The topic for Y5&6 this half-term is ‘Secrets of the Deep’, where pupils study Cardiff Bay and also learn about the Titanic. To help the children put their learning into context, we organised a trip to Cardiff Bay. Mrs Hollings’, Mrs Cooke’s and Mrs Robinson’s class went on Wednesday and Mr Mansfield’s/Mrs Lewis’ and Mrs Hayward-Price’s/Mrs Daly’s class went on Friday. Luckily, the weather was dry both days! Upon arrival, we were met by Bryan and Carol from Cardiff Bay Tours, who guided us around the bay, teaching us about its Geography and History.

We rode the land train (which the children thoroughly enjoyed!!) across to the Barrage to learn how the amount of water and the amount of fish are controlled in and out of the bay. The nice man in the control tower also opened up one of the bridges, so the children could see how it lifted – although most of them were more concerned with a pigeon which looked like it was about to get squashed when the bridge dropped back down (thankfully he escaped)!

We then had a chance to explore the attractions along the Barrage Coastal Path, including a quick play in the Treasure Island playground.

After that, we had a quick stop for lunch, before going on to survey people who were visiting the bay. The children were great and were so polite to members of the public, who seemed to enjoy being stopped to take part.

We will analyse our results and develop our numeracy skills next week, when we calculate percentages and produce graphs to present our findings.

We were also given a historical tour around the Bay, learning about:

• how it used to be called Tiger Bay
• how it was one of the busiest ports in the UK for exporting Coal around the world
• how sailor Harry Cook chained himself to a tree to stop it being cut down
• how Roald Dahl got baptised in the Norweigian Church
• and how Captain Scott set sail on his voyage to the South Pole,  but never made it back

We also had time for a quick visit into the Senedd building to see where the Welsh politicians debate.

 We had a great trip and were shattered when we got back to school! We’re looking forward to doing some follow up work on all that we learnt.