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St Martin's School December 2021 Newsletter

Thank you to everyone who entered our recent Year 7 art competition. Congratulations to the learners of these winning Christmas cards designs. These cards have been printed and sent to school stakeholders and associates. Click on the thumbnails above to take a closer look at each design.

A Christmas Carol

Today we were unveiled as Day 20 of Caerphilly County Borough Council's Twitter Advent Calendar.

Christmas Concert

Many thanks to all who supported our recent outdoor Christmas Concert. Once again, our learners and staff put their talents to good use by providing a vast range of musical and theatrical items for guests to enjoy.

We would also like to thank our Year 13 learners, local businesses and PTFA for your Christmas stall offerings.

PTFA raises £500!

A big thank you to pupils, parents and staff, from the PTFA, for your help raising £500 for the school through events held during the Christmas Concert week. Raffle ticket, cake and wooden decoration sales all contributed to the final total. A great start for the PTFA.

The first meeting of the newly formed PTFA took place on 16th November. Volunteers were welcomed and plans began. Fundraising hopes were expressed and plans for the Christmas Concert stalls and raffle took shape.

If you would like to help out and show your support by joining the PTFA, please email reception.

The next meeting will take place on Tuesday 11th January – invites to this virtual meeting can be sent to anyone who would like to attend.

Well done to all the raffle prize winners and a big thank you to all those who donated prizes including businesses from within the community.

Class Restaurant Re-Opens

On Monday 13th December we hosted our first event back in the restaurant. 11 pupils from years 10 & 11 prepared, cooked and served a 3 course evening meal to 40 guests. Well done to the learners involved.

Gift a book this Christmas

The Literacy Trust have put together a list of 40 well-loved stories for children of all ages to guide your book gifting this Christmas! Give the gift of reading this festive season.

Designing Christmas Trees

Year 8 have been enjoying the build up to Christmas with their new found passion for Design Technology! Simple but effective Christmas tree decorations have been order of the day using a range of materials and hand skills to make a decoration to be proud of.

Think of us online this Christmas

Did you know that whenever you buy anything online – from your weekly shop to your annual holiday – you could be raising free donations for St. Martin's School - Caerphilly with easyfundraising?

There are over 4,000 shops and sites on board ready to make a donation – including eBay, Argos, John Lewis, ASOS, Booking.com and M&S – and it won’t cost you a penny extra to help us raise funds.

All you need to do is:

1. Click the button below and join for free.

2. Every time you shop online, go to easyfundraising first to find the site you want and start shopping.

3. After you’ve checked out, the retailer will make a donation to St. Martin's School - Caerphilly at no extra cost to you whatsoever!

There are no catches or hidden charges and St. Martin's School - Caerphilly will be really grateful for your donations. Thank you for your support.

Year 7 trip to Cadbury World

During the visit students were able to learn about how a multinational corporation operates and the importance of fair trade in promoting equality and ethical practice.

The 4D Chocolate Adventure Cinema was a big hit! Students were also able to have a go at tempering and piping their own chocolate. They were treated to chocolate making demonstrations and of course there were plenty of opportunities for tasting!

Girls in STEM

On Wednesday 24th November, we took a group of Year 10 girls to the University of South Wales to attend a Girls into STEM day, hosted by the Engineering Scheme Wales. The trip was a fantastic opportunity for the girls to gain an insight to University life and the courses on offer such as civil engineering, cyber security and operational research. The day consisted of talks from female STEM ambassadors and hands-on activities to encourage females to take an active interest in STEM subjects. It was great to hear the girls discussing how their opinions on these careers had changed and that they are now considering a degree or career in one of these areas.

Remembrance Day

For this year’s Remembrance Day commemorations, I wanted to look into some of the names on the war memorial in the Old Hall. I put their names into the search engine on the War Graves Commission and was able to find out what regiment they served in, when they died, and where they were buried. One in particular stood out for me, that of Squadron Leader Idwal Davies, who was bailed out of his Typhoon bomber while supporting the Normandy Landings and was killed on 22nd June 1944. As I was going through the names on the memorial, imagine my surprise when I discovered that not one, but two ‘Old Boys’ were buried in St Martin’s Churchyard: Lance Corporal Walter Maurice Crowe, who died on 16th September 1945, and Craftsman Wydnham WIlliams of the Royal Engineers. 7R valiantly battled through the wet grass on a damp Tuesday morning and we were able to find their graves in time for Remembrance Day. Two representatives from each Year 7 form came down on the morning of the 11th, when we gave a reading and laid flowers in recognition of their sacrifice on behalf of our school, our town, and our country. The next project of the Historical Research Association will be to research the rest of the name on the Memorial to see what we can find. It’s nice to have that tangible link between our school and the war. Miss Gibbard

‘It was an interesting experience. It was cool that we were able to track down the people who died and find where they were buried. It also made us think about how that could easily be us. They went to our school, they had lessons in our classrooms. The only difference is that they were born then and we were born now.’ Theo and Rhys 7I

Green Power Racing

Mr Shergold is looking for applications for students to take part in the Greenpower series, this is a charity funded organisation that invites young students from the age of 11-16 to build an electric car and race it at a variety of different venues around the country. St Martin's have recently invested in a new kit car manufactured by Greenpower. We need to recruit new enthusiastic engineers to build these new cars to try and become more competitive and challenge the top teams.

