Friday 23rd February 2018


The first week back after the half term holiday has certainly been a busy one.

Our main assembly this week was on the theme of ‘Looking after the Natural Environment’, and was led very well by Year 8.  Our readers were Kayleigh Butler and Beth Taylor and three of our Year 7 students sang a beautiful rendition of ‘A Thousand Years’.  Well done to Keira Jones, Faith Evans and Mia Ellis.  As next week will see the school celebrating St. David’s Day with a main assembly and other festivities on the Thursday, and World Book Day also, which will be marked on both the Wednesday and the Friday, two of our Year 8 students brought a report to the assembly on our plans for World Book Day.  Many thanks to Jonathan Griffiths and Amelia Giles.

It was great to see the safe return of our Key Stage 4 and 5 Iceland trip, under the splendid leadership of Miss Edwards and Mr. Brown.  Despite the Icelandic weather’s best attempts to scupper plans, all students had a wonderful time and were able to boast a clearer understanding of a number of the concepts they have been studying in class recently.  By all accounts lots of fun was had!

A group of our Year 9 students attended a ‘Justice in a Day’ trip at the Law Courts in Mold on Tuesday of last week and gained a fascinating insight into the legal process. A large number of other Year 9 students attended a talk on the use of modern languages in the context of ‘Global Futures’, which was most thought provoking.

Our English Department hosted primary workshops this week as part of our ongoing work to develop literacy skills and ensure a smooth transition for younger students when they transfer across into secondary school.

I would like to congratulate Toby Vickery, Year 12, who has been selected to represent Wales in the Under 18 Football Squad against Ireland next week. Let’s hope the game goes ahead as the forecast seems to indicate that winter could attempt a comeback!

As we look to next week, our Year 12 students will receive training on their Individual Research Project for their Welsh Baccalaureate Qualification on Monday. We also have two composers visiting our A Level Music students, Lynne Plowman and Andrew Wilson-Dickson.

On Tuesday our Year 12 Geographers will go on a fieldtrip to Betwys, and our Year 8 Rugby Team travels to Barry Island to play the next round of their Welsh Cup Rugby competition. Come on lads – let’s bring the trophy home again!

As previously mentioned, we are marking World Book Day in various ways, and this begins with a book swap event on Wednesday in T6 at lunchtime. Also on Wednesday and Thursday our Year 11 GCSE musicians have their practical exams. Best of luck to all.

We are all eagerly anticipating St. David’s Day on Thursday (and sincerely hope that this will also be a celebration of our victory over Ireland in the Rugby at the weekend).

Thursday is, of course, also Year 9 Parents’ Options Evening. This will start at 4pm as usual and there will be opportunities for parents and students to talk with teachers about current levels of progress and attend talks on the options process in general. Further information will be available from all