LLANTILIO Pertholey Church in Wales School is the first school within Monmouthshire to be awarded Communication Friendly School Status – making sure teachers talk to pupils in a way they can understand.

To gain this status all staff at the Abergavenny primary school were required to undertake communication training, which equipped the staff to understand the nature and extent of a wide range of communication and the impact this has on children reaching their full potential.

Research was undertaken on how children interact with both adults and their peers, how children think and respond to questions and how adults encourage the children to extend their vocabulary.

Following the training numerous strategies have been implemented within the school which has seen a huge impact on the children’s confidence, understanding, behaviour and independence towards learning and their personal well-being.

Helen Francis and Melissa Toombs have been the driving force behind this.

Last week The school was one of the first in Abergavenny to be awarded the prestigious Eco-schools Platinum Award. This has been worked towards since 2007 coordinated by Tracey Pugh.

“Among some of the things we have developed in order to gain this award are our extensive school grounds and links with schools in Sri Lanka, Ethiopia and Spain. Our assessor -from ‘Keep Wales Tidy’,” a spokesman said.