Friday 26th January 2017


Another busy week has raced by.  Some of our younger students led our lower school assembly this week on the theme of ‘encouragement’.  Amelia Giles and Sophie Keenan of Year 8 read with great poise.  Our musical item was brought by Keira Jones from Year 7, who sang beautifully to students in Years 7, 8 and 9.

Year 8 students have taken part in a workshop to introduce them to the world of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM).   The workshop, run by EESW (Engineering Education Scheme Wales), enhanced students’ coding skills, through the use of ‘microbits’ to make self-assembled robots move remotely.  All students had a great time and clearly loved the challenge of their activities.

On Thursday, over 70 year 6 girls attended a ‘Social Experience Day’, the purpose of which was to help them get them to know each other and strike up new friendships, even before they join us in September.   The girls were treated to a variety of activities in areas such as PE, Welsh, PSE and Dance, and there was a lot of fun and laughter.  The girls left school at the end of the day really looking forward to joining us in September.

In the sporting arena, Josh Davies of Year 8 has again demonstrated his impressive raft of skills, winning the Welsh Closed Squash Championships (Under 13s) in Cardiff last weekend.  Charlotte Woolley, also in Year 8, actually beat a national swimming record to take second place in the National Urdd Championships.  She narrowly missed winning the butterfly race by just 0.04 of a second!  Impressive stuff – well done!

In team sports our Year 8 Rugby team reached the last 16 of the Welsh Cup with a fantastic win 32-28 against Ysgol Bwttonog.  Great effort lads!

We have held Sixth Form subject talks for our current Year 11 students over the last two weeks and these have been really well attended.  On Thursday 1st February we hold our Sixth Form Open Evening, starting at 6.30pm, and it is my pleasure to invite anyone who has an interest in our Sixth Form to come along to this event.

A group of Year 7 students is going on a three day visit to Nant BH from Monday to Wednesday next week and, whatever the weather, all students will have opportunities to get stuck into some awesome activities.  We look forward to hearing their stories upon their return.

Also next week Year 9 and 10 will sit internal examinations in each of their subjects.  These will be held in the Sports Hall in order to give all students the opportunity to experience genuine examination conditions.

And finally, the Castell Alun Friends Association (CAFA) is always on the look out for new members.  If you feel you would like to become part of this group please do contact us on cafa@castellalun.flintshire.sch.uk for details, whereupon we will send you further information.

Have a nice weekend.