belated happy new year - porthcawl comprehensive school

Porthcawl Comprehensive School Newsletter ~ Spring 2015

May I start this article by wishing everyone a ratherbelated “Happy New Year”. A new year brings freshchallenges and opportunities to grasp.

As you read this the school’s excellent production of“Grease” is a memory but the music still lingers onin the corridors around school. I hope you will agreewith me that the show was an absolutely resoundingsuccess. It was enjoyed by an audience well in excessof 2000, with Thursday, Friday and Saturdayperformances being a complete sell out. Our proudtradition of musical theatre goes from strength tostrength and this is down to talent and sheer hardwork. The young people who sang, danced andplayed in the orchestra are talented but also workincredibly hard. I must also pay a very public tributeto the staff who put in hours and hours of time torehearse and practice. The school show is theepitome of team work, and shows off our school atits very best. So, in essence, it’s a massive thank youto the staff, students and parents who collaborated todeliver such an excellent and fulfilling show. Theannual production has again left the school glowingwith pride and the feedback has been extremelypositive. Some of you may have seen or met Mrs

Rhiannon Giles, our new Head of Music, we bid herwelcome to our school. Mrs Giles is an ex-pupil ofthe school, so she will be aware of our shows and willnot be daunted by the prospect of producing one!

Some may have noted the new Welsh GovernmentSchools’ Categorisation Model. We have beenclassified as 2, B and Yellow. This basically means weare Standards Group 2 out of 4 with 1 being thehighest. The ‘B’ and Yellow refer to our capacity tobring about improvement; these categories indicateit is felt we are able to improve. Anyone wishing toget a deeper understanding of the system may getdetails from the Welsh Government website; there isa Ministerial Statement that explains the wholeprocess. May I also refer parents to the WelshGovernment website www.cymru.gov.uk where thereis a guide, “Understanding how your child’s school isperforming.”

We have been making huge efforts to improvestandards at our school. Over recent months, wehave held classes on the weekends, in the holidays,before school and after school. The main area offocus is English, Maths and Science and I thank allthose staff who have given their time so generously.With all the extra effort and commitment from staffand students, I am confident we will improvestandards at our school.

There are a few staff changes to bring to yourattention. Chris and Non Williams are due to retire;Non at Easter and Chris at the end of May. Non isvery familiar to all as our School Receptionist. Nonhas undertaken this most demanding of roles with acalm assured presence. Chris will be familiar to thestudents in his role as our Examinations Officer. Theorganisation of examinations is a mammoth task andit is completed by Chris with great care and diligence.All at our school wish Non and Chris all the very bestfor a long, healthy and happy retirement.

There are more very familiar faces set to retire in theSummer and we will pay tribute to them in the nextPorthcawl Post.

Following the recent tragic accident at MaestegSchool, I feel it is important to touch on the subjectof traffic safety. No parent is to drive onto the siteduring the school day, ie: 08.35 – 15.35. There arevisitor and disabled parking spaces to the left of ABlock. Would parents please refrain from parkingalong Park Avenue and Carlton Place. Cars parkedin these locations mean children cross betweenparked cars which is a particularly dangerous practice.Should anyone need to drive onto the campus “outof hours”, then please observe our 5mph speed limit.My only concern here is the safety of your childrenand I trust I can rely on your support on this matter.

Welcome to the second edition of the Porthcawl Post for the school year 2014-2015

Porthcawl

Headteacher’s Address

Belated Happy New Year

Andrew Slade - Headteacher

PorthPost Spring 2015_Layout 1 03/03/2015 14:38

2 PORTHCAWL POST Spring 2015

Iwould like to take this opportunityto congratulate the large number ofpupils with an attendance of 97% or

over and in the green ‘Callio’ category.All pupils in Years 7 to 11 now receivean update on their attendance once amonth from their form teacher. If yourchild’s attendance is currently in amberor red, every week of full attendance willraise their overall attendance percentage.We are striving to reach the WelshGovernment’s target of 95%.

I would also like to remind parents andpupils that being late in the morning,after registration has closed, is coded asan absence. Being late without a validreason is coded as an unauthorisedabsence. Also 10 or more late marks inone term may trigger a Fixed PenaltyNotice. Please ensure that your childsigns in with a letter at Attendance toexplain any lateness. Fixed PenaltyNotices may also be triggered by 10 ormore unauthorised absences, including aholiday in term time or a failure toengage with the school, particularly inmatters relating to attendance. Furtherinformation is available on the schoolwebsite.

Thank you to pupils and parents whoare going through the School First Aiderwhen illness occurs during the schoolday. It is essential that the First Aidermakes the contact with home if needed,rather than the pupil phoning homethemselves. Pupils who do phone homethemselves and organise their ownparents to pick them up will be given anunauthorised absence.

At events in the local communityour pupils continue to be praisedfor the excellent standard of their

uniform and I would like to thankparents for supporting the school,ensuring that we can continue to beproud of our pupils wherever they go. Iwould just like to remind you that coatsshould be a dark colour and thatleather/leather-type jackets are notallowed. Also, very short hair, shavedheads and dyed hair are not permitted.

Thank you for your support.

Mrs V Hunt Assistant Headteacher

Housekeeping

Attendance

Uniform

On 23rd January 2015, our First Ministerof Wales Carwyn Jones took time out ofhis busy schedule to discuss his lifestyle

and opinions with Sixth Form students in a frankand enlightening forum. As the Welsh Assembly’srepresentative for Bridgend, Mr Jones began witha candid, ten-minute talk about what his jobentails, which proved useful for studentsconsidering a career in politics. He detailed hisown role as well as the Welsh Assembly as a wholein running and improving Wales.

In the second half of the talk, Carwyn Jonesbravely asked for questions from the audience.Mr Jones was then grilled on funding for theNHS, the Welsh Baccalaureate, university fundsand the future of the Welsh language, amongmany other intriguing and revealing topics. Hisanswers proved honest, hopeful and illuminating,with much of his attention directed towards hishope for a brighter future in Wales.

The Head Team and staff were then luckyenough to have lunch with Mr. Jones afterwards,before he was scheduled to leave. In a morerelaxed atmosphere, he encouraged universityapplicants to study a subject they enjoy, and notchosen purely on future prospects.

The visit overall provided students with a clearand sincere perspective in regards to Welshpolitics and the role of Wales’ First Minister. Onbehalf of students, I think it is safe to say we were

all very grateful to have had theopportunity to meet andinteract with someone at thehelm of Wales’ government.

Sam Pryce Assistant HeadBoy

Thank you to MalcolmNugent for coming alongand taking some wonderfulphotographs.

A PCS Visit fromCarwyn Jones AM


PORTHCAWL POST Spring 2015 3

We found out about Liberty Horsesthrough one of our pupils last year. Hersupport was provided by the Local

Education Authority. Once we saw the progressmade by this pupil we decided that this was aneffective way of helping other pupils too. We paidfor some support sessions for a young lady now inYear 9. Keziah Rhoden from Liberty Horsesapproached us and asked if we would like her towork with a number of pupils in school and ofcourse, we said yes! The pupils were chosen for anumber of reasons: lack of self-confidence, anxiety,self-esteem issues and to improve social andcommunication skills. Only 2 pupils have adiagnosis of ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder) butall of them have responded very positively to thesessions.

Since starting these sessions, we have seen increasedself-confidence and better communication skills innearly all pupils. In fact, all pupils say they aremore confident. The youngsters appearhappier in school and some, who havechallenging behaviour, have appearedmore relaxed. The end result for them isimproved behaviour in school. There isa noticeable improvement in teamworkand cooperation between this group:they now display good turn taking skills.

