Christmas Newsletter 2010

Headteacher/Pennaeth Alan Tootill Tel: (01792) 533066 Fax: (01792) 533366

Pontarddulais Road Gorseinon SWANSEA SA4 4FG

December 2010

CHRISTMAS NEWSLETTER Dear Parents and Pupils, Welcome to our Christmas Newsletter. I hope you enjoy reading about the many activities our pupils have been involved in this term.

I am delighted to report that Penyrheol achieved record results in the GCSE examinations taken last summer.

63% of our Year 11 leavers gained at least 5 higher grade GCSEs, a 5% improvement on our previous best.

Many individual pupils achieved outstanding results, none more so than Jake Erwin who notched up 11 A* grades! I am very proud of the success the school is earning through the hard work of pupils, teachers and parents. A strong home-school partnership is vital if we are to continue seeing our young people thrive and I would like to take this opportunity to thank parents for your support for Penyrheol.

We had a poor budget settlement from Swansea Council last April with a reduction of some 3% in our basic funding. As a result we have been unable to balance our budget without using a significant proportion of our reserves, but have managed to maintain class sizes at roughly what they have been in the past. The period of austerity that we all now face threatened to bring with it similar reductions in each of the next three years and that would have meant that we would have had to make changes to the nature and quality of the education we are currently able to offer. However, both the Westminster and Welsh Assembly Government budget announcements seem to have prioritised education and sought to limit the impact of cuts on frontline services.

We are now waiting to see whether the budget set by Swansea Council for 2011/12 will support this stance.

Let’s hope it is a happy new year for our young people.

We had an excellent Charity Week in November. The School Council decided that we would send shoe boxes of Christmas presents to orphans in Romania as well as collecting money for Children in Need. In the end we were able to send 236 shoe boxes and raised nearly ÂŁ2,000. A great effort by everyone!

Our Christmas Concert takes place at 7.00 p.m. on Wednesday, 15th December. This year there is a change of venue to Seion-Noddfa Chapel in Gorseinon High Street. All parents and pupils are warmly invited to attend.

Term ends on Friday, 17th December, at lunch time. The Spring Term begins for pupils on Wednesday, 5th January 2011.

Nadolig llawen a blwyddyn newydd dda i gyfeillion Ysgol Gyfun Penyrheol.

Yours faithfully, ALAN TOOTILL Headteacher

1.

IMPORTANT DATES

SCHOOL TERMS AND HOLIDAYS 2011 Mid Term Holidays Begins Ends

Term

Term Begins

Terms Ends

Spring 2011

Tuesday 4th January Tuesday 3rd May

Friday 18th February

Monday 21st February

Friday 27th May

Monday 30th

Summer 2011

May

Friday 25th February Friday 3rd June

Term Begins

Term Ends

Monday 28th February

Friday 15th April Thursday 21st July

Monday 6th June

Bank Holidays and Inset Days New Year Bank Holiday Inset Day Inset Day Inset Day Good Friday Easter Monday May Day Spring Bank Holiday

-

3rd January 2011 4th January 2011 18th February 2011 15th April 2011 22nd April 2011 25th April 2011 2nd May 2011 30th May 2011

Other Important Dates to Note: 24th January

Year 11 Parents’ Evening (3.30 – 6.30 p.m.)

27th January

Year 9 Options Evening for Parents (6.00 – 7.00 p.m.)

14th -17th February

School Production (7.00 p.m.)

28th February

Year 9 Exam Week

7th March

Year 10 Parents’ Evening (3.30 – 6.30 p.m.)

16th March

Whole School Review Day

21st March

Year 8 Parents’ Evening (3.30 – 6.30 p.m.)

28th March

Year 9 Parents’ Evening (3.30 – 6.30 p.m.)

11th April

Year 7 Parents’ Evening (3.30 – 6.30 p.m.)

3rd May

Year 10 Exams Start (until 13th May)

16th May

Year 11 GCSE Exams Start (until 29th June)

20th June

Year 7 & 8 Exam week

12th July

Sports Day

28th June

Summer Concert (7.00 – 9.00 p.m.) (Provisional)

18th -19th July

Activity Days

25th August

GCSE Results Day (from 9.00 a.m.)

Total Days per Term 69

53

2.

SCHOOL NEWS

DRAMA Next school production

Preparations and rehearsals are underway for next term’s school musical, “Back to the 80s”, which will be performed in early February in the School Theatre.

