Author: James Jones

Governors’ Annual Report to Parents 2019

Foreword from Chair of Governors

The governors at Pen-y-Bryn have a range of differing skills and experiences but have one thing in common - to ensure that the pupils get support to be the best that they can be.
Meeting twice a term we get the opportunity to have feedback from teachers and pupils who make presentations on a range of initiatives. We meet during the school day to ensure we get the opportunity to get this chance. Learning walks offer us another opportunity to understand the curriculum and see the progress made.
The school has been designated a pioneer school reflecting the excellent reputation of Pen-y-Bryn and as such has a pivotal role in shaping the new curriculum for Wales.
Highlights for me as Chair include the concerts and launches of a range of films and books, which are available in local schools and libraries and via the internet. The support from famous theatre and music personalities add another dimension to our enterprise group.
Pupils also benefit from being able to spend a night a week in our residential unit developing their social skills, as well as learning to prepare their own meals and becoming independent. Pen-y-Bryn offers a warm welcome to visitors with the pupils eager to communicate and display their various projects. Our dedicated staff, and that includes everyone at Pen-y-Bryn, are well led by Mr. Sutton and the school’s excellent reputation continues to be recognised.
I would like to extend my gratitude to our parents and wider community for your support in ensuring our pupils continue to be the best they can be. Being a governor in Pen-y-Bryn is time consuming but hugely rewarding.

Foreword from Gethin Sutton — Head Teacher

As I read this governors report to parents, reflect on another wonderful year at Pen y Bryn and look forward to a new one, I am reminded of how very fortunate I am to have such a positive working relationship with our governing body. We work in close partnership with our governors to constantly maintain and improve the high standards of wellbeing and curriculum provision for our wonderful pupils. Our governors are important and valuable members of our school community and year on year we find additional ways of involving them in the work of the school. Our governors are an extremely committed and supportive group of individuals with a wide range of skillsets that we are only too happy to access. Their collective support, guidance, counsel and challenge are highly valued and help drive us forward.

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Governors’ Annual Report to Parents 2019

Work of the Governors

The Governing Body of Ysgol Pen-y-Bryn meet as a full panel on a half termly basis. Meetings are held within the school day and we actively encourage presentations from both staff and pupils. As well as the statutory committees required for school governors we have a finance panel and a school improvement panel that meet termly.
Policies updated last academic year include – Health & Safety, Malpractice and Maladministration, Intimate Care and Data Protection. Governor representatives also sat on the working party working on the school’s revised values and mission statement. This party put forward the school values of Pen-y-Bryn CARES – community, ambition, respect, excitement and safety.

Message from Chair of Finance Panel

Hi my name is Hywel Vaughan and I have been a Community Governor at Pen y Bryn for 5 years. I have been Chair of the Finance Committee for the last 3 years. My working background has been in social work for and education. We are also parents of a son who in the past has needed additional educational support. I am also a Governor of another Primary School and this has helped in my contribution to Pen y Bryn.”

Message from Chair of School Improvement Panel

My name is Anthony Quinn-Flipping and I am a parent governor and chair of the School Improvement Panel committee. I am also the Branch Chair of the National Autistic Society Swansea Branch. Our SIP committee is responsible for overseeing a school improvement plan and list of priorities we feel as a school are important to be implemented and achieved. It’s important to make sure the school and pupils are consistently doing well in as many areas as possible but at the same time looking at things that need to be improved on, to achieve the best results overall for the school and pupil achievement. It is also important to show in the planning how and when the changes will be made to ensure transparency and consistency across all staff and pupils.