However, if you ask the pupils they wouldsay simply that it is fun and they lookforward to Tuesdays when Bonnie, Tango andSweetie come to school!

One pupil says, ‘It is the best thing I have ever done!’,another pupil says ‘It is awesome!’

Mrs Dilley

Visit fromThe Liberty Horses

Only Men Aloud ExperienceOn the 16th of January,

members of the famous choir‘Only Men Aloud’ made a

visit to Porthcawl ComprehensiveSchool to host a workshop at theschool. They began the workshop by

showing us a 5 minute presentation of whatthey were all about, telling us where they perform, about their success

in “Britain’s Got Talent” and their future concerts. Then they moved on towarm-ups and showed us some interesting and fun activities which are quickand easy to learn. These warm-ups got everybody so pumped and ready to getinvolved. After we finished the physical warm-ups we moved to vocal. The vocalwarm-ups were brilliant and they gave us new exercises that we can use for futuremusic rehearsals.

When we finished all the warm-ups they split us up into four small groups tosing an Italian song called ‘Bella Mama’. This was a great experience foreverybody who has never sung in a choir or even sung before. It was easy tolearn and comfortable for the not-so-confident people. It was a fantasticexperience for everybody involved and we were very lucky to have met somemembers of the group. They also informed us of their youth choir, ‘Only BoysAloud’ and inspired many of us to join them in Bridgend on Thursday eveningsfor rehearsals. If any pupils are interested in becoming a member then pleasego and see Mrs Atherton for details.

We would like to thank the ‘Only Men Aloud’ members who came for theworkshop as it was an excellent experience for everybody. Also thank you toMrs Atherton for organising it.

Sam Spriggs Year 13



News from the

Primary Schools

Our topic for the first half of this year has been ‘Warriors’. In theAutumn Term we made our own weapons and held a competitionto see which would fire the furthest. More recently, we have

completed experiments to discover materials that would be good insulators.Our aim was to discover if the Celts would be able to improve the qualityof their homes by using alternative materials. We have also written diariesas if we were Celts writing about our daily life.

The English Department from PCS came to visit us in November last yearand we all created questions about things we wanted to know about life inthe Comprehensive School. The English Department took the questionsaway and the Year 9 pupils, with their wealth of knowledge, were able toanswer them all. They were delivered back to us this week and we all enjoyedreading their open and honest answers. Thank you to all the Year 9 pupilswho give us so much inside information!

We all really enjoyed our most recenttransition visit with PorthcawlComprehensive, a trip to see Grease!! It wasa fantastic performance; we couldn’t believethat it was only the dress rehearsal. It waslovely for us to see some of our past pupilstoo, some of whom had obviouslydeveloped a real passion and talent forthe dramatic arts. We are sure yourproduction was a resounding success.Congratulations to all the staff andpupils involved.

West Park Primary

Porthcawl Primary School

Year 6 started the Spring Term with a 1960s disco as part of their studyinto the Swinging Sixties. They learnt many of the dances from thisperiod including The Pony, Madison and Jive before dressing up as

a Mod, Rocker or Hippie to dance the afternoon away. Following on fromthis the children studied a range of aspects from the 1960s and comparedthem with life today. They were a little surprised by some of the artefacts,such as the size of the records or the CDs of the day, and enjoyed the visitfrom a group of Mods who turned up on their scooters. Obviously one ofthe main events in this decade was the moon landings. The childrenresearched the events running up to the launch of Apollo 11 and the footageof Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. They then used their research toproduce their own news reel of the event which, with the use of the iPad,was filmed outside the NASA's Kennedy Space Centre. The other main eventthat was discussed was Martin Luther King’s speech, ‘I have a dream’. Afterlistening to the original footage of the speech the children wrote their ownspeeches for their community showing understanding of the underlyingthemes of this famous speech and how they are still relevant today.

Year 6 have also been busy writing stories which were entered into theShining Scribes Competition. They were able to use any stimulus for theirideas before writing an original story in no more than 500 words. Threeentries were put forward by the school, the budding writers being HollyThomas, Kara Morgan-Rees and Matthew Sleep. After judging by a rangeof famous people, including Bonny Tyler, Dr Rowan Williams, formerArchbishop of Canterbury, Scott Quinell, Ruth Jones, Iwan Thomas andIolo Williams, Kara Morgan-Rees’ entry, The Girl in the Red Hat, wasawarded a place in the final top ten stories. In March Kara and her familywill be attending a ceremony in the SWALEC stadium in Cardiff where theoverall winner will be announced. The staff and pupils wish Kara the bestof luck Kara and would like to congratulate Holly and Matthew for writingstories to such a high standard.

Photo shows Newton Primary School’s Shining Scribes Finalists - MatthewSleep, Kara Morgan-Rees and Holly Thomas.

Miss Kenwood Year 6 Teacher

At Porthcawl Primary School we are concentrating on Formula Oneas we have once again entered a car making competition. We havedecided to go for the name Porthcawl Power as it ties in to our logo

which is a lightning bolt!

We are currently designing our car and we are making excellent progress.Last year, we entered the competition with the Porthcawl Piranhas car.

Formula One is a car design, make and racing competition that gives anoutstanding experience for pupils. It allows children to take control andresponsibility for their team.

We aim for our car to be, as the nursery class says, like Lightning McQueen!

We are enjoying every single step of the activity. We are coming closer andcloser to what we think will be victory.

All of the Formula One team and supporters in the school are putting in100% effort and a very positive attitude into their roles.

Tegan McGlynn and Katie Moses Year 5 and Year 6

‘Porthcawl Power’ Formula One

Newton Primary


The Spring Term startedwell and I am pleasedto report that the

children have quickly settledback to their studies after theexcitement of Christmas.

Our school value for Januarywas ‘Appreciation’ and thanksgo to our regular visitors, MrsPauline Lewis, Father Craig andSteve Lock, for leadingassemblies in the FoundationPhase and Key Stage 2.

Schools’ Police Liaison Officer,PC Steve Carpenter, will also bebusy in the months to comedelivering aspects of Personaland Social Educationthroughout the school.

Every Thursday, come rain orshine, Kerbcraft continue to doa wonderful job at school indeveloping the road awarenessskills of children in Year 2.Diolch yn fawr.

Porthcawl Comprehensivetreated Years 5 and 6 to theirlatest production of ‘Grease’.The performance was brilliantand thoroughly enjoyed by anenthralled audience. It was alsogreat to see so many past pupilstreading the boards with theprofessionalism that would befitthe West End. Congratulationson a wonderful show!

Well, the end of an era came toschool in January when almost200 battered and bruised chairs,used for shows and concerts,finally went to furniture heaven.The chairs were originally fromthe Grand Pavilion butpurchased from PorthcawlComprehensive in the 90s. I amsure many past pupils will have‘fond’ memories of movingthem on and off the stage atNottage! Our appreciation goesto our PTA for helping us toreplace the old stock with lovely,new, colour co-ordinated,folding chairs.

NottagePrimary

October saw the arrival ofour local primary schoolsand a large number of out

of catchment pupils for their firstScience transition. The pupils werecast away on a desert island andwere given the opportunity to plantheir survival using a variety ofinteresting Science experiments.The pupils were very excited at theprospect of using the Bunsenburners and could not wait to getstarted. The experiments involvedburning foods and materials and

testing fuels. A number of Year 9pupils were on hand to help withany challenges the pupils faced andalso to answer any burningquestions they had on life at PCS.

The pupils demonstrated excellentScience skills and took theinvestigation very seriously. I mustsay, Mr Bear Grylls himself wouldbe very impressed. Some of thesuggestions were very creative, it wasvery clear that we had some ‘I’m acelebrity…get me out of here’ fans!

