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Brynmawr Foundation School July 2017 Newsletter

Brynmawr

Foundation School Ysgol Sylfaenol Brynmawr

July 2017 Newsletter

Dear Parent, This Summer’s e-Newsletter once again celebrates an

outstanding year in the life of Brynmawr Foundation School. Students across Key Stages 3 and 4 have sustained excellent achievements in all areas of school

life – academic, sporting, artistic and community based. Our Key Stage 3 results were once again

outstanding and showed improvement across the full range of subjects – both Core and Foundation. I wish them all the very best as they start their GCSE studies.

Literacy and Numeracy results recently arrived at the school and you will shortly be informed of the progress

pupils have made. Both literacy and numeracy continue to be the focus of whole school and pupil

development. In our school calendar, evenings for parents and pupils have been included to ensure parents have a clear understanding of the skills being

developed and the end of year tests. We are all looking forward to the GCSE results in

August. The application and effort of all our Year 10 and 11 students were both exemplary and I am

confident that all their hard work and commitment will be rewarded with excellent individual examination outcomes. As you may be aware, the examination

system in Wales has changed considerably this year and outcomes in all schools will be subject to change

when compared to previous years. We are confident that our school will perform very well in comparison to similar schools across Wales

I hope you enjoy reading about all the activities and achievements of our pupils this term and look forward

with all of us to continued success in the coming year. The students of Brynmawr Foundation School

continue to be a constant source of pride for us and for you all as parents. I wish you all a relaxed and rewarding summer and look forward to meeting you in

school events during the next school year.

James Retallick Head Teacher

Dates for your Diary

August 24th – GCSE Results out

September 4th – INSET Day 5th - Start of Autumn Term 12th – Years 7 & 10 Photographs 21st – Art Trip - London 21st – Year 7 Parents Evening 28th – Year 11 KM Evening 29th – INSET Day

October 5th – Open Evening 6th – INSET Day 12th – Drama Trip 30th – 3rd November – Half Term



100% Attendance Awards

Well done to our pupils who have excellent attendance and went on the reward trips on 12th & 13th July. We had over 75 pupils with 100% attendance which is an amazing achievement. Keep up the good work pupils and parents. On Tuesday we took year 7 to the wonderful Brynmawr cinema where we were very well looked after and we watched Despicable Me 3. The pupils’ behaviour was exemplary and they were a credit to the school. On Thursday we went off to Parc Bryn Bach for a day of activities and adventure, including canoeing, archery and a climbing wall. With your support our attendance is improving year on year and this in turn improves your child’s attainment. Well done all. Can we please remind parents that holidays taken during term-time are only authorised in exceptional services and where not authorised a Fixed Penalty Notice may be issued.

Uniform Guidelines As from the beginning of September any pupil wearing incorrect uniform, piercings or false nails will be removed from circulation, that is they will be isolated during break and lunchtimes until the uniform is correct. Please see the Website for an updated Uniform list. Trousers for boys and girls must be tailored, not skinny/legging style. The PE kit has been updated, see THE BACK PAGES for the NEW PE kit. Piercings, other than of the ear, are not permitted, and only one piercing in each ear is allowed and it is to be stud like not a ring. Make up, if worn, must be subtle and natural looking. False nails such as Gels, Acrylics or Shellac are not permitted.

TOP AWARDS Brynmawr Foundation School has been awarded the Careers Wales Mark in recognition of the high standard of the school’s provision in the areas of careers and the world of work. The whole school initiative was led by Geraint Smith (Assistant Head) and supported by Dawn Hughes (Head of Science, Technology and Ethics Faculty). To receive the award the school was evaluated against the Careers Wales World of Work framework and the Estyn Inspection framework. A Careers Action Plan was created, implemented and reviewed, which provided evidence for an external verifier to check that progress of continuing improvement is in place whilst ensuring there is a clear commitment to improve student learning. Brynmawr Foundation School can now display the Careers Wales Mark on its letterhead and website for three years.



Brynmawr Foundation School would like to congratulate Costain for winning: ‘The BITC Cymru Responsible Large Business of the Year Award’.

