NO two days are the same for staff and pupils at Shirenewton Primary.

The vibrant and active village school is a constant hive of activity with all corners of the colourfully-decorated building and grounds well utilized.

There is plenty to shout about at the school, having celebrated its 30th anniversary with a birthday party last summer.

One of the lasting legacies of the landmark event is buddy benches that were funded by the parent-teacher association and have been placed in the playground.

Associate head teacher Jill Mitchell explained that the children sit on benches if they are feeling lonely, would like someone new to play with or simply want to chat to their friends.

The children keep an eye on the bench and offer friendship to those sitting on it.

Shirenewton is part of the Chepstow Primary Alliance, set up by Monmouthshire council in 2014 as a school to school improvement initiative sharing good practice, with Thornwell and Pembroke primary schools sharing an executive head teacher, Jayne Edwards.

Following the success of the first year the governors of each school have agreed to extend the life of the alliance for a further two years to build on the success.

Mrs Mitchell, who has been employed at the school for two decades and has held the post of associate head teacher for 18 months, described Shirenewton as a "perfect sized school which has resulted in a warm, friendly, family atmosphere where everyone is valued-both pupils and adults".

“It is an exciting time for the school.

“All staff are extremely hard-working and are constantly looking for ways to develop further to give pupils the best possible experience in our school.

“Consequently we have a number of very exciting projects here.”

The school has been chosen to be a pioneer school and will be playing a crucial role in developing an ambitious and exciting new curriculum for Wales for 2021 that will be available for school to use in 2018.

“We have been extremely fortunate to secure funding from the Arts Council of Wales to become a Lead Creative School," Mrs Mitchell added.

The scheme aims to promote new ways of working, with innovative and bespoke programmes of learning designed to improve the quality of teaching and learning.

Two pupils were involved in the planning and interviewing process to employ a creative practitioner to work alongside the class teacher. The creative practitioner that they chose will work alongside the teacher for one afternoon a week.

“The purpose of our project is to motivate pupils to write through the planning and creation of a computer-based game. This idea has been developed directly from our pupils and we know they will be extremely excited to be part of this.”

The school has also had success in the Welsh Government’s national categorisation school banding by retaining its green status.

“We are really proud that, once again, we were awarded a one for standards and an ‘A’ for improvement capacity.

“We have links with three other ‘green schools’ and are sharing our practice and supporting each other to strive for excellence.”

In literacy, the school has been a model Read Write Inc school for eight years and during this time has shared its literacy teaching with hundreds of practitioners who have visited from as far afield as Milford Haven.

The school motto is ‘Learning Together, Achieving for Life’ is evident in the many opportunities offered to the children and their infectious enthusiasm for learning.

The children benefit from both indoor and outdoor learning from studying space to practicing their reading and writing skills, learning to play the guitar and taking part in activities in the forest schools area.

Mrs Mitchell believes the activities away from their desks is equally important. The school boasts an impressive outdoor area proving pupils with a forest school area, giant chess set, play areas, a story-telling cottage and outdoor theatre stage.

Among the school’s recent projects in the classroom was a cultural exchange with Rwandan teachers. In October, three teachers visited Shirenewton for a week and after half-term staff will visit Rwanda.

“This year we secured a grant of £9,000 from the British council for a connecting classrooms project.”

“We aim to set up links between the pupils and the School Council has devised projects for each year group such as keeping weather charts and sending pen-pal letters teaching each other phrases from our language.”

The children are encouraged to develop existing talents and to develop new skills through choosing their own studies beyond the prescribed curriculum in a series of enrichment afternoons, held each term. Activities on offer include archery, needlework, science, stop start animation, muddy maths and Master Chef.

“We have found these sessions have also raised self-esteem, increased confidence which has been transferred into the classroom, improved relationships, developed friendships across year groups and inspired staff to share their skills and talents.

“The children evaluate the sessions and so far the only negative comments were that the sessions aren’t long enough and can they do it more often.

“Our pupils have an extremely strong voice with six committees meeting fortnightly to make decisions about different aspects of the school.”

Pupils sit on the School Council, Eco Committee, Healthy Schools, Sports Council, Digital Leaders and Criw Cymraeg.

There are a variety of clubs that take place during the year ranging from hockey to table tennis, cricket, chess and mine-craft. Some are led by the children themselves and the rest by past pupils and teachers.

Pupil committees are currently planning to create an art club, Welsh club, ICT club and sports taster sessions for younger pupils during lunchtimes.

FACTFILE

Shirenewton Primary School, Monmouthshire, NP16 6RN

Associate head teacher: Jill Mitchell

Executive head teacher: Jayne Edwards

Pupils on Roll: 206

Ages 4 to 11

Chairwoman of governors: Mrs Michelle Taylor

Last Inspection November 2011

The inspector found that most pupils achieve good standards and that the progress of boys in literacy is very good. The quality of teaching, learning and assessment is a strong feature. The care support and guidance offered is effective and leadership and management are strong.