On behalfof all thestaff in the ScienceDepartment we would like to say abig thank you to all those pupilswho attended and supported thistransition event for their exemplarybehaviour and enthusiasm displayed– it was an absolute pleasuremeeting you all. We look forward towelcoming you all back inSeptember.

Miss H RedmondScience Department

Over two mornings in November and December, the WelshDepartment welcomed around 240 Year 6 pupils to the annualtransition event.

Children from the local schools, as well as a considerable number ofpupils from out of catchment area, took part in a series of activitiesdesigned to not only help pupils familiarise themselves with the school,but also to experience a taste of Welsh language and culture.

A full programme of activities awaited our visitors from folk dancing towhat the children decided was the earliest form of text messagingnamely, the love spoon, to card making and learning of the New YearWelsh tradition of Mari Lwyd.

At break time everyone was ready for a welcome drink and cake –especially those who had been folk dancing!!

Diolch yn fawr iawn to everyone who contributed in making the eventsuch a success.

We look forward to welcoming our new pupils in September.

Mrs C Davies Welsh Department

WELSH TRANSITION Pontio 2014


SCIENCETRANSITION



The biggest task that haunts PCS’s Head Team is always the weekculminating in Children In Need. As Pudsey Bear rears his poor,bandaged head once again, students and teachers look slightly more

shaken than usual. As part of PCS tradition, from 10th to the 14th November2014, we managed to pull off a successful week of charity events andperformances that attempted to put the ‘fun’ in ‘fundraising’. Ahem. Comeon, now, BEAR with me. Yes, yes. Thank you. I’m here all week.

Throughout the week, teachers and students alike were paraded in front ofthe school, forced to display their singing, dancing and mental talent. SixthFormers were auctioned off to the younger years as slaves at jaw-droppingprices rising even above £50.

In Womanless Miss World, boys who were usually more at home in rugby bootswere instead strutting out in heels. Tuesday’s showing of Mastermind saw MrJenkins fight off the competition with his comprehensive knowledge of ‘Backto the Future’. Teachers were left soaked and humiliated after I’m A Teacher,Get Me Out of Here and even more so by the Ice Bucket Challenge.

And to finish off the week, Strictly Come Dancing and Stars In Their Eyes gavestaff and students a chance to show off their talent to a panel of scowlingjudges. Miss Brown and Mr Lewis shook their tail feathers while Miss Mayoand Mrs Atherton shoo-be-doo-wopped their way to victory. We would liketo reassure you that no teachers were harmed in the making of these shows.

As far as I know.

On Friday, a Non-Uniform and Fancy Dress Day took place for a final pushfor donations. And this year’s diversity in costumes was enough to make GokWan shed a tear. Teletubbies, the cast of Anchorman and beans of the greenand jelly variety swarmed the yard. As the Jubilee Theatre filled with pupils,so too did the collection buckets. All in the name of Pudsey.

The Head Team would like to thank all the teachers, students and anyone elsewho were able to help out with events, whether they were prancing about onstage or giggling/squirming in the audience. On top of that, funds from theSixth Form Party also went into the pot. Thanks to you lot, we raised awhopping £6,000. This will be distributed equally between LATCH, Mind,Gulu Mission Initiative, Motor NeuroneDisease Association, LLM Fund,Touched by Cancer, RNLI, Sandville,and £1,200 going to Children In Need.

We would also like to say a specialthank you to Malcolm Nugent whocame along and took these wonderfulphotographs.

Sam Pryce Assistant Head Boy

Fancy D

ress

Charity Week 2014

Picture shows the Head Team presenting the Porthcawl RNLI with a cheque for £600



The Head Team at Porthcawl Comprehensivework very hard to set up fundraising eventsbut none of it would be possible with the

support and involvement of the whole school. InNovember we had a ‘Charities’ Week’ concluding with Children in Need Friday raising a grand total of£5975 from which a number of charities benefitted from. Throughout the week we sold tickets for

spoof ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ and ‘I’m A Teacher Get Me Out Of Here.’ These areshows which the teachers volunteered for and ‘Womanless Miss World’

including the Sixth Form boys. Over 15 teachers completed the‘Ice Bucket Challenge’ and a Sixth Form Party raised over£1000 alone, all to be donated. These events enabled us tosend a large portion of the money to the official Childrenin Need charity but we also made a conscious effort tosupport the local charities in our community e.g.Sandville self-help centre and the Porthcawl RNLIStation. We fairly divided the money and £600 wassent to 7 local charities.

After distrubuting the money we held some back sothat if we needed the money to help any other causewe were able to. This came in handy when we realisedthat the Children’s Ward in the Princess of Wales

Hospital in Bridgend was in desperate need of a newfridge/freezer in the parents’ room which we were able to

provide for them.

Our ‘Interact’ group in school also carries out extensive fundraising,through cake-sales, Christmas Jumper Day and setting up variousdifferent parties. They have raised approximately £1000 for ‘Y-Bont’,another local charity. We all feel it is essential to help out as much aspossible, offering all the support we can for these important causes.

Alisha John Assistant Head Girl

Having had a child admitted to Children’sWard on many occasions we are alwaysextremely grateful for the care and attentionreceived. During a fleeting visit a few weeksago we noticed that the fridge that once stoodin the parents’ room was gone. It had recentlybroken down and the ward did not have thefunds to replace it quickly. The parents’ roomis an invaluable resource for anxious parents –a quiet space away from the ward whereparents can go to make a phone call, or justrecharge for a few minutes. It has tea/coffeemaking facilities and had a fridge to keep milkor store some food if you’re staying with yourchild on the ward.

As a teacher at Porthcawl ComprehensiveSchool I know that the pupils work hard eachyear to raise funds for Charities’ Week, theproceeds of which are split between localcharities. After making enquiries with thepupils on the Head Team who are responsiblefor the fund raising, they very kindly agreed tobuy a new fridge for the Children’s Ward.

After discussion with Sister Kay, afridge/freezer was decided upon as this wouldenable ice lollies, for example, to be stored byparents of children on the ward in the Summermonths. The fridge/freezer was purchased anddelivered to a very grateful Children’s Ward byThe Sixth Form Head Team from PorthcawlComprehensive School on Wednesday 10thDecember.

As a parent I know it will be muchappreciated. Many thanks to PorthcawlComprehensive School.

Angelo Pucella ICT Department

FundRaising

Why aFridge/Freezer?

Stars In Their Eyes

Fancy D

ress



On 28th November, PorthcawlComprehensive competed in theYoung Consumer Competition in

Bridgend Civic Offices. The competition wasrun by Trading Standards and was open toteams of 4 Sixth Formers from all the schoolsin the county. Our team consisted of JackBridger, Nathaniel King, Matthew Dang andFelicity Williamson-Sarll.

We left school first thing and when we arrived,Ellis Roberts (the Quiz Master) gave us anintroduction whilst we enjoyedcomplimentary tea and biscuits. As there were11 teams, we were split into two heats. Ourteam was in the second heat which gave us thechance to watch the first round and get usedto the format of the quiz. Each school wasgiven a booklet of information to learn priorto the event and the questions that were askedwere based on this. They covered consumerlaws, safety, government and politics, financeand general knowledge. The top three teamsfrom each heat went through to the final andwe could see from watching that Pencoed weregoing to be our biggest competition.

