Olympic Athlete at Bishop of Llandaff!

Jessica Hogg, Year 10 pupil was selected to represent Great Britain in the Youth Olympic Games in Signapore on August 14th -26th 2010.  Team GB comprised of 40 athletes from 16 different sports, with Jessica being the only female Gymnast!  The squad also included diver Tom Daley (GB's youngest competitor in Beijing 2008 Olympic Games) and Victoria Ohuruogu (current 400m under 20 indoor champion and sister of current Olympic 400m champion Christine Ohuruogu). 

Jess was the youngest member of Team GB just qualifying for the Olympics at age 14.  After a fantastic individual all round competition, she finished 14th overall and 6th on the floor aparatus, which qualified her for the All Round Final and Floor Final.  An impressive final resulted in her finishing 5th on Floor behind competitors from China, Romania and Russia and then finishing 18th overall.

Mrs M Griffiths, PE Teacher commented "This is an outstanding achievement for such a young gymnast, to not only represent Wales, but be the only Gymnast from Great Britain to be selected for the Youth Olympic Squad against competitors 4 years older than herself.  We are extremely proud of her success and wish her all the best in her future gymnastics career and possible qualification for London 2012!"

For further information on Jess' achievements please visit:  http://www.british-gymnastics.org/site/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1495:jessica-hogg-18th-the-in-yog-final&catid=1:news

Another brilliant year for GCSE results!

For the third year in succession, our GCSE results have been very high.  Over 85% of our students gained five or more A*-C grades this academic year. 

Twenty students achieved over nine A*/A grades and special congratulations go to Bethan Price who attained A* grades in all her ten subjects.  She was closely followed by David Wigley, Lydia Ashton, Will Meades and Sophie McLain who achieved eight or more A* grades. 

These results are reward for the effort and application of the students and their teachers and will be the springboard for future success and achievement.  

CG Hollowood, Headteacher 

 A-level Results 2010 - Medicine is the popular choice!  

 

 

I am delighted that our A-level results have improved again.  58 % of our A-level grades were A and B grades with 10% of the grades being the new A* grade.    Our congratulations go to an impressive twenty five students who gained grade A’s and A* in all of their subjects.  Aurelien Hayman achieved an impressive four A* grades and will be going to study English Literature at Durham University.     Chris White and James Staniforth will be able to take up their places at Cambridge University to study Medicine and English respectively.  Jenny Tucker will be studying Physics at Oxford University and Lilian Robinson will also go to Oxford to read Law.   

This year we saw a record seven students successfully gaining places at medical school.  Notably, Katie Meades and her brother Adam Meades will both be starting at medical schools in September.  In addition, we congratulate Emily Plummer, Sara Beattie, Amrit Dhadda and Laura Parrish who will also be studying medicine. I know that the Science department in the school, which has always been a strong faculty, will be particularly pleased with the large numbers gaining places at medical school.  We are pleased that 10% of the grades were A* as this appears to be higher than the national average.   

I would like to acknowledge the teaching and support from all the staff that has helped so many of the students to reach their personal best.   

C G Hollowood, Headteacher 

External Examination Results

The A2 and AS results will be published on Thursday 19th August 2010.  GCSE results will be published on Tuesday 24th August.

The school will be open from 8.00am to 10.00am on both days.  If you are unable to collect your results you may:

• Provide a relative/friend with a letter giving written permission for them to collect the results.  Staff will read and retain the letter of permission.
• Provide a stamped, self-addressed A5 envelope to Mrs Gallop, Examinations Officer, before the end of the Summer Term and results will be posted out.  Please note, Mrs Gallop is not able to post them until 19th August. 
• Exam results will not be available via telephone or email.
• Information regarding Post Result Examination Services will be provided on the Results Day.  This service deals with the checking of results and remarking, for which there is a charge. 
• Exam certificates from previous years will be available if they have not yet been collected from the School Office. 

Max, Bell & Casper Save the World

by Anna Surridge

Anna Surridge, a 2009 Climate Change Champion has produced a children’s book to help make the messages around climate change simpler and easier to understand.  The book, entitled ‘Max, Bell and Casper Save the World’ follows three superheroes – Max the dog, Bell the cat and Casper the chicken. Anna’s book features bright colours and innovative hand drawn cartoons. It uses the three characters to describe the small actions that everyone can take to tackle climate change and reduce their carbon footprint.

Anna was the driving force behind organising for the bilingual book to be sent to every primary school in Cardiff and will be doing a reading session at the Eisteddfod in Llangollen on one of the children's days - 6th July 2010.

If you would like a copy, you can download an electronic version or request a hard copy from the following website:  http://wales.gov.uk/walescarbonfootprint/home/youngpeople/champion/champions09/maxbellcasper/?lang=en

Moviemakers Course 2010

A Moviemakers Course is being organised by Careers Wales for Year 9 and 10 students (2009-2010 academic year).  There are two two-day courses available:

• Thursday 22nd and Friday 23rd July.
• Thursday 5th and Friday 6th August.

The course is being held at Media4Creative, Penarth Road, Cardiff.  If you are interested please see Mrs Bird for an application form. 

School Sports Day 2010

Wednesday 14th July 2010 

This year's Sports Day will follow the same format as last year.  The event will be held at the Cardiff International Sports Stadium, Leckwith Road, Cardiff and will start at 8.30am, finishing at 2pm.

The travel arrangements, timings and instructions regarding uniform and kit can be found on the downloadable letters below.  Please note the School buildings will be closed to all pupils on the day.

Last year's Sports Day was an overwhelming success at the new venue with all previous participation records being broken.  We hope that all pupils will support their houses again this year and sign up for their respective teams! 

Attachments:

Instructions to Pupils	[ ]	28 Kb
Letter to Parents - School Sports Day	[ ]	27 Kb
Timetable - Sports Day	[ ]	55 Kb

The Summer Learning Festival

Please see the link below for more information about the Summer Learning Festival, a free programme of activities taking place during the first three weeks of the summer holidays.  It is available for pupils in Cardiff LEA High Schools in Years 7 to 10.

www.cardiff.gov.uk/summerlearning

We’re presently hosting an exhibition of sculptures on the theme of Grief and Loss housed in the main hall.   Pupils in year 9 will be exploring the meaning behind the heads in lessons with the RE and Art teachers over the coming week.   The lessons will explore the grief cycle and aim to provide pupils with the emotional vocabulary to deal with loss and separation in their life at present or in the future.   Each sculpture deals with an aspect of the grief process: DENIAL, DISBELIEF, QUESTIONING, ANGER, DEPRESSION, ACCEPTANCE, HEALING, PEACE. If you would like to know more about the heads then please follow this link:  http://www.westhillendowment.org/goodgrief.html.    If any parents (or church groups) would like the visit the exhibition then please email me This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and I would be happy to facilitate this after school.   The statues are with us for  two weeks. 

Revd. Gareth Williams, School Chaplain.