This week we have been celebrating Dydd Miwsig Cymru / Welsh Music Day in a number of different ways, the highlight of which was a performance by the rock band ‘Ble?’ who performed for all of our Year 7 and Year 8 pupils.  Many thanks to the Urdd for organising this event a diolch i’r band roc Ble? am eich perfformiad gwych.

One of the highlights of this week was when myself and Mr Hopkin who is our lead practitioner for Teaching & Learning spoke in an online national conference organised by Apple Education where we shared our journey about using Apple technologies, with a particular focus on accessibility.  It was great to share our story, as well as the story of many of our pupils.  It has been an interesting 10 years in the making, but we are delighted to see the way in which our pupils engage in technology as part of their everyday learning.

This week’s blog is a shout out to some of our amazing former students who continue to support the work of St Cyres School. 

What a week it has been in the arts as four 6th Formers have audition for the National Youth Theatre of Wales. The audition involved pupils taking part in a workshop with professionals and then performing a prepared monologue to a panel. They were then expected to be able to improvise their monologue further based on observation and direction from the panel. The 6th Formers involved were Skylar Smalley, Olivia Winter, Nathan Jones and Tom Murray.  What was really lovely about this particular audition is that one of our former pupils Mason Edwards was one of the professionals who worked with the NYTW and met our students there. 

On the subject of former pupils, Year 8 pupils were treated to a fantastic presentation by former students Sophie and Hannah who run the very successful company Spectrum Brushes.  Sophie and Hannah were able to give Year 8 pupils guidance and advice around choosing options, as well as general advice about running a business and the importance of entrepreneurial skills.  Thank you to Sophie and Hannah for taking time to do this and I know this was very well received by the pupils.  It was great to welcome you back to St Cyres School!

May I first wish you happy new year for 2023.  It has been lovely to talk to the pupils this week about what they have got up to in their holidays, and it has been great to see everyone settle back into their studies this week.

This has been particularly important for all of our Year 10 pupils who have been sitting their English Literature GCSE examination this week, as well as a number of Year 11 pupils who have been sitting their Enterprise & Marketing GCSE examination.  We wish all pupils who have been sitting external examinations this week the very best of luck and hope for some very positive result for them in March.

On the subject of examination results, we were delighted to receive an excellent set of Mathematics GCSE results on Thursday for approximately 80 Year 11 pupils who sat the examination early in November.  Congratulations to all pupils who received results yesterday, and it was fantastic to see so many A* and A grades awarded to our pupils.