From the era that brought the world The Rubik's Cube, Max Headroom and The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comes this "totally awesome" musical in the style of movies such as ‘Back To The Future’, ‘Ferris Bueller's Day Off’, ‘The Karate Kid’ and ‘The Wedding Singer’.

Join the graduating class of ‘William Ocean High School’ as they live through their final senior year - as they experience the fun, the heartbreak, the loves and the loneliness of growing up.... all set to the biggest hits of the 80s!

Shake off those winter blues and join us for one (or more) of the performances which promise to be of the usual high standard. See you there!

One of the cast members writes: Being a part of ‘Much Ado about Nothing’ and the Shakespeare Schools Festival was a fantastic experience! Rehearsals were always lots of fun, as everyone involved was and still are great friends, so it was never awkward or uncomfortable (except maybe the kissing scenes…) and everyone helped each other and contributed ideas.

The play itself was also very interesting as we got to immerse ourselves in the Shakespearian language which was practically like a whole new language to us! The play told a great story with many emotional moments and funny ones too!

Then came the day of the performance. After showing it to some bewildered Year 7s, we headed off to the Taliesin Arts Centre. Armed with a stage, some lights, cheesy music (including ‘The Macarena’) and our creative talent – which there was a lot of, fortunately, we pulled off a brilliant show and all our hard work and effort paid off. However, it wouldn’t have been at all possible without Mrs. Williams-Sheaf, who somehow managed to put up with us for the duration of it!

Ryan Mellish 10E

Schools Shakespeare Festival

MUSIC

Pupils from Penyrheol joined other schools for this annual festival at the Taliesin Theatre in Swansea.

The festival provides a unique opportunity for the pupils to experience Shakespeare as well as the chance to enjoy performing on a non school stage, working as a team and creating their own piece of drama!

Carol Concert A carol concert will be held on Wednesday, 15th December at Seion-Noddfa Chapel in Gorseinon High Street. Starting at 7pm it promises to be a festive filled evening of music and song. All are welcome!

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

Rugby

Cross Country (Neath/Swansea League)

The rugby teams have also had their share of success.

The New Year 7s are learning and developing fast and in the Ospreys cup have won 2 and lost 1. All the other years have had a share of success and disappointments, but are looking good for the Swansea Cup after Christmas.

Congratulations to all the boys involved in the inter schools cross country. Both the Year 7 team and Year 8/9 combined teams managed to secure the Bronze medal. Well done!

Congratulations also to the Girls Y8/9 team who became silver medallists

Well done to all involved and to all staff who give up their time to help with the teams.

Jordan Smart (11R) won an individual silver medal.

Hockey

The following pupils have all been selected to represent the county at the Inter Schools Cross Country Championships in Cardiff in January 2011. Well done to all of you.

Caitlin McConnell, Chloe Payne, Ellie Coates, Jordan Smart, Christie McCallum, Ben Lang and Leon Kissick.

The Girls U13 team have been undefeated for 4 matches and lost only 1 to Gowerton.

Congratulations to Chloe Payne who has been selected for the Hockey U14 Development squad.

Football

Swimming

Well done to all football teams.

Going into the Christmas break, all year groups have a strong chance of qualifying.

Chloe Payne achieved a qualifying time and will represent Penyrheol in the Welsh Schools finals on November 21st. She has also been invited to swim in the Dragon Meeting against competitors from the other home counties. Well done Chloe!

Year 7 have played 4. Won 3 Lost 1 Year 8 Won 3 from 3 Year 9 Won 1 Drawn 1 Lost 1 Year 10 Won 2 Drawn 1 Year 11 Won 1 Lost A special mention to the Year 7 team who are currently in the semi final stages of the regional Welsh Cup. Joshua Harwood 7E has been registered as a member of Swansea City Football Club's Centre of Excellence. Well done Joshua!

Congratulations Sam Matthews 9E who is currently attending Cardiff City FC Academy. At present Sam attends the Academy for training on a weekly basis and with a lot of hard work Sam has the possibility over the next 2 1/2 years to gain a Scholarship.

Netball All teams (Year 7-10) have played matches against a host of schools within the Swansea area as part of the Afan Nedd Tawe Schools Netball League.

All teams have trained well this year particularly the Year 7 and 8 teams. Year 9 started the season slowly, but commitment to training is now improving and they recently won their match in the first round of the U14 Cup. They play Bryntawe in the second round.

Amy Lloyd in Year 8 attended County Trials in October but unfortunately was unsuccessful in her bid to make the County Squad. As she was competing against Year 9 girls, she will have another opportunity next year to try and make the squad.

