Ageas Bowl

Year 6 were very lucky to go to the Ageas Bowl today to see some special visitors. As part of their tour, the pupils had the opportunity to meet players from the Under 19 Sri Lankan cricket team. When we got to the Ageas Bowl, Miss Blackburn helped us to learn a little more about Sri Lanka. We found out that it has been ten years since the devastating tsunami which tore through the country which destroyed thousands of homes and killed hundreds of people.

We worked in teams to work out where Sri Lanka was on the map. It took us a little while to find it - we discovered that it was a small island off India, in the continent of Asia.

We then learnt about two people who lost their parents in the tsunami. We found out that they came back to the UK but wanted to do something to help the people of Sri Lanka recover from the awful disaster. They set up a business making flip flops called 'Gandys' - all profits from the sale of their shoes help to build an orphanage over in Sri Lanka.

We then had a go at designing our own Gandy flip flops. We used iPads to find out about different Sri Lankan art and tried to incorporate it into our designs.

Here's a small selection of our fantastic designs!

After lots of creative thinking, we had the chance to eat our lunch and watch Hampshire play Essex in a County Match. 

In the afternoon, we had then opportunity to ask two of the Sri Lankan team about their life and what inspired them to take up cricket. We found out that they lives were quite similar to ours but they also had lots of differences - they go to school at 7.30am and finish at 1pm!

To round off a fantastic day, we also had the chance to play a fast-paced game of Cage Cricket!

Even though the sun didn't really shine, it was a very interesting, fun packed day. Many thanks to Mrs Pellett for supporting our visit.