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Governor Details

Name	Category	Term end date	Position
Sian Hodge	n/a		Clerk
Gethin Sutton			HT
Mr Huw Vaughan	Community	10/10/19	Chair
Mrs Janet Thomas	Community	17/05/20
Mr Hywel Vaughan	Community	17/09/21
Mr Raymond Keith Brown	LEA	23/02/21
Vacancy	LEA
Mr Alan Pitt	LEA	27/02/21	Vice Chair
Mr Anthony Quinn-Flipping	Parent	15/11/19
Ms Jane Jones	Parent	15/02/22
Mrs Becky West	Parent	15/02/22
Ms Nicola Vickery	Parent	15/02/22
Miss Lesley Hull	Teacher	01/11/20
Mrs Naomi Picon	Staff	15/10/22

The clerk and chair person can be contacted via the school on 01792799064 or email hodges9@hwbcymru.net
No expenses were paid to governors of Pen-y-Bryn during the financial year.
Parent governors are elected on to the governing body by ballot when a current parent governors term ends or when there is a resignation. Papers will be sent home with pupils and a Schoop sent to let parents know.

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Financial Statement

SCHOOL:	Penybryn Special School
STATEMENT OF ACTUAL EXPENDITURE 2018/19 FINANCIAL YEAR
	Delegated Expenditure	Non-Delegated Expenditure	Total Net Expenditure
	£	£	£
Teachers Salaries	1,032,451	6,971	1,039,422
Salaries	1,389,927	56,337	1,446,264
Other Employee Costs	808	149	956
Premises	34,293	0	34,293
Transport	13,864	612,964	626,828
Supplies & Services	520,102	0	520,102
Recharges	0	-6,000	-6,000
			0
Gross Expenditure	2,991,446	670,420	3,661,866
Grant Income	-78,659	0	-78,659
Income	-270,804	0	-270,804
Gross Income	-349,463	0	-349,463
Net Expenditure	2,641,983	670,420	3,312,403
RESERVES:		£
FINAL FORMULA ALLOCATION:		2,610,803
TOTAL NET EXPENDITURE:		2,641,983
TRANSFER TO / (FROM) RESERVES:		-31,180
OPENING BALANCE ON RESERVES 01/04/17		31,210
CLOSING BALANCE ON RESERVES: 31/03/18		30

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Charity Work

The school endeavours to support a number of charitable organisations both local and national. Our welsh Heritage project focused on The Air Ambulance and RNLI. Pupils were lucky enough to visit these fantastic organisations as well as learning about the excellent work they do within our community.
During the academic year 2018-19 the following charitable donations were made by pupils and staff at Pen-y-Bryn:-
Air Ambulance - £66.00
RNLI - £698
Children in Need - £225.76
Macmillan - £295.11
Save the Children - £130.08
Jeans for Genes - £50.63
Comic relief - 181.80

Donations

The school was lucky enough to receive the following donations in the previous academic year:-
Rotary Club - £86.36
Legacy Donations - £425.00
Swansea Courts Staff - £205
Treboeth Men’s Society - £50
Gower Society - £150
Insurance Society - £1025.00
These donations will be used towards the schools’ contribution to the application to the Variety Club for part funding toward a new mini bus.

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Staffing

Last academic year Mr Simon Type joined us from Heronsbridge as Deputy Head. He has settled into the school extremely well and has made a demonstrable impact in the areas of pupil support and pupil wellbeing. Mrs K Howell and Miss L New were new to the teaching team last year and have both settled well into their roles. Congratulations are extended to both Miss H Kemp and Miss L Keen who have made the successful transition from teaching assistants to teachers at Pen-y-Bryn with Miss Keen successfully completing her GTP placement at the school in partnership with Gwyrosydd last academic year.
We are lucky enough to be the first special school in Wales to employ a Hub Officer in conjunction with the WRU. Mr Josh James has fulfilled this role since January 2019 extending PE provision and opportunities within the school.
There are two new posts within the school this year, commencing in September 2019. Miss Louise Honeyman has joined us as data manager from Pentrehafod Comprehensive and Mr Paul Jones joins us as ICT co-ordinator from Bishopston. I’m sure both will be an invaluable asset to the school.
Several members of staff had babies last academic year and I wish to extend our congratulations to Miss Lewis, Mrs Evans and Miss Owen. Finally Mrs Venn left us at the end of the academic year after sixteen years at the school, we would like to take this opportunity to wish her all the best for the future.