Gymnastics

Olympic-Get Set Network

Alisha Williams 7E trains really hard (5 nights a week) with the Welsh/British squads in Gymnastics and has competitions coming up next year. Well done and good luck Alisha!

We have been very lucky to be accepted as a member of the Olympic Get Set Network of schools.The Get Set Network is a special community of schools and colleges which should demonstrate a commitment to the Olympic Values (friendship, excellence and respect) and the Paralympic Values (inspiration, determination, courage and equality) and using the London 2012 Games event, inspire learners of all ages to get involved in Values-based projects and activities.

The Commonwealth Games It was lovely to see ex-pupil, Jamie Van Hoodijonk, representing Wales in Badminton at The Commonwealth Games in Delhi this year.

The team didn’t win overall, but did win some individual games.

London 2012 Olympics Visit to West Java, Indonesia – October 2010 In October 2010, Miss Heard and Madame Tanner, along with Mrs. Williams (Head of Penyrheol Primary) were successful in a bid to take part in an exchange visit with Indonesia.

They joined 30 other teachers from all over Wales and visited a secondary school and primary school in West Java. The exchange is part of the London 2012 International Inspiration, a three year project which is using the Olympic values to inspire pupils to become involved in sporting activities either as a participant or as a leader. Penyrheol is now looking forward to welcoming the Indonesian teachers to Wales in February next year. Pictures below depict the welcome ceremony at our partner secondary school in West Java and a visit to a tea plantation.

Welsh Ambassadors Megan Eynon and Daisy Williams in Year 10 have been appointed Welsh Ambassadors for Penyrheol. Their roles as ambassadors are to make sure the pupils are happy with the sporting activities run at Penyrheol both within the school PE department and at 5 x 60.

Shortly, the girls will be setting up a notice board in the school about sport and the Olympics and will be doing a presentation in assembly to make sure that all pupils are familiar with the scheme and who the ambassadors are.

If you have any questions or would like to put forward an idea of a sports club or event that you would like included, please contact Megan or Daisy and they will be pleased to help!

5 x 60 Activities A range of activities have been well attended this term. These have included: Badminton, Netball, Street Dance, Basketball, Climbing, Surfing, Fitness and Zumba!

Please see the 5 x 60 Timetable in this newsletter for further details.

All activities will continue for the following term.

MODERN LANGUAGES

the Halloween and Firework months of October and November, so our theme this year was:

European Languages Day The celebration of Languages Day took place on Friday 24th September. All pupils in Year 7 were given a sticker saying ‘hello’ in one of 26 different languages.

Form tutors were provided with a pronunciation guide to help pupils recognise and say some of the more unusual languages correctly.

Mme Constance and Mme Hyndman sold freshly baked pains au chocolate and croissants at break time in the annexe. The French pastries proved to be very popular and were all sold out within 10 minutes!

At lunchtime a group of Year 10 girls helped out with face painting. Lots of pupils came along to have a flag painted on their face.

Mme Tanner held special assemblies in the theatre during the week, in which she addressed pupils in both French and Welsh. She then presented general knowledge questions in the style of ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire’. Many of the questions had pupils thinking hard and debating the correct answer amongst themselves.

In the final part of the assembly Mr Rogers and the school choir sang the famous Spanish song ‘La Bamba’.

‘Dare You Ride The Ghost Train’?

Every time a pupil finished reading a book, they had to answer three questions on the story to make sure they had really read it. If successful, they received a pumpkin, vampire, ghost or bat to put in their ghost train carriage, in the library.

The form with the most items in their carriage at the end of the challenge would be the winners and would win the silver trophy that gets passed down to the winning form each year.

Here are the results: 1 st – 7M 2 nd – 7E 3 rd – 7R 4th – 7S

Unfortunately 7Y and 7D were too scared to take the challenge!

The pupil who read the most books was Lois Type from 7M, who was presented with a special certificate in the Year 7 assembly.

LIBRARY RESOURCE CENTRE Christmas Quiz Book Fair A Book Fair was held during October and raised £124 worth of books for the library resource centre.

Thank you to all pupils and staff who supported the fair.

Autumn Reading Challenge Our annual autumn challenge for Year 7 took place this year during

Once again, our annual Christmas Quiz was a great success with approximately 64 pupils taking part during their lunch break.

Library rules were thrown out of the window as we ate lunch whilst quizzing, played Christmas music and made a lot of noise!

