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Summer Newsletter 2011Summer Newsletter 2011Summer Newsletter 2011

Sporting Excellence

Clubs & Activities

School Productions

Greetings from the School Latest News School Calendar Pupil Interviews Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme Eco-Schools Sailing and Skiing School Council and PACT 5 X 60 Communication Developments Department News Year Group News

Contents

It is with great pleasure that I look back over the last two terms here at Stanwell. As the latest edition of our newsletter demonstrates, the school has been a hive of activity. Our pupils are taking up the opportunities offered and are developing their skills in a wide range of fields. From music and drama to sporting and out-door activities, Stanwell pupils are showing the commitment and drive that play such an important part in growing up to be well-rounded members of the wider community. This newsletter is a celebration of the achievements of our pupils. On behalf of the staff, may I take this opportunity to wish all examination students well and everyone a relaxing and refreshing summer holiday.

Derek Jones

Headteacher

Rydw i’n edrych nôl dros y ddau dymor diwetha â phleser. Fel mae’r llyfryn newyddion ddiweddara yn dangos, mae’r ysgol wedi bod yn brysur iawn. Mae’r disgyblion yn cymryd cyfleon a gynigwyd iddynt ac yn datblygu eu sgiliau mewn nifer o wahanol feysydd. O gerddoriaeth i ddrama i chwaraeon a gweithgareddau tu allan, mae disgyblion Stanwell yn dangos ymrwymiad a brwdfrydedd sy’n chwarae rhan bwysig yn eu datblygiad i dyfu i fod yn aelodau cyfirifol yn y gy-muned. Mae’r llyfryn newyddion yn ddathliad o lwyddiannau disgyblion Stanwell. Ar ran y staff, ga i gymryd y cyfle yma i ddymuno’n dda i’n holl fyfyrywr sy’n gwneud arholi-adau a hefyd dymuno i’n holl ddisgyblion wyliau haf ymlaciol ac adfywiol.

Derek Jones

Pennaeth

Greetings from the School

Charity Appeals The school year 2010-11 has been one of our busiest ever in terms of charity fund-raising. In total almost £6,500 has been raised for a variety of worthy causes. Two non-uniform days were held to raise money for Children in Need and Marie Curie Cancer Care, raising over £3,500. In addition to these, Sixth-Formers have been very pro-active in organising events such as the Red Nose Day cake sale, Easter chick sale for Velindre hospital and Rock Your Shades for the Teenage Cancer Trust. After school events were also arranged by members of the Sixth Form including a charity fashion show which took place in May to raise funds and awareness for the Penarth and District Lesotho Trust, supporting the excellent work carried out by this local organisation. An event was also held to raise money for the Japanese Earthquake appeal in the school’s auditorium. It was a lively and memorable occasion, with pupils and staff performing in a ‘Stars in their Eyes’ concert. Young Enterprise We are pleased to inform you that Stanwell has been awarded the Careers Wales Quality Mark. This achievement highlights the continuous development in the delivery of enterprise and career-focused provision throughout the school. Stanwell Reunion Mr Len Parfitt organised a weekend of reunion events for the Penarth Grammar School year group of 1954-1961 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the year they left school. 45 ex-pupils and staff attended and were treated to tours of the school from Mr Alan Carter (former teacher at Stanwell and current Governor) . Two ex-pupils came from as far afield as Australia; one is now a Professor at the University of Melbourne and the other is a Professor at the Uni-versity of Perth. Hannah’s Party in the Park Friends of Hannah French, a Stanwell pupil who died last February, have organised an event called ‘Hannah’s Party in the Park’ to honour her memory. This event will take place on Satur-day 13th August; please see the attached flyer for full details. We sincerely hope that as many pupils as possible will be able to attend. Award Ceremony

Pupils, parents, staff and governors gathered together at the end of June to celebrate the re-markable achievements of our 2011 award win-ners. Welsh BAFTA award winning actress Mali Harris was the evening’s guest speaker, giving an inspiring address to the assembled mem-bers of the school community. Year group prizes for endeavour, academic achievement and service to the school were awarded in addi-tion to prizes for outstanding achievement across the curriculum.

Latest News

S C H O O L H O L I D A Y D A T E S

2011 – 2012 Term Begin Half Term End

Begin End

Autumn 2011

*Monday

5 September 2011

Monday

24 October 2011

Friday

28 October 2011

Friday

16 December 2011

Spring 2012

Tuesday

3 January 2012

Monday

13 February 2012

Friday

17 February 2012

Thursday

5 April 2012

Summer

2012

Monday 23 April

2012

Monday 4 June 2012

Friday 8 June 2012

*Tuesday

24 July 2012

* INSET days - Monday 5th September 2011

(first day of term for pupils Tuesday 6th September 2011) Monday 23rd and Tuesday 24th July 2012 (last day of the academic year for pupils Friday 20th July 2012 – to be confirmed)

*INSET days - Monday 3rd September 2012 (first day of term for pupils Tuesday 4th September 2012)

Monday 22nd July 2013 (Last day of the academic year for pupils Friday 19th July 2013 – to be confirmed)

The above dates are in line with other Vale of Glamorgan schools. We do not expect the dates to change but reserve the right to do so.

2012 – 2013 Term Begin Half Term End

Begin End

Autumn 2012

*Monday

3 September 2012

Monday

29 October 2012

Friday

2 November 2012

Friday

21 December 2012

Spring 2013

Monday

7 January 2013

Monday

11 February 2013

Friday

15 February 2013

Friday

22 March 2013

Summer

2013

Monday 8 April

2013

Monday 27 May

2013

Friday 31 May

2013

*Monday 22 July

2013

Interviews

Will Creaven and Matthew Whitfield of Year 9 are British International sailors. English A level students interviewed them and had lots of questions to ask about their amazing sporting careers to date. Will, tell us about the sailing competi-tions that you’re involved in at the moment. I have been selected for the GB Sailing team and will be going to the European Championships in Portugal later this summer. It’s a regatta that will host 40+ international teams in a sailing races

around a specially designed course. I’m a solo sailor and the class of boat I sail is called the Optimist. What are your hopes for the future? I want to move into international camp with the Lasers, which is the next stage. I just want to keep making progress and to carrying on being involved in the GB squad. What is the most exciting thing that has happened to you in your sailing career? The best thing was when I went to Ja-pan—it was so cool. We were in Tokyo for a week and did sailing and sightsee-ing. The bullet train was amazing and the sushi was strange but tasted quite nice really.

Matthew, how did you first get into sailing as a sport? I started sailing when I was 9 at Penarth Yacht Club. I started sailing because my parents are sailors. What competitions have you taken part in? At the end of my first year of sailing I qualified for the Welsh National squad. The next year I qualified for the Great Britain National Squad and was one of only two ten year olds to ever qualify and the other is also from Cardiff and is expected to win a gold medal at the Olympics in London in 2012. The year after that, I qualified for the French championships and was the 2nd ranked Brit at the event. Last year, I qualified for the World Championships as one of the top five in the UK and I also won the UK Inlands and the End of Seasons races. This year I qualified for the World Championships again by winning the selections. I also won the squad championships. What are your aims for the future? My aims for the year are to win the RS Feva World Championships and be the top Brit in the Optimist class. Our school was also very proud that Emma Davies, Year 8, won a national competition to design the Olympic mas-cot. Emma, what was your experience of winning the competition like? When I went up to London for the first time, we went to an Art Gallery over-looking the new Olympic Stadium. I had to present my design to four judges, one of whom was Jonathan Ed-wards, former triple jump Gold medal-

“Gyrfaoedd chwaraeon arbennig”

Stars of the School

Interviews (continued)

Rebecca and Kelsey, how did the Stan-well team end up taking part in the Championships? We played against other Vale teams and were unbeaten so from that, we got picked to represent the Vale of Glamorgan in a schools’ tournament against other coun-ties. We were unbeaten in the tournament over 7 games and conceded no goals. We won the trophy and brought it back to Stanwell and displayed it in the ‘link’. Rebecca, how did you get interested in football? I always played football with the boys in my primary school but it was only this January that I heard of a girls’ football team starting up in Dinas Powys so I de-cided to join. I then heard that Mr Pete O’Sullivan the 5X60 officer was starting a girls’ team here at Stanwell so I went along and really enjoyed it. Girls, what is the future for this team? We hope to participate in more tourna-ments next season and hopefully become one of the best teams in Wales, continuing our unbeaten streak. We think that the team will definitely stick together—most of

the girls play for both Dinas Powys and the school team and we’re all good friends so there’s a lot more to see from this team.

“I made friends with all the other regional award winners”

Stars of the School

list. My presentation had to include my in-spirations and some mind maps. When I was told that I had won I was thrilled as the prize was to go to a top design agency to finalise the design and I made friends with all the other regional award winners

from Scotland, Southern England and Northern England. What was the inspiration for your de-sign? My inspiration was Wales. I just thought about everything to do with Wales and tried to include it in my design. My parents and family were all really proud of me when I won and my Art teachers at school were really happy too. The school’s PE Department and 5X60 Officer are delighted with the Year 8 and 9 Girls’ football team who won the Welsh Football Championships. The girls’ team consists of Rebecca Eger-strom, Kelsey Murray, Niamh Teague, Lucia Attanasio, Ellie Wenger, Ellie Rees, Shanice Donovan, Georgia Atkin-son, Holly Gillingham and Morgan Bird. We interviewed Rebecca, the star goal-keeper and Kelsey who told us a bit more about the competition.

Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme

This has been another great year for the Duke of Edinburgh Award. It started last Oc-tober when the Stanwell Open Gold group went out on expedition and impressed the assessor greatly. Since then, the Silver and Bronze have continued to excel. The Silver participants completed their prac-tice expedition near Hay on Wye and were then assessed during the 3 day expedition in the Brecon Beacons. The assessor and the Duke of Edinburgh Vale Coordinator were impressed with the standard of the groups and their commitment towards the Award.

The Bronze group have been the largest numbers we have ever taken on expedition at any one time with around 110 pupils out walking the hills. The Bronze participants have had an extra day walk to further con-solidate their map skills as well as their prac-tice overnight camp before undertaking their assessed expedition in July in the Gower. Both Bronze and Silver need to finish com-pleting the other sections of their award (Volunteering, Skill and Physical). Those completed before the Summer holidays should look forward to receiving their certifi-cate and badge in September. The Open Gold participants will be carrying out their expedition in September. They will undertake a 3 day expedition in the Brecon Beacons on 16th to 18th September. Their

assessment will take place near Aberystwyth from Wednesday 28th September to Sunday 2nd October. Good luck to all the partici-pants. The Gold participants also have to under-take one further section which is the Resi-dential section. This must be completed over 5 consecutive days. Pupils have a wide range of opportunities to complete this sec-tion of the Award from sailing to France or learning to scuba dive in West Wales. Par-ticipants can also undertake ecology work . Pupils in the younger years have also had the opportunity to learn canoe and kayaking skills at the White Water Centre in Cardiff. When they reach the age for completing Duke of Edinburgh expeditions, they may have the opportunity to show these skills by completing their expeditions by canoe. Open Gold participants in September who already have an interest and an ability in these crafts may wish to complete their vol-unteering section with the younger year groups. As always a big thanks must go to all the staff who help on the expeditions, with the delivery of the training throughout the year and with the handling of the expedition kit. Thanks to the parents who help ensure that the kit is returned in an acceptable condition and by the due date. The Award would not be as successful without this help behind the scenes. Congratulations to all the participants at any level who have successfully completed their Award to date. I look forward to receiving any further record books that need to be completed over the holidays and the best of luck to the Open Gold in September on their expedition.

“impressed with the standard of the groups ”

Miss H Jenkins

one, which is a little more than a night-light uses. That might not seem like much, but it adds up quickly. Did you know that your microwave oven uses more electricity to power the digital clock than it does to cook your food? Al-though heating food requires more than 100 times as much power as running the clock, most microwave ovens are not being used more than 99 percent of the time. Here’s a list of the biggest Energy Vam-pires you may have in your home: Television—especially plasma and LCD Air conditioners Computers Video game systems Microwave ovens Power tools like drills, screwdrivers and

saws. Help Eco Stanwell defend our school and community from Energy Vampires by un-plugging anything that you can.

Eco-Schools

Thank You Thank you to all who collected Christmas Cards for this year’s Christmas card recy-cling campaign. You should be happy to know that our efforts have helped to make Stanwell School the most successful sec-ondary school for collecting Christmas cards for recycling in the Vale of Glamor-gan..... can we do better next year? Congratulations also goes to Jack Powell in Year 9 for collecting 1,222 cards. He received a £100 voucher from the Vale of Glamorgan . This term the Eco Stanwell committee have been working on a range of schemes that we can use to help Stanwell to become a more environmentally friendly school. These have included looking at Fairtrade, PV (solar) panels, water bottles, a conservation area and exploring the concept of Energy Vam-pires. Energy Vampires don’t feed on blood—

they drink up electricity, and they are VERY real. In our homes, schools and busi-nesses, we have lots of electrical products that cannot be switched off completely unless they are unplugged. These are things like televi-sions and cell phone chargers. When plugged in, they use electricity 24 hours a day, just sitting and waiting for you to turn on a switch or recharge

something. The “standby power” these items use can be as much as 15 or 20 watts for each

“Fighting Energy Vampires”

Ms H Morgan

sleeping on deck under the stars. The follow-ing morning we sailed the short distance to

Herm and anchored to spend the day on the beach. In the late afternoon we set sail again and berthed in St Peter Port,

Guernsey, for the night. Sunday morning saw us departing St Peter Port early to catch the tide through the fa-mous Alderney Race and on to Cherbourg in France arriving in the early afternoon al-lowing time to explore the town. On Monday we left France for a long sail back across the channel arriving near mid-night at Yar-mouth on the Isle of Wight. After a brief shop for BBQ food we spent a day sailing in the Solent be-fore finding a mooring beyond Buckler’s Hard on the beautiful Beaulieu river. The warmer river water made swim-

ming here much more pleasant and we had a steak BBQ in the evening for dinner. Wednesday was unfortunately the end of the cruise; we sailed the short distance around to Hamble pausing for a quick final swim in the Solent before cleaning the boat and re-turning to Stanwell by minibus.

Sailing 2011 The sailing trip took Year 12 students Megan Doyle, Sam Harries, Sophie Jen-kins, Thomas Knight, Tom Pain, Cem Pa-paker, Rhys Ward and Ellie Way, away on Jolie Brise, a 1913 gaff rigged pilot cutter, during the Easter holidays. The students do everything to run the boat, cooking, cleaning, sailing and navigation. Some use the experi-ence for aspects of the D of E gold qualifica-

tion. This year’s sailing trip was extended to a week after last year’s success. The extra time combined with some beautiful weather over the Easter period meant we could visit a much larger number of places. The trip started at Stanwell early on the Thursday morning with a minibus ride down to Hamble in Hampshire to join Jolie Brise

and skipper Adam. After a safety brief and packing stores and bags away on board we set off through the Solent and then overnight across the chan-nel to the island of Sark. After a grey start the sun came out and the crew explored the island, swam from the boat and then had a BBQ for dinner before

“we left France for a long sail back across the channel ”

Mr D Darwall

lots of new skills from the ski instructors. The standard of skiing was extremely good and everyone left the slopes on the last day a much better skier than when

they arrived. Even though there were a few falls along the way, we had no major injuries!

