JOINING pupils at a Torfaen primary school, I went to find out why they achieved the highest score on a new colour coded rating system.

There were celebrations at George Street Primary School last month when they achieve green in the new colour coded rating system for Wales’ schools, which is the top rating.

The school, which is based on Ty-Bwmpyn Road, was a hive of activity with 365 pupils aged between three and 11 on its role.

Head teacher Julie Wood explained that the school’s motto is “Together we live, learn and value.”

She outlined that the pupils have a say in the way that the school is run and that the children are keen to see how their voices have impacted both in and outside of school.

Mrs Wood said: “The pupils come to teachers with many fundraising ideas for charities and we are always keen to take their ideas on board and make their ideas come to life.

"The children love getting involved and seeing how much money they can raise for good causes.”

The school recently hosted a rugby-a-thon and Wear Red for British Heart Foundation Day. The final figure was over £500 for sports kit and over £600 for the British Heart Foundation.

Another project thought up by the pupils was an induction book for any new pupils that join the school during the year. This has now been rolled out to all classes and each year the pupils update the book with useful information for any new pupils.

Mrs Wood described how the school has great outdoor space and that they make the most of it, with the school boasting a football team, netball team and rugby team.

“We encourage children to take up a sport as it promotes team work and healthy competition”, she said.

The school also take part in sporting events, and hold the title of Gwent County FA School of the Year, the MCC Spirit of Cricket winners, Cardiff City Cup Finalists, netball regional finalists, three times winners of Nant Celyn Football Tournament and Young Sports Ambassadors Best Practice School.

Mrs Wood said: “We were awarded the Active Mark Cymru for Sport for 2013 to 16. This has been a very prestigious accolade for us.”

Active Mark Cymru is a quality award developed between Sport Wales and the Association for Physical Education and is awarded to schools in recognition of high quality physical education and school sport and celebrates the success of pupils in school and the wider sporting community.

The school also have a range of after school clubs including a choir, Welsh folk dancing, a gardening club, Bring Books Alive and a film club.

Miss Wood said that they run a value based school and monthly the school will take on a value, such as hope, trust, and friendship, which will be linked to assemblies and projects, and teaches children the importance of having each one.

It is hopes that the pupils take these values with them when they have leave the school.

The school also invites parents into the school to work alongside their children in a family values programme. One of the tasks that they undertake is a cookery lesson, which has seen them make trifle, soup and Jammie Dodgers.

I took a tour of the school and my first stop was to see year six pupils who were members of the football and netball teams.

I also saw the school's outdoor space and every class has its own space to work in.

The nursery children were busy playing outside, using a variety of toys.

They had had a busy morning making T-shirts for their upcoming fashion show and were now enjoying their play activity.

Next I saw members of the forest school where pupils were busy building houses for different animals. There was a squirrel house, a rabbit house and an owl nest.

While there the school received the news that their pupils has been successful in the Gwent Wildlife Trust’s annual Wildlife Wizards Quiz at Greenmeadow Community Farm.

The first round of the quiz has taken place on the morning of my visit with the school joining others from across Gwent.

This year more than 25 schools are taking part in the competition which encourages the youngsters to improve their understanding, explore, talk about, and build their knowledge of British wildlife.

Stepping back inside the school, we visited the year four class who were busy designing flying machines, based on a literacy project from The Harry Potter books. Each pupil has designed their machine by drawing it out and was busy explaining the different components and how it would fly.

Having some quiet time were pupils in the year six common room who were spending their break reading.

There are also music lessons going on throughout the day, with pupils being taught a variety of instruments.

Year one and year two pupils were busy using Ipads to film themselves as part of a class project.

The school uses combinations of learning in the classroom and independent learning zones where pupils can use IT to undertake their own research to deliver back to the class.

Address: George Street Primary School, Wainfelin Road, Pontypool, Torfaen, NP4 6BX

Date of Estyn inspection: February 2014

Outcome: The school’s current performance is good and the school’s prospects for improvement is good.

Judged so because: ?most pupils progress well from their starting-points on entry to the school; pupils’ speaking and listening skills are good throughout the school; ?there is good provision for pupils’ physical development; ?pupils have an effective voice in influencing the life and work of the school; and the quality of teaching is consistently good in all classes.

Number of children on role: 365

Number of teachers: 17