With just one more school week to go before the Easter break, we would like to thank you for all of your support and understanding as we have tirelessly sought to keep all students in school, despite ever increasing COVID rates amongst students and staff. On a few isolated occasions it has been necessary to amalgamate classes, but to date, we have not yet had to deliver remote learning to a year group working from home. As you are probably aware this is most certainly not the case in many schools now and it is possible that we may also have to choose this option in the interests of health and safety at some point in the future once again.

After 23 years of distinguished service at Castell Alun Mr. Carl Pugh, Assistant Headteacher, will retire at the end of this academic year. Mr. Pugh’s shoes take considerable filling! Although we will miss him greatly, we are pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Craig Stewart to the Senior Leadership Team. Mr. Stewart will commence his duties at the start of September 2022.

Examination class students are now on the last lap of their studies and we would like to congratulate students in Years 10 and 11 who have sat their Welsh oral examinations this week. A number of Year 11 students will take their spoken exams next week and we wish them all the very best. Please remember that if students are struggling with anxiety about examinations they should speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.

Our Year 12 Geographers went on their coursework fieldtrip to Talacre Beach earlier this week and were blessed with fine weather to accompany their eagerness to learn and strong progress. Also this week, dramatists in Years 10, 11, 12 and 13 put on their coursework piece for an invited audience. The standards of performance were high and we were thrilled to have a real life face-to-face audience with us once again to admire the wealth of talent on show. Well done everybody – great job – and a big thanks to all staff involved also!

We look forward to meeting all parents/carers of Year 7 students virtually on Thursday evening next week and would also like to remind you that Monday 25th April is a staff training day, which means that the school will be closed to all students.

Attendance at study club sessions is strong and a great number of subjects are running revision classes for students in examination classes. We would encourage students very strongly to participate in these free sessions….. there is nothing like face-to-face revision tuition before examinations!

Year 8 boys enjoyed a play night at the Alun School, Mold, this week and levels of participation were high. On Tuesday our Year 10 and Sixth Form girls’ netball teams participated in competitions. Everyone had a great time and although Year 10 did not win, the Sixth Form team completed a tense victory over the Alun and thus progress onto the next round of the President’s Cup competition where they will play against a team from Wrexham or Denbighshire.

We all look forward to the return of warmer weather. Have a nice weekend.