17 October 2025
Dear Parents, Guardians and Students/Annwyl Rieni, Gwarchodwyr a Myfyrwyr
Welcome to Autumn at LHS!
For many of us, this week has definitely called for an additional layer of clothing. However, this is not a sentiment shared by all of our young people who seem to have some form of invisible defence shield that the colder temperatures fail to penetrate. Either way, autumn is well and truly upon us.
A quintessential staple of our autumn calendar is the Open Evening. It is one of our most favourite and frenetic evenings of the year. Last Wednesday, we threw open our doors to prospective parents to explore our metropolis…
Navigating our school site was your first triumph. We were built in the 1960’s for 800 students, and we now accommodate 1,970 students and staff. Car parking spaces are like gold dust but our Sixth Form parking attendants deserve credit for the tight systems they have perfected.
Once you made it into the building it was lovely to meet Year 5 and Year 6 students, as well as parents and siblings. It’s also lovely to hear those magical words from parents ‘You used to teach me…’ What a joy to see the different directions that our ex-students have travelled in. And now we get to support you as your own children start their transition to high school. They circle of life continues.
As well as meeting members of the senior team and pastoral team for Year 7, visitors were able to speak to our ALNCo, and the Leaders of our Autism and Hearing-Impaired bases. Then they were invited to explore as they wished, supported by LHS student guides and helpers. Here is just a taste of their wanderings around Science, Music, Art, Drama, Design Technology and PE.
It wouldn’t be a blog about Open Evening without paying homage to Mr Jayne and his special passion for the magic of Chemistry…. This is the Greatest Show!
We look forward to meeting our incoming Year 7 cohort again in the Spring term when Mr Mee, our Buddies, and our Drama department will be visiting our feeder primary schools.
Orange is very on trend this week!
Autumn vibes have also been creeping across the school estate in recent weeks and we find ourselves surrounded by beautiful burnt oranges and reds. In fact, we would go so far as to say that orange is very on trend at LHS this week.
Year 7 have harvested the pumpkins that were planted for them by the current Year 8 in a beautiful ‘play in forward’ motion. Those pumpkins have fed A LOT of people and have featured in A LOT of different recipes! I feel a LHS Pumpkin Cookbook coming on! Or a Pumpkin bake off. I expect they will find a way to feature it on pizza and on toast.
In other parts of the garden and polytunnel, Year 7 were distinctly unimpressed by the presence of bugs in our beds. But we welcome them! The beds are being prepped for winter veg planting and we are going BIG on onions this winter! The boys below are treating the beds in the polytunnel to compost that has been generated by our tiger worms. Great job boys. Great job worms. Expressions are priceless!
Criw Cymraeg Deliver Assemblies on Shwmae Day to Year 7 and 8 Students
To celebrate Diwrnod Shwmae on 15th October, the Criw Cymraeg led engaging and informative assemblies to Year 7 and 8 students, promoting the use of the Welsh language and cultural pride. The purpose of Shwmae Day is to encourage everyone to start a conversation in Welsh and promotes the idea that the Welsh language belongs to us all.
Diwrnod Shwmae and CORE YouTube
Keeping that Welsh pride alive at LHS is Hayden Watkins in Year 12. In his own words…
Firstly, a video for Diwrnod Shwmaeis now live on YouTube. Diwrnod Shwmae is a day marked each year to celebrate and promote the Welsh language. The video was requested by the Criw Cymraeg and Welsh Department, and created by CORE, the school’s TV Station. The video can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYt8rKYvo50
The second announcement is that CORE’s YouTube channel is now live! We’re looking forward to posting content on here, which will include some of our productions as well as commissions from the school’s departments. On Thursday, 25th October, we will premiere our first production of 2025 – “John – A Halloween Special”. You can watch that when it’s uploaded on our YouTube Page: https://www.youtube.com/@CORE-Teledu
Thanks Hayden. We’ll look forward to the premiere!
Learning Support ‘Star of the Week’ and some interesting pizza toppings!
This week’s SOTW is Declan Thomas-Hall in Year 11. Declan has made good progress in Chemistry and is working very hard across the board. Keep up the good work Declan!
Whilst we are here, the Learning Support/Den teams thought this was a fabulous photo to share this week!
Here are Seb, Dylan and Osian making pizza in their Enrichment session.
Their experimental pizza toppings were Biscoff, cookie dough and marshmallow!
The jury is out. We are still at loggerheads about the place of pineapple on a pizza. So, this is just mind-blowing.
Before we sign off for the week, we are delighted to share the Library Autumn newsletter 2025.
It is full of spine-chilling and spooky reads!
There is also an amazing story writing competition below (with prizes!).
Thank you for reading/Diolch am ddarllen,
Mrs Sarah Parry, Headteacher
