21 March 2024
Dear Parents, Guardians and Students/Annwyl Rhieni, Gwarchodwyr a Myfyrwyr
Couch to 5K!
Back in January 2024 (when many of us were setting healthy resolutions), our Hub 1 and Hub 2 classes in the ASC base decided to set themselves a physical fitness challenge for their ASDAN project and wanted to be able to run 3km.
To start, they timed themselves to see how long they could run for continuously, but they were all a little disappointed with how quickly they got tired and were frustrated with their times.
Fear not. Our resilient Hub crew are always up for a challenge and started going for weekly Couch to 5K runs with Ms Hall every Friday. Students followed timers and completed run/walk intervals which got more challenging every week. During their first run, the students ran around the redgra a couple of times and achieved a distance of 1.26km.
Each week, they have engaged brilliantly in runs around the community, exploring different parts of their local area such as the green belt and Llanishen park. Base staff cannot believe the progress their students have made! Their last run was an incredible 3.5km! No one has complained about the rain and lots of them have experienced the “runner’s high” and are desperate to know if they have run further than the previous week. Some of the team have been so inspired by their weekly runs that they have been doing running activities in their free time at home. We are incredibly proud. Da iawn team Hub!
Hopefully, their progress will encourage us all to get out and about in the fresh air over the Easter break.
If you’ve got the 5k running bug, how about a full marathon?!
On Sunday 21st April, Mr Prince will be running the London marathon (a gentle 26 mile route taking in some of the most famous landmarks in the city including Buckingham Palace, The Cutty Sark, Tower Bridge and Canary Wharf). Mr Prince is running to raise money for the Air Ambulance UK. A wise recommendation from his nan! I know he will be extremely grateful for any donations. Every penny counts. Here is the link to his campaign page…have a nose and maybe sponsor him a few pennies!
Sponsor Mr Prince
Cluster Eisteddfod Concert!
Our annual Eisteddfod concert evening took place in Llanishen High School on the evening of the 13th of March. This is our first concert to take place since 2019. The evening was a huge success and celebrated the talent of students from Llanishen High school and also some of our feeder primary schools including; Ton Yr Ywen Bryn Celyn, Thornhill and Glyncoed.
We heard some fabulous Welsh songs being sung from the choirs from Ton Yr Ywen and Bryn Celyn. There were also some excellent recitations and musical performances during the evening from Thornhill and Glyncoed.
There were some amazing performances by all the students involved and it was a pleasure to watch. Mr Mee was a fabulous host and it was wonderful to see the current and future talent of Llanishen High School. Many thanks to our Welsh and Expressive Arts teams for their co-ordination.
World Book Day Winners!
We are also delighted to celebrate our WBD winners, starting with our Extreme Reading Challenge!! Joseph Mortlock in Year 7 took 1st place. Jenny Long in Year 7 took 2nd place and Daniel Micklewright in Year 7 took 3rd place. I’m sure you will agree that they really did excel themselves!
Congratulations also go to Jibrael Khan and Youssef Mankoor in Year 8 for taking first and second place in the Murder Mystery scavenger hunt! Excellent detective skills on show there.
Also, congratulation to the winners of the Murder Mystery story competition. In first place was Blake Davies in Year 9. In second place was Tanya Saadallah in Year 8. In third place was William and Daniel Lynch in Year 8. Well done all!
As part of the celebrations, we also enjoyed some sessions with visiting author, Luke Palmer. The students who were involved in the author session were absolutely amazing. They had a great experience with Luke, who pushed them to create a short sensory piece for fiction. Their pieces were so imaginative.
Lego success!
We love hearing about the hobbies and interests of our students outside of school and this week is no exception. It was great to hear from Ananmay Banerjee in Year 9. Along with his team, Ananmay won a Lego competition last week. Ananmay and his team designed a Lego robot which was connected via blue tooth with a coding program (which they had created themselves) on a laptop.
The program remotely directed the robot to accomplish multiple tasks with multiple Lego models on a pre-designed mat, all within a time limit of 3 minutes. Besides this, they also needed to present to the judges an ‘innovation project’ idea using power point and charts. The theme was how to help communities via technology.
There were multiple rounds and they were judged on robot design, robot performance, core values, presentation skills, team binding and helping other teams in the venue. They won two awards (including the overall best team) in the regional competition beating 9 other teams. They will now participate in the Nationals next month in London. It has been a remarkable journey of preparation and hard work since last September.
We wish Ananmay and his team every success for London! In the meantime, here are some photographs from their adventures so far….
Anyone for Welsh Club?
Next today, we have a very exciting invitation that comes to us from Alan Nazemi in Year 7. In his own words…
“Want to have fun while learning another language? Join our haven of a Welsh Club!
You will have a wide variety of choice! So far in the last 3 sessions, we’ve played computer games such as Blooket. We have also played Bingo yn Gymraeg a Scrabble Cymraeg.
You could learn extravagant words such as
‘Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch’ (a village in the Isle of Anglesey!) and many more.
But don’t be bemused, if you actually attend the club and try and learn, you could win prizes such as siocled, losin a rhai reward notes (5 merits).
Dewch i ymuno a ni! (Come and join us!)
Ystafell 1 bob Dydd Mercher ar ôl yr ysgol.
Room 1 every Wednesday after school.
Dewch i gael hwyl a sbri!
Come and have fun!”
A sustainable exchange!
Last Friday, we were delighted to give out motivational cupcakes and revision packs to Year 11. If they weren’t passing their blazer down to a younger family member, Year 11 were invited to donate their blazer so that it can be laundered and repurposed through our uniform store. It was a huge success and has presented us with a very positive laundry challenge! It was also a sobering reminder of the looming exam series. Armed with their revision materials, we wish Year 11 (and our other examination year groups) a purposeful Easter break with revision and wellbeing activities in balance.
Congratulations to all of our students and staff on a very successful spring term 2024.
We wish you all a very happy and healthy Easter break.
We look forward to welcoming everyone back to school on Monday 8th April.
Thank you for reading/Diolch am ddarllen,
Mrs Sarah Parry, Headteacher