It's been an outdoors week with U12 and U13 county rounders, Year 10 coaching Year 8 and 9 in a wide range of activities as part of their Skills Challenge, Sports Day and Years 10 and 12 on Duke of Edinburgh expedition training.
Our visitors from Fauquier County, Virginia arrived Monday afternoon and have embedded themselves in school culture. The 12 students have enjoyed a Welsh lesson and have been shadowing their hosts in lessons. Next week they will be out and about around Wales.
Year 10 Trip to Ynyslas
On June 23rd, 35 Year 10 and 12 students went to Ynyslas, Ceredigion as part of their GCSE and A2 fieldwork courses.
Both year groups had to investigate the impact of human activity on the fragile ecosystem in the sand dunes, and so conducted transect data collection criss-crossing the Nature Reserve to identify particularly damaged areas.
They had a talk from the Warden about why the Nature Reserve was so important, and then worked independently collecting their data which will be vital for their Controlled Assessment (Year 10) and their G3b exam (Year 12). They will conduct further research into the area over the summer holidays to create a fieldwork portfolio.
The weather was fantastic - warm and sunny - so after all their hard work, it was ice-creams all round!!
Year 10 Community Challenge
This week pupils have participated in two fantastic days of year 10 coaching year 7 and 8 for the Community Challenge, aspect of the Skills Challenge Certificate. There were 23 Year 10 groups in total, containing between 2 to 6 students. Pupils had to plan out 1-hour lessons to deliver over 10 hours, including producing their own resources and assessing all the possible risks. Year 7 and 8 were coached through a variety of sporting activities from general warm-up exercises, Badminton, Football, and Hockey to Rounders’ using your foot instead of a bat. They also learnt about Healthy Eating, including tasting smoothies, and Fire Safety. After the first hour the Year 10 students learnt the vital skill of being able to adapt to the changing situation, for example when timings go awry or activities do not go to plan.
The feedback from year 7 and 8 students was very positive saying ‘they’ve really enjoyed the days.’ Staff supervising the activities have been very impressed with how confident and engaging the year 10s were to the younger year groups. One member of staff emailed this ‘what a fantastic morning! The groups I saw were great, lovely to see the pupils taking responsibility.’
A BIG thank you to all Year 10 pupils for all their hard work and mature attitude towards the challenge and to all staff for their help and support supervising the activities.
Thursday was the annual sports day
The Friends of the school will be holding a raffle at the Summer Fayre on Thursday, 7th July (4.30pm-6.30pm). Any contributions for the raffle (in particular items towards a summer hamper) will be very much appreciated and can be handed in at the school reception before Wednesday, 6th July.
The U12/U13 County Rounders Tournament was held at Builth Wells High School on Monday with teams from schools taking part. The weather stayed fine and the day was a great success. Congratulations to our U12 Team 1 who won the competition.