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HYDREF-AUTUMN 2016
Name: Tutor Group:
Visit our website: www.castellalun.com Follow us on Twitter: @CastellAlun The Headteacher’s weekly blog is also on the website.
NEWSLETTER - CYLCHLYTHYR REAL WELSH DRAGONS
Students have had their business acumen put to the test in the
name of charity and education. As part of their Welsh Baccalaure-
ate qualification studies, Year 10 learners delivered presentations
on potential business ideas to a panel of “dragons” in their “lair”.
On top of that, students also had to devise ways to turn a profit
from their businesses using a £5 grant from Hope House Children’s
Hospice. The proceeds from their endeavours would then go back to
Hope House in the form of a donation. Almost 50 sets of students
presented their ideas to a panel of judges, including representa-
tives from MBNA, Glyndwr University and NWN Media. Among
the pitches put forward were car wash services, Christmas cards
and decorations, bake sales, smoothies, bath bombs and lip balms.
Mr Simon Jones, Castell Alun Welsh Baccalaureate Co-ordinator
said “Our Year 10 students have been working alongside their
group tutors for weeks on these pitches in the hope of being
awarded £5 for their business ideas. Every group knows how
important it is to turn the £5 into profit for an amazing local
charity and this explains the hours of effort that they have
committed to the task. I am proud of the professional pitches our
students have been presenting to the panel of representatives and
anyone listening to them would quickly see the high level of
business acumen already being shown by these students.”
Duke of Edinburgh’s Award
On the last week of September, pack a warm
sleeping bag they said, off we went to the
Denbighshire Moors, the back and beyond. We forgot
to ‘break in’ our boots, so blister plasters were used to
patch up the raw bits. It was tough, boggy, and on a
few occasions we had to relocate, the correct phrase
for getting lost.
Cooking was slow, no Jetboil or even a camping gas
stove, just soggy meths that just about warmed the
pot noodles. They were right about the sleeping bag,
but forgot to mention that ear plugs would have been
great to block out the noise of the hurricane.
Day 2 was a ten mile joyous walk to the foothills of
the Clwyds, and a campsite with facilities to make
your eyes water. A bit of rain did little to dampen our
spirits.
Day 3 An early start, up the hills, even ones we
weren’t meant to go up, before our parents could find
us at a tiny car park, before heading off to McDonalds
for a reality check and 16 chicken nuggets!
But you know what? We’d do it again in a heartbeat.
It was great! By Ruth Cooper and Sian Evans
ECO-COUNCIL
The Eco-Council is an organisation of students from Year 7, 8 and
9. We meet twice every half term to discuss ways to improve the
environment around the school. This year we will focus on
recycling and litter. In the first meeting we discussed our schedule
and plans and ideas for the year. We have now already put
together a programme for new recycling bins to encourage
students to be more
“green” around our
campus. These
recycling bins have
already been placed
in every classroom
and we will be
promoting their
correct use next half
term. By Lily Burt
and Nicky Rush
Our Year 7 have settled into school life very quickly and are already making strong progress. Students have made the most of all the opportunities on offer. A number of students have already gained bronze and indeed silver merit certificates and the Year 7 Council has been chosen.
ALREADY PART OF THE FAMILY
GIDEONS VISIT SCHOOL
New Year 7 Students at Castell Alun have been
visited by the Gideons and each student was
given a copy of the New Testament. Each year
the Gideons visit thousands of British
secondary schools and gatherings of university
and college students, along with making
personal presentations to medical personnel and uniformed services. The
215 Castell Alun Year 7 students not only learned about the work of the Gideons, but also were encouraged to consider
ways in which to overcome crises and indeed meet the challenges of everyday life, such as embarking on a career or simply
dealing with anxiety. They were told stories of how their free gift had helped numerous people who were struggling with
the challenges of life.
CASTELL ALUN’S BEST EVER RESULTS
It seems like a little while ago now….things move on so fast, however, parents and students were thrilled with Castell Alun’s exceptional GCSE results in summer. For the first time ever, the higher grade pass rates in English Language and Mathematics were both in excess of 80%, with well over three quarters of all students at Castell Alun achieving the national benchmark of five A* - C GCSE grades including higher grade passes in English and Maths. Perhaps even more striking for this mixed ability cohort however was the fact that 55 students gained an amazing five or more A or A* grades that included English and Maths. Furthermore, serving only to endorse the school’s unswerving vision and commitment to truly compre-hensive education, 95% of the entire Year 11 group claimed at least 5 higher grade passes. In addition to all this, 95% of all students were also awarded the Welsh Baccalaureate Intermediate Diploma.
