F l i n t T i m e sA p r i l 2 0 1 4

The milestone council decision safeguarding sixth formeducation in Flint is a victory for people power. Thethreatened sixth-form partnership between Flint HighSchool and St Richard Gwyn Catholic High School hadbeen earmarked for the chop as part of a county-widepost-16 education shake up, but on Tuesday 18thMarch, it was saved from closure after council cabinetmembers voted to retain the facility. The decisionfollowed protests, almost 1,000 consultation responses,and a 400-name petition calling for our partnership –called “6” – to remain.

The sixth-form partnership has been threatened byplans for a separate post-16 educational hub to be builtin Connah’s Quay. It is proposed to serve pupils of sixthform age from Holywell, Shotton, Queensferry andConnah’s Quay. Sixth-formers from Flint had been dueto go there too, but cabinet members have confirmedthat they thought the two post-16 centres can co-exist.“It is important that we give the schools more time todemonstrate what can be achieved,” said Cllr AaronShotton, leader of Flintshire Council.

Flintshire Council received more than 1,550 responsesto the public consultation on the Flint specificproposals, which ended in January.

Despite the landmark vote, the partnership will still besubject to annual review after council chief executiveColin Everett said the scheme “is not without risk”. “It isimportant not to set the two schools up to fail,” he said.“We will work with the schools to ensure sustainability.”

Andrea Roberts, chair of governors, said she felt reliefand elation. “Everyone involved in the campaign in

both schools,including ourlocalcouncillors,can becongratulatedin helpingsecure thispositiveoutcome,” shesaid.

I must paytribute to thestrength offeeling in thecommunity,which hashelped savethe facility.Since its

launch in September 2013, the sixth form studentshave been very happy with the provision and we havemore students than ever registered for the nextacademic year. I personally have been overwhelmedby the strength of feeling in the community. We arevery grateful to the cabinet of Flintshire Council fortaking this important decision and for giving bothschools the opportunity to make the partnership asuccess.

We say a sad farewell to Miss Ellis, who has been anoutstanding Maths teacher and more recentlyAssistant Headteacher in charge of data andnumeracy. We will all miss her. We welcome MissEdge who is currently working at King Alfred’s School,Somerset. She will join the Maths team after Easter.

I would like to wish all the parents and students a veryHappy Easter. We have Easter school for year 11.School re-opens on Tuesday 22nd April.

Good luck to all our students taking exams thissummer!

Students were enthralled during an inspirational visitfrom one of the country’s top lawyers. Dame ElishAngiolini, QC, spent a day at the school talking tostudents across all year groups about her life, theprogression of her career and the importance of selfbelief to achieving success. Her sister, Anne Weale,works as a learning coach at Flint High and helpedco-ordinate the special visit as part of the school’songoing strategy to raise students’ aspirations.With an illustrious career and numerous honoursbestowed upon her over the years, she wasappointed Dame Commander of the Order of theBritish Empire (DBE) in the 2011 Birthday Honours forservices to the administration of justice.

She explained how, coming from a poor workingclass background and growing up in a high crimeneighbourhood of Glasgow, she hated school andhad to be dragged there by her elder sister, Anne.Dame Elish stressed the importance for young peopleof finding and developing something they arepassionate about which, for her, was tap dancing.Although completely unrelated to her later career, asshe grew to excel in this her self esteem rose and herlife began to change. She joined a debating societyand her school work improved dramatically, despitesuffering from a mild form of dyslexia.Throughout she spoke about the warmth and love ofher family and how they worked hard to ensure theygot a good education as they recognised that thiswas the route out of poverty.At just seventeen she filled out grant forms for herparents and neighbours to have new roofs andwindows and even helped a blind elderly lady tohave carpet fitted in her home, overturning adecision by the council to lay vinyl which could proveslippery and a danger to a blind person.The family fell victim to numerous burglaries losingwhat little they had and the whole neighbourhood

lived in fear of attack. This fuelled her desire to pursue acareer in law and a passion to see justice brought uponthe perpetrators of crime.After completing her studies at the University ofStrathclyde, she joined the Crown Office and ProcuratorFiscal Service to train as a Procurator Fiscal, or publicprosecutor. She rapidly rose through the ranks tobecome the first woman to hold the post of RegionalProcurator Fiscal for Grampian, Highland and Islands. In2001 she was appointed Solicitor General for Scotlandand in 2006 became the country’s first female LordAdvocate, a post she held until stepping down followingthe Scottish Parliament elections in 2011. After thirtyyears as a barrister and QC she was approached for hercurrent position, Principal of St. Hugh’s College, Oxford.

