Mayor joins celebrations for new primary school

Pupils at the newly formed Abbey Primary have this week celebrated the establishment of their new school with a special assembly.

The school, which was named by the pupils themselves, was created through the coming together of Neath Abbey Infants and Mynachlog Nedd Juniors as part of Neath Port Talbot Council’s Strategic Schools Improvement Programme ‘Better Schools, Brighter Prospects’.

The amalgamation of the two schools is part of a wider move towards ‘all-through’ primary schools for pupils aged 3 to 11 years, rather than continuing to maintain separate infant and junior schools. The reasons for this approach include greater consistency of teaching practice and personnel; access to a wider range of staff expertise; and families being able to build longer-term relationships with school staff.

The new school also incorporates the county borough’s Early Years Assessment Centre, which caters for children with Special Educational Needs, and this too is seeing the benefits of being based within a larger and more central mainstream setting.

Children were joined at the assembly by Neath Port Talbot Mayor Cllr Arthur Davies, who was welcomed by Head Boy Aaron Jones, Deputy Head Boy Owen Collison, Head Girl Scarlett Dunsford and Deputy Head Girl Hannah Carrick. The four pupils recently each gave a reading at the Mayor’s Civic Service, held in nearby St. Johns Church at the beginning of October.

Deputy Head Boy Owen Collison was also the pupil whose entry was chosen for both the name and logo for the new school. Abbey Primary’s ‘Work together, play together’ motto was created by William Quinn, a Mynachlog Nedd pupil who has since moved on to comprehensive school.

Leader of Neath Port Talbot Council Cllr. Ali Thomas OBE said: “It is great to see that the pupils have played an important role in establishing the identity of the school and that this has led to everyone settling in well. All-through primary schools such as this offer many benefits to pupils and I am pleased to see that Abbey Primary is already building on the good educational standards achieved by the infant and junior schools that came before it”.

Headteacher Bev Newman said: “Everyone involved with the school is very happy and the communities around Neath Abbey have really embraced the changes that went into making it happen. Pupil numbers have grown and there is now a waiting list to attend the school”.