Mr Josh James

Miss Louise Honeyman

Mr Paul Jones

Staff Development

Teaching and non-teaching staff continue to undertake continuous professional development in order to improve their skills across the academic and wellbeing curriculum.
The school has embraced the Thrive philosophy and have three staff trained as Thrive practitioners and one who is undergoing training to become a Thrive trainer. This initiative has had a demonstrable impact on pupil wellbeing and behaviour across school and the introduction of a Thrive breakfast in each class means that pupils start the day in a supported and calm way and are ready to learn. Thrive is very important to us and we plan to extend this by introducing a Thrive for families course – look out for further details over the year.
We have been investing into training to further support our ASD provision with Attention Autism and ABA (Applied Behaviour Analysis) training being undertaken by a number of staff. Mr Miller and Miss Lambert are undertaking a masters degree in ABA and have already had the opportunity to put this learning to good use in the classroom.
ICT, Makaton, Manual Handling and MAPA training are ongoing throughout the year and are delivered by school staff which highlights our level of internal expertise and our capacity to deliver our own high quality training..
The school continues its sector leading practice of supporting parents and carers to gain a NVQ qualification in supporting teaching and learning by undertaking their practical experience at our school. Should you be interested in joining this scheme which is supported by Swansea College please contact Mrs Pearce.

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Governors’ Annual Report to Parents 2019

Pupils

The provision of educational opportunities offered to our pupils is excellent. Some of the community based activities are featured below:-
Swimming/surfing Forest Schools
Musical Performances Gnoll Park Project
Gym and Scallywags Visits School Cafe
Gardening Baking
Duke of Edinburgh School Council
Enterprise Projects Construction
Hair dressing Rock climbing

Individual Achievements

Evie Gormley won her category at the British Judo SN/VI adaptive open championships over the summer to become British VI champion.
Evie is representing Wales in the Common Wealth at the end of this month in Judo and has plans to represent Wales at the Para Olympics which is her goal. She has been to lots of training camps over the last year training with the Welsh team and with teams from other countries.
Congratulations Evie !

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Governors’ Annual Report to Parents 2019

Individual Achievements

Leon Morgan Moholt has graded to a green belt in karate.
He also won a bronze medal for Under 12's Welsh league karate in the holidays.
Congratulations Leon!

Charlotte Bell has been playing football for Swansea Bravehearts, a pan disability club run by a group of dedicated volunteers. Charlotte has played in a number of tournaments this year.

Casey Ward has recently joined Swansea Bravehearts, and recently played in her first tournament.

School Premises

Last academic year saw the expansion of our outdoor learning provision at Pen-y-Bryn with the erection of two workshop sheds and a new polytunnel. These are currently being utilised to extend our curriculum pathways in KS4 and 5 with further construction, concreting and gardening opportunities. We were lucky enough to secure lottery funding to create a Thrive outdoor space in the disused quad in upper school. This allowed for the dangerous greenhouse to be removed and replaced with a wheelchair accessible zen area complete with swinging chair, water feature and stage area. Miss Hull and Mr Tristram transformed the outdoor garden outside Year 7 into a pirate boat complete with skull and cross bones.
The north half of the residential unit was developed into an early years area for our G band classes. We continued our rolling programme of upgrading toilets and wash facilities in the residential unit and undertook some general decoration work in a number of rooms.
The school has separate toilets for boys and girls all buildings and two designated disabled toilets within the upper school buildings. All toilets have handwashing facilities with liquid soap, hand dryers and paper towel dispensers available. Toilets are cleaned on a daily basis.

