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YGTCS Summer Term Newsletter 2022 Celebrating Our School Community

A MESSAGE FROM OUR HEADTEACHER

Charlotte Leaves - Headteacher

Well, another academic year has simply flown by, but despite our doors being open all year, this has certainly not been a ‘normal’ school year, as Covid has continued to play a very significant role in our daily lives.

However, this newsletter will once again celebrate and share the plethora of photos, opportunities and activities that our pupils have engaged in, illustrating the sense of adventure and fun that we enjoy at our school, whilst still ensuring that our pupils gain strong academic qualifications. Thank you to all the staff and others who willingly give many additional hours of their time to provide these wonderful opportunities for our pupils. We’ve enjoyed trips to the Senedd and the Houses of Parliament, Tapas in the Park, a visit to a Mosque, a residential stay in Cardiff Bay, the Hay Festival and Drayton Manor to name but a few! We’ve celebrated Year 7 Sports Day, our journeys towards the Welsh Cup, music spectaculars and wonderful Wellbeing days for all! We’ve recognised and celebrated our Pupil Leaders, Ambassadors, Representatives and Captains and revelled in all accomplishments! We’ve welcomed our new Year 7s as they embarked on their Transition visits, and we’ve waved goodbye to Year 11 after the finale of their external examinations.

But what cannot be captured in this newsletter, however, are the daily successes and setbacks that can be faced by our pupils, in both lessons and social times - the small things that can make a big difference. We know that the mark of being a YGTCS pupil is how they respond to both – the successes and set-backs; what they learn from both the achievements and the obstacles to their progress; how they overcome their difficulties and how they build on their accomplishments. This year we have seen our learners return, rebuild and recover from an unprecedented period in education, showing true resilience, determination and strength - these are truly the things that we should celebrate this year!

Thank you to all our staff, pupils, families and Governors for your continued support and we are very much looking forward to ‘Working Together for Success’ throughout the next academic year.

I wish you all a very restful and relaxing summer holiday – which is well deserved after this rollercoaster of a year!

WHOLE SCHOOL

Start of term date

Pupils return on Monday 5th September and will need to be on site by 8.20am.

Pupils will assemble in the following areas:

Year 7 - Quad
Years 8 and 9 - J Block car park area
Years 10 and 11 - rear of B block, entering via the side of the leisure CENTre

Uniform

Please remind yourselves of our uniform policy. All pupils will be expected to return to school following the policy as per the information below.

There were a number of pupils who were coming to school with hoodies this academic year, some of these pupils continued to wear them inside the building; please ensure that pupils do not come to school with a hoodie in September as it leads to unnecessary negative interactions between pupils and staff.

Mobile Phones

Please remember, we have a zero tolerance policy on the use of mobile phones in the school building and around the school yard during break and lunchtime. Mobile phones must be switched off and in the pupil's bag if brought to school.

GCSE Results day

Thursday, August 25th

English

As the academic year of 2022 comes to an end, we have aimed at enriching our students with plentiful opportunities that align with the New Curriculum for Wales. Year 7 have experienced a full year of learning that applies the four core purposes of learners, encouraging them to be ambitious, confident, enterprising and ethical citizens of Wales. Recently, Year 7 students have taken a virtual tour of the UK from Tredegar, to London, and even all the way to Scotland. This has opened up the English language for the pupils by capturing how language changes throughout the British Isles.

Year 8 have been exploring the thoroughly entertaining and suspenseful 1975 Jaws film. They have used the film to inspire and encourage creative thinking, promote their formal writing and stimulate discussion. They have also been contemplating crime and punishment by criticising outdated practises of punishment and discussing new methods of rehabilitation. This in-depth thinking will help our Year 8 learners step forward into their next academic year.

Also working hard in the summer term, Year 9 have started reading and discussing Shakespeare’s Macbeth to prepare them for their English Literature GCSE that they will complete in Year 10. They have discussed characters, relationships and the overarching theme of ambition. Year 10 have also been working incredibly hard through the study of Heroes, An Inspector Calls and A Taste of Honey to complete the last part of their English Literature GCSE. After such a fantastic effort, we hope they have given themselves time to wind down from exams and enjoy themselves.

As a department, we want to express how proud we are of our Year 11 students that have now completed their English Language GCSE. The resilience they have shown throughout the pandemic and this year’s exam period has been phenomenal. Although it is always hard to say goodbye, we couldn’t be happier for our pupils moving on to the next part of their lives as successful young people.

Nearly 40 students had the fantastic opportunity to go to the Hay Festival this year – they thoroughly enjoyed themselves! Students had the pleasure of seeing Jaqueline Wilson discuss being a woman writing in the mid-20th century, Christine Pillainayagam recounted her life as an Asian woman living in a white area and Alexis Caught spoke on the support available to LGBTQ+ youth. The pupils also had the opportunity to meet some authors and have copies of their book signed. Most of all, this trip provided the students with the opportunity to learn outside of the school environment for the first time since Covid-19 restrictions. Seeing their enjoyment at browsing the bookshop, chatting to their friends and getting ice-cream was fantastic for the members of the English Department that accompanied them.

@TredegarEnglish @Mr_JonesEnglish @Mr_Llewellyn_

Mathematics

As we come to end of the academic year and look back over what in truth has been a challenging but very successful year in the Mathematics department. We can sincerely say that the effort our learners have put into every task, challenge and topic has been excellent!

We have seen pupils in year 11 work tirelessly to ensure they achieve the best results they can in their Mathematics and Numeracy GCSEs. Also Mrs Burczyk’s class have gained further qualifications with the LIBF financial awareness courses. Beyond this we have seen our KS3 pupils engage in the UKMT maths challenge, where pupils from years 7 & 8 competed against pupils across all other schools in the UK, gaining a number of Bronze and Silver awards.

In year 7 we have been continuing with exploring the Curriculum for Wales and have been looking at number patterns, how numbers can be seen in nature and exploring links to algebra. We have also focussed on coordinate work and map reading skills, creating our own maps and coordinate instructions.

Year 8 pupils have been finishing this term looking at Bearings, maps & scales work and linking these skills into real life scenarios. To the latter end of the term pupils have been exploring probability, from words associated probability to linking to numbers and exploring experiments with dice.

During ESDGC week our KS3 pupils took part in lessons where they used cross curricular skills to explore and discuss population density across Europe and more locally in Wales. The discussions allowed pupils to be more aware of the world around them and how populations may be similar but how their spread and proximity can vary massively.

Year 9 have been continuing to focus on their preparations for stepping up to GCSE maths next year, focussing on key skills and deepening their understanding. Also this term our year 9 MAT pupils took part in a maths challenge event at Caerleon Comprehensive for the first time and came away with 4th – A really excellent achievement.

In the final few weeks all pupils have been given the opportunity to look at enrichment tasks, getting out of the classroom where possible and engaging in challenge problems, logic puzzles and tasks designed to deepen thinking, really bringing their maths skills to life.

During ESDGC week our KS3 pupils took part in lessons where they used cross curricular skills to explore and discuss population density across Europe and more locally in Wales. The discussions allowed pupils to be more aware of the world around them and how populations may be similar but how their spread and proximity can vary massively.

SCIENCE & ENGINEERING

SCIENCE

It has been the busiest GCSE term we have ever known and to say we are proud of the efforts of our Year 11 leavers, is an understatement. Even without knowing the results of their exams, there is no more they could have done - we wish them all the very best for results day.

