Pupils from a primary school in Trethomas are honing their learnt skills by running their very own community cafe.
Year 5 and 6 pupils from Tyn-y-Wern Primary School, Trethomas, have launched a cafe on the school campus which will be open for members of the public to have a catch-up, a coffee, and a cake.
The Tyn-y-Wern Bistro will be run by four pupils on a weekly rotation, and while undertaking tasks like baking, cleaning, dealing with money and chatting to customers, it’s hoped that the youngsters will be able to put their learnt numeracy, literacy and science skills into practise in a ‘real-life’ setting.
The bistro will be open for business between 1.15pm and 3.15pm every Wednesday at the school, and celebrated its launch with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday January 26.
Teaching assistant Linda Bignell, from Machen, was involved in launching the project, and said: “The pupils have been really keen to do this. They’ve come up with plenty of ideas, and have been brilliant helping out.
“They’ve worked so hard to get this place up to scratch.”
The annexed building had previously been used as storage space, before it was converted into a museum as part of an extra-curricular project in May last year.
Pupils adopted the roles of tour guides, and showing visitors the various artefacts and historical school photos on display.
The bistro will still host heritage items and pupils’ work for visitors to study.
Caroline ap Hywel, Family and Community Engagement Co-ordinator, said: “The area was a dead space and a bit of a dumping ground, but now children can use it as a space to enjoy themselves, integrate and mix with locals from the community.”