Bore da,

It’s now two weeks since our previous Blog and a lot as been happening in and around school, perhaps in particular in our Welsh department!

Last Friday we held our St. David’s Day assembly, which was led by the Welsh department and various members of the School Council. It was wonderful to hear key messages through the medium of welsh and to be treated to a beautiful musical item by Year 12 girls Natasha, Georgia and Eloise who sang Calon Lan with a flute accompaniment. We always try to ensure that St. David’s Day is celebrated throughout the school and it certainly true that staff enjoyed their St. David’s Day celebration with a paned a cacen during breaktime. In doing this a good deal of money was raised for the Marie Curie Daffodil appeal. Throughout the day the occasion was marked in many different lessons and at amser cinio, specific activities took place in the Cymraeg department. A great many students received bilingual praise points during the day for their use of welsh during the school day. It would certainly appear to be true that students’ interest in the welsh language and culture is growing strongly as we all now embrace the post covid period. Numbers at A-Level and indeed projected AS Level classes have never actually been higher!

In further news from the Welsh department, on Thursday this week the Welsh department welcomed the Criw Cymraeg from each of our feeder primary schools. Prior to the event schools worked on a joint unit of work in order to collaborate and celebrate Dydd Miwsig Cymru – Welsh Music Day. This involved students across the cluster identifying and experiencing different genres of Cymraeg music. Students were able to express their opinions on different songs, before taking part in a live poll to vote for their favourite, and they then used their numeracy skills to analyse the results. Some students then proceeded to use their ICT skills to research a new Cymraeg artist or band. To build on this work, on the day itself, the Criw Cymraeg from each school attended Castell Alun for a fun filled afternoon which started with a gig from the famous rapper/beatboxer, Mr Phormula. Students enjoyed learning the basics of beatboxing before challenging him into producing a bilingual rap. So many of our students and those from local primary schools were wowed by the rapper’s sounds and took away the important message of how many opportunities speaking Cymraeg offers. The fun carried on with a Disgo Distaw – silent disco – led by the Urdd, where students showed off their moves to Welsh music. Di iawn pawb!

Yesterday evening Castell Alun hosted an event for our entire consortium in order to celebrate St. David’s Day. The concert was truly a joint venture between Castell Alun, our primary consortium schools and the City of Wrexham Brass Band. Our Sports Hall was graced by amazing talents from students and adults alike and attendance was incredibly high. Diolch yn fawr to everyone who attended and especially all of those who performed and made the evening such a wonderful success.

In further news, many of our Year 13 students took part in mock interviews recently to develop their interviewing technique. As is the case every year, students dressed to impress! Excellent work ethic was demonstrated prior to the interviews with learners ensuring CVs and cover letters were produced to a high standard, alongside hours of interview preparation. The students did a wonderful job with one of the employers commenting the learners “were articulate, very well presented and clearly hardworking” and that “the students at Castell Alun were some of the best prepared” that the interviewer had ever come across. We are particularly grateful to all the employers who gave up their time and expertise to provide guidance and help build the confidence of our learners. This year the organisations that supported this activity were Airbus, The HR Department, Wrexham University, Knights PLC, Abrasive Technology, Byotrol and Cheshire College South & West. We were thrilled that the blend of employers included alumni, parents, previous guest speakers and new guests to the school.

As you can see there is a great deal going on in school even though it is fair to say that our main focus now is of course upon exam preparations for students in the upper school, despite the difficult times that all schools across Flintshire are facing with regards to their budgets. Thank you for the feedback which we are already beginning to receive with regards to the letter sent out by Flintshire Headteachers last week.

We have a number of students to congratulate, especially as there was no blog last week, due to our information system upgrade.

Well done to our Sixth Form students who performed brilliantly in their A-Level practical music exams this week. It is clear that some of them have the potential to follow careers in music and bring a great deal of pleasure to others.

Many of our sporting students have been very busy over the past couple of weeks! Let us begin with Tom (Year 12) who has played rugby for his nation (U18s) and clearly has a very bright future ahead. Tom, we will expect the Triple Crown to be brought home once again in the near future now!

There are a number of other Castell Alun students who are making a sporting name for themselves. A great big di iawn to Finn (Year 10) who recently played hockey for his team in South Wales and took the trophy in the grand final. Really well done also to Alex, Sophie, Ffion, Ruby, Erin, Phoebe and Lucy, who all represented NE Wales in the inter-counties netball tournament last weekend. In further netball news we are very proud of our U13s team who lost in the dying seconds by one goal to Scarisbrick PE in the ‘Sisters n Sport’ Cup this week. In football, we were victorious in the quarter final of the Welsh Cup against Friars just last Thursday with out Sixth Form boys drawing them game 2-2 but taking the match on a penalty shoot out. Di iawn lads and we are beginning to dream of the final!

Perhaps a special llongyfarchiadau to Bethan (Year 7) this week. Bethan represented North Wales in the all Wales Cross Country Championships and finished in 10th position in her age group. However, the good news does not end there as Bethan has also qualified for the Wales Nationals in backstroke after a successful meet in the North Wales Championships, where she picked up 6 medals.

Here’s to continued success for everybody as we approach the Easter period.

And finally, another invitation to all to our CAFA Sound Bath evening, which has been so popular that we have been implored to run it again. This will be a special opportunity to relax deeply as you are carried by the sounds of crystal singing bowls! See the details here.

Have a lovely weekend / cael penwythnos hyfryd