The department went through a worrying time last month when Victor, our tortoise, went missing! Victor escaped and Mr Roles searched high and low. As soon as pupils found out, the whole school helped at break and lunchtimes. News soon spread as pupils told their families about Victor. Mr Cooksey volunteered his time to help in the search - as an ex Police Dog Handler, he knew what to do to help. It was day 9 when Milly, his dog, found Victor! Thank you Mr Cooksey and Milly.

Top educake Quizzers

june

KS3: Noah Pearsall Y7 1250 questions set!

KS4: Ellie Colwell Y10 1264 questions set!

Congratulations both.

A special mention goes to Noah Pearsall who, since September has answered a staggering 9043 questions! He is top of both KS3 AND KS4. #YGTCSPride

Enrichment

ENERGY QUEST - FRUIT BATTERY WORKSHOP

Energy Quest is a curriculum-linked programme for schools which encourages young people to find out all about sustainable energy and learn about associated engineering careers.

Energy Quest - MAY

Energy Quest delivered a number of workshops in May, take a look at our Instagram reels of Year 8 participating.

Annual Lego Challenge - mAy

Aspire at Blaenau Gwent ran the Lego Challenge and we were winners for a 2nd year in a row! Congratulations to Year 8 and Mr Edwards. Bring on 2023!

Biology challenge - May 2022

The competition was open to Y9 and Y10 pupils, pleasingly, 27 pupils took part. There was no way to revise for the online exams and they were very difficult in deed.

24 pupils achieved a participation certificate
2 pupils achieved a commendation certificate, Darcy Tidmarsh Y10 & Tom Tang Y10
1 pupil, Byron Rees, Y10, achieved a Bronze certificate. Congratulations!

Over 41,000 students from 550 schools worldwide took part in this year's competition.

All students aged 14-19 years old who have taken part in this year’s Biology Challenge competition are now eligible to a free year of BioNet membership, which provides them with electronic subscription to The Biologist magazine and e-newsletters featuring bioscience-related news and events. Instructions on how to access their memberships, will be given to pupils when they receive their certificates.

Engineering

Our trip to Legoland Windsor was fantastic! It was the first since COVID-19 and all pupils from Y8-Y11 had a great time. Two workshops were delivered during the day, the first was Spike Robotics and the second, the Science of Rollercoasters. We look forward to using the Lego kit purchased for HiVE Engineering from September.

The future of engineering in blaenau gwent

@ygtcs_science_and_engineering
@Science_TCS

CYMRAEG

Newyddion yr Adran Gymraeg

Y Tymor hwn, mae’r Adran Gymraeg yn ail-lawnsio’r Criw Cymraeg. Rydyn ni wedi recriwtio disgyblion fel llysgenhadon iaith. Bydd y disgyblion yn ein helpu ni hyrwyddo’r iaith Gymraeg dros yr ysgol. Nod yr ysgol yw gweithio tuag at y Siarter Iaith. Bydd y Criw Cymraeg yn annog staff, disgyblion a’r gymuned i ddefnyddio’r Gymraeg bob dydd! Mae tair gwobr sef, efydd, arian aur ac mae deg targed gyda phob un. Eleni, byddwn yn anelu at gyrraedd y Wobr Arian. Mae llawer o fanteision o ran dysgu Cymraeg. Gall bod yn ddwyieithog gwella’r cof; gwella gwneud penderfyniadau; gwella eich iaith gyntaf chi; gwella perfformiad academaidd; cynnyddu sgiliau rhyngweithio; darparu dewisiadau gyrfa well; hyrwyddo eich gallu i aml-dasgio a chadw eich meddwl chi’n ifanc ac yn weithgar. Trïwch ymarfer yr ymadroddion yma adre:

This term the Welsh Department are re-launching the Criw Cymraeg. We have recruited a number of pupils to become Welsh Language Ambassadors who will help us with our mission of promoting the Welsh Language throughout the school. Our school is working to achieve the ‘Cymraeg Campus’ Language Charter. The Criw Cymraeg, will encourage staff, pupils and the wider school community to use more Cymraeg every day! There are three awards, bronze, silver and gold and there are ten targets to achieve for each award. This year, we are aiming to achieve the Silver Award. There are many benefits to learning Cymraeg, being bilingual can boost brain power; improve memory; sharpen the mind; enhance decision making; improve your first language; improve academic performance; increase networking skills; provide better career choices; enhance your ability to multitask and keep the mind young and active. Why not practise using these few phrases at home?

Mae ein partneriaeth ni gyda'r Urdd yn parhau, i gyd fynd gyda’r Criw Cymraeg bydd yr Urdd yn rhedeg Clwb Cymraeg bob dydd Mawrth ar ôl ysgol yn ystafell B11. Dyma gyfle gwych i ddisgyblion ymarfer eu sgiliau Cymraeg gyda staff yr Urdd a gyda’i gilydd wrth gael hwyl – cofiwch bod siarad Cymraeg yn sgil pwysig! Cymraeg yw iaith y daith! Hefyd Mae’r Adran Gymraeg yn trefnu trip i aelodau’r Criw Cymraeg a Chlwb Cymraeg i Ganolfan yr Urdd ym Mae Caerdydd ar ddiwedd tymor yr haf. Bydd hyn yn gyfle anhygoel i ddisgyblion defnyddio Cymraeg mewn cyd-destun cymdeithasol gyda staff yr Urdd yn y ganolfan a gyda’i gilydd. Rydyn ni wedi cynllunio llawer o weithgareddau cyffrous fel trip i’r senedd, trip cwch i’r dref, ymweliad â’r amgueddfa, ac i Sain Ffagan, sinema, trip cwch cyflym o gwmpas y bae a bowlio.

Our partnership with the Urdd continues, alongside the Criw Cymraeg, the Urdd will be running the Welsh Club every Tuesday after school in room B11. This is a fantastic opportunity for pupils to practise their Welsh language skills with staff from the Urdd and each other whilst having fun – remember, speaking Cymraeg is a life skill! Cymraeg yw iaith y daith! The Welsh Department are also organising a residential trip for members of the Criw Cymraeg and Clwb Cymraeg to Canolfan yr Urdd (the Urdd Centre) in Cardiff Bay at the end of the summer term. This will be an excellent opportunity for pupils to use Welsh in a social context with staff in the department, staff at the centre and with each other. We have many exciting activities planned such as a trip to the Senedd building, a boat trip into the town, a visit to the museum and to St Fagans, cinema, a speed boat trip around the bay and bowling.

Art, design & technology

Platinum Jubilee 70 Years Celebrations

River of Hope

We are so proud of our Year 9 pupils whose Art work has been chosen as one of 200 schools to be part of the Platinum Jubilee Pageant in London. The River of Hope forms a central part of The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Two hundred of the artworks created have been selected to be printed onto silk flags and was part of The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pageant on the 5 June 2022.

Following the pageant, a number of the flags will be displayed as part of a public exhibition at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich from 26 September to the 30 October.

70 for 70 HM Queen Portrait Exhibition

Congratulations to the 70 pupils selected to take part in the Art & Design 70 portraits of the Queen Exhibition at Bedwellty House who proudly hosted our 70 Portraits of the Queen. To celebrate this unprecedented anniversary of the Queen the art work was on display to members of the public over the Jubilee weekend.

LGBTQ+ Pom Pom Tree

Our pupils and school community have come together to make our Pride LGBTQ+ tree displaying our colourful Pom Poms. We at Tredegar Comprehensive School would like to celebrate and recognise the wide range of voices that exist in our school community through this tree.