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Governors’ Annual Report to Parents 2019

Attainment Data

Curriculum

At Ysgol Pen-y-Bryn we are pioneering a new curriculum for our school and for pupils across Wales. Using the Four Purposes:
ambitious, capable learners, ready to learn throughout their lives
enterprising, creative contributors, ready to play a full part in life and work
ethical, informed citizens of Wales and the world
healthy, confident individuals, ready to lead fulfilling lives as valued members of society
To underline all we do, exciting learning opportunities are being created with the pupils at the heart of the design process.
Under the six Areas of Learning and Experience, our broad and balanced curriculum ensures it is innovative, unique and appropriate to our pupils and their individual learning styles.
An ongoing process of Continuing Professional Development aims to develop pedagogical principles across all members of teaching and support staff ensuring the pupils at Ysgol Pen-y-Bryn have the most current and up to date, research backed practiced during the teaching and learning processes.
We are proud of what we are creating, both locally and nationally, in a time of educational reform and significant change and endeavour to ensure our pupils always have the very best learning experiences and opportunities.

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Governors’ Annual Report to Parents 2019

Attendance

Term	Attendance	Authorised / Absence	Unauthorised Absence
Autumn 2018	91.94	7.41	0.64
Spring 2019	93.06	6.48	0.47
Summer 2019	84.11	12.79	0.73
Whole Year	89.86	8.71	0.56

The Governing Body asks parents to support the Headteacher by telephoning the school to inform him of absences AND to send a note when your child returns to school. Without this information absences MUST be recorded as UNAUTHORISED. In extreme circumstances fixed penalty notices may be issued.
Did you know?
If your child’s attendance is 80%, this means they have
missed:
* 1 day EVERY week
* 6 days every half term
* 12 days EVERY term
* 36 days EVERY year
* 180 days in five years...
...that’s nearly ONE WHOLE SCHOOL Year

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Governors’ Annual Report to Parents 2019

Destinations

The school had 17 pupils leave at the end of the academic year with the majority going to Gower College. Three pupils went to a privately run ASD provision and one has secured part time employment as caretaker at Ysgol Pen-y-Bryn.

Term Dates

Term Dates 2019-20
Autumn 2019
Term Begins 2nd September 2019
Mid Term Holiday 28th October – 1st November 2019
Term Ends 20th December 2019
Spring 2020
Term Begins 6th January 2020
Mid Term Holiday 17th February – 21st February 2020
Term Ends 3rd April 2020
Summer 2020
Term Begins 20th April 2020
Mid Term Holiday 25th May – 29th May 2020
Term Ends 20th July 2020
INSET Days agreed for 2nd and 3rd September 2019, 6th January 2020, 26th June 2020 and 20th July 2020.
There will be one other Inset Day scheduled within the academic year.

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Governors’ Annual Report to Parents 2019

Partnership Working

As we start the new year we continue to look for, and develop, new partnerships with the community. We have close working relationships with the fire brigade and police who regularly visit the school to help with our PSE curriculum .
Forge Fach continue to accept our pupils for work experience and provide courses for our after school club and key skills enterprise project.
Penllergaer Wood Trust do gardening projects, the John Muir award and the DoE award and Swansea Botanical Gardens do a project with our sixth form.
3 Mobile attend school with workshops for pupils and parents on many topics such as internet safety.
We also have strong links with Western Power, GWR, Water Safety, St Johns ambulance, road safety, YMCA, Ospreys, Swansea City FC, Fforestfach day centre, disability sport Wales, WRU, Active Young People, Gwalia Housing, the Salvation army who play carols in our Christmas Fayre and a reading project with Morriston library.
The family centre in Clase also take our pupils on work experience as do the DVLA, Premier Inn, Freedom Leisure in Penlan and Morriston and the Play Library.
We have close links with our local councilors and Assembly Member who continue to support the school.
We also have support services from R.E.A.C.H, whizz kids and Leonard Cheshire who visit the school regularly.
This term we are looking to introduce bowls, cycling and curling to the PE curriculum in partnership with Active young people and freedom leisure.
These are exciting times for Ysgol Pen-y-Bryn with community partnership working very prominent in the school.
We have many more partners that are keen to come to the school as and when we need them.

College	12
Employment	1
Unemployment	1
Privately run ASD provision	3