WALKING into the foyer of Trinant Primary School earlier this week, the Argus was greeted by a group of older women.

It is not what you would usually find at a primary school, but Trinant Primary, in between Aberbeeg and Crumlin, is trying to be different.

Aside from being struck by its warmth and openness, visitors immediately realise this is a school which is very much involved in the community.

The group of older ladies were part of the school’s intergenerational group, who drop in to see the pupils regularly.

They join in activities including curling and a culinary journey back in time with a tasting menu from school dinners from the 1950s. Dishes included pilchards and semolina for dessert.

Head teacher Sian James said: “A lot of the children’s grandparents are in their 40s and 50s.

“The ladies say they have seen the children outside of school and they always are nice. They feel there’s a better relationship with them, the respect is there now.”

Head teacher Ms James has led the school since 2011 but has worked there for more than 19 years. She agrees the school is very much a community primary.

She said: “The school places itself at the heart of the community. We strongly believe in educating the whole family if they are to see long term, sustained improvements.”

To do this, Ms James said parental engagement is “huge”.

She said: “Parents have classes themselves and we provide sessions in school.

“Because we are quite remote and there’s deprivation in the area, we try to get the parents involved as much as we can.”

The school has 163 pupils on roll with mixed year group classes. There is one nursery class and five others.

The last Estyn inspection was in 2013 and rated the school good for current performance and prospects for improvement.

The inspector said many pupils achieve high standards in literacy and communication skills and their attainment at the end of Foundation phase compares very well with that of pupils at similar schools.

As a new initiative this year, the school has introduced the Rainbow Reading programme, designed to give children a range of topics, authors, styles and illustrations to read.

Books are given out with a CD and follow up activities so children can listen along.

Ms James said: “If they don’t get to read with parents at home they get it on audio as well.”

To work on numeracy, the school is taking part in a programme called Upbeat Music where music is used to help children practise their maths.

They solve numerical problems through music and parents have even come along to some of the sessions and taken part in drumming.

Aside from the academic, Trinant Primary has a whole range of other projects and activities going on which makes for a rich school experience.

The school has seven ‘stepping stones’ which act as a school motto: include, praise, attitude, persevere, responsibility, attendance, ignite, success. And it is clear these are in action every day at the school.

Trinant has been accepted by the Arts Council of Wales as one of the first schools in Wales to become a ‘Lead Creative’ school.

Thanks to the programme, over the last two months year three and four pupils have worked with a professional gamer as well as a Welsh author and sculptor.

The school also has very active school and eco councils who do a lot of work. Trinant has recently been awarded their second green flag, ‘fair aware’ and ‘fair active’ awards and it hopes to get fair trade status after doing a lot of work to support fairtrade products.

A recent grant from the local wind farm has also meant the school has been able to buy bird boxes with live feed cameras inside, hedgehog houses, more bug hotels and a pond.

Pupils also take care of the school’s rabbit, fish, guinea pigs and chickens.

Ms James said members of the eco committee came up with a fundraising idea by themselves.

She said: “The children came to me after the weekend and said, ‘we have raised this money’.

“They said, ‘we have been Christmas carolling and we’ve raised some money’.”

The money went towards sponsoring a six-year-old girl called Adiba, from Afghanistan.

The pupils carried on recycling uniforms and old books to support the campaign.

A recent success for the school has been their triumph at the Enterprise Troopers – a competition where children from different schools come up with business ideas which they then develop.

Year six pupils from Trinant Primary won the regional finals and now go through to the national finals taking place on Tuesday, March 22.

Pupils Jasmine Morgan, Jimmy James and Aimee-May Critchley represented the year group, presenting their Christmas plaque project to the Enterprise Troopers judges.

And year six as a whole were also awarded the Business Engagement Award for their fantastic efforts.

Ms James said: “The project supported the school’s aim to develop confident young people with entrepreneurial skills and attitudes.

“The children not only had a lot of fun during the project, but also developed their literacy and numeracy skills, as well as team building”.

On top of this, the school is regularly involved in charity work. For St David’s Day they took part in Bake for Bobath and made love spoons to raise money for the charity which helps people with cerebral palsy.

The school also offers their year six pupils free swimming lessons.

Ms James said: “As Pen-y-Fan pond is so close to our community we strongly believe that all our pupils should be able to swim.”

One of the parents, Helen Hardacre, helped out with the project and took the children to the swimming pool.

It is clear, even from just a quick tour and walk round, the school is an incredibly friendly and welcoming place.

But the school is constantly making improvements. The nursery gardens are currently undergoing development work and Ms James said the developments do not end there.

She said: “The school has huge plans to redevelop the school yards with an improved surface and will include large scale activity play equipment and safety flooring.”

Wherever the future takes them, it is likely the school will remain an important asset in the community.