Friday 4th March 2022


It was lovely to be able to return to school after the half term break and spend the week commemorating our patron saint, Dewi Sant, and celebrating all things Welsh.

Firstly, on Monday, staff enjoyed partaking in the cake sale.  The Welsh department baked a variety of cakes, including traditional Cacennau Cri (Welsh cakes), all of which were readily devoured!  Approximately £80 was raised for the Marie Curie Daffodil Appeal.

The Welsh Department put together a whole school assembly about Saint David with the clear message of ‘Gwnewch y pethau bychain / Do the little things.’  Perhaps this is something we can all pursue in every aspect of our lives.

KS3 students competed in the St. David’s Day competitions, which ranged from baking Welsh themed cakes to making celebratory bunting.  It was fantastic to see the effort and commitment shown by so many of our students.  Certificates and prizes were awarded to the most successful participants.  Da iawn!

During tutor group time all of our students were given the opportunity to participate in the St. David’s Day quiz, which involved testing their knowledge of Cymru, our culture, traditions and language.

Diolch i bawb sydd wedi cymryd rhan yn y dathliadau. Thank you to everyone who’s taken part in the celebrations. We are truly proud of our welsh heritage.

In further modern language news, Year 7 are currently studying the topic of school in French classes and are very busy sending information about Castell Alun to our project partner school in Saint Prix Paris.  The students are describing the school day, uniform, which lessons they like and don’t like (obviously there aren’t any of these!) and providing further information to their peers, including photos of our school building.  The students in France are studying the topic of hobbies and we will be hearing all about their favourite sports very soon in the form of letters and photos.

We are tremendously happy to be able to inform you that we are now indeed able to invite parents and students to our re-scheduled Post 16 Information Evening on Thursday 24th March, 2022 from 4.30pm.  In order to continue to place health, safety and wellbeing at the forefront of all school matters, we would ask all interested parties to register for one of the three sessions on offer by completing the form on the link below.  This would be incredibly helpful as it will help us to manage the anticipated volume of visitors to the school on the evening.  It will also enable staff to plan effectively their individual subject sessions so that they may be as informative as possible.  We are so looking forward to seeing you all face-to-face once again and there is a broad and exciting curriculum on offer for all students who are considering joining our successful Castell Alun Sixth Form.  Current Castell Alun Year 11 students will also be attending subject talks in departments during registrations over the next two weeks, and there will also have their ‘Positively You’ exam preparation training event (which was postponed due to storm Eunice) on Wednesday 9th March during the morning school session.

Despite the recent wet weather, we embark upon the season of Spring with new hope.  One sign of a change in season is the re-emergence of sports such as cricket.  Josh (Year 8) has been selected to play for Wales U13 Cricket team and is also a regular in the current North Wales team.  We are really proud of Josh, who represents our school locally with strong performances for Pontblyddyn Cricket Club.

Also in Year 8, Oscar continues to go from strength to strength and has just achieved a first place in his Winter Race Series, skiing at North Wales Snowsports Club, Llandudno.  Well done Oscar!

Students in Year 8 are clearly active participants in various sports!  Robyn has now been selected to race in the Canoe Wales Slalom Talent squad and has an encouraging ranking in Division 2 at present.  It is anticipated that her performances will cause her to rise through her current league swiftly as she takes part in winter training.  The competition season starts in March with the first race for Robyn at Symonds Yat.  Robyn has already attended Welsh squad training camps throughout England and Wales.  Brilliant stuff Robyn!

The rain seems to have stopped for time being.  Have a lovely weekend.