The races took place on the Thursday and everyone took part from beginners to advanced skiers, even Mr Meddins and Mr Chambers couldn't resist the chal-lenge!

Advanced Group: Bronze, Silver and Gold Winners

Well done to all of the beginners who kept at it during the week. It is also great to see the development being made by the advanced & intermediate skiers.

February Ski Trip 2011

The Stanwell February ski trip travelled to Hochfugen, Austria. Two buses filled with Years 9 to 13 pupils undertook the 24 hour trip to Austria during February half term.

On arrival at the resort it was extremely cold, but there was very little snow around. On the first evening it started to snow and didn't stop for 2 days! This pro-

duced excellent skiing conditions for the week! During the week the eight skiing groups had lots of fun on the slopes, and learnt

“Well done to all of the beginners”

Miss R Povey

The 80 Skiers were split into 8 groups ranging from beginners to advanced. Up on the glacier it was extremely hot but

the snow was excellent, even though it didn't snow during the week.

The groups had lots of fun whizzing down blue, red and black slopes! A great week was had by all; a big well done to everyone involved in making the trip a success. Hopefully we will see you next year!!

Easter Ski Trip 2011

The second trip took place during the first week of the Easter holidays. Again 2 buses, this time filled with Year 8 and 9 pupils, travelled to Zell am See in Aus-tria.

After a freezing cold February half term trip, this one was actually very hot! But that didn't stop Stanwell having a great time on the slopes. Every day was spent

skiing on the Kuprun Glacier at 3000m. The views were spectacular.

“Gobeithiwn eich gweld y flwyddyn nesa”

Miss R Povey

School Council & PACT

School Council The School Council continues to make progress by suggesting improvements throughout the school. The councillors have helped to organise new weights for the multi-gym, 6th form lockers, charity events and several subtle changes to school uniform. The Council also hosted a Question Time event with the Vale Council Cabi-net. Very searching questions were asked ranging from queries about pro-posed public-service cutbacks to con-cerns over the future of Penarth Boxing Club. The School Council organised and took

part in an Olympic i-Net Conference. Several other schools attended and the theme for the day was ‘aiming high to achieve your goals’, with all students be-ing truly inspired by the visit of ,double gold medal winning Paralympian, Gra-ham Edmunds. The next stage of Student Voice devel-opment will be to set up a Learner Lead-ership team. The team will be appointed by the school and will be involved with aspects such as ‘learning and teaching,’ ‘facilities,’ and ‘resources.’

Youth PACT Group

The Stanwell ‘Partnerships and Communi-ties Together’ group was set up 5 years ago to give children and teenagers the chance to highlight any concerns they have about local facilities and opportuni-ties outside of school. The meetings held at Stanwell have been attended by local and Vale councillors, Youth Service Members and Police Com-munity Support Officers. Chaired by PCSO Jenna Hargreaves, a recent meeting included feedback from the

Vale Council’s transport officer, who was extremely informative on all matters relat-ing to school transport. Group members also helped to carry out traffic monitoring sessions in Victoria Road and will soon be taking part in a grafitti removal session and a further monitoring session to establish traffic speed in the vicinity of the School.

Mr K Warkins

“inspired by... double gold medal winning Paralympian, Graham Edmunds”

5X60 A number of activities have proved very popular over the last few months, with over 600 pupils taking part in at least one 5X60 activity. A variety of extra curricular clubs have been available, such as Street Dance, Gymnastics, Dodgeball and Zumba.

Thank you to the following pupils who have helped out with 5X60 activities this year after completing their Sports Lead-ers award: Rochelle Gough and Dan Phillips (Year 13), Josh Rees (Year12)and Tom Smith (Year 11). There has also been a large amount of interest for new activities including Box-ercise and surfing, with a large number of Year 10 pupils signing up for the surf lessons that run every Thursday after school. Congratulations must go to the Stanwell 5X60 Girls’ Football team who had a number of successful fixtures against other schools in the Vale including Cowbridge and Bryn Hafren, culminating in an invitation to the South East Re-gional Schools competition in June. Dur-ing the one day competition the girls played seven matches, winning six and drawing one, without conceding a single

goal! This was largely due to the goalkeep-ing heroics of Rebecca Egerstrom (Year 8), who lifted the trophy on behalf of the team after a hard fought 1-0 victory over Tonypandy in the final. Other players de-serving a special mention not just for win-ning the cup, but their dedication to train-ing and matches all year are Emma Tho-mas, Ellie Rees (both Year 9), Niamh Teague, Ellie Wenger, Shanice Donavan, Morgan Bird, Georgia Atkin-son, Holly Gillingham, Kelsey Murray and the scorer of the winning goal in the final (as she keeps reminding me) Lucia Attanasio (all Year 8).

A special mention must also go to the morning fitness club boys who have shown fantastic commitment and dedication to training three mornings a week before school all year. The majority of these boys have been from Year 10, with the addition of a few Year 11 and Sixth Form pupils in-cluding Harry Roberts, Sam Hall, Nick Boudier, Alan Doyle, Dan Harvey, Jack Hayward and Tom Smith. Two pupils in particular, Matthew Allen and Oliver Drake, are fast approaching 100 sessions for the year.

“over 600 pupils taking part in at-least one 5X60 activity”

Mr P O’Sullivan

have been assigned a VLE login, and all parents of these pupils have been given logins also so that they may access the resources and view information about their son/daughter’s atten-dance and curriculum assignments. As part of a rolling programme we will contact all parents with login details for the VLE, and a brief user guide to logging in and accessing this informa-tion. Parent (Text) Messaging In March we contacted all homes, via letter, to indicate the implementation of an automated texting service which enables the School to contact parents in cases of first day absence and enabling you to reply to that text with con-firmation of the reason for absence. The use of this system has been very successful and we hope that further use will result in more parents using the reply option, negating the need for us to make a phone call regarding absence later in

the day. Please note that we are assigned differ-ent text numbers each day. Do not attempt to contact us at any other time using the number as it will not work. We will also be emailing relevant information about parents’ evenings, trips, sporting events, musicals, newsletters and other school based activities to you, if an email address was pro-vided, therefore improving the school/home communication further.

Communication Developments

With the advancement of communication technology, we have taken steps to further develop our ability to communicate in-school information to you, as well as enabling you to provide information to us. The School Website, www.stanwell.org, pro-vides comprehensive content about different aspects of the school. These include news, policies and calendar of events as well as information regarding the curriculum courses taught in the school. We have developed a Virtual Learning En-vironment (moodle.stanwell.org) over the past 12 months and we have found that pu-pils find the resources contained here to be of significant benefit as preparation for for-mal assessment as well as in normal every-day learning. This website is easy to follow

and displays information about each of the curriculum departments in the school as well as being used to provide notes about current topics, setting homework and to view exem-plar work and past examination papers. Our aim is that this will become the access area for up to date resources and news from each subject area, as well as advancing further to provide parents with attendance and assess-ment information. All students have a secure login to this web-site and are able to view courses, their time-table and attendance details. Some depart-ments ask pupils to upload work to the VLE so that it can be assessed and some elec-tronic feedback is given, all without the use of paper and pen! Parent VLE logins During the summer term all Year 7 pupils

“access area for up to date resources and news ”

Mr G Lewis

Art Holocaust Remembrance Exhibition: A number of pupils from the Stanwell School Art Department were recently given the privilege of displaying some of their work in an exhibition for Holocaust Remembrance Day, being held in Barry Town Hall. Pupils produced a number of fantastic and moving pieces of artwork relating to holocaust poems and personal stories of the people that inspire them. Selected work continues to tour the coun-try.

6th Form Visit to the Washington Gal-lery for Women’s Day artist seminar: In February, Year 12 and 13 students were invited to attend an exciting event at the Washington Gallery, where an inter-esting variety of work was being dis-played to mark Women’s Day. During the seminar, pupils were given artist accounts of the work on display and contributed to

a number of animated discussions with the artists themselves. The pupils were ex-cited and grateful for the opportunity to talk to the artists displaying work in the gallery and found a number of sources of inspira-tion for their own work back in school. Competition Success: Radio Times: Congratulations to Amanda Dave (Year 8) for receiving a commendation for her entry into the Radio Times Royal Wedding com-petition. Global Canvas Competition: Congratulations to Ella Smith & Lucy Richards (Year 7) who recently enjoyed success in the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation, Global Canvas Competition. Both pupils were invited to attend an exhi-bition displaying their successful artworks in the Natural History Museum London, where they reacted very enthusiastically to

the range and diversity of artwork on dis-play in the exhibition and cherished the op-portunity to meet wildlife artist David Shep-herd during the event. Gallery Visits: Year 9 & 10 two day visit to London: In May a number of Year 9 and 10 pupils took part in a two day visit to London, where they undertook research for their

“Fantastic and moving pieces of artwork”

Ms R Lewis

Department News

Art (continued) Ms R Lewis

moodle.stanwell.org

school projects. Pupils responded ex-tremely enthusiastically to their visit to the National Gallery on the first day of the trip, where they could react to a number of origi-nal and intriguing artworks whilst also tak-ing in the general splendour of the buildings themselves. Later that evening pupils at-tended an exceptionally good performance of Blood Brothers at the Phoenix theatre. On the second day of the trip the pupils vis-ited both Tate Modern and Tate Britain where once again they reacted thoughtfully

and diligently to the diverse range of art-work on display after enjoying a cruise be-tween the two galleries on the Tate Boat. Years 11, 12 & 13 Visits to Tate Britain and Tate Modern: This academic year, Year 11, 12 and 13 pupils were given the opportunity to visit Tate Britain and Tate Modern. The pupils used these visits to gather valuable re-search for their exam preparatory studies and widen their understanding of contem-porary artwork. The pupils responded well to the wide range of exhibits and took part in animated discussions of the work with each other and the Stanwell School staff attending the gallery with them. During the visit each of the pupils completed a number of insightful studies of the artwork, as the

visit proved to be a stimulating and inspiring source of new information and ideas. The department actively encourages pupils to experience Art first hand to help them with their critical understanding and appreciation of art processes and techniques.

moodle.stanwell.org is an internet address being used to great effect by pupils in the Art Department! All Key Stages have been actively encouraged every week to use the Virtual Learning Environment to help with homework or coursework tasks. All set Art homework is listed on the site and can be accessed outside school via the Internet to revisit set tasks, check instructions, gather extra resources or follow web links to galler-ies and museums to help with artist re-search. As a department we would like to say “Well done” to all our pupils who have actively used the VLE to further their crea-tive success. As a resource, it has had a marked effect on the quality of pupil home-work. Remember to access moodle, you just need to use your normal login and pass-word!

Business Studies & Young Enterprise

A Level trip to Jaguar

Students from Year 12 and 13 had an amazing opportunity to visit the Jaguar car manufacturing plant in Birmingham.

During the visit students were given a pres-entation on Jaguar cars, a top secret tour of the factory and the opportunity to sit in the cars and see the finished products.

Feedback from the students was excellent; with one remarking ‘it was the best visit that I have been on!’

Students learned about lean management techniques and operations management really allowed them to see the theory in practice.

Young Enterprise

Two teams have been running this year as part of the Young Enterprise Scheme. Young Enterprise allows students to run and manage their own businesses, allow-ing them to develop practical entrepreneu-rial skills.

At the regional finals the teams were very successful with the Year 12 team winning awards for ‘Environmental Awareness’ and ‘Best Trade Stand’, while the Year 10 team won awards for ‘Best Presentation’ and ‘Best Young Enterprise Company’.

Tomos Davies was recognised for his ‘Best Individual Contribution’ and the Year 10 team attended the Welsh Finals held at the Millennium Centre at the end of June. During this event they won the ‘Wales Inno-vation Award for Environmental Aware-ness’. Well done boys!

‘It was the best visit I have been on!’

Mrs J Macnamara

they adopted when solving the brief. Following the judges meeting they were awarded the Students Prize. The project also impressed the link engi-neer who invited the team to visit the ARUP offices in Cardiff and present their project to the senior engineers in the company. Students enjoyed the experience stating ‘it was fun and challenging’, ‘it was a great opportunity to work as a team’ and ‘It was challenging but creative’.

Engineering Education Scheme Wales (EESW)

Again this year a team of enthusiastic Yr12 stu-dents consisting of Helen Brabham, Andrew Sims, Alex Samuel, Rosie Tuthill and Daniel Luxton have participated in the Engineering Edu-cation scheme in Wales. For a 3rd year we have been teamed with Aberthaw power station and this year were set the challenging task to design an

efficient and effective system for monitoring the HP heaters which can identify leaks in the HP heater pipework in the generation hall.

Following an informative site visit, the team

gained a clear understanding of the issues involved in this project. During the Cardiff university work-shop discussions, senior lecturers together with model testing helped the development of a range of possible solutions. The final proposal proved to be a viable and possible solution which the company will be testing further . During the presenta-tion the students per-formed well and as a result were all awarded, in addition to their EESW certificate, Gold Crest Award. The judges commented fa-vourably on this stating; ‘The project was very well thought out’

Go4Set Yr9 Congratulations to seven pupils from Yr9 : Kath-leen Ahearne, Megan Wookey, Jay Kupuria, James Humpage, Alasdair Cavaye, Jack Pow-

ell and Tommy Higgins, who have successfully completed the Go4set Engineering Scheme. Following the launch event the team were linked with ARUP engineers in Cardiff who, in light of the 2012 London Olympics, set the challenging task of designing a new community sports venue for the Penarth area. Following discussions with the link engineer the team concluded that a multi-purpose velodrome sited on the school playing fields would meet the brief.! The team proposal included: A velodrome A BMX track Cyclo Cross Course Mountain Bike practice area Workshops Cycle proficiency track/area The design included many innovative technolo-

gies for conserving energy including green roofing,

water harvesting and solar power. At the awards day the Team impressed the judges with their presentation, the ambitious na-ture of their project and the engineering approach

Design Technology

“it was a great opportunity to work as a team’

Mr N Gifford

Emily Jones with her design for an ipod inspired coffee table was praised for her use of material;

Ellie Way impressed with her creativity in the use of materials and pattern in her design for her African in-spired dress, in addition her sketch book was identified as being excellent.

GCSE MODERATION

 The visit by the GCSE moderation has been ea-gerly awaited as students in Yr11 have a new for-mat for their coursework. The department were pleased with the comment from the visiting mod-erator, ‘it’s good to see that Design & Technol-ogy is flourishing in Stanwell‘. For the first time 4 focus areas have been delivered in DT: Food, Textiles, Graphic Products and RMT. Students in all areas have proved to be creative, imaginative and enthusiastic. A few have stood out and produced some excellent work:

Pheobe Page produced a simple and elegant light by bending strips of beech;

Rebecca Trigg dis-played great creativity with her dress designed for the character of Tinker Bell;

ENGINEERING AWARNESS DAY For the first time a group of female students from both Yr9 and Yr10 Chloe Thomas, Beth John-son, Jade Detheridge, Amy Kenshole, Keira Ryan, Kathleen Ahearne, Tia Stephens-Collins, Hannah Nef, Evie James, Ella Butler-Kavanagh, Charlotte Bloore, Hollie Lam, Eve Carter, Bryony Guerrier and Beth Carter par-ticipated in the Engineering Awareness Day ar-ranged by the EESW. The event took place in Margam Park and in-volved a series of team building and problem solving tasks which were overseen by both the army and the EESW. Teams were a mix of stu-dents from all schools who were allocated 45 minutes to solve each task. Tasks ranged from the practical construction of bridges to organising the team to logically collect information. Every-one enjoyed the day with many making positive comments including; ‘Getting to mix with new people and be more hands on with my learn-ing’ and ‘I really enjoyed making friends with other people and seeing how their brains work. Also I really liked the activities’.

