The Plans....

Click on the image to get a better view.

Just in case some of you haven't seen the plans for the allotment in the windows of the school here they are! The allotment will be situated behind the lock ups and to the left of the port cabins. The plans are an amalgamation of the two winning entries in the design an allotment competition which we held earlier in the year.
The circular structure in the middle is a canopy/sheltered outdoor classroom area.
The rectangular segments around it are the raised beds, that the children are in the process of making. The theory behind the design is that it represents time -12 months of the year! The missing bed at the top will be a walkway into the allotment and this will be made into a virtual bed/frieze tiled floor with the children's artwork.
There will be a very shallow pond area - bottom left (hopefully) and a fruit tree area - bottom right. A sculpture made by the children will feature- bottom centre.
A tastefully decorated potting shed, with a sedum roof and patio, compost bins and water butts -top left. At the top right hand side we are hoping in time to build a green house from recycled plastic bottles or even better still have a geodome!

Thank you for supporting us by helping to raise all that money in the Welly Walk. Hopefully we can really get a head start with completing this project and more importantly use this fantastic resource as part of the childrens education.





Idea for a covered learning classroom in the centre of the school garden

A Geodome



A sedum roof on a shed

Day Two of making the raised beds!

The children are very proud of the work they did and can't believe that they had the opportunity to make the raised beds for the allotments. I think you will agree that they have done a fab job! Well done everyone. Scroll down to see the photographs of day 1.

Why not leave a positive comment about their achievements. I am sure they would love the feedback!

GRAND DESIGNS!

Wow! what a FANTASTIC start to our allotment. A HUGE thank you to Tim (Mr Orrell) who has supervised and coordinated the raised bed activities, we have made great progress with eight beds completed and a few more on their way.

The most important thing is that the children have made them themselves and have thoroughly enjoyed it!
The next jobs on the list are...

• finish the beds and make deeper ones for potatoes and carrots etc to be grown in
• line them with plastic
• order some compost
• put them in place and fill them
• put up the allotment fence and gate

Enjoy the slide show :0)
Mrs James

Fingers Crossed!

On behalf of the Forest Schools Committee Mrs Terrans (who kindly volunteered)  is entering us into The Royal Welsh Show School Gardens Competition. We have to provide an A3 montage of all our plans for our allotment and fundraising activities. Some of the competition prizes are:

• Complimentary entry for the children at the show.
• Packets of Sutton seeds to help start your project.

Fingers and toes crossed that they like our ideas and plans! Look out for the competition entry on Penygawsi Forest Schools display.

We have made a start!!!

Last Thursday Eryri and Tryfan began to make the raised beds ready for the allotment area. They were really hands on with the measuring and sawing of the wood. On Tuesday they plan to continue working on fixing the wood together and finishing the raised beds. Thank you to Mr Orrell who has organised the activities and is advising us on how to develop the allotment site. Watch out for pics soon!
Forest School Rangers

FOREST SCHOOL RANGER MEETING AT 11.45am on MONDAY 13th of JUNE. PEN Y FAN CLASS.
AGENDA
FOREST SCHOOL BOXES
UPDATE ON ALLOTMENT AREA
NEW WOODLAND SURVEY
NAMING THE OLD AND NEW WOODLAND AREA
FOREST RANGERS END OF TERM TRIP :0)

More Trees!

I have just order another free Hedge and Copse Pack from the woodland trust through their Green Tree Schools award. This has given us another 2 points in the scheme and now we are only 3 points from a GOLD award. Only 400 schools in the UK have this award.
We successfully planted 30 Birch, Cherry and Rowan trees as part of our give it some welly day and they are growing really well. The new tree pack that will arrive in November and will allow us to plant more in another area of the school and also replenish any trees that have not survived in the new wild woodland area. If you look to the left as you are walking up the drive, on the hill,you will see a patch of longer grass. This is where the trees are planted and the grass has been left to grow to encourage all sorts of plants and mini beasts. We plan to do a survey of the area and we have been told by Mr Orrell that we have a wide variety of plants and insects already at the site. We will publish our findings when they are ready.

Our next plans for the Green Tree awards are:
- To recycle Christmas cards, mobile phones and ink cartridges.
- To visit a woodland.
- To carry out the woodland and words project.
This will make us a GOLD School, so please support us if you can.
The Forest Rangers have to produce a whole lot of evidence to show that we have been working hard on the scheme too!!!!
BUSY BUSY BUSY.....
Thanks Mrs James
-

We have scanned the ground and are ready to go...

Hopefully with fingers and toes crossed we can start next week.

Check out the windows in school that have our plans on...we are very excited!

Mrs James

GIVE IT SOME WELLY! What a wonderful day.