Sixth formers from the new sixth formpartnership listened to an illuminatingpresentation about Dame Elish’s “life in crime”which reflected on her career journey includingsome of the cases she has worked on. In additionto the legal profession, she described the myriadof occupations involved in solving crimes thatoffer fascinating career opportunities within thefield.In the afternoon, she spoke to the top achievingstudents in years 7 through to 11 saying that “youhave the power to become whatever you want tobe” and “not to limit your expectations”. JessPeters, Year 9, said:”Listening to Dame Elish hasbeen amazing and it’s really changed the way Ithought about Oxford too. I thought you had to

be rich to go there but that’s not the case. If you have apassion for what you do and the right grades, it’s allpossible.”Mrs McClean, headteacher, thanked Dame Elish forgiving her time and said:”As a school we know howimportant it is for our students to feel confident in orderto realize their full potential. To have a visitor asprestigious as Dame Elish spending an entire day with usis a privilege. Dame Elish dispels the myth that you haveto come from a particular background to get intoOxbridge. At St. Hugh’s College, state school studentslike ours are encouraged to apply and there arescholarships available.”“It’s been wonderful for our students to have thisexperience and we’re very thankful to Dame Elish forvisiting us today.”Dame Elish said:”This is a great school and I have reallyenjoyed talking to the students both in groups andindividually during the day. The sixth formers areexcellent role models and mentors for the youngerstudents, helping to raise their aspirations which is soimportant for all the students here. We’d like to extend aspecial welcome for students to visit and stay at St.Hugh’s College to have a taste of what life is like as anOxbridge student. If my visit has changed the way oneyoung person thinks about their future, it has beenworthwhile.”

After nearly seven years of working at Flint HighSchool it is finally time for me to say good bye! Forthose of you who don’t know, I’m moving toNorthampton and will be starting a new job after theEaster holidays.I first came to Flint High School to teach maths as anewly qualified teacher in September 2007. It’s hardto believe that I’ve worked here now for nearly aquarter of my life (7/30ths to be exact!)I have enjoyed every day being a part of ‘Team Flint’,working with amazing staff and students. I have beenvery lucky that I have had the chance to work with arange of different teachers, students and friends ofFlint High School: Taking part in the Christmas CarolServices and playing with the band for ‘TheBoyfriend’; Being a form tutor to some fantasticstudents in 7 / 8RE (now Year 11) and 7-2 / 8-2 withMrs Smith (now year 13); Playing various netballmatches against the sixth form; working with the MrsMorris and Mrs Whitley as part of the Data Team andworking on the Leadership Team with Mrs McCleanand co! However, I do have some particular highlightswhich I would like to take a moment to reflect furtherupon.Running the London Marathon in 2012 with MrsSmith and the support and fundraising of the entireschool was an incredible experience. We raised over£4000 for CRY and around 50% of that money wasraised by staff and students from Flint High School(How much money is this?). Indeed, the only reason Ieven considered running a marathon was becausemy Secret Santa bought me a marathon runningmagazine for Christmas in 2009! Being so verycompetitive I couldn’t get this challenge out of myhead – and I have since run 3 full marathons inChester, London and New York (at 26.2 miles permarathon and around 100 miles in training for each

one, can you work estimate the total distance?) I stilldon’t know which member of staff bought my present

that year – but thankyou Secret Santa, Iwouldn’t have done itwithout you!Going on the schoolskiing trips isdefinitely up therewith my all timefavourite holidays!Thank you to MrSpearpoint fororganising suchwonderfulopportunities – if youhaven’t yet been, youreally should give it a

go! Again, never one to shy away from a challenge, why Iagreed to ski off the roof of a house, I’m not quite sure!Seeing ‘that video’ being played in assembly will staywith me for a very long time. Any chance you canestimate my projection angle from the photo?!

