Building for the future

On Monday I attended the official opening by HRH the Prince of Wales of the Swansea University Bay Campus. As you might expect it was a grand affair and my congratulations go to the university on delivering this substantial and impressive project. I have been a member of the joint partnership group since the very beginning of this project more than eight years ago. It was a great experience to see the plans turn into reality as a fully functioning centre for the engineers of the future.

The opening of this new facility marks the start of a new era for Swansea University in its 95th year and is part of a £450 million programme of development and expansion that includes further investment into the Singleton Park campus. Over the last five years the university has had a significant impact on the region with a 20% increase in students and staff and a 120% increase in research awards. In addition during the during the 26 months construction of the Bay Campus over 7,500 people worked on the site, 273 contracts were awarded and 165 individuals trained in accordance with the Council’s Beyond Bricks and Mortar policy. Overall the investment in both campuses is estimated to contribute over £3 billion to the economy over the next decade.

School visits

I have been continuing my visits to schools this week. On Tuesday I visited Morriston Comprehensive School which last year saw the completion of a £22 million rebuild. It is a fantastic learning environment for young people. I met the head teacher, Martin Franklin, who not only made me feel very welcome but also filled me with enthusiasm as he explained the impact of the investment and the improvements achieved in performance by the staff and pupils. He also gave me a guided tour of the school. It is a really first class facility.

On Wednesday afternoon I travelled to meet Rob Phillips, head teacher at Dylan Thomas Comprehensive School.  Once again there was a warm welcome for me and Rob explained the challenges and achievements of the school very clearly.  The school is making fantastic progress, recently receiving a Good/Good inspection from ESTYN.  On our walkabout we visited the Dereck Roberts Centre which provides an education for children who are identified as having additional learning needs associated with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD).  This is an impressive and important facility of which the school can feel rightly proud.

This week I also met with Ysgolion Cynradd Abertawe, the Swansea Primary Schools association made up of head teachers from all of the cluster areas. We discussed a number of topics including pupil attainment and the importance of the broader achievements and well-being of children, the landscape for local government, reorganisation and the financial outlook post the EU referendum. The YCA are a passionate and challenging group and I am looking forward to further discussions with them and a series of visits to primary schools in the autumn term.

What did I learn from the visits and the YCA discussions? Well quite a lot really but I think the most important message was that whilst buildings and the environment are important the most significant determination of good outcomes in education is to recruit and retain inspirational teachers. Those I met this week left me with a very positive feeling indeed.

Farewells and congratulations

Next week sees the departure of our Head of Poverty and Prevention, Sarah Crawley, following her appointment as Director of Barnardos Cymru, based in Cardiff. Sarah has made an excellent contribution to developing our corporate priority to tackle poverty and will be missed by colleagues. I wish her well for the future in her new role. We are in the process of recruiting another Head of Service but in the meantime I am delighted to announce that Jane Whitmore has been appointed to act up for the interim period.

Congratulations also to Julie Thomas on her appointment to the Head of Child and Family Services. Julie has been doing this challenging job on a temporary basis for the last 12 months but has now been made permanent Head of Service by the Appointments Committee.

It’s all about you

The second “It’s all About You” staff engagement event was held at Gors Community Centre last week. These events are about improving staff well-being and morale and to give staff the opportunity to express their views and ideas. 104 members of staff attended between 1.00pm and 4.00pm, and the event was organised by staff for staff – all of whom are volunteers. I had planned to drop in but unfortunately I could not be there. It sounded like a good afternoon was had by those who attended though.

Dancing in the street

This Saturday sees the return of another event, Dance Days, a free weekend of dance performance organised by Taliesin. It takes place in Swansea city centre and around the National Waterfront Museum on Saturday 9th July, and in and around the National Waterfront Museum on Sunday 10 July. There is a link to the Dance Days programme here.

Mametz Wood

You might remember last week I mentioned Swansea Council paid its own tribute to those from our city who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country in World War I at the Welsh Memorial to the Battle of Mametz Wood. The 100th anniversary of that battle starting was yesterday and I’ve included a picture of the wreath-laying by Karen Hallchurch from Special Events on behalf of us all.

 

Events

I thanked all staff who helped to deliver the Wales National Airshow last week but I have to repeat the message this week following another superb weekend for the City. An estimated 200,000 people attended over the two days, the sun shone and great fun was had by all. The feedback from the general public has been very positive indeed. The next Wales National Airshow will take place on 1st and 2nd July 2017.

If that wasn’t busy enough, in the midst of the Airshow weekend, our Events team was asked to consider staging a Fanzone for Wales’ Euro 2016 semi final. Castle Square had been the Fanzone for the games up to Wednesday this week, but it had a restricted capacity owing to its size, location and configuration.

Given the anticipated high volume of people expected to watch the game at a Swansea Fanzone, it was decided to move the location to Singleton Park which could cater for much bigger numbers. It was just as well we did as more than 10,000 turned out to cheer Wales on against Portugal. They didn’t quite make the final of the European Championships but their performances in the competition earned praise from all over the world. Well done Wales.