The Awards and Gala Dinner held at Sophia Gardens on Thursday, 29th June and sponsored by the Welsh Government, Wales & West Utilities, Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, GE Aviation Wales and the NPTC Group of Colleges. Mr G. Smith and Mrs D. Hughes, who have worked extensively to develop links with Costain, were invited to join them at the awards ceremony along with representatives from the BITC regional education clusters (Heads of the Valley and Newport). The evening was a true celebration of working in partnership with Costain, and they were

deserved winners of the main awards of the night.

What’s Been Going on in School! Year 6 Transition Week The week commencing 26th June saw 160 Year 6 pupils from our feeder Primary schools and others in Blaenau Gwent join us for a very busy 5 days in which they were put into their new form groups and sampled some of the lessons they will be having in September.

They completed their CATs on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, and on Thursday evening Year 6 Parents were invited to the school to meet their child’s Form Tutor, order uniform from Roger’s, Brynmawr and to organise school transport ready for September. It was a very successful evening with a high proportion of parents attending. During Friday pupils were put into their Houses: Caradog, Glyndwr or Llewellyn and were with their House Captains and they took part in several challenges, of a quiz, sporting competitions and a karaoke. Then after lunch they were with their form tutors and were tasked to build a chair capable of holding a 2.5kg weight using only 20 sheets of A4 paper and sellotape. They threw themselves into the day with great enthusiasm.

The pupils thoroughly enjoyed the tasks and by the end of the day many new friendships

had been forged.

Throughout the week a selection of our current Year 7 pupils escorted the Year 6 pupils to their lessons and stayed with them during break and lunchtime to help them. They were a tremendous help to us all and myself and Mrs Burns would like to thank them for their contribution to the smooth running of Transition Week.

We hope that Year 6 pupils enjoyed their week with us and we have allied any fears they had about starting “Big School” and can now look forward to starting in September.

BITC Wales Responsible Business Awards 2017



House News This year saw the relaunch of the house system in our school. If you’re not familiar with it, basically everyone in our school belongs to either Caradog, Glyndwr or Llewellyn House and that includes everyone from Year 7 pupils up to the Head teacher. Under the guidance of Miss Griffiths and her team of Head of Houses, the pupils taken part in numerous competitions and challenges that have encompassed lots of subject areas and beyond.

Our Year in Brief Macmillan Coffee Morning

In October, the three houses came together to organise a cake sale for Macmillan. Pupils and staff brought in cakes and made cakes to sell. We raised a massive £360 for Macmillan Cancer Support.

Christmas Carols at Plasgellar Nursing Home In December, the three houses came together again, this time to perform a Christmas concert at Plasgeller Nursing Home. Afterwards, the house representatives and performers chatted to the residents of the home and enjoyed mince pies. This visit made the residents so happy and we were very proud of the pupils who took part.

Roald Dahl Competition- English Department Year 7 were set the challenge of producing an item that symbolises the work of Roald Dahl and they surpassed all expectations. Staff in the department were amazed at both the amount, and the standard, of the entries and it was very difficult to choose winners. Year 7 set a very high bar for the coming year’s entrants.

Science Competition - Year 8 Pupils took part in the first ever science fair at Brynmawr Foundation School. Entries included a handmade Newton’s cradle, an exploding volcano and detailed research into the conservation of endangered animals. Afterwards the entries were displayed so that everyone in the school had the chance to look at the impressive models the pupils had produced.

Maths Tessellations - Year 9 The Year 9 Tessellation competition took place in Maths and pupils created unique repeating patterns (tessellations are arrangements of closed shapes that completely cover the plane without overlapping and without leaving gaps). There were some great, fun entries and the pupils really enjoyed taking part.

Brynmawr’s Got Talent On the last day before the Easter holidays, pupils in KS3 competed in a live final on stage of our very first talent show.

It was a culmination of weeks of practising

and preliminaries and the hall was a buzz of anticipation and nervous energy. It was judged by a staff representative from each house so we could keep things fair. Mrs Simmonds, Mr Bartlett and



Miss Copick really enjoyed themselves, although Miss Copick was likened to Simon Cowell for her harsh scoring. To round off the show we had two members of the international superstar group “Abba” to sing us into the holidays. All the children were superstars but the joint winners- both year 7 groups- were truly astounding! Well done to all that took to the stage that day!