Our LGBTQ+ Pom Tree celebrates PRIDE month in June and we celebrate throughout the school and would like to share our ethos of support and inclusivity with the people of Tredegar.

Nathan Wyburn Visit

It’s a always a pleasure to welcome Nathan Wyburn back to the Art & Design Faculty, Nathan has been commissioned by Kier Construction to produce several pieces of Art & Sculptural pieces for the new Tredegar Health and Wellbeing centre for the Anuerin Bevan UHB.

Nathan community engagement included visiting our feeder primaries schools and ended his week at Tredegar Comprehensive School, where he worked with some of our year 9 pupils whose work will be included in Nathan’s Art work.

Nathan will return in the autumn to continue this amazing opportunity for our artists and we look forward to sharing the work at the new hospital in spring 2023.

@tredegarcomprehensiveartdt
@hofartdt

GEOGRAPHY

In Year 7, pupils finished the year exploring the Humanities theme of ‘Suffering’, where they studied how earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis and climate change has impacted on people’s lives in disastrous ways. Before this, all pupils in Year 7 experienced another outdoor learning experience by conducting a traffic survey of the Tredegar bypass. Investigative skills are integral within geographical enquiry and pupils had an opportunity to analyse their results and improve their numeracy skills in class.

Pupils in Year 8 enjoyed learning the Humanities topic during the Autumn term called ‘Conflict’. Following their studies and to celebrate this experience, 45 pupils will visited the Museum of Cardiff to learn about the exhibition on 100 years of the Cardiff race riots and then a visit to the South Wales Islamic Centre in Cardiff Bay. Following this in Geography, pupils started to investigate the topic of China and in particular the improvements that have been made within the country over the last 30 years.

Pupils in Year 9 enjoyed a visit to Tredegar Town centre to investigate whether it is a clone town. This has complimented their learning in class on urban and rural studies.

Year 10 Geographers was able to visit the River Sirhowy in Bedwellty Pits and Cardiff city centre in order to conduct fieldwork in preparation for their Unit 3 Non Examination Exam in December. They measured whether there has been changes made over time across transects in the river and whether there is inequality between two places within Cardiff city centre.

The department would like to thank Miss Thole, a Geography student teacher who studied for their teaching qualifications at the Cardiff Metropolitan University. Pupils have enjoyed her creative and innovative ways of teaching many geographical topics. The school and department wish her well as she start starts a teaching position in September following the completion of their qualification. Good luck.

@GeographyTCS

ESDGC (Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship):

W/c 13th June 2021 – ESDGC Week – Was the 8th anniversary of ESDGC week and departments across the school hosted a selection of activities to celebrate ESDGC that week. There was a comprehensive coverage to raise awareness of ESDGC themes across the school in all subjects, the progress of which was tracked by pupils in their student planners. Thank you once again for all those who contributed.

Some of our current and new members of the Eco Schools committee helped forge our new action plan for 2022/23. They were also very helpful during ‘Eco Day’, where they helped recycled clothes, ink cartridges, batteries, conducted a litter pick and supported many other environmental initiatives.

Please follow ESDGC updates and news from our Eco Schools committee on Twitter

Please follow the school’s Eco Schools and ESDGC Twitter @EcoSchoolsTCS

HISTORY

We have had a wonderful Summer Term in the History Department:

year 7

Year 7 have fully embraced their ‘Humanities’ themed lessons in preparation for the New Curriculum 2022. All pupils were taught the theme ‘Who am I’ in their History, Geography and RE lessons. All pupils thoroughly enjoyed this topic area and also being taught the same topic in all 3 subject areas as they were able to gain a much deeper knowledge and understanding of the topic and also how the three disciplines link together. We began our study with pupils independently researching the history of our town, Tredegar and how this industrial town developed and grew. The teaching of this theme has enabled pupils to gain an appreciation of their identity, heritage and cynefin which has influenced our learners emotionally and spiritually, and helped them build their sense of self and of belonging. Pupils took part in an extra-curricular visit as part of this theme to Blaenavon ironworks and Big Pit, which they all thoroughly enjoyed and it helped bring what they had been learning about to life!

year 8

Year 8 have also fully embraced their ‘Humanities’ themed lessons in preparation for the New Curriculum 2022. All pupils were taught the theme ‘Conflict’ in their History, Geography and RE lessons where they looked at the big question of how has and is conflict shaping the world, we live in.

All pupils thoroughly enjoyed this topic area and being taught the same topic in all 3 subject areas as they were able to gain a much deeper knowledge and understanding of the topic and also how the three disciplines link together. We began our study with pupils independently researching a ‘day that shook the world’ and sharing their findings with us, as can be seen below:

Together, we then looked at a key event that ‘shook the world, 9/11 and then began learning what the causes, events and consequences of this event were. The New Curriculum is centred on 4 key purposes and this theme certainly fulfilled one of those in great depth; ‘ethically informed citizens’ as pupils now have a developed understanding of why this event happened in the first place, who orchestrated it and what the main consequences of this have been, namely a 15 year ‘war on terror’ in Afghanistan and Iraq and consequently a rise in extremist groups such as ISIS which has led to an increase in refugees fleeing these war torn countries in the Middle East but also unfortunately given rise to Islamophobia. Pupils were also able to deepen their knowledge and understanding through a planned visit to the Mosque in Cardiff Bay and the educational centre.

During the summer term, Year 8 have been looking into the events of the John F Kennedy assassination. All pupils were fully engaged in this topic as they were eager to investigate in order to develop their own theory on who assassinated JFK after being presented information about the different groups of people in America who may have agreed/disagreed with his policies as well as looking into his relationship with various power groups such as the CIA, FBI, Mafia etc.

year 9

Year 9 have started their first GCSE unit; USA: A nation of contrasts 1910-29. They have been amazed to find out all about the problems that immigrants who flocked to ‘the land of opportunity faced’, and saddened to hear about the intolerance that certain groups faced in 1920s America such as the appalling treatment endured in the hands of the KKK. Their knowledge and understanding of the topics covered has developed and they now know about key events that effected the American people greatly such as the ‘Monkey Trial’ and the ‘Sacco and Vanzetti case’. They have shown great maturity in starting their GCSE course independently and have already displayed all of the requirements needed to be successful at GCSE level; determination, hard working, resilience and a desire to succeed and a thirst for learning!

Following the independent research as part of their homework task, the learners were placed into groups of three and were given a group of people to represent on their potential thoughts and opinions on the passing of the Butler Act. The learners would either represent:

  • Teachers
  • Fundamentalists
  • Students
Year 10

Year 10 have also had a very busy term and have now completed both their Unit 1 and 2 studies and will sit their GCSE examinations on these units this May and June. They have all worked very hard this year and have completed a lot of past papers and undertaken revision for regular class tests on past paper questions. We are confident that they will all reap the rewards in their results this Summer with grades they can be very proud of and will repeat this same work ethic as we begin our next Unit of work in Year 11 on Hitler’s Nazi Germany. Keep up your excellent attitude and hard work Year 10!

Year 11

I would like to take this opportunity to thank our year 11 GCSE History classes. They have been an absolute joy to teach for the last 5 years. Their love for History and the current world around them is fantastic! Their knowledge about current affairs and the links they are able to make with the past in these situations has led to many great debates in the classroom that I have thoroughly enjoyed being a part of! I wish every one of them every success in their futures as I know you are all going to do great and wonderful things - “Dream big, aim high, continue to work very hard at all times and you are going to go far!”