AS/A2 Level Moderation Moderation for the AS and A2 students was very successful with some excellent work on display. The visiting moderator complimented the stu-dents on the quality of the design work and the innovative solutions they produced using a wide range of materials. The following individuals were singled out as producing creative, imagina-

tive products: Amila Alim’s work caught the modera-tor’s attention with her carrot design for a garden Water Butt. Her concept was to develop an arrange-ment of items for the garden that would provide interest and fun;

Design Technology (continued)

“it’s good to see that Design & Technology is flourishing in Stanwell”

Mr N Gifford

Barry College Visit

This term 15 pupils from Years 9 & 10 attended an Ex-perience Day at Barry College and were served a three course meal in the col-lege’s ‘Glamorgan Suite’. After this, pupils had the opportunity to learn some presentation skills of their own with the use of napkins and cleverly cut fruits.

DESIGN A BAG COMPETITION

GCSE Textile students attended the ‘Clothes Show Live’ in Birmingham where they picked up an entry form for the Lisa Lam, Design a Bag competition. Pupils were in the process of completing a clutch bag project, so this competition fitted in perfectly. Pupils enthusiastically entered the competition and we were delighted to find out that the winner of the competition was Year 9 pupil Nicole O’ Grady.

Nicole, who hopes to further her career in Design, won a computerised sewing machine and Lisa Lam will make up her bag for her. The bag will be pub-lished and a paper pattern will be available to buy. Many congratulations to Nicole and all the other pupils who created very impressive designs.

Zoe Harries for her Graphic Products project produced an exceptionally wide range of promotional items for a new surf inspired restaurant named ‘REEF’

All these projects will be on display in school dur-ing the Autumn term.

ROTARY COMPETITION

At the beginning of this year Amelia Squire, a Year 9 student, won the school stage of the ‘Young Chef’ competition. The guest chef judges were extremely impressed with the standard of cooking and presentation skills that the young students demonstrated and had a very difficult time deciding on the overall winner. Amelia had put together a fabulous Halloumi, Watermelon and Mint Salad starter, followed by a Herb Crusted Cod Loin on a pea and watercress puree. Amelia also went through to the second round which was held at Barry College and competed against another two students from Bryn Hafren School and Cowbridge Comprehensive School. Once again the competition was very tough and the young chef from Bryn Hafren School was the overall winner. The judge complimented all three

chefs on their culi-nary skills and en-couraged them to continue creating mouth-watering dishes.

The 6 class winners from competition and the winner Amelia with the judges

Design Technology (continued)

“encouraged them to continue creating mouth-watering dishes”

Mr N Gifford

A big pat on the back to Year 8 for the high stan-dards in their practical work in their Food from around the World project.

Year 7 textile pupils have been working on a cush-ion project. Pupils are enjoying this project and have produced some excellent work this term. The bag project in Year 8 continues to be a success. Pupils have produced a range of bags including boot bags, hand bags, tote bags and drawstring bags.

After School Club

After School club continues to be popular. Pupils are encouraged to attend the workshops after school to complete projects and to increase their skills or for any extra support.

Mr Rees And finally, it is the end of an era. After 29 years teaching at Stanwell Mr Gareth Rees will be retiring at the end of this academic year. He has been a stalwart of the department, teaching all age groups and levels, maintaining our stock and been in-volved in may extracurricular activities ranging from construction of a replica Civil War canon to accom-panying School visits to Berlin and France. We all wish him a very happy retirement.

The Clothes Show

‘Design a prom dress’ competition

Congratulations to Silvija Suliokaite in Year 9 who out of hundreds of entries came runner up in the Clothes Show ‘Design a prom dress’ competi-tion. Silvija had her design work on display at the NEC in Birmingham.

Key Stage 3

Well done to Year 7 for their innovative contribu-tions to the cake project.

Examples of their excellent work

Design Technology (continued)

“Safonau uchel yn eu gwaith ymarferol ”

Mr N Gifford

Drama

“Give a little love and it all comes back to you..........”(Bugsy Malone).

on how to light productions with style. This was very useful to the students as they are asked their ideas on how to light plays in both their written examinations. Year 12 also visited The New Theatre, Cardiff to watch a production of The Haunting by Charles Dickens. Our external GCSE examiner this year was very impressed with the students’ work. He described some of our students as being ‘....off the mark scale with regards to ability’. Our external exam-iner for the A level performances also seemed very pleased with the work. Mrs Hall has created a wonderful production of ‘The BFG’ by Roald Dahl as a Year 7 project performed for pupils in our local primary schools. Finally, we are busy preparing for our production of Bugsy Malone. This is performed by students in Year 8 and helped by students in the band and back stage from Year 9 and 10. Please make sure you get your tickets for this popular and much loved show. Details of ticket sales have been sent home with your son or daughter . Bugsy Malone will be performed in our auditorium on July 12th, 13th and 14th.

Our AS/A level students have been very busy recently as they attended a production by pro-fessional theatre company ‘Earthfall’ in New-port and were also lucky enough to join a workshop led by the professional actors. The theatre company is recommended by the WJEC Examination Board as an effective way to inspire students into creating exciting and dynamic devised work. Creating an original piece of theatre is part of the coursework for both AS/A level. Bearing this in mind we also arranged for National Dance Company Wales to come into school and teach a workshop in creating original drama using physicality and physical theatre to represent stories or rela-tionships. Students also saw their performance at The Wales Millenium Centre.

Lowri James visited the school to share her experience of devised work. This was an ex-cellent opportunity for the students to ask a professional actress her opinions on devising, invaluable since Lowri has an M.A in devis-ing and has recently set up her own theatre company. Year 12 and 13 performed their practical coursework to an audience this year and this was an extremely successful project we plan to repeat next year. Parents were im-pressed with the talent and creativity we have here at Stanwell and I was very pleased with the high standard of work. Year 12 and 13 also attended a lighting lecture/workshop led by accredited lighting designer John Watson

Miss R Davies

Economics and Politics

2011 pupils had to study poverty in the UK and the causes and consequences of rapid economic development in China and India. ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ was a recommended and very useful source on the transforma-tion of India as was the BBC’s ‘The Chi-nese are coming’ on the ‘Chinese dias-pora’. ‘ For 2012 ‘globalisation’ has been retained but ‘poverty’ has been replaced with ‘the economics of monopoly power’ - so watch out Tesco and Sky.... A subscription of thirty copies of ‘The Economist’ for £2 (full price per copy of £4) to Sixth Formers was an offer “we couldn’t refuse.” It also provided Year 13 pupils with an excellent example of practical price dis-crimination - if the marginal cost of each copy is less than 7p then................ Two of the Year Thirteen cohort have, sub-ject to exam results, places at Oxbridge—Jack Kinnersley at Oxford to read P.P. E. and Martin Boden at Cambridge to read Economics and Maths. Congratulations in anticipation. By fortunate coincidence the Year 12 Govt and Politics group were studying refer-enda and electoral systems at the same time as the recent plebiscites on greater powers for the Assembly and replacement of FPTP with AV. These votes provided rich material on issues relating to voter igno-rance, apathy and turnout and, as sus-pected, both referenda and electoral sys-tems featured in their A/S paper . Within the Year 13 group we had a compe-tition to see who could most closely predict the turnout and result of the national refer-endum on electoral reform. Peter Woolley was the winner, who rather spookily came up with the correct answer—32% in favour from a 42% turnout.

“Year 9 pupils...focus on ‘Personal Economics.’ “

Year 9 pupils are coming to the end of their first year’s exposure to the subject with its focus on ‘Personal Economics.’ Latterly they have been studying ex-change rates and the impact on consum-ers of a ‘weak’ currency. Many of the Year Ten group felt the pain of sterling weakness against the euro on the recent Berlin trip where a three euro bottle of Coke in the hotel equated to three pounds—at least the calculation is straightforward! They have also considered the econom-ics of unemployment—types, costs and possible cures. We made use of ‘The Full Monty’ in considering issues of occupa-tional mobility and a recent Panorama featuring unemployment in West Rhyl where over half of the adult population draw benefit. A controversial issue cov-ered in the course is the economics of mi-gration. Pupils need to be able to evalu-ate the economic advantages and disad-vantages of net immigration— consider-ing issues such as the demand for public services and housing set against cheaper labour costs for instance. In the post inter-nal exam period pupils have undertaken a project on the housing market—the pros and cons of buying as against renting and a guide to the local housing market by price bracket—what your money will buy. Pupils may remind parents that in the ab-sence of help from the ‘Bank of Mum and Dad’ the first—time buyer is nearly forty! Year 10, as the last cohort of the two year GCSE, have recently taken their external exam so have worked at a keener pace than Year Nine, covering ‘ethical con-sumption’ too. An innovation in this new GCSE is ‘Investigating Economic Issues’ - topics for study which are varied annually. For

Mr J Boggan

English Competition Winners The English Department had an excellent start to the Summer Term, with the news that so many of our pupils had won prizes in the Mini Sagas national competition. The task was to write a complete story using only 50 words. The following Year 7 pupils were all accepted as winners and will be pub-lished in a collected volume of mini sagas due to be released this summer. Congratulations to:Mark Crothers Casey Curtis, Francine Couzens, Lewys Davies, Shaun Donovan, Alexander Fernandez, Jordan Fitt, Lauren Franks, Elias French, Isabel Grafton, Megan Hain, Charlotte Hardy, Maisy Holland, Sophia Holmes, Joshua James, , Daniel Jennings, Tho-mas Lam, William Marsh, Cerys Mat-thews, Ffion McGowan, Olivia Munro, Olivia North, Joe Odgers, Joshua O’Sullivan, Rhiannon Pearce, Finlay Price- Milne, Emily Ross, Jay Ruckley, Grace Samuel, Kade Sealy, Joe Short, Luke Spear, Eliesha Spencer, Sam Tucker, Charlotte Way and Jessica Williams. Key Stage 2/3 Transition Project Year 7 pupils have been exercising their creative talents by devising sketches and presentations to help current Year 6 stu-dents overcome their worries about secon-dary school. Many thanks to the students that have been involved in this

project which plays a valuable part in Stanwell’s Key Stage 2-3 transition arrange-ments. Miss Phillips was involved in organis-ing the project and praised the pupils’ efforts. Participating pupils were: Kaylan Coombs, Francine Couzens, Rachel Short , Lucy Si-bert, Calum Wincott and Emily Wooster. Eisteddfod The school Eisteddfod was once again very

successful and the judges, Mrs Rogers and Year 12 English students were very impressed by the quality of the entries. In Year 7, con-gratulations go to Seren Lewis, Joe Valek, and Llywelyn Peake, who were first, second and third respectively in the poetry category. In the creative writing competition, Ella Robertson took first place, with Emily Geen second and Amy Bond third. Year 8 winners were Jess Vining, Sian Smith and Jessica Boland for their poetry and Abbie Isaacs, Ben Rose and Peter Tuthill for their stories. Visits Year 9 pupils visited the Odeon cinema in Cardiff to watch ‘Gnomeo and Juliet’. The pu-pils enjoyed the film and their conduct was a credit to the school. Also students from Years 12 and 13 went to see a production of ‘Wuthering Heights’ in the Riverside Theatre in Newport.

“so many of our pupils had won prizes in the ‘Mini Sagas’ National Competition”

Mrs M Williams

Geography

Coming Up - International Fieldwork to the Bay of Naples, Italy, Oct. 2011

2011 has been a very busy time for the Geography department. Various fieldwork visits and in class activities have enhanced the pupils’ geographical concepts and understanding in the wider world.

Focusing on the local area, Key Stage 3 pupils were given the challenge of creating a “Welsh Landscape in a Box” as part of the Eisteddfod competition. Pupils designed an array of scenes from the South Wales coastline to the mountains of the Brecon Beacons. Congratulations to Rowan Jones who claimed first prize!

As part of the Year Eight curriculum pupils investigated the problems of rainforest exploitation. Over 100 pupils visited Bristol Zoo in April to explore the challenges of conservation and sustainability in the tropical rainforest environment. The opportunity to get up close to snakes, hissing cockroaches and other rainforest animals was a highlight of the day!

In Year 12 students have been undertaking a series of fieldwork exercises as part of their AS course. In February, students were kitted out in some very attractive waterproofs for a day in the River Ogmore, Bridgend. Everyone got slightly damp by the end of the day, but enjoyed the physical fun in the outdoor classroom.

Year 12 also visited Cardiff Bay and the Central Business District (CBD )to explore the recent changes in urban areas. Mr Baldwin ensured that the itinerary included the chance to taste food from different cultures as part of migration issues!

On the subject of food, Year 13 were privileged to listen to a lecture on Sustainable Food Issues provided by Dr Flynn from the University of Wales, Cardiff. This will be very useful with their A Level exams this summer. The Geography department wishes them all the very best of luck for their future.

Ms H Morgan & Mrs R Selman

History It has been another very busy and enjoyable pe-riod in the History Department. Once again, the level of enthusiasm for this year’s Eisteddfod competition was exceptional and the department received some fantastic entries for the 2011 Welsh Walk of Fame. Pupils were asked to use their research skills to find out about a famous Welsh figure of their choice. We had ‘old time’ favourites such as Owain Glyndwr and David Lloyd George as well as more recent stars such as Duffy and Gareth Bale. Many congratulations to this year’s winners, Amy Hickery (7O), for her entry on Roald Dahl and Ben Rose (8R), for his excellent work on Rob Brydon. Year 7 pupils have been investigating what life

was like in medie-val society. They have been learn-ing about medie-val religion, town and village life, as well as the grue-some details of medieval medi-cine and the Black Death. A large number of Year 7 pupils have also re-

cently experienced the drama and excitement of a medieval jousting contest at Cardiff Castle. Year 8 have been thoroughly interested in study-ing the slave trade and its significance and leg-acy in the present day. They have also spent the term investigating the many aspects of the Great War. In particular, they have developed a good understanding of the complex causes of World War One and have considered its on-going rele-vance. Years 9 and 10 have been examining the Wei-mar Republic and the Rise of the Nazi Party. Both year groups have continued to work ex-tremely well and will no doubt maintain these high standards next year. In addition to their outstanding work this year, sixty-two Year 9 pupils recently visited the battle-fields of The Great War. They visited the Flan-

ders Field Mu-seum, St Georges Memorial Chapel and attended the Ceremony of the Last Post at the Menin Gate. The pupils also visited Mametz Wood, the scene of tragic heroism by men of the 38th Welsh

Division. The trip was a roaring success and a great time was had by all. During the Easter Holidays, Year 10 pupils trav-elled to Berlin. This is a popular annual trip and is now in its eleventh year. They visited historical sites in Berlin with particular emphasis on Nazi Germany and the Cold War. Sites included Sach-senhausen Concentration Camp, the Olympic Sta-dium, Checkpoint Charlie, the Brandenberg Gate and the Reichstag. On a lighter note, pupils watched, listened and danced to tribute acts to such artists as Freddie Mercury and Diana Ross and had a lively meal in the Hard Rock Café. The pupils thoroughly enjoyed themselves and were a credit to the School.

