Friday 17th December 2021


A long and positive term draws to a close on Tuesday next week.  Although we would obviously prefer to see the entire school family together and celebrate Christmas in our usual manner with a whole school assembly, unfortunately, this was not to be and, as usual, we have done everything in our power to prioritise the health and wellbeing of staff, students and their families.  You will now know that schools in Flintshire have been told that the 6th and 7th January have been redesignated as ‘Planning and Preparation Days’ for staff only and that we hope to see all students return to the classroom on Monday 10th January.  We will keep in touch with you with regards to any further key information using our website, social media feeds and this blog as necessary.  It is true that the road ahead could be bumpy once again, but we will walk it together and we hope that the Christmas message will still inspire hope for many.

This week our Year 10 Welsh Baccalaureate students have raised a great deal of money for Hope House in a Christmas market which we conducted in a covid-secure manner.  When exact figures are known we will let you know more detail but in the meantime its a great big thank you to all students and their families for their efforts and engagement with this skills challenge, and a special thank you to Mr. Osian Pugh-Jones, who coordinated the entire event.  Really well done also to everybody who participated in the ‘Through the Decades’ performance today.  It is sometimes so hard to believe what a wealth of talent we count amongst our number.  Brilliant job everyone and thank you so much to all the staff involved in this venture!

We have now completed our collection of essential items for the local homeless.  The Sixth Form Charity Committee and the Year 11 Enterprise Club collected 60 essential bags.  These bags are being delivered to SHARE in Chester and will eventually be given to local homeless people in the area during the winter months.  This is a fantastic effort by everyone at Castell Alun but in particular the following Sixth Form and Year 11 students: Katie, Emily, Alex, Harriet, Gabbie and George.  Many of us know just how tough life can be, especially at the moment, but each of us is still capable of showing kindness to others and our students have demonstrated this in great measure.

Again on the theme of kindness, we are really proud of Louise, Izzy, Alex and Freddy (Year 11) and the wonderful work they have done in support of the Foodbank.  These students collected a record-breaking 105 kilos of food and a further £74 cash.  In partnership with our friends at Hope Parish Church, our students were kept busy serving tea and mince pies and the festive spirit was enhanced further through Freddie’s Christmas songs, performed on the piano.  Thank you so much, everyone.

And finally a couple of further individual success stories.  Robyn (Year 8) has been selected for a place on the Canoe Wales National Talent programme and we are all really excited to monitor her progress through the rigorous programme of training camps.  Also, Tyler (Year 9) is one of the very few swimmers who has qualified to race at the Welsh National Championships and Commonwealth Games qualifier in Swansea this December.  What amazingly talented students we have here!

All that now remains to be said is that we wish you all a peaceful, restful, safe Christmas and renewed hope and energy for the New Year!