Headteacher/Pennaeth Alan Tootill Tel: (01792) 533066 Fax: (01792) 533366
Pontarddulais Road Gorseinon SWANSEA SA4 4FG
December 2012
CHRISTMAS NEWSLETTER Dear Parents and Pupils, If you haven’t heard already, I am delighted to report that Penyrheol achieved record GCSE results for the third year in a row. 74% of last year’s Year 11 gained at least 5 higher grade GCSEs or equivalent, a massive 9% up on 2011. The figure when you also include those achieving at least a C grade in English and Maths was 57%, one percent better than the previous year. I would again like to congratulate all of the young people who achieved these results, our teachers for their hard work and parents for their support and encouragement of their children. Penyrheol pupils have had many successes and adventures this term, which you can read more about inside this newsletter. However, I want to mention three exceptional achievements here. The first was another victory for our outstanding debating team in the regional round of the Bar Mock Trial Competition on Saturday, 10th November. They are now through to the national final, which takes place in March 2013 at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. Well done to all the team! Secondly, two Year 9 pupils have had a once-in-a-lifetime experience by successfully auditioning for a CBBC programme ‘Extreme School’, which is due to be shown in March 2013. Shane Appleyard and Brandon Sykes were told in a Technology lesson by the TV presenter that they were going to be whisked off to South Korea to spend a week in a much harsher education system than our own. You will be able to read all about their adventures in our Easter Newsletter. Thirdly and finally, four Year 8 pupils won an advertising competition with The Wave. They spent part of a day at The Wave recording their radio advert about the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning. If you listen to The Wave, the chances are you will have heard the ad. Fantastic achievements! A big well done to all those involved. Our Christmas Carol Concert takes place at St. Catherine’s Church, Gorseinon, at 7.00 p.m. on Wednesday, 19th December. We would love to see you there supporting our orchestra and choirs as we celebrate together the real meaning of Christmas. Term ends at lunch time on Friday, 21st December, and the Spring Term begins for pupils on Tuesday, 8th January. Nadolig llawen a blwyddyn newydd dda i gyfeillion Ysgol Gyfun Penyrheol. Yours faithfully, ALAN TOOTILL Headteacher
Important Dates Mid Term Holidays Term
Term Begins
Terms Ends
Begins
Ends
Term Begins
Term Ends
Spring 2013
7th January
8th February
11th February
15th February
18th February
28th March
Summer 2013
15th April
24th May
27th May
31st May
3rd June
23rd July
Inset Days Spring/Summer Terms 2013 Monday 7th January Friday 8th February Friday 28th March
Other Important Dates to Note: 24 January 4-7 February 19 February 25 February 4 March 13 March 25 March 22 April 13 May 14 May 4 July 9 July 10 July 11 July 22 July
Y9 Options Evening for Parents (6.00-7.00pm) School Production – ‘Grease’ ( 7.00pm) PSE Day Year 9 Exams Week Year 8 Parents Evening (3.30 – 6.30 pm) Whole School Review Day Year 9 Parents Evening (3.30 – 6.30 pm) Year 7 Parents Evening (3.30 – 6.30 pm) Year 11 GCSE Exams Start (until 25th June) Year 7, 8 & 10 Exams Week Y11 Prom Summer Concert (7.00-9.00pm) PSE Day Sports Day Activity Day
Governor News We are pleased to welcome two new Parent Governors to our governing board: Miss Mary Bradley and Mr Stewart McConnell. Both parents were recently nominated and duly elected and have been appointed for a four year term of office. Two representatives from Student Voice (our School Council) met with the Governing Body earlier in the year, to provide an insight into how Student Voice works. The governors were very impressed with presentation given by Josh Thomas and Joseff William and particularly pleased that Student Voice members are now involved in the appointment of new staff, by joining the interview panel. The governors hope that meeting with Student Voice becomes a regular feature.
All year groups took part in our charity week this year and organised various fun challenges, baked cakes and shaved legs all in aid of good causes! The total amount raised was an amazing £1071! Y7 collected their coppers and placed them on the tennis court to make a copper snake. They raised £73. Well done Year 7!
