25 October 2024
Dear Parents, Guardians and Students/Annwyl Rhieni, Gwarchodwyr a Myfyrwyr
Show Racism the Red Card
Last Friday, members of our school community embraced the ‘Wear Red’ day, raising awareness of the impact of racism and the work undertaken by the organisation ‘Show Racism the Red Card.’ https://www.theredcard.org/ @theredcardwales #WRD24
It was great to see the school ablaze and united with such commitment, passion and energy.
Llanishen Lunch Delights and Young Enterprise!
Next today is a delicious update. Over the last half-term, our ASC students have started up a new Enterprise project which they named ‘Llanishen Lunch Delights.’ Students are involved in all aspects of the enterprise including deciding the name and designing a logo, using their IT skills to create poster to advertise the project, shopping for ingredients, making lunches for staff, delivering them around the school, and taking payments.
So far this year they have made smoothie bowls, butternut squash mac and cheese, roasted tomato soup and the ever popular Greek salad with homemade flat breads. The feedback from staff has been so positive and students’ life skills in shopping and cookery are continuing to develop every week. The Greek salad is so popular that they cannot seem to take it off the menu! We can’t wait to see the new menu for the next half-term.
It has been a privilege to drop in to the sessions in our professional kitchen. To see such refined knife skills, kneading, weighing and attention to detail is inspiring.
Year 12 visit to Cardiff University
This week was also an opportunity for some of our Year 12 students to visit Cardiff University for a tour and taster lectures to give them a flavour of university education. They also met university students and talked to them about what to expect from university life.
As one of our most important partners, we will be visiting the brilliant university staff and students again next half term to ensure that more of our students can experience university life for a day. We also look forward to visiting our alumni at Oxford University next term.
Year 12 get under the skin of the Cardiff Food bank
On Wednesday 23rd October our Year 12 students organised an incredibly informative visit to the Cardiff Foodbank in Splott. In their volunteer role on the Year 12 leadership development program work for the Welsh Baccalaureate they have been supporting the Rotary monthly collection for the Cardiff Foodbank. This was an invaluable opportunity to understand what happens to the donations that we make once they arrive at the depot.
We learnt that the Cardiff Foodbank was originally established in 2009 with the simple aim of getting food to people who were hungry. Fifteen years later their vision and mission has progressed significantly. With Poverty at its highest levels, their mission is to support and help people to get out of this need.
Their aim is not to simply give a bag of food but to support people to the point where they no longer need help.
They aim to understand what is taking place in someone’s life in order to break the cycle of poverty. They consider the guidance and knowledge they can provide to support people to become self sufficient and to provide for their family.
Their aim is to make their roles redundant. Indeed, they aim to make the need for a Foodbank redundant. Whilst they campaign for change, they are not in a position to make policy change.
Each month they distribute between15-18 tonnes of provisions. In the previous financial year they purchased 2% of this. Last year, they purchased 38% of this. This demonstrates how important it is that we continue to promote and support the monthly collections on our bus bays.
The Cardiff Foodbank relies on 220 volunteers to make it run. These volunteers carry out a wide range of activities and anyone over the age of 18 can volunteer.
Our tour of the facility was sobering. We now understand that a third of people who are recipients of the Foodbank packs are children. We saw that the most depleted stocks are snack items such as chocolate and crisps. One of their central beliefs is dignity. What is in our cupboards should reflect the food packages that they prepare. This has reinforced the need for us to pay careful attention to the information that the Foodbank provide about the items they most need.
We saw the care they take to ensure that all dietary requirements such as vegan, vegetarian and halal are respected. We now understand how an individual or family could be referred for a voucher for the Foodbank and the organisations that are able to refer. Also, the support that is provided that can include support with claiming the appropriate benefits and with budgeting.
We also witnessed how holistic the support is. The items that are provided include hygiene items, household cleaning items and pet food. This provision recognises the importance of having pride in your house/dwelling and your clothing. It recognises that people can find themselves in very difficult circumstances and need some reprieve to establish themselves.
Thank you to Ruben, Bella, Hope and Denise who are leading the work that we do with Rotary Club and Foodbank this year.
Life – A Story of Believing
This week, our school library embraced two copies of a very important/poignant/dignified book, ‘Life – A Story of Believing’ by Anna-Louise Bates. Who better to introduce the book into our library and place it proudly on our shelves, than Elizabeth.
Elizabeth was very proud to introduce the book to the LHS library and to share some of the photographs and stories with fellow library friends. Our student librarians didn’t waste a moment in applying their knowledge and skills to determine what classification would be applied and where it would be placed. We are so pleased to have copies in our library to provide support and hope and also to explore how life can challenge us to be resilient beyond anything we thought.
Goals galore!
Next today, we would like to congratulate our Year 11 boys on their 4-3 Cardiff Cup victory v Cathedral School. A fantastic team performance.
And a huge well done to the Year 7 football team for their 5-4 Welsh Cup victory V Corpus Christi. A hard fought victory and a special mention to Alicia Brody who was performed superbly and scored a fantastic goal. A future Welsh international in Mr Emanuels humble opinion!
Netball success!
It has also been a fantastic half-term of netball at LHS with lots of team success within the school. However, we have some individual success that needs to be celebrated!
Well done to Isla Grace Martin in Year 11 for securing a place in the U17 Cardiff Dragons Squad and Welsh Feathers Academy Squad. This is an amazing achievement and down to Islas pure grit, determination and resilience. Look out for her playing in the Netball Super league 2025!
Congratulations also to Amelie Langman in Year 9. Amelie has come so far in such a short space of time. Again, hard work and resilience has paid off and Amelie has made it into the Welsh U15 Academy, U14 Cardiff & The Vale County and Welsh regional Squads! You are going to be a very busy lady 😊
We are also incredibly impressed with Maja Mach in Year 9. Maja has made huge amounts of progress over the last year, fully cementing herself as a reliable and valuable player in the defensive circle.
A monumental shift in attitude has been noted by the PE department and we are extremely proud of the player she is developing into.
Making the u14 Cardiff & The Vale County team is a fantastic achievement and we have no doubt she will continue to thrive and develop.
Isabell Allen is only in Year 8 and has achieved so much in netball already! There is much more to come with this young lady. This year she has secured a place in the U14 Cardiff & The Vale Netball Squad a year early. She will definitely be following in the footsteps of her older peers within the school. She is also a very talented swimmer and has recently won gold in her event of 200m freestyle and bronze in the 100m at the Greater Gwent swimming gala last weekend!
Finally, massive congratulation to Poppy Plant. at 14 Poppy has achieved so much and is juggling daily training and making personal sacrifices to maintain high standards in her school work. Poppy is the youngest player to be selected for Cardiff Dragons U17 squad. She has also been selected for U15 Wales National Academy and Regional Academy and the U16 County team. This is a huge achievement after only 2 years of playing club netball.
We would like to wish all the girls’ good luck over the coming netball season and are looking forward to hearing about how you get on. The future is bright for you all!!
Finally today, as we ease gently into the October half-term break, let us offer you an alternative to hacking away at a tough old pumpkin.
This week, getting into the spirit of Halloween, Mr Denison-Kurg’s form have been busy making wickedly delicious creations. They have been carving fruit into scary faces while enjoying a healthy snack! These may be the best ones yet, never before have we seen a pineapple turned into an octopus!
All that remains is for me to wish our readers a very happy and healthy half-term break.
Don’t forget to adjust your watches on Sunday morning.
We look forward to welcoming everyone back on Monday 4th November.
Thank you for reading/Diolch am ddarllen,
Mrs Sarah Parry, Headteacher