Reports on and by BPS
Reports on BPS
BPS was awarded the bronze "Siarter Iaith" award for Welsh language use...
BPS has been awarded the bronze Rights Respecting School award...
**Our report will be uploaded soon**
BPS has been awarded its Platinum Eco Flag for the 3rd time...
**Our report will be uploaded soon**
BPS has been awarded the International Schools' award for the 3rd time...
**Our report will be uploaded soon**
Our school self-evaluation and improvement is reported on by Estyn, the Welsh inspectorate body.
Please use the following link to see our last inspection report...
https://www.estyn.gov.wales/provider/brynhyfryd-primary-school
BPS is challenged and supported by School Improvement Advisor, Kerry Thomas. Kerry is a serving headteacher in Swansea and also works in partnership with the local authority, The City and County of Swansea, in order to quality assure and safeguard BPS self-evaluations. There is currently no national categorisation of schools or comparative data to form league tables.
Reports by BPS
BPS works with other professional bodies across the wider educational system and partners from other fields, both nationally and in other countries, to develop a greater understanding of teaching and learning.
National Academy for Educational Leadership
BPS's headteacher, Mr Knight, has recorded a podcast about innovation with Trinity St Davids' University and "Chief Provocation Officer and Dealer in Possibilities", Larry Schulman.
Click this icon to go to the website to listen to it...
BPS senior leaders have worked with research students to support their work studying the effects of music provision in Wales and its' therapeutic effects on learners with social/emotional/ behavioural difficulties.
Read the summary of research here...
EmpathyLab
BPS was in the first cluster of schools in Wales to pilot research on teaching learners empathy. We are now an alumni affliate school working closely with University of Sussex in order to continue embedding empathy strategies with learners. BPS's Languages, Literacy and Communication Lead, Sarah Higgs, supports EmpathyLab in presenting information to schools across the UK.
Find the EmpathyLab research that we contribute to using the following link...
Think Equal
BPS Early Years staff are currently working with 'Think Equal' in order to embed anti-racist and other equality-based attitudes in learners, at this key cognitive developmental stage. Find more information about our approaches using the following link...
https://thinkequal.org/about-us/our-story/research-and-evidence/
WASACRE (Wales Association of Standing Advisory Councils on Religious Education)
BPS's headteacher is a working partner with this national body currently writing national professional learning modules for schools to develop their 'Religion, Values and Ethics' curriculum design and approaches. More information will be included here when published by Welsh Government.
Lat Blaylock
BPS' RVE pedagogy is due to be included in the national publication "RE Today" as exemplar practice. Lat Blaylock will be the piece editor and more information will be included here when works are published.
INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIP PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
BALINESE PARTNERS: Bali Dyslexia Foundation, North Bali Arts School of the Arts, Green School Bali
Conclusions
All cultures experienced in Bali place a high value on creativity and appreciation of beauty in their environments whether natural or manmade. This is reflected in architecture, fashion, religious practices and the range of musical, dance, art & design and other traditional performances that are alive across the country. The Arts are not a nationally recognised academic discipline taught in government schools. This may be due to both lack of funding available within the schooling system and also due to lack of arts related industry within the country. The exception to this is the thriving craft industry where jewellery, clothing and other items are sold to tourists. The majority of Balinese pupils will either enter the world of work in tourism, agriculture or subsistence living. A very few enter careers based in the Arts despite pupils clear love, talent and cultural appreciation for creativity.
As schools in Wales, it is worth considering if we also foster school cultures that place a high value on creativity and appreciation of beauty in their environments whether natural or manmade. As creativity is valued increasingly in our culture, there may be an increased likelihood that our pupils will choose to enter the world of work in the Arts. In Wales, consideration should be given to what opportunities pupils are given in order to follow career pathways in the Arts.
There seems to be a dichotomy in Balinese locations visited in terms of sustainability: indigenous peoples very often place high value and arrange spiritual practices around appreciating and caring for the natural world, recognising the great spiritual influence that the natural world affords; whilst at the same time local industry and infrastructure are not developed in a way that shows the same level of respect and care for the natural world. For example, the Hindu and Buddhist temples are filled with references to respect and celebration of animal and plant life as an expression or form of the divine, and yet local fishermen still use dynamite in order to fish the coral reefs which is destroying the local ecosystems. Intricate flowers displays are used frequently and widely as offerings to the gods/ as spiritual observances, and yet the Balinese have no infrastructure or common refuse collection/ recycling programmes nationally. As a result natural areas are being littered and wildlife species are declining in many areas.
Internationally run schools visited are trying to educate both indigenous and international populations in terms of sustainability, in order to slow and or reverse damage done to the natural world. This is not common practice in Bali but schools in Wales can learn from some examples being set. For example, the Green School Bali seeks to teach pupils that they are PART of the natural world and its ecosystems through immersive project based learning (developing pupils’ cynefin); and the Bali Dyslexia Foundation (BDF) works closely with families (particularly through admissions processes/ home visits) to identify and target support that will break generational cycles of educational poverty due to low-income and or ALN. BDF also accepts donations of recyclable plastic as payment for pupils’ education, thus highlighting for families the value of both the natural world and recycling processes.
SOUTH AFRICAN PARTNERS: Pridwin Preparatory School, St Vincent's School for the Deaf
REPORT COMING SOON!