The time finally came to make our African masks today. The children enjoyed following their chosen design as part of their Design and Technology project. We had some wonderful creations and the children enjoyed an African tribal dance to end the day.

The Welsh myth, that the children had the opportunity to be part of today, dates back to over 1,000 years of story telling. Branwen, Daughter of Llŷr is a major character in the Second Branch of the Mabinogi, which is sometimes called the “Mabinogi of Branwen” after her. Branwen is a daughter of Llŷr and […]

Our KS2 pupils are in for a treat today. They will experience the very talented story teller from Big Foot Education Centre. The children will be told tales from the dark ages of the Welsh coast. They will also develop their drama skills as they take part and become part of the story.

Year 5 have been immersed in expressive arts in latter half of this week. We studied images of the African Savanna during sunset and then recreated this setting with pastels and black card. This afternoon we recreated the scene using Microsoft excel by using pixel art. We had a discussion about which technique the children preferred […]

As part of our work in Expressive Arts, year 4 have been composing a dance routine using freeze frame shapes. They have been taking their inspiration fro our topic of robots. They worked in groups to create their shapes, then taught them to the rest of the class.

We have been working on a top secret mission in Year 2 this week. The boys and girls enjoyed using 2Simple 2Paint a Picture software to create beautiful artwork in preparation for a very special day that is coming soon. I wonder if you can work out what they have been doing!

Year 3 have been taking part in World Book Day activities related to Roald Dahl. Here are some pictures of them working and their costumes:

We have had an action packed day in Reception completing lots of different activities for World Book Day! We began by reading the book ‘The Day the Crayons Quit’ as this was illustrated by our author of the day Oliver Jeffers. Pupils enjoyed reading the letters written by the different crayons and then had a […]

The nursery children have made some amazing fire breathing dragons. Don’t they look scary!

We had a wonderful time celebrating St David’s Day today with our Eisteddfod this afternoon. We recited our class poems, sung welsh songs including our National Anthem and celebrated our competition winners of both the writing and art competitions that the children completed last week. Da iawn to everyone involved. The youtube link for the […]

We have already had a busy morning at Pontlliw, celebrating St David’s Day. This afternoon the children will be in our Eisteddfod: reciting, singing and being presented with certificates for the winning art and writing competitions. And of course we will be finding out who will be crowned as our ‘chair’ of the Eisteddfod from […]

Following on from our introduction to the welsh short film Heartstrings, Reception pupils took to the stage to re-create scenes from the film! We started by pretending to be sculptures, where two pupils played the characters from the film and the other pupil the Artist. It was the artists job to model their sculptures and […]

This week Reception pupils have had a lot of fun studying the short film Heartstrings which was created by a Welsh artist. Pupils first began by watching the short film and spoke about the different emotions apparent within the film. We then looked at the film more closely and discussed why there was no speech […]

We have been busy working on our Welsh myth Yr Afanc, as part of our Welsh week work. The Year 2s enjoyed creating beautiful watercolours of their visualisations of the mythical creature, and they wrote fantastic instructions to tell people how to catch Yr Afanc.

Following on from our work on the Welsh myth Yr Afanc, this week we watched a fantastic film called A Monster in the Lake. The film is based on the Afanc myth, with a modern day twist. In the film, a young girl named Anwen discovers the reason behind the Afanc’s anger is the amount […]

For Welsh week, we have been learning about the Welsh myth ‘Yr Afanc’, which tells of an angry water monster that lived in a lake. When the Afanc got annoyed, it would thrash it’s tail around, which would then cause flooding in the village. The myth tells us what the villagers did to capture and […]

As part of our Welsh Week studies the children have thoroughly enjoyed learning about Jac Abertawe – a hero dog who lived by Swansea docks and saved many lives of people that fell into the water. They have rewritten the story in their own words as well as writing an inscription about Jac for a […]

As part of our learning during Welsh Week, Reception pupils have had lots of fun studying the legend of King Arthur! Pupils particularly enjoyed learning all about the marriage of Arthur and Guinevere. Pupils first began by writing a wedding invitation to the wedding of King Arthur and Guinevere where they had to use all […]

This week we have been studying Welsh film. Or focus film was called, Have you Packed for Wales? 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Year 6 studied the film and threw a dice to discuss aspects of film: Story, setting, sound, colour, camera and character. Pupils then generated 10 questions about the film ensuring each sentence began with a different […]

The nursery children have had lots of fun. They played a variety of different instruments and sang along to their favourites songs. Well done! Lovely singing.

Inline with our Expressive Arts focus, we undertook a Drama lesson this afternoon linked to our Welsh myth, Gelert. The children took part in a number of warm up activities, exploring how they would walk in different scenarios. They then created freeze frame image in groups, acting out how thy would react at various points […]

We followed on our Expressive Arts work in Year 5. We are studying the myth of Gelert this week and watched an S4C production (with subtitles) this afternoon. We looked at the Sound and Camera elements of the film and how different sounds and camera angles create different effects throughout film.

Year 3 pupils took part in a drama session relating to their story for Welsh Week. They took part in a variety of drama related activities and all managed to make a short play retelling the story of The Giant of Snowdonia. Here are some images of the session: 

The boys and girls have proved themselves to be very talented artists! As part of our Welsh week they have completed a piece of art which will be put forward for the Eisteddfod competition next week. We decided to look at Mumbles Lighthouse so we started the session talking about what a Lighthouse is – […]

Year 5 enjoyed studying the work of Welsh artist Gwen John as part of our Welsh Week. We learnt that her work has become more famous since her death and she predominately drew women with their hands clasped on their knees in a seated position. We have used her as an inspiration to draw pictures […]

As part of our work learning about our myth “The Sword in The Stone”, year 4 have been working in groups to freezeframe some scenes we have learnt about. They worked on their positioning, height and facial and body expressions.

