AFTER years of planning and waiting for building work to be completed pupils finally moved into the £48million Penarth Learning Community project earlier this year.

After finally gaining planning permission one cold Thursday evening in the winter of September 2012, pupils, teachers and parents have waited just over two years for work to be completed on the creation of two new schools.

Pupils have now moved into the two new schools, St Cyres and the Ysgol y Deri special education needs school, and settled into their new surroundings.

With an iPad each for more than 1,100 pupils in St Cyres, wireless internet throughout the whole building, and the use of cutting edge technology in all of the new classrooms, the development is now setting an example for schools across the country.

Pupils no longer have to carry heavy textbooks around the school, as they can simply download them on to their iPad device. And if a teacher wants to showcase someone’s work on the flat screen TV in the classroom, they can do so with a few flicks of the screen.

The facilities have also benefitted the wider community, with the likes of karate clubs and other organisations hiring out the likes of the main hall in evenings and weekends.

St Cyres head teacher Dr Jonathan Hicks said that pupils finally had the facilities they deserved and were destined to better their record breaking examination results next year.

He added that since moving into the new premises in November they hadn’t looked back and, despite a few snagging issues like wifi blackspots, were now making the most of their new facilities.

Deputy head teacher Scott Britt added that pupils finally had a building that was fit for purpose, and that it was only after leaving the old school building they realised how much they had put up with.

The old St Cyres buildings, which can still be seen from the new development, would sway in the wind, flood during heavy rain and restricted the work of teachers and pupils.

The new buildings have been purpose built and designed with the help of the teaching staff.

Simple things like having each faculty in one area, rather than split up in different buildings, has made life easier for teachers and pupils.

The creation of unisex toilets, where each cubicle has ceiling to floor doors, has cut down on bullying and vandalism, which had been one of the main problems in the old school.

The old buildings, along with the former Ysgol Erw’r Delyn and Ashgrove School premises, are set to be demolished and replaced with sports facilities with work expected to finish in October 2015.

The Penarth Learning Community has already been praised by politicians, parents, pupils and teachers. During the course of a week of open evenings 860 people of all ages enjoyed tours of the new buildings. Dr Jonathan Hicks said the oldest visitor was 92, and that the overwhelming reaction from parents was always the same.

“One person in a group said to me: ‘can I come back to school and start my learning again?’”

He added that other parents said they wished they had the facilities their children have now, as they marvelled at the technology used by them.

As only the second school in Wales to give iPad’s to every pupil Dr Jonathan Hicks said that within a few years the school was hoping to become paperless, as the classroom moved from quills, to chalk boards, to pens and now to computer screens.

“The vision is to become paperless, but at the moment we live in a society where we are halfway between the two,” he said.

“When they no longer require written answers, when they can be typed online and submitted, then that’s a whole new ball game.”

Computer application (apps) that teachers use in conjunction with iPads and other resources have meant pupils have become ‘digital leaders’ and are comfortable with technology.

“Our learning resource centre is a lot like the Apple shop where you have got the genius bar with the experts there,” said deputy head teacher Scott Britt.

“Some of our IT team are pupils that have been trained up as digital leaders and they are there to give help with any glitches with the technology.”

Dr Hicks, who toured schools across England and Wales to pick up tips about how the development could be customised to benefit pupils, said that they were now hoping to better this year’s exam results.

“To deliver those results in that old building was phenomenal,” he said.

“We now have a purpose built environment. For the first time we have faculties teaching in the right areas, as not having them separated makes a big difference.

“We have lost the one thing that was holding us back.”

He added: “It sounds ironic but we don’t look back now. It’s like the elephant in the room as its right outside but we don’t even talk about it. It feels like we have been here a lot longer already.”