Proud pupils gave the Archbishop of Wales a tour of their newly extended school this week and showed how they now have twice as much room in which to learn and play.
The Archbishop, Dr Barry Morgan, visited All Saints Church in Wales Primary School in Barry on Wednesday (July 6) to dedicate the extension which has been planned since 2004 and has cost £860,000.
As soon as he arrived, pupils showed him the new facilities which include an IT suite with 30 computers, an outside “faith garden” designed in the shape of a Celtic cross, an outdoor gym, a vegetable patch where the pupils grow their own lunches, a “den” where they have extra support lessons, a bigger and brighter hall where they can all meet for assemblies and concerts and – for the first time – rooms for each class so that they no longer have to share for lessons.
The Archbishop then joined all the pupils, teachers, governors and friends of the school for a Service of Dedication. It was, he said, the second time he had been to All Saints to dedicate an extension – he had opened the nursery extension six years ago.
“This is now a fantastic school and you are very lucky. But what really makes any school is not the building but its spirit – how we care for each other and look after each other, reaching out to one another and it’s clear to me that this is a very happy school.”
Headteacher Richard Ware paid tribute to the many people who had made the extension possible, including the teachers who, he said, had managed to keep up their high standards during all the building disruption.
He said, “Our school motto sums it up – ‘As many hands build a house, so many hearts make a school’. This extension is a wonderful job and has give us room to breathe – the children are no longer squashed into small, open plan classes but have proper class rooms of their own. And there is no doubt that it has had an impact on the quality of teaching, raising our standards even higher. We are also indebted to our parents who raised money for our laptop busses and other IT equipment which helped us achieve the prestigious BECTA Quality Mark for Excellence in ICT.”
