13 January 2023
Dear Parents, Guardians and Students/Annwyl Rieni,Gwarchodwyr a Myfyrwyr
Back with a BANG!
It’s great to be back after what felt like a long and luxurious break! Despite the shock to the system of the early morning alarm and horrendous weather, our students are to be commended on the energy and engagement that they invested in the Impact Days that propelled us into 2023.
As part of the ‘Good Health and Well-being’ topic that Year 7 have been studying in their Health and Well-being curriculum lessons, they have already learnt to prepare a healthy breakfast muffin and stir fry lunch. Therefore, we thought it was time to prepare a healthy dinner-pitta bread pizza.
Over the last two days, students have carried out market research on the classes’ favourite pizza toppings, designed their own pizza and pizza box logo, worked out the cost of ingredients to make their pizza, designed a step-by-step guide of how to make the pizza, and finally made the delicious end product.
Alongside making the pizza, students carried out 4 different types of physical activity to make sure they understand how to keep active and lead a healthy lifestyle. Fun was had by all as they threw themselves into each activity with gusto.
This calls for a montage and round up of the two days activities….
Even the staff got involved with the pizza box challenge!
Time to burn off some post-Christmas energy in a range of different ways….
Meanwhile, our Year 8 and 9 learners returned to a series of informative sessions based around Sex and Relationships Education. In the sessions, important topics were explored such as consent, healthy relationships and gender and sexuality. A number of external agencies were involved in delivering the workshops, including NSPCC, Brook, Cardiff and Vale Drugs and Alcohol Service, Spectrum, South Wales Police and Inspirational Futures. We would like to thank everyone involved for their superb efforts over the course of the two days, as well as our students who engaged so well throughout.
Year 10 embraced their Welsh Baccalaureate qualification and made good progress on their community project.
Year 11 were nothing short of impeccable in their behaviour, attitude, and approach to their GCSE English Literature exam this week. Once completed, they immediately applied themselves to preparing for their Science GCSE practical that is fast approaching. They then received the results of their November exam series on Thursday. It has been an intense but focused week for them and has set the tone for the term ahead. As a year group, they have already secured a very strong set of outcomes that should rightly spur them on through the term ahead. Here was the anxious moment on Thursday afternoon as they received their envelopes. They have every reason to be proud of the contents.
Also, this week Year 12 caught up on essential Advanced Welsh Baccalaureate work, and Year 13 focused on their UCAS applications and preparation. Overall, a very productive start to 2023.
Chefs of the future!
Next today, we would like to congratulate Megan Lawley (Year 9) and Lily Burt (Year 10) who competed this week in the Spring Board Future Chefs competition. This is a programme that inspires the UK’s 11-16 year olds to cook and understand nutrition, sparking potential careers. After an amazing performance at Bridgend College they have each won a place in the next regional heat in February. They competed against older Year 11 students making pasta and ravioli, so it was a tough competition, but they thoroughly deserved the win that was judged by professional chefs.
The feedback was phenomenal. The professionals said that Lily’s dish was the best overall dish in terms of a rounded balanced meal. They also said that Megan showed fantastic confidence and her seasoning was the best overall. One of the judges said that he would eat her dish in a restaurant! He also said that if they wanted to go into catering later on after school he would employ any of them.
The chefs awarded them a cookbook and a certificate and will be coming to LHS to spend a morning mentoring the girls prior to the next round. We will be willing you on!
New Year’s Resolutions
If you are looking for a challenge to spur you through January, then look no further. LHS is proud to have a growing team of participants (staff, students, and parents) taking part in this years’ Doddie Aid challenge.
Doddie Aid is a virtual mass-participation exercise event founded by former Scotland captain, Rob Wainwright, that lasts for 6 weeks from 1 January 2023. Any exercise counts, with the winning district being the one with the most miles at the end of the event. All participants also receive a free snood for taking part.
The event raises funds for My Name’5 Doddie Foundation which invests in research to find meaningful treatments for Motor Neuron Disease (MND).
Over the last 2 years, the event has seen over 30,000 participants cover 4 million miles and raise over £2 million for the Foundation.
If you download the App and the join the district of Wales, you will find our LHS team!
I look forward to bringing you more news and updates next week as the term really starts to bed in.
Thank you for reading/Diolch am ddarllen,
Mrs Sarah Parry, Headteacher