In Ysgol Pen Rhos we welcome the chance to provide many different learning experiences and opportunities for our children.

Some examples of this works are:

CEIC (Circular Economy in Schools) - Algae and Bees in YPR

Pupils in Year 4 and 5 talking about the 'Pharma Bees' and 'Our Classroom Climate' projects.

"In 2022, we formed a relationship with the College of Biomedical and Life Sciences in Cardiff University. Their `Pharma Bees’ project aims to explore how bees pollinate plants and how we could use this to help make new medicines to treat cancer and other medical conditions. This was an exciting project that we knew we wanted to be a part of".

"The first thing we wanted to do was find out about bees in our local area so we did some independent research about species of wild bees in Carmarthenshire and the types of wild flowers native to our area. Then we had to get the bee meadow ready, we made and launched bee bombs into our new bee meadow, designed a bee water station and went on a pollen hunt to understand how hard bees have to work to collect pollen. Did you know bees have to visit 1,800 flowers to make one teaspoon of honey".  

"Through our work with this project, we now understand the importance of looking after our environment and we are now more aware of the impact climate change is having on our planet and how it could impact our bees in the future. So, we decided to do something about it. We become involved with ‘Our Classroom Climate’, which is fantastic project that has allowed us to learn about climate change and inspired us to take action".

"I am sure you are all aware of the impact that carbon dioxide levels are having on our planet. In our classroom, we have decided to do something about it. We have started growing algae and through a process called photosynthesis, algae absorbs carbon dioxide from our atmosphere. Plants and trees do this too, but a fun fact about algae is that it absorbs CO2 400 times faster than a tree. We have 8 bioreactors of algae growing in our classroom, so that would be the same as growing a large forest in class. As you can imagine, that wouldn’t leave much room for us to do our work".

"Through this project, we have done lots of hands on science. We monitor the C02 levels in our class every day as we know when it gets above 1000 parts per million, it can make you feel tired and sleepy, which makes it very hard to learn. We’ve also learnt all about greenhouse gases and climate change and we’ve had the chance to use lots of cool scientific equipment, such as a centrifuge, microscopes and a very expensive machine called a spectrophotometer. In fact, we are currently working with a real-life scientist called Scott to investigate which coloured light helps algae grow the fastest. With the help of our scientist, we are hoping to be some of the first primary school children to publish our work in a real scientific journal".

"Below are some videos showing the work we've done with both projects".

• Cardiff University and YPR - My Environment, My Future

• Cardiff University and Bee One - The Bees of YPR

• Algae in YPR

• Swansea University - Prosiect Siarc

• Art and the Eisteddfod - Orielodl

• Artist in Residence - Nia Owen & Blwyddyn 1 a 6 

• YPR supporting the Eisteddfod fundraising concert in the Ffwrness Theatre

• YPR supporting Cymru women's team in their match with Bosnia Herzegovina in Cardiff