7 March 2024
Dear Parents, Guardians and Students/Annwyl Rhieni, Gwarchodwyr a Myfyrwyr
Eisteddfod 2024!
Friday 1st March was a vey special day! In particular for our Hub class!
After watching the amazing Eisteddfod performance by Year 7 and 8 students, Hub class students set off to spread St.David’s message of kindness in the community. They offered Sainsbury’s customers daffodils and Welsh cakes in keeping with St.David’s belief of ‘Doing the little things’, kindly donated by Sainsburys. Our pupils enjoyed engaging with the public and greeting them with smiles and wishes of ‘Dydd Gwyl Dewi hapus’ / ‘Happy St.David’s day. To end this morning of giving and pride in being Welsh they recited together their poem entitled ‘St.David’s day’ and performed ‘Mae hen wlad fy nhadau’ on their xylophones, receiving cheerful applauds. Diolch yn fawr to Sainsburys staff and customers for such a warm welcome and for the surprise chocolatey gifts to end a perfect morning!
We would also like to thank our Welsh and Music departments for staging such an uplifting celebration of Welsh culture. The choirs, orchestra, drama performances and individual performances were superb. Here are a few highlights…..
Our Scholars graduate!
Having successfully completed The Scholars Programme, our Year 11 and 12 students attended their graduation event at New College, Oxford. They were given a tour of the college, enjoyed lunch in the very impressive dining room and were then escorted to the magnificent town hall to collect the certificates that they had worked so hard for. 28 students in our current Year 11 and 24 in Year 12 have now excelled in the Brilliant Club’s programme, demonstrating their considerable talents when learning new topics.
Congratulations to you all on an absolutely amazing achievement. What a perfect setting to graduate!
King Lear
Last week also saw our lovers of literature headed to London in the pursuit of excellence.
The trip to see King Lear last week was amazing. It was by far the best Shakespeare play Miss Lockwood has been to see, and she has seen a few! Mr Mee, Miss Chainey and Miss Lockwood took a group of Year 11s along with our Year 12 and 13 English Literature A Level classes. Danny Sapani played an excellent King Lear and Clarke Peters wowed them as the Fool. It was nearly 3.5hours but every minute was brilliant. Isaac (from our Year 13 English Literature class) has written up a small piece for my blog.
“The performance of King Lear at the Almeida Theatre was both incredibly performed and produced as well as being extremely helpful with our study. The performance allowed us to gain a greater appreciation for dramatic staging devices, specifically helping us to understand how lighting and music might be utilised to create atmosphere. The performance was also useful to see characters’ performed in perhaps different ways than we had previously considered, which has allowed us to broaden our perspectives and interpretations of the characters in the play.” Isaac Simin (Year 13 English Literature)
Inspiring Alumni visit!
With International Women’s Day approaching, our next visitor has provided both aspiration and inspiration to our Year 11, 12 and 13 students. Alumni, Megan Player and her colleague Charlotte came to school to talk to our students who are interested in a career in the Law.
The pictures show Megan and Charlotte giving a talk to Year 11, 12 and 13 students about what a career in the law entails. They talked about their day to day tasks in a law firm in Cardiff and what being a lawyer, solicitor, barrister and paralegal is like. They also gave the students advice about how to succeed in Law degrees at university and any work experience they could undertake to strengthen their applications. Once again, seeing former students come back to give guidance to current students is really refreshing to see.
Time for a creative interlude…
Last week, the Art department hosted an outside craftsperson Christopher Ryan from ‘Ryan Stained Glass’, who kindly gave up his time to come in last week to give the Year 13 Art students a workshop on stained glass windows. Christopher runs the Craftsperson apprenticeship for people who are employed in the business but was also promoting the BA Design Crafts course at Swansea UWSTAD.
The workshop was a very professional look at the industry, old and new practices and the process that Christopher uses in a variety of commissions that he has undertaken over the years. Year 13 really enjoyed and it was really good for them to see a professional craftsperson and glean an insight into perusing a career in the crafts industry, they all had a go at scoring and cutting glass , it was a shame it couldn’t have gone on for another hour, we’re hoping to have him in again.
Wishing you all a very happy weekend, especially all our mums, nans, aunties, carers and guardians. We look forward to bringing you more news and stories next week.
Thank you for reading/Diolch am ddarllen,
Mrs Sarah Parry, Headteacher