Author: pencoedcomp

There was plenty to celebrate at the Young Carers Christmas party today!

The group gathered for nibbles and games, before being presented with their new ‘Young Carer’ school jumpers. The Young Carers have been working towards for some time now, designing their own logo, and raising funds to pay for the jumpers.

However, the Bridgend Young Carers group were so impressed by the pupils passion, and enthusiasm to raise awareness, that they kindly paid for the jumpers! Our Young Carers will be able to wear these in school, on the days they have meetings. Their hope is to encourage other young carers to come forward, and ‘noramlise’ their roles.

Assistant Head, Mr Thompson, was on hand to present pupils with their new jumpers.

That wasn’t all though, as each pupil received a gift bag, generously donated by the Bridgend Inclusive Network Group. BING have huge champions of the group, and we are grateful for their continued support.

Finally, Mr Thompson surprised the group, by presenting them with the ‘Young Carer Friendly’ Award. This is a new initiative from Bridgend County Borough Council, and Pencoed Comprehensive is the first school to receive it, in recognition of the encouragement and support provided to our Young Carers.

We are incredibly proud of all of our Young Carers, not only for their drive and determination to succeed, but for their willingness to help and support others. We are also grateful to Ms Clarkson, for her continued work to provide a ‘safe space’ for these pupils.

Well done all!

Earlier this week, we were pleased to welcome visitors from Artes Mundi to Pencoed Comprehensive, to deliver a workshop to our Yr10 GCSE Art pupils.

Aside from the internationally renowned Artes Mundi Prize, the organisation also collaborates with multiple venues to deliver a wide range of exhibitions, and provides talks, projects and workshops to communities and schools.

Our Yr10 artists were introduced to the work of 3 artists, whose work has recently been exhibited in Cardiff: Prabhaker Pachpute, Firelei Baez, and Carrie Mae Weems. The overarching theme of the work studied, and produced by the pupils, was ‘hope’.

Over the course of 2 lessons, pupils experimented with a number of art forms and interpretations of works, including attempting to physically re-create some of the artworks they were examining!

Rather than focusing on precision and perfection, pupils were encouraged to work more freely, and focus on creativity and collaboration. Their final pieces came together as a collage of their individual sketches and text based art.

It’s safe to say the pupils really enjoyed the workshop, and Head of Art, Mrs Davies, was impressed by their contributions and responses to the questions posed, and tasks set.