School of the Week: Glanhowy Primary School, Tredegar

Name of headteacher: Rebecca Fowler, appointed September 2014.

Number of pupils and what age range: 310 pupils, three to 11 years.

Number of staff: 15 teachers, 24 teaching assistants.

Tell us a bit about the school

In 2014 the school was categorised at 'Red'. The school has been categorised as 'Green' since 2017 and is performing incredibly well.

How did the school rate on its last Estyn report and what did you think about that?

The school were graded five 'Goods' in December 2018 and we were delighted that we'd improved considerably from a low starting point in 2014. We have 38 per cent free school meals so targeted interventions were key to pupils making progress.

What sorts of things do your pupils get up to in the average school week?

Lots of outdoor learning, daily Literacy and Numeracy, ICT permeates all curriculum areas. Wellbeing is at the heart of our school and all groups of learners make very good progress.

Tell us about your extra curricular activities?

Prior to Covid, we had an abundance - football, rugby, expressive arts, musical theatre.

Any famous former pupils?

NHS founder Aneurin Bevan and Paralympian Mark Colbourn.

Aneurin Bevan

Former pupil Olympian Mark Colbourne

Do you have a PTA (Parent-Teacher Association) and how do they get involved with the school?

Prior to Covid, our PTA was very proactive organising discos, fetes and making a generous contribution to music and ICT equipment.

What's the highlight of the school year?

Our highlight in a normal school year would be the annual community garden party and the Young Voices participation in the NEC Birmingham.

Our highlight this year has been simply returning to face-to-face learning.

Who is your chairman of governors and how does the board of governors get involved with the school?

Our chairman is Cllr Tommy Smith. Our governing body was praised by Estyn for holding the school to account for standards. The governing body is very experienced and very supportive of the school. All meetings are well attended and link governors visit our school regularly to look at our learning environment, books and speak to staff about pupil progress.

What does the future hold for your school?

We will continue to maintain our standards regardless of the disruption caused by school closures during the pandemic. We are excited about the implementation of the Curriculum for Wales and we will strive to ensure wellbeing is at the heart of all we do. Ensuring all stakeholders continue to be their best everyday. We aim to strengthen further our excellent links with the community.

How was it during the pandemic?

The pandemic was interesting but pupils and staff were incredibly resilient. We were determined to offer our pupils an exciting, broad and balanced distance learning experience. Our reading ages improved considerably which we are very proud of. All of our teaching was delivered the Google Classroom, we have learnt a lot about our practices moving forward.

Anything else you think we should know?

The Education Minister visited the school in 2017 because we had made rapid progress in such a short space of time and were using our PDG funding to good effect to benefit our vulnerable learners.