It was a rather wet July day that we all met at the school to go to London, years 5 & 6 and pupils from Glyn Derw High came along too as this was partly a transition project. We had planned to visit the Science Museum too, but the grumpy bus driver said we could not do it.

The rainclouds followed us eastwards to London and we finally hit London in time for the lunchtime rush hour which included a half hour stuck on the roundabout at Trafalgar Square. Despite this and being stuck inside a coach for so long all the children were well behaved -very very excited.

Having dropped us off we waited opposite the Lyceum Theatre trying to use the building to shelter from the rain as the staff sorted out the tickets. Soon we were shown to our seats. The Lyceum Theatre itself has had a very interesting history, and used to house Madame Tussaud's waxworks in the 1800's. It was the first Theatre to be lit by Gas in 1817 (before it burnt down).

The show the Lion King has been very successful all over the world. Our seats were up in 'the gods' or Grand Circle but we still had a great view.

The set design was very clever. The stage tilted and opened to reveal Pride rock spiraling upwards, the set for the elephants graveyard was equally impressive and flexible. The Costume design was well again fabulous. And lighting yep that was really great, loved the waterhole's drying up effect just so clever.

Most of the children know the story from the Disney Movie. To some it is just a good story with lots of catchy songs in it. To others it is a 'coming of age' story about growing up and Simbas struggle over taking responsibility rather than the carefree 'hakuna matata' attitude of Timon and Pumba.

Simba has made mistakes but learns that he cannot run away from them, he has to learn from them. And thats a great lesson for anyone its no good stewing over a problem, tell someone! Often just trying to put the problem into words puts it into perspective.

Many of the children know that 'hakuna matata' is Swahili for 'no worries, be happy' from the work they have done with Glenys Kinnock and Oxfam with the send my friend to school project over the last few years. They have done work on families and their ancestors and know about the "Circle of Life" too because they are a clever lot.

As you can see we also had lots of snacks and ice cream, well it is a treat!

We got picked up outside the Warldorf Hotel we were tempted to pop in for a famous tango tea but decided we better pop home. Again we hit the rush hour traffic and crawled out of London eventually arriving back at the school in Cardiff at 9 O'Clock it was a very long day for all of us, but we all enjoyed the show so much it was worth it.

Many thanks to all the adults who came along and all the pupils from both schools who behaved so well. Glyn Derw funded the tickets and Millbank the transport so a big thank you to all the staff involved, Mrs Webber at Millbank is great at organising such things, so huge thanks to her too..