However, most of my time has been spent in the Mathsdepartment which I will miss very much indeed,especially working with Mrs Williams, Miss Hewitt, MsGrandy (who taught me everything I know aboutteaching Maths!) and more recently, Miss Harbour. I haveenjoyed every moment of teaching Mathematics andNumeracy to all my classes here. I hope that I havemanaged to inspire all the students that I have taughtand more than anything; enabled them to improve andgain confidence in their Mathematics.I wish all of you the best of luck for the future. I shallnever forget my time here at Flint High School and lookforward to hearing all the news. I would especially like towish the best of luck to my year 10 and 11 classes whom Ihave taught for a very long time now and will be takingtheir GCSE exams this summer. Do your best, I know youcan do it! (PS Top exam tip – beware of the negatives!)

Recently, in the Learning Zone, we were luckyenough to have a second visit from Martin Daws, theYoung People’s Poet Laureate for Wales. This time hebrought Francesca Simmons, a Creative Violinist, andshe and Martin came to put on a Cross-Art Formworkshop based on the works of Dylan Thomas.Students from years 7, 8 and 9 had a very interestingday and by the end of the session had written theirown poem, set to music.

They called it “Symphony of Our Minds”. It was inspiredby Dylan Thomas’ work “Portrait of the Artist as a YoungDog”.Their composition was recorded and Francescaaccompanied their lines of poetry with her violin whilestudents played percussion instruments. Their finishedpiece can be found at:http://www.developingdylan100.co.uk/cross-art-form/work-from-school

A lifelong dream has come true for a sixth formstudent. Since the tender age of just five, HarryMoore, now 16, has known exactly what he wantedto do when he grew up. He longed for a life workingaboard some of the biggest ships in the world andearlier this year he joined the Merchant Navy as anofficer!Not wanting to forget his friends at Flint High School,Harry sends regular updates about his new life afloat.The full account can be read at:http://www.flinthighschool.co.uk/news_and_events/news/detail/?nId=137

On Friday 21st of March I spent 24 hours in anemergency life raft, as shown below, to raise moneyfor the charity sail 4 cancer.The link below will take you to the page with fulldetails.http://www.sail4cancer.org/warsash-liferaft-harryVisit the school web site for more pictures and to findout how Harry got on.

People are still talking about the fascinating andspine tingling musical spectacular “Sweeney Todd”,which was recently performed by students at theschool last month.The musical thriller tells the tale of Sweeney Todd,known as the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, a truestory and a powerful adaptation of the original TonyAward winning production by Stephen Sondheimand Hugh Wheeler.Set in 19th century England, the musical follows thestory of Benjamin Barker, aka Sweeney Todd, playedby Wrongly accused of committing

a crime, he isseekingrevengeagainst thosewho separatedhim from hiswife and child.Todd sets uphis barberbusinessabove MrsLovett’s pieshop and soonrevenge turnsto murder.Prompted byMrs Lovett, thegruesome tale

unfolds as he cuts the throats of customers, and hisvictims become fresh ingredients for her pies.The talented cast of twenty students performed ahost of songs including

and showcasing the stunningvocal talents of the students. The costumes, propsand backdrops were all made by the Performing Artsdepartment, ably guided by the school TheatreTechnician, Josh Jones, to authentically represent theera and the dark plot of the musical.Olivia Tattum, Curriculum Coordinator for PerformingArts said:”The show was incredible! The students puthours and hours of rehearsal time in after school andat weekends to make sure everything was perfect,and their timing was impeccable. Mitchell, whoplayed the lead, watched the film countless times toget into the character. I am very proud of them all!”Mrs Schofield, Vice-Chair of Governors, said she wasmoved by the strength and depth of the portrayal ofthe characters. “This was, without a shadow of doubt,the best production yet.”