MFL - Modern Foreign Languages

Cardiff University Student mentoring

Last term, 15 pupils from 81B participated in the Cardiff University Student Mentoring Project. They thoroughly enjoyed their sessions with Claudia where they learnt about what it means to study international languages at GCSE and beyond.

ESDGC week.

Taking the inspiration from ‘Encanto’, the pupils in Year 7 researched what it was like to be a teenager in Colombia and compiled a fact file about the country. In Year 8 pupils looked at Fairtrade in the Spanish speaking world. It was great seeing our pupils being ethical, informed citizens of Wales and the world

Tapas

Year 10 and year 8 had a fantastic time at Bedwellty House, where the courtyard was transformed in to a Spanish tapas bar. The pupils were very adventurous trying the whole range of tapas on offer. It was great to see Neve, a former Spanish GCSE pupil, working as the camarera (waitress).

‘Muchas gracias’ to Cath and the team for making it such a success.

MUSIC & PERFORMING ARTS

It has been a jam-packed term for the Music and Performing Arts Department; from saying farewell to Year 11, to welcoming special guests, plenty of extracurricular activities, performances, trips and even some renovation too! The term ended on such a fantastic high when we celebrated the many talented pupils we have here at Ysgol Gyfun Tredegar Comprehensive School, in our Summer Showcase Concert. At the start of the term, Year 10 Performing arts pupils visited Wales Millennium Centre to watch the production of ‘School of Rock’. As part of their qualification, pupils must develop their musical theatre skills, so this experience gave them the opportunity to see how these skills are brought to life.

Next up, our Year 9 GCSE Music pupils were treated to a song writing workshop led by none other than ‘Ragsy’. Ragsy appeared on the second series of the highly popular show, The Voice. He is an inspirational musician, who was able to teach our pupils some of the innovative technique he uses in song writing.

In June, our pupils were invited to perform in the community as part of Tredegar’s Classic Vehicle event. Despite the poor weather conditions, are pupils showed their dedication and commitment and put on some brilliant performances for the community!

Our preparations for the Summer Showcase concert have been well underway since the start of the term. With Covid restrictions being lifted, we have been able to resume our extra-curricular activities with choir running every Monday after school. It has been so encouraging to see so many pupils attending from all year groups, week after week!

The choir performed for the first time in our concert on Wednesday 13th July. This was our first concert in nearly 4 years! Both staff and pupils were so excited for the opportunity to perform in front of a live audience and the department are so proud of not only how well they performed, but of their commendable work ethic where they demonstrated perseverance, resilience, determination and enthusiasm! Da iawn pawb! To see some of the performances from the night, please follow us on Instagram; @ygtcs_expressive_arts_music and twitter where you can also find out about important updates and announcements.

To end the term, our Year 10 Btec Performing arts pupils completed their assessment for one of the core units, in which they performed scenes from Mamma Mia. The pupils were responsible for set design, staging, costumes, props and lighting. They all did extremely well!

After over 15 yeas in the department, Mrs Cavender-Morris is about to embark upon the next chapter in her career as she takes up her new role as Assistant head for Teaching and Learning. Mrs Cavender-Morris has been a devoted and dedicated member of the department who staff and pupils are going to miss greatly, but we know that you are going to shine in your new role! We hope to continue working closely with you in all things music and performing arts related!

Physical educatioN

We have had another term full of physical activity!

We have enjoyed having lots of summer activities going on, including tennis, cricket, softball, rounders and athletics. Year 7 and Year 8 have had the focus of citizenship this term and we have created a Pentathlon competition where students compete in groups. Each member was assigned a role and responsibility within the lessons. This lasted for half a term and was very competitive but fully inclusive, as student’s competed with their own ability and all scores counted towards a team final score.

We had an opportunity to take our teamwork BTEC students to Parc Bryn Bach as part of their unit on developing effective teamwork skills. The students were fantastic and engaged fully in all of the challenging team based activities. Some of the activities included caving, climbing and stand up paddle boarding. The students can’t wait to return in the autumn term to start our outdoor adventurous activities unit.

This Year we have placed our Year 7 students into Sports Houses and they have been taking part in a variety of sporting competitions. This culminated in our Year 7 Sports Day which took place on the 1st of July. We had over 120 students competing in a range of inclusive sporting events where they collected points for their house. The events included archery, tug of war, foot golf, agility and track challenge and many more! We finished with a relay organised by the Year 7 sports captains which was great. Congratulations to Green House who are the first name on our new Sports Day trophy!

We would like to thank all of our Sports leaders in Year 9 and Year 10 who lead each of the events and completed all of the scoring. Without your help the sports day would not have been able to take place. We are already looking forward to Sports Day 2023!

This term the school were given some fantastic opportunities by the WRU, for our girls to take part within a number of ‘Girls Rugby Festivals’.

Our Year 7 and 8 girls went to Brynmawr for the first of three KS3 festivals, where we took a mixture of new and experienced participants. This was followed by our Year 9s doing extremely well at their festival at Newport Saracens RFC, winning the majority of their games. Topped off by our Year 7s heading over to their festival in Cwmbran, winning all of their games.

In total we have had over 50 different girls represent the school within these festivals and various fixtures against other schools.

@Tredegar_PE

religious education/ religous studies

***This is the last time under the above heading.

In September the subject has a rebrand as RVE. This stands for Religion, Values and Ethics!!!!

Sounds very posh but the change coincides with the introduction of the new “Curriculum For Wales”, which formally starts in September!!! So there!!!

Back to pupil news!!

All of Years 10 and 11 sat there Unit 1 GCSE RS exam on the 16th May. It was the first exam of the season. The large numbers caused quite a few organisational headaches, but it was expertly managed!!1 we wish all who sat it the best of luck!!

Year 11 had to sit a second exam on the 9th of June, not having an opportunity to sit the first on in year 10 due to Covid.

They have since all left and again we wish them well for their future career pathways!!!

We will miss them!!!

At the other end of the Year groups, Year 7 have continued to be busy showing off their skills in a number of areas.

The Humanities collaboration unit entitled Identity, was concluded!!

Excellent work was produced on such topics as The 5 Pillars of Islam;

The month long fast during the month of Ramadan;

As well as the main aspect of Sikh identity, The 5 K’s;

The second Humanities collaboration was then undertaken.

The theme was “Suffering, man-made or natural”.

The main area looked at the origins and the events of the “Jewish Holocaust”.

The pupils responded to this sad event in human history very maturely and gained important insights into what humans can do to each other.

Other aspects covered by some groups looked at the “origins” of suffering.

Once again pupil insights here were excellent!!

Year 8 also finished their “Conflict” collaboration within humanities!!

This was fantastically sealed by a trip to Cardiff!!

Here the pupils visited Cardiff Museum, where amongst other things they watched a presentation on the Tiger Bay “Race Riots” of 19919. Here, the pupil engagement was exemplary! A credit to the School Badge!!

After Lunch the pupils then visited the Cardiff Islamic Centre in Alice Street.

Here they were again given a presentation, but this time by the resident Imam.

All pupils were thoroughly engaged during this, and the Imam was very impressed not only with the relevance of questions asked, but with the pupil’s prior knowledge of Islam!!

All staff in attendance were immensely proud.

Back in school this the pupils embarked on the “Religious Figures who changed the world!” unit.

The focus here was on;

Abraham. The Father of three of the world’s most influential religions;

Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The extended writing of pupils on this task was outstanding, as was personal research!

