Author: Rhys Gregory

Apprentice Molly Tanner’s personal experience of being a dyslexic learner has inspired her to become a teaching assistant supporting children with additional learning needs at Gowerton School in Swansea. Molly, 23, who lives in the city, was not fully diagnosed as dyslexic until this summer but that has not diluted her passion to support children in the Special Teaching Facility at the school. She supports year nine pupils who have a range of additional learning needs. The diagnostic assessment for dyslexia was arranged through her apprenticeship provider, Gower College Swansea, as part of the support available to apprentices “I love…

Care homes in Wales are on a “war footing” because of desperate staff shortages caused by the skyrocketing Covid infection rate. According to Mario Kreft MBE, the chair of Care Forum Wales, the sector is facing its worst ever crisis with reports that 75 per cent of staff were off work in some homes, either because they had contracted Coronavirus or they were self-isolating. The situation is so bad that as a last resort homes were introducing “firebreaks” to temporarily restrict visiting as the highly infectious Omicron variant tore across Wales. Domiciliary care companies were also struggling badly and were…

A strong final quarter of the year saw the take up of industrial property over 50,000 sq ft in Wales reach 3.49m sq ft in 2021 – up from 2.74m sq ft in 2020, and 2.5 times the amount transacted in 2019, according to research from Knight Frank. The global property consultancy reported that 1.84 million sq ft of industrial units of 50,000 sq ft and over was transacted in Wales in Quarter 4 (Q4). Neil Francis, head of Logistics & Industrial at Knight Frank in Cardiff, said: “The figures were boosted by the sale of 1 million sq ft…

Volunteers have rolled up their sleeves to help bring blooms of colour to a biodiversity project. Green-fingered Ruthin and Denbigh residents have stepped forward to help prepare for the new season of Denbighshire County Council’s Wildflower Meadows project. Following the Council’s declaration of a climate and ecological emergency in 2019, this project is part of an ongoing commitment to enhancing biodiversity across the county, Nearly 60 sites, including highway verges, footpath edges, cycleways and amenity grasslands, are now being managed to create wildflower meadows. These sites, along with the 11 roadside nature reserves, equate to about 30 football pitches worth…

One of the newest private schools in the UK has scooped two major awards at the independent education sector’s ‘Oscars’. Myddelton College, in Denbigh, which was only founded five years ago, was the only school in Wales to be honoured at the Independent Schools Association awards. Headmaster Andrew Allman and his team came away with two prestigious prizes, for Outstanding International Involvement and for Outstanding Sport in a Small School. It has been a meteoric rise for Myddelton, the UK’s newest independent school when it opened in 2016 on the former Howell’s School campus on Denbigh’s Park Street. Andrew Allman…

Members of the public can now easily view the public rights of way they have access to within their locality and further afield in Pembrokeshire, thanks to a new interactive map. The map allows users to view footpaths and bridleways throughout the county, as well as restricted byways, and byways open to all traffic. It is known as the working copy of the Definitive Public Rights of Way map. It can be viewed on Pembrokeshire County Council’s website at: https://www.pembrokeshire.gov.uk/definitive-map/working-copy-of-the-definitive-public-rights-of-way-map A useful feature is that if users click on a path, it will show its ID number and so if…

Merthyr Tydfil’s new bus interchange has won a third prestigious national award within the space of as many months. After picking up two construction awards in the autumn, the bus station was chosen from a shortlist of eight projects as winner of the RTPI Cymru (Royal Town Planning Institute in Wales) Awards for Planning Excellence. The judges described the interchange as ‘an exemplar project delivering an inclusive approach at design, construction and operational stages that demonstrates how to make a substantive change to how an integrated transport system works. “The transport Interchange is a state of the art and stunning…

Works to refurbish and extend the fitness suite at Builth Sport Centre are now complete. This project has been delivered in partnership between Powys County Council (PCC) and Freedom Leisure Powys.  As part of the works, the weight training room has been extended significantly to create a bespoke and functional strength area. This will be a welcome addition to Builth and accommodate the centre’s growing number of members and customers. The existing fitness equipment has been replaced with new, fully accessible state-of-the-art Technogym equipment. And to compliment all of this improvements to the flooring, ceiling and lighting have also been…

Work to remove trees infected with ash dieback along the A467 in Rogerstone is due to start on 4 January and is expected to take around four weeks. The trees could potentially pose a risk to the public so removal is essential in the interests of safety. While work is taking place, a traffic management system will be in place and every effort is being made to minimise disruption with only one lane due to be closed at any one time. Residents in the area have been informed and signage will be in place to advise road users. Ash dieback…

Schools and colleges will receive £103 million in Welsh Government funding, as learners return for the January term. £50m will be provided via local authorities through the Sustainable Communities for Learning programme. The funding will help schools carry out capital repair and improvement work, with a focus on health and safety measures, such as improving ventilation. The funding will also be used to support decarbonisation. £45m of revenue funding will also help support school budgets, assisting schools as they continue to deal with the ongoing impacts of the pandemic and to prepare for the requirements of the new curriculum. An…