MAKING a difference to children’s lives is the thing that gets Beverley Cole out of bed every morning.

The head teacher at Langstone Primary School near Newport has seen pupil numbers increase significantly during her 18 years at the helm, throughout which she’s constantly worked to improve the education she and her team are able to deliver.

Even challenges presented by the pandemic were treated as opportunities to find ways to do things better, with some new practices being carried on because of their beneficial impacts.

Mrs Cole's indefatigable positivity is one of the cornerstones of Langstone Primary School and a key attribute that earned her the head teacher of the year accolade at the South Wales Argus Schools & Education Awards in 2020.

Another was her attention to the emotional wellbeing of her pupils, which she regards as the foundation for learning.

South Wales Argus: Beverley Cole

“Langstone was a small rural school for 150 children when it was built in 1944,” Mrs Cole explains. “It’s now grown to almost 350, but we’ve tried to keep the country school feel.

“We’re very nurturing and kindness is one of our key drivers.

“A feeling of family is very much embedded within our pupils’ well-being and learning. At LPS we have an excitement and a passion for learning and we know that to be ‘learning ready’, pupils’ emotional wellbeing needs to be secure.

“Our strapline is ‘learning promotes success’; LPS. That’s us.”

The breadth of experience amassed by Mrs Cole and her team led to Langstone becoming a Welsh Government ‘Pioneer School’ in 2015. Through this they work closely with the Education Achievement Service (EAS) and a consortium of other learning institutions to develop the design for a new curriculum for Wales, due in 2022.

South Wales Argus: Enter the South Wales Argus Schools & Education Awards

“The curriculum will be purpose-led and meaningful,” Mrs Cole explains. “We want our children to be ambitious, capable, healthy, confident, enterprising, creative, ethical and informed learners ready to be citizens of Wales and the world.”

Another way in which Langstone Primary’s influence extends far beyond its catchment area is its status as a ‘Lead Alliance School’, which involves it working with Cardiff Metropolitan University and various other schools to train students working for their PGCE (Postgraduate Certificate in Education). In addition it’s involved with its EAS consortium in running professional learning programmes for newly-qualified teachers, higher level teaching assistants and aspiring head teachers.

Despite her extensive experience, coping with the pandemic represented a steep learning curve for Mrs Cole and her team, with the children’s wellbeing placed at the heart of every decision that was made.

More than 100 children categorised as vulnerable, or whose parents were key workers, attended a hub at the school during the lockdowns, while those remaining at home were able to benefit from blended learning, with live lessons that they could join from Mondays to Thursdays, recordings of which were made available so that pupils experiencing connectivity problems, or whose parents were busy with their own work, could keep up.

“We tried to keep children engaged, looking at our curriculum offer,” says Mrs Cole. “We wanted to make it motivational and engaging for our pupils, hence their voice in shaping learning was crucial.

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“There were some things, like phonics, that we needed to keep on the boil, which we did through our weekly ‘bubble bulletins’ for each year group.

“The IT skills of children and staff developed exponentially during this time.”

Children’s engagement during the lockdowns was monitored through the amount of data they uploaded, with participation percentages for each class being celebrated every week and support given to families that did not have sufficient access to devices.

Keeping pupils in touch with their teachers was vital at this time, with staff members filming themselves reading stories and capturing pictures with their screens. These recordings, which provided much reassurance over the worst months of the pandemic, are still available to pupils through Langstone’s website.

The school also invested time and energy in keeping in touch with families both during the lockdowns and during the weeks when children and staff had to isolate after incidents of Coronavirus were reported.

Mrs Russell, the deputy head teacher, introduced #happyandhealthyheroes, which encouraged learners to upload pictures of themselves with their families cooking, exercising and giving regard to their health and wellbeing.

Some new practices put in place to guard staff and children against Coronavirus were found to have positive impacts beyond virus control and are now a firm part of daily life at the school, such as children wearing their PE clothes to school on the days that sporting activities are on the curriculum, a measure that’s been found to save a great deal of time, and the adoption of a one-way system, which has created a calmer, less overwhelming environment for youngsters arriving at school.

“The lockdowns was a curved ball for each and every one of us, but they were also opportunities to be creative and think of new ways to keep Langstone learning throughout that challenging period,” says Beverley.

“The lockdown taught us a lot, but it was absolutely brilliant to get back to school in March.”

For Mrs Cole Beverley, being a head teacher is about having a positive impact on the lives of her pupils, staff and those training to be teachers.

“It’s about coming to school and knowing that your time is making a difference,” she says. “Working with children was my initial passion and continues to be, but now I’m developing staff so that together we are being the best we can be, and we’re helping to develop the best curriculum we can.

“We are blessed at Langstone to have an amazing staff team who are fully committed to going that extra mile for the pupils in their care.

“As a school we’re solution-focused: with everything that comes our way we look for solutions that support our learners and their families.

“This is what gets me out of bed in the mornings.”