ONE of the first things head-teacher Jill Jones refers to when asked to describe her school, All Saints Catholic Primary, in Ebbw Vale, is its “lovely children”.

And just hearing of some of the work the pupils and staff do in the community and for charity is testament to this.

The school’s motto is “caring, sharing, loving” and it is clear the school lives up to it.

Ms Jones said the school, which counts 203 pupils but whose numbers have been increasing, is “a very welcoming and friendly place”.

She added: “The staff here are committed and the children enjoy coming to school.”

The list of charities the school has helped in just one year seems almost never ending, including local organisations like Hospice of the Valleys, food banks and Velindre as well as national charities like CAFOD, the Poppy Appeal, Children in Need and Macmillan. The pupils have raised £1,300 in one year through fundraising activities.

Since Ms Jones took up the headship of the school in Heol-Yr-Ysgol, Ebbw Vale two years ago, she said she has been focussing on engaging with the community and parents.

She said: “I have been focusing on involving parents in life of the school. And many more come in now compared to when I started.

“We have been doing lots of productions. We also did a Chinese auction with streams of tables where you buy tickets.”

One recent production the children put on was a take on the film Shrek, which Ms Jones said was an “excellent show” which was also “a credit to the teaching staff”.

She said: “A grandmother has written a letter in to say how much she enjoyed watching the school’s performance.”

Also in the community, the school choir has sung in the nursing home in Ebbw Vale which the head hopes will become a regular thing.

The school’s pupils have also gone down and taken part in a Christmas concert at Christchurch with other schools in the Ebbw Vale cluster.

And as a Catholic school, the links between the school and parish are encouraged and give rise to engagement with the community, like the nativity and Christmas concerts performed in church.

In July, the Archbishop of Cardiff George Stack visited the school and held an assembly with the staff and pupils, as well as officially opening the school’s new reception area – the first time in more than 20 years the school has had a visit from the archbishop.

Parents and governors came to watch and Archbishop Stack listened to the pupils singing and playing the violins, as well as blessing two members of staff who were retiring.

Ms Jones said music is an incredibly important part of school life, with hymns sung at every assembly and a vibrant school choir.

She said: “We have got a few class violin projects and year two play proper violins.

“We had an infant samba project where we learnt about music from Latin America, and we also used iPads to make music too.

“We also had an African drumming project, trying to be multicultural across the different year groups.”

Multiculturalism is something the school has been lucky enough to develop in quite a unique way recently, thanks to a pupil who joined the school from Czechoslovakia this year.

The boy joined the school in June and his grandmother, who is a teacher in Czechoslovakia, arranged to bring eight pupils over from her class.

Ms Jones said: “It’s a great link between the two schools. The children started learning about each other’s cultures. Email addresses were set up so they can share across. The children loved it.”

IT is also something the school has been trying to develop, said the head-teacher.

She said: “We have been developing IT over the last few years, improving resources for teaching and learning.

“The children love the iPads and the notebooks as well. We have got an electronic screen in the hall and when we did the production it was part of it.”

The extra-curricular activities are also very popular and varied, with clubs including gardening club, athletics club, netball, performing arts, cross country club and newspaper club. They also have an eco council and school council.

Since Ms Jones joined the school, she has been planning to renovate the building which has parts that have been untouched since the 1970s.

The new reception area is the latest work on the building, and was built to improve safeguarding in the school – but Ms Jones said there is more that needs to be done.

She said: “I have been on a mission to re do the whole building since I have been here, we have plans for new carpets and building areas. I want lovely big classrooms.

“Because numbers have gone up we want a new building and classroom, it’s about making the most of the space.”

She said she wants to transform and bring back into use areas of the school like the shower blocks, which currently lie unused.

The school’s outdoors area is already very well-equipped, with a forest trail and pond as well as a log circle, butterfly garden, vegetable garden and courtyard with a story teller’s chair.

Ms Jones said they make the most of their resources, so the caretaker who she said is “very clever in carpentry”, is the one who has built all the decking.

She added: “People are always planting all the time, planting strawberry buses was one of the latest.”

It does seem like the school is developing all the time.

Ms Jones said when she joined, “there were things I needed to change”.

She said: “We were in the orange to yellow category for improvement but now we are coming out of it and we’ve been told our teaching and learning provision is good.”

And just from one visit to the school, it seems a very happy place to be.

The head agrees. “I’m very happy to be here,” Ms Jones said. “It is a very inclusive school. And we are going places.”