Sports Day 2017 We had lo vely weather for a very successful Sports Day, organised and led

by Miss Jay and the P.E Department. The children competed in their houses in various events from field events, such as the javelin and the long jump, to track events which included individual and team races. This year the competition between the houses seemed to be greater than ever; the scores were very close right up to the final races. However, Llewellyn were the victors yet again and Caradog and

Glyndwr need to work extra hard at the events next year if they are going to change that. This year there was a new event and one that proved very popular with both pupils and staff – the tug of war! It was hotly contested by all ages and was immensely entertaining to watch. Keane Powell proved

to be a hugely effective coach to the year 10 boys- well done Keane! Following on from the day itself, Miss Jay held an assembly to present the cups to the winners and for the first time we had some extra special awards which were great fun. It was a fabulous idea and made us all chuckle in assembly. Once again, well done Llewellyn! Transition Week It was our great pleasure recently to welcome all our year 6’s that are joining us in September to share a week with us at school. They had a taste of life at Brynmawr and they all loved, and fully immersed themselves, in school life. The children met their Head of Year, Miss Griffiths, and their new form tutors and we hope this will help them feel ready for the next part of their school life journey. To round the week off the children competed in their Houses in: a quiz, a singing competition and a team building event. Everyone gave their utmost and their enjoyment was obvious from all the happy, smiling faces at the end of the day. We look forward to them joining us after the summer break.

AFTER SCHOOL ACTIVITIES



SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY FACULTY RAF Science Roadshow To promote Science across the school, our year 7 and 8 pupils were invited to take part in the RAF ambassadors innovative roadshow. This was an opportunity for pupils to understand how their Science knowledge is linked to a multitude of fields within the RAF. The roadshow comprised of the ambassadors delivering an exciting lecture with humour, informative videos and exhilarating demonstrations; our pupils were enthused, especially by the flying drone, it really got them thinking about science in the real world! This was followed with a Q&A with RAF pilots, engineers and other professionals within the RAF, the pupils asked some excellent questions and were a credit to the school throughout. Quotes from pupils:

“The drone was amazing! I didn’t realise how Science applied to the RAF!” “WOW! The ambassadors were really fun and made it exciting!” “The Jet engines were awesome! Who knew you could attach them to your back and fly like a jet pack from films!”

Technology WJEC Construction and the Built Environment During options week aspiring construction industry students undertook their induction training for WJEC level 1 / 2 Construction and the Built Environment. Students completed a range of tasks an activities including site safety and security, planning for manufacturing and practical site carpentry skills. The week was intensive and culminated in the manufacture of a practical outcome, where students were required to put their skills into practice to create a footstool from construction grade timber. The outcomes were superb and many of the students deserved credit, in particular Daffyd Morgan and Logan Bevington for their teamwork skills in producing an item of very high quality that met the design brief. The week was a great success and holds promise for the forthcoming year, well done all!

COSTAIN SUPPORTING NATIONAL WOMEN IN ENGINEERING DAY On Friday, 23rd June, 24 female Year 8 students were invited by Costain to take part in an activity based day held at their Gilwern site office for the A465 Phase 2. With the focus on civil engineering and construction, the day centered on team-based activities where the girls had to work together in groups of four to complete an activity. To give a real flavour of what it is like to work as a civil engineer the girls had to:



Work to a budget,

Plan,

Construct and,

Present their ideas. The girls were also involved in a discussion by Chwarae Teg on gender equality and this was complemented by the involvement of key female role models who work in various roles within the organisation. The day was a huge success and the girls thoroughly enjoyed the activities. The girls were truly inspired by the staff at both Costain and Chwarae Teg and events like this will encourage more of our female students into a STEM based career. The school would like to thank Donna Evans, Project Skills coordinator at Costain for organising this successful event.

