A PRIMARY school in Caerphilly is celebrating after achieving a top award for health and wellbeing.

Cwmfelinfach Primary School has received the National Quality Award – the highest award a school can obtain through the Welsh Network of Healthy School Schemes.

The school excelled in seven of the award's categories, including mental and emotional health, wellbeing and relationships, environment, and safety.

The school's headteacher, Dave Witchell, said: “The National Quality Award means a great deal to everyone at Cwmfelinfach. It marks the culmination of many years of hard work.”

The school has been involved in the healthy schools programme since 2005, and with the support of the local healthy schools team has worked to enrich its pupils' lives through schemes such as dance and cookery classes, a forest school, gardening classes at the local allotments, and textiles classes with their group of so-called "Knitting Nannies."

The school’s Knitting Nannies are a group of grandmothers who have volunteered their time for a number of years to support the school’s enriched curriculum.

Each week they teach the children skills like sewing and knitting.

The pupils of Cwmfelinfach have used these skills to make blankets for the special care baby unit at Newport's Royal Gwent Hospital.

Caerphilly County Borough Council have recognised this work by granting the group "Intergenerational Club" status, which commend partnerships between pupils and the older generation in the community.

Sarah Davies, healthy schools co-ordinator at Cwmfelinfach Primary, said: “I would like to thank the pupils, parents, outside agencies and the Caerphilly Healthy Schools Team for all their support in helping us achieve this prestigious award”.

Sarah Andrews, head of programme for healthy settings at Public Health Wales, said: “We are delighted that Cwmfelinfach Primary School has received our top health award. They deserve this important recognition for their commitment to embedding health and wellbeing in the culture and fabric of the school.

“This achievement demonstrates how the Welsh Network of Healthy School Schemes are enabling Public Health Wales to work in equal partnership with schools to improve the future health and wellbeing of our children.

"By combining our efforts and assets in a purposeful way, we can create a healthier, happier and fairer Wales.”