Education, arts, sports and outdoor facilities at a thriving comprehensive in Swansea are being revamped and updated to improve the school for environment for pupils, staff and the wider community.
Swansea Council’s Cabinet Member for Education Improvement, Learning and Skills, Jennifer Raynor, has visited Dylan Thomas Community School to see the changes that are taking place.
These include a new outdoor gym and cardio area (pictured above), more outdoor learning and recreation areas and new bike sheds.
Retractable seating has been installed turning the old drama studio into a 120 seat theatre (pictured), the Science and Technology Department has had a face lift with three updated laboratories and top of the range construction desks in the D&T room along with a state of the art laser cutter.
The catering classroom has had a complete re-fit and now there is a dedicated demonstration area as well as sleek new worktops hosting 15 hobs and ovens for pupils to put the theory in to practice and rustle up restaurant quality meals.
The school also now boasts a new ICT suite along with equipment that means students can to connect, research and innovate across all of their subjects.
Cllr Raynor said: “The changes taking place at Dylan Thomas Community School are very impressive and I’d congratulate headteacher Paul Davies and his team, along with the governing body and parents, for what they are achieving.
“I was particularly impressed to hear about the role pupils played in identifying areas of the school they wanted updated and the new facilities needed.
“Great progress has been made and there are further exciting plans including the new all-weather sports facilities to which the council is contributing.”
Funding was approved last month by the council’s cabinet for the all-weather pitch and multi-use games areas that will be built where the old tennis courts stand.
These will be widely available for the community when not in use by the school and have been made possible with grants from Garfield Weston Foundation and the Johann Cruyff Foundation.
Mr Davies said there had been a lot of hard work by staff, pupils and many others during the last year to make the changes possible.
He added: “We are very proud of the significant updates to many of our facilities having raised funding with external sponsors and grant providers to ensure we provide the best learning facilities to our staff and pupils.
“The pupils were heavily involved in identifying the parts of the school and new facilities they wanted to update or add and we have worked hard to deliver these to the point where the school is almost unrecognisable.
“We are now looking forward to the development of the new sports facilities which will build on our strong community links and will be widely welcomed when completed next year.”
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