Year 12 Returns
Welcome to the School Blog. We eagerly anticipate seeing our Year 12 students return on Monday. Many students and staff have already provided feedback to the WJEC on recent examination papers. Additionally, we will send a comprehensive school letter to the examination board and Qualifications Wales.
Big PTA Summer Raffle
CAFA are participating in the Big PTA Summer Raffle. Tickets are available for purchase until 17th July 2022. You could win up to £5,000 in each of the 12 draws over 4 days, with three draws daily from 18th–21st July. Each £3 ticket generates a number that enters all draws. Visit www.bigptaraffle.co.uk and search for Castell Alun Friends Association for more details and to buy your tickets. CAFA receives 50% of ticket sales. These dedicated individuals tirelessly support all aspects of school life behind the scenes, for which we are truly grateful. We have participated in the Big PTA raffle before, raising essential funds. Please get involved if you can.
Sporting News
We expect a lot of good news on the sporting front next week. However, congratulations to Robyn (Year 8), who raced for Wales in the Pan Celtic event last week. Robyn competed both individually and as part of the team, winning the junior age group 13 to 14 Women’s Welsh Canoe Slalom Champion award. You have a remarkable talent, Robyn – we are incredibly impressed!
Year 8 History Project
This week, we are thrilled to share a piece of work from one of our Year 8 students. In Year 8 History lessons, students have been studying the Slave Trade, focusing on the slave experience from capture to plantation life, especially Britain’s role in the system. Over half term, Caitlyn wrote a wonderful poem about a slave’s suffering and how others benefitted from the system. Caitlyn took the initiative to produce this piece, clearly moved by the plight of the slaves. You should be very proud of yourself, Caitlyn! Well done and diolch.
Slaves
Stolen from their homeland,
Of savannahs, grass and sand,
Spoken harshly to,
In words they don’t understand.To suffer at our hands,
Scarred by our burning bands,
To do our work,
For us in which greed does lurk.Whipped and chained,
For the slightest thing,
Cruelly restrained,
From traditions – only able to sing.The confusion they must have faced,
The speeds their hearts must have raced,
Torn from their families and tribes,
To be given to the Americans,
To start their slave lives,
Collecting what we needed,
Money, cotton, rice and an appetite for greed.The cruelty we did show,
The greed we were so keen to follow,
So at their expense:
We protected our feelings,
The things that made us humane –
Shielding ourselves from our actions,
From inside the human brain,
And feeling that our hearts were wrong hence,
(but not wanting to change),
We hid it and protected it,
Behind a sub-conscious “fence”.
Year 9 National Tests
In a couple of weeks, Year 9 students will sit some national tests, including the annual Cognitive Ability Tests (CATs). We will contact parents and carers with relevant dates soon. Please reassure all children that no revision is necessary for these assessments. Where revision is necessary for subject-based tests, we will inform you.
Enjoy the weekend. Mwynhewch y penwythnos.
See you back here soon for the next School Blog!