After securing a place in the final, we had ashort break before beginning the next roundof gruelling questions. We managed to staycalm and answer the questions well, despitebeing very nervous. Going into the last fewrounds, Pencoed were slightly ahead of us,with Y Dderwyn and Brynteg very closebehind. After a final round of quick firequestions, the end results were shown. Theyrevealed the scores in reverse order and wewere very excited to see that we had won! Wehad managed to score 74 points, with Pencoedin second with 66 points. Y Dderwyn had 58points, Brynteg had 55 and Maesteg finishedwith 53 points. The day ended with anawards ceremony where we were presentedwith a large trophy, individual slate plaques, atablet for the school and my favourite prize, abox of Heroes! We will now go on to competein the Welsh Final in Cardiff City Stadium inMarch, where we hope to secure a place in theNational Final in London.

Felicity Williamson-Sarll Year 12

European Club is a lunchtime club whichhelps broaden our understanding oflanguages. During the club, we learn

French, German, Spanish and Italian. We playgames, make cards and listen to Frozen in alldifferent languages! It's great, I am always learningnew things!

The club is on every Monday lunchtime in P28 at1.15pm. The Language Ambassadors are alwaysthere to have a good time! But who are they?

The Language Ambassadors are a group of Year 9pupils who have been involved in the club since

Year 7: Jamimah Cook, Sophie Corbett, NicolaGladding, Sophie Williams and me! Our duty asLanguage Ambassadors is to get involved duringthe club, attend school assemblies to promotelanguages and give out prizes for variouscompetitions. This is a photo of us with the winnerof the Year 6 Transition Poster Competition andthe winner of the European Quiz Competition.

Well done!

See you at the club!

Emily James Year 9

European Club

YoungConsumers

We are a team of seven and we lovehelping Mrs Felton with theFairtrade Tuck Shop. We get

new supplies from Sussed in town, everyweek. It is always fun to get new stock.

We want to raise money for Sussed as well aspromoting Fairtrade products in school. Twoof us are responsible for taking a tray roundat lunchtime to sell to staff. The mostpopular thing we sell to the reception staff isthe figgy flap jack!

The good thing is that people love it and lookforward to it. We are open every Thursdayin P13 at break and lunchtime.

Fairtrade fortnight is happening soon. Weare planning to have a big event with lots ofextra cool stock.

The pupils who regularly help in the tuckshop are: Ellie Granville, Megan Stonehouse,Jess Davies, Asia Farnworth, Bethany Parker,Joshua Russell and Eddy Osborne.

Joshua Russell Year 8

FAIRTRADE TUCK SHOP

Clubs


The members of the school LEO Club took partin a sponsored bike ride on 27th October 2014.In total they raised £230, and the money will bedivided between Queen Elizabeth Hospital (carefor Veteran’s families), Stroke Association and theTeenage Cancer Trust. Well done to all of you!

Mr Laurence Pearce Leo Advisor

Leo Club

Welsh Club is a great way to improve your Welshwith your friends. We meet every Tuesdaylunchtime to take part in games and competitions,which are lots of fun, but also educational.

We will be designing and making the posters toadvertise the school Eisteddfod over the nextcouple of weeks. We make lots of posters which isfun. We have made some new ones to advertisethe club, which has influenced more people toattend. Last week, we enjoyed delivering SantesDwynwen cards to the lucky recipients in Years 7to 13. Most excitingly, we have cake days at theend of term which we all look forward to! In myopinion, Welsh Club has improved my Welsh alot. It’s amazing!

Caitlin Matthews Year 9

Welsh Club

Sarah Davidson of Year 9 has been successfullyselected to attend an International Guides Projectin Estonia.

Originally the selection process was choosingsuccessful candidates to go to Zambia to docharity/project work. Unfortunately, due to theEbola crisis, that trip has had to be cancelled.Instead Sarah will be heading out to Estonia for 2weeks doing voluntary conservation work. Only12 guides from Wales were chosen for this excitingexperience. It is an incredible feat to be chosen asthe selection process is extremely rigorous andSarah had to take part in various activities such asproblem solving, team work, making shelters andsleeping in a survival bag to name but a few!

I`m sure it will be an amazing lifetime experienceand we look forward to hearing all about it on herreturn.

Miss H Davies

GuidesInternational Project

Ientered The Future Chef Competitionbecause I love cooking and I tookHospitality and Catering at GCSE and

thought it would give me a chance toexpand my skills further.

I made an Asian fusion dish; salmon with achilli lime glaze served on French beans and

a limecrèmefraiche. Thedish wasverycolourfuland tasty;the judgesloved it!

I was one ofthe firstcompetitorsto finishand bejudged by

Mrs Thelwell-Davies, Miss Lambert andMegan Goldberger, (last year Megan gotthrough to the Welsh Heats). There were anumber of other competitors from Year 7right up to Year 11. After seeing what theothers had made I was sure that I was goingto lose!

I was very shocked and delighted whenMegan announced that I was going throughto the next round. Mai Phillips and I aregoing to the Bridgend Heats in January andwe are determined to win and progress tothe Welsh Heats in Pontypridd.

Cerys Watts Year 10

My name is Mai Phillips, and along withmy fellow class mate Cerys Hughes wespent a day in January at Bridgend

College competing in the County Heats of theFuture Chef Competition.

On the day of the event we arrived early, we wereboth really excited and nervous as well! We metour Judges, a chef from the Millennium Stadiumand Andrew Huddart, the owner of Huddarts inCowbridge which is Michelin Starrecommended.

I made salmon with a sweet chilli sauce, servedwith rosemary and garlic crispy potato wedgesand pan fried asparagus, and for dessert I made achocolate tart served with a chocolate coatedstrawberry.

When I was preparing and cooking the food, itwent well; I stayed calm and made the food intime without any problems. When they said thatI had won I was shocked as I didn’t expect itbecause everyone else’s food looked fantastic!

This has been a very exciting and interestingexperience for me because I love to cook and tolearn new skills. I have been interested incooking for manyyears as I havegrown upcooking differentfoods with myMum.

I am now gettingready for theWelsh Heatwhich will beheld in inNantgarwCollege,Pontypridd. I amcurrentlyreceiving mentoring from Andrew Huddart at hisrestaurant, so I get to see how a restaurant serviceis run and learn how to present my food in aprofessional way.

I am really excited to develop my food and takepart in the next round.

Mai Phillips Year 10

County HeatsSchool Heat

Future Chef Competition 2015




James Stroud left Porthcawl ComprehensiveSchool in the Summer of 2004 followingachieving 3 A’s at A-Level.

James went on to study at the ‘Oxford School ofArchitecture’, Oxford Brookes and graduated withfirst class honours in the Summer of 2008.

Since graduating, James joined the award winningLoyn & Co Architects based in Penarth where hehas enjoyed a wealth of experience ever since, with2014 being the most exciting year yet!

Last year, James along with his colleagues appearedon a new BBC2 series ‘Building Dream Homes’which followed 5 different Architects’ practicesfrom around the UK as they work with contractorsand homeowners to realise their ‘Dream Homes’.The programme aimed to illustrate the crucial rolethat Architects and Designers play in shaping theenvironment around us and in particular thebespoke homes! The 5 episodes, which featuredLoyn & Co Architects, followed James andcolleague Chris Loyn as they oversaw theconstruction of an environmentally friendly upsidedown house in the Vale of Glamorgan. It

showcased their painstaking attention to detail forevery aspect of the project as well as their sheerdetermination and enthusiasm to deliver the visionthe homeowners had fallen in love with.

Since appearing on the television another of Loyn& Co’s projects, which James spent the last 6 yearsworking on with his colleagues has been awardedthe ‘Manser Medal’ by the Royal Institute ofBritish Architects. This is a prestigious award giveneach year to the best new home in the UK. Theproject, called ‘Stormy Castle’ has been likened tosomething out of James Bond and Falling Waterby Frank Lloyd Wright and is constructed from apalette of concrete, glass and corten. Located innorth Gower, an area of outstanding naturalbeauty, James said it had been a tough but trulyrewarding project on an inspirational site. Theproject has been given a great deal of recognitionand was also awarded the Eisteddfod Gold Medalas well as a Welsh Architecture Award.

