St Athan Primary Governing Body

CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS - Cllr. J. Thomas (LA)* VICE CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS - Mr. R. Matthew LEA REPRESENTATIVES - Mrs. J. Lynch Wilson, Mr. S. Haines and Mrs. A. Little COMMUNITY GOVERNORS - Mr. R. Matthews, Mrs. L. Austin and Mr. D. Willmot PARENT REPRESENTATIVES - Mrs. T. Price, Mrs. V. Laing, Mr. N. Thompson and Mrs. P. King TEACHER REPRESENTATIVE - Mrs. P. Broomfield STAFF REPRESENTATIVE - Mrs. C. Hauxwell ACTING HEAD TEACHER - Mrs. L. Davies

Letter from the Chairman of the Governors

Dear Parent/ Guardian,

It is my pleasure once again to write my annual letter to you as Chairman of The Governing Body
at St Athan Primary School. We have had a very busy and successful year at St Athan and continue in our aim to provide the best possible education for every pupil, helping them to reach their potential whatever that may be.

We are privileged in St Athan to have extensive grounds which has enabled us to develop our
Woodland Wonders area which is a huge hit with the pupils and also the envy of many other
schools in the Vale, we are also, I believe, the only school with an indoor Woodland Wonders area
enabling us to continue our “green agenda”. I am currently arranging to erect the polytunnel
which was bought with funds raised by the school, parents and donations from various
associations and I would like to thank fellow governor Mrs. Lynch Wilson for working hard on
this. The polytunnel will supplement the raised beds and allow the children to grow a much more
extensive range of crops. All this, alongside the fantastic work of our eco committee helped us to
achieve our Platinum Flag.

Last year's transition to Llantwit Major Comprehensive was not without its challenges with a
number of pupils being told that there was no room for them, the reason being that for one reason
or another their applications were deemed late. I believe that all of those children eventually got
offered a place in Llantwit, but that may not happen in future years so I cannot stress strongly
enough that applications should be made in plenty of time, the closing date for applications is 30th
November but please do not leave it until the last minute. Last year some parents had problems
with the IT which hopefully won’t happen again but the Year 6 team at school are offering IT
support and guidance during the application time. We are fortunate to be a feeder school for Llantwit and a lot of work goes on between our schools to make the transition as smooth as possible. 

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mrs. Haynes and all the staff at the school, both
teaching and non teaching for their continued enthusiasm and dedication to the job in hand. Our
school has Thrive status for wellbeing which means that everyone in the school prioritises
wellbeing and the emotional needs of our children, you can rest assured that your child’s
wellbeing as well as their education is very important to us. Happy healthy children will always
perform better and that is what we aim to achieve. I would also like to thank the PTA for their
support for the school, it’s great to have so many parents involved either through the PTA or as
school helpers.

Finally I would like to thank the Governing Body for their continued support, all our governors
are dedicated to the continued improvement of our school, a special thanks to Cllr Acott for
always being available when I am not.

As I always say if there is anything you are unhappy with or that concerns you please speak to
either Mrs. Haynes or me, if we don’t know about it we can’t do anything to improve it. 

Councillor John Thomas
Chairman of the Governing Body