The eventual winners were ‘Christmas Kaboom’ consisting of year 7 pupils, Megan Coslett, Josh Harwood, Scott Hypher and Angharad Weeks.

They all won selection boxes.

CHARITY WEEK For a whole week in November all efforts were channelled into raising money for a charity chosen by the School Council, which this year was Children in Need.

thank them very much for this. Altogether, we collected 236 boxes for the Romanian children.

On behalf of the school, we would like to thank you very much for your generous donations to this charity.

Natasha Davies 11E – Head Girl

Activities ranged from sponsored events to raffles and table-top sales and £1,989.12 was raised in total.

7D raised £144.52 for Charity Week; they participated by running a tombola and lucky dip stall in the corridor on the ground floor. 3 pupils managed to keep up a sponsored silence, Callum Hearne, Bethan Stroud and Logan James, raising over £30 between them! Well done! A big thank you to Mrs Morse and the other members of staff involved in helping to supervise the stall.

‘Movember’ Mrs Ball and Miss Evans and all Year 8 form tutors would like to thank all Year 8 pupils who contributed to Charity Week and the Romanian Shoe Box Appeal. The total of £483 was raised and 84 shoe boxes donated.

Shoebox Appeal – Support for Romania This year for Charity Week, the School Council decided to support the charity ‘Support for Romania’ ready for this Christmas. We came about the idea when the Head of English, Miss K Jones, suggested it in our last school meeting.

Everyone was very excited about it and was on board straight away. Our Deputy Head Boy, Rhys Williams and our Deputy head Girl, Abigail Paul, created a PowerPoint presentation about the charity to show each of the forms. I also sent an email around to all of the form teachers, encouraging them to ask their form to bring in a box.

This Movember, the month formerly known as November, several members of our staff decided to donate their faces to raising awareness about prostate cancer. The growth of a moustache for the entire month of Movember generated conversation, controversy and laughter…Some cases more than others!

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. One man dies every hour from the disease in the UK.

To promote ‘Support for Romania’ further, Miss Jones, along with the School Council presented an assembly for each of the year groups. It was very successful and we got the school talking about what they were going to put in their box and the ages of the child etc.

When it came to Charity week, boxes were piling up and on the final day they were all moved to the reception area for the prefects to organise.

Seeing them stacked up high against the wall was amazing. Many of our school governors also joined with us in this venture and brought in some beautiful shoe boxes for the children. We

If you would like to support this charity, you can donate online at www.uk.movember.com or send a cheque made payable to ‘The Prostate Cancer Charity Re Movember’, to The Prostate Cancer Charity, First Floor, Cambridge House, Cambridge Grove, London W6 0LE. Thank you.

ENGLISH Writers Workshops At the end of November we were privileged to have two poets visit the school to hold some creative writing workshops. The first one was held over three days and run by comic poet Mab Jones. This fun workshop focused around the idea of using ‘Twitbook’ as a basis for the pupils to write messages to eachother. Eventually, it was revealed that they had actually written a story similar to that used in Greek Theatre, which the pupils acted out at the end. Mab also entertained pupils with some of her own poems which were very well received!

The second workshop run by Caroline Bird was a very fast moving afternoon session. The pupils had to think quickly on their feet, writing three line stories and looked at how to use creative alternatives to over-used phrases.

Caroline was one of the poets nominated for The Dylan Thomas Award at The Patti Pavillion, which Angharad Weeks from Year 7 tells us about below.

A night at the Patti Pavillion On the 1st of December 2010, there was a buzz of excitement as all of the Patti Pavillion staff prepared the magnificent building for the Dylan Thomas Best Published Author Under the Age of Thirty awards ceremony. I was lucky enough to have a ticket to attend this formal event along with Miss Jones, Mr Thomas, Ben Davies and James Charles. The excitement was immense as everyone started arriving ...

I had been directed to a tent by a formally dressed man in a very smart suit, and as I entered, the luxury that was the central heating rushed out to meet me, its beautiful arms of warmth embracing my body. I spotted Miss Jones standing alongside Ben and scurried over to meet them. At first we stood and chatted, but then, after Mr Thomas and James had arrived, the serving staff balanced trays on their hands and served us some gorgeous canapes. There was even champagne being served, though there was orange juice for us children (not to be confused with bucks fizz!). It was the poshest tent I had ever been in!

