Well-being of pupils and staff permeates throughout the school each and every day. There are many aspects in which well-being is promoted, cared for and developed at Radnor Primary School and this document outlines some of the great practices that take place.
Active Travel
Radnor's commitment to active travel has not gone unnoticed over the years. Through the involvement of the whole school community, parents, teachers, Sustrans employees and even local councillors, we have managed to become only the second school in Wales to win the prestigious 'Sustrans Gold Active Travel School Award'.
More information can be found below:
REAL PE
At Radnor we have introduced a new PE scheme called 'Real PE'
Real PE is, first and foremost, a philosophy and approach which aims to transform how we teach PE in order to include, challenge and support EVERY child. It supports teachers and other deliverers to make small changes that will have a significant impact on their learners.
We have seen a great impact in relation to children's engagement within these PE sessions.
Sports
At Radnor we teach Sport as part of our games curriculum, but we also participate in sporting events and competitions outside of school.
Past competitions and events have included:
Football, Tag Rugby, Hockey, Netball, Athletics, Cricket, Cross Country Running, Multisports, Cycling and Dance!
We have a number of pupils representing Cardiff and Vale Schools Football Team. This was achieved by teachers spotting talented individuals and nominating them for trials.
We also regularly invite outside providers into school to provide sporting experiences for pupils, these include:
- Welsh Cycling
- Squash Wales
- Fitzalan High School PE Dept
- Welsh Rugby Union
- Tennis Wales
- Glamorgan Cricket
- Welsh Athletics
- Cardiff Met Archers Basketball
- Cardiff Beach Volleyball Club
Radnor University
Radnor Uni is our innovative approach to increasing the range of experiences that pupils at the school can access.
Every term, for six weeks, all pupils in years 1-6 make choices and enrol on courses that they follow for six weeks.
Pupils are grouped in year groups - Years 1&2, 3&4 and 5&6 - and there are typically 10 to 20 pupils on each course.
Courses are run by teachers, teaching assistants and community partners (including parents and local arts/sports organisations) and aim to meet the four purposes of the new Curriculum for Wales, to produce:
1. Ambitious, capable learners who are ready to learn throughout their lives
2. Enterprising, creative contributors who are ready to play a full part in life and work
3. Ethical, informed citizens who are ready to be citizens of Wales and the world
4. Healthy, confident individuals who are ready to lead fulfilling lives as valued members of society
Radnor Uni is extremely popular with both pupils and parents and examples of courses that have been run are:
Radnor School of Rock, Stop-motion animation, Junior First Aid, Basketball, Intergenerational Activities, Coding, Bell ringing, Pottery, Forest School, Still life drawing, Eco Warriors, Batik, Chain Maile, Lego Engineers, Beach Volleyball, Team Building, Mindfulness, Cookery, Cycling Adventures and many more!
Forest Fridays
Forest Fridays is a new initiative trialled during the academic year 2022-23.
It is an opportunity for our youngest members of the school community (Reception) to embark on outdoor adventures every Friday at our local woodland (Thompson's Park).
Each week the children have a different focus from nature scavenger hunts to climbing trees and work in small groups throughout the day. This allows all of the reception children to have this experience on a weekly basis.
Due to it's success we are hoping to be able to embed this practice throughout the school so all pupils can connect with nature more regularly.
Hwb Hapus
We have recently begun to develop our 'Hwb Hapus' room at Radnor. This is a space for teachers to take their pupils to undertake cooking activities.
All cooking equipment is stored here which makes it easier and more accessible for classes to use.
We hope to make further improvements to this area with future fund raising.
ELSA
At Radnor we have two trained ELSA support assistants who help to engage with pupils who have emotional literacy difficulties.
The ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant) intervention is designed to build the capacity of schools to support the emotional needs of their pupils from within their own resources. This is achieved by training teaching assistants to develop and deliver individualised support programmes to meet the emotional needs of children and young people in their care. It recognises that children learn better and are happier in school if their emotional needs are also addressed.
