ARRIVING at Langstone Primary School on a bright spring morning I am greeted by enthusiastic head Beverley Cole whose energy gives the school a unique buzz.

Leading me into the building Mrs Cole begins to tell me what makes Langstone special.

“Our partnership work is something a bit different,” she said.

“We were a lead practitioner school, which was part of the wider growth initiative to support emerging schools.”

This saw Langstone collaborate with other schools on the local cluster on a range of current initiatives including the sharing of good practice and the moderation and standardisation of pupils work.

The school also excels in providing additional activities and clubs to improve the well-being of pupils.

Stand out clubs include orchestra club, which provides an opportunity for pupils learning instruments in school, to come together to play.

Other clubs work across a wide range of sport, dance, creativity and music.

The school is an Eco school having achieved the Platinum Flag award and is also a thinking school.
As part of this, pupils collected milk bottles and created an outdoor igloo used for reading and to promote recycling.

“We are particularly strong at developing children’s learning through tool kits, thinking maps and thinking hats,” Mrs Cole said.

“They are the strategies used to develop thinking throughout the school.

The school is also a healthy school working towards a level six in their healthy assessments – the final level – after building up a portfolio of work.

Taking me out onto the yard, pupils are practicing road safety skills as part of the schools focus on well-being and teaching the children real-life skills through a programme of study called PSWBCD, which includes road safety lessons to teach urban pupils how to cross busy roads and stay safe.

Other classes include lessons on hygiene, healthy and safety, and substances.

These practical life skills also extend to practical and educational play as children are given the opportunity to use the school’s mud kitchen.

The outdoor kitchen sees children make “food” from mud while using important literacy and numeracy skills along the way.

“Children write recipes, which is using their literacy skills,” Mrs Cole said.

“They are also using fractions when they are making pizza and are working together collaboratively.

“Pupils substitute normal ingredients for natural ingredients so tomatoes would be substituted with daisies.”

The role play also enables children to have additional time learning outdoors.

“We have invested hugely in our outdoor learning,” the head said.

“We have a log circle, polytunnels and a boat.”

There is also a strong focus on being healthy at Langstone, with pupils following the school’s SNAG programme where pupils who bring in healthy lunch boxes are rewarded with stickers.

Top healthy eaters of the week also allowed to sit on a “fancy table” decorated with a table cloth in the hall.

“We tend to focus on two classes for this privilege – one from foundation phase and one from juniors,” Mrs Cole said.

“It is all about making healthy choices.

“Pupils are not allowed to bring in crisps, they are only allowed to bring in fruit for a snack.”

In class Langstone pupils are taught through project learning, where a topic is chosen for a project, which feeds into all areas of the curriculum.

“Our recent autumn and spring projects have focused in the topic where is the love? and have you ever wondered?” Mrs Cole said.

“These over arching projects are used across the literacy and numeracy fame work.

“We have three projects a year and two of them are whole-school projects.

“Pupils engage through the use of tree maps to map out the project.”

But it’s not all work and no play, pupils also run their own radio station during break and lunchtimes called Radio Langstone, which is broadcast outside into the years and sees pupils make song requests and announcements for birthdays.

During playtime older pupils in Year Six look out for their younger friends through the school’s Play Buddies scheme, which works on a rotational basis to ensure the well-being of the other children.

Recently pupils took part in an art competition called love in the palm of your hand in memory of former teacher Lucy Edwards with top entries displayed in the school reception.

Incidental Welsh is also recognised and rewarded on Shwmae Friday where pupils are encouraged to use Welsh in play outdoors and in lessons when interacting to boost skills.

“Staff are brilliant and it is a fabulous school,” Mrs Cole said.

“Staff and pupils are amazing, our children are respected and valued.

“It really is a privilege to be a part of it.”