One of the country’s best-selling ghostwriters andauthors visited Flint High School to talk to studentsabout his work.Martin Roach has written in excess of 130 books,including twelve best sellers, on music, celebrity,sport, film, youth culture and, indulging his passionfor fast cars, the first book ever on the supercar, theBugatti Veyron.As a ghostwriter he is commissioned to write booksfor high profile individuals working closely withthem to write their life story. Through listening andgetting to know his client, he relays their story intheir words and personal style, as well as dialect, sobecoming their ‘voice’.He was just 21 when he wrote his first book aboutthree local bands from his home town ofStourbridge. It became an instant hit with fans andsince those early days he has sold over 1.5 millioncopies of his books worldwide. Amongst theplethora of high profile names he has worked withare Olly Murs, The Wanted, Westlife, and DavidCoulthard.

Martin is one of a series of guest speakers invitedinto the school by Mrs Helen Jones, Sixth FormStudy Supervisor. She said: “We are keen to showour students what exciting opportunities there arein all walks of life. Martin's visit today is part of aprogramme designed for our sixth formers, whichwe were also able to share with younger studentsto raise their aspirations too.”During his visit he spoke to sixth form Englishstudents about his career and what his work as aghostwriter involves. Most days he writes 4,500words and often has very tight deadlines to workto, juggling several projects at the same time. Healso talked about the perks of the job such asdeveloping a rapport with some of the world’s

most famous people, and travelling abroad to fantasticplaces to catch up with them.In a separate session with the top achieving Year 9 and10 English students he talked about the importance oforiginality in writing to create a unique piece.With both groups he encouraged students to “have ago” and practise their writing be it a blog, e-magazine,or book review, to help develop their own style. Heemphasised how much easier it is in this digital worldto publish their material.Students participated in a question and answer sessionand afterwards Martin said:”From speaking to thestudents today I’m very impressed with the tools theyclearly already have and their openness to the idea ofthe use of language to develop a worthwhile career.It’s good to see their awareness of this type of workand to see their interest in it. I’ve really enjoyed theday.”Students also watched several video clips about hiswork including the story of how he came to fulfill hisdream of ghostwriting the Bugatti Veyron: A Quest forPerfection.Tommy Roberts, 14, said:”It’s been fascinating to getan insight into the writers behind the celebrities, andhe is such a cool, relaxed and down to earth person. Ienjoy writing short stories and I’ve really been inspiredby what I’ve learned today. I would be very interestedin ghostwriting and getting to meet really interestingpeople.”Sixth former Joe Cullen was moved to write:“We had a special guest at Flint High Sixth Form lastweek, Martin Roach, a number one best-sellingghostwriter. He arrived in a Porsche, which was animmediate clue to his success. In brief, a ghostwriter isa mercenary for the literary world. His mission is towrite and publish for a celebrity or band using hisremarkable skills in literature, and remain invisible tothe public eye, although he's more than happy to writeabout his own passion, fast cars!In fact, just about anything that he believes could beput into print, he will put into print. His thinking is, ifyou write one book, you might as well write a dozen.He also believes the key to being a good ghostwriter isto respectfully listen as his subjects reveal their livesand keep certain stories concealed from the hungrypublic!Martin has sold in the millions, and as mentionedabove, he has the car to prove it. His delivery wasconfident and he continued to engage the classthroughout his presentation. Martin’s lifestyle,company and car shone a new light on a career paththat the class hadn’t explored. Martin was humorousand illuminating and the class truly appreciated himgiving of his time in sharing this insight intoghostwriting with us all.”

Mr Bartlett writes:“Inter-House competition is going from strength tostrength, as more and more students take up thechallenge of defending the honour of theirrespective houses.There is a lot going on especially for Years 7 and 8across lots of subjects, whilst sports competitionscontinue to be run for whole school participation.Congratulations to all who took part in the recentInter-House dodge ball competition and a specialwell done to 7AR for Gobaith, 8LT for Gobaithagain and 9Mc for Cryf, successfully halting a cleansweep for Gobaith!”“Subject competitions coming up in the next fewweeks include ICT, English and Maths for Years 7sand 8, with football taking the place of dodge ballas the Inter-House sporting event for Years 8 – 10,with Inter-House tug-of-war just around thecorner!