Some of the teachers will remember James from hisschool years which he recalls fondly. Others will infact be more familiar with and even, perhaps have

eaten an ice-cream or drank a coffee in another ofhis buildings, the Piccolo Bar, situated on thePromenade in Porthcawl. James told us how muchhe enjoyed and felt encouraged by both GCSE andA-Level ‘Design and Technology’ whilst at PCS,where his passion for Architecture developed. TheSchool and Porthcawl is very much close to hisheart. In his own words…

'The Piccolo Bar was, after working weekends andholidays there during my latter school years andduring University holidays, a wonderful privilege.Adapting the building to provide a year round,contemporary, spot to admire the ever changingsea and sunsets of my home town was a projectthat filled me with personal and professional pride!’

Two Porthcawl Comprehensive pupils arecelebrating their success at being offeredplaces in Oxford and Cambridge

Universities. Madeleine Williamson-Sarll, aged 18,has been offered an unconditional place at LincolnCollege, Oxford to read German. Madeleineachieved 3 A* and 1 A in her A Levels last Summerin English, German, Welsh and French, jointlygaining the best results in the whole school.Madeleine is currently taking aGap Year. Year 13pupil Alicia Cooke,also 18, has beenoffered a place atEmmanuel College,Cambridge, to readGeography, with aconditional offer ofA*AA. Alicia iscurrently studyingGeography, Historyand Biology at A Level.

With recent news thatWales is launching anational network of“learning hubs” to help the brightest students getinto Oxbridge and other top universities,Madeleine and Alicia have proved that earning aplace at one of the UK’s and, indeed, the world’stop-ranked educational institutions, is achievablewith hard graft and focus.

Coming hot on the trail of Madeleine’s WJEC ALevel Award for the best Welsh A Level results inthe UK, getting the offer from Lincoln College,Oxford, in January was, says Madeleine, “the icingon the cake”. She added: “I am over the moonabout this opportunity to work with some of thebest tutors in the world over the coming fouryears”. Madeleine and her sister have been raisedin a bilingual German-English environment at

home, both being taught by their motherfrom a young age. Madeleine has alreadytaught in a German school as part of her

work experience.

With an obvious ear for languages, Madeleine’steachers say she is “incredibly quick to pick up thecomplexities of grammar and syntax - of whichthere are many in German” Madeleine had to sit atough entrance exam for Oxford and cope withtwo challenging interviews, in which she was askedto discuss a literary and philosophical text inGerman. Not an easy task!

Having worked for two months in Austria,Madeleine has also been teaching English toteenagers in Poland, followed by further travellingfor the remainder of the year, hopefully to the FarEast (“Maybe to learn Chinese?”) and possiblyPatagonia. In the future, she hopes to pursue acareer with languages.

Alicia has always been extremely focused. One ofAlicia’s Geography teachers, Mrs Adele Mackey,said: “As a Department, we are very proud to hearof Alicia’s offer. She is a very hard working anddedicated young lady, so this is well deserved”. Aspart of her preparation for her Cambridgeapplication, Alicia attended Summer School inHomerton College.

As well as being an excellent student, Alicia hasgained considerable success in her extra-curricularactivities. She was formerly a member of theNational Children’s Choir of Great Britain and hasbeen a modern lyrical and tap dancer for manyyears, both with the Sarah Burnell School of Danceand with Caroline Brown. In 2013, she was partof a team in the All England Dance Competition,resulting in a performance in the West End. Thiscoming half term, she will be taking part in theRegional Final of the same Championships inCheltenham. Also an excellent sportswoman,Alicia was a member of the Welsh RoundersSquad, representing her country in Year 10.

Alicia says she is “absolutely delighted to be offeredthis incredible opportunity”. Her interest is inInternational Development, with her “dream job”being a post with the UN. Alicia is already widelytravelled, having visited countries such as India,China, Vietnam and Iceland. In the future, Aliciawould like to work with developing countries toimprove health and education and to create betterrights for women.

Headteacher, Andrew Slade added:

“All at the school are delighted with the successof both students. Results like this are the resultof hours of dedication and sheer hard work. Theuniversity offers are a testimony to the efforts ofthe girls. Well done to both”.

Successful YearFor Ex-Pupil

OXBRIDGE SUCCESS



Two Porthcawl Comprehensive pupils havebeen honoured in the recent WJECAchievement Awards, which took place on

December 18th at the Exam Board’s Head Officein Cardiff.

Madeleine Williamson-Sarll, who achieved 5 Agrades at AS Level and 3 A* and 1 A at A Level,received the award for the best A Level results inWelsh 2nd Language in the whole of the UK. Adedicated and gifted linguist, raised in a German-English speaking environment, Madeleine studiedGerman, Welsh, English and French for A Level,having also studied Religious Education to ASlevel. Madeleine is a superb advocate for the Welsh

language and all language learning, with herdedication being rewarded not just with heroutstanding results, but with the coveted Chair inthe 2014 School Eisteddfod, with her poementitled, Pobl Ifanc Yng Nghymru.

One of Madeleine’s Welsh teachers, Mrs AnneWeedon, accompanied Madeleine and her motherto the prestigious Award Ceremony:

“Congratulations to Madeleine on achieving theWJEC Award for the highest mark in ALevel Welsh (Second Language) in the UK. She

gained 593/600 UMS marks, which included fullmarks in three modules. This was a fantasticachievement and it was a pleasure to join her at theAwards Ceremony. She is an incredibly clever andhardworking student and deserves this recognition.Llongyfarchiadau a phob lwc am y dyfodol”

“I am extremely proud of this achievement” saysMadeleine” and would like to thank my Welshteachers for their support and encouragement. Ihope to continue with my Welsh studies in thefuture and to build on this success”.

“This is a truly outstanding achievement” saidHeadteacher Andrew Slade “and we are very proudof the honour you have brought to yourself, the

school and the community. All ofyour examination marks duringyour time at PorthcawlComprehensive School were firstclass, and gaining the top mark inWelsh is a reflection of yourfantastic aptitude for languages, aswell as your hard work anddetermination. Well done,Madeleine!” .

Mr Slade and his staff were alsodelighted by the success achieved byShannon Rock, who received theWJEC award for the best A LevelLaw results in the UK.

Shannon, who studied Law atBridgend College, whilst

completing History and Business Studies A Levelsin school, achieved full marks for both her AS andA2 papers, gaining a coveted A* in Year 13, as wellas an A grade in both other A Levels.

Shannon is “so happy for being recognised for myendless days of revising!" and is currently studyingLaw at Exeter University, one of the prestigiousRussell Group universities. Shannon is very muchenjoying student life and her Law course, althoughshe says her heavy workload is “not allowing muchtime for socialising!”

Shannon’s teachers describe her as a “lovely, bright,conscientious and organised pupil.” Mrs James,Business Studies, described her work ethic as"unbelievable", and said, "She is the hardestworking pupil I have ever taught!"

She added "Shannon thoroughly deserves heraward and all the staff at Porthcawl ComprehensiveSchool are absolutely delighted for her."

Headteacher Andrew Slade concluded: “Shannon’sLaw marks are testament to her dedication andhard graft, showing that commitment reapsrewards. This is another outstandingachievement, of which we are extremely proud. Iwould like to wish both girls every success for thefuture and in their chosen careers”.