Then we spotted Caroline Bird, a shortlisted author who had come into our school earlier that week. She came over and talked to us about various different things. At one stage we were discussing how fantastic it was that poems don’t have to make sense, and she told Ben and I that “ Poetry doesn’t make sense because the world doesn’t make sense!”. I will remember this quote for the rest of my life, I found it truly inspirational. Caroline also told us to “ read a thousand times more than you write.”

Shortly afterwards, we crept through a corridor into the Patti Pavillion itself. The stage lights lit up the magnificently shaped walls as all of the guests sat down at the beautifully set tables after removing their goody bags from their chairs. I peered around, but nobody seemed to be taking off their coats.

I kept mine on, glad of its warmth!

After a while, the serving staff brought us some unusually shaped bowls which contained a gloriously smelling liquid – cream of lavabread soup. Once I had worked out which spoon to eat it with, I thoroughly enjoyed it, along with two bread rolls.

There was a sudden explosion of noise as the evenings host was introduced, and before we knew it the winner of the best unpublished author was being announced. “ The winner is ...,” the announcer cried, “ Steffan Mohamed!”

There was a massive applause as Steffan made his speech and received his award.

After that we were served our main course – beautiful tender lanb with mint sauce, gravy and vegetables. It was a stunning meal, and straight after it Cerys Matthews read an extract of Dylan Thomas’ work. I listened in awe as her reading captured the true essence of Dylan Thomas perfectly. Then, she gave a very inspirational speech which I thought was fantastic. She told us that she set out on a music industry journey at a young age, neverthless confident, knowing that the way had already been paved for her by Dylan Thomas, the man who made Swansea known.

After quite a few speeches, advertisments and meeting lots of important people it was time for the main award of the evening, and dessert!

As our coffee, tea , biscuits, fruit and chocolate lovespoons were brought to us, it was announced who had won the big prize. Thirty Thousand pounds. The life changer. “ It gives me great pleasure to award Elyse Fenton The Dylan Thomas prize with her book Clamor” The announcer mumbled into a microphone over a startlingly huge applause. There was music, excitement and chocolate lovespoons.

What a perfect end to the night!

Angharad Weeks 7E

Big Thanks to all who collected food for the Food Bank Harvest Collection. The response was great and as a school we collected 192kg of food which will help people in our area. The Food bank is a ground breaking concept designed to help individuals and families in crisis by providing free emergency food, while care agencies help long term.

In a nutshell ‘The Food Bank’ is a straightforward system of collection, collation and distribution of basic food items to support people at times of crisis.

CAMPING TRIP In July, 49 pupils and 11 staff went camping to Bank Farm, Horton for 3 days.

Activities undertaken included sports and games, swimming in the pool, a campfire on the beach, a barbecue, archery and zorbing. Zorbing involves climbing into a large plastic ball, having cold water thrown in to help you to slide around and then being pushed down a slope whilst you slide around uncontrollably screaming your head off!

Great fun!

Everyone who went, agreed they had tried lots of different activities and despite the bad weather everyone had an enjoyable time.

Mrs Morse would like to thank Sainsbury’s in Gorseinon who supplied the food.

FOOD BANK

GEOGRAPHY Pembrey Country Park & Kidwelly Castle All Year 7 pupils visited Pembrey Country and Kidwelly Castle during early October. Blessed with fine weather pupils investigated a proposed hotel development at Pembrey and tried out basic orienteering. At Kidwelly, the impressive castle stands, lookout over West Wales and pupils learnt about the castle design and dramatic events of its history. Pupils returned to their Geography/History lessons and used the information gained, to complete their studies.

HEALTHY SCHOOLS UPDATE

Penyrheol School Council 2010- 2011

Penyrheol Comprehensive is now well on it’s way to becoming a ‘Healthy School’.

Throughout the year we have been working to improve the physical, nutritional and environmental health of the school community.

So far we have seen exciting new fitness classes introduced such as Zumba and the Fit Club and even the staff have become involved in the ‘Penyrheol Fat Club (over 35 stone lost to date)!

Year 11 Natasha Davies (Chair) Liam Matthews (Chair) Rhys Williams (Secretary) Abigail Paul (Vice Chair) Liam Popham Tomas Paynter Rachel Pugh Hannah Willans

In the New Year we will see tempting, healthy dishes being offered in the canteen and there will be new recycling features to accommodate all types of materials.

A new goal for us in the New Year is to create a vegetable patch on the school grounds. We are currently looking for someone who has the time and expertise to oversee it with the help of our pupils. All produce grown would go to the canteen and all involved in the growing process.