And the story didn’t end there! We sent more students off to university this year than ever before. In a tremen-dous year of Sixth Form results the school not only saw its students accept a record number of places on tradi-tional top Oxford, Cambridge and Russell Group Univer-sity courses, but also had a number of hard-working, gifted young adults achieve places on highly acclaimed diverse niche courses around Great Britain. In a bumper year, over a quarter of all grades awarded were at A or A*. Furthermore, from a truly comprehensive open Sixth Form intake, 70% of all students secured 3 or more A*-C grade passes with every single student managing to achieve the national measure of ‘Level 3 Threshold’, equating to 2 or more A level passes or equivalent. The Castell Alun Sixth Form is now larger than ever before.
As a community, we recently mourned the loss of a quite exceptional man, our Chair of Governors, Cllr. Tom Jones. Cllr. Jones led the governing body of the school for over 40 years and was passionate about getting the very best possible for every single boy and girl in the comprehensive sector of state education. He was, without doubt, a man whose influence was beyond measure on all who knew him. The school wishes to dedicate this wonderful set of results for students of all abilities and backgrounds to his memory.
Dates for the Diary...
21st – 25th November Year 11 Trial Examinations Wednesday 30th Nov Year 8 Parents’ Eve (4pm – 6.30pm) Monday 5th Dec Year 7 MENT Tutor / Parent Meetings (1.15pm – 3.30pm) Tuesday 6th Dec Year 7 ORUS Tutor / Parent Meetings (1.15pm – 3.30pm) Monday 12th Dec Presentation of Certificates (6.15pm for 6.30 start) Thursday 15th Dec Christmas Concert (7pm) Friday 16th Dec School Closes – Christmas Holidays Tuesday 3rd Jan Staff Training Day Wednesday 4th Jan School Re-opens to Students 5th – 11th Jan Year 12 and 13 Trial Examinations Wednesday 25th Jan Year 12 Parents’ Eve (4.00pm) 30th Jan – 3rd Feb Years 9 and 10 Internal Examinations Wednesday 1st Feb Sixth Form Open Evening (6.30pm) Friday 17th Feb School closes – Half Term Holidays Monday 27th Feb School Re-opens
Lower school students dressed up and ran in order to do their bit to support their school recently. The event is just one of the many colourful high points of a term of fund-raising and all monies are disbursed via the School Council, a body which represents children of all ages at the school. Year 9 student, Connor de Winter, commented, “We all love doing stuff like this. It’s how we do our bit I guess. It’s loads of fun too and the teachers make sure we enjoy ourselves.” At Castell Alun all year groups adopt a charity and run specific events in order to raise vital funds for these worthy causes. In previous years monies raised for the school itself have bought a new sound system for the Sixth Form area, outdoor ‘picnic’ style seating for main school, drinks machines, wet weather activities, digital equipment and monies have also been used to subsidise school t r ip s an d musica l productions.
FUN RUN FOR SCHOOL
Success Stories In Golf, Matthew Sandoz of Year 9 has had yet another successful season. Matthew is a member of the Golf Union of Wales Regional Squad and won the Denbighshire County Boys U15 and U13 Championship at Abergele and finished 2nd in the North Wales Boys U13 Championship with a gross 73 at Holywell. Perhaps his greatest achievement, however, was winning the Welsh Boys U13s Ch a m p i o n s h i p a t Llangollen. Matthew is highly likely to be picked to play for Wales in the coming seasons, an accolade becoming of both his talent and dedication to the sport.
Four Year 10 girls have played for the Flintshire U16’s Hockey Team at a
tournament in Rydal. Shannon Samuel, Lucy Jones, Nia Pritchard
Taylor and Harriet Le Tissier all performed exceptionally well and helped
their team to a resounding victory at the tournament, as did Molly Cross
from the Sixth Form who represented the U18’s team.
Well done to netballers Lily Cottle and Lucy Thompson for representing U14 Flintshire at the North East Wales Triangular Tournament. They will now have a trial for the U14 North East Wales Team. Well done also to Holly Atkinson who represented the U16 North East Squad and Tara Young, Lucy Fowles, Erin Chadwick and Celyn Jones who represented the U18 squad. Incredibly Flintshire actually won all of the age groups at this prestigious tournament! Our netball teams are brimming with talent at Castell Alun, with the Year 8 team beating John Summers 6-3 and Connahs Quay 4-3 at the play night just a couple of weeks ago.
The Boys School Tennis Team also won the North Wales qualifying round of schools’ tennis championships and thus qualified for the national UK Rounds. With yet further personal sp or t in g success I ssac L eck i an d team-mates, Will Owens, Toby Rees Slawson, Zac Hewitt and Aiden De Winter represented Castell Alun to a very high standard and are eager to make their mark on the national scene now also.