WJEC AWARDSFOR TOPSTUDENTS IN WALES

Hannah Brown - A Writer Going PlacesFormer pupil Hannah Brown has become a published author. Having enjoyed English

Language and Literature at A Level, she decided to study English Literature at ExeterUniversity. Whilst on the beautiful campus at Falmouth, her creative skills flourished

and materialised in “Did You Know There Are Dragons In Cornwall?” (ISBN 0992 9074–0–2).

It is a delightful story about a mysterious egg found upon a beach in Cornwall and theensuing adventures of the girl who helped hatch the baby dragon. A challenging andevocative tale, it asks questions and entertains in equal measure.

Hannah is hoping to travel, ultimately with the aim of teaching in Japan. Surely she’ll acquiremasses of material for the books she hopes to write in the future.

Mr A Thomas English Department


RS VISIT TO A HINDUTEMPLE…

AOn the 12th of December, 49 of usventured to London with the ReligiousStudies Department for a day filled with

learning, shopping and fun! After waking up for a(ridiculously) early start, the bus left Porthcawlwhen it was still dark outside. We made good timeand at 11am we touched down at the temple, orMandir as it is traditionally named. As we arrivedwe were greeted by its stunning exterior. A highset of pristine white steps wound up to anastounding ivory building, made of pillars andshining Bulgarian marble. The grounds weremagnificent, with full and thick green foliage,scarlet flowers and a crystal blue pool of water.Truly, BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir wasbreathtaking!

We were led into an adjoining building where weall marvelled at beautiful wood carvings that tracedup to the ceiling. We had to remove our shoes asa sign of respect of the Mandir and Hindu religion.We were led into an assembly hall, where we weretold that the temple had recently celebrated its20th Anniversary. We were shown a short filmtelling us about Hinduism and the Mandir’shistory. We felt enlightened to learn that areligious leader, Pramukh Swami Maharaj, inspiredover 3,000 volunteers to build the temple toexpress their devotion to their faith and have adivine place to worship. The temple itself iscompletely made of Bulgarian marble, Burmese

teak and English oak, allhand carved in intricatedetail.

After our informativesession, we were escortedinto the temple itself, wherewe separated into boys andgirls. Sitting in silence, weadmired the beauty of thecarvings and thesplendidness of the gorgeousmurtis – statues of deities -which were made of polishedgold. We were fortunate toobserve a worship session

and a daily prayer, thereby experiencing first-handthe expression of the Hindu faith.

We were then led to an exhibition under thetemple, where we studied ancient Hindu storiesand learnt of the history of Hinduism and Indiaitself and their cultural significance. We discoveredfor example, that India had the first and largestuniversity ever documented. This was followed bya question and answer session with a member ofthe temple, who encouraged participation and wasextremely informative with his answers to themany questions from us students. He finishedwith the fact that not only did the temple holdreligious services but it also had leisure facilities toencourage family bonding.

After an interesting and fun time of beingenlightened about the tradition and culture ofHinduism, we gave our brains a rest and went onto “shop until we dropped” in Christmassy CoventGarden; a perfect day!

Caitlin Whiteley & Phoebe Hopkins Year 11

CologneChristmasMarkets 2014

Another Christmas, another trip to thebeautiful markets of Cologne!Keeping with tradition, we picked

one of the worst weekends in December totravel and endured the ferry crossing fromhell! Next year, we’ll take the tunnel. Add acrash in Belgium into the mix and you endup with an 18 hour coach journey!

Things improved after we arrived, thanks toice-skating, shopping, a trip to the chocolatefactory, a ‘little’ climb up to the top of thebeautiful gothic cathedral, food and moreshopping. Cologne is a beautiful city evenin drizzle and grey skies! I can’t wait to do itagain next year – but let’s hope for a calmcrossing, blue skies and maybe a little snow!!

MFL Department




At the crack of dawn on the 17th ofNovember all the AS Geography pupilsmade their way to school to go to Orielton

on a field trip, with visions of communal showers,terrible food and a haunted manor house (thanksto the past pupils).

When the bus finally arrived we headed on ourway to Orielton. Well sort of, as it seemed neitherthe teachers nor the driver knew the directions towhere we were going, and whenever we askedwhere we were, the reply was ‘Pembrokeshire’ (abit vague).

After travelling down many country lanes wefinally arrived at Orielton Field Centre a couplehours later, where we met up with the DeputyHead of the centre who told us the rules of survivalat this place, and most importantly, where the wifiwas.

After dumping our stuff in the rooms we headeddown to the labs. In reality, they were freezing coldconverted stables that smelled disgusting (we werelater informed it was bat pee) although it was theplace we got our priorities straight such as chargingour phones and getting wifi. Here we also met withour tutor, Janine.

The first day we spent looking at hydrology, whichmeant getting on the luminous yellow waterproofs.Before we put them on though we had a breakwhere we could eat food, drink coffee and mostimportantly eat the cake that they left out for us -it seemed suspicious but we ate it anyway. Afterour sugar and caffeine fix we went back to the labsto carry out more experiments, some of which tookseveral attempts.

After dinner, we returned to the labs and ploughedon working into the night, (well 9 o’clock but westill missed a lot of TV).

After a long day’s work we all settled down towatch ‘Woman in Black’ and at 10:30, Miss Evansdecided it was a good time to burst into the roomby slamming open the door and flicking on thelights which resulted in scaring us all to death.Then it was time for ‘bed’.

At about 1 am there was a scream from one of therooms, not because of ghosts but the appearanceof a wasp - seriously? It’s November- they shouldbe dead!

At 7am the ringing of the bell woke us up to beginour second day. We went back down to the labsbefore heading to Saundersfoot. Here weinterviewed residents of the town, some of whomturned us away and one particular fellow startedtelling us his life story and showing us old photosand ID! We also looked at the services available inthe area. We repeated this in the town of Kilgettybefore getting back on the bus and returning homeafter an interesting couple of days.

We had a great time and learned a lot, although Idon’t think any of the pupils will be booking aplace there for a holiday again anytime soon,(defiantly not a 5 star rating)!

On behalf of the whole class I’d like to say a bigthank you to all the staff at the Orielton FieldCentre, Janine, Miss Evans and Miss Painter for anenjoyable and very worth -while experience.

Meg Jones Year 12

Year 12 Annual Trip to Orielton


Porthcawl Comprehensive has long beenrenowned for its theatrical flair anddazzling productions, much of which is

thanks to continually devoted students and astellar Performing Arts Department. This year,we caused a ramalamadingdong whenannouncing that 2015’s production would be themaniacally happy musical ‘Grease’. Packed withfeel-good fun and demanding song-n-danceroutines, ‘Grease’ is no easy ride. Nobody is bornto hand jive… baby. In this exclusive behind-the-scenes exposé, we reveal the dizzying heights andalmighty lows of our rehearsal process. What’sthat I hear you say? ‘Tell me more, tell memore…’? I shall, gladly.

The audition process is the first thing to worryabout. What if I get the words wrong? What if myvoice cracks? What if I fall over and suffer a fatalhead wound and never live to tell the tale? Theseare just a few of the questions that run through anauditionee’s mind. One of our Teen AngelsRichard Price said of the experience, “It was themost nerve-racking experience of my life, but alsoa very enjoyable time, and the pay-off wasfantastic.” Certain songs and scenes were allocatedto certain parts and, after a couple of weeks, theshow had been cast. Although there are alwaysthose that are disappointed, everyone eventuallylearns to love their part and enjoys themselveshowever small or big their role may be.

In my opinion, it is the rehearsals that prove themost labouring aspects of the show. Attemptingto memorise lines, songs and dance routines –some of which look impossible – is certainlywhere I struggled most. At the very start of therehearsal period, certain events meant thatrehearsals were not as frequent as usual, whichput all the more pressure on the company to putthe effort in. However, according to Jack Davies,who played Danny, “we practically staged thewhole show, minus Summer Nights, in three anda half weeks.” Now, that’s hopeless devotion onour part.