Another world changing figure who was researched was a direct ancestor of Abraham, and that was Muhammad. The role-modelling skills shown by pupils for this task was excellent!!

Meanwhile, back at the “chalk face” as we used to say, Year 9 were busy with the first part of their full course GCSE. Elements studied this year were the core beliefs and practices of Judaism and Christianity. Great progress has been made by pupils in preparation for their first GCSE RS exam in the summer of 2023. They are staying ahead of the game!!!

The RE/RS Department also has an input to the weekly assembly for all year groups.

Topics reflected on this term have included:

  • The anniversary of the Chernobyl Disaster.
  • Ramadan and Eid ul Fitr.
  • The life of Helen Keller.
  • Red Cross Week.
  • Buddha Day.
  • Water Saving Week.
  • Combatting Hate Crime.
  • ESDGC Week.
  • NHS Day.

It is important for pupils to know about such topics as these as they prepare for life’s journey.

The respect and reflection on these above topics and those covered throughout the year has been very mature and uplifting, as has been the enquiries from pupils afterwards!

It is also great to be back to assemblies in the hall all together, rather than behind a screen!

Hopefully this is heralding a return to some sort of normality once again.

WELSH BACCalaureate

A massive thank you and well done to Mr Hughes and his Community group in Year 10 who have raised money through the car wash and bake sale this term - approximately £350 was raised in total.

Part of the money raised was donated to the a past pupil, Ryan Jones and his #RJ9 fundraiser - Ryan is currently undergoing treatment for cancer, and the whole school community are there to support him and his family.

Some of the money raised will be used to purchase food to donate to a local food bank.

YEAR 7 Mr howells

Pupils of the month

The following pupils were selected as pupil of the month for May and June 2022 respectively. Congratulations all, very well done.

Attendance

At the time of writing, 7T and Mr King top the Yr. 7 Form attendance league, holding a narrow lead over 7D with the remaining forms also in close pursuit. Collective form attendance is analysed weekly, with there being a prize awarded for the form who sit at the top of the Year 7 Form Attendance League at the end of the academic year.

Despite not being top of the form attendance league, it is important to mention that there are many pupils who have an impressive individual attendance. This will also be rewarded at the end of the year.

Impressively, Emma Davis, Corey Draper Riley Evans and Indie Gittings still currently record 100% attendance for the academic year. Congratulations. Also, at the time of writing there are a number of other Year 7 pupils who boast very good attendance:

  • 100%: 4 pupils
  • 99-97%: 26 pupils
  • 96-94%: 31 pupils

Maintaining good attendance is vital for all pupils in order to maximise the opportunity to learn and develop in order to fulfil potential to reach set goals.

Rewards

The school reward system sees awards presented to pupils on reaching set milestones for the collection of pride points. At time of writing, Year 7 record the impressive figures below for the academic year:

Bronze award - 350 Pride points: 106 pupils

Silver Award - 600 Pride Points: 38 pupils

gold AWARD - 950 PRIDE POINTS: 4 PUPILS

  • Noah Pearsall,
  • Lili-May Roberts,
  • CJ Lewis,
  • Hannah Hutchinson
Leadership Diploma

Congratulations to Noah Pearsall on becoming the first Year 7 pupil to achieve their Silver Leadership Diploma Award.

year 8 miss yates

This will be my final newsletter as Learning Coordinator for Year 8 and whilst I am sad to be stepping aside from my current role, I am excited to begin my new position at Ysgol Gyfun Tredegar Comprehensive School having been recently promoted to Assistant Headteacher. I am delighted to hand over the reins to Miss Carson who will take up post as Learning Coordinator from September 2022. I know Miss Carson will do a sterling job and I wish her well in her new role.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank parents and carers of Year 8 pupils who I have worked closely with over the past two years. To the pupils: you are all very special to me and I have loved being your Learning Coordinator. I have watched you grow into wonderful young people and I feel privileged to have played a part in your school journey. You have shown resilience and strength through some difficult times and have adapted to change and challenge. I look forward to watching and supporting you from the side lines the wonderful things you do next as you embark upon the next chapter with Miss Carson by your side.

100% Attendance

Huge congratulations are extended to Year 8 pupils who have achieved 100% attendance since September. We are very proud of this achievement. Well done to Amy Moon and Evan Walsh.

Pupils of the Month

April – Awarded for showing resilience and excellent attitude to learning.

P – Riley Watkins

R – Seren Evans

I – Emme Thomas-Bowd

D – Amy Moon

E – Amber Hughes

May – Awarded for being an outstanding DRICE learner.

P – Ryan Smith

R – Freya Davies

I – Ava Weight

D – Lexie Brennan

E – Martha Duggan

June – Awarded for being an outstanding DRICE learner.

P – Lucy Price

R – Tayler John

I – Tyler Llewellyn

D – Eli May Bees

E – Daniel Harris

July – Awarded for being an excellent team player

P – Tyler Williams

R – Kason Jones

I – Darcey Butt

D – Aaron Williams

E – Tay Michael

pride points

Congratulations to all Year 8 pupils who have worked so hard this year and have collected thousands of Pride Points together as a year group. 46 pupils achieved their Bronze Award this year having collected over 350 Pride Points. These pupils are testament to the fact that hard works pays off. This is a fantastic achievement for these pupils who have served as true role models at #teamtred

Huge congratulations are extended to Amy Moon, Rosie Lang and Owain Woolf who have achieved their Silver Award this year, collecting over 600 Pride Points. Well done to everyone! #ygtcspride

Year 9 Mrs Cavender-morris

What a wonderful first year of their GCSE learning journey! Year 9 pupils have demonstrated such incredible strength and resilience and have continued to develop as independent, creative, determined learners ready to embrace all challenge set. It has been an absolute pleasure being their Learning Coordinator again this year. They have most definitely had a remarkable year with many celebrations and successes along the way in sport, music and drama, cookery, art, science, mathematics and many more.

Attendance

Congratulations to Brooke Flack for achieving her 100% attenders badge this year! I am so proud of you!! We look forward to seeing our attendance for al pupils improve from September and becoming the best attended year group in the school once again.

Pride Points

Congratulations to all pupils are receiving PRIDE points this year. A massive congratulations to all pupils on their fantastic achievements. 68 pupils achieved a Bronze award of over 350 pride points and 4 pupils achieved a Silver award of over 600 pride points. Well done!!

Attitude to learning

In the recent IAP’s it was outstanding to see so many pupils achieving all 1’s in every subject in their A2L report. Tremendous effort, congratulation to Lowri Ruddock, Cerys Bound Verity Jones, Holly D Jones Ebony Gould, Ruby Howard, Lily Poulton and Isabella D’amato on achieving this. It was an absolute pleasure to read that nearly all pupils achieved 1’s and 2’s across all subject areas. You all make me immensely proud!!

‘Baby think it over’ Programme

A number of pupils in year 9 participated in the ‘Baby think it over’ programme organised by Miss Yates to experience firsthand what it is like to care for a baby. The programme was a remarkable success despite some pupils not having much sleep! The feedback from the facilitators of the programme was exceptional as they spoke so highly of the pupils for their participation.

Brilliant Club pupils Graduate as scholars

A massive congratulations to the 12 pupils who graduated with incredible results!! All pupils involved attended a graduation ceremony in Swansea University The pupils displayed an incredible attitude and maturity and achieved qualifications and skills which we be vital for the future when they attend University. #ambitiouscapablelearners

MAT learners go to House of Commons

MAT learners enjoyed a visit to the Houses of parliament in London in June and enjoyed hearing the debates that were going on. They even had a surprise visit from local MP Nick Smith who joined them and inspired them with his own journey into politics. An excellent authentic experience, deepening our thinking as ethically informed citizens.