LANGUAGES & CULTURE FACULTY

Geography – Field Trip

On Thursday 30th June we travelled to Abergavenny to study different flows. We started the day counting cars coming into Abergavenny on the A40 by the bus station. We completed this task on another two occasions so we can study the flow of traffic into and out of Abergavenny. Tristan Rowlands 9G1 On our trip to Abergavenny we went to study the River Gavenny. We measured from one bank to the other bank of the river to work out how wide it was. Then we had to measure

the 'Wet Depth' by measuring both the river bed and how deep the water was at regular intervals. We also threw plastic balls down the river to see how fast this section of the river was. Dylan Price 10C2 volunteered to help both Mr Owen and Mr Tibbs to measure the river and catch the plastic balls afterwards. Keegan Gardner 9G1

We then looked at the Seven Arch Bridge to count how many cars and other types of vehicles crossed the river. This gave us an idea about how good the transport system worked in Abergavenny and that different varieties of transport such as lorries and pick-up trucks travelled there to transfer goods for shops. We could use this information to compare the flow of traffic in different parts of the town. Kenan-Lee Reynolds 10C2 Through examining the river, we

saw an example of a meander. By standing on the slip off slope we were able to see how deposition had moved the rocks and that the houses were closer to the river cliff. The water moved faster nearer to the cliff because it had a higher velocity. Mr Tibbs was able to explain in great detail the river processes that create this landform. Dafydd Maund 10L1



On the way to the town we passed several coffee shops and cafes which suggested that tourism is popular within Abergavenny. Whilst in the town it was clear that the shops were making money and thriving with local customers. We studied the flow of pedestrians around the town by dividing each of us into small groups and counting the 'foot fall' of people during a one hour period. We will use this data to examine the busiest areas of Abergavenny Town centre and if this is linked to the amount of traffic travelling into Abergavenny on the different routes. Thomas Wells 10G1

CREATIVE FACULTY

Music

Schools Festival of Song On Wednesday 12th July, a number of performers from year 8 took part in the “Schools Festival of Song”, along with other schools in the area. Members of the choir will be singing ‘Stand by Me’ by Ben E. King; and Alex Sturdy, Jamie Harris and Rhys White will be performing ‘Iris’ by The Goo Goo Dolls. The concert took place in Libanus Chapel in

Brynmawr. Instrumental/Vocal lessons: Instrumental Tuition Instrumental tuition is available from the school and is provided by Gwent Music. There is currently tuition available for voice/singing, drums, brass, woodwind, piano, guitar (electric, classical and bass) and if there is sufficient interest, beatboxing/rap. Learners are taught in groups of 2 for 20 minutes each week depending on numbers and the mix of standards and instruments. Payment for September is now open and payment needs to be made by Friday 8th September. Please make the payment via the Gwent Music website as previously. Students who are eligible for FSM receive the lessons free and need to see Mrs. J Thomas if they are interested. To enroll your child and make the first payment, please follow the instructions below: 1. Go to www.gwentmusic.co.uk/parent. 2. Click the Register button and enter your contact details. 3. Click on “Enrol for an Activity” 4. Click Music Tuition and select Brynmawr Foundation School then click Next. 5. Select the instrument your child would like to learn from the list of lessons then click Next and complete your child’s details. 6. You will finally be taken to the Newport City Council payments web page to make the payment. For further information about instrumental tuition, please contact Mrs. J Thomas at the school.

Drama We recently announced our next school production of the newly released musical “School Of Rock”. 45 students auditioned for the main characters and we are currently in the process of auditioning for the chorus.

The production will take place 7th to the 9th February 2018. Tickets will go on sale in December!

Follow the Drama Department on twitter: @Drama_PA_BFS to keep updated.

http://mail.brynmawrschool.net/cp/ps/Mail/ExternalURLProxy?d=brynmawrschool.net&u=jthomas&url=http://www.gwentmusic.co.uk/parent&urlHash=-3.067240346857209E-116#_blank



THE BACK PAGES

Physical Education

A very busy Half-Term with lots going on! UDOIT! Dance Foundation The recent UDOIT! Dance Foundation taster sessions were a huge success with 50 of our Key Stage 3 girls, who are now all very much looking forward to the regular sessions that will start up in September. This exciting project involves working closely with Hannah Winmill (Sports Development Officer) and UDOIT! Dance Foundation to provide regular dance opportunities to all our pupils. Two of our current Year 9 pupils Courtney Bishop and Rebecca Saunders will train as Dance Leaders over the summer and work alongside Natalie (UDOIT! Dance Foundation Instructor)

Sports Leaders The future of local sports is in safe hands after 20 of our Year 9 pupils recently completed the Sports Leaders course. All pupils were excellent throughout the 2 day course (as commented by the providers) and are now looking forward to getting out into the community to help deliver, assist and lead in local clubs, primary schools and holiday clubs – Well done everyone!