Years 11, 12 and 13 have been busy preparing for their examinations. We wish them all the very best of luck for their forthcoming examination results and every success for the future.

“Yr oedd y brwdfrydedd tuag at yr Eisteddfod eleni yn arbennig! ”

Mr G Morgan

Information Technology

KS3 and Transition Since the beginning of the year, we have been working with a number of new curricu-lum resources in both Years 7 and 8. Pupils have been busy building websites in Dream-weaver, developing new graphic skills using the Adobe Illustrator and learning essential spreadsheet tools. All these skills will be cru-cial in the forthcoming years at Stanwell and developed further during this time. There

have been many notable examples of great work in Year 7 including that by Jorawar Hayer, Francesca Le Guilcher, Jasmine Rahman and also in Year 8 by Ellie Wenger, Emma Davies, Evgenia Brusnit-skaya and Liam Quinn. Year 8 have also had the opportunity to plan and produce a pod cast to advertise a new product by editing existing sounds and also recording themselves using a package called Audacity. This was a fun activity that pro-duced some interesting results with a lot of enjoyment when we got to listen to the fin-ished article! Most recently we have been creating our own game using Mission Maker and this has undoubtedly been the favourite part of the year’s work for most pupils. Jamie Stafford has shown a keen interest in this

work and developed his game design skills to

a high standard; his support to others in class with this unit has been excellent! Da iawn pawb! With the next academic year nearly upon us, the department has been involved in hosting the feeder Primary schools. In these sessions we have created an `E-safety` movie and comic strip, which helps highlight some of the implica-tions of using technology today. These days were both enjoyable and productive for all those involved. Key Stage 4 Pupils are thoroughly enjoying the DIDA course at Key Stage 4. Jack Edgeworth had the top mark in Year 11 for Unit 1 – well done Jack! Homework clubs were very well attended in the Spring and Summer terms and it is good to see some Year 9 and 10 pupils making use of these clubs as well as Year 11. Several coursework catch up sessions were held over the Easter holi-days and again these were very well attended and it was good to see pupils making such a con-certed effort to finish and improve their work. Year 9 and 10 option pupils have worked very hard to finish their first unit of work at February half term and are now well into their second which is a graphics unit that all pupils are enjoy-ing. Some excellent Unit 1s have already been produced: Kathleen Ahearne, Megan Doran and Megan Wookey in Year 9 are notable exam-ples and Laura John and Jonathan Gambling in Year 10 have produced some excellent work as well. Some very imaginative work is now be-ing produced for the Centre Stage project which should be finished around the end of September.

Sixth Form Sixth Form pupils Owen Davies and Dan Mor-gan produced excellent A2 Computing Projects this year. In addition Lauren Barry and Stuart Jones produced excellent A2 Applied ICT multi-media and graphics project . We would like to take this opportunity to wish all our students good luck for their results in

August .

“helps highlight some of the implications of using technology today”

Mr P Davies

Miss E Murphy

Mathematics It has been a successful year in the Mathematics department. Years 11, 12 and 13 have taken their GCSE, AS and A Level examinations respectively. We say goodbye and good luck to our Year 13 students and look forward to welcoming back some Year 11 pupils for AS Maths and Further Maths in September. This year, five pupils in Year 10, Khushal Arjan, Sheng Tong Bei, Kieran Britten, Tom Rose and Ellen Rowlands, gave up their Saturday mornings during the Spring Term to attend the KS4 Royal Institution Maths Master classes at the University of Glamorgan. They listened to many talks including Einstein’s Relativity Theory, Nu-clear Bombs and Chaos Theory.

The Year 11 homework club was a great success this year, with a great number of pupils attending. A special mention to all our Year 12 pupils who gave up their valuable time; the mentoring scheme would not have been so successful with-out them. In February pupils from Years 9, 10 and 11 took part in the National UKMT Maths challenge at Intermediate level. Congratulations to Year 11’s Frankie Law, who went through to the European Kangaroo round of the competition and Year 9’s Balaji Krishna, who went through to the IMOK Olympiad round of

the competition. Both Balaji and Frankie received gold certificates; the other gold cer-tificate winners were Sheng Tong Bei, Leah Byrne and Tom Rose (Year 10). Keen mathematicians from Years 7 and 8 took part in the National UKMT Maths chal-lenge at Junior level. Congratulations to Year 7’s Jonathan Wright, who went through to the JMO round of the competi-tion. The second best score was Year 8’s Harry Jowett, who also won a gold certifi-cate. Other gold certificate winners were Katie Macleod, Sarah Brabham, James Senior (all Year 8), Jasper Aeschlimann and Robyn Iredale (both Year 7). Following on from last year’s success a team of Year 8 and 9 pupils was entered into the prestigious UKMT team challenge. The team consisted of Balaji Krishna and Leo Tucker (Year 9), Katie Macleod and James Senior (Year 8). They all thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and competing against schools from across the UK. During March the Year 7, 8 and 9’s partici-pated in World Maths Day. The pupils thor-oughly enjoyed the online Maths Chal-lenges, competing against people from all over the world. Congratulations to Chan-dler Chick, Victoria Hill, Alex Lean, Seren Marsh, William Marsh, Tom Mullett and Emily Ross who all received more than 1000 points on World Maths Day. Good news for Rhea Ghosal (Year 12) who has ambitions to become a Mathematics lecturer. She has been accepted to do work experience in the prestigious Mathematics department at Cardiff University where she will closely shadow lecturers and students.

“Keen mathematicians .. took part in the National UKMT Maths challenge ”

Media & Film

It is most satisfying to look back on a productive year in the department, when so many things have happened and so much has been achieved. Year 9 & 10 students have started to become confident media analysts, with two examinations under their belt and some very promising pieces of early coursework – especially their self-devised Comics and Animated Film analysis. This work will be on display in the Autumn Term in time for Open Day. Year 11 applied themselves throughout the year to the task of becoming thoroughly prepared for their GCSE examination. This involved the pro-duction of a coursework folder reflecting their very best work, and sitting a written examination in June. Outstanding coursework was produced by Laura Elder, Lisa Gourley and Joe Tucker. This year’s paper was based on Music Videos and Fan-based Websites. Both topics stimulated great interest and enthusiasm on the part of pu-pils, many of whom naturally enjoy these aspects of media output in their personal lives. Year 12 seem to have relished their first year of A Level study, and have just finished the first two of their four modules. The first module was a series of coursework pieces that tested their creative and analytical skills to the limit and the second was a tough external exam that focused this year on Magazines for older people. Students of note for coursework excellence include Olivia Davies, Jordan Holt, Natalie Lam and Alex McPake. Year 13 have concluded their two year pro-gramme of study and we wish them all the very best for their exam results and future choices. We have seen some of the most accomplished coursework pieces from this cohort particularly from Darren Breed, Ben Ceresale and Mat-thew Goodfellow for their original animations and Sophie Chatham for her highly original print-based work. The department has also been extremely busy with extra-curricular activities this term. This

has included the production of the promotional ma-terial for ‘Bugsy Malone,’ with the principal pho-tography by Year 12 Media student Kate Hum-phreys. Members of the department also continue to provide back stage support and assistance for the shows. The Media Studies Awards for GCSE and A Level were won this year by Victoria Isaac (Year 11) and Sophie Chatham (Year 13). Victoria has worked enthusiastically and consistently, producing an out-standing coursework folder, while Sophie received this year’s A Level Media Prize for her consistent standards of attainment. Film Studies A group of fifteen students began the year studying for a new A Level in Film Studies and have recently completed the first of two rigorous external exami-nations. The standard of the actual filmmaking for the coursework element has been outstanding and has sent a buzz around the school. Tom Campion, Jake Hatter, Ashley Madoo and Joe Sheppard have proven themselves to be first class cinematog-raphers. Praise is due to the whole class for their commitment throughout the year.

“some of the most accomplished coursework”

Mr I O’Rourke

Modern Foreign Languages

It’s been another busy year for the Modern Languages department! Mrs Symonds, to-gether with the Welsh department, took 55 Year 8 pupils to Paris to enjoy the St. David’s Day celebrations at Disneyland. Pu-pils also did a sightseeing tour of the city as well as enjoying a boat trip down the Seine. They also got to go up the Eiffel tower, which is always a highlight.

For this year’s Eisteddfod Year 7 French pupils created a poster about themselves entitled “Moi”. There was a large number of entries and judging was very difficult but the eventual winners were: first, Seren Marsh, joint second Rowena Cameron and Lucy Richards and third, Bethan Evans. The stage item was won by Paul Mona-ghan and Tristan Worssam. In Year 8 the title was :”Ma chambre idé-

ale” (my ideal bedroom). Entries were

judged in two categories since we were inun-dated with a variety of 3D versions as well as conventional posters! The winners in the poster competition were: first Hazel Doran, second Anastasia Mirza-Davies and third Sally Jones. In the 3D/ model section: first Jack Bosley, second Max Shepherd and third Lauren Rogers.

Year 8 German pupils were asked to create a poster about “Meine Familie” (my family) and Year 9 pupils designed posters entitled “Mein Urlaub” (My holiday). There were some highly imaginative entries and the standard was very high. Af-ter great delibera-tion the winners in Year 8 were cho-sen with Milissa Sorenson taking first place, Emma Davies was sec-ond and Emily Walters third. In Year 9, first place went to Lissie Britten, with Beth Johnson coming second. The Stanwell-Staufen Exchange continues to thrive and just before Easter Mrs Davis and Miss Lemon accompanied 46 pupils from

“It’s been another busy year for the Modern Languages department!”

Mrs T Davis

Modern Foreign (continued) Languages

Years 8 & 9 to spend ten days in the South of Germany. This year we were blessed with glorious weather which made the trip to the Titisee, the biggest lake in the Black Forest, particu-larly pleasant. Last time we visited the lake was actually frozen but this year the chil-dren were able to take out pedalos. I’m sure there were some very tired legs at the end of the half hour! The pupils attended school, which was an interesting experience, as well as enjoying a number of excursions. The highlight was, as always, the visit to the Europapark, Ger-many’s biggest theme park, where the rides seem to get bigger and faster every year! We also had a treasure hunt around Staufen and the winners were:in first place, Katie Black, Bethany Woodcock and Lis-sie Britten. (Y9) In second place, Fynn Lacey, Jac Humphreys, Rhodri Guerrier (Y8) and Sam Hills (Y9) .

A number of students from Years 12 and 13 attended an activity day at City Hall in Car-diff entitled “Languages into Europe”. Amongst other things they had the opportu-nity to try Chinese calligraphy and learn about the possibilities of studying abroad. In the afternoon there was a quiz with our pu-pils performing extremely well. Congratula-tions to all involved. The French department has enjoyed a visit to the seaside town of Boulogne this term. At the beginning of July 43 pupils from Y7 spent the weekend practising their French

and sampling the delights of French culture and cuisine. Highlights included visiting Nau-sicaa, Boulogne’s aquarium, exploring the ramparts and cobbled streets of the old town and eating some traditional and quite deli-cious crêpes. C’était fantastique!

At this year’s Award ceremony the MFL department recog-nised the efforts of some excellent lin-guists. The Myer-scough-Schwenk award for the best A Level linguist went to Eleanor Davis (Y13), who is hop-ing to study French and German at Bris-tol University next year. The Key

Stage 4 Linguist award went to Amy Palin (Y11) who has produced work of a super standard in both French and German at GCSE. The Key Stage 3 Linguist award went to Seren James (Y8) who is making excellent progress and will be studying French and German for GCSE next year.

“The Stanwell-Staufen Exchange continues to thrive.”

Mrs T Davis

Music

The Spring Term started in earnest with preparations for all the GCSE and AS /A2 composition coursework and practical ex-aminations taking place before Easter. Vis-iting examiners were extremely complimen-tary as regards the excellent standards of the performances given by the pupils. In addition, there were a number of Year 10 pupils taking the GCSE practical examina-tion a year early and they all did extremely well. We wish them all good luck for a bril-liant set of results in the summer! At the beginning of March, Year 7, 8 and 9 took part in the annual school Eisteddfod. Pupils took part in the competitions of vocal solo, instrumental solo and group perform-ance. Entries were of a very high standard and it was very difficult to choose perform-ers to go thorough to the stage round of the competitions. Congratulations and well done to all who took part. In addition, on March 2 a group of Stanwell pupils (Year 7 to 13) were asked to take part as a choir in the Wales ‘R.E. Festival’ which was held at Stanwell. They performed ‘Place of Trust’, a bilingual song that was specially commis-sioned for the festival. They gave a musical and much appreciated performance. On March 23rd, pupils in Year 9 visited the Wales Millennium Centre and took part in a Rock Band and song writing workshop. Pu-pils were given the opportunity to ask ques-tions, gain tips on how to write a successful song and try out various equipment. It was a thoroughly enjoyable visit and pupils were particularly fans of a guitar and vocal loop station! Congratulations must also be given to a group of our senior musicians known as the OPEN HOUSE BAND. The gave a most enjoyable concert at Cardiff Arms

Park, which was a charity fundraising event in aid of Marie Curie Cancer Care. Mem-bers of the band are James Biss Year 12), Josh Biss (Year 10), Thomas Elliot (Year 12), Patrick Mullan (Year 12) and Zac Ghazi Torbati (Year 10) Well done fellas!

Stanwell certainly finished the Spring Term on a musical note when in the final week two events took place in the school Audito-rium. The first was the departmental KS3 concert held on April 13th, an impressive event involving hundreds of pupils which was organised by Miss Cooksey, who worked tirelessly to organise the event. Many thanks to her for all the hard work. This year, all pupils in Year 7 were involved singing a Take That Medley, which had been learnt in their classroom lessons. Dur-ing this event Year 7, 8 and 9 Eisteddfod Music competition winners were also given the chance to perform their winning entries on stage. Soloists were Megan Hain (Year 8), Charlotte Hardy (Year 7), Dafydd Jones (Year 7), Joe Short (Year 7), Erin Summerhayes (Year 7), Becky

Thompson (Year 9) and Ray Vandyck (Year 7). Other items included the Year 7 Steel Pan group (joined by their tutor Wa-hda), Junior Jazz (conducted by Joseph Keenan Year 11), Brass Group

“excellent standards of the performances given by the pupils”

Mrs J Richards

Music (continued)

(conducted by Shirley Howman), Out-siders Boys’ Choir and Girls’ Choir, con-ducted by Miss Cooksey. The concert was a thorough success and well done to all pupils who were involved. A donation from the ticket sales has been given to the Ja-pan Tsunami Relief Fund.

Junior Jazz Brass Group

The second event was a concert held on

14 April 2011 which featured The National Youth Orchestra of Luxembourg, Sym-phonic Brass and Cardiff & Vale of Gla-morgan Youth Wind Band, which included some of our students. The music pre-sented was of a terrific standard, again—well done to all.

The Summer annual Rotary Concert took-place, with all the schools from Penarth presenting musical items in aid of charity; this year ten schools took part! The contri-bution from Stanwell was our Junior Jazz group performing two pieces - ‘What I’d Say’ by Ray Charles and ‘I Feel Good’ by James Brown. Soloists were Ray Vandyck (Clarinet, Year 7) and Becky Thompson (Vocals, Year 9).