The current Year 9 cohort encompasses a large number of athletic students, with both the boys and girls teams qualifying for the Welsh Athletics National Championships in Brecon. At the event Issac Lecki set a new discus record for Wales – quite a feat! Tegan Rawsthorne, 13, also won her event, the 100m by quite some way and is tipped to go on to great things by many top coaches.
Cerys Jones of Year 9 has just won a bronze and silver medal in the prestigious AMA NorthWest Karate Championships and then went on to take the gold medal at KATA BKI National Championships. She hopes now to go on to represent her country in the near future.
Sixth Form student, Sam Affleck,
recently represented England Under 17
Boys in basketball in a two day tourna-
ment and has ensured he will be on the
team sheet again at the next
international event. Also in the current
Year 12, Simon Price, has taken the
Welsh Under 18’s Mountain Biking title
and has won a number of events around
the country recently.
Students at Castell Alun High School are
living up to their high expectations in the
sporting arena. After a few superb
sporting years for the school, recent
national successes have once again
confirmed the calibre of athletic boys and
girls being produced by the school.
However, our students successes are by
no means limited to sport.
Emma Baker, Year 11, has been working hard in the last 18
months to fundraise so she can take part in the Gunjur
Project, this project takes young people out to Gambia
where they support and work on identified projects to
help the communities. She will be participating in
identified projects such as decorating a children’s nursery,
organising a sports day with local children and helping
with the very important work of peer education on female
health and internet safety. Well done Emma, we are really
proud of you and your dedication.
Egni a Lwydd
Effort Brings Success
Castell Alun High
School
Fagl Lane,
Hope, Flintshire
Tel: 01978 760238
www.castellalun.com
Head: Mr Graham
Hughes
‘Students Help Those In Need’ Year 7 students and their parents recently went grocery shopping in order to celebrate Harvest. All tutor groups produced a bumper hamper of groceries that will be distributed to those in need. The year group decided that this year’s harvest contributions should be given to the Mold Food Bank in order to support their work with those experiencing challenging circumstances in local areas. Two members of tutor group 7N actually read in front of an assembly of over 1400 people in order to celebrate the event. Jack Rayers, 11, and Phoebe Davies, 12, delivered short presentations on the need for each of us to use the gifts we’ve been given to help others. Phoebe commented, “We were a bit nervous to begin with, but we’d practised our pieces and were really proud to be asked to take part in such a big event.” Jack added, “I think our school collection was a really good idea because it helps us to understand how we can all contribute in our own small way to improving the lives of other people.”
They Really Care Castell Alun Year 11 student, Daniel Roberts, and his Grandad, Mr John Roberts, proved that they understood the meaning of community recently when they teamed up to right a wrong done to the school. Daniel had been asked to keep an eye on the school garden over the holidays and, during one of his scheduled checks, found that the shed had been vandalised. Thinking quickly, Daniel sought to rectify the problem and, remembering that his Grandad had taught him many practical skills in the past, gave Mr Roberts a call immediately. Together the two undertook a renovation project, which entailed them measuring, sourcing and fitting new panels to the damaged property. With the shed now looking as good as new and the garden blooming, Daniel humbly commented, “I only did what any other student at Castell Alun would have done. My Grandad is always there to help. We really value my school and I quite enjoyed the project really.” Mr Roberts added, “It was a pleasure to help and well done Daniel for getting stuck in when he was needed.” The Castell Alun school garden was designed and built by Welsh Baccalaureate students 2 years ago and is maintained as part of the students’ studies.
Daring to Wear Pink Students in the Castell Alun Sixth Form have donned a variety of pink garments in order to support the Breast Cancer Awareness Cam-paign. As part of the ‘Dare to Wear Pink’ initiative the 300 students all made a donation to the plight of the Breast Cancer Charity and then selected their pink clothing, which they wore throughout the school day on Friday. Asst. Sixth Form Student Development Manager, Miss Sarah Edwards, commented, “The stu-dents have really entered into the spirit of the day and were quick to support the vital work of such a good cause. With such a large Sixth Form population we have raised a considerable amount of money and all students have given generously and had fun participating.”
Rocking All Over Castell
Alun
Just a couple of weeks ago we
had a fantastic drumming
workshop for Year 7 with Jeff Rich
of Status Quo fame. The students
were completely immersed in the
hands on practical session.
Thanks to Jeff for his time, and
who knows, maybe some students
were so impressed that they'll be
the next generation of rock stars.