Sports Day 2017 What a fantastic day for so many reasons…. School records broken, the introduction of a new event – Tug of War and constant examples of friendship, teamwork, determination and masses of camaraderie amongst the houses! A high standard of athletics was shown across the year groups with some very close races and field competitions in every year group. Some of the stand out performances of the day belong to our school record breakers….11 in total!!

EVENT YEAR

GROUP NAME HOUSE

200m & 400m 7 Naomi Burgess Glyndwr

800m 7 Millie Jones Caradog

400m 8 Sophie Hughes Caradog

100m 8 Kynan Bridgeman Llewellyn

200m & 400m 9 Sophie Richards Glyndwr

800m 9 Sam Clayton Llewellyn

200m 10 Dionne Lewis Llewellyn

400m & 800m 10 Elise Turner Caradog



Alongside the fantastic athletics on show were some very special moments throughout the day that more than justified the introduction of the ‘Alternative Awards’ – congratulations to all the winners!! Deciding on the Victor and Victrix Ludorum winners was extremely difficult this year and impossible to name just one so this years’ winners were Ben Jones & Kenan Reynolds and Elise Turner & Ashleigh Preece. It was the closest Sports Day for many years with the 2017 Champions Llewellyn holding on to the title for a second year running – A huge congratulations to all that took part.

Living For Sport On May 19th we were extremely fortunate to welcome former Paralympic Athlete Liz Johnson to school to work in depth with a group of over 40 pupils as part of the Sky Sports initiative. Liz has enjoyed a very

successful sporting career often against all the odds – she achieved a medal at 3 consecutive Paralympic Games (Athens 2004; Beijing 2008; London 2012). It was a truly inspirational day for all our pupils which began with an assembly delivered by Liz followed by two smaller workshops with some of our target groups – a fantastic day!

Basketball This half term has seen the start of a new Year 7 boys basketball team, which has been a tremendous success. The team have been fully committed to their training once a week with many pupils willing to play and they have been a credit to the school during their away fixtures. The team has played two away fixtures at Rhymney and Ferndale. Rhymney was the team’s first competitive fixture, we lost by two points but their endeavour and commitment was excellent. Ferndale produced a different challenge; their team had a combination of Year 7 and 8 pupils, however, our boys showed great commitment and skill to again only lose by two points. Any pupils wanting to start basketball please do not hesitate to get information from Mr

Atkins or Mr Williams. A few words from our Captain Joel Broad: “The team are really starting to bond together from training every Monday, in school life and fixtures. We

are all starting to develop our own individual skills and we use together to contribute to the team. Basketball in school is a really good experience as we have not had many years that have created a team and if you like basketball as a team we encourage you to play”. (Pupils absent from the team picture are Jacob Phillips, Oliver Vaughn and Oliver Lewis)



Rugby This term has seen our boys’ teams compete in 7s tournaments, Year 7 competed in Monmouth 7s just missing out in the plate semi-final, losing to a strong Croesyceiliog 5 tries to 3. The Try and Player of the tournament was our very own Dylan Thomas. Year 8s also did the school proud at Monmouth losing 4-1 on tries to Caldicot in the Quarter Final of the cup. The Year 10s tournament was at Newbridge – “The Dragons 7s Cup”, having entered two teams with both playing some outstanding rugby it came down to the last game on who was to progress into the Semi-Final. The red team took the spoils and then went on to play a very strong Newbridge team, unfortunately losing 22-0. Year 7 & 8 also took part in a school mixed years game - an outstanding 38 players involved in a very competitive game. The scores were locked at 22 all at the final whistle and the decision was made to play golden try, it was the greens that took the spoils in an excellent game of rugby. On a sad but also memorable note, our Year 11s played in the last game of their school rugby careers. Away to Ebbw Fawr they found themselves part of a very exciting and hard fought game but our boys just missed out 12-10, tries on the day coming from Jake Carey and Rhys Woodyatt. We would like to take the opportunity to thank them all for their hard

