What an amazing Christmas Concert on Tuesday evening and such a lovely way to welcome in the festive period together as a school family. We are incredibly fortunate to have so many gifted students and truly grateful for the time and guidance brought by our Performing Arts staff team and all other staff who made this event such as great success.

On Wednesday afternoon we opened our doors to elderly members of our local community when we hosted a wonderful Tea Dance. It was heart-warming to see the different generations really enjoying time together and sharing laughter and stories amidst the lovely entertainment and refreshments. Thank-you so much to Miss Roberts, Mrs Molloy and our fantastic team of year 8 students who helped make this time possible.

Also on Wednesday we held an oral confidence-building ‘Talk the Talk’ event with our Year 9 students in the English Learning Area. The continuous development of such vital skills is essential to all students, and indeed an area upon which we place tremendous focus at Castell Alun as we seek to prepare our students for successful futures.

Yesterday our Year 10 Boys’ Football Team played in their area finals and put in great performances to come runners-up in the competition. Well done everyone!

Our Year 8 students went to Hope Parish Church for a Christmas service this morning and we all really appreciated our time together with Rev. Pauley and the lovely people of the church. The message really made us all sit up and think, and some of our students even got to ring the bells. Well done and thank you to Steffan, Olivia and Sophie for their excellent readings.

Later today our Year 11 Girls’ Netball Team are in competition locally, so let’s hope they can follow in the footsteps of our Year 13 Girls Netball Team who won the next round of the President’s Cup last week – great stuff girls. Congratulations! Let’s hope that both teams are destined for big things!

We’re all really excited about our Christmas Market on Tuesday next week. It’s become a Castell Alun tradition to hold this event as we conclude our Autumn term, and this year the Market promises to be bigger and better than ever! The great news is that this time our Year 10 Welsh Bacc Christmas Market will open its doors to all friends of the school and members of the public from 10.45am until 12.15pm. If you are able to join us, please be so good as to park at the rear of school and join us in the Sportshall directly via the doors by the Sportshall (where you will be greeted by our enthusiastic Year 10 students under the leadership of Mr Swale)…..and bring some money to enter into the occasion and fully enjoy all that is on sale….and perhaps wear loose-fitting trousers!

On Wednesday evening a group of Years 11, 12 and 13 students will go to see Peter Pan at Storyhouse Theatre, Chester, and on Thursday our Year 7 will attend their Christmas service at Hope Parish Church. Also on that afternoon we will hold our Sixth Form Christmas Lunch and festivities…..a colourful and spirited high-point of the year. Former students may also collect their certificates from the reception area between 11am and 2pm on this day (and again on 7th January 2020).

One final reminder, next week our Study Club buses will run on Monday, but not Tuesday……as even our really hard-working students need time to finish off their Christmas shopping!

Have a really nice weekend everyone.