Excitement builds ahead of new Pencoed Primary School opening

Work on the brand new £10.8m Pencoed Primary School is reaching its final stages in readiness for the school bell ringing for the first time at the new premises on Wednesday 5 September.

Construction work was completed earlier this month and the classrooms are currently being fitted out with all of the equipment you’d expect at a state-of-the-art modern school.

When pupils walk through the doors to start the new term it will the first time that the whole primary school has been on one single site since the old school was built in the early 1900s.

For more than a century, there were separate infant and junior sections, with buildings across either side of the busy Penprysg Road as well as premises at Heol y Cyw.

I can’t emphasise enough how proud I am that we have been able to deliver an outstanding new school for the people of Pencoed.

The old school buildings served generations of local people, but this modern integrated facility is required so that we can move with the times and can provide the best educational environment possible.

Councillor Huw David, Leader of Bridgend County Borough Council

Councillor David added: "I am sure that pupils and parents will be amazed by the facilities on offer at the new school. The design is similar to the new Bettws Primary School, which was also designed by the council’s in-house design team. Classrooms can be found off one long circulation space which runs through the heart of the school on both the ground and first floors.

“That long open space is put to excellent use at Bettws, where they fondly call it a ‘street’, and I can see it becoming equally popular with pupils at Pencoed for reading, computer work and other learning opportunities.

“The new school hall is similarly impressive while I am struck by how light and bright the whole of the new school is, both inside and out.

“I would like to thank Welsh Government for their ongoing support to our school modernisation programme and also thank our contractors BAM Construction Ltd, pupils, teachers, governors, school staff, council staff, and everyone else who has made this project a reality.”

The new Pencoed Primary School has been jointly funded by Bridgend County Borough Council and the Welsh Government’s 21st Century Schools and Education Programme. The total council investment is £6.766m while the Welsh Government has provided £4.067m.

Significant local authority investment of approximately £400k has also been made via highways works and traffic calming to improve road safety nearby and enable pupils to travel to school safely on foot, bike or scooter.

This is the start of a wonderful new era for Pencoed Primary School. I know that everyone at the school is really looking forward to being together on one site and no longer needing to cross a busy main road several times a day in order to walk between classes, while the new facilities are second to none.

Anyone who has been peeking through at the building site since construction work began last July will be thoroughly impressed when they see the end result. The start of term is always an exciting time, but will be particularly fun for the Pencoed Primary School pupils this year.

Councillor Charles Smith, Cabinet Member for Education and Regeneration

Featuring a 70-place nursery and facilities for children with special educational needs, the new school will also cater for up to 510 pupils aged between four and eleven and includes sports and leisure facilities that can be shared with the wider community.

There will also be eight places for visually impaired pupils, eight infant observation places, eight places for pupils with autism and two further classes of 15 places for pupils with moderate learning difficulties.