Friday 24th November 2017


Well, lets start with some tremendous feedback this week.  We are really pleased to announce that our Estyn Inspection Report will be available to all from Monday 27th November.  I have to say that we are not only proud of the report, but we also feel that it summarises our school and the way in which we place great emphasis on supporting our students very effectively.  You can read the full report on the school website from Monday, but if you would prefer a hard copy we can, of course, provide this for you via the school office.  Once again, well done everybody. I am so proud of our school family.

This week our whole school assembly was on the theme of bullying and was led by the Senior Team.  Our Year 7 rock band, comprising Louis Crank, Isaac Holmes and Evan Spray played a stunning mini- set including ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ by Nirvana and ‘Highway to Hell’ by ACDC.  I would strongly advise everyone to watch out for these names in the future, as everybody present at the event agreed that they have every chance of being the next big rock band to come out of Wales.

This week our Year 11 GCSE Drama students performed their first practical performance in front of an audience of Year 7 and 10 students.  As part of the course students are required to devise their own performance pieces based on a stimulus provided by the WJEC exam board.  The pieces they created were superbly constructed and truly impressive.  The students were inspired by Kneehigh Theatre Company after seeing them live on a number of occasions throughout their course.  Well done to Niamh Bethel, Eleanor Davies, Alisha Menet, Nathan Crofts, Anya Davies, Nia Pritchard-Taylor and Thomas Roberts.  Mrs. Lloyd-Jones would also like to thank Hannah Faulkner, Year 11 and Ellie Williams, Year 13, who assisted with supplementary roles.

ICT news – we are currently trialling Google Education alongside our current virtual learning environment, FROG, in school.  The Google Education suite provides students with a school Gmail account and access to their Google products such as Docs and Classroom.  This enables students to access their work whether they are in school or at home, or whether using a computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone.  Teachers can also view and provide feedback on students’ work, which is then immediately available to the individual student.  We would advise all students to use their Google account for school use only.  A student’s educational profile does not contain sensitive data, and all information remains the intellectual property of the creator.

If you have any questions or queries regarding Google Education please contact the Head of ICT, Mr. Carl Mitchell, at carl.mitchell@castellalun.flintshire.sch.uk.

In sports news this week our Boys’ Tennis Team travelled to Tipton Sports Academy for the Schools’ Tennis Finals.  Our lads competed to the highest standard and narrowly missed winning the overall event, coming third nationally after a thrilling tiebreak playoff.  It’s been quite a journey lads, really well done!  Congratulations also to Hannah Ison, Year 9 and Will Owens, Year 10, who have been awarded a Silver Plate by the North Wales Tennis Association for their contributions to tennis across the country.

We have had strong performances from our Years 9, 10 and 11 netball teams and our Year 8 hockey team in matches against Mold Alun this week.  Poppy Ellis (Year 8), Sophie Pope, Penny McCormick, Nia Edwards (all Year 9) have now been selected to play for the North East Wales Under 14s Netball Squad.  Tremendous effort girls!

A quick look at upcoming events…

On Thursday 30th November we will hold our Year 8 Parents’ Evening, starting at 4pm.  Most study club activities will not run on this evening.  We will, however, inform participants in sports clubs nearer the time as to whether their activities will be taking place.

Our Year 11 students are currently undertaking trial exams during lesson time in many subjects and we are hopeful for excellent results.  Keep working hard folks it will be worth it the end!

Tickets for our school Christmas Concert will be on sale by the end of next week for both Wednesday 13th December and Thursday 14th December.

And finally we will hold Tutor/Parents’ meetings for students in Year 7 on the afternoons of Monday 4th (MENT) and Tuesday 5th December (ORUS).

My apologies, this Blog is a little longer than usual, but there is a lot to be proud of!

Have a lovely weekend.