Young stars
Last night dozens of young people were honoured at the High 5 Awards. It was an absolute pleasure to be there for the first time in my capacity as chief executive. More than 350 young people were nominated and the stories behind the entries are inspiring and uplifting.
To see the young people there last night enjoying themselves and being honoured for their achievements was brilliant. These awards are a great way of learning more about what young people are doing right across the city and it gives us the opportunity to thank and reward them.
My thanks to all the judges and those who nominated, to the whole team who helped support the event including Mark Gosney, Jo Doek, Jo Cutler, Liz Edmonds and Jason Rogers and especially Swans star Leon Britton who, as the awards ambassador, was fantastic.
The full list of winners are:
- Group Achievement Award – 4C’s Young Commissioners
- Group Community Award – Chips, Curry and Cappuccino
- Achievement 14-19 – John Nelson
- Recognise 14-19 – Tia Aldron
- Recognise Up to 13 – Sydney Norman
- Achievement Up to 13 – Chiara Robinson
- Community Up to 13 – Corey Michael
- Recognise – 20-25 – Lucy Fethany-Wilks
- Achievement – 20-25 – Ashley Rix
- Judges Special Award Up to 13 – Teigan Miles
- Judges Special Award 14-19 – Rachael Beckett
- Ambassador Award – Adam A’Hearne
For full details of the stories behind the winners and photographs please go to www.swansea.gov.uk/high5winners
Retirements
Nineteen long-serving employees are due to retire this month. They’ve given outstanding service and it’s always sad to see people leave but we wish them all the best in their retirement.
School visits
Last Friday I continued my visits to primary schools at Trallwn and Plasmarl. At Trallwn I met Amanda Taylor, the head teacher, and her deputy Owen Thomas. There’s been some significant investment in the school fabric and metal doors were being replaced while I was there. Amanda and Owen explained the challenges the school faced and how the staff were addressing them. It felt like a real team approach with a healthy mix of long-standing experienced teaching staff, who knew the area and its families very closely, and young ambitious teachers and support assistants who brought fresh approaches and ideas. After helping with the peer review of the nursery art work I was treated to the impressive talents of about 20 Year Four and Five children playing “My Dog’s got Fleas” on ukuleles. Unforgettable and brilliant!
At Plasmarl I met Lucy Saunders, head teacher, and Lesley Williams, Chair of Governors. Once again it was encouraging to see physical improvements being made to the school with a new roof and re-pointed walls. Lucy and Lesley explained the ethos of the school, which has a long and fascinating history, including some famous footballing alumni. This school is in an area with some significant challenges and Lucy showed me the excellent new Flying Start provision, a programme which engages parents and aims to make a decisive difference to the life chances of children under four years old. The issue is that families only qualify for this programme if they live in eligible areas and I have some concerns that some of our most challenging areas are not included.
I must say a big thank you to those involved in commissioning the improvement works carried out at both schools, creating a better (and drier!) learning environment for the children. Once again, however, the highlight was visiting all of the classes and seeing the fantastic work being done by the teachers and support assistants. I left with a better understanding of the importance of engaging and working with families to improve attendance, achievement and well-being for children who too often have restricted opportunities and ambitions.
Quiz night
It’s great to hear the staff quiz night last week run by the Innovation Community went so well. I’m sorry I couldn’t make it as I’d like to think I’d have been helpful to my team, particularly on music. There was a full house on the night and the event raised a massive £660 for the Morriston Hospital Cardiac Endowment Unit which is far more than the organisers had hoped for. Just for the record, the winning team was ‘We’re Kind of a Big Deal!’ featuring Ann Smith, Paul Burrows, Steve Porter, Bob Fenwick, Carl Billingsley, Amanda Pugh, Adrian Quinn and Glenn Watkins.
I’m assured there will be more events like this in the future.
Staff reassurance
Swansea Museum’s future has featured in the media, so I’d like to take the opportunity to reassure staff that we do not have plans to close the venue on Victoria Road. As part of a review into our cultural services, we’re looking to retain and secure external investment in the building. We have to make short-term savings though, which is why we’re reviewing the operation of the museum’s tramshed building and the historic vessels in the museum’s ownership.
We’ve recently tested interest from organisations in running some of our cultural services to help sustain them in the face of major budget cuts. Organisations will demonstrate whether they have the experience, financial stability and know-how to provide excellent services in an affordable way. This will happen over the next couple of years, but we would need to be convinced that this would be a better option than a transformed in-house service.
We’ve appointed chartered surveyors Knight Frank to market our Pipehouse Wharf depot site for potential development. The site, along with several other properties and plots of land owned by the council, is being advertised in the media. This is the first stage of a lengthy process and any relocation of staff is some time away. We’ll update staff as soon as details are finalised.
Success story
Statistics show over 25,000 visits to Oystermouth Castle since it re-opened for the 2016 season at the end of March. The castle is closing for the autumn and winter today (September 30), so my thanks go to all our staff, the Friends of Oystermouth Castle and everyone else involved in the attraction’s on-going success story.