Emergent Thinkers™

A fresh wave of entrepreneurial activity began this Monday as the new term kicked in, as a classroom in Llanelli played host to a well-known suffragette…

History Meets Innovation: AR in the Curriculum

At St John Lloyd Secondary School, learners from their first after-school Young Archaeologist Club branch in Wales collaborated with creative professionals, Karl, Domingos Studios, and Mat, Night Owl Design, to reimagine heritage learning. Through Augmented Reality, they brought a historical figure into the classroom — merging past, present, and future through technology.

Pupils designed and interacted with a life-sized Emmeline Pankhurst who had visited our town in 1912. The session, a taster for something bigger: the young archaeologists now developing their own artwork and original research to design a fully learner-curated AR experience — one that weaves together local history, digital storytelling, and cultural identity.

Science of the Soil: Microbes, Climate, and Community

In partnership with Llanelli’s Community Science International Wales (led by Dr Scott Griffiths), Llanelli Township, and supported by CWM Environmental Ltd and Llaeth Beynon Dairy, learners took part in a series of immersive workshops exploring microbiology, soil health, and sustainability.

Sessions were delivered both onsite at St Mary’s Primary School and in a public pop-up space in Llanelli’s town centre, currently home to CBS Community Science International Wales, where multiple groups from Pentip VA Primary School took part in hands-on investigation and ecological exploration.

A central focus of the workshops was the creation of Winogradsky Columns — scientific tools which model layered microbial ecosystems, using gradients of oxygen and nutrients to simulate real-world environments such as wetlands or landfill sites. Beyond observation, learners became experimenters — each building their own column to watch microbes grow, shift, and respond over time. These columns offer more than just a window into microbial life, playing a role in plastic degradation and soil remediation — opening up real conversations about circular systems, waste, and environmental responsibility.

“We had so much fun creating our own Winogradsky Column — and we can’t wait to see the results!”

These place-based learning experiences not only deepened scientific understanding, but nurtured EntreComp competences such as creativity, ethical thinking, observation, and value creation — showing how global challenges can be explored meaningfully at a local level.

Purposeful Transitions: The EntreComp Games Take Shape

This week we also sowed the seeds of the forthcoming EntreComp Games, scheduled for 21 May 2025. Led by 14 students at St John Lloyd School and facilitated by sports development guru, D Sion Thomas of Llanelli Town Council, the games will engage over 100 x Year 5 transition pupils drawn from all primaries of the Llanelli EntreComp Schools Cluster – including Pentip VA, St Mary’s, & Swiss Valley. Designed to support confident secondary transitions, the event will feature original student designed activities that develop problem-solving, creativity, initiative, and teamwork — all aligned with the EntreComp framework and Curriculum for Wales.

“Youth-led. Purpose-driven. Llanelli-powered.” – @stjohnlloydllanelli

This is what learner leadership looks like: purposeful, grounded, and community-connected.

Growing Futures: Food, Care, and Community

While this week’s spotlight has been on activities I’ve directly supported this week, I also acknowledge the brilliant, ongoing work at Swiss Valley Primary School. This week, learners have been planting, composting, and scaling up one strand of their wider Harmonious Heroes projects — working with the local Incredible Edible Network to put food systems thinking and ecological care into practice through curriculum-connected activity. Just one example of the thoughtful, values-driven work unfolding at Swiss Valley — and a reminder of how Llanelli’s EntreComp School Cluster are building capacity not only through special events, but through everyday acts of purposeful, entrepreneurial learning.

Systems Thinking in Action: Harmonious Heroes and Integrated Learning

This burst of activity reflects the momentum of the Harmonious Heroes Project— rooted in the EntreComp framework, and built through cross-sector collaboration. By linking schools, civic bodies, businesses, community agents, and creative professionals, the project fosters a living ecosystem of entrepreneurial learning. One where students lead, teachers co-design, and communities and the wider stakeholder collective help ground learning in real-world relevance.

Together, they show a system in motion — curriculum-integrated, community-connected, and learner-led. Not bolted on. Built in. This is not enrichment. This is transformation—rooted in local context, aligned with national goals, and powered by relational infrastructure.

Held by Many, Powered by Shared Purpose

This extraordinary week was made possible through generosity, imagination, and collaboration. With gratitude to all the schools, their learners and engaged staff, Community Science International Wales, Domingos Studios and Night Owl Design, CWM Environmental Ltd and Llaeth Beynon Dairy, and also Llanelli Township, and the Llanelli Town Council

This wasn’t just a busy few hours as we burst into the Summer term — it is infrastructure in the making:
– A new way of doing curriculum
– A shared language of enterprise and care
– A learning ecosystem designed for real futures

This is Llanelli’s next generation building Llanelli’s future—through science, creativity, and collective effort.

And this is just the beginning. I am so excited as we count down to the showcase in June.

Diolch.