Mr Gareth Lucas
Teaching Awards 2009 Winner
The BT Award for Teacher of the Year in a Primary School in Wales
Ysgol Y Lawnt, RHYMNEY
Gareth Lucas as been described by colleagues as “the Stephen Fry of Welsh-medium education”. Not only is he a keen advocate of promoting Welsh, but he believes in enthusing his pupils with a love of languages generally. His pupils recently impressed Estyn inspectors by giving the ‘World Goodwill’ message in 10 different languages.
Gareth has been a teacher at the school for more than 10 years and is the epitome of high standards and expectations. His results over a number of years have constantly been above those of LEA and national averages, and he has achieved this success with his pupils by inspiring them to learn while maintaining high standards of discipline.
He encourages pupils to think critically and work independently. Gareth makes excellent use of Thinking Skills and Assessment for Learning in order to ensure high standards, and work is often backed up with a fantastic use of the outdoors to stimulate learning.
Pupils thoroughly enjoy his lessons. One said: “There are no wrong answers in Mr Lucas's class.”
Gareth celebrates his pupils’ successes with a “Pupil of the Week” display, and a picture of each child with their hopes and fears for the future. Children set their own targets and challenges, and map ways of achieving these. Gareth ensures he differentiates tasks so that talented and able pupils are constantly stretched whilst lower attaining children are always moving forward.
Gareth has recently developed a "Datacentre" on-line tracking tool across the school, which allows staff to know where every child is on the learning continuum, and he makes excellent use of teaching assistants to boost the performance of struggling pupils. He has trained to be a First Steps Reading coordinator, and now leads whole-school Inset days in raising reading standards. Gareth is also on the LEA’s Succession Planning Programme where good teachers who have the potential to become deputy heads are trained.
He also plays an active part in the life of the school, organising rugby clubs, and accompanying pupils to residential courses where they improve their knowledge and understanding of the Welsh languages. In recent years Gareth has studied and successfully gained an A-level in Chemistry, and is currently studying for Grade 3 Piano – just for the fun of it!
Judges said they had “witnessed an excellent classroom practitioner”.
