20 February 2025
Dear Parents, Guardians and Students/Annwyl Rhieni, Gwarchodwyr a Myfyrwyr
LHS at the BBC!
Last week, Mrs Cumpstone and her Key Stage 4 Music students enjoyed a fantastic trip to the Millennium Centre to watch the BBC NOW rehearsing for their upcoming concert. Our students were absolutely fantastic, incredibly polite and respectful, following theatre etiquette perfectly! They really represented the school well and we had lots of positive feedback from the staff there. They did the school proud!
They visited Hoddinott Hall at the Wales Millennium Centre where they watched the BBC National Orchestra of Wales rehearsing for their upcoming concert of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 6.
The students not only got to sit in on the rehearsal – seeing how musicians practice, tune instruments, and rehearse within an orchestra setting – but they also got to meet the players in a Q+A session afterwards. Students talked to the performers to find out more about career paths in Music, as well as learning about how an orchestra functions.
The session was conducted by Ryan Bancroft, the lead conductor of the BBC NOW. The piece they experienced was incredibly expressive and dramatic, encouraging and inspiring students for future performances.
Well done everyone – an inspiring experience!
Before we move away from the area of Music, let us once again return to our Subject Leader for Music, Mr Grimstead, to share his top 5 love songs! Last week, we asked you to try and guess any of his top 5. And now, we can reveal them, along with his reasons for selecting them! Enjoy!
- Jason Mraz ‘I Won’t Give Up’ – We sang this with Senior Choir last year, leading to a really moving performance at the Christmas Concert. It has beautiful lyrics and lush harmony in the chorus. It was also performed by close friends at my wedding ceremony so means a lot to me.
- Otis Redding ‘Try a Little Tenderness’ – A classic soul number, starting off incredibly delicately and then gradually building to a powerful final chorus.
- Extreme ‘More Than Words’ – A song from the 90s with really interesting harmonies and lovely acoustic guitar accompaniment. It was also one of the first songs that I learned to play on the guitar.
- Eva Cassidy ‘Songbird’– a cover of the Fleetwood Mac classic. Eva Cassidy’s almost haunting voice steals the show and includes a really understated and effective electric guitar solo. If you like this, her ‘Live From Blues Alley’ album is also well worth a listen.
- Gregory Porter ‘Consequence of Love’ – In March 2022 I was lucky to take our sixth form singers to the Millennium Centre to perform in Michael Ball’s Showtime concert, which was aired on BBC. Also, on the bill that night was one of my favourite artists, Gregory Porter. He has such a distinctive voice and has incredible stage presence.
So, there we go! We conclude our spotlight on love songs and thank Mr Grimstead for his recommendations. I wonder who we will ask next Valentines?!
An introduction to your Senior Prefect Team for 2025-26
We are delighted to introduce you to our newly elected Senior Prefect Team for the year ahead. They will be taking whole school assemblies in March to make sure their faces and their role in school life is visible to the wider student body that they represent.
They will be representing the student body on the sub-committees and full governing body meetings where they have a regular agenda slot for pupil voice. They will be involved in the staff recruitment processes that take place in preparation for September 2025. They have functions to perform around the school. And most importantly, they are key influencers and drivers for positive change.
A rather important visitor with rather important powers!
On Friday 14th February we were absolutely delighted to welcome a very important person, Mr Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England (and his wonderful entourage).
It is not often that we host a VIP who holds the power to change interest rates!
However, when Mr Bailey is visiting cities around the UK, he always visits a school. He makes approximately 12 of these visits per year, so we were delighted to provide him with an audience of 50 of our curious A-Level Economics students. Understandably, some of our teachers of Economics and Business Studies also wangled an invite!
The students were ready with some insightful questions. They certainly maximised the opportunity to dig deep into the powers and responsibilities that come with the role, and the challenges faced by the current unstable world order. Their questions included:
- How does the Bank of England assess and manage financial stability risks, particularly in light of global uncertainties and financial market volatility?
- The Bank of England has halved its economic growth forecast from 1.5% – 0.75% for the 2025 year. Could you elaborate on the reasons for this despite interest rates being the lowest they’ve been for 18 months, and what strategies are in place to promote growth?
- Does the Bank of England leverage artificial intelligence and big data analytics to influence monetary policy decision making, and if so, how?
- Looking back, is there a particular policy decision you made that stands out as a learning experience either because it was better than expected or because it didn’t go to plan?!
It won’t come as any surprise that Mr Bailey answered each and every question in substantial detail. He gave the students a real insight into the volatility of global markets and the deep impact of recent global events. He also gave a real insight into the passion he has for shaping policy. It was an absolutely privilege to listen to him speak. Also, I was intrigued by the number of people in the room who have invested in crypto currency in some form!
As a visitor to Wales, Mr Bailey was very keen to learn about our school context. He did, however, mention the rugby. We swiftly changed the subject.
He left our students with a final task. 8 shredded £50 notes. And when I say ‘shredded’, I mean ‘SHREDDED!’ If any of our students have the patience and diligence, this would amount to £400 of legal tender! I’ll keep you posted.
A sustainability challenge!
We now move from our A-level Year 12 and 13 Economics students, to our future year 7 intake! I do love a blog that spans such a range of activity.
Pupils from Pontprennau Primary School have been collecting plastic bottle tops at school. When the girls came to LHS for our Open Evening in the autumn term, they noticed that we recycle plastics, and they asked to carry out a project with us to collect the bottle tops and turn them into something new.
The classes in Pontprennau have been competing to see who collects the most. The winning class got to bring their collection to Llanishen to make a winner’s trophy out of the plastic!
The girls thoroughly enjoyed their trip to Llanishen to see how it all works! They were able to experience the 3D printer, laser cutter and the other LHS students working in the room. It gave them a glimpse of the opportunities that await them. As they walked through the school our LHS students gave them a warm and smiling welcome.
We would like to thank Pontprennau for coming up with an innovative idea, and for coming to visit. We look forward to seeing you again soon!
This blog lands with you a day early. Which is a timely reminder that Friday 21st February is an INSET day.
We look forward to welcoming everyone back on Monday 3rd March, and I have no doubt that Blog 304 will be teeming with our next news and adventures.
Until then, we wish all members of our school community a very happy and healthy half-term break.
Thank you for reading/Diolch am ddarllen,
Mrs Sarah Parry, Headteacher