Pupils paint huge mural to ease young patients’ fears at surgery
THE BFG, the Enormous Crocodile, The Twits and George from George’s Marvellous Medicine are among the Roald Dahl characters drafted in by a GP surgery hoping to make visits less frightening for children.
The beloved characters from the Cardiff-born author’s best-selling books feature on a large mural which now adorns what was an austere corridor by the treatment rooms.
It was painted at Tynycoed Surgery in Sarn by pupils from nearby Coleg Cymunedol Y Dderwen (CCYD) in Tondu after Dr Rob Morgan came up with the idea.
He wanted to foster ties with the school as well as making young patients feel more at ease.
CCYD ran an internal competition and the winning designs were then scaled up by pupils, who spent around four months, and much of their spare time, on the project.
Teacher Gemma Keane said Year 12 pupils worked with Year 7 to develop the designs during an after-school club and then spent time at the surgery bringing them to life as part of the community challenge element of their Welsh Baccalaureate.
They also worked with younger pupils in the MAT (more able and talented) scheme in the school.
The artists were Chloe Arnold, 17, Isobel Webb, 16, Lauren Chard, 17, Charlotte Wong, 14, Mor- gan Edwards, 13, Elizabeth Alm, 14, Teegan Brimble, from Year 8, and Kayleigh Spohn, Year 10 and Emma-Jo Morgan, Year 12.
“It was done after school and in some of their free lessons,” said Mrs Keane.
“The MAT pupils were also selected to come up during the school day.”
She added: “The Welsh Bacc pupils are supposed to do 30 hours as part of their community challenge, but the girls went way past that.”
Dr Morgan said: “Meeting the students for the first time to look at their preliminary drawings and cartoons was exciting, however, they surpassed our expectations by miles and what they have produced is so vibrant, the colourful photographs do not do it credit.
“It has been wonderful having the students in the surgery, to hear them working together and just getting on. They have been a pleasure to have and have been a credit to both their school and their teachers. We feel that working together on community projects with partners such as Coleg Cymunedol Y Dderwen is important for the future”.
Chloe said: “The best thing has been working as a team and people have been giving us compliments as we were working.”