Keith Towler's visit to Tonypandy Community College
Mrs O'Sullivan, Tonypandy Community College’s head teacher, invited me to visit in June by pointing out that their approach as a community focused school was yielding really positive benefits for their students, their families and the wider community. How could I resist? 'Keith Towler's blog (Children's Commissioner for Wales) on his recent out of school hours visit to Tonypandy Community College'.
I was glad I made the effort to see them. I arrived at 3.30 pm, the end of the school day. Why? To take a look at their after school homework provision and the activities they offer as part of their e3+ programme. To say I went on a tour of the College, met some great people and saw some activities would be to understate what I saw. The weather was truly awful outside but the whole place was packed with students taking part in the after school activities. Every member of staff I spoke to outlined how they felt that working in partnership, extending the reach of the school into the community they serve and placing the needs of their students at the top of their work was making a real difference to the lives of children and young people.
Just to give you a flavour of the kind of things that were happening - and this I was told was just a typical after school hours session at the college - the rugby team were outside on the all weather astro turf pitch training and running some well rehearsed set pieces. Inside young people were taking part in street dancing, art classes, using the games room to relax playing chess, monopoly and computer games, studying in quiet spaces doing homework and computer projects, working out in the gym, working with a studio photographer taking photographs, doing local history projects, multimedia projects, engaged in inter generational craft sessions learning how to knit and sew, baking welsh cakes, playing table tennis and badminton, making props for a college performance out of papier mache and hula hoops, and discussing how the student voice can influence the future direction of the college. Wow, what a place.
I was made to feel very welcome. Talking to the young people I got a sense that they were proud of the things they were achieving, proud of their community and proud of their college. As I was being shown around someone mentioned in passing that the school toilets had been refurbished. This I just had to see. On all my travels around schools in Wales the subject of school toilets nearly always arises. And here I was looking at toilets with locks on the cubicle doors, mirrors on the walls, soap and hot water with hand dryers that work! All the things that I would want to see and which every young person going to school should have as a matter of right. In fact, everything about Tonypandy Community College says: ‘we respect children and young people’. Great to see.
Lots of the young people are bused in and out. The college contracts a local bus company who ferry students around so that no one misses the opportunity to stay on after school hours to take part in all the activities on offer. The transport is free. Could this get any better?
Well the answer to that is yes. As a community focused school all the staff at the College and the LEA recognise that providing free transport removes a real barrier to engagement. The area the College serves is not without its problems. The recession has hit hard and many of the communities served are those that would be identified as being some of the most deprived. And yet here are young people achieving things, making an effort, striving to be the best they can at whatever they choose to do encouraged by a dedicated team of people who are determined to make a difference. Inclusion, working in partnership, the involvement of families and provision directed by the active participation of children and young people are words we hear a lot. It is not everyday you see it happening in practice. What a great place.
For further information about the Commissioner’s work please visit:
www.childcomwales.org.uk