On Friday 21st March, a special Sports Relief 6th

form basketball challenge event was very wellattended. Congratulations to all those who tookpart, especially the 6th form, who performed wellagainst the combined House teams. The 6th Formnarrowly managed to sneak a win against a staffteam. The staff, of course, had lots of injuries andwere not at full strength (says Mr Spearpoint). The6th form were of course helped by a fewquestionable referee decisions so I’m sure arematch will be arranged!We raised £155 for Sport Relief, so a Big Thank toall.

Congratulations to the following recent subjectwinners:Year 7 Humanities Competition Winners:

Winner : Megan Harmes (on the left of the picture),2nd: Owen Beddard-Jones and 3rd Annabel Jones - allrepresenting Gwir.Year 8 Art Competition Winners:

Back row (left to right): Kerian Roberts, Blane Breeze(Both Dewr), Jade Prout (Cryf) Katie Aldridge (Ffydd),Abbey Young (Cryf)

Front Row: Chole Doran (Ffydd), Charlie Roberts (Gwir)Jessica Davies (Cryf)

Year 8 Science Competition Winners:Back Row (left to right): Rebecca Collings (Gwir),Hannah Hopley (Ffydd), Taylor Garratt (Gobaith),James Edwards (Cryf)Front Row: Lisha Blount (Dewr), Natasha Holbrook(Ffydd)

Please make sure you represent your House and earnyour House some valuable points Help get yourHouse to be the first winner of the new

, which is being purpose built and willincorporate all 5 house colours. As an added bonus,you also get achievement points each time yourepresent your house!”

It’s been an exciting start to the year at Flint HighSchool with lots of activity on thefront!We will be featuring regularly in the Flint High SchoolNewsletter so it might be useful to start off bydescribing what is and the role of theSchool Council.

is the mechanism by which studentsparticipate in decision making and the planning andreviewing of any actions which might affect us, thestudents.The School Council is one way in which students aregiven a chance to express themselves.

This year we re-launched the School Council with abrand new structure to allow as many students toparticipate as possible but in a way that would allowdecisions to be made and put into place. We have awhole School Council with a Chair ( ),Vice Chair and Chair of the Lower School Council( ), Treasurer ( ), Secretary( , assisted by ) andtwo Associate Governors ( and

). The school council has representativesin every Form Group in the school so that we canmake sure everyone has an opportunity to make theirvoices heard. This year we also have five veryimportant focus groups;

, led by ,, led by ,, led by , ,

led by and, led by .

Finally we have the all important Prom Committee,which is busily helping organise Year 11 prom! Each

of these focus groups has a critical friend from the staff atthe school, who has volunteered to offer support.Thanks go out to Ms Fisher, Mr Spearpoint, Ms Hyde, MrStedman and Mr Bartlett for getting involved andhelping out!So what have we been up to?Training: We have had some excellent training this yearto get us off to a flying start. This allowed us torestructure ourselves and get to know each other as wellas develop some new skills such as team work andorganising and structuring meetings.Friday Feedback: Representatives from a year groupmeet with Mrs McClean to discuss all aspects of schoollife from the academic through to our thoughts on hair

and make-up! To date both year 11 and Year10 have had meetings. Next will be the turn ofYear 9.Interviews for new teachers: This year we haveappointed both a new maths and a geographyteacher. We sit on an interview panel and askthe questions that students want to askpotential new teachers. The feedback from theinterviewees has been very positive. For mostof them, being interviewed by students is anew experience and one which they reallyvalued. They felt it was an excellentopportunity to meet and talk to students andget a feel for what was important to us. Theycommented on how excellent our questionswere and how professional we were.We have two representatives, and

who meet regularly withstudents council members from other schools

in Wales. The second of those meetings took place hereat Flint High School on Friday, 14th March. The focus wasTeaching and Learning, which after all, that is why we areall here!