Once again this year, our brave ‘volunteers’ entered the charity jungle to eat bugs and slugs! Defending his crown was Head of Year 9 Mr Luckwell, who entered the jungle throwing out sweets to the adoring crowd wearing a bib that said ‘Double Helpings Please!’ His opponents tried hard to stomach the nasty dishes presented to them, but there was no stopping Mr Luckwell who retained his crown with ease! The teachers raised an amazing £300 for this challenge alone, so well done to all those who took part and thank you to all those who paid to watch!
.
Y9 Crossbar Challenge, Wacky Hair-Spraying & Cup Cake Sale Raised £290!
In addition to the amount raised during Charity week, we held a
NON-UNIFORM DAY Pupils who chose to come to school in Non-Uniform paid £1 and all the money raised was donated to Children In Need. The total amount raised was
£770!
Christmas Carol Concert
All Welcome!
Wednesday 19th December at St. Catherine's Church, Gorseinon. 7-9pm Please join us for a festive filled evening of music and song, performed by the school orchestra and choirs.
4th-7th February 2013 at 7pm It will soon be time to dust off your leather jackets, pull on your bobby-socks and take a trip to simpler times, as 'bad boy' Danny and 'the girl next door' Sandy fall in love all over again. Featuring all the unforgettable songs such as ‘You're The One That I Want’, ‘Summer Nights’, ‘Hopelessly Devoted To You’, ‘Greased Lightnin' and many more, Penyrheol’s production promises to be an electrifyn’ extravaganza that will have you hand-jiving the night away! Tickets, only £5, go on sale in the New Year!
Annual School Awards Evening 2011/2012 The Annual School Awards Evening was held this year on Thursday 29th November and we were thrilled to welcome Dr Ben Evans from The Bloodhound Education Project, as our guest speaker. As usual the theatre was packed, not only by the award winners and their families but also friends and members of staff old and new! There were 29 awards presented in total, which represented all areas of learning across the curriculum. As well as special awards from the Head Teacher and the much coveted Catherine Williams Award for Outstanding GCSE performance, which this year was shared between Lewis Howells and Katie Barrowman. Both Lewis and Katie did in fact collect four awards each. What a fabulous achievement! Full details of all the awards and their winners are listed opposite.
School Awards 2011/2012 Memorial Award for outstanding service to the School
Jack Govier
Penyrheol Award for outstanding service to the School
Elizabeth Platt
English Excellence Award for best GCSE performance in English
Jessica Thomas-Pyart
English Achievement Award for most praiseworthy effort in English
Naomi Dizon
Mathematics Excellence Award for best GCSE performance in Mathematics
Katie Barrowman
Mathematics Achievement Award for most praiseworthy effort in Mathematics
Carryan Cross
Marion Williams Science Award for best GCSE performance in Science Subjects
Katie Barrowman
Science Achievement Award for most praiseworthy effort in Science
Kirby Thomas
Art Excellence Award for the best GCSE performance in Art
Claire Jenkins
Business Studies Excellence Award for the best GCSE performance in Business Studies
Jordan Allan
Child Development Excellence Award for the best GCSE performance in Child Development
Hannah Lewis
Design Technology Award for the best performance in Design Technology
Jessica Evans
Drama Excellence Award for the best GCSE performance in Drama
Ryan Mellish
Gower College Swansea Vocational Award for the best performance in Engineering
Benjamin Martin
Geography Excellence Award for the best GCSE performance in Geography
Lewis Howells
History Excellence Award for the best GCSE performance in History
Katie Barrowman
ICT Excellence Award for the best GCSE performance in ICT
Hannah Whitehouse
Media Studies Excellence Award for the best GCSE performance in Media Studies
Emily Jones
Lloyds Bank Cup for the best GCSE performance in Modern Languages
Phillip Rees
Music Achievement Award for the best GCSE performance in Music
Lewis Howells
Performing Arts Achievement Award for the best contribution to Music and Drama
Kirsty Mills
Physical Education Excellence Award for the best GCSE performance in Physical Educa- Sophie Jenkins tion Sporting Achievement Award for commitment to Physical Education
Thomas James
Religious Studies Excellence Award for the best GCSE performance in Religious Studies Jessica Thomas-Pyart Vocational Education Award for best performance in Vocational Studies
Lorna Lazenby
Welsh Excellence Award for the best GCSE performance in Welsh
Lewis Howells
Thomas Award for Special Effort
Natalie Clifford
Headteacher’s Award
Bethan Thomson
Catherine Williams Award for the outstanding GCSE performance
Katie Barrowman & Lewis Howells
LIBRARY RESOURCE CENTRE
Library Borrowing Statistics Books borrowed between Jan—Dec 2012 Once again, our annual Christmas Quiz was a
Total no. of books borrowed = 3173
great success with ap-
946 were Non-Fiction and 2227 were Fiction.
