Bore da,
Today sees the final external examination for our GCSE and Sixth Form students and we are all thrilled that the date has finally arrived! We must pay credit to our wonderful student body and their mature approach to what is a demanding time for so many.
We have some fantastic news from our Modern Languages Department – Alice and James, (Year 9) have both been selected as winners for the Oxford University Translation Competition. Over 15,000 students took part across the whole of the UK, and this is a fantastic achievement with both students being selected as winners in the North Wales competition. Alice and James will now compete in the National Competition where they will come up against all of the regional winners from across the nation. A special congratulations to Alice as this is the second time that she has won for North Wales! All staff in the Modern Languages Department are very proud of both students and the entire school team wishes Alice and James the very best for the National Competition. Félicitations / Herzlichen Glückwunsch from us all!
On Monday this week a great number of our Year 12 students went to the Alun School in Mold to attend a particularly useful university and apprenticeship careers fair. This event follows on from the Year 12 visit to Liverpool last week which had the focus of supporting all interested students with potential UCAS applications. In further Sixth Form news we look forward to welcoming students from other schools on Friday when we hold our external induction day. These students will have opportunities to attend lessons in the subjects of their choice and simultaneously gain a deeper understanding of life at Castell Alun.
Next week school will be extremely busy! On Tuesday at 6.30pm we hold our New Intake Parents’ Evening and this event will be held in the Sports Hall with a series of talks from staff, who are most closely involved with Year 7. On this evening parents/carers will have the opportunity to meet their child’s new group tutor, tour the school and purchase useful items for September. We follow the Parents’ Evening with our New Intake Induction Day for students on Thursday 29th June. We have been told that current Year 6 students are really excited about both spending the day with us and the opportunity to meet new friends.
On Thursday evening we will hold our Year 11 Prom at St. David’s Park Hotel from 7pm until 11pm. We will doubtless take a great many photos and share some of these with you next week.
May we please remind you that CAFA (Castell Alun Friends Association) will hold their annual car boot sale in school on Saturday 1st July. The sale is on from 10am -12.30pm and stall holders can gain entry from 9.30 am (last cars admitted at 9.55am). The cost to pitch is £5 and you can follow the details on the poster to book your spot in advance to avoid disappointment. A great variety of things will be on sale during the day, including refreshments and a pre-loved uniform stall. If anyone would like to donate any old and unwanted uniform, please leave this in school reception in advance of Saturday 1st July. Last year’s event was very popular and much needed funds were raised which have since gone back into the school to help support our students.
Last week in the Blog we told you about our new way to share information about your children in school with you. All parents/carers can now access our new parent app and website. We appreciate that the information on the App may not be wholly accurate for the current academic year when you initially log on, however, in making the App accessible to you at this time, our intention is to check the viability and trouble-shoot any potential issues before we commence wide use of this facility in the new academic year. To date, around 600 families have accessed the App and our hope is to ensure that all parents/carers are able to do this before the close of the current academic year.
Llongyfarchiadau/congratulations to Nellie (Year 8) who has recently achieved a Merit in her LCM Music Theatre Grade 3 examination and a huge well done also to our Year 7/8 girls who came 1st in their recent North East Wales Athletics competition and will now proceed to represent us in the Welsh finals next month. Well done also to the Year 9 lads who narrowly missed out on qualification for the finals and came 4th.
We hope the weather conditions remain favourable for our Year 10 students on their Duke of Edinburgh Expedition this weekend and hope you all have a lovely time also.