‘...for the most part,some of the funniestand happiestmemories are madeboth on and offstage’

Tell me more, tell me more…

In this exclusive behind-the-scenes exposé, we reveal the dizzying heights and almighty lows of our rehearsal process

Wednesday 28th - Saturday 31st January 2015

�e Grand Pavilion, Porthcawl

Wednesday, �ursday & Friday 7.30pm, Saturday 2.00pm

GREASE: Book, Music and Lyrics by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. Grease is presented through special arrangement with and all

authorised performance materials supplied by .eatrical Rights Worldwide (TRW), 570 Seventh Avenue, Suite 2100, New York NY 10018.

www.theatricalrights.com

GREASE2015



The adrenaline begins to pump on production week, during which we run and polish the show at the Pavilion, altering positions and performances to suit the stageand set. It is these days that are the longest. Incessantly, the company are summer-lovin’, rock-and-rollin’ and hand-jivin’ sometimes from half eight in the morning tohalf nine at night. Max Bravery, who plays Eugene, recalls “running the show threetimes in one day.”

Of course, I realise I’m making it sound like torture. And occasionally, it is. But, for themost part, some of the funniest and happiest memories are made both on and offstage.Teachers and students alike are sometimesdoubled-over from laughing so much. It isquite remarkable that this school canboast such talent.

On a personal note, I’d say that ifyou ever consider taking part ina school show, I would whollyencourage you to do so. It isone of the most rewardingexperiences that this schooloffers. Believe me, whenthe lights go down and thevelvet curtains part, andthere’s an audiencebeaming at you in hushedanticipation, you will notregret it.

Sam Pryce Year 13

‘...taking part in the show ....it is one of themost rewardingexperiences thatthis school offers’

Greased Lightnin'! Pink Ladies!


BTEC Panto Review

Once again the annual BTEC ChristmasPanto toured all of the feeder primaryschools in a hectic yet thoroughly

enjoyable week in December, and what a greatsuccess! This year it was Jack and the Beanstalk, awell-known tale about a boy Jack (StephanieHarper) who sells his beloved cow for some meagrebeans or so it would seem!! Added to the mix wasthe dancing Dame (Sam Spriggs) the evil FleshCreep (Erin Brown) and the King of Kings (KatieMainwaring) who entertained audiences with theirlight-hearted acting skills and comic moments.The tale also saw how “the course of true love neverdoes run smooth” when the beautiful princess’(Danielle Littleford) love for Jack is compromised.Throughout the story the children were alsopresented with some good advice from the Fairy(played by Kayleigh Hodgson).

This project has been amazing and very productiveand we are looking forward to doing it again next year.

THOUGHTS FROM THESTUDENTS!

“It pushed us to do things that we may not havedone in other projects.”

“The show was probably the most imaginative ofprojects we have done to date. We got to dress up,in ridiculous, over the top costumes and act silly!!It was so much fun!!”

“It was an amazing experience working with suchyoung children and the feedback we received wasvery good.”

“To see the reactions on the children’s faces was sucha rewarding experience.”

Jack and theBeanstalk

BTEC Performing Arts is a subject thatcovers many different areas ofperformance. To be a true actor you

need the skills to perform no matter what thesituation, even if it’s out of your comfort zone.We called our production company ‘ReflectionsTheatre Company’. Our first units in thissubject were ‘Mime’, ’Auditions for Actors’ and‘Singing Skills for Actors and Dancing’. Wethen had to incorporate these skills in anEvening of Song and Dance.

The group decided to work collectively to createa mime involving all of us. Initially we starteddevising characters and then began to think ofa situation where these characters might cometogether. Our end result was a mimed pieceabout twenty minutes long which was set in aclothing factory and explored the rivalrybetween all the female workers as they fight forthe attention of the only male employee!

For our ‘Auditions for Actors’ unit we each hadto perform an individual monologue. We hadto choose between either a period monologue

or a contemporary one and then ‘Audition’ infront of our teacher. We then decided on whichmonologue to perform in the Song and DanceEvening.

For our Music unit we chose songs rangingfrom musical theatre numbers to popular popsongs and performed them throughout theevening.

Overall the evening was challenging butincredibly rewarding and our performance skillswere definitely extended and enhanced as aresult of the project. The Reflections TheatreCompany would like to give a personal thankyou to Mr Smith, Ms Mayo and Mrs Athertonfor all the support and encouragementthroughout rehearsal process. We would alsolike to thank everyone who came to watch andsupport us at the evening.

So a big thanks to you from Katie Mainwaring,Sam Spriggs, Erin Brown, Danielle Littleford,Kayleigh Hodgson and Stephanie Harper.

BTEC Songand DancePerformanceReview



Ijoined the Welsh National Youth Opera 10 -14 a few years ago after Iwent on tour as part of the Children’s Chorus for La Bohème. I met areally good group of friends when we toured with the company going

to places like Birmingham and Oxford. We went on tour with AnnabelArden’s new production of La Bohème and we had very good reviews innewspapers such as the Telegraph.

About 50 of us meet every Saturday during term time in Cardiff to learnvarious drama skills, singing techniques, rehearsal etiquette and really have fun singing. Eachweek the group is directed by Music Director Dan Perkins. We have written our own opera and performedit together with the world premiere of a new setting of ‘Fern Hill' by Julian Philips in a special edition of"Meet My Choir", this was recorded and broadcast on Radio 3 from Laugharne in May last year.

We get a lot of opportunities to perform in special locations such as theatres, in the Welsh MillenniumCentre, Cardiff Castle, St David’s Hall at Christmas and Laugharne at the Dylan Thomas Festival. Learningsome of the pieces can be hard work, we have done quite a lot with song cycles from choral composerssuch as Benjamin Britten.

Emily James Year 9


Senior Maths ChallengeNovember 2014

Year 12 and 13 Maths studentsturned out well for the SeniorMaths Challenge this year with

good success. Many narrowly missed aCertificate but 5 were successful in gainingone. Over 81,000 pupils from across theUK returned scripts with the top 10%receiving a Gold Certificate, the next 20%receiving a Silver Certificate and the next30% a Bronze. The Senior MathsChallenge is run by the UK MathematicsTrust and is aimed at students in Years 12and 13. The trust is a registered charitywhose aim is to further the education ofyoung people in Maths. Furtherinformation and extension activities for allages can be found at the Trust’s website;www.ukmt.org.uk.

Certificate WinnersYear 13

Dan Donnelly - Bronze Certificate, Bestin Year and Best in School

Other Bronze Certificate Winners

Jack Bridger, Rhys Mortimer, RebeccaChick

Year 12

Richard Lugg - Bronze CertificateWinner and Best in Year

How would you get on with some of thequestions from this year’s challenge?

December 31st 1997 was a Wednesday.How many Wednesdays were there in1997?

A 12 B 51C 52 D 53E 365

According to recent research, global sealevels could rise 36.8cm by the year 2100as a result of melting ice. Roughly howmany mm is that per year?

A 10 B 4C 1 D 0.4E 0.1

Answers on the back cover.

For 72 hours, Year 11 Drama students undertook their most strenuous, challenging,yet fulfilling performance of their Drama GCSE to date! Groups were given thechoice between two performance styles – Physical Theatre or Brechtian Theatre; both

equally challenging yet very different. Physical Theatre relies mainly on movement tocommunicate a story whereas Brechtian Theatre is more politically and socially motivated.