proximately 64 pupils taking part during their lunch break. Library rules were thrown out of the window as we ate lunch whilst quizzing, played
wins d i K y p Wim the day!
Christmas music and made a lot of noise! The winning team all won selection boxes!
The most popular book borrowed from the library during 2012 ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid—Cabin Fever’ by Jeff Kinney.
Library Bookfair Another successful Bookfair was held in November this year with the library earning £300 pounds worth of FREE books due to the number of books sold! Thank you for your support!
AUTHOR & POET VISITS
On the 6th November, we were fortunate to have author John Townsend visit us at the Library Resource Centre. John gave a presentation and writing workshop to boys in Years 7-9 and spoke to them about everything from science and snakes to adventure and aliens! John and the pupils discussed at length about dangerous animals and John used a huge snake (see picture below) to demonstrate one of his stories. John used many different accents during the presentation which kept the talk lively and interesting. As well as non fiction, John also writes novels and has just had his latest book, ‘Ice Fall’ published. After reading from his book, the pupils were given the opportunity to write their own endings. They were encouraged to share their stories and they were all very different and imaginative! A good time was had by all!
During October, pupils from years 7, 8 and 9 were given the opportunity to work with Performance Poet Martin Daws. Martin is quoted as being ‘An electrifying poet who blends poetry with musicality and innovative lyricism’. This was certainly the case! With a lot of his poetry being ‘rapped’, the pupils were able to relate to him and really enjoyed his workshop. Martin got the group clapping along to words and building up sentences to rhythms. He introduce us to something called ‘WPF’. This stood for Words, Phrases and Form. ‘WPF’ gave the pupils a format for building a poem from scratch and when this, used hand in hand with Martins ‘Mean Machine’ gave impressive results! Each session ended up with the pupils writing their own piece of poetry, some of which were quite deep and thought provoking. The staff sitting in on the sessions also joined in and we all shared our poetry with each other. We thoroughly enjoyed the workshops and we shall certainly be getting Martin Daws to visit us here again!
News from the Welsh Department Newyddion o’r Adran Gymraeg Welsh Awareness Day 2012
Hydref
It was a fine, dry Friday on October 26th, 2012… This year pupils had the opportunity of selecting a preferred venue to visit. One choice was to go to Cardiff Bay followed by a visit to the Millennium Stadium for a behind-the-scenes tour. Two coaches also visited the Museum of Welsh Life at St. Fagan’s with one heading to the Millennium Stadium and the other to the Cardiff Urdd Sleepover Centre. Feedback from both staff and pupils was very
Yr Ystadegau - The stats... 3 bws + bws mini 180 disgybl / pupils
positive as were the comments received from the
13 staff
host venues. The pictures opposite tell their own
4 lle / locations
story as do the pupils’ comments below!
Here’s what 3 pupils had to say about this year’s Welsh Awareness Day: Zachary Spackman 7Y: “All the Penyrheol pupils were put into our groups and then onto the correct coaches for where we had chosen. I chose to go to Cardiff. My group and I were then taken to the Senedd (Welsh Assembly Government). It was very interesting to see where the politicians make the decisions for our country, we then had our lunch outside the Senedd.”
Abi Demery 7E: “I went to St. Fagan’s. I enjoyed going into the houses the most as I felt like I was a Victorian child. It was also interesting as there was a bath in the kitchen in the last house. Visiting these houses also made me realise how lucky we are today to have all the appliances we have in our homes today.”
Dena Davies 7Y: “...we went to the Millennium Stadium and got a PowerPoint presentation about the Stadium, then we got a tour where we looked at the Ray Gravell press room, the changing rooms for the home and away team and learnt about the curse on the changing rooms. We got to go through the tunnel and went into a hospitality box.”