Congratulations to our published year to poets

We are incredibly proud to have published poets in Year 8: Megan Blake, Gracie Davies, Laci Roberts, Carys James, Isabella D'amato and Ella Colwell. All pupils proudly represent our school as Literacy Ambassadors and recently took part in a Young Writers' poetry competition whereby they had to write a thought-provoking poem based on the title 'Imagine'. All pupils won the huge honour of seeing their creative and truly inspiring efforts published in a poetry anthology. Huge congratulations to all of our poets; what a talented and inspirational group of writers!

Year 9 myON and AR: The chequered flag is on the horizon!

Year 9 are just about to complete their AR 'journey' at YGTCS, with final STAR tests currently underway.

These veterans of myON and AR will be moving onwards to their KS4 studies with an impressive haul of achievements this year.

Year 9 pupils were the last year group in YGTCS to fully experience the 'old-style' Library lessons prior to Covid restrictions, and have displayed resilience and determination to succeed when they embraced the changes required to keep our love of literacy embedded, primarily getting 'stuck in' to myON and AR quizzes, whilst many continued to also read paper-copies of books that they had sourced themselves after taking advice on AR quiz availability and suitability of materials from Mrs Williams-Griffiths, demonstrating our capable, confident learners.

Accelerated Reader (AR) success for Year 9 this academic year has manifested itself in the form of:

Paige Griffiths achieving 1.3 million Words from 28 quiz passes.

Amelia Rose achieving 1.3 million words from 27 quiz passes.

Carys James achieving 1.3 million words from 18 quiz passes.

Fleur Griffiths achieving 1.2 million words from 22 quiz passes.

Engagement in myON has been fantastic. Across Year 9 there has been 3 550 books read using the programme, with equates to 77 600 pages of text! 943 myON book quizzes were taken (some do not have a quiz available), with an average pass rate of 75% per quiz.

In total, during their AR journey, years 7-9, the pupils have achieved:

Kida Davies reading 4.9 million words from 126 quizzes.

Carys James reading 3.9 million words from 66 quizzes.

Fleur Griffiths reading 2.8 million words from 44 quizzes.

Ruby Howard reading 1.9 million words from 27 quizzes.

Jasmin Fiorini reading 1.7 million words from 61 quizzes.

Paige Griffiths reading 1.5 million words from 36 quizzes.

Amelia Rose reading 1.5 million words from 32 quizzes.

The AR Word Count for Year 9 this year is 15 493 036 so far, with 1 117 quizzes passed.

Da iawn Year 9, true leaders and excellent role-models for our pupils.

Anti-bullying ambassadors

Congratulations to Holly D Jones, Ellie Roberts, Georgia Leigh Glastonbury, Ebony Gould, Paige Griffiths, Carys Megraw, Fleur Griffiths and Isabella D'Amato on becoming Anti bullying ambassadors in Year 9. All of you excelled yourself at interview and are going to be amazing ambassadors within the school.

Mrs Cav’s message to Year 9

P – Proud of all your achievements! Year 9 you have blown me away with all the fantastic work they have produced throughout the years.

R- Resilience!! Year 9 you never cease to amaze me with your growth mindset and can-do attitude.

I- Incredible stamina has been shown to work together in school this year being part of Team Tred

D- Determination! You set yourself high standards and are determined to be the best you can be. Always ready to learn.

E – Extraordinary You will always be the best year group in my eyes and You always make me very proud.

It is with great sadness that this is the last learning coordinator newsletter article that I will ever write. I would like to wish the new learning coordinator of this wonderful year group all the very best. Most importantly, I would like to thank all the pupils and the parents for their support over the last 3 years, it has been a pleasure being your learning coordinator. I am and always will be extremely proud as the learning coordinator of our fantastic pupils in year 9 and I although I won’t be standing in front leading this year group forward I will always be there to look over, guide and support you as you continue your journey in Ysgol Gyfun Tredegar Comprehensive School.

meet your new learning coordinator

Year 10 mrs green

Summer Term 2022

A very busy and important year is nearly at an end for year 10, with them completing some important examinations. As always the vast majority of pupils have risen to the challenge and are pushing themselves to achieve their target grades.

Attendance

I would like to give huge praise and recognition to the 2 pupils in Year 10 who have 100% attendance so far this year. The 100% attendees are Evelyn Pearsall and Tom Tang. It is vitally important that during Year 11 we ensure that each pupil makes takes very opportunity and ensures that their attendance is the best it can possibly be.

PRIDE Points

46 pupils have achieved a Bronze PRIDE Point award with 6 pupils currently on a Silver Award, these are Cerys Morgan, Eddie Evans, Harley Delve, Mason Chidgey and Olivia Jeffreys. There is one pupil who currently has a gold award Byron Rees, this is a brilliant achievement and I would like to thank the pupils for their hard work and enthusiasm towards their studies.

There have been many opportunities for Year 10 during this term and many different trips that have been held. The performing arts department took a group of year 10’s to see School or Rock in Cardiff Millennium Centre. The product design pupils completed a sustainability project with SYEM Cymru to produce working wind turbines. The Teamwork class went to Bryn Back Park to complete a range of team working activities and whole year group had the opportunity to visit Ebbw Fawr Learning Zone to try out different courses they are interested in the future.

Bullying Ambassadors

Pupils from Year 10 have had the opportunity to apply for bullying ambassadors, they went through a vigorous interview process and 6 pupils in Year 10 have secured a position as a bullying ambassador. Evelyn Pearsall, Millicent Jones, Darcey Howell, Mckenzie Edwards, Emilee Lewis and Bonnie Kelman. Congratulations all!!

Pupils Leadership Team

On 15th July 2022 the Pupil Leadership Team were appointed. I was so impressed with the maturity, passion, empathy and innovative ideas that the students displayed throughout their interviews. The standard of interviews this year were outstanding, and pupils performed exceptionally well.

The following students were successful and all of the pupils should be so proud of themselves for putting themselves forward for these positions.

The new Pupil Leadership Team for 2022-23 are listed below and I look forward to working with them all next year.

Head Boy - Lewis Jones

Head Girl- Darcey Howell

Deputies – Bayli Price, Evelyn Pearsall and Bonnie Kelman

Senior Prefects - Libby Goulding, Lola Thew, Millicent Jones and Megan Telford

Prefects - Eddie Evans, Jun Chen, Daniel Britton, Ben Williams, Nicole Lewis, Ebony Morgan, Finlay Southall, Jessica Bartz, Evan Griffiths, Wil Morgan and Abby Hawliczek.

One Year Left!

There is one only one year left in school and this time will pass very quickly. It will be a challenging year for all pupils, but they must be up for the challenge and make the most of the opportunities. Excellent rates of attendance are needed and revision at home is paramount if the pupils are to become independent and successful learners. Pupils must ensure they attend additional sessions that will help them achieve their full potential.

I remain very proud of this year group and believe they are excellent role models for the younger pupils in the school. I look forward to your continued support to ensure every pupil reaches their potential.

Keep aiming high and give your best throughout Year 11!

Year 11 miss williams

Year 11, I feel honoured and privileged to have worked with such a wonderful year group, a year group that I have been lucky enough to have shared some wonderful memories with and those will stay with me. I will always remember the trips, conversations and laughs. The simple things like sporting events, well-being day or visiting Coleg Gwent for the Careers Fayre and being told that your year group were the most respectful and mature from all the schools in Blaenau Gwent.

