New all-weather pitch, canteen and community spaces set for Swansea primary school

Swansea Council’s Cabinet today backed the £3,257,000 scheme.

The existing school kitchen and canteen is too small and cannot meet the growing demand as all primary schools in Swansea will be offering all pupils free school meals this year.

Different options have been explored with the preferred solution being the demolition of the existing canteen and replacement with a new build that would include facilities for use by the wider community outside of school hours.

It will be funded through grants from the Welsh Government.

Arrangements will be in place to ensure pupils still get school meals while the work takes place.

The school has been developing its own separate plans for an all-weather pitch and has secured some grant funding for the project from the Garfield Weston Foundation and Johan Cruyff Foundation, and this will also benefit from Welsh Government Community Focussed Schools funding.

By doing all the work at the same time then it will help to cut costs.

Swansea Council’s Cabinet Member for Education, Robert Smith, said: “I’m very pleased that cabinet colleagues have taken the decision today to support this scheme that will make a positive difference to the health and wellbeing of pupils at Townhill Primary.

“The plans for the all-weather pitch are very exciting, while the new kitchen and dining area will allow the full roll-out of the Welsh Government’s universal free school meal programme in providing sufficient and modern dining and kitchen areas for the school.

“The free school meal programme is a life-line for many families in schools across Swansea during the cost-of-living-crisis and we hugely appreciate the support we have received from Welsh Government to deliver this along with our school improvement programme.”

Townhill Primary Headteacher Peter Owen said: “It has taken many years to bring this scheme to fruition, so I am delighted that the cabinet has approved these plans today.

“The hall will enable us to offer our pupils a much better dining experience – not least because the kitchen team will have a much bigger and better facility for cooking and our pupils will have a bigger, brighter and higher quality dining room to eat their lunch.

“In addition, we hope the facility will be a driver for us in improving our standards in Expressive Arts, giving pupils a suitable space for their performances. Our parents will be delighted to access the school’s hall so much more easily and have less stringent ticket allocations.

“The all-weather pitch will be a game changer for us in providing a superb facility for our pupils to hone their sporting skills.

“Our vision is that both the hall and the all-weather pitch will be able to be used by our community out of school hours and during holiday times.

“We are very thankful to the cabinet for supporting us and our council colleagues who put a lot of work in to help us secure Welsh Government funding.

“I am also thankful to my senior team who have worked with me to source significant funding from both the public and private sectors as we want our school to be a beacon in the area we serve for the highest standards in all we do. We know that the very best schools work with and alongside their communities – we hope this news and the realisation of this project will be a major boost for our whole community.”