On the first day of our new school year we celebrated the wonderful work of our Olympic player escort and flagbearers. Miss Allen presented each of them with a certificate signed by Lord Coe to thank them for volunteering and their commitment at the games.

We all proud that the first game of the fantastically successful 2012 Olympics was held at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on the 25th July three days befor the official opening ceremony in London. We were especially proud as children & stafffrom Millbank Primary were there to help the players.

Our pupils were on the news & seen on TVs around the world in their role as flag bearers & player escorts for the football teams. Miss Clissold said "They looked so smart in their kits & were so well behaved." You can see some of the photoshere.

Cory said “I was a bit nervous in front of all those people, but you just have to get on with it!” adding “..... but I was more nervous doing Millbank’s got talent!”

A special thank you goes to the staff Miss Clissold, Miss Garcia, Mrs Hargadon, & Mr Thomas for giving up their own time over the summer to support the pupils.  Mrs Garcia said “Some days we were at the stadium from 10 till 10 at night .... but it was worth it to give the children such a wonderful once in a lifetime experience.” Miss Allen said "We are all so proud of them, What great role models they, and the whole army of volunteers at all the Olympic venues were."

They each had to wear a special uniform and practice, practice, practice so that they were perfect. When some of the other schools could not attend some of our pupils were able to cover.

Being Millbank pupils they were also on the lookout for Fairtrade products at the venue. We had tried to arrange an interview with the stadium about the TEAM FAIR project and their use of Fairtrade products and if they were going to be as readily available as the plans suggested. Wales will celebrate 5 years as the world's First Fairtrade Nation so we were excited to see how this major venue reflected that. Sadly they did not reply to the children's letter and try as we might we could only find Fairtrade white sugar on offer. But the more you keep asking and writing letters the more chance you have of someone like the stadium taking notice.

The children had written to Lord Coe about the mass balloon release at the ceremony to mark the opening of the Stadium in London, pointing out that this is just littering. Again just because the young girl never had any reply or acknowledgment does not mean she was ignored and the main thing is that she tried!

The children had made some super Olympic medals as part of their Global Education work. This year the theme was 'Going for Gold', in which World leaders are reminded of their commitment to get every child in school as one of the Millennium development goals, suggesting that when a child's future is concerned they should not settle for second best. Our MP Kevin Brennan came in to take all or medals back to London and the ministers there.

Of course there had been many Olympic themed events and activities all term. We were delighted to have a visit from the Olympic torch and each child had their photo taken with it. They had the opportunity to pay a £1 to have it printed so that funds could be raised to help the AMAF school in Kenya. We also had our sponsored fun run. So the pupils are not just campaigning for change, they try, and indeed do make a real difference to our world.

The Olympic Values are:-

Respect – fair play; knowing one’s own limits; and taking care of one’s health and the environment. Respecting others is a big part of Millbank and we learn how people can only get their rights if we all respect those rights.

Excellence – how to give the best of oneself, on the field of play or in life; taking part; and progressing according to one’s own objectives. Of course our school motto is "Only our best is good enough."

Friendship – how, through sport, to understand each other despite any differences. This is such an important theme at all schools not just friendship and empathy between pupils, but internationally too. A big feature of the games was the volunteers and everyone commented on their tremendous effort.

We have of course campaigned to promote the Paralympic games too and were delighted how successful that was at London 2012. Right is our newsletter from Christmas in which we pointed out some of the work needed to highlight the problems associated with disability in some Kenyan schools during Mr Peter's visit.

We of course were all delighted to see our good frien Ellie Symmonds doing so well at the swimming too! She had of course visted the school two years ago as part of our Team GB work to promote global sustainability. She made one of our famous pig planters from an old milk bottle and planted some strawberries,as well as telling us all about dedication to achieving her best.

You can of course see more at the Official London 2012 website here

There is a lovely Echo article here all about the opening games.

You can still see some of the games on the BBC website .