Friday 20th September 2019


Main Assembly today was on the theme of ‘Looking Forward to Success’ and was led by the Sixth Form, with Rhian (Year 12) bringing an excellent reading. The Year 9 rockers LIES performed a very cool rendition of ‘Learn to Fly’ and may be seen live in concert at the Penyffordd Royal British Legion Club on Saturday 19th October at 7.30pm. These lads are destined for great things!

You may have heard that some of our staff dressed somewhat informally today and that is because we are supporting the charity Jeans for Genes.  On the theme of charities, really well done to Rachel, Year 10 who since before the summer break, has been training and fundraising for Macmillan.  She participated in the Peak District Mighty Hike, organising her own ideas and raised £377.  On Saturday 27th July she walked 27 miles through challenging conditions, drenching rain and thick mud, from Darley Moor to Bakewell, to collect her Finisher’s medal.

We have had a great start to term and are truly thankful for the support you give us.  We always encourage ongoing dialogue with all parents and carers and will continue to ask you to phone school and speak to the relevant person should you have any information or concerns you wish to share with us.  Sometimes it may be worth making an appointment to see a particular member of staff, and may I ask please that if you do have occasion to visit school, you come in through the front entrance, where you will be welcomed by Mrs. Olwen Jones at the reception desk.

Many thanks to all of those parents and students who came to our University Evening on Tuesday. We really hope the event was worthwhile and will play a part in helping all interested students to access the further education courses of their dreams.

This is certainly advance notice, however, we will hold our Castell Alun Open Evening, to which you are all invited but is perhaps most relevant to parents of children in the current Year 6, on Thursday 3rd October, from 6.30pm.  There will be two opportunities to attend my Headteacher’s presentation at 6.30pm and 7.15pm respectively, and we will have plenty of eager guides willing to show you around the school throughout the evening.  It is always a lovely event and we would encourage parents/carers to bring their Year 6 children along with them in order to visit many of the subject areas with whom they will soon be working. Our school Prospectus will also go live on our website on Monday 23rd September.

CAFA held their AGM this week and the friends of the school wish to thank everyone for the support that they have received.  We are really indebted to everyone on the CAFA team and are grateful once again for the large amount of money that they have raised to support our school over the past year.

Looking to next week, on Monday and Friday our Year 13 Geographers will go on fieldtrips to the River Dee and Liverpool One, and on Thursday our athletics teams from Years 9 to 11 will represent us in Deeside at the Flintshire Championships.  We can’t wait to hear about your successes!

Year 7 students will sit CATS tests on Thursday. However, although I use the word ‘test’ this is no big deal whatsoever and no revision can be done to prepare for these standardised assessments.  All students will be guided through the entire process and should not worry at all about the day.  We use the data received from this day to give us a general indication as to a student’s potential, along with many other forms of data of course.

A little further ahead, we have been asked to pass on notice of a Drugs and Alcohol Awareness Public Information Session on Tuesday 8th October between 5.30pm and 7.30pm at Mold Town Hall. If you would like to find out more about ‘Flintshire Sorted’, have any general questions or concerns, or just have a general interest in any related themes, please pop along.

The Rugby World Cup starts today and we will all be interested in the Wales result on Monday.  C’mon Cymru!  Have a great weekend.