If there is an abundance of produce, vegetables could be sold to staff or to the community, with all profits being recycled back into maintaining the vegetable patch. Of course, all produce over the summer holidays would go to our volunteer as a thank you.

If you are interested or if there is a person out there who can further help us to become a healthy school, please let us know.

Year 10 Jack Jenkins Claudia Rutherford Sophie Jenkins Josh Fowler Year 9 Ben Lang Alex Myles Katie Clayfield Georgia Neyland Year 8 Abbie Saunders Sam Evans Lucy Walters Joseff Williams Year 7 Josh Harwood Aimee Davies Dylan Goddard Megan Hovvels

SCHOOL COUNCIL Congratulations to Rhys Williams (Y11) and Abigail Paul (Y11) on being elected to represent Penyrheol pupils on this year’s School Council Subgroup. Their first meeting was held in Canoldre Centre on Thursday 11th November.

So what is the Subgroup?

You may be aware that Swansea has a Youth Forum called ‘Swansea’s Young People’s Voice’. This forum is made up of young people representing groups and areas that they come from. In order to make this forum as representative as possible a School Council Subgroup has been formed that will take the views and opinions of School Councils across Swansea to Swansea Young Peoples Voice. The School Council Subgroup has 1-2 members from each Secondary School in Swansea.

AWARDS EVENING On Thursday 25th November we held our annual awards ceremony in the theatre, which as always was a most enjoyable evening. The pupils involved were supported by their families and friends as they received their awards and full details of these achievements are listed later in the newsletter.

The awards were presented by rugby player, Leigh Halfpenny, an ex-pupil here at Penyrheol!

Congratulations to all the pupils concerned and to everyone who helped make this evening such a success.

‘Ask the Head’ The recently introduced 'points' system has been very gratefully received with pupils collecting merit points to go towards their Prom or to collect a 'Fast pass' for the canteen.

Some of us in years 7, 8 and 9 have packed lunches and do not use the canteen, so the merit points do not benefit us. Is there any way the points can be used towards Activity days or something else please?

Thank you.

A selection of Year 9 pupils

The Head responds The merit / achievement points system was reviewed during last school year as part of a wider review into our school rewards and sanctions.

Part of this review involved discussions with pupil representatives about how they would like the system to develop. It was pupils who suggested that we link merit / achievement points to Fast Passes for the canteen. The idea of Prom Points was one that staff suggested because it is in operation in some other schools in Swansea.

This year we are trialling these ideas. I am pleased that many pupils agree with their representatives and think that being able to gain a Fast Pass for the canteen, through gaining merit / achievement points for effort and attainment in lessons is a good idea.

The system seems to be working effectively.

However, it is clear that a Fast Pass reward is not of value to a pupil who chooses not to use the canteen. As with any new system, we will keep monitoring it to see how it is working and what we can do to improve it. If you have any good ideas about what alternative rewards could be offered, such as the one in your question above about points towards Activity Day events, please make sure that your Year Representatives know about them and can pass them on to the School Council. The School Council will then pass the best ideas on to me.

In the meantime, a pupil who doesn’t normally use the canteen, but who knows that they are going to be given a Fast Pass, because of the merit / achievement points they have received, might want to consider making use of the canteen on that particular day. You won’t have to queue up like everyone else…

If you have a burning question or issue that you wish to be raised with Mr Tootill, please see the librarian in the New Year. The next ‘Ask the Head’ question will appear in the Easter Newsletter.

WELSH BACCALAUREATE 1 DAY PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT COURSE FRIDAY 19TH NOVEMBER On Friday 19th November pupils undertaking the Welsh Baccalaureate took part in a one day personal development course run by the Army. The pupils travelled by coach to Templeton Airfield near Narberth in Pembrokeshire. Upon arrival pupils were greeted by member of the armed forces.

The pupils undertook drill patrol and were then placed into different groups.

Pupils undertook a carousel of activities which developed their communication, working with others; problem solving and improving own learning and performance key skills.

Pupils found the day tiring but beneficial and importantly enjoyable. The pupils had the opportunity to work with the armed forces and gain an understanding of their wider role. Pupils had the opportunity to work with people that they had previously no experience of working with, to develop and use their problem solving skills and to demonstrate leadership skills and qualities through the tasks set.

Pupils will be able to use this trip as evidence towards achieving their wider key skills in Problem Solving, Improving Own Learning & Performance and Working with Others.

The Army team delivering this one day course were very impressed with the work ethic and attitude of our pupils so well done to those who attended. Overall this was an enjoyable and beneficial day.