Friday 10th June 2022 / Dydd Gwener Mehefin 10fed 2022
We are looking forward to seeing our Year 12 students upon their return on Monday. We are aware that a number of students and staff have exercised their right to provide feedback to the WJEC on recent examination papers and we will also produce a whole school letter for the examination board and Qualifications Wales to this end.
CAFA are taking part in the Big PTA Summer Raffle with tickets available for purchase until 17th July 2022. There is a chance of winning up to £5,000 in each of the 12 draws run over 4 days, with three draws a day taking place between 18th– 21st July. Each £3 ticket will generate a number that will be entered into all draws. Please be so good as to visit www.bigptaraffle.co.uk and search for Castell Alun Friends Association for more information and to buy your ticket(s). CAFA will receive 50% of ticket sales and these wonderful people work tirelessly to support all areas of school life behind the scenes, for which we are truly grateful. As many of you will know, we have participated in the big PTA raffle before and vital funds were raised, so please do get involved if you feel able.
We anticipate a great deal of good news to share with you on the sporting front next week. However, congratulations to Robyn (Year 8) who raced for Wales in the Pan Celtic event last week both individually and as part of the team competition. Robyn won the junior age group 13 to 14 Women’s Welsh Canoe Slalom Champion award. You have a remarkable talent Robyn – we are so impressed!
This week we are thrilled to be able to share with you a piece of work from one of our students in Year 8. In Year 8 History lessons students have been studying the Slave Trade. Classes have been focusing on the slave experience from capture to life on the plantation, specifically with regards to Britain’s role in the system. Over half term, Caitlyn wrote the following wonderful poem on the theme of a slave’s suffering and how other people benefitted from the system. Caitlyn took it upon herself to produce this piece, having clearly been moved by the plight of the slave. 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 wronghence,
(but not wanting to change),
We hid it and protected it,
Behind a sub-conscious “fence”.
In a couple of weeks’ time students in Year 9 will be sitting some national tests, including the annual Cognitive Ability Tests (CATs) tests. We will contact parents/carers with relevant dates in the near future but please re-assure all children that no revision is necessary for these assessments. Where revision is necessary for tests which are subject-based, we will of course let you know.
Enjoy the weekend
Mwynhewch y penwythnos