Year 5 impressed with their flute playing skills today! They began to learn the well known tune “Baby Shark” and could hold a tune well. Super work everyone.

Friday 7th of February marked national Welsh Music day. Pontlliw pupils celebrated by listening to a range of Welsh artist and Welsh song, completing a variety of activities including folk dancing.

During our Australian topic the children have thoroughly enjoyed learning about the role of the firefighters dealing with the Australian bushfires. As well as putting the fires out they have an important role in rescuing the injured animals. The children decided they wanted to do something to help and came up with the idea of […]

Year 3 have been listening to songs by Welsh artists such; as Feeder-Buck Rogers, Bonnie Tyler-I Need A Hero, Catatonia-International Velvet Catatonia and The Manic Street Preachers- Design For Life. They have created a song review their favourite song. 

Last week the Year 2s designed their own Dyn Eira, writing about the clothing worn in Welsh. This week the children enjoyed following their designs to make their Dyn Eira models. The children used Welsh clothes and colours vocabulary to talk about their designs.

This week the Year 2s enjoyed learning about how fossils are formed. The boys and girls then experimented with making their own fossils, making prints in clay using interesting parts of dinosaur models. The children commented on the textures and shapes they could see.

Today Year 3 have been taking part in various symmetry activities. Here are some images of their learning:

The children have been using a website called Google Chrome Music Lab this week to create musical masterpieces! They used the website’s Kandinsky experiment to draw pictures linked to their topic which then produced a piece of music. They were able to talk about some musical elements such as pitch and dynamics. They had an […]

We have been using lots of Welsh vocabulary about Winter in Year 2 this week. We read a lovely story called ‘Hwyl yn y Parc yn y Gaeaf’, and we described lots of clothing in Welsh. After discussing what they like to do in the park in the Winter, the boys and girls set to […]

We have had a fun afternoon today experimenting with the musical instruments and creating our very own songline. Songlines are an important part of Australian history and they tell stories of how and where the indigenous people travelled – like a memory. In small groups the children chose an instrument and thought about the sound […]

There was a lovely sound coming from the nursery classroom this afternoon, the children were playing musical instruments. They sang their favourite nursery rhymes and played along to the music. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed.

Reception pupils used their mathematical skills in our creative movement lesson today! Here their task was to create a dance routine with a partner whilst ensuring that they were symmetrical in their actions. Pupils enjoyed the challenge and then demonstrated their routine to the whole class. Pupils then had the secondary task of performing actions […]

This week the Year 2s enjoyed using their research skills to learn about how the Earth began. We talked about where Pontlliw is and the children loved using Google Earth to locate our school. We then zoomed out and looked at Swansea, Wales, the UK and finally zoomed right out to look at the shape […]

The children enjoyed creating dragon dances this afternoon. They worked together well in their groups thinking about high and low levels and also changing direction. They performed their dances and gave each other tips for how to improve their performance next time.

Reception pupils got set the challenge today of creating a new home for the Three Little Pigs out of natural materials found in the outdoor area. They had to ensure that they worked as a team and used their understanding of materials to build a house that would not fall down! We even tested the […]

This afternoon, the nursery children used lollipop sticks, feathers and googly eyes to make some colourful trolls. Don’t they look amazing!

  Year 3 have undertaken 6 weeks of violin lessons! They have done a fantastic job and learnt some lovely new songs.

The Year 2s decided that, as part of their topic this term, they wanted to learn about the changes in the seasons, especially Winter. They made super snowflakes, and were able to show where the lines of symmetry were. The boys and girls enjoyed comparing their designs, and were able to discuss similarities and differences.

This week receptions pupils have learnt all about symmetry through a variety of fun learning activities. Pupils first created symmetrical butterflies through finger painting. They then created symmetrical images through colouring and drawing shapes. Lastly, pupils enjoyed creating symmetry through copying their partners actions and movements! A very fun week in Reception- da iawn!

The nursery children went on an outdoor fairy hunt today. The fairies were hiding everywhere! They were on the fence, on the benches, and even up in the tree. The children were really clever and found them all!  Then they used chalk to draw their very own fairy. Da iawn boys and girls!

As part of our bubble lesson this week, pupils used Google Chrome Music Lab to compose music related to the 4 stages of visiting Space: 1 Preparation for Flight 2 Take-Off 3 Flying in Space 4 Landing For each stage pupils focused on Tempo, Dynamics, Rhythm and Pitch. For our second bubble we looked at […]

Year 5 enjoyed created stop animation movies this afternoon. We looked at the various types of animation including computer generated, drawings and stop animation with clay. The children were taken back in time and watched an episode of ‘Trap Door’ and saw how the characters moved and interacted. They came up with some wonderful creations […]

Whilst assembling the origami stars pupils listening to music related to stars from various artists and researched facts about stars. The facts were mind blowing: A star is a massive, bright, sphere of very hot gas called plasma which is held together by its own gravity. Stars radiate energy created from nuclear fusion, which is […]

Pupils have been developing their independence and are taking more and more responsibility for their own learning. At the start of each topic, pupils write a question on a leaf about something they want to find out about related to our topic this term, Space and Flight. The children came up with awesome ideas about […]