Ysgol Llandeilo trip to Dinefwr

The day began at the car park in Dinefwr Park. We walked through the parkland to the castle, seeing so much beauty on the way - a field full of buttercups glowing yellow,


a red kite flying overhead, foxgloves peeping out of nearby woodland, dark tree trunks and deep green canopy in the woods, and we stopped to listen to the birdsong just before leaving the wood.

We reached the panels explaining about the local wildlife,

and another which explained about the castle,


then moved on to a grassy area outside the castle entrance to admire the view.


Michael gathered the pupils together and explained what the plan for the day was - storytelling in the castle, some exploration of the castle, then back to school to begin the serious work of creating a class story.


Next, everybody went into the castle itself, and began to explore the ground floor levels.

Michael called everybody back form their explorations, and began to ask the group what they knew about Llandeilo, and how it got it's name. Several of the pupils knew about Saint Teilo, and also knew of a Llandeilo in Brittany, and possibly another in Australia!

Following a little discussion about St Teilo, Michael told us a story about St Cadog, all about how he found all his friends in Brecon starving, and prayed and prayed and prayed for food for them, and how a mouse helped them to find and grow food. The pupils loved the part where Cadog tied himself to the mouse's tail and ended up in an awful stagnant swampy pool!

Michael also told tales of Elidyr's time in fairyland, and King Arthur buried under the ground with bags of silver and gold and a very big bell.


The children went for another exploration, this time up the stairs and around the walls and tower. They returned for one last story - that of Peredur. The children sat much closer to Michael than they had for the first storytelling session.

they concentrated


and listened intently.


We walked back down the hill, to school and lunch. When Michael arrived in the children's classroom, he saw this lovely display about stories - a story mountain with prompts to the left and right. This might help the children when they come to work on the detail of their story.


Michael told the children that they were all going to make a brand new, never heard before, class story. There were many components which needed to be decided on, beginning with a character. Michael asked the children about their favourite characters from the stories they heard in the castle. They chose 3, then each child closed their eyes and chose their favourite, in their heads. Everybody voted, and the first character for the class story was a mouse!

The children went on to choose their location - a castle surrounded by forest - and a special object - a sword made of gold. There would be more decisions to be made as they story progressed, and a few more characters would certainly add interest to the story.


As the afternoon progressed they worked to create a narrative involving 5 characters, the mouse, an old man, a cat, a serving girl, a jealous Princess and a King.


The whole story took place in the castle or surrounding forest, and some of it was scary, and it was pretty grotty in places, too, especially in the castle sewers!


The story begins - "Once upon a time there was a mouse. he lived in a hole at the bottom of a tree in a forest......" but the work of writing the story down begins next week.

Michael returns to Ysgol Llandeilo on Monday. The children will work hard to expand, refine, edit and polish their story. When it's finished, it will be uploaded here for all to read. If the class illustrate the story, we'll show you the pictures, too!