We caught up with our 2017 Gold Winner, Lisa Rees-Renshaw. Read about the impact of her win on her school and teaching community.
Following winning the Award for Outstanding Use of Technology at the Teaching Awards in 2017, the producer of the short awards film, Ffion Humphries saw the potential to produce a heart-warming, informative and observational documentary about one of the biggest Special Schools in the UK.
The awards provided the platform for the documentary, and in 2019 we started shooting A Special School, series 1. Commissioned by BBC Wales, produced by Slam Media and broadcasted both on BBC One Wales and BBC Two network.
The documentaries highlight both the highs and the lows of the school, focusing on the wide range of opportunities available to the diverse range of needs of pupils, but most of all, demonstrates the love and care that the staff dedicate to the pupils to help them learn what they can do, excellently captured by Chris Britten, head teacher when describing the ‘can do’ ethos of the school; “We all know what these children can’t do, they get told every day what they can’t do when they go out into society, they know what they can’t do, so we’ve got a culture here of finding out what they can do.”
Ffion Humphries and her team invested so much time in getting to know the pupils and the staff in order to capture and share some of the most magical moments that so many may never get to see.
Following the success of the first series – series two of A Special School is now available on I-Player and will be broadcasting on BBC Two from Monday February 20 onwards.
Special Schools are amazing places and we are proud we have been able to share our school with so many.
