27 June 2024
Dear Parents, Guardians and Students/Annwyl Rhieni, Gwarchodwyr a Myfyrwyr
This week is a Geographers delight! We bring you urban planning, sustainability as well as educational exploits to St Fagans and Bletchley Park. Lots to enjoy…..
Urban planning!
On Monday 17th June, Geographers from Year 10, 11 and 12 were invited to take part in an UrbanPlan workshop. Run by the Urban Land Institute (ULI), the workshop helps young people understand the role real estate plays in reviving and regenerating urban areas.
Focused on the redevelopment of a blighted site in a hypothetical town, students were grouped into teams to form real estate development companies responding to a call for proposals from a fictional City Authority. The teams had to address challenging financial, market, social, political, and design issues to develop a model of their plan, which they then had to pitch to industry experts.
Six students have been selected to attend the Celebration Event in London on the 16th July – a fantastic opportunity! A big thank you to all involved, the industry experts from Legal and General, Rene, Simon and Tom, who gave up their time to share their expertise and provide an insight into different career pathways. Also to Richard and Carla for delivering the workshop with such enthusiasm. Most importantly, the students for thoroughly engaging with the workshop and expressing their ideas confidently and articulately – it was a pleasure to be involved! Miss Geare was exceptionally proud of you. Here are a few more snaps of the teams in action…
Geographers out in force!
After the success of the Monday day, the Geographers were out in force on Monday Evening They took 6 students to Cardiff University’s School of Geography and Planning to compete in the Geographical Association Welshwise Quiz.
Although we didn’t win this year, the students put in a tremendous effort. If participating in the quiz was not exciting enough, it took place in a very ornate room where a scene from Doctor Who was filmed, which brought much joy for William Lynch!
Well done Team LHS!
Bletchley Park adventures…
History and Mathematics joined forces last week to run their inaugural annual trip to Bletchley Park! It was very fitting that they were able to honour the LGBTQ+ hero Alan Turing during Pride Month!
It was a beautiful day out with our A Level students studying Maths, Computer Science, Digi-Tech and History and a handful of fantastic Year 10 pupils!
Bletchley Park was the venue where Alan Turing (along with many other geniuses) cracked the Enigma code pioneering the technology to decrypt Nazi Germany’s secret communications during World War II.
Here is the Bombe, the machine that brought efficiency to codebreaking and can be seen in action in the film “The Imitation Game”
The students also had the opportunity to explore and try to use the old technology
The weather was perfect, sunny but not too hot, with a gentle breeze that made walking around the historic site really enjoyable. The staff reported that they felt like they were stepping back in time, surrounded by lush green lawns and beautiful old buildings filled with old equipment. Seeing the actual machines they used, like the Bombe and the Colossus, was incredible. It really brought to life how maths was used to solve real-world problems and how these breakthroughs laid the foundations for modern computer science.
After a busy time investigating they deserved some relaxation in the sun!
Special commendation from the Tree Council of Wales
This week Mrs Brown and Mrs Leon took some of our Year 7 and 8 students to St Fagans, where we had been invited as an Ambassador School to perform in the Tree Council Young Tree Champions Festival. Our students performed to an audience about the importance of nature, trees and how we can make a difference.
The Tree Council have loaded our work onto their own YouTube channel. We also got the chance to meet one of last years Great British Bake Off contestants, Abi, who works with the tree council. Unfortunately, she hadn’t brought any bakes with her!
Llanishen High School has been presented with a special commendation from the Tree Council, which was presented at the festival. Our students were the stars of the show, even if we do say so ourselves, and did us all proud!
University taster day!
On Thursday 20th June Year 12 attended a university taster day at Cardiff Met. They could choose two sessions from a number available including Media and Communications, Sports, Education, Sociology and Social Policy, Business, Visual Collage Making, Textiles, Tourism and English and Creative Writing. Whilst this might not have catered to everyone’s current career choices, students got to experience different teaching styles and how life as a university student might feel. Some students also used this as an opportunity to try a subject they had not previously considered as a degree.
Couch to 5K!
Over the last week, Luke from Hub 2 and all of Hub 1 completed the Couch to 5K challenge! The staff in the ASC base are so proud of them!
A massive shout out to Codey Warren, one of our Year 11 leavers who started the programme only being able to walk. His positive attitude meant his fitness improved and the group were delighted to have him with them for all of their final runs. He injured his hand during the last run but chose to continue. What a hero! A big thank you to staff in the ASC base who have come on these runs and encouraged the students so brilliantly.
Naturally, we want to see their jubilant celebrations!
An update from the world of Track and Field
If the couch to 5k has inspired you, then get out in the fresh air! And we finish today with great news from Track and Field.
5 teams from LHS have qualified for the Cardiff and Vale Schools finals.
Both boys and girls under 14 (years 7/8) teams, and the under 16 (years 9/10) girls, will compete in the A finals. The Under 16 boys team are through to the B final, as well as the under 14 boys B team.
The finals will be held at the Cardiff International Sports Campus (Leckwith) Athletics track, between 13:00 and 17:00, on Thursday 27th June (timetable below). The top 2 teams in each A final will progress to represent the district in the Welsh schools cup final in July.
A full round up of summer track and field performances will follow in a few weeks.
Our ongoing thanks go to Mr Tony Gill for his unrelenting energy and dedication to the hard graft and training that sits behind events like today.
This week has been a busy one, and next week is looking very similar. I look forward to bringing you more news and updates.
Thank you for reading/Diolch am ddarllen,
Mrs Sarah Parry, Headteacher