St Julian's School pupils redecorate changing rooms as part of summer refurbishments

A group of representatives from the school’s Pupil Voice programme – which works like a student council – took time out of their summer holidays to return to school and redecorate the girls’ changing rooms with a graffiti theme and some inspirational quotes to motivate their classmates when the new term begins.

In July, the volunteers helped organised a colour run with Newport Live to raise money for the project and to increase awareness about encouraging more girls to participate in physical education at school.

The girls’ changing rooms project was a priority of the Pupil Voice group, members of which are chosen each year to work with staff to make St Julian’s meet its students’ needs.

The boys’ changing rooms were renovated in the spring.

The volunteers’ hard work accompanied a full summer programme of improvements to the school site, including new windows being installed on the building’s west side, new seating areas and picnic bench-style seating – also a priority for the Pupil Voice group.

The school has also been fitted with a new CCTV system and will use a new traffic management system, with visitor parking and a drop-off system, making the playground a lot safer when classes resume on Tuesday (September 4).

The renovations were made possible by £100,000 of Welsh government funding, which the school applied for last year.

Ryan Owen, estates and operations manager at St Julian’s School, said: “Massive thanks to the students involved, as well as the site staff and our external partners, including Newport Norse.

“We’re looking forward the next developments with Pupil Voice, when we set up a new committee for the coming year.

“It’s been a really good summer and on the back of it, the school had great exam results. It’s been very successful.”