We must acknowledge a superb achieve-

“a superb achievement by one of our young musicians”

Mrs J Richards

ment by one of our young musicians in Year 9. Following on from last year’s success with a Stanwell sixth former winning the prestigious Cardiff Richard Fice Memorial Award, Peter McDonough (who has been successful in a number of local competi-tions), has won the competition this year, the youngest winner so far in the history of the event. We are very proud of him!! Well done, Peter. Finally—but certainly not least— rehearsals are in full flow at the time of writing for the end of term Year 8 production of BUGSY MALONE. Pupils from KS3 are supporting backstage and in the accompanying band; it is going to be a very exciting show! Tick-ets will be on sale from the school office, with the dates of the show being the 12th, 13th and 14th of July. During the last week of term, many of our pupils will have performed in City Hall, St Davids Hall and Cardiff County Hall, in sen-ior County groups such as Jazz News, the County Youth Choir and the County Youth Brass Band. It is extremely encouraging to see our pupils being involved in such events.

STOP PRESS Anyone interested in learning to play an

instrument or having singing lessons next year should see one of the music staff im-mediately at the start of the Autumn Term.

Physical Education

The PE department has again this summer run a very successful trip to the Storey Arms Outdoor Educational Centre, where nearly 50 pupils participated in various activities such as gorge walking, rock climbing, caving, ca-noeing and orienteering. They were also re-quired to look after themselves in terms of cooking, cleaning and making beds, all life skills which have hopefully been continued since returning home!

Year 7 Rugby An incredible year for the Year 7 Rugby team who have remained unbeaten in all forms of rugby throughout the year. This has resulted in the team being crowned Vale of Glamor-gan league winners, Vale of Glamorgan Cup winners and Vale of Glamorgan 7s winners. In the league after some easy victo-

ries against Llantwit Major, Barry and St Cyres the team came up against a strong Cowbridge side who pushed the team to their hardest vic-tory squeezing home 15 – 10. Throughout the season the team have played attractive rugby with many players contributing to the attacking style. The team has been well led by Spencer Robinson with Basil Crack, Charles de Grey, Rhys Picton and Joe Short providing an excellent supply of possession from the forwards, enabling many talented backs such as Morgan Humphreys, Nic Mackey, James Price, Morgan Rees, George Roberts and Harry Williams to seemingly run in tries at will. In the Final which was played at the home of Cardiff Rugby Club the team ran out easy winners beating Bro Morganwg 54 – 0. The 7s Tournament proved very challenging but the pace of all players proved decisive in beating Cowbridge in a close final. It will be difficult to beat such a year but I feel confident that this group of talented and hardworking players will do their best to try to equal it in Year 8.

Year 7 rugby Sevens team with shield Year 8 Rugby After a poor start to the season, the Year 8 team came back strongly to record their first victory and give a very good display in the 7s Tournament. Many new players joined the team and contributed well. Ed Drake, Oliver

“An incredible year for the Year 7 Rugby team “

Mr I Summerfield

Physical Education (continued)

Shore, Caleb Docking, Sam White and Dan Watts worked well throughout the season and should feel optimistic for the next year. Year 9 Rugby Year 9 rugby showed great promise with new players joining the team. The season finished with a fantastic battle against Cowbridge in the final of the Vale of Glamorgan 7s. These young men show great potential and we look forward to seeing how they progress next season. Year 10 Rugby Year 10 rugby team finished on a particularly high note by not only winning the Vale of Gla-morgan 7s tournament (with an excellent last minute solo effort from David Pain finished with a controversial Chris Ashton style swan dive) but also having four players selected to repre-sent Cardiff Blues (Harry Roberts, Alan Doyle, Matthew Allen and Nicholas Boudier) and one player selected to play for the Cardiff Blues Academy (Sam Hall). Well done to all boys in-volved and lets hope you maintain your contin-ued effort and success when playing for Stan-well 1st XV next year. Senior Rugby The senior side also finished in good fashion beating top of the table Barry Boys convincingly 35 points to 15. This secured Stanwell’s position in the top half of the table and proved to opposi-tion sides that Stanwell will be a force to be reckoned with in future seasons. Many thanks to all the players who trained and played with grit and determination throughout the season especially Danny Phillips who has been a su-perb captain and player both on and off the pitch.

“great commitment to the sport ”

Cross Country Following a highly successful winter season the Year 7 Boys’ and Girls’ Cross Country teams finished on a high winning both their final league match and the County Cup. They finished top of the league and have recently attended a presentation evening where their achievements were formally recognised. All of the athletes have shown great com-mitment to the sport and fully deserve the achievements they gained this season. Well done to the team – Tom Collins, Will Gale, Cameron House, Morgan Hum-phreys, Ethan Hutchins, Alex Langrish, Nick Mackey, Will Marsh, Ben McCullagh and Spencer Robinson and Annabelle Birch-Hurst, Morgan Hayman, Rebecca Humpage, Georgia Logan Davies, Seren Marsh and Emily Wooster Annabelle Birch-Hurst, Seren Marsh, Emily Wooster, Spencer Robinson, Ben McCullagh, Alex Langrish and Will Marsh all represented Cardiff and the Vale County-Schools in Cross Country. Well done to Kate Coker, Year 9, who came second as an individual in the Year 8 and 9 Cross Country Championships. She has also represented the County and Wales.

Mr I Summerfield

Physical Education (continued)

Athletics The Athletics season has started with a bang with Che Pomphrey and Tom Wil-liams successfully competing at the Cardiff and Vale Multi Events Championships. They are due to represent the County in the Welsh Schools Multi Events Championships this summer, where they will complete a pentathlon consisting of 100m hurdles, long jump, shot putt, high jump and 800m. At the U17 County Championships Matteo Holmes and Tom Williams were selected to represent the county in the upcoming Welsh Schools championships. Tom Geen, Calum Hughes, Che Pom-phrey, Spencer Ward-Henry, Kate Coker,

“fantastic season this year ”

Olivia Hamzelou, Emma Llewellyn, Anna Mirza-Davies, Maisie Squire and Lily Webbe, all qualified for the U15 Cardiff and the Vale’s County Schools athletics finals. Girls’ Basketball Year 7, 8 and 9 girls have had a fantastic sea-son this year obtaining numerous wins against schools such as St Cyres and St Richard Gwyn. Unfortunately there were some games cancelled at the start of the year, however the girls training paid off when they were entered into the Welsh National Schools Basketball Tournament in April. Through hard work and determination, a team of twelve Year 8 and 9 pupils progressed through the stages of the tournament and found themselves in the final against Pen-Y-Dre High School. They are now awaiting a date to be confirmed to play in the basketball finals. All girls have worked ex-tremely hard this year and are now looking for-ward to starting a new season next year with more games lined up to hopefully continue their success. Special mention goes to: Rebecca Egerstrom who has made a superb contribu-tion to all games this year, Harriet Blunden, Keely Durham, Ellie Rees and Carys Warner, (Year 9), Georgia Atkinson and Niamh Teague (Year 8), Amy Bond, Rebecca Hump-age and Seren Marsh (Year 7) for all their ef-forts and to a year 10 pupil Erin Murray who again has been selected to represent the

Mr I Summerfield

Physical Education (continued)

Welsh U15s development squad this year. Well done girls! Boys’ Basketball Despite having a slow start to the season, the boys have trained hard and have played very well. They were entered into the Welsh National Schools Basketball Tournament in April where their excellent efforts allowed them to obtain a comfortable win against St Cyres. Unfortu-nately, in a close competition they were unable to defeat Cowbridge and St Richard Gwyn to progress to the next stage of the tournament. Excellent individual performances throughout the year came from Matthew Allen, Calum Hughes, Stavros and Tato Katsikeas and George Kynaston. Well done boys! Netball Congratulations to the Year 7, 8 and 9 netball teams who won their round of the tourna-ment and qualified for the county finals at Whitchurch. All three teams played really well and came away in 4th place. Gymnastics In January a Year 7 and 8 team and a Year 9 and 10 team took part in the Cardiff and the Vale Tumble and Vault competition. The girls performed really well and Year 7 and 8 came away in 2nd place with excellent individual performances from Chloe Poole

“Excellent Individual performances throughout the year ”

and Seren Lewis. The Year 9 and 10 team came away in 3rd place. Congratu-lations to Chloe and Seren who were selected for the Welsh team in Gymnas-tics. Tennis Congratulations to the Year 7 and 8 boys’ and girls’ team who won the Vale of Gla-morgan section of the Aegon Tennis tour-nament held at Dinas Powys tennis club. Both teams will now go on to play against the Cardiff schools winners in July. The team consisted of Georgia Atkinson, Olivia Hamzelou, Nick Mackey, Tom Marsh, Seren Marsh, Will Marsh, Spencer Robinson and Milly Williams. New Sports Kit The PE department would like to thank the PTA for purchasing both the netball and basketball kits. All pupils are looking forward to playing in their new kit next year. I’m sure you agree they look very smart!

Golf Tim Harry( Year 9) and Lloyd Phillips (Year 10) have been selected to represent Cardiff and the Vale in the Inter-Counties Welsh Schools Golf Championship to be held in Newport.

Mr I Summerfield

Psychology It has been a very busy and enjoyable year in the Psychology department. Since January Year 12 have been working hard towards the i r PSYA2 assess-ment. They began by studying stress and its impact. In particular they have focused on the role personality can play in mitigating the effects of stress and they have enjoyed studying the various strategies which can be employed to manage stress effectively. Year 12 have also studied the reasons why people obey and conform which has in-cluded an examination of the dangers of blind, unquestioning obedience in a histori-cal context. This module was completed with a focus on abnormal behaviour and mental disorders ranging from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder to Depression. They have applied various psychological models to understanding the causes of such disor-

ders including faulty think-ing, hormones and genes. They also enjoyed looking at the range of treatments available from the widely accepted use of drug therapies and CBT to the

controversial use of ECT. Results from the January exams were very pleasing with 50% gaining A-B in Year 13. Particular congratulations on gaining over 90/100 marks go to Laura Bowles, Laura Flynn and Natasha Martell. There were also fantastic results at AS with Malita Chi-muzi, Jordan Holt, Kim Lewis and Emily Price achieving very impressive marks.

Year 13 have also been preparing to sit their final exams as A level students. They have particularly enjoyed studying the formation, maintenance and breakdown of relationships and how relationships differ across cultures. They have also investigated eating behaviour including factors affecting attitudes towards food as well as the various causes of eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa. Year 13 completed the mod-ule by focusing on gender specifically looking at biological and psychological influences on gender. Throughout the course students have developed their skills in ana-lysing research and debating the relative con-tributions of nature and nurture. They have also developed an understanding of the power and possible limitations of the scientific method. Many students in Year 12 and 13 have taken advantage of Psychology drop-in sessions on Wednesdays after school. Students have util-ised these sessions as an opportunity to re-vise and gain additional practice in employing exam techniques. These will continue in the next academic year and all students are wel-come to attend. We wish all Year 13 students the very best of luck in the future particularly those who are going on to study Psychology-related courses at university including Charlotte Bloxham, Laura Bowles, Anna Checchi, Kelly Davies and Jessica Eades.

“students in Year 12 and 13 have taken advantage of Psychology drop-in sessions”

Miss L Donovan

Religious Education

The National RE Festival for England and Wales took place through the whole month of March 2011. The purpose of the Festival was to celebrate and publicise the value and im-portance of Religious Education in schools and it provided the perfect opportunity for schools to showcase some of the good prac-tice that takes place in RE. The launch of the Festival in Wales took place on March 2nd at Stanwell. The keynote speaker was the Archbishop of Wales, Barry Morgan and there were contributions from a fabulous Stanwell Year 7 rap group and pupils from feeder Pri-mary schools, as well as other schools in the Vale. A national song entitled ‘A Place of Trust’ or in Welsh ‘Hafan Ffydd’ was specially written for the event. The central theme of the song re-volves around the RE classroom being a ‘Place of Trust’ or ‘haven’, where young people can learn about themselves and others in a safe and respectful environment and was sung by choirs from Stanwell, Evenlode and Albert Road schools on stage during the day.

Above—Year 7 take to the stage with confi-dence to perform their “Holy Week” rap. During the day students from Stanwell’s Sixth Form had the opportunity to meet Archbishop Barry Morgan and took part in a multi-faith “Question Time” style session which was in-valuable for their studies and gave a rare op-portunity to debate ethical and controversial issues with members of major world faiths. Feedback from all the visitors to the school that day has been overwhelmingly positive and Stanwell pupils were a credit to the school and community in Penarth.

Pooncholai update Carol Evans visited Stanwell again this year and shared her experiences of working to alleviate the effects of poverty in Tamil Nadu, India. Carol, a former Deputy Head at Bryn Hafren school in Barry, has worked for many years to set up and run a children’s home. Over the years pupils at Stanwell have provided support in a number of ways and currently supports 3 pupils, with Young Enterprise providing addi-tional funds to enable this to happen. The money raised provides food, clothing, medical and educational expenses, staff salaries and overheads. Carol keeps pupils regularly up-dated with the progress of the children they sponsor. This includes newsletters and photos.

Year 13 The department sends good wishes to the first students to sit RE A level at Stanwell and are confident they will achieve their potential having worked hard over the last two years. They were helped in their final preparations for exams by attending a challenging session on medical eth-ics at Techniquest in April.

“Stanwell pupils were a credit to the school and community in Penarth”

Mrs J Skilton

Science

Mr P Johnson

APPLIED SCIENCE The new A level class has settled very well and will be busy over the Summer vacation, designing and investigating a project on a chosen theme. BIOLOGY Regular homework club attendees in Year 12, Cem Papaker, Saul Crandon and Kim Lewis have kept us vey busy! One of this year’s highlights has been the Year 9 visit to Bristol Zoo, Andreas Asprou particularly enjoyed learning about how penguins adapt to their environment! Year 13 had two very busy days working with Dr Regina Teo of Cardiff University, investigating the applications of DNA technology, especially PCR, gene transformation and electrophoresis. A number of students from Year 12 ended the term taking part in a research project looking at teenagers attitudes to genetic risk; the results of the project are available on ‘You Tube’. As has become traditional, end of year activities such as the Year 7 trip to Cosmeston and Primary school visits are taking place with the Biology department playing a major role. CHEMISTRY and SCIENCE Four Year 9 pupils (Laura Gale, Megan Herrity, Seren Jones and Kathryn Tann) all attended the Career Wales ‘Discover’ initiative on Saturday mornings for Science insight for girls. It was a very interesting and varied programme that our pupils thoroughly enjoyed. Many thanks to Alex Hodgson and Ben Hopkins in Year 13 for completing a successful two year period representing the school on the local Chemical Industries Liaison panel. Science Club has continued to be a very popular after-school activity with our Year 7 pupils, including Esther Buckton, Tristan Goodway-Sims, Jamie Green, Lloyd Hanson, Izaac Lee, Paul Monaghan, Sam Wiltshire and

Year 13 Pupils preparing gels for electrophoresis.