The car will be built by learners to allow them to develop their STEM knowledge and give them an insight into possible future careers. We will then compete at national level in different areas of the country. Some of the races include Goodwood Motor circuit, Ford Dunton test track, Dunsfold (Top Gear test track) and Rockingham Motor Speedway. Over 260 cars competed in 2018 with 10,000 students taking part across the country.

An application form can be found on google classroom oe3ij5z.

Cooking Club

This term has seen 2 very well attended cooking clubs where a range of dishes have been made. Year 7 is held on Tuesday and Year 8 on Thursday. If you are interested in joining then please see Mrs Shopland.

Staff Lunches

The Year 13 students have been busy hosting a staff lunch on a Thursday lunchtime. It has been great to see staff being able to enjoy a relaxing hot meal.

Digital Technology

Well done to our Year 9 digital technology learners for their hard work and efforts this term. Learners have they been getting to grips with Adobe Photoshop and Dreamweaver software by designing and creating their own branded social media profiles for computing icons including Steve Jobs and Alan Turing.

Next term will see Year 9 explore emerging technologies such as autonomous vehicles and begin learning how to use game maker software.

New vocational course for September 2022

St Martin’s Sixth form is pleased to announce the introduction of a new vocational course to its extensive curriculum to start in September 2022.

Construction BTEC will be offered at Level 1, 2 and 3 and will be housed in a purpose built facility. Students will have the opportunity to engage in both practical and theory work throughout the duration of the program, which will also be complemented by a work placement.

Mr Shergold recently took a group of year 11 students who are interested in taking up the course next year on an excursion to EnCon Constructions, where the manager commented on the students’ maturity and conduct throughout the day. This visit gave students a real life insight into a multi million pound construction project.

Alex said ‘I am excited to learn how to build things as I think it could be useful in the future and am interested in possibly pursuing construction as a career path.’ He added that he thought the vocational program would be a welcomed addition to the already wide and varied curriculum offered post 16 at St Martin’s as ‘It keeps everyone's options open and allows them to be able to experience different things’

If you would like to find out more about this exciting new course, please can you contact Mr Shergold shergoldj@stmartins.caerphilly.sch.uk.

Rugby Results

Year 7 v Treorchy - lost 26 - 20

Year 8 v Bedwas - won 50 - 0

Year 10 v Bedwas won 65 - 10

Football Results

Year 8 v Bedwas - won 8 - 0

St Martin's 4-3 Cwm Rhymni

A brilliant team effort saw St Martin's reach the National rounds of the Welsh Cup. In the first half, Cwm Rhymni took the lead after Darby hit the Post.

After a fast start to the 2nd half, St Martin's finally got their goal back through Cuddihy, before a wonder strike from Webb fired St Martin's into the lead. St Martin's continue their Welsh Cup adventure in January in the National Stages. Sixth Form Report

St Martin’s 3-6 St Cenydd

A better second half performance from Year 9 football team wasn’t enough to beat a well organised St Cenydd, finishing with St Martin's 3-6 St Cenydd

St Martin’s 2-2 Aberdare

A great effort from Year 10 with a number of players missing Year 9 boys in Hamer, Murphy, Williams and goalkeeper Freeman stepped up to make a difference. An outstanding performance from Freeman kept us in the game. Our Year 10s came close to reaching the national rounds but fell short to Aberdare by losing 2-1. Unfortunately, though we are unable to welcome spectators on site to watch any sporting fixtures at the moment.

Hockey Updates

During this term, St Martin’s have participated in two fixtures against Gelli Haf. One fixture was played at home on St Martin’s red gra with a final score line of 3-3. Mrs Harris-Williams was incredibly proud of the hockey team considering this was their first fixture in 2.5 years. A tremendous effort.

The second fixture against Gelli Haf was away, and was played on their astro turf. The St Martin’s girls came away with a superb final result of an 8-0 win! Well done to all hockey players involved in the above fixtures.

UDO dance competition

A group of 32 dancers from St Martin’s school entered the UDO Welsh National Dance competition on Wednesday 24th November 2021. St Martin’s entered 4 routines: 3 x latin and 1 x street. The latin dances were part of a category called ‘all styles’ and the street dance was part of the street dance category.

Mrs Loveridge and Mrs Harris-Williams were extremely pleased to come away with the following results:

1 x 1st place

2 x 2nd places

1 x 3rd place

This means that all routines are through to the final round which are due to be held in March/April 2022. A big shout out to all the dancers involved.

Outstanding Achievements

Ethan H in Year 9 came 8th overall and his under 15’s race and the South Wales team came 2ndl. Ethan and his team mates have now qualified for the UK finals in March at Loughborough. Outstanding achievement Ethan best of luck in March.

Congratulations to Tom G in Year 8 for his success in the recent U15B East Wales High Jump and 200m champion at Welsh Junior Athletics Championships. Well done, Tom!

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