Friday 18th October 2019


On Tuesday we held our Main Assembly on the theme of ‘Mental Well-being’.  This was poignantly led by Year 8.  Well done and thank you to our readers Saffron, Archie and Skye.

We’ve had an extremely busy week.  On Monday we celebrated Diwrnod Shwmae Sumae, a celebratory day that happens across Wales to celebrate our language.  Students made an extra effort to use their Cymraeg across the school and win a tocyn iaith.  At lunchtime students competed in a Welsh scavenger hunt and our Welsh A-Level students ran a Welsh sweet shop, where lower school students used their language skills to buy some treats.  Da iawn pawb!

Year 11 Food GCSE practicals took place on Monday and Tuesday, and students participated in lower school fun runs on Tuesday and Wednesday in order to raise monies for our school fund.  Well done to everyone in Years 7, 8 and 9.  I know you had a lot of fun and you did a great job!  Also on Tuesday evening we held a Duke of Edinburgh presentation in the school hall and numbers for our cohorts this year look as healthy as ever.

Yesterday we held our Year 11 Parents’ Evening.  Many thanks to the great numbers of parents/carers who joined us.  Your feedback on the evening certainly indicates that you found the session extremely helpful and have been well advised on how your sons and daughters may continue to make progress as they work towards their external examinations.

Today our Sports Council have arranged a bake sale in order to raise money for Castell Alun Tennis Coach, Mark Adams and the CLIC Sargent charity which he works so hard to support.  Mark has first hand experience of the excellent work undertaken by CLIC Sergent and he is a former student of Castell Alun himself.  We are grateful to him for both the coaching he provides for our students and the extra assistance he brings in helping with our staff wellbeing twilight sessions.

This week we send our very best wishes to Spencer (Year 11) and Jacob (Year 10).  Lads – we wish you a really speedy recovery after your recent accidents. Keep your chins up and we hope to see you back in school very soon.  We are thinking about you!

Our extra-curricular PE Programme is now in full flow and our teams have embraced the Autumn conditions with success already.  Well done to all participants in the Year 9 and 10 Netball team who successfully took on Mold Alun this week.  Many congratulations to Ruby (Year 8), Sophie, Poppy, Abi, Alesha and Nia (Years 10/11), Lily Beth, Becca and Catrin (Sixth Form), who have all been successful in gaining a place in the Flintshire U14’s/16/18 Netball Squads.  In football, Year 7 played Hawarden and after an exciting 1-1 draw, won in a shoot-out, with Jack saving three penalties to become Man of the Match!  The team now goes on to play Ysgol Morgan Llwyd in the third round of the cup.  In further football news our Sixth Form team beat Bryn Hyfryd 3-1 and well done to Joel who won Man of the Match.  On the rugby field our Year 8 team won against Hawarden, Elfed and Maes Garmon this week, but narrowly lost the overall competition to the eventual winners Mold Alun.

As we look forward to next week I would like to thank all parents/carers of students in Year 7 for their kind donations of groceries for our Harvest collection.  All produce will be given to Flintshire Food Bank and gratefully received.  Rev. Adam Pawley will join us for our Harvest service.

On Tuesday our Year 7 Nurture Group will go on a trip to Techniquest and, if previous experience is anything to go by, everyone will have a fantastic time.

On the sporting front, our AS and BTEC Sport and Exercise students will attend a day of activities and training sessions at Glyndwr University on Wednesday and a number of our students will compete at Mold Alun in the Flintshire Cross Country Championships on Thursday morning.   Go for it guys!  It’s always great to hear about the success of our former students.  Jess, a member of the wider Castell Alun family, has recently become the first girl from Valkyries Rugby Club to play for Merched RGC and win the Valhalla award.  Isn’t that fantastic!

Sixth Form life at Castell Alun is always exciting, whether it means assisting in the birthday celebrations of their Director of Sixth Form Studies, or dressing in pink next Friday to support Breast Cancer Awareness.  Indeed as part of the Pink Day campaign Sixth Form students and staff will run a fun bingo session over lunchtime.  Also on Friday, parents/carers are welcome to attend a short Trinity Performing Arts Awards Ceremony commencing at 5pm in the school hall.

Our friends at CAFA invite you all to the Christmas Fair on the 29th November, and tickets are now on sale for the Manchester Christmas Market trip which takes place on Saturday 16th November.

I would imagine a number of us will be glued to our televisions on Sunday mornings.  Allez les Gallois!

Have a great weekend.