work and commitment over the years and wish them all the very best for the future. A big well done must go to a number of our pupils who have represented Blaenau Gwent U15s in the last game of the Dewar shield bowl - Kian Hayman, Alfie Hurle, Levi Davies, Ethan Broderick, Ben Jones, Mason Rowson, Tom Regan & Hywel Evans. Congratulations to Ben Jones who picked up Player of the Year Award and Ethan Broderick who achieved Players Player Award at their presentation evening. Another congratulations to five of our pupils who were selected for the initial Dragons Development Squad these are Ben Jones, Levi Davies, Kian Hayman, Ethan Broderick and Jack Arnold who has been selected a year early. Girls rugby in the school has also been at full flow with both KS3 & KS4 competing in different games. KS3 competed in Tredegar 7s, with this being the first contact festival for most of the girls they did superbly and really enjoyed their experience. Scores on the day were a loss to Tredegar 4-1, Aberyschan 5-4, King Henry 2-1 and then came away with a 1-1 draw against a good Bassaleg team. They also attended a full contact festival at Abersychan winning 2 games and losing 2 in a fantastic effort by all. KS3 also hosted a tag & contact festival which saw 70 girls from different schools compete against each other in another thrilling afternoon of games. Year 7 also took part in a BG tag festival at Abertillery where they worked on their skills and then demonstrated them in the games that followed. Alongside this we also hosted just Year 7 game against Ebbw Fawr which the girls found very enjoyable. In the first of a two match series KS4 played for the first time on a full pitch, full laws game against Tredegar away. In an entertaining game the girls scored some wonderfully executed tries through Megan Isaac (2), Sophie Ambler and Alisha Miles. The second leg was played in very hot conditions which led to a very open and fast flowing game with our KS4 girls running out 30-25 winners. Once again I’d like to say a big well done and thanks to all pupils for their efforts and continued commitment throughout this term and look forward to more of the same after the Summer Holidays.



Other Sporting News…. Liam James Morris has been chosen to be part of the Welsh Cycling Team for their summer racing season in Belgium this summer. He will be part of the Youth team with three other members, who will compete against teams from all over the rest of Europe. He will spend almost a week racing over hundreds of miles with his team mates, competing against some of the best young riders in the world. Liam raced around the streets and hillsides of Abergavenny

in preparation for his European racing tour. He trains nearly every day of the week, either on the roads or travelling down to use the Velodrome in Newport. He is a valued member of Brynmawr Schools' GCSE

Physical Education group and an excellent role model to the younger pupils of the school. Well done Liam!

CHANGES TO PE KIT As of September 2017 there will be a few changes to the PE kit which are listed below. As a school and subject we anticipate that it may take a year or two to completely change over to the new stock/logo. All we ask is that the next time you need to buy new that it is the up to date kit as mentioned below. Boys: New Style Rugby Jersey White Polo T-shirt White Shorts Red & Green Socks White ankle/trainer socks Trainers Girls: White Polo T-shirt Navy Shorts and/or Leggings White ankle/trainer socks Red & Green Socks Trainers **PLEASE NOTE – GYMSKIRTS ARE NO LONGER COMPULSORY FOR PE & GAMES LESSONS** PE Kit can be purchased from Reflex (Tredegar & online), Rogers (Brynmawr) and Mel Morgan (Ebbw Vale). It’s been a tremendously busy year in PE and our pupils have made us extremely proud. We would to take this opportunity to thank all the staff that have helped to make it such

a great year for our pupils – PE staff, our Rugby Officer, colleagues and the local Sports Development team. We would also like to thank and congratulate all of our pupils for all their hard work and determination throughout the year.

Have a fantastic summer holiday - Be active, Be safe and Enjoy!

***REMEMBER YOU CAN KEEP UP TO DATE WITH ALL THINGS PE/SPORT ON OUR TWITTER PAGE – FOLLOW US ON @PE_CreativeBFS***

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