Tristan Worssam. Recent projects have included ‘exploding volcanoes’ and building hot air balloons! PHYSICS To reinforce the teaching of the materials module at A’ level, the department ran a very successful trip for all Year 13 students to Cardiff University engineering department. Students carried out some of the material testing covered by first year engineering students including tensile testing of different steels to destruction. Throughout the year the department has been very pleased to see an increased number of our students taking advantage of the support available outside of formal lessons whether by e-mail, Moodle or face to face tutorial sessions. A number of our Year 12 students recently attended a ‘Medical Physics’ workshop at the University Hospital of Wales with Mr Doyle, looking at techniques such as nuclear medicine. Ben Cockerill-Evans, Megan Doyle, Rebecca Ferriday, Rhea Ghosal, Andrew Graham, Sam Harries, Geraint Hopkins, Daniel Luxton, Cem Papaker, Lucie Thompson and Rosie Troth gained valuable experience from the visit.

“It was a very interesting and varied programme that our pupils thoroughly enjoyed.”

“delighted and amazed by the wealth of talent we have at Stanwell”

Mrs C Flaherty

As ever this has been a very busy year for the Welsh department. The highlight of our Spring Term is al-ways the Eisteddfod and this year was no exception. One particularly talented performer was Tom Sharpe, who competed in the pi-ano solo with his own composition.

Esther Buckton, Emily Geen, Sali Harmes, Megan Jones, Lucy Sibert and Erin Summerhayes all sang beautifully in the Year 7 vocal solo com-petition.

The DT ‘Tangram’ competition is al-ways exciting and very much enjoyed by the audience.

We are always delighted and amazed by the wealth of talent we have at Stanwell and impressed with the amount of pupils brave enough to compete and perform on stage in front of their peers. They show true cour-age!

As teachers we have been especially delighted by the hard work of our pu-pils this year. We have particularly en-joyed sending our new colourful Welsh postcards home to pupils; recent re-cipients include Ben Atkins, Lucie Dyer, Katy Gibbs, Abby Mills and Tom Pascoe. A special mention is deserved by sev-eral pupils who have worked hard throughout the year and who have put in extra effort of late. Francesca Le Guilcher, Tara Lovering, Ben McCullagh and Poppy Wilde in Year 7 have all been very enthusiastic. Ross Freaney and Nic Constantino-Russell (Year 10) have also put in a very special effort this year and are making good progress. Lloyd Allen, Tom Smith, Harry Wood and Amy Young (Year 11) have impressed us with their effort and commitment.

Welsh

Welsh (continued)

“Mae disgyblion Blwyddyn 9 wedi bod yn gweithio’n galed iawn eleni”

Mrs C Flaherty

The Welsh department also enjoyed a Year 8 trip with the French department to the St David’s Day festival in Dis-neyland Paris. The pupils were very well behaved and represented Stan-well very well indeed.

We dined near the Arc de Triomphe then had a rather chilly trip on a ba-teau mouche on the Seine.

Year 9 pupils have been working par-ticularly hard this year with some out-standing results achieved, especially by Kathleen Ahearne, Jessica Ashill, Amrit Banga, Kayley Birch-Hurst, Jack Davies, Emma Dono-van, Laura Gale, Amy Guppy, Balaji Krishna, Abigail Phillips, Seren Robinson, Kathryn Tann , Megan Woolmer.

Also Year 9 pupils Tom Dwyer, Jodie Miller and Allan Vermeullen are to be congratulated on the effort they have put into their work through-out the year. Year 10 pupils have been dealing well with the demands of the new GCSE course. In the Spring they completed a four week project which culminated in a controlled assess-ment worth 15% of the final grade. We were particularly pleased with the efforts of Lucy Berry, Hannah Buchalter, Laura John ,Sophie McCaul, Bethany Parkhouse, Stephanie Price, Joe Pollock, Megan Tunley and Ralf Warren. Da iawn pawb! Well done all! Our Year 12 and 13 pupils have en-joyed some cultural activities, seeing the Welsh language drama Gadael yr Ugeinfed Ganrif (Leaving the 20th Century) and the film Patagonia in Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff. We of course wish our GCSE , Year 12 and Year 13 pupils Sophie Mair, Jordan Rahman and Kirsty Wood-ford the very best of luck as they await the results of their external ex-aminations. Wishing you all a very restful and en-

joyable summer.

Workskills

Year 11 were the first cohort for the new Workskills course. The feedback from the pupils has been very positive and they en-joyed the vocational style of the course. Ab-bie Pemberton, Christy Simmonite and Andrew Williams produced some excellent coursework over the past two years. Good luck to all of the Year 11 Workskills pupils and I hope you will put your new skills into practice in employment, college or the Sixth Form. Since Christmas Year 10 pupils Scott Den-nison, Daniel Harvey, Dean Hotchkiss, Abbie Shaw, Bethan Shaw, Jake Sim-mons, Emma Smith, Corrie Wolfenden , have learnt about personal finance, search-ing for a placement, applying for a job, pre-paring a CV and interview skills. They have

been using the Workskills course to prepare for their Work Experience Placement in July - good luck and enjoy your placement. The Year 9 pupils have undertaken the new Finance and Money skills course. The units covered this term are Working & Earning, Saving & Spending, Borrowing Money & Managing Risk, Using methods of Payment, Using Money Abroad and Economic & Busi-ness Understanding. Pupils found these top-ics very interesting and have enjoyed the related activities on the BBC Skillswise site a

great deal. On the 16th June the Year 9 pupils participated in a litter pick at Porthkerry Park organised by the Visible Team at Vale of Gla-morgan Council. It was not all work and no play for the Year 9 pupils however as they

made the most of the fine weather and fin-ished the day with a game of softball. Team Captains Katie Way and Jade Harry led by example scoring home runs. They were as-sisted by Mrs Chellingworth and Miss Spear. A great day out.

“enjoy your work experience placement”

Mr R Deighton-Jones

Year 7 As Year Tutors we are always impressed by the achievements of the form groups. Year 7 are always full of energy and a determination to succeed. They have achieved medals and certificates in a wide variety of disciplines. We are very pleased that they have all done so well.

7T

Many of the boys in the form are still playing rugby for either Sully (who has won the league), Penarth or Dinas Powys. Alex Hamzelou and Ben Stewart have been chosen for Newport Academy and Kate Hayward has now moved up to a Level 3 in horse riding. Anna Jones is working towards her next Grade in karate (so watch out!) and Olivia Munro has just taken part in the ‘Race for Life’ and raised £50 for charity. Emma Spray has achieved a Grade 5 in dance. Luke Pringle has just taken up guitar and passed his Grade 1. Joe Short has achieved his Grade 6 in guitar, Paul Monaghan has achieved a Grade 2 in piano and Hollie Day passed Grade 3 and has her Grade 4 exam coming up. Ella Buehner Gattis has been playing double bass at Grade 1 , guitar at Grade 1 and is working towards a Grade 4 in piano and euphonium. Budding actress Victoria Pemberton played Little Red Riding Hood in a professional performance with Stan Stennett and Charlotte Hardy has been singing with the Welsh National Opera as well as achieving Grade 6 in flute and Grade 5 in piano.

7E

Alice Durham and Francesca Le Guilcher achieved one hundred per cent in all recent French tests. Alice also attained a Level 5

skiing award. Ben McCullagh got into Cardiff and the Vale Cross Country Squad. Abigail Mock achieved the highest horse riding level for jumping and hacking. Sophia Holmes passed Grade 2 piano. Chloe Poole passed gymnastics Grade 5 and recently made the Welsh team. She came seventeenth in the British finals against England, Scotland and Ireland and the Welsh team came third. Amy McAndrew was second overall in a club swimming championship gala and was in the top ten out of fifty competitors in every event. Elizabeth McCulloch came fourth in the South East Wales Regional Swimming Championship and also had one of her stories published. James Adney was awarded Manager’s Player for football in a recent presentation. Rhian Cull received a gold medal for cheerleading with the Cardiff Cougars. Charlotte Leighton-Price achieved Grade 2 in horse riding. Emily Glaze was awarded almost 300 stars in French. Clare Halligan came second in the 100 metres and third in the 200 metres events at the Regional Championships. Jonathan Wright passed Grade 2 in a guitar exam in April. Joel Price came first in a recent tennis club tournament.

7A

This year has been highly successful for the pupils in form 7A both in and outside of the school. Academically there have been some very high achievements. In Science, with Grace Loweth scored 100% in her tests. In languages, Jessica Martin scored 100% in all French tests during the year and Thomas Morley has shown hard

“impressed by the achievements of the form groups”

Mr M Baldwin and Miss R Sterlini

Year Group News

Year 7 (continued) work and determination during French lessons earning himself both “Blanc” and “Rouge” certificates of achievement. Victoria Spray scored top marks in both Drama and Music tests and Francesca Merrick achieved excellent marks in an Arts project. The girls are definitely flying the creative flag for the form! There have been several pupils showing aptitude in the Performing Arts, with Bethan Hearne gained Grade 1 and Grade 3 passes in the piano and trumpet respectively; Coire Clarkson passing Grade 3 violin; Emily Geen gained a distinction during her Grade 5 piano exam; Ellen O’Rourke played with the Cardiff City and Vale of Glamorgan Youth Transition Orchestra in St. Davids Hall for a charity concert and Tristan Worssam’s Everyman Youth Theatre troupe won a recent ‘improv’ drama competition. The boys and girls of the form have decked themselves out in sporting glory also: Emily Ross’ team in the Barry and Vale Harriers came second in their 4x100m relay race; Rory Andrew came in first in the 100m sprint for the Sully Athletics; Ffion Adams recently passed her 14th level exam in ice skating and is now level 1 in competitive ice skating. Jamie Green gained his place on the Cogan Football A team; through hard work and dedication the school rugby team were undefeated this year, including, Jack Revell- Griffiths, Josh James, Spencer Robinson, George Roberts and Harry Williams from the form. Spencer Robinson was also part of the school tennis team that won the Interschools Tournament this term. George Roberts was also part of the Cup and League winning team for U12 Sully Sports FC; Jack Revell-Griffiths came third in the

Sea Cadets kayaking competition in Bedford recently.

7M

The form is buzzing with talent! Robbie Bain recently completed a 33 mile bike ride for the Stroke Association and has raised over £200 so far. Ffion McGowan has earned herself a worthy distinction in her Grade 3 ballet exam. Nicholas Mackey has successfully trialled for the Cardiff and Vale Cricket team and Morgan Humphreys now plays for the U12s Wales Cricket Team. Amy Bond swam her way to 3 Golds competing against 11 year olds from the whole of South Wales. Taylor Phillips has been dancing her socks off in the Millenium Centre to raise money for her dance group Rubicon. Ebony Rees will be spending her summer holidays treading the boards with the Youth Music Theatre Group in Plymouth after successfully auditioning here in Cardiff. Rebecca Hardess has completed a 12 mile hike with Scouts; that’s quite a distance! Anton Elliott has a rare talent playing the Bosun’s Call, a Navy whistle, for the Penarth Piping Team who came first at a recent competition. Rhys Capener is proving to be an excellent shot and has got through to the finals for the annual Welsh shooting competition. Finally, the whole of 7M wishes Jonathan Ignacio lots of good luck in his upcoming Grade 1 violin exam.

7X

Orla Emberson has passed her Grade 3 cornet. She was also awarded joint 1st place in the piano competition of the Year 7 Eisteddfod. Sumaiya Anwar has achieved her 50 metre badge in swimming. Rebecca Johnson was awarded a football trophy for her commitment to the team and has moved up a stage in horse

“several pupils showing aptitude in the Performing Arts”

Mr M Baldwin and Miss R Sterlini

Year 7 (continued) riding. Lauren Franks is a member of the Helen O’Grady Drama Academy in Sully and was awarded a trophy for taking part in a showcase in Barry Memorial Hall. Jodie Morgan has achieved her red belt in Tae-Kwando. Ethan Hutchings is a member of the school cross country team and regularly plays football for Dinas Powys. He also achieved his red belt in judo. Gregor McBeth took part in the Rotary Club Concert held in Stanwell School in May as part of the junior jazz group. Joshua Brooks is a member of the Penarth Sea Cadets and has recently been awarded his shooting and first aid badges. Hugo Dodd was given the opportunity to have some of his artwork displayed in the Washington Gallery in Penarth. Emily Pearce has moved up to stage 5 in kayaking. Ella Smith came 3rd in the World Wide Arts Competition. She is a member of the Art Club and made a cake model of the Penarth Pier Pavilion for the Washington Gallery. Ella and Rhiannon Pearce took part in ‘Lengths for Life’ in Guides and swam 64 lengths. They raised almost £60 for Cancer Research.

7W

Pupils have had a busy year! Adam Yusuf won Player of the Year for Grangetown AFC, as well as reaching his brown belt in karate; Ben Thomas also got his blue/white belt in karate. Our cricketer, Nathan Frost plays for the Vale of Glamorgan and they won a local tournament. The girls have been showing off in gymnastics and swimming: Jordan Thomas came first in a trampoline competition; Beth Macmillan came first on the floor and second on the tumble strip and third on the bars in her club competition.

Lily Winnan won silver in the breaststroke and backstroke, as well as gold in the front crawl and butterfly. Rowan Jones has been excelling in circus tricks and has learnt how to juggle with clubs and hoops. Daisy Williams gained a certificate for being in the school’s cross country team all year and Cameron House came 15th out of everyone in Wales in cross country! Many pupils won awards in the Eisteddfod and Kyle Brooks and Nathan Frost performed their amazing RE rap in front of the Archbishop of Wales. Lastly, numerous pupils in the class have worked hard all year and have managed to gain 100 house points. Well done 7W.

7O

Morgan Crimp, Jamie Evans, Rhys Picton and George Prickett all play for the Cogan Under 13s football team and recently beat Barry to get to the semi-finals of the Tesco Cup. Joshua Dixon, Jacob Troth and Joseph Valek play for the Sully B football team and Tom Pascoe plays for Wenvoe. Emily Wooster has been busy competing in Athletics competitions and has won the 800m race in the Indoor Championship in Cardiff and the 600m International Race in Malta. Tom Pascoe plays for the Sully Centurians Cricket Team and recently won a match against Lisvane, while Morgan Crimp, George Prickett, Morgan Rees and Jacob Troth all play for Penarth. We also have some fantastic swimmers in the form: Lloyd Hanson has represented Cardiff in a swimming competition in Stuttgart and Cerys Matthews has won a Lifeguards Competition in Cardiff International Swimming Pool. Faye Bramhill has represented Penarth in a Gymnastics showcase in Cardiff and Rachael Salisbury has competed in an ice-skating competition in Basingstoke. 7O has lots of musical talent as well, including Amy Hickery

“ Mae’r disgyblion wedi cael blwyddyn brysur iawn! ”

Mr M Baldwin and Miss R Sterlini

Year 7 (continued) who is working towards her Grade 5 violin and Grade 3 piano exams, Jasper Aeschlimann who is working towards his Grade 3 guitar and Megan Jones who is working towards Grade 4 on the tenor horn. Well done 7O and we wish you all the best for next year!

7R

Sully A Football team won the league and the cup; Frankie Norton and Ben Walsh were part of the winning squad. Alisha Marsh and Elin Matthews were part of Stanwell’s U13 gymnastics team that came second in the Cardiff and Vale competition. Logan Nicol is currently ranked 5th for his age in Welsh surfing. Joe Phillips came 5th in the Welsh Go-Karting championships. Morgan Hayman and Alex Langrish were part of the Year 7 boys’ cross country team that won the league and championship in Cardiff and the Vale. Annabelle Birch-Hurst was selected to represent the county in cross country and was part of the Year 7 girls’ cross country team that won the championship and the league. She was also part of the Year 7 netball team that came 4th in the Cardiff and Vale tournament. Erin Summerhayes came first in the singing competition in the Eisteddfod. Katy Gibbs was part of the Year 7 netball team that came 4th in the Cardiff and Vale tournament. Charles de Grey was part of the Year 7 rugby team that won at the Vale 7s competition. Alex Langrish and Lewis Campbell are in the school production of BFG that will be performed for Primary schools.

