Minister of Education Visits Penyrenglyn

The Minister for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning & Skills, Jane Hutt AM, visited Penyrenglyn Community Primary School in Treherbert last week (Thursday 15th January).

The purpose of the Ministerial visit was to observe the Welsh Assembly Government’s ‘Foundation Phase’ initiative at the School. The Foundation Phase initiative aims to provide a broad, balanced and varied curriculum for children aged between three and seven based on play, active learning and experience. The Chair of Governors, Mr Kevin Morgan, and the Head Teacher, Mr Mark Carrington, greeted Ms Hutt, before Mrs Eiluned Davies, the school’s Foundation Phase Leader, accompanied the Minister around the school prior to the Minister joining the children in a variety of ‘learning through play’ activities. Councillor, Eudine Hanagan, Cabinet Member for Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning, said: “The ‘Foundation Phase’ initiative has proved to be a great success in the school and is a credit to the hard work that the staff and children have put in to it. This initiative has given children a very good opportunity to get involved in a wide range of activities, that may not have been available prior to this scheme being launched.”
Head Teacher, Mr Carrington, said: “We wanted to highlight the importance of outdoor experiential learning and show how we have utilised our local environment to stimulate children’s imagination. Our plans for the future include establishing our own Forest School site that the children can use on a weekly basis.”
“In particular we wanted to show the Minister how we are approaching the Foundation Phase and putting her policies into practice. I pay tribute to all the staff for their dedication to the development and care of our children – and I was so proud of the children themselves who were so natural and un-phased by the VIP visitor!”