and have also had the first oftheir governor meetings and will be letting us knowwhat it’s like to attend a meeting next edition.Some of us also paid a visit to the Council Chambers atCounty Hall in Mold for “Question Time”. We submittedquestions just as you do on the TV programme and itgave us an opportunity to be involved in localdemocracy. We asked questions to the Leader of theFlintshire County Council, Aaron Shotton, and LifelongLearning’s lead member, Chris Bithell. We asked aquestion on why Flint High School’s 6th form is beingproposed for closure and we like to think that wecontributed towards Flint High School’s victory.We have run out of space but will bring you more newsand some updates on events in the next issue. On behalfof the school council,

In the half term of February a group of year eightswith a few year tens and a year eleven took a trip toFrance. Arriving at school at 4:15 in the morning onFriday 21st we set off for Dover, we boarded the ferryand set off for France at 12:10. When we docked inCalais, we got on the coach with our driver Nigel, anddrove to the Chateau du Broutel. When we arrived wewere put into groups and given a guided tour of theChateau. That evening our activity was "team games"and the competitiveness of certain people wasshown. We played rounders, the French version ofbulldogs and dodge ball, all while being ankle deepin slippery mud. The majority of us ended up beingcompletely head to toe in mud after either falling,being pushed or being involved in a mud fight. It wasamazing!

In the morning of the Saturday we were in our groupsand were shown around the Chateau while beingtold some very interesting stories and history aboutthe Chateau. One of our favourite stories was theelephant story, where a circus elephant named Nellyhad been killed on suspicion of killing a young boy(who turned out to be fine) and buried next to theChateau. We then went into the town of Rue -whichalso was full of interesting historic stories- where wegot to look around a French market and buysouvenirs while picking up some new French words.We also went into a cafe where we all used ourFrench to order different things.Over the course of the two full days we spent inFrance we completed four activities. They were;archery, fencing, orienteering and film making. Againsome people got extremely competitive. In thearchery we all played "the holiday game" in which thecloser we got to the centre, the better the holidaywould be. Some people were very good at it andothers ended up falling out with the instructor. Infencing we played in a circuit so everyone got to playeveryone, we learned all the basic fencing actionsand stances. In the film making we learned about

different camera techniques and put them into actionmaking different genre films. In orienteering, we were inteams and had to find the stampers located around theChateau, group 7 split into boys-vs-girls and the boystried to sabotage the girls efforts, but the girls beat themanyway- by a lot!On the Saturday evening we had French quiz night andwe were in teams of 5/6. We were quizzed in a riddleround, a drawing round, which was like Pictionary andturned out quite interesting thanks to certain drawings(Spiderman). Also a music round in which we all sangalong to the songs. The Mad- Hatters team ( the year 10's,year 11 and Callum from year 8) came out as the victorsand celebrated quite childishly.On the Sunday evening we got dressed up and shared adisco with another school. We danced and sang alongwith all the instructors who had played a part in makingthe trip amazing. We had also eaten some cake just afterour teas as it had been Abbie's birthday. On the Sundaywe had also had the chance to try snails and frogs legs,which many of us did.On Monday, we enjoyed our last meal at the Chateauand then got on the coach. About an hour later wearrived at a wheat farm which was owned by a Frenchcouple. We were able to make a plaited heart out ofwheat and then ate cake which the lady had made usingher wheat. We then went up to her workshop which wasfilled with amazing items which she had made by handout of wheat she had grown. Some of the things we sawwere over 100 years old! Later we went to a hyper-market, it was huge!! We looked around and bought ourlast souvenirs. We then drove to the docks and ended up

being two hoursearly for our ferry.Luckily we wereable to get on anearlier ferry.On the way backto school, westopped tochange driver. Wesaid goodbye andthank you to

Nigel for driving us around all weekend and being such afunny tour guide. We arrived back at school at 10:30 pmunloaded our cases and went home.We had an absolutely amazing time in France! We learntso much and had some great experiences at the sametime.We would all like to thank Mrs. Mainwaring, Mrs. Smith,Miss Ellis and Mr. Hughes (Ken) for giving us theopportunity to go to France and also helping us have afantastic time. We would especially like to thank Mrs.Mainwaring who organized the trip. Without her itwouldn’t have happened so; THANK YOU MRSMAINWARING!!