The progress made by you as a year group since Year 7 has been immense and I feel great pride that I have hopefully contributed to this progress in a small way. I would have been writing in this final newsletter how your secondary education has had its challenges and difficulties. NEVER has this been so true! You have been a part of history, living and studying through a global pandemic, two national lockdowns, an autumn ‘firebreak’ and periods of self- isolation. This experience has undoubtedly affected and changed all of us. You have shared a special journey together and been amazing at navigating your last years of secondary education through such adversity. Throughout you have shown that you are resilient, determined and driven individuals to get where you all are today! This is testament to you as individuals, the support you have had from your parents, carers, family, friends, the school and your wider support systems.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for all the memories and for being people I have loved getting to know. Whatever you choose to do in your lives, I wish you success and most importantly of all, happiness.

Miss Williams

I will see you all on Thursday 25th August 2022 to celebrate your exam successes!

unicef rights respecting school

From September 2022, Ysgol Gyfun Tredegar Comprehensive School will begin the process of becoming a UNICEF Rights Respecting School, which involves embedding the UNICEF Rights of the Child Act into the daily life of our school. There will be a number of stages we will work through as a school leading to bronze, silver and finally gold accreditation.

The result of this will be twofold: firstly, we will be officially recognised for the work we do in recognising children’s rights and keeping our students safe; but secondly, and more importantly, will be the impact this will have on our students in ensuring their voices are heard and that their rights are respected.

We have already begun the process of working towards the Bronze Award and have shaped our 2022-23 pupil leadership around articles from the UNICEF Act. For example, we have created roles within the senior prefect team which will focus on diversity and also play, leisure and culture.

If there are any questions or queries regarding the Rights Respecting School Award, please contact the Rights Respecting School Development Lead, Mr Llewellyn.

Work Related Learning

Thanks are extended to Careers Wales who have worked closely with our Key Stage 4 pupils throughout the Summer Term. Year 11 pupils can continue to receive support prior to their next steps after leaving us at Tredegar Comprehensive School. Please find information about this service on our school website.

Year 10 pupils have all received a ‘Career Check’ session this term and one-to-one sessions have been underway to begin preparing pupils for post 16 destinations. A huge ‘thank you’ is extended to advisers that have been working with us.

From September, our school Careers Adviser, Nigel Skym will be available to all pupils who wish to discuss their future pathways. Mr Skym is based in C23 and is on site every Tuesday and Friday. Pupils can access this service at break and lunch times as drop in sessions or by asking relevant Learning Coordinators to make an appointment.

Further information and advice can also be found on www.careerswales.com

numeracy

Our pupils started the term very strong, with amazing progression shown in their Numeracy Ninja Registration work. Two pupils from each year group were identified for their outstanding work. Congratulations to all our winners this term: Year 7 – Elli and Phoebe, Year 8 – William and Niall, Year 9 – Verity and Lowri, Year 10 – Harley and Millie.

Some of Year 7 and 8 were challenged with the UKMT Junior challenge and of course they rose to the challenge, producing some outstanding results. 16 pupils gained Bronze and Silver Awards. A special congratulations to Sonny Pearce-Wadkin, who was our schools top scorer!

This term we took our numeracy skills and applied them to our ESDGC project, where we investigated the population density of Europe. KS3 were extremely engaged with the project and produced maps to a phenomenal standard. Da iawn pawb!

To finish of this academic year, I would like to take this opportunity to thank both Mrs Greenway and Mrs Lloyd. Mrs Greenway has produced our puzzle of the week, every week this year. The puzzles have been challenging for both pupils and staff and created opportunities to deepen our thinking in Numeracy. Mrs Lloyd always goes above and beyond to ensure that all pupils are given individual programmes to meet their individual needs in each intervention session. Thank you so much for your hard work, we all are very grateful.

Enjoy your summer everyone, looking forward to building on the successes of this academic year. Mrs Burczyk

ANTI-BULLYING

At Ysgol Gyfun Tredegar Comprehensive School we believe that all pupils have the right to respect and to feel safe. Bullying of any kind is unacceptable at our school. If bullying does occur, all pupils should know how to deal with such incidents and who to tell.

We have a zero tolerance approach towards any form of bullying. We encourage an open culture where everyone within the school community has responsibility for reporting and recording incidents of bullying. Every reported incident will be taken seriously and appropriate action taken with those involved. Anti-bullying is everyone’s responsibility!

What is bullying?

The ABA (Anti-Bullying Alliance) defines bullying as: “the repetitive, intentional hurting of one person or group by another person or group, where the relationship involves an imbalance of power. Bullying can be physical, verbal or psychological.

It can happen face-to-face or through cyberspace.” Bullying is not relationship conflict or ‘banter’.

What to do if a pupil is being bullied?

TALK TO SOMEONE!

There are Anti-Bullying Ambassadors who have been trained by Anti-Bullying Alliance. To find out who our ambassadors are, please check our school TV screens, anti-bullying notice board and form class posters. Further information on the role of the ambassadors can be found on the school website. Year 7 and 8 form classes have anti-bullying ambassadors with them during registration time every Wednesday accompanied by members of the Pupil leadership Team.

Pupils can communicate with any of the ambassadors who will inform the relevant members of staff. Pupils and parents are reminded to report any incidents to the relevant Learning Coordinator. Incidents will be recorded and investigated as per school policy.

Designated Safeguard Leads will be involved if matters persist.

A copy of the Anti-Bullying policy can be found on the school website. Mr P Maddy is the link governor for Anti-Bullying.

Interactive anti-bullying information tool for parents and carers

This is a free interactive anti-bullying information tool for parents and carers. There has been some amazing feedback, with over 85% of parents finding the information they were looking for. It aims to give you information about bullying in an interactive way.

There is also a parents’ guide to anti bullying available on our school website from the Diana Award
Anti-Bullying Ambassadors

The school has been supported this year by a tremendous team of anti-bullying ambassadors who have worked relentlessly throughout the year despite other commitments as Year 11 students. The team has supported Year 7 and 8 pupils in registration, have been on hand to listen to and report pupil concerns, produced presentations and videos to promote whole school key messages, to name but a few. A huge THANK YOU is extended to Josie Morris, Callie Campbell, Bethan Davies, Evie Mae Thomas, Jess Bird, Asyia Ilahi, Chloe Simmonds and Jenna Bedford. Your work as ambassadors has been invaluable to the school.

As one team of ambassadors leave us to move on to pastures new, it is with great delight that our new team can now be announced for September 2022, a combination of Key Stage 4 pupils. Pupils were all required to apply for their roles by letter and then were interviewed by members of the staff steering group. All pupils who were interviewed were outstanding and we know they will be fantastic in their new pupil leadership roles. Congratulations to our new ambassadors for 2022-23!

Holly D Jones

Isabella D’Amato

Ellie Roberts

Georgia-Leigh Glastonbury

Ebony Gould

Paige Griffiths

Carys Megraw

Fleur Griffiths

Mckenzie Edwards

Darcie Howell

Millicent Jones

Emilee Lewis

Evelyn Pearsall

Bonnie Kelman

Anti-Bullying Quality Mark

The school has been proud to hold the Anti-Bullying Quality Mark at Bronze Award for the past two years. On Tuesday 19th July, the school was visited and assessed by the ABQM team. We are absolutely thrilled to announce that we have been awarded SILVER AWARD. The ongoing work of staff, pupils, governors and our wider school community showcased the efforts which our school gives towards anti-bullying. #teamtred

Young Carers in Schools Programme

We a delighted to announce we have successfully secured the next stage of the Young Carers in Schools Award. Our portfolio of evidence was submitted to panel in June 2022 and as a result, we have been recognised for our commitment to supporting young carers within our school community. Our ‘Beyond the Basics’ award will be officially presented to us by Young Carers Trust early in the Autumn Term. We will be displaying our plaque proudly in main reception.

