EVERY primary school in Gwent teaches its pupils to read and write. But one Cwmbran school has proved so good at teaching literacy it has been named the only Lighthouse school in Wales. TOM WHITELEY visited.

Children at Hollybush Primary School are learning to love words. Not just in books - but on advertisements, in telling their own life stories. And boys as well as girls are getting the reading and writing bug because of the fresh approach.

The school, on Ton Road, Cwmbran, is pioneering a new method of teaching children to read and write which gets terrific results.

And the school itself is now one of only four across the UK with Lighthouse status, meaning that others will study its techniques in order to improve.

The school is what educationalists call a "beacon". Head teacher Karen Godwin, 39, of Blackwood, said: "I came here two years ago, and before that I was teaching literacy in the Gurnos estate in Merthyr Tydfil.

"In Merthyr I taught children who had the intellect to keep up with the subject matter of their lessons, but they didn't have the literacy skills. "I decided I wanted to do something about the way that we were teaching English, because the traditional way, which is very exercise-based and formal, tends to focus on writing stories.

"Girls read a lot of stories and fantasy, but by and large boys tend to read fewer stories and more about football and things that are based in the real world.

"So instead we draw their writing from first-hand experience - they're not asked to imagine abstract concepts.

"For example, if they're doing a historical report they would have done some research and they would have been taken to see something first hand.

"We're looking at lots of different forms of writing, like advertising, and they can see the point of that more.

"It's not that awful Janet-and-John-book approach - it's reading and writing in the real world, and it means you end up with a result the boys are gripped by."

The school also has a hearing-impaired unit for children who range from profoundly deaf to those who have aids - and they are taught using exactly the same techniques.

Ms Godwin said: "I did a lot of training days with the staff and it became obvious fairly quickly that the students were improving, and in terms of results the improvements are massive.

"As a Lighthouse school we will be in constant contact with First Steps and their findings will then go out to the whole UK.

"If other schools in Wales want to know what we're doing, then they can come along and watch our work.

"I believe that you can change lives in teaching, and literacy is the one skill that we can give the children that will change their life choices."