We all had a fantastic day when we participated in 'Give it some welly.' I hope your children went home with an overdose of fresh air and outdoor fun! It was lovely to see every child in the school joining in, working together in mixed age groups and helping each other. Everyone was on task and the school grounds were remarkably quiet with everyone concentrating on what they were doing. Thank you to the parents who joined us at the end of the school day and participated in some of the activities.
The activities in the photographs are:

• Tree planting- we planted around 30 new trees and created a new woodland area on the hill consisting of silver birch, cherry and oak. Lets hope they all grow!
• Make a shelter.
• Make a skeleton from found twigs.
• Build an elf house.
• Make a mud tree face.
• Make a nature crown.
• Twig towers.
• Welly wanging.
• Hug a tree.
• We had a welly treasure hunt after school.
• Welly line dancing.
• Welly cake auction.

Enjoy the photographs.
Thank you to all Penygawsi staff who joined in and worked hard in making this a really successful event :0)
Mrs James

Allotment update!!!

JUST TO KEEP YOU IN THE PICTURE!

We are having a site survey carried out on Thursday am to see if there are any services or utilities in the ground where we plan to put the allotment and pond area. If all goes to plan then we will hopefully be able to start after the Easter holidays.
The final count with fundraising from the Welly Walk is ....

£2,396.26

Thank you.

We can't wait to spend all of it on this wonderful outdoor learning area. Watch this space.

The Forest Rangers :o)



Sponsor Winners

Well done to SAM BURGE and LEWIS REES for collecting over £115.00 each in the sponsored welly walk. They both collected certificates in our special 'give it some welly' assembly and will both receive a yearly subscription to the Woodland Trust Nature Detective magazine and membership. Watch out for the post boys it will be coming soon!

Thank you for your huge effort in raising so much money!!

Apologise for no recent postings....my computer has beeen unwell and caught a bug!
Mrs James.

The winners....

The winners, who collected the most sponsor money, will be announced in our special assembly on our 'Give it some welly' afternoon. I can't believe that sponsor money is still coming in. You are all very generous.

We have also been lucky enough to have 30 saplings delivered to the school free from the Woodland Trust. Along with a tree seed planting kit. Here comes our new woodland area!
Thank you
The Forest Rangers :0)

Lovely outdoor activities for you to do with your family!

http://www.naturedetectives.org.uk/download/extra_hour.htm

Click on the link above to visit the nature detectives.

GIVE IT SOME WELLY...A DATE FOR YOUR DIARY!

LOOK OUT ON MARCH 22ND.........
We are going to be 'Giving it some WELLY' in support of The Woodland Trust. We will have a fun filled (educational) afternoon and after school activities for you and your family, to join in when you collect your child from school!
Just to get you excited...some of the things that are planned...

• Welly Wanging
• Giant Welly Art Attack
• A range of Forest Schools Activities
• Welly Treasure Hunt

It's going to be outdoors, fun and not one to forget!

This is not a fundraising event, you can donate to the Woodland Trust if you wish. Information will be available on the day how to do this, if you wish to do so. You have already supported us greatly in the Welly Walk in raising funds for our project, which is enormously appreciated.

Come along and join us in some outdoor educational fun so you can gain a greater understanding in the Woodland Trust's work, Forest Schools learning and the best bit...experience it for yourselves.

Family members...make sure you practise your over arm throwing for the welly wanging! Are you going to be the Penygawsi Welly Wanger of 2011?

P.S. Dust off those Wellies!!!

GET READY FOR WICKED WOODLAND ACTIVITIES!

The Forest Rangers

New total so far....

We are over £2,000!

Diolch yn fawr

The plaque is finished.



As promised to the competition winners. One completed plaque!



We are already thinking ahead...just to get you excited!

We are thinking big and making plans, we will be following our competition winners designs of course.

This is hopefully some of the things that we will be able to enjoy soon.

It is still growing!!

Our total so far is a staggering £1,750 and still children are telling us that they have sponsor money to be brought in!

Please can all sponsor money be brought in by next Friday.
Once again, Diolch yn fawr :)

The Forest Rangers

As promised the 'Welly Walk' photographs.

WOW!

Well I can't quite believe it and we still haven't received all the sponsor money yet...

SO FAR YOU HAVE HELPED TO RAISE...

It was an absolute pleasure to see all the children enjoying the Welly Walk experience. The school grounds were full of the joys of squelching and laughter. I have taken some great photographs and will post them soon. Thank you to the Forest Rangers who arranged and marshalled the course. They were out organising all afternoon and did a superb job. I have to say a great big thanks to the staff who were full of enthusiasm -making sure that everyone was having fun and ensuring the school was kept mud free. It is not easy when you have 30 children who have muddy wellies and trousers! The event would not have been a huge success without the grown up Forest Rangers who have been laminating, photocopying, cutting out and organising too-Thank you for your help :)

Mrs James

(who is still cleaning her wellies and trousers and all the muddy equipment...but I don't mind because it was FUN!)

Keep visiting for an up to date total. When all the money has been received we will post the name of the child who collected the most and let you know what they have won.
ALLOTMENT AND POND HERE WE COME... HOORAY!