Today I was lucky enough to be invited to Coedpenmaen Primary School to take pictures to show a day in the life of the school. I was commissioned to incorporate the values that the school teach and live by. The school values are a focus each half term and include: forgiveness, respect, friendship, compassion, honesty and creativity. The school is vibrant, busy and happy and it was a pleasure to be there today to capture the essence of this exciting place of learning.
I began the day with the foundation phase and met children from nursery through to year one, they started their day with carpet time and then had an Easter bonnet parade through the school; the children's parents had also been invited to join in and a few had even made bonnets themselves!
During the session before break I circulated the school and found endless opportunities to capture the values of the school. Students were working independently or on group reading tasks, they were recording their peers for a reading assessment. I found members of the community working voluntarily to help children reading, guitar lessons and egg blowing; all this and traditional lessons were continuing. My biggest issue was not finding moments to capture, rather feeling under pressure not to miss what may be happening in another room, corner or cloakroom; every inch of the school us utilised and it is an exciting place to be.
At break time I went onto the yard and encountered children paying together on the climbing apparatus, a group of around 15 boys were putting on an impromptu dance show while others were chatting or playing football. I ended my day in the school hall at lunch time, again there were endless opportunities to see the values of friendship, respect, compassion...
It was a delight to spend the morning in this truly lovely school, it is every inch a community school and I hope to be asked back again soon.
* Limited photographs shared due to strict rules regarding sharing images of children.