SCHOOL OF THE WEEK: Caerleon Lodge Hill Primary School

PUPILS at Caerleon Lodge Hill Primary School are keen to give their views to influence school life.

I visited the school that is situated in Caerleon and opened in January 2013 as the result of the amalgamation of Lodge Hill Infant and Junior schools.

The amalgamated school operates on a split site, with a short walk between the two sites.

Greeting me was headteacher at the school for just over nine years, Helen Power who was keen to stress that although the school operates across two sites that they work together as one. Every week they host a whole school celebration assembly to achieve this.

The school has developed a whole school community with the motto Working together, learning together on our journey to success.

She said: “The school has been praised for ensuring a very smooth amalgamation.

“A parent liaison group was an important vehicle that we used to communicate what was happening and listening to parent’s views and concerns was important to us.”

Our first stop was to visit year two pupils who were busy sketching their ideas for a new build primary school, which is going to be entering the design phase, this year, and is hoped to open in autumn 2017.

Mrs Power said: “Everyone is very excited to have brand new building that will bring us all together on one site.”

Three of the pupils who were writing a list of their ideas, Ben Burnap, Imogen FarFarakis and Elin Edwards were keen for the new site to have a chicken coop and even a pond.

We moved onto view reception pupils who were busy making birds nest and bird feed in the forest school.

Teacher Fiona Regan said that the children “just love learning in the outdoors”.

She explained that the outdoor projects feed into more traditional teaching, as the children had read a book about nests and were using their ideas to build their own.

They were also learning about the type of food that birds eat and were making bird feeders to hang outside.

The outside space around the school was a hive of activity, and I watched year three pupils learning how to bat before a game of rounders as part of the their PE lesson.

I met with two pupils who were part of the school’s pupil council, Cara Acton and Josh Malloy.

Cara said: “I had the idea of a crazy hair day and we did that to raise money for Children in Need.”

Josh said he wanted to be on the council as he wanted to make the school a better place.

He said: “We introduced some chairs in the playground for pupils who may not have anyone to play with, and if they sit in the chairs then other pupils can go and talk to them.”

The school has also been recognised for its eco work and after achieving three green flags, the school has been awarded a platinum eco award.

A team of pupils have worked hard to increase paper recycling in the school and to get other pupils to use food waste bins. They have held assemblies and made posters to spread their recycling message.

Mrs Power explained that the school has devised its own curriculum and was keen to stretch the imaginations of its pupils.

I met with year six pupils who had been learning about a range of topics from the 1960s, including The Berlin Wall, Martin Luther King, Barbie dolls and the moon landing.

Pupil Missy Bolt said: “I really enjoyed the 1960s, especially Martin Luther King, as we listened to his speech and talked about how it made us feel.”

Another successful addition to the school is a pet therapy project, which sees a lady undertaking reading with the pupils, while her dog sits with the pupils.

Mrs Power said: “We have seen that the project has been a success and is having a positive impact on pupil’s reading.”

She went on to explain that the school is very proud of its teaching staff and that the school has a team which is a mixture of ages and experiences and includes three male teachers.

She said: “Most of our teachers are officially trained student and NQT mentors so students and newly qualified teachers receive excellent support in starting off their careers and we train many students.”

One of the youngest staff members, Nick Smith, who has been at the school for three years, has taken on the role of IT coordinator. He is keen to push the school forward and for pupils to learn coding skills.

He is busy devising a new project for pupils, and added that it will give pupils the skills to make them “a strong workforce for the future”.

The school is also an official Pathfinder school for the Children’s University and every September, pupils and Mrs Power are invited to a university awards ceremony at the University of South Wales Caerleon campus. During the ceremony, children receive awards on the stage where students graduate.

Also all of the school’s teachers and many teaching assistants take a club in their own time, including Mrs Power who leads a guitar club.

Other clubs at the school include gardening, cookery, tennis, cricket, guitar and netball as well as the more traditional school clubs.

“We see a positive impact of extra-curricular activities on pupil’s confidence and self esteem through succeeding and enjoying clubs and this often spills out into their learning of the more formal subjects such as literacy and numeracy,” she added.

Fact file

Headteacher: Helen Power

Pupils at school: 296

School intake: Nursery to year six

Estyn: Inspection May 2014.

The school’s current performance: Good

The school’s prospects for improvement: Good

Contact: Caerleon Lodge Hill Primary School, Lodge Hill, Caerleon, NP18 3BY

Tel: 01633 422322