Every experience is a learning opportunity for the children at Fochriw Primary, the ‘School of the Year’ at the last South Wales Argus Schools and Education Awards. Sue Bradley discovers how it’s a place in which children take life’s challenges in their stride

LIFE has its highs and its lows, a lesson the children at Fochriw Primary School learned within the space of just a few weeks last year.

For them, 2020 began with celebrations after the 104-pupil establishment was named ‘School of the Year’ at the South Wales Argus Schools and Education Awards.

Yet joy turned to sadness just a few days later when the children arrived for their lessons to find their school grounds and polytunnel had been vandalised.

The distress of the pupils was clear to see but head teacher Sharon Pascoe and her team refused to be downcast.

As lockdown got under way, the school launched the ‘From Tragedy to Triumph Fochriw Green Hand Gang’ campaign to make something positive of the senseless attack on their facilities.

Staff worked with the children to redesign the school grounds and sought funding from various places, including the Postcode Lottery, which gave them £10,000.

“We worked with Keep Wales Tidy and lots of external parties and we used the money we raised to repair the polytunnel and get more resources so the children could keep learning,” explains Mrs Pascoe, who joined the school in 2015.

“We looked at our whole strategic curriculum and looked at how the polytunnel could be used to deliver things like literacy, maths and science while teaching authentic experiences and life skills. At the same time we have shown resilience to our community. The children will learn from this and remember it.”

This example of fortitude is just one of the many triumphs notched up by Fochriw Primary School over recent years and goes some way to showcase the ‘one team one vision’ ethos that has led the establishment to improve its categorisation of amber–red to green within the space of just a few years.

A particular success has been the ‘Five Ways to Wellbeing’ scheme, which has been treated as a priority by children, staff and parents.

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Its ‘active travel’ campaign, including ‘Walking to School Week’, has led to many families to make permanent changes, which complement the ‘Daily Mile’ initiative that Fochriw has been running for some time.

Keeping children engaged during the lockdowns has been a challenge for most schools and something that the teaching team at Fochriw have maintained by drawing on various relationships built over the years.

This includes the children’s involvement with Heddlu Bach – or mini police – which has seen them producing safety leaflets for bonfire night and Halloween.

They’ve taken part in Stephen Lawrence Day for a third year, after being the first school in Caerphilly to be a part of the event; they’re the joint winners in a community cohesion campaign celebrating Black History Month and, despite the restrictions, they’ve been involved with British Science Week, with many parents listening in too.

The return of the majority of children to their classrooms following the lockdowns has had to be carefully managed; nevertheless the average attendance rate has remained at 92.5 per cent, just below the school’s pre-Covid 95 per cent.

“Children want to come back to school,” says Mrs Pascoe. “We have zero exclusions, even though this is a tough area, and we have no children refusing to come to school. Everything we have put in place has enabled us to make massive improvements in attendance, which is matter of huge pride."

The progress made by Fochriw Primary School has not gone unnoticed; the renowned behavioural management expert Paul Dix is including a case study on its pupils in his new book, while the school’s website lists a number of awards, including Platinum Eco School status and three accolades for entrepreneurship from the Welsh Government’s Enterprise Troopers scheme.

Being named both the primary school and overall school of the year at the South Wales Argus Schools and Education Awards was a matter of pride not just for the staff and pupils at Fochriw Primary but within the wider community too, says Mrs Pascoe.

“This school is still here and still achieving,” she says. “The community was so proud that we won the award; the number of shares and likes we had on social media was extraordinary.

“Then we had the lockdown, and the vandalism, but we’re now getting all this positivity back in place.

“We’re in a difficult area, with high deprivation, a lot of crime and with many children receiving free school meals. We might have had this difficult past and experienced lots of change, but the standards are still there and the children are achieving and thriving, and that’s something to celebrate.”

Are you proud of your local school, or eager to praise staff or teams who are making a real difference to your child’s life? Send in your nominations to the South Wales Argus Schools & Education Awards.

For full list of categories, and to record your entry, visit: https://newsquestevents. co.uk/schools-educationawards/

Paper entries, including the name and contact details for the person making the nomination, can be sent to South Wales Argus Schools & Education Awards, First Floor, Chartist Tower, Upper Dock Street, Newport, NP20 1DW.