Morning Nurture Group
Another recent addition to our provision at Radnor is our Morning Nurture Group.
This is a group for pupils who find difficulty coming to school in the mornings. It allows them to settle into the school day with well-being based activities such as jigsaws, games, mindfulness activities along with emotional check ins and Zones of Regulation activities.
This is currently run 3 times a week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 8:45am - 9:15am.
Staff Wellbeing Team
At Radnor we have a dedicated staff well-being team who meet regularly to discuss ideas and fund raising options to help all staff at Radnor to feel happy whilst at work.
Past activities have included staff breakfasts, random act of kindness gifts, organising staff dinners, secret santa Christmas activities, retirement gifts and more!
Our next step is to work with Education Support to discuss more ways to ensure all staff at Radnor are feeling the best they can to then support the pupils in the best way!
Dementia Friends
We have a long standing partnership with our local residential care home 'Pontcanna House'.
Pupils visit Pontcanna House regularly to participate in a wide variety of activities whilst getting to know the residents and having fun!
This is a real hit with both pupils and adults; everybody's well-being gets a real boost from these visits!
We also do a yearly 'Memory Walk' to raise money and awareness of dementia. This is an opportunity for pupils from across the school to 'buddy up' to discuss memories gone by. This walk takes place at Thompson's Park.
Blast Off!
To ensure pupils are active in school we have introduced 'Blast Off' at Radnor.
During 'Blast Off' children spend 10 - 15 minutes a day participating in physical activities. This happens from Years 1 - 6 every day!
Pupils choose from the following activities:
- Run a Mile
- Skipping
- Hula Hooping
- Dance
- Long Jump
Y Senedd Radnor
We are very excited to have introduced Y Senedd at Radnor Primary. All children in classes 5-9 are involved and we have a Chairperson for each group that meet regularly with Mrs James to discuss issues and ideas that we have to improve our school.
This is an opportunity for pupils to use their voices to help make Radnor a better place for everybody!
Here are the names of our current Senedd groups for 2022 - 2023:
- Class 9 - Health and Active Travel Team
- Class 8 - The Radnor Rights Rockstars
- Class 7 - Radnor Community Team
- Class 6 - Planet Protectors
- Class 5 - Criw Cynefin
Forest School
At Radnor we have one member of teaching staff who is trained as a Level 3 Forest School Leader.
Forest School is usually a course run as part of Radnor University, however other opportunities are taken to ensure more pupils also get to participate in Forest School activities.
Activities include
- Den Building
- Muddy Kitchens
- Tree Climbing
- Scavenger Hunts
- Small World Building
- Rope Swings
- And much, much more!
Outdoor Learning
At Radnor outdoor learning is a key part of our curriculum, with pupils in Classes 1-4 having access to outdoor provision at all times.
We are also developing our provision for outdoor learning in the older classes (5-9) ensuring pupils regularly engage in outdoor learning opportunities either on site at Radnor or within our local community. This will continue to be a focus within our school improvement plan for 2023-24.
Extra Curricular Clubs
We offer a wide range of extra-curricular clubs at Radnor, with staff giving up their free time to run a range of activities for pupils to participate in.
Currently we are running the following clubs at Radnor:
- Multisports Club
- Dance Club
- Choir
- Film Club
- Art Club
- Digital Leaders
- Singing Club
Whole School Events
We have a wide range of events throughout the year where we come together as a whole school to participate in activities together.
These include:
- Sports Day @ Thompson's Park
- Music Hour
- Eisteddfod Celebrations
- Active Travel Bling Your Ride Parades
- World Book Day
- Red Nose Day
- Children in Need
Junior Steps
A new programme that we have participated in this year. Junior Steps aims to encourage, engage and support pupils as they learn and develop new skills and experiences.
We have participated in the programme by identifying individuals who find attending school difficult due to a variety of reasons and giving them the opportunity to learn new skills off site.
