Ynystawe Primary School Way of teaching and learning

In Ynystawe Primary School they don't separate the different areas in different lessons taught by different teachers. Most of the time the same teachers stay in the same class teaching all the subjects to the same pupils. 

Every Thursday, year 5 and 6 pupils have 'Forest School' (if the weather allows them to do so) and on Mondays they do PE. That's all the timetable they have. Then, some days they learn more about Sciences linked with literacy or with art and some others they learn about Mathematics linked with art as well. To sum up,  they work in a cross curricular way so that the pupils make strong connections in their brains between all the aspects that they are learning.

They don't use textbooks but lots of  reading books, photocopiable resources, ICT, etc. 

They only have two notebooks: One for Maths, another one for Language and a kind of Portfolio where they keep all the works they have done. Here you have a link to a document parents receive at the beginning of each term so that they are informed of what their children will be doing. Newsletter

As you can see, they work the whole term around one 'Leonardo Theme':

• Air/Flight
• Water
• Earth
• Fire

In that document you can also see how homework is addressed.

Here you have what I think is a great example of teaching Maths,  Literature and Art all together in one task:

Art technique- Heat Transfer

Heat Transfer in another technique they use in Ynystawe Primary School when Morriston Comprehensive School lends them a Heat Press:

 

First, pupils coloured a pattern on a piece of paper. Then, they put on it some feathers, some yarn...then a piece of fabric on it, and last, inside the heat press. You have some of the wonderful results below:

The paint was a special one so that it dyes the fabric. Here you have the name of it: Disperse Dye

Learning Welsh

Here you have some pictures of some Reading books in Welsh:

 This is the 'Welsh Corner' in Nursery and Reception classroom. The daffodil is their symbol as well as the flag with the Red Dragon:

Books about daffodils and activities carried out related with them:

 

Here you have one lesson on Welsh language with Year 5 and 6 pupils. They were reading a book and doing some reading comprehension:

Some posters with Welsh Vocabulary:

And here a webpage that they use in the school with digital contents both in Welsh and English:

Hwb Wales 

Art technique- Batik

In the hall of the school, they have got these lovely displays made with this technique by one of the teachers, Sarah Williams.

Here you have how it works:

And here you have another easier way of doing it if you dont have the wax heater and the canting pens.

  

Year 3 and 4 pupils were doing an activity with this technique that was related with Science. They were working with rainforest and they were doing a colourful leaf.

CANTERBURY

My second and last week has been as amazing as the previous.

As a summary of my experience I have to say that it has been a very enriching experience. I had five hours of lessons every day,except at the weekend and I meet a lot of people from several countries. They are very friendly.

Besides this I have enjoyed a lot about this wonderful city and surrounding towns like Dover.

Then I show a small photographic memory of my last week and trip a Dover.

Canterbury Cathedral

Canterbury Castle

DOVER

Dover Castle is the biggest Castle of Dover, the biggest in England.

The white cliffs of Dover described recently in The Guardian as one of the top ten places to visit in England.

Art technique- Screen Printing

At Ynystawe Primary School they implement "The Leonardo Effect". One of the main points of it is that they synchornise the teaching of Science and Art. 
I have discovered the astonishing techniques they use in art. 

The first one is Screen Printing. It is quite a long process and you need very specific materials for it. 
Here you have video of how it works although at the school they don't make the screens, some experts came to school with them ready for the printing.

Pupils first created an image on the Ipad with the App Sketchbook. Then the experts printed them on the screens, and then they bought them to the school to make the painting. They had to put some crepe paper on a kind of cardboard. The last step was the screen painting in itself.

 

 

Here I have found a set that you can buy to make this wonderful technique.

 Screen Printing Set

More photos of the process:
This pinture below represents some cells, and that is the connection between Science and Art.

As you can imagine, kids loved it and they were engaged in the whole process as you can see in the photo below.