A day of activities, workshops and visits by specialguests provided students with new skills and learningexperiences.

The was one of several ‘off timetable’days that the school organises during the school yearto deliver the Personal, Social & Health Education(PSHE) element of the curriculum. Each day is gearedaround providing students with opportunities tolearn about different aspects of lifeoutside their normal school routineand to gain important life skills.Year seven students took part inpersonal safety workshops withCrucial Crew, the multi-agencyinitiative comprising servicesincluding the Fire  and RescueService, Police, British TransportPolice and St. John’s Ambulance.The students were put into groupsand spent time with each agencylearning about that particular safetymessage. As part of a WelshAssembly Government programmethey also received positive BodyImage lessons to understand howthe media can, and do, promoteunrealistic healthy body image.It was all about science andteamwork for year eight students. They were given ascenario of an outbreak of deadly bacteriathreatening the survival of civilisation. Charged withjust three hours to save the world, the students hadto work fast to find ways of saving the planet. The

task was designed to encourage independent thinkingskills as well as working as part of a team.Students in year nine  had a language morning whichfocused on the lifestyles and cultures of other countriesincluding Germany, France, Italy and Wales. The schoolcanteen adopted an Italian theme for the day with

meatballs and lasagne on the menu togive students a real taste of Italy.In the afternoon students had apractical workshop in technology andgot to plan, design and make their ownmini torches.Year ten students had a careers daywith workshops by Tim Penn, formerjockey, entrepreneur and founder ofSignature Leather, Wirral engineeringfirm  Hawkspear Contracts Ltd, andrepresentatives from the RAF and theArmy. Students were given a valuableinsight into career routes, required skillsand the realities of the working world.They also compiled CVs and looked atthe difference between their personalqualities as individuals, and educationalqualifications so that students of all

abilities could maximise what they have to offer anemployer.

, Welsh Baccalaureate Co-ordinatorand organiser of the day said, ”Flint High School

continues to forge excellent relationships with outsideagencies, partners and businesses to ensure our studentsget the best possible life skills and learning experiences.The students have embraced all the activities with realenthusiasm and it’s been a highly productive andsuccessful day. I’d like to thank all the guests for givingtheir time and expertise.”

A sixth form student with a passion for sport will beheading off to America this summer to spend theholidays working in the great outdoors.Jacob Brown, 18, loves all types of sport. He playedtennis at competition level when he was very youngand plays basketball now at National League andcoaches the school’s year 7 basketball team. Hisenthusiasm and sporting ability have secured him adream job coaching children in basketball, climbingand orienteering at Camps Equinunk and Blue Ridgein Pennsylvania, traditional American summer campsfor boys and girls.

Jacob was offered the job after he visited a dedicatedactivity summer camp jobs fair at Manchester CentralConvention Complex earlier this year. Around thirtycompanies attended and over five thousandapplicants. Jacob went round them all, presentinghis portfolio of experience and qualifications and wasasked back to do a face to face interview with CampsEquinunk and Blue Ridge. He was offered the job onthe spot and flies out at the end of term in July for aninduction week ahead of the first arrivals.Shortly after being offered the job, he receivedconfirmation of a place to study

, his first choice, thisSeptember. Jacob said: “It’s all very exciting andeverything has happened so quickly. I’ve alwayswanted to work in an American summer camp andfeel very lucky to have this opportunity. The campsare in a stunning location close to the Canadianborder and only twenty minutes from Niagara Falls soit will be great to see this part of the world. Theexperience will be fantastic, and I’m looking forwardto pursuing sports coaching as a career. ”

In the meantime, Jacob is working hard towards his ALevel exams. Nick Spearpoint, head of PE said, “We areabsolutely delighted for Jacob. He has natural sportingtalent and has shown himself to be an outstandingcoach and inspiration to our younger students. We wishhim every success in his exams and his future career.”