7K

The form have been successful since Christmas. Tom Tunley has represented the form on the School Council. Olivia Hann was awarded the Science prize in this year’s Eisteddfod. Rebecca Humpage, Tara Lovering, and Rebekah Stavrakis have played in the School’s Netball team. We are very pleased to see that Sam Jones attended every single homework club session since Christmas. Tom Lam has also had a successful time; he has played in both the junior jazz band and the school brass band.

7L Tom Collins was a member of the Stanwell Year 7 cross country team who won the county championship. Tristan Goodway-Sims is now a yellow belt in Ju-Jitsu. Jorawar Hayer plays cricket for Sully and football for Wenvoe. Ieuan Hicks is working towards Grade 2 guitar. Amy Walsh has won several medals for swimming (2 bronze, 1 silver ) and is a member of the Penarth Swimming and Water Polo Club. Will Gale is a member of the Cardiff & Vale cricket team and in the Stanwell Year 7 cross country team who won the County Championship. Kyrsty Jones will be busy filming for CBBC show Copycats on 1st September . Elizabeth Ingram is also filming for the CBBC show Copycats and has passed her Grade 4 violin. Olivia North has passed her Grade 1 in singing and is now working on her Grade 3.

“wish you all the best for next year!”

Mr M Baldwin and Miss R Sterlini

Year 8

There have been many interesting and exciting events happening since Christmas. Pupils have been taking part in canoeing club, where they have had expert instruction at Cardiff International White Water Centre in Cardiff Bay. The Year 8 Musical ‘Bugsy Malone’ has been keeping many pupils busy due to rehearsals.

The annual Eisteddfod was very successful with several pupils showcasing their talents on stage and in

the homework competitions; well done to all those involved. All pupils have made mature decisions this year regarding their GCSE subject choices ready to start in Year 9. 8T Shanice Donovan has been training with the Wales football team for girls, competing in matches and has an upcoming tournament. Callum George participated in a Welsh fencing competition and came in 8th place. Emma Llewellyn took part in an athletic competition and came 3rd in the discus. Annabel Richards plays in the ladies tennis team at Windsor tennis club. Lucy Sharpe and Hannah Sood won a dance competition together. Ben Tanner competed as part of the Wales team in an indoor athletics competition. Verity Tucker entered a dance competition and was highly recommended. Peter Tuthill has recently had Cardiff and The Vale football trials. Well done all!

8E Congratulations to Mathew Bennett who has football trials for Newport County Academy. He is already a member of the Vale of Glamorgan football team, Sully A and Penarth cricket teams. Jack Bosley recently took part in a fencing competition. Isaac Dyer is a goal keeper for Cardiff football team. Samuel Jennings is a member of the school’s rugby team and plays cricket for Penarth. Well done to Ella Skinner who recently passed her ice skating test. Rebecca Villis represented the school in a recent athletics competition. Emily Walters participated in a Girl Guide show. Daniel Watts plays rugby for East Wales, Penarth and the Vale. He also plays football for Sully and Cardiff City ADC. 8A Alex Donovan plays football for Cardiff City ADC and has recently had trails for Cardiff football Academy. Congratulations to Megan Hain who passed her Grade 4 singing exam with a merit. Well done to Thomas Hann who has recently joined Penarth rugby team. Congratulations to Kelsey Murray on being selected to play football for the South Wales regional squad. Maisie Squire has represented the school in several athletics competitions this year. 8M Elizabeth Birch-Hurst recently represented the school in an athletics competition and came first in the javelin. Lucy Bond also represented the school in athletics, competing in the javelin and shot put competitions. Alexander Candy has moved up to a new squad in his boxing club. Good luck to Olivia Hamzelou who has trials for the county hockey team. Joshua Lewis has played football twice at Cardiff City Stadium and has represented the school in an athletics competition. Michael Regan plays rugby for the school team.

“pupils showcasing their talents on stage and in the homework competition”

Miss L Jenkins and Mr A. Meddins

Year 8 (continued) 8X A talented and busy form! Christina Bugert has competed in an ice-skating competition. Congratulations to Ashley Cullen who is a Marksman and First Class Award in the air cadets. Emma Davies is very busy as she is the new captain of Cardiff and The Vale Girls’ cricket team. She plays cricket for both Sully Under 13s and Wales nder 13s. Well done to Sebastian Dumitrescu who came 6 out of 30 in his second fencing competition. Congratulations to Yoko Hargreaves and Laura Huntley who both won a horse-riding competition. Well done to Sasha Horrobin who passed her Grade 2 lifeguard qualification. Congratulations to Harry Jowett who has passed Grade 5 piano theory with a merit. Nicole Rose runs for Cardiff. Good luck to Alex Warren who is taking part in a dancing show. Congratulations to Iestyn Willis for passing Grade 1 on the guitar. 8W Congratulations to Amelia Rowlands who has passed her Grade 5 trumpet with a merit. Well done to Georgia Wiltshire who has passed Grade 5 with a merit on the cello. Emma Harrison is very busy boxing for Penarth ABC, representing Sully playing football, playing ice hockey and being a member of the Army Cadets. Caleb Docking represents the school and Penarth at rugby. Jospeh Fettah is a boxer for Rhoose ABC. Ellis Pyman is a member of the Cardiff Devils U14 ice hockey team. Joshua Whittaker plays rugby for Sully and Daniel Wilson plays football for Sully football club. 8O Well done to Leon Appiah who received trophies from his rugby and football teams. Congratulations to Thomas Mullett on winning a bronze medal at the Welsh karate league representing the Vale karate team. Chantelle Reed has been busy practising water skiing for her upcoming championship competition. Congratulations to Jac Ursell for getting to the semi-finals of the Blues Cup with Penarth R. F.C.

8R Harriet Alderman will be performing at Kings Square Dance with Emily Franks. Harriet will also be competing in Barry representing the Vale of Glamorgan. Well done to Eric Aydin on scoring his first try for Penarth RFC. Tonicha Harlow is busy training and preparing to run the Race for Life. Congratulations to Anastasia Mirza-Davies who came 2nd in the Cardiff and Vale school championship U15s 800m. Well done to Liam Quinn who received trophies from his rugby and football teams. Simon Barber is a keen member of the Badminton club. Thomas Moreton plays football for the school team and is also a keen tennis player. William Rotherham enjoys playing tennis. 8K Well done to Jenny Blunden who completed her first ever dressage test. Jacques Broomfield played in the Junior Jazz band in the Year 7 concert. Well done to Scott Dutfield on winning 3 tennis trophies - 2 first place and 1 second place trophy. Congratulations to Rebecca Egerstrom who has been selected to represent South Wales as a goalkeeper in the girls’ football team. Dylan Falcon plays football for Cogan and basketball for Penarth U16s. Samuel Grace regularly skis and snowboards for the Junior Welsh Ski team. Well done to Edward Herbert who came 3rd in a swimming race representing Cogan. Well done to Rebecca Lim who came 3rd in a badminton tournament. Hannah Merrett is an Army Cadet. 8L Congratulations to Solomon Borde, David Constantino-Russell and Joseph Stanton who have all won awards in football. Well done to Deklan Grotz who has won an award in rugby. Thomas Jones has finished a season with Sully Sports B. Congratulations to Max Scott who is the new captain of Sully rugby team. Virginia Leo has been busy rehearsing with the Welsh National Opera for their production of “Turandot”. Harvey Atkins plays rugby for the school team and Sully.

“Dosbarth talentog a phrysur!”

Miss L Jenkins and Mr A. Meddins

Year 9

There have been many exciting and interest-ing events taking place for Year 9 this year. For the first time pupils have begun their GCSE courses in all subjects and have coped well with the challenge this has presented. There has been considerable interest in apply-ing for courses at Barry College next year. All pupils performed very well in their interviews and thoroughly enjoyed the taster sessions at the college. Pupils received valuable business advice from guest speakers in the recent Dynamo Project. The Proto Toy Day was a success with some interesting and innovative designs being shown. It appears there are some budding en-trepreneurs in Year 9! The Girls’ Basketball team deserve a special mention as they progressed to the Welsh fi-nals. Well done all those involved. 9T Well done to Alice Nottingham who has con-tinued her excellent performances in athletics by coming 3rd in the 100m in the South Wales Championships and Cengizhan Ziyaeddin has been a part of the Cardiff Blues U16 team this season. There have been some notable musical achievements with Kathleen Ahearne pass-ing her Grade 5 clarinet exam while Tom Geen and Calum McWilliam’s band raised over £400 in a recent charity concert. Continu-ing the musical theme well done to Amy Guppy for performing for the BBC and in a recent ballet production at the New Theatre. 9E Chloe Franks and Lauren Miller came 3rd in a gymnastics competition while Sophie Fox and Jodie Miller have been valuable mem-

bers of the school netball team. Jessie Preece was part of a team that won a tex-tiles competition with a holocaust theme. Good luck to Luke Morley for his upcom-ing Grade 5 piano exam and to Joel Lap-ton in his trials for Bristol Rovers football team. 9A Adam Jones has been part of the Cogan B football team that came 2nd in the league this year. Stanley Johnson won a kayaking competition with Sea Cadets while Rhodri Harmes won a tennis tourna-ment playing for Dinas Powys LTC. Well done to Ellicia James for passing her Grade 1 ballet exam. 9M Congratulations to Alasdair Cavaye for getting to the final of the Vale of Glamor-gan Scouts Air Rifle competition and Megan Herrity for obtaining her Level 4 Kayaking award. Megan also passed her Grade 2 guitar exam. Jemima Scott will be performing in a ballet at the New Thea-tre while both Fiona McGavin and Seren Robinson have parts in the musical “Hairspray” at the Paget Rooms in July. 9X Kathryn Tann has been very busy choreo-graphing a dance routine for her Guide group that was performed at a District show. Well done to Rhodri Jones for passing his Grade 7 guitar exam with dis-tinction. 9W There have been some notable sporting achievements this year. Chloe Saliba

“It appears there are some budding entrepreneurs in Year 9!”

Mrs K Chellingworth & Mr H Roberts

Year 9(Continued)

came 1st in an international ice skating competition in Latvia. Rhys Savory has competed successfully with the Cardiff Blues rugby team at both 15-a-side and 7-a-side versions of the game while Jamie Hitchen was part of the Welsh Develop-ment squad for cricket. Well done to Jade Detheridge for coming 3rd in a trampolin-ing competition. Congratulations to Grace Hewlett on passing her Grade 5 piano. 9O Courtney Bridge has been a member of the school basketball team that got to the Welsh finals while David Ring had a suc-cessful season with Cogan Coronation football team. Kieran Gibbs was part of a team that came 4th in a ten pin bowling competition. Well done to Rebecca Te Water Naude for passing her Grade 4 vio-lin exam. 9R There have been some very impressive musical achievements this year. Congratu-lations to Peter McDonough for winning the prestigious Richard Fice Award for Brass Instrumentalists. Megan Wookey passed her Grade 3 piano while Imogen Sibert passed her Grade 6 violin– well done both. Cea-Jay Morgan and Jacob Frost were part of a successful Cogan B football team while Morgan Clarke, Megan Wiltshire and Utako Wirth have competed in local tennis tournaments. Well done to Harriet Blunden for winning a recent show jump-ing competition.

“some outstanding sporting achievements this year”

9K There have been some outstanding sport-ing achievements this year. Will Creaven came 1st in the Welsh School Sailing Championship and has qualified for the GB Sailing team. Maybe we’ll see Will in the 2016 Rio Olympics? Isaac Ridgley came 3rd in a Welsh Indoor Rowing competition while Tom Farmer won a squash develop-ment tournament. There have also been some excellent musi-cal achievements. Suzie Collins passed her Grade 3 piano and both Megan Hol-land and Hanir Mousa passed their Grade 5 piano exams. Eva Vestergaard has con-tinued her ballet performances while Elinor Brunker appeared in “Puss in Boots” with PODS. 9L Well done to Hollie Milward for qualifying for the area dressage competition with her horse Jellybean. Phoenix Kaged competed in a gymnastics competition while Owen Rees and Andreas Asprou were part of a 7s rugby team that came second in a recent tournament. Kate Coker has continued her successes in distance running by compet-ing for Wales in an international competition in Ireland. Che Pomphrey has qualified for the county pentathlon competition as well as playing for the Cardiff Blues U14s. Evan Davies and Callum Page have been demonstrating their thespian abilities by both winning awards from the Mark Ger-maine Stage School. Callum won an award for comedy acting while Evan won an award for characterisation. Well done both.

Mrs K Chellingworth & Mr H Roberts

Year 10 It has been a busy past few months for Year 10 pupils— both in terms of aca-demic challenges and extra-curricular in-volvement. They have coped admirably with their external modular exams and many have already completed numerous pieces of Controlled Assessments that count towards their final GCSE Grades. Pupils have been selecting and preparing for their work experience placements and have benefitted from a work experience preparation day in June. We hope they en-joy their taste of working life! 10T Rory Hay and Jack Hayward are both learning to play the Kazoo and are hoping to achieve their Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Awards. Megan Buckingham came sec-ond in the horseriding jumping competi-tion for Wenvoe riding school and won a rosette. Annes Lloyd achieved Grade 6 in piano and Grade 4 in the Clarinet. She also swims for Cogan Under 16 Swimming Squad and does Water Polo for the Cardiff International Pool squad. Brittany Isaac has been offered a position in the Welsh Under 16 Squash team. Robert Togden achieved Grade 5 in the piano. Callum Jalil plays basketball for Under 16 team Penarth Patriots and is training to join the league in September. Kate Mathias achieved Grade 6 in piano and Robert Cavaye achieved Grade 6 in violin. Erin Murray has been offered a trial for a Soc-cer Scholarship in America and she won the 800 metres in the school Athletics competition in Leckwith recently. Luke Bowles came second in the TIHS Judo Championship in Swansea. Hannah Bu-

chalter gained Grade 7 in the piano. Ralf Warren achieved Grade 3 in the Guitar. Joseph Hall has become a junior tennis coach in Penarth Tennis Club. Rory Hay represented the school in the Jenner Park ‘It’s a Knockout’ Athletics competition. 10E Ciaran Duffy was mascot for Cardiff’s match against Reading. Henry El-Jawhari is a Welsh Karate League Champion and achieved Grade 2 in Guitar with a distinc-tion. Alex Elsen achieved Grade 3 in Pi-ano. Sam Hall is in the Cardiff Blues De-velopment squad. Luke Smith achieved Grade 5 in Guitar and was entered for the Welsh Unsigned Stand-up Comedy Awards. Bethany Parkhouse is a keen mentor for Penarth Rowing Club. Myles Harding is Captain for Sully B team this season. Millie Earp is a Guide Young Leader. 10A Sam Jones is a valued player of the Un-der 16 Cardiff City Football Academy. James Longman is a talented and com-mitted player of the Under 16 Newport County Football team. Rock Ho has joined the Penarth Junior Badminton Club and passed Grade 5 piano. Taylor Knight en-joyed the recent Food Technology trip to the Barry College Catering Department. Lauren Beeslee gained her Black Belt in Karate. Annika Bugert passed her Grade 5 Music Theory exam and gained an A* in her German GCSE. Very impressive! Sheng Tong Bei was involved in the Dodge Ball tournament at Cowbridge and his team came an impressive second place. Sheng has also attained an A* in his

