Bore da,

We now have two weeks left of this half term and student progress and behaviour in school are commendable.

This week we held an upper school assembly and celebrated Black History month together mees hanes pobl theeon. We considered our heritage as a country and looked at ways in which we can personally take responsibility for promoting change, when we discover prejudice and discrimination. As with all of our assemblies sections of readings were conducted in Welsh and we would like to say diolch yn fawr to each of our readers from Year 10 Logan, Louise and Olivia. In addition, we can now report that the large number of groceries provided by our Year 7 students for our Harvest assembly recently have been delivered to our local foodbank and very gratefully received. Diolch once again to all families for their contributions and to Ella and Henry who represented Castell Alun, when the food was delivered.

You may recall that we held our New Intake Open Evening at the end of September and were stunned by the volume of interest from pupils in local primary schools and a great many from further afield also. The evening was a great success and we can now report that the winner of the sticker-collection game was Lottoria (Year 6). Di iawn Lottoria! It was lovely to meet you and we hope to see you again very soon. Your Amazon voucher will be posted to you next week.

Last night CAFA held a bingo evening in the school hall and the event was really well attended by people of all ages. Miss Lloyd-Jones was the guest caller and both she and the entire CAFA team ensured that everybody had a really great time and lots of fun. We are indebted to the wonderful people in CAFA and the work that they do to assist the school in funding things that we would not normally be able to afford. Diolch!

Today we celebrate Shwmae Sumae – hello hello day. Students have enjoyed participation in an online live quiz during registration. Our Year 12 Welsh students will be running a tuck shop / siop fferins at lunch time and anybody hoping to make a purchase will be required to siarad Cymraeg. Mr. Urdd is in school of course, and Welsh language games and activities will take place across the entire school all day.

On the 26th September, students celebrated European Day of Languages. Key Stage 3 students were invited to bake European themed cakes and desserts to raise money for the MFL Department and Macmillan Cancer Support. Staff were amazed by the array of bakes that the students created; including many French, German and Spanish treats. The cake sale took place over two breaktimes and was run by GCSE French, German and Spanish students. Everybody was encouraged to use their language skills to order the cakes of their choice. In total we raised £30 and had some good fun doing it! Merci à tous! Vielen Dank! Muchas gracias!

We would like to wish the very best to our Silver Duke of Edinbugh trip students for their expedition this weekend. Although it has rained heavily lately the forecast is for an improving weekend generally, and we are confident that you will be able to cope with all the challenges that the expedition will undoubtedly present you! We are big believers in the Duke of Edinburgh Scheme and genuinely feel that this kind of activity teaches our students skills above and beyond those which they can practise during a standard school day.

Congratulations to our Year 7 and 8 boys’ football teams, who have qualified for the Flintshire finals after two close games with Hawarden High School and St. David’s. Also, our Year 10 Netball Girls’ team went through to the semi-final of the regional cup, narrowly losing to Sir Huw Owen 7-10. Its great to see that the bad weather doesn’t put our students off their sport!

We are looking forward to Thursday next week, when we will hold a face-to-face Parents’ Evening for families of students in Year 11. Diolch to all for using the online booking system to secure your appointments. If you experience any difficulties with this system, please be so good as to contact the school immediately. This is an essential evening for all because it presents the perfect opportunity for feedback on current levels of progress and work ethic, but it also gives parents the chance to discuss further ways of supporting students in their work as we progress into the last stage of their GCSE or equivalent courses. Please do book-in as soon as you are able.

It is quarter final weekend for our country and we wish the rugby team pob luc!

Have a lovely weekend