Flint High School came out to support Sport Relief as aSixth Form Basketball Team took on teams from eachhouse, rounding the event off with a game against a staffteam!The eventraised over£150 andMrs HelenJones,Sixth FormSupervisor,whoorganisedthe eventsaid,“Thank youall for supporting this afternoons event. Everyoneenjoyed the basketball and raising money for such aworthwhile cause. Special thanks go to:

� Lucy for organising the Year 7 cheerleaders.� Nick and Norma for being our referees.� Dewi for organising the house teams.� Mrs Prout for her ongoing support in all school

events and for taking the photos.� Thank you to the staff team for playing such an

amazing game.� Thank you to all staff for promoting and selling

tickets for the event.Final scores:

� Sixth-v-Cryf 12/0� Sixth-v-FFydd 12/4� Sixth-v-Dewr 6/0� Sixth-v-Gwir 9/2� Sixth-v-Gobaith 2/2� Sixth-v-Staff 9/3

Just as one outstanding basketball year group has leftus, a new one has come along. Year 7 have displayedthat winning combination of talent and commitment.At recent play nights, the year 7 teams from the otherschools could not compete with us and then our Year7s went on to beat all the Key Stage 3 teams from theother competing schools as well. This is amagnificent effort from all the players. A specialmention however to Callum Gallagher who isunstoppable now that he can dribble with bothhands (a challenge to the rest of you) and Annabellefor her gutsy performances.We also have a separate KS3 team led by Dylan “air”Schultz, who has been inspirational in getting thelads together to form a team for the recent playnight. This team also went through the nightundefeated which holds great promise for the future.Our KS4 team did not fair quite so well, although thisreflects the “scratch” team that was put together.Nevertheless we managed 2 wins and 2 losses. Theoutstanding performer here was Tom “haven’t playedbasketball for a year” Bibby, who showed thatcoordination and team skills from football cantransfer effortlessly to basketball.A big thank you to Mrs Roscoe, Mr Murphy, JacobBrown and Liam and Ryan Lloyd for their excellentsupport.

Following the success of some of our runners at TheFlintshire Cross Country Championship, AliceHyndman, year 7, and Josh Evans, year 8, wereselected to represent Flintshire at the North EastWales Championship.

Josh, who was running against students in the yearabove, finished a very creditable 19th and Alice camein 5th which is amazing. Well done to both of you.

Flint had teams at the recent Indoor AthleticsCompetitions at Deeside. The teams found thecompetition hard this year and results are as follows;

� Year 7/8 girls 4th

� Year 7/8 boys 4th

� Year 9/10 girls 5th

� Year 9/10 girls 4th

There were however some outstanding individualperformances and the following students have beenselected to represent Flintshire at The NationalCompetition in Cardiff:

� Toby Summerton� Lewis Roberts� Connor Massey� Tia Williams

Well Done to the three Autumn Term reward winners,Chloe Stewart Year 7, Jenna Boden and Aaron FosterYear 9.Attendance rewards will be drawn again at Easter andthe end of the Summer Term. All students are eligible,the higher their attendance, the greater the chance ofwinning.Just a reminder that you can notify us of your child’sabsence via email: Attendance@flint.flintshire.sch.uk alsoby telephone call to the dedicated number 01352732268 ext 203, a note in planner etc. Because it is suchan important year, we phone home to Year 11 studentswho are absent without a reason, and other yearsthereafter.Your help in keeping reason for absence information upto date is much appreciated. Any unexplained absencesby the end of the school year are ‘unauthorised’ and

cannot be amended.The Welsh Government advises againstholidays in term time and this is especiallyimportant as exams and controlledassessments take place throughout theyear. All planned absence requests areconsidered individually by Mrs. McClean.Parents are often invited in to discuss therequest with Mrs. McClean. Absencerequest forms can be obtained from Mrs.Griffiths in the Main Office and Mrs.Woodward at Reception.