to pull each other up it to do so. Finally, evening activities like picking litter and learning about boats were great. We all learnt a lot from the trip- how to be resilient, how to work as a team and we became new people.
Millie Gold, 10DCB
Before we left, we were all given certificates. Millie and I were given special ones. It was a Skipper’s Commendation. With this came a letter saying that the Skipper gave us a chance to go on another one day sailing trip. This boat trip would normally be £50; however, we were given this opportunity for free.
August Sailing Day
On 8th August, Millie and I arrived at the Adventure Wales boat. There were other children there and a new crew who we had never met before. We were introduced to everyone and filled out a sheet about what we were scared of and looking forward to but as Millie and I had already been sailing, we had experience and had overcome most of our fears. After a while, we decided to sail out into the Bristol Channel. We were out for around five minutes when something happened, and we had to go back. It did not ruin our fun though as after we had lunch together and a bit of tea, we got into teams of two and had a race on the dingy. It was very competitive, but everyone was laughing and enjoying themselves. Millie and I did not end up winning, but we all had fun. Along the entire trip we learnt things like how to put up the fenders, dock the boat, how to work as a team and other key terms to know about boats. We also learnt that even if something does not go right, you should not let it ruin your fun.
Linda Amin, 10DCB
As part of the experience, pupils followed the Agored Cymru module in teamwork and took part in the John Muir Award. Pupil Aliyah Pooley tells us what she learnt as part of the John Muir Award.
My Sailing Experience on Adventure Wales
During the sailing trip, I learnt many different things about sailing in general and the environment. These things included learning about sea bins, over fertilisation and litter. Over the four days as a group, we learnt about how things are having an impact on the environment. For example, we learnt that sea bins are installed in the water to collect and reduce the amount of litter in the oceans. We also learnt how over fertilisation causes no sunlight to be able to reach the plants at the bottom of the sea causing a lack of oxygen in the water, resulting in the death of many fish species.
Aliyah Pooley, 10RL