Nadolig Hapus a Blwyddyn Newydd Dda oddi wrth
(from)
yr Adran Gymraeg
Lluniau Welsh Awareness Day 2012...in pictures! Yn y Senedd, Bae Caerdydd In the Senedd, Cardiff Bay
Yn y Siambr In the Chamber
Yn ystafell newid tĂŽm Cymru In the Wales changing room
Yn uchel yn y Stadiwm High up in the Stadium
Dim nonsens!
Bath yn y gegin! A bath in the kitchen!
Cynnwys y cae Contents of each pallet
Ystafell Wasg Ray Gravell Ray Gravell Press Room
P.E. Achievements Boys P.E
Girls P.E.
This term over 150 boys have been involved in extra curricular sport at Penyrheol and a total of 42 matches have been played.
There has been a number of school matches this term, mainly for years 7, 8, 9 & 10 in both Netball and Hockey. We had a mixed bag of results including a good number of wins! Year 7 in particular need to be commended on their excellent start and for their commitment and attitude.
(15 Football & 27 Rugby) Penyrheol winning 28, drawing 2 and losing 12 of them...a tremendous start to the sporting year!
A special mention to the year 7 Football team who are currently in the semi final of The Welsh Cup (first stage) and are due to play Dyfryn School on Tuesday 11th December. The P.E Department Sports Tour to Florida is fast approaching, and I would like to take some time to thank pupils, staff and parents for all their efforts in fundraising. Firstly 40 Penyrheol pupils volunteered to help at the annual Swansea Bay 10k run in September by giving out medals and t-shirts and were praised for their efforts and politeness and received a £400 donation. Admiral Insurance sponsored a football kit and awarded us a £700 donation. Mr. Caswell of Caswell interiors sponsored a rugby kit with a £500 donation.
We were very lucky to have Michaela Breeze, an Olympic and Commonwealth weight lifter, join us for a morning in school. She gave an inspiring presentation in assembly and also spoke to a range of girls about her achievements . They asked her what it is like to be a champion and how sport has enhanced her life. Also during this special assembly, we celebrated the success of Penyrheol girls who are already Welsh International squad members and we very much hope that one day, they will return as Olympic champions! Year 8 Sophie McCallum (Swimming)
Picton Sports have donated us a netball kit.
Year 9 Alisha Williams (Rhythmical Gym)
A group of parents helped organise a quiz at Garden Village, raised over £750 and finally most of the pupils going on tour volunteered to bag pack in Asda at the end of November and helped raise over £450, once again being commended for their politeness and the fantastic way they represented the school.
Year 10 Sophie Root (Judo) Casey Williams (Rhythmical Gym) Casey is also in the Commonwealth squad! Aimee Herbert (Irish Dancing)
Altogether we have so far raised around £3000 to help towards a truly once in a life time tour.
Year 11 Megan Evans (Kick Boxing) Megan has also represented GB Tia Walker (Basketball)
Penyrheol Extra Curricular and 5x60 Sports Menu Bwydlen Chwaraeon Allgyrsiol a 5x60 Penyrheol Lunch Time/ Amser Cinio 1:20—1:55
After School/ Ar ol Ysgol 3:00—4:00
Monday Dydd Llun
Badminton (Sports Hall) Basketball (Gym) Dancing With Kennedy (Drama Studio)
Girls Football (Sports Hall)
Tuesday Dydd Mawrth
5 a Side Football (Sports Hall) Dodge Ball (Gym Hall)
Wednesday Dydd Mercher
Basketball With Matt - (Sports Hall)
Thursday Dydd Iau
Atomic Touch (Turn up & Play)
Friday Lacrosse With Chris Dydd Gwener Sports Hall
COME AND TRY SOMETHING NEW!! DEWCH I TRIO RHYWBETH NEWYDD!! Any queries please contact your 5x60 Officer (Angharad) on: pc-staff.ach@penyrheol-comp.swanseasch.uk Or ask any of the Sports Staff.
