Rhiwbeina Primary School news

Rhiwbeina Primary has been a hive of activity over the last few months. Here are a few of their highlights

Checkmate!
Many congratulations to the 8 children from Chess Club who represented our school so brilliantly at a major chess competition recently. All of them won games and some even came extremely close to winning the top prizes despite fearsome competition from pupils from public and private schools across Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan. We are very proud of you all!

A stitch in time
A new club has started at Rhiwbeina Primary. Year 4 boys and girls meet twice a week during a lunch time and after school on a Tuesday. We currently have 15 members and have been learning different skills and stitches, such as over, straight and blanket stitch. We are making individual tapestries, felt hearts and egg cosies and are hoping to sell them to our friends to raise money.

Neigh-bourly police!
As part of our topic of ‘Superheroes’, Dosbarth Derbyn had a visit from the police in January. We learnt how the police can help in our community, and how they can help us look after our houses and help us when we are lost.

We were very lucky to see the police horses and dogs as part of our visit. We learnt a lot of interesting facts about the horses, and even helped with the noise training ready for the Six Nations. We met George the horse, who at 19 hands, was a lot bigger than us! We met the police dog Cracker who liked his ears stroked. He had a good sniff of Reception to make sure we weren’t hiding sweets in our pockets. PC Westlake told us about the police uniform, and we were even able to try on the different helmets and vests. What a fantastic visit!

Sing us a song
During December, our school choir were very busy entertaining the local community. We had the opportunity to perform with a West End Star (Peter Karrie), who helped to raise money for a homeless charity and were invited to perform alongside the CAVMS Youth Orchestra and Jazz Group at The Gate in Roath. We enjoyed all of these opportunities that were well supported and received by the local community.

Our choir is made up of about 55 pupils from Year 3 – 6 and we practise every Wednesday after school with Mrs Hughes and Mrs Scully. We are hoping to perform again in the Summer Term as part of a massed choir in the Wales Millennium Centre. More information will be available nearer the time.

Year 4 library visits
As part of the Welsh Assembly Government’s drive to promote reading across all primary schools in Wales, all of the Year 4 classes spent a very enjoyable session investigating our brilliant local library, listening to stories and learning about all of the other resources available to everyone as members of the library.

Every child received a new library card, which entitles them to get up to 15 books out free of charge, and enjoyed selecting two books to take out that day to enjoy at home. Many thanks to Rhiwbina Library for having us, reminding us of the enjoyment reading can bring and inspiring us to read even more.

School Council
In School Council we try to make our school a better place in which to learn and play.

This works by taking in suggestions from our fellow peers to let us all have a voice in the running of our school. In the past, this has led to setting different ideas, activities, and opportunities for our school. These have included improving our playground with an adventure trail, climbing wall and multi-games court, as well as introducing events and competitions for our friends to enjoy.

Buddy benches
Our latest achievement has been to research and buy new benches for the school. This idea came from one of our older pupils who thought we could have buddy benches on our yards devoted to meeting other pupils, talking through problems, developing our social skills, or just to hang out with our friends.

Working closely with Amy from our PTA, we carefully investigated the best possible benches. We really appreciate her help and the funding which has generously been given to us by the PTA and local businesses, without whom we would never have been able to start this scheme. Thank you!

We are excited to announce that the benches have arrived and are now waiting to be installed. We chose theses buddy benches because of they have a fun, colourful design, linking in with our school colours which are red and green. There are stars on the sides to represent our achievements within the school. The benches are also double-sided to ensure as many people as possible can enjoy, relax and use these benches with their newly found friends and also with friends they have previously made.

Magic and Mystery
Class 2D spent an exciting afternoon exploring Fforest Fawr on a quest to find King Arthur and Merlin as part of our topic ‘Magic and Mystery’. We encountered mystical magicians, dragons, tree goblins and fairy windows. We found a treasure chest full of gold coins and even discovered a book full of spells! When we got back to school we wrote some fantastic stories about the “Magic of Fforest Fawr”.

Heartstart
Heartstart is a programme run by Mrs Coray and Mrs Knight for our Year 6 pupils. It enables children to achieve simple life skills that could potentially help them save someone’s life. Emergency Life Support is taught, which includes carrying out cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and rescue breathing, which is practised by the pupils on training mannequins.

The children who have taken the course have responded enthusiastically to the implied responsibility of being able to possibly save a life, and they feel that the knowledge is a valuable life skill to have.

Eco news
The children have been busy in school thinking up ways in which we can reduce waste. They have been monitoring the amount of waste in school closely.
The girls have also been busy upcycling rubbish to help us celebrate St. David’s Day.

Ollie’s Library
We have a wide range of books available to be loaned for all year groups – from Enid Blyton to Jeff Kinney. You can read about big splashing sharks to how tiny insects find their food. We even have a section on cookery, arts and crafts – lots of things to do and keep you entertained during the spring months.
We are open every day between 12.30 and 1pm and then again from 4pm until 4.30pm.

Books can be borrowed, one at a time, for one week. Once you have returned your book you can choose another.

Joining is easy. Simply come to the library, collect a library joining card, take it home, get it signed by your grown up, bring back into the library, and then choose your book!

We will be busy this year in the library, celebrating the 2016 Olympics Reading Challenge in the summer and not forgetting Roald Dahl’s 100th birthday on the 13th September. There are lots of exciting things to look forward to and you don’t have to be a member to join us – just a love for having fun and reading! We have enjoyed celebrating authors through assemblies and we are very much looking forward to our annual visit to The Hay Festival too.