E.g. White Water Rafting and Horse Riding/Care
Swimming
At Radnor we offer a block of swimming lessons to pupils in Year 4 to ensure they become confident and safe in water.
This year we have also begun catch up sessions for those pupils who didn't manage to attend swimming due to Covid 19 restrictions. This year both Year 5 and 6 pupils participated in 10 sessions of swimming lessons.
Cardiff County Music Service Workshops
Pupils in Year 5 and 6 participated in a block of music workshops through Cardiff County Music Service. The morning workshops took place at Chapter Arts Centre for 6 weeks.
Pupils engaged in 3 different workshops; Garage Band, Steel Pan Drums and African Dance.
Bike Fleet
At Radnor we have received a fleet of bikes and helmets through Cardiff Council's Active Travel Team. We currently have 10 bikes with a further 5 being added to the fleet this year.
We currently use the bikes to allow all Year 6 pupils the opportunity to participate in cycling proficiency sessions. We also use them for cycling activities such as our Radnor University 'Cycling Adventures' course.
Our long term plan is to include cycling within the outdoor games curriculum for children in Years 3 to 6.
Free Bikes For Kids
As part of our Active Travel initiatives we work closely with 'Puffa Jones' who is a local bike mechanic who runs the charity 'Free Bikes For Kids'.
Through his amazing work we have been able to identify Radnor pupils who don't have a bike via class surveys. This then starts the process of us finding a bike and helmet from 'Puffa' to match the child.
The PTA have also been kind enough to help us also buy high vis jackets, bike locks and bike lights for each child who receive a free bike.
So far we have managed to give away around 40 bikes to Radnor pupils with more in the pipeline!
Governor's Well-being Committee
We have plans to reconvene our Governor Well-being committee with the first scheduled meeting due for July 2023.
This will allow an opportunity for the Health and Well-being Lead, ALNCO and identified governors to work together to further develop Well-being at Radnor Primary School.
Wonderful Weekly Wellness
At Radnor we have trialled 'Wonderful Weekly Wellness' sessions in some of our older classes.
The activities in these sessions are decided by and also often led by pupils. Past 'WWW' sessions have included:
- Sewing skills
- Yoga
- Chess
- Board Games
- Drama
- Minecraft
- And many more!
School Choir
Our school choir meet as an after school club once a week to practise songs ready to take into the community.
They sing in a variety of locations and competitions including:
- Salvation Army Church Canton
- Wales Millennium Centre
- St John's Church Canton
- Pontcanna House
- Romilly Nursing Home
- Young Voices Competition Birmingham Arena
Zones of Regulation
Zones of Regulation has been introduced to us by a School to School link with St. Mary The Virgin Primary School in Cardiff who are using it as part of their provision.
We have begun to embed it within our practices by recently introducing 'Zones of Regulation' to some of our vulnerable learners as part of our 'Morning Nurture Group' and 'ELSA' sessions.
We are also currently preparing to begin using 'Zones' as a whole school approach to mental health and well-being. This will allow pupils to regularly 'check in' to show how they are feeling and find regulation strategies to help them into a better frame of mind for learning.
This is an exciting new approach that we are very much looking forward to using at Radnor to support pupils the best way we can.
Well-being Data
At Radnor we collect data on pupils' well-being via a range of surveys.
We use Pupil Well-being Surveys developed at Radnor to understand how pupils feel about school. These surveys are pupil specific so each teacher can see how each child has responded, with interventions/conversations had where necessary.
We now also use SHRN data collection surveys to understand the health and well-being needs of pupils as a collective. This will allow teachers to plan provision accordingly, ensuring pupils' health and well-being is the best it can be!
Credits:
Created with images by sutichak - "cute baby preschool playing jigsaw puzzle learning in playroom" • sosiukin - "WELLNESS word made with wooden blocks concept" • arinahabich - "Swim meet" • wutzkoh - "Two businessmen are pointing to the company cost graph and then analyzing together."