For further information about young carers, please visit our school website:

MAT - More able & talented

At Ysgol Gyfun Tredegar Comprehensive School we are committed to ensuring our pupils meet their full potential. We aim to ensure that pupils who have been identified as More Able and Talented in subjects or any other area are provided with an enriched and broad curriculum to foster this potential. We also appreciate that some pupils will be exceptionally able and talented and these pupils have been identified as our ‘Most Able’ pupils and placed onto our whole school ‘Most Able’ register.

We have a policy and a range of activities to meet the needs of all pupils identified as More Able and Talented and a number of enrichment opportunities. Below are some of the enrichment opportunities that our MAT pupils have been involved with this term:

Year 7 and 8

As part of the school’s provision for MAT pupils in years 7 and 8, we took our identified MAT pupils on an educational visit to the Senedd. Our pupils visited Siambr Hywel, the Senedd’s dedicated youth debating chamber, to learn about the role of a Member of the Senedd, and what happens inside the Senedd. Our learners also debated in the chamber using the new technology voting pods as to whether or not the school day should be extended in Wales, which would then allow them to have a Friday off school to which they surprisingly voted no! The visit helped our learners to better understand how democracy works in Wales, and how to have their say through the Welsh Parliament. Hopefully it may even inspire some of them to a future in politics, especially after listening to our AM, Alun Davies who joined us in the Chamber, answered pupil’s questions and certainly instilled a great sense of pride in them for being YGTCS pupils with a great deal to offer Wales and the World just as he has!

Year 9

As part of the school’s provision for MAT pupils, our year 9 MAT pupils participated in an educational visit to the House of Parliament, London on 23rd May. The visit involved an awe-inspiring tour of the palace of Westminster which introduced the concepts of democracy and representation. As the Palace is the working home of the UK Parliament, we visited: the House of Commons, the House of Lords, a visit to the Public Gallery to observe MPs, and Westminster Hall. After the tour, our pupils participated in a workshop on the passing of laws and legislation and debated whether or not a new law should be passed on ending examinations in schools at the end of Year 11. We were also very fortunate to be joined by our local MP, Nick Smith who inspired us all with his own journey from a Tredegar boy at Tredegar Comprehensive School to politics in London!

The Brilliant Club Scholars Programme

All 12 pupils in year 9 who have been identified as Most Able were selected onto the Brilliant Club Scholars programme. The Scholars programme is an opportunity for all 12 selected pupils to develop the knowledge, skills and ambition needed to progress to higher education. The initial virtual launch event was held virtually at Cambridge University where pupils met with their PHD Tutor, Sarah Morgan.

Pupils have spent the Summer Term attending weekly academic virtual tutorials with their PHD Tutor where they developed their communication, research and debating skills. Research was undertaken each week to further develop their knowledge and understanding of the topic of ‘Puffins, Parasites and Puffins; Oh My!” and homework was set each week to help develop pupils’ independent learning and research skills.

Throughout the course pupils were introduced to concepts of parasites, pathogens, zoonoses and One Health. Students investigated and learnt how the concept of One Health can help combat diseases. Pupils were encouraged to think about the 3 main components of One Health; ecosystem health, animal health and human health that are all interconnected through their interactions between one another. They then had to analyse, evaluate and critically examine the benefits and threats to promoting collaboration across all sectors in a One Health approach in their final assignment, before reaching their own substantiated judgement as to whether this approach is what is needed to tackle the ever growing health challenges we face in the 21st century. The programme developed their independent learning, problem solving and critical thinking skills that will help at school and beyond.

Our pupils have now received their very impressive results and graduated from the Scholars Programme in a wonderful graduation ceremony that was held at Trinity St David’s University and attended by parents / carers and the graduates themselves. The results are below:

1st (Performing at an excellent standard of A level!)

Cerys Bound

Ella Colwell

Isabella D’Amato

Carys James

Lacey Vaughan

2:1 (Performing at a good standard at A level)

Ruby Howard

Holly D Jones

Daniel Jenkins

Ryan Jones

Verity Jones

Lily Poulton

2:2 ((Performing at an excellent standard at GCSE)

Archie Hares

We would like to congratulate all of our pupils on these excellent results which are testament to the hard work, effort and great resilience that they showed throughout the Scholars programme. We are very much looking forward to seeing what bright future lies ahead for these pupils when they are already performing at such a high standard when they are only in Year 9! Well done all!

Year 10 - VESPA Programme

As part of the school’s provision for MAT pupils, our Year 10 Most Able Pupils participated in an eight week programme organised by the Seren network in partnership with Steve Oakes and Martin Griffin, the authors of the ‘GCSE and A’ level Mindset’ books. The Seren network aims to raise aspirations and provide support to students and teachers to ensure more able and talented young people achieve their potential and progress to the UK’s top universities.

The 8 week intervention programme consisted of a mixture of the following:

Online intervention using the VESPA model and platform.

Group sessions with Mrs D’Amato and other year 10 MA learners where we explored additional activities designed to raise awareness/boost performance such as revision strategies, timetables and a clear vision.

Exploring and embedding a culture of aspiration.

Mrs D’Amato was very impressed by all of our Year 10 Pupils who took part in the programme and showed great maturity and diligence each session. They were all very engaged in the intervention programme and benefitted massively from it, especially in experimenting with different revision strategies and identifying their own successful study skills. The programme unfortunately was cut short due to external examinations taking precedence however, these sessions will continue in Year 11 where we will focus on developing their meta-cognitive skills, attitude, effort and setting high aspirational goals for their future when they return to school in September.

fce - fOUNDATIONS of COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

We were finally able to celebrate our 'Heart of the Community - Gold Award', being formally presented with our school plaque by Sue Davies of FCE. Thank you to our guests for attending the presentation, Alun Davies MS and Kathryn Bevan of the EAS.

recent projects

Bedwellty House & bryn bach park supporting ygtcs wellbeing day 2022

It had been a long 3 years since our last YGTCS Wellbeing Day, the last being in 2019 and the two years after were impacted by COVID restrictions. 2022 was our year for celebrating all the hard work and resilience of our school community. Bedwellty House and Bryn Bach Park hosted a few workshops - a silent disco, a cinema and outdoor water activities; thank you to Catherine Hares and her team for supporting the day.

Our pupils and staff had a great day with a vast number of workshops on offer. Workshops included,

  • Bakeoff
  • Gaming, VR & Minecraft
  • Crafts
  • Dance - with thanks to Alex Herring for volunteering her time and supporting her old school, yet again!
  • Crocheting
  • Mindfulness
  • Board games
  • Football, Rugby, Netball
  • Drama
  • Cupcake decorating
  • Walking
  • Cinema
  • Silent Disco
  • Open Water Activities

34 of our pupils, along with our Eco School members, Mr Strand, Mr West, Cllr Walters & Cllr Morgan, raised £93 for Water Aid UK, this was sponsorship money for the walk they took part in on our Wellbeing Day.

2022 was better than 2019, we are excited to see what 2023 can bring!

Blended learning

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