GSUS BUS LIVE For a week in November, we had GSUS Bus Live at the school. This is a mobile exhibition which offers an interactive learning experience, designed to show the relevance of Jesus and his teaching in today’s world. The bus was visited by all year groups and their opinions were varied and interesting. Below are just a small selection of the comments pupils made: “The GSUS Live Bus was an interesting concept. The bus turned up from ‘out of the blue’ and the mystery surrounding it had many people wanting to find out more. Although the message of the bus was an important one, I think it was a little too biased towards the younger pupils and I would have liked to have seen it aimed at ages 15+” Ben Davies 11C “I really enjoyed the GSUS bus as it was nothing like what I had been expecting” Rhys Carey 8C “I really enjoyed my experience on the GSUS bus. I learned a lot about how to make the right choices in certain situations” Amelia Maguire 8C “The GSUS bus taught us about the troubles that we are facing today and how we can best deal with these problems. It showed us that Jesus dealt with these troubles too. I would love to re-visit the bus one day and I hope I can use the information learned in the future” Ellie James 7Y “I thought the GSUS bus was fun, because there were touch screen computers and music!” Morgan Thomas 8E “The GSUS bus is a big bus with an even bigger adventure inside!. I learnt about Fear, Rejection and Forgiveness and was given the chance to email fictional characters and give them advice. It was great!” Ben Curvis 7C “I enjoyed this lesson for several reasons. I liked using the touch screen computers, answering the problem questions and learning about different famous and historical figures” Nia Thomas 7R “The bus was interesting and the messages of Rejection, Forgiveness and Fear were good, but personally I do not think these messages should be conveyed via any particular religion, as I believe this is propaganda to convert us in this case, to Christianity.” Nathan O’Kelly 11E
The Queen Responds… On the 14th November, after weeks of rehearsal and preparation, pupils from Penyrheol Comprehensive School competed in the Welsh regional heat of the Citizenship Foundation Bar Mock Trial Competition. Playing the roles of lawyers, witnesses, court clerk, usher and jury, we had been sent cases to defend and prosecute and were eager to compete against other schools! This year, case 1 brought defendant Vim Speed to the stand, an Olympic cyclist accused of possession of an illegal, performance enhancing drug. Case 2 dealt with the very serious crime of possession of an illegal firearm and Ashley Rollins, the defendant, was found to be in a car with a pistol hidden beneath the passenger seat! Pupils had spent weeks grappling with the evidence and witness statements and building cases. As well as being a very exciting exercise, pupils gain an excellent understanding of the law and courtroom procedures. The skills acquired during the process are numerous - public speaking, debating, thinking on one’s feet, clear communication, questioning, synthesising of information, cross-referencing.
Pupils from our STF unit were jubileeant to receive a letter from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II recently. The pupils wrote poems and sent them to the Queen earlier this year to congratulate her on her Diamond Jubilee and never imagined they would get a reply! A copy of the letter from the queen and from her Lady-in –Waiting are included in this newsletter
There were 5 schools in the regional round, participating in two leagues, the winners from each league (Penyrheol and St Joseph’s) took part in a final in the afternoon. Penyrheol won the day! The National final will take place in the Royal Court of Justice in London on March 23rd.
In October, eight budding entrepreneurs from Year 10 represented the school in the Swansea Young Business Dragons Competition. Although they did not win the overall event, they managed to wow the producers of The Wave Radio Station and won the Best Jingle competition.! Here is what the organisers said about our Penyrheol Pupils: “Your team are a credit to the school – their stand, pitch and interview really impressed the judges. They were bubbly and definitely helped to create a more fun atmosphere to the day. Their prize winning jingle was excellent!! Out of the 3 area semi finalists, they were the only team game enough to get up and perform!” Congratulations to all those involved.
The Latest News From Our School Council
Student Voice was thrilled with the amount raised and decided that rather than giving it all to one charity, they would prefer to share the money with several local charities or good causes.
A letter of thanks was received from Swansea Foodbank. The Foodbank distribute food to various groups that help the homeless and hungry. During Harvest Festival pupils kindly collected tins and packets of food to donate to Swansea Foodbank and managed to collect 185 kilos of food which will feed 26 local adults and children for 3 days!