“Pupils have been selecting and preparing for their work experience placements”

Mrs L Jones & Mr G Penny

Year 10 (continued) Chinese GCSE.—a superb achieve-ment . Well done! 10M Laura Gilbert is a talented writer for the school newspaper and has completed the expedition for Bronze Duke of Edin-burgh. Kitty Edwards passed her Grade 2 in Ukalele with merit. Luke McJennett won a rugby award from his Penarth team. Alan Doyle has been included in the Cardiff Blues Under 16s South Squad for rugby. Olivia Muse has com-pleted her tennis leader’s course at Penarth Tennis Club. Ellen Rowlands has completed her expedition for the Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award. Tamas Barry represented the school in the Jenner Park ‘It’s a Knockout’ Athlet-ics competition. A huge congratulations must go to James Flanigan who has just been accepted in the Welsh Swim-ming championships 10W Sam Sellick won the Vale of Glamorgan squash championships and is now ranked 4th in Wales. Sam Wooding won the Players’ Player trophy for Sully Falcons 2010/11 season. Fraser Hodgkins represented the school in the Jenner Park ‘It’s a Knock-out’ Athletics competition. 10O Dewi FFord was voted the Most Im-proved Player for Sully A Football team and Tom Phillips was voted the Most Improved Player for Sully B team. Jack Matthews has competed in Welsh Junior Championships in BMX cycling. Ieuan

Jones represented the school in the Jen-ner Park ‘It’s a Knockout’ Athletics com-petition. 10R Elliot Richards represented the school in the Jenner Park ‘It’s a Knockout’ Ath-letics competition. David Pain is partici-pating in the Sailing World Champion-ships in San Francisco this summer. Emilio Pena Taylor was delighted to achieve an A* in his recent GCSE Span-ish module. Jacob Jones, Robert Jones and Jenni Davies enjoyed the recent History visit to Berlin. 10K Nick Boudier won the Sevens plate for the Vale of Glamorgan rugby team. He has made it into the Cardiff Blues team. Tom Davies won Best Individual Contri-bution award at the Vale of Glamorgan Young Enterprise Finals. Sian Moss beat all her personal bests in a recent swim-ming gala. Taro Wirth passed Grade 7 piano with a Merit. He also won the Car-diff Violins Cup in the senior strings in the South Glamorgan Festival for Young Mu-sicians. Matteo Holmes came first in the south regional championships in both javelin and discus and a close second in the hammer throw in the under seven-teen's category.

“Best Individual Contribution award at the Vale of Glamorgan Young Enterprise Finals”

Mrs L Jones & Mr G Penny

Year 11 Since Christmas, Year 11 have been pre-paring themselves for the forthcoming GCSE examinations and deciding on their options for September - whether to stay at Stanwell and study A Levels, to study at col-lege or apply for a job. To aid this process, we organised the 6th Form Options Eve-ning, intention interviews, assemblies to in-troduce the new subjects at 6th form and guest speakers from Careers Wales. Intentions interviews have been carried out with all the pupils to help and support the choices they make post-16. All this prepara-tion has been to give the pupils the best chance of success in their GCSEs and to ensure they make informed choices regard-ing their future studies. The examinations started on Monday 16th May and ended on Monday 20th June, dur-ing which time formal revision sessions were held in Maths, English and Science and other sessions were arranged by various departments, in order to consolidate learn-ing and ensure key skills were refreshed im-mediately prior to the important external ex-ams. Attendance at the formal revision ses-sions was around 90%, which shows the en-thusiasm and commitment of Year 11 pupils. We look forward to results day on Thursday 25th August where we hope that the pupils’ hard work will be suitably rewarded!

“to give the pupils the best chance of success in their GCSEs”

Mr B Crompton & Miss H Jenkins

11T Beth Hopkins has achieved her Grade 6 Piano and Grade 8 qualifi-cation in Harp. She has also suc-cessfully completed her expedition section of the Silver Duke of Edin-burgh Award, along with George Barber, Aimee Brinn, Thomas Lewis, Charlotte Preece, Charlotte Goodway-Sims and Ceire Win-cott. George has also completed a 100 mile Manchester cycle for char-ity and a 99km London to Brighton Cycle for charity. Molly Crowther has achieved her Grade 1 UK Skat-ing level. Alex Macey has achieved her Grade 5 violin. Charles Fear has created an information video on dyspraxia to help raise awareness.

11E

Oliver Glover has been one of the two year representatives on the School Council. Henry Stephanakis is the Penarth Youth Action representative and was cho-sen by the other PACT members for this role. Rebecca Trigg has com-pleted her Grade 6 in Dancing as well as her Silver Duke of Edinburgh Expedition. This was also com-pleted by Tesoro Monoghan and Adam Jones.

Year 11 (continued)

11A Morgan Harris attended a Rugby tour to Spain with the Penarth team. Luck Crock-ett and Gwynfor Parr have represented the school as part of the Senior Rugby team. Amy Palin has completed her Grade 4 pi-ano exam and her Silver Duke of Edinburgh expedition. This was also completed by Eli-nor Cheason and James Porteus.

11M

Taite Drew attended the Rugby tour to Spain with the Penarth team. The following successfully completed their Silver Duke of Edinburgh expedition section: Paul Keeling, Joe Keenan and Seren Vickers. Amy Young has been promoted to Corporal in the Air Cadets and Jake Johnson won the league cup representing the Sully B team in football.

11W

Anna Walsh has performed in Holiday on Ice and came second in a Bristol competi-tion for figure skating. Beth Cowley passed a beginner’s first aid course. Matteo Attan-sio and Tom Lander successfully com-pleted their Silver expedition section of the Duke of Edinburgh Award. 11O

Kirsty McGarrigle has been fundraising for the Lengths for Life and Comic Relief. Mi-kaela Wood auditioned and secured her place on the Young Actors Studio course in

the Royal Welsh College of Music

“successfully completed their Silver Duke of Edinburgh expedition section”

11R

Harry Wood is a member of the Sully football team and the Penarth Rugby team. Charlotte Bishop has secured a place in the Welsh Acad-emy for the U18s Hockey. Joe In-gram recently performed in West Side Story. Henri Franklin-Pugh has won a Laser U16 competition in South Wales.

11K

Jaimie Jenkins has completed a first aid course and her Silver Duke of Edinburgh Award expedition. Will Barber, Andrew Dyer and Ben Ware play for the Sully A football team and were in the cup final. Abi-gail White has been picked to play for Wales U17 in football. Well done Abi! She has been on two interna-tional training weekends in Llanelli and Cardiff.

We wish Year 11 every success when they receive their GCSE re-sults and look forward to seeing many returning to the Sixth Form. We wish those not coming back to Stanwell next year all the best in their chosen career paths.

GCSE results day

Thursday 25th August 2011.

Mr B Crompton & Miss H Jenkins

Year 12 have had a pressured few weeks, having just sat their external AS examinations. These began in the middle of May and for some students ran through to the latter stages of June. Since their return from study leave, the students have been focusing on several elements of the Welsh Baccalaureate. Each student has completed their ‘working with an employer’ element, either by com-pleting a week of work experience or through their part time job. This has given them an invaluable insight into the world of work and, hopefully, will have helped in the decision making process for a possi-ble future career. This was an important area of consideration as we embarked on our Higher Education week which intro-duced the students to the UCAS applica-tion process and encouraged them to start researching different universities and courses, and potentially the world of work via employment or apprenticeships. In support of this process, parents were in-vited to attend a Higher Education eve-ning held at the school. Caroline Cole-man-Davies from Swansea University gave parents a very informative presenta-tion on the UCAS process and various is-sues such as finance. Students have also been working on their ‘Individual Investigation’ for the Welsh Baccalaureate. A range of interesting ti-tles have been submitted, such as the ef-fects of climate change in Wales and Europe and the effects of the decline in the newspaper industry. Welsh culture and heritage and the meth-ods used to promote this was also an is-sue studied during these final weeks. This included a visit to the National Mu-seum of Wales at St Fagans. All Year 12 students have been studying Spanish as part of the Welsh Baccalaureate qualifica-

tion this year. To finish this in style a ’Spanish Day’ has been organised by the Sixth Form team to include quizzes and cultural awareness studies. Students attended a conference organised by Damaris in which they learnt about de-mocracy, third world poverty and global citi-zenship. As imaginary politicians they ex-plored the consequences for African coun-tries of Western governments decisions re-garding their debt. Elections and interviews for next years the Senior Team have now taken place. Cerys Young and Rhys Ward have been ap-pointed Head Girl and Head Boy with Rhea Ghosal and Tom Knight as deputies. Senior Prefects are Chloe Blunsdon, Emily Davies, Andrew Graham and Rosie Troth. Congratulations to those students appointed and thank you to all those who voted and/or applied. Well done to Rose Barker and Ella Mott-Riley who took part in the Lesotho Pro-ject ‘Musicathon’ organised by Andrew Graham. Andrew and team also organised a very successful fashion show for Lesotho, with a range of fashions modelled by stu-dents and staff. Congratulations to Miles Braithwaite who has successfully audi-tioned for the ‘Welsh National Youth Op-era’ and will be performing in their produc-tion of ‘The Sleeper’ in July. In swimming, Otto Putland took part in the World Swim-ming Championships trials in Sheffield. Sam Harries will be taking part in the Ro-tary Youth Leadership Award scheme at the end of July. May we take this opportunity to remind

you that AS external examination results will be available for collection between 10.00-11.30a.m. on Thursday, August

18th from the school.

‘the decision making process for a possible future career’

Miss P Menhenitt & Mr K Watkins

Year 12

The Spring Term began with the serious busi-ness of the January series of examinations with virtually all members of the year group resitting AS units and taking new A2 modules. The re-sults, when published in March, showed a defi-nite improvement with a higher percentage of the year group achieving or exceeding their A Level target scores. Virtually all UCAS applications were completed by the January 15th deadline and students have now made their final decisions. Congratulations are extended to all members of the year group who have been offered conditional places, but particularly worthy of mention are our five suc-cessful Oxbridge candidates. Laura Bates, Liz Elder, Ben Hopkins and Jack Kinnersley have all received offers from Oxford to read History, Biochemistry, Biological Sciences and PPE re-spectively, while Martin Boden has a place at Cambridge to study Economics. Our aspiring medics have received considerable additional support throughout the UCAS process and were particularly grateful for the interview preparation sessions conducted by Dr Alison Mott, Mr Martin Blamey and former student, Anita Parbhoo. For much of the second half of this year comple-tion of the Advanced Welsh Baccalaureate Qualification has dominated Sixth Form life. Students have put a lot of time and energy into completing all the Key Skills requirements alongside their Diploma Diaries. It has been particularly gratifying to see members of Year 13 rewarded for their efforts with the Welsh Bacc being recognised by the vast majority of Higher Education institutions and forming part of the offers made to our students. Visiting speakers have contributed to the suc-cessful delivery of the programme and these have included a group of medical students from Cardiff University who conducted a very infor-mative session on relevant health matters and Ffion Haf from the Meningitis Trust. Current Year 13 students, David King and Jack Kin-nersley led an assembly on political awareness and the Welsh Assembly elections, while Mr Barrie Clarke of Swansea University enlightened the year group on the “Realities of Higher Edu-

cation” in a typically entertaining address. Further preparation for university life included a ‘mock’ higher education lecture given by Dr Julian Gould-Williams of Cardiff Business School. The David King and Jack Kinnersley “double-act” featured once again when they conceived and compared the very successful “Stars In Their Eyes” concert to raise funds for victims of the Ja-pan Earthquake, when the audience was treated to some very professional performances by stu-dents and members of staff. Equally important on the fund-raising front was the huge effort made by Laura Flynn in contributing to the Lesotho Fash-ion Show, which not only raised a considerable amount of money for this very worthwhile project but also proved a highly enjoyable evening for all those who attended. The year drew to a conclusion with intensive preparation for the important summer examina-tion series, the year group photograph and a final assembly which reflected on some of the early educational accomplishments of a year group which over seven years has endeared itself to many and made a significant contribution to the life of the school. Particular thanks are extended to Sarah Jones and Daniel Phillips our outgoing Head Girl and Head Boy, who have led the senior team with such distinction and dedication that they will be a very hard act to follow. Many highly valued con-tributions have also been made by their deputies Faraz Alauddin, Jack Kinnersley, Jessica Mor-rick, and Kirsty Woodford, as well as senior pre-fects Jia Cheung, Alex Hodgson, Bill Jones, David Richards, Megan Rourke and Atlante Sultana . The Valedictory Dinner will take place on July 15th at the Mercure Holland House Hotel in Cardiff and we await Results Day on the 18th August, sin-cerely hoping that all our students achieve the grades they are aiming for and deserve. We wish all members of Year 13 success in this respect and in everything that they do in the fu-ture.

Mr R Relph and Mr K Watkins

“Congratulations to ...members of the year group who have been offered conditional places”

Year 13

Stanwell wishes to congratulate all pupils and staff on their achievements this year. Apologies to anybody who has been

left out of the newsletter.

Congratulations to the following pupils who have all achieved 100% attendance from : 8/9/2010 to 8/6/2011

Name Reg

Cole, Gregory 7W

Collins, Thomas 7L

Dawson, Matthew 7T

Durham, Alice 7E

Iredale, Robyn 7W

Loweth, Grace 7A

Pain, Harri 7T

Price, James 7M

Proctor, Catherine 7M

Rees, Morgan 7M

Saji, Linda 7A

Samuel, Grace 7A

Troth, Jacob 7O

Tucker, Sam 7W

Turpin, Benjamin 7L

Way, Charlotte 7L

Williams, Harry 7A

Wiltshire, Samuel 7W

Name Reg

Cummins, Lauren 8E

Doyle, Martin 8T

Fford, Rhys 8M

Guerrier, Rhodri 8X

Herbert, Edward 8K

Jowett, Harry 8X

Keating, Callum 8X

McGavin, Kieran 8A

McGavin, Stuart 8M

O'Leary, Caitlin 8W

Year 7

Year 8

Name Reg

Browne, Tomei 9O

Collins, Suzie 9K

Davies, Channing 9W

Fisher, Liam 9A

Franks, Chloe 9E

Frost, Jacob 9R

Hopkins, Kieran 9R

Howe, Benjamin 9T

Keane, Robyn 9A

Monaghan, Siena 9A

Nottingham, Alice 9T

Phillips, Abigail 9E

Tann, Kathryn 9X

Williams, James 9R

Wooster, Daniel 9X

Year 9

Carter, Eve 10W

Dich, Jacqueline 10W

Guerrier, Bryony 10R

Jones, Robert 10R

Lam, Haw Yee 10W

Ong, Pei Pei 10T

Righton, Daniel 10M

Thomas, Sion 10O

Warren, Ralf 10T

Wooding, Sam 10W

Name Reg

Year 10

Learning to Excel

Ysgol Stanwell School