Powys primary school to mark 25th anniversary next month

Builth Wells Primary School opened at its current premises on Hospital Road in April 1998 and pupils and staff will be walking in the footsteps of the original class of ’98 as part of the celebrations on Friday, June 23.

Twenty five years ago, pupils and staff took part in a ceremonial walk from the old school building – located on Park Road and which had been built as a school in 1911 – to the new building. That walk will be re-enacted next month, with past pupils and staff accompanying the current children and staff.

As part of the celebrations, a tree will also be planted on the school grounds, with a time capsule, currently being put together by the children, to be buried beneath.

Pictures of pupils and staff walking up from the old Builth Primary School to the new site in April 1998 adorn the walls of the new building (Image: Matt Jones)

“There will be a full day of celebrations in school,” said headteacher Gareth Cornelius.  

“Children will have parties in their classrooms and that kind of thing, then at around 1pm we’re going to meet down at the Groe, take the whole school down there after lunch and have a procession.

“Hopefully, there’ll be former staff and pupils there from the class of 98 to follow behind the children. We’ll all walk back up to the school together and re-enact the original walk.”

Bill Bain, the school’s original headmaster, will be part of the occasion, and Mr Cornelius is hopeful scores of past pupils, former teachers and governors will also be in attendance.

“We’re inviting any staff members who worked at the school at the time and since to come along. There’s still a lot of people who live in the community,” said Mr Cornelius.

“We’re going to put together a time capsule too. That’s one of the things we’ll be doing in the morning.

“We’ll be planting a tree on the grounds and burying a time capsule beneath it. Over the next couple of weeks the children will decide what goes in it.”

The work on the new school began in April 1997 and was completed in March 1998 (Image: Matt Jones)

The original walk took place on April 21, 1998, and Mr Cornelius, who has been head for seven years, says the school has transformed in a quarter of a century.  

“We’ve made the most of the land we have,” he said. “We reclaimed it; we’ve now got a sports area, adventure trails, a forest area, mud kitchens. We can do everything on site now like host sports days.

“The biggest change has been the pre-school coming up here.”

The Welsh-medium pre-school, Cylch yn yr Ysgol, moved to the school in September 2017, following changes to the primary school admission age.

“They came up here and have their own section now and internal courtyard. It’s all run by a committee separate to the school.”

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The case of children being taught through the medium of Welsh has also developed dramatically, with the majority of pupils now bilingual at the school.

A quarter of a century ago there was one Welsh medium class – now the Welsh-speaking pupils number 110, compared to 100 English-only speaking pupils.

Despite its relative youthful existence, and a healthy pupil number of 210, there are fears the dynamics of the school could change in the coming years, due to uncertainty over the future of Ysgol Calon Cymru’s Builth campus, which could be transformed into an all-through Welsh medium school.