Here is how the money will be divided: £770—Money raised from NonUniform Day will be donated to Children In Need £1071—Money raised from the activities arranged by all year groups during Charity Week will be divided between:
The Romanian Shoebox Appeal The School Council once again decided to support the orphans in Romania this year, by sending them shoe boxes full of goodies for Christmas. Pupils chose whether to buy for a girl or boy and wrapped the boxes up in Christmas paper for the children in Romania to open on Christmas Day Approximately 120 boxes were sent this year, so thank you to all those who contributed!
Stingrays Disability Swimming Club TCT—Teenage Cancer Trust To purchase a Bio Feedback machine, for a pupil suffering with kidney problems. Singleton Hospital Diabetes Appeal (Led by ex-member of staff and now Mayor of Loughour, Mrs A. Veck.) Cheques will be presented to the chosen causes in the very near future.
It was put to Student Voice, that it might be a good idea to start a Uniform Swap Shop. Pupils and/or parents could donate/swap uniform: jumpers, PE Kit, Togs etc. as long as they were in great condition. If they have nothing to swap they could purchase second-hand uniform at reduced rates!. The council thought this was a great idea and decided that this might take place on a termly basis to start with in the school canteen. Staffing and finer details would need to be arranged to ensure the scheme’s smooth running and eventual success! Watch this space for more developments!
The Latest News From Our School Council
Lois Type represented Eco Club at the latest Student Voice meeting and suggested that Christmas Card boards were placed on each floor of the school to encourage pupils to send only one card as opposed to writing numerous cards to individual friends.. The money saved in doing this would be donated and go to charity. After Christmas, The Eco Club will be holding a competition for the most amount of cards collected (in weight). The cards will then be sent for
Following a discussion on the efficacy of equipment checks at school, Student Voice felt that we should advertise that pupils are able to purchase all necessary stationery from the school library and that this should be advertised more widely. Perhaps on Moodle or on the TV in the school foyer. Here are details of what is currently available from the library:
School Stationery
recycling !
Making sure we have a GREEN Christmas not a white one!
Please do not eat & drink in and around the school and especially not in the library or toilets! (GROSS! Imagine the germs!)
The canteen is the ONLY place you should be eating! Posters will soon be displayed and staff will be extra vigilant in monitoring litter so please do your bit to help!
Sharpeners Black/Blue/Red Pens Pencils Protractors Small Rulers Large Rulers Rubbers Highlighter Pen Compass Correction Fluid Glue Stick Translucent Pencil case Pack of 12 Colouring Pencils Scientific Calculator
5p 10p 10p 10p 10p 20p 20p 20p 30p 30p 30p 50p ÂŁ1 ÂŁ6.50
Beyond The School Gates...
Many of our Penyrheol pupils are involved in outside school activities. If you would like to shout about it...here’s your chance! Congratulations to Ashleigh Harries, who although is still only in Year 10 has already been offered a 2 year apprenticeship with Swansea City for when he leaves School. A fantastic achievement!
Well done to Tanisha Walker (Y11), who is fast becoming one of the must-see basketball players in the UK. She is pictured here representing Wales against Andorra earlier this year. The fantastic musical, ‘Copacabana’ will be at The Taliesin, Swansea 17-19 January 2013 at 7pm (& 2pm Sat Matinee), The production performed by Musicality, includes many pupils from school including our very own Head Boy! Please support our pupils and come and see this funny, glitzy musical with music written by Barry Manilow. Tickets are only £10 for Penyrheol pupils and staff and are available from the librarian or by calling 01792 561861. Our congratulations go to Calum Hearne (Y9) who swims for the Swansea Stingrays, a disability swimming group who meet every Sunday morning at the National Pool Swansea. Calum recently beat his own personal best times whilst competing in the Special Olympic Wales Regional Gala in Cardiff. One of his best performances was in the 50M Backstroke where Calum came came 1st, taking the gold medal! A brilliant achievement. Well done Calum! At The Swansea Sports Awards Ceremony recently, Jordan Jones of 11M was announced as the 5 X 60 pupil of the year. Well done Jordan!
STOP PRESS...The ‘Ask the Head’ question this term is answered online. Please see the school Moodle page for more details.
This newsletter is available online and in colour at www.penyrheol-comp.net. Why not have a look?