After a number of weeks in rehearsal the scripts were written, scenes were blocked, lightingcues were programmed and the audience were waiting. Pieces ranged from dramas tocomedies and to histories with plots featuring murders, prisoners, fame and substance abuse.Personal creativities flourished!! Considering the only guidance on plot came from oursubject title of ‘Shadows’ there was so much variety between all of the pieces!

Lauren Ellis-Stretch & Phoebe Lewis Year 11

YEAR 11 DEVISED PRACTICAL EXAMS ‘The experience has not only improvedmy performing ability but my skills todevise a piece of drama.’ Annabelle Morgan

‘It has been difficult but rewarding!’ Elin Morris

Welsh National Youth Opera



Man City v Crystal Palace Match ReportDavid Silva scored twice as Manchester City beatCrystal Palace 3-0 to move level on points withBarclays Premier League leaders Chelsea.

The Spain midfielder struck twice in the secondhalf on his 200th appearance for the club at theEtihad Stadium, as the champions stretched theirwinning run to eight matches in all competitions.

City had been toothless in the first half, with JamesMilner employed in an unfamiliar advance role inthe absence of all of the club's recognised strikersdue to injury.

They raised their game after the break, though, andSilva delivered the end product they had previouslybeen lacking with two goals in the space of 12minutes, before Yaya Toure marked his 150th BPLappearance with his 46th top-flight goal to capanother impressive display.

Victory for Manuel Pellegrini's men – their sixthin succession in the top flight ensured they joinedChelsea on 39 points, with the latter facing a tripto Stoke City the following Monday. NeilWarnock's team had now won just one of their last11 matches.

Pellegrini made six changes to the side that won atLeicester City the previous weekend, with Milneramong the players to come in, while FraizerCampbell replaced the injured MarouaneChamakh in the Palace starting line-up and JasonPuncheon was preferred to Wilfried Zaha.

Warnock said his Palace side had nothing to fearat the Etihad Stadium and they made a positivestart as City struggled to get going.

Yannick Bolasie proved a real threat early on andJoe Hart did well to palm away the winger's crossas the onrushing McArthur was poised to finishfrom close range.

Mile Jedinak might have headed home an invitingcorner, before Campbell spurned a great chance toopen the scoring when Bolasie headed the ball onand the former Manchester United striker failed tohit the target with an acrobatic overhead kick.

City started to get into their stride with some slickpassing and movement, but Silva was unable tomake Julian Speroni work after Samir Nasri hadburst into the penalty area and cut the ball back tothe Spain midfielder.

Bolasie shot into the side-netting 10 minutesbefore the break as City continued to lookvulnerable at the back, before Pablo Zabaleta cameagonisingly close to putting the home side in frontwhen Toure picked him out with a sublime passand the marauding defender scooped the ball overSperoni, only to send his dinked effort wide.

It was a frustrating first half for the champions, butthey were in front four minutes after the breakcourtesy of a strike from Silva.

Zabaleta was the architect, with the right-backagain surging forward and unselfishly cutting theball back for Silva, whose shot hit Scott Dann andlooped over the unfortunate Speroni and into thenet.

Palace were struggling to live with City's passingand movement and Silva doubled their lead 61minutes in, sweeping the ball in first time afterAleksandar Kolarov had picked him out with a finecross.

The visitors had the ball in the back of the net after66 minutes, but McArthur was adjudged to beoffside after he headed in a fine cross from theimpressive Bolasie.

Toure added to Palace's misery with nine minutesremaining when he belted a powerful left-footedshot past Speroni after receiving a fine pass fromMilner following a swift break, as City marched onin ominous fashion.

Man City manager Manuel Pellegrini: “It was a very good win. A very good performance. Ienjoyed the way the team worked the whole week, towork in a different way without strikers. Palace are ateam who know how to defend. It was a great job toscore three goals. They are also dangerous on thecounter. We had two clear chances in the first half; theway we had chances is by moving the ball.

David Silva is a top player with lots of quality. Weare not just Sergio Aguero, we work hard every day.We have strikers out and Vincent Kompany isinjured.I did think December is a key month to be inthe fight for the title, and if you want to be involvedyou must be very near the top of the table. I hope wecontinue playing like this.”

Crystal Palace manager Neil Warnock: “I was pleased with the way we played and certainlyfrustrated them at times. We created opportunities attimes in the game as well. We must take the positivesbut I'm disappointed for the players because they putso much in and we go away with so little."

One week later Neil Warnock was sacked byCrystal Palace.

Mr A Pucella Football Pundit

Premiership Trip


Robotics – Workshop(ICT/Computing Dept)


Year 9 – Ahead of the Game

On December 1st a group of Year 9pupils had the opportunity to takepart in a ‘Robotics’ workshop with

Technocamps. Technocamps is an inspiringoutreach programme led by SwanseaUniversity in partnership with the Universitiesof Aberystwyth, Bangor and the newly formedUniversity of South Wales.

Pupils used the LEGO Mindstorms NXrobots. They are programmable robotics kitswhich can be used to create many differentrobots to complete a variety of tasks. Duringthese workshops, pupils had to build their ownLEGO Mindstorms robots, and thenprogramme them to complete a series ofchallenge tasks.

The session provided an overview of roboticshardware and programming constructs, as wellas introducing a free iPad application calledCargobot to help students learn aboutsequential instructions.

Challenge 1 – Programme their robot tomove the length of the table

The first challenge task was to get the robot tomove the length of the table. The standard wasset high by the first group ‘Bebah’. No otherteam could get close. With 3 teams left to go,it looked as if team ‘Bebah’ had it in the bag.But then, team ‘HJER’ came along and wentahead by a few millimetres. With one teamremaining, it looked as if ‘HJER’ had clinchedvictory but all was about to change again!Hello team ‘Mycrofts Umbrella’ – the last teamof the day. Their robot went all the way to theedge of the table and was victorious. Therobot was programmed by Bethany McKenzieand Eleanor Wilsher.

Challenge 2 – Programme their robot tofollow a race track

Strong contenders from Challenge 1 seemedto crash and burn with this task. ‘HJER’ musthave thought it was a disco contest as theirrobot seemed to have a ‘funny moment’ beforedisappearing from the track. Team ‘Bob’ setthe standard but did drift off course towardsthe end. In a more controlled manner wasteam ‘LegoTech’ who demonstrated how tocontrol the robot correctly. Well done toAbigail Smith, Alys Ridsdale, Phoebe Roachand Grace Meredith.

Quotes

“I enjoyed building the robot!”Hannah Schofield

“I enjoyed every part of the Technocampsworkshop!”Michael Nightingale

Prizes were awarded to people who wereidentified as pupils who worked particularlywell throughout the whole session, particularlywith perseverance and contributions. Welldone to the following who received a ‘slapband’ Technocamps USB pen drive: EleanorWilsher, Cameron Mainwaring, MichaelNightingale, Rhiannon Tuckett-Jones andIeuan Williams.

Mr A Pucella ICT/Computing Department

We had to leave earlier than planned due tothe kick off time being changed. Oneyoung man who shall not be named forgot

to tell his Mum about the changes and was still in bedwhen he had a phone call! After a slight delay we wereoff. A quality bus was provided. Within two minutesof leaving, an enthusiastic bunch of boys started singingand chanting with a lot of friendly banter between Year7 and Year 8. Examples of songs/chants being sungwere:-

� Mr John’s Barmy Army

� Who are you?

� Year 10 - Give us a song! (Surprisingly not takenup by Rhys Reid and Callum Morgan)

� Year 8 - You will sing when you are told!

� We will sing when we want to!

� Man City chant

� Yaya Toure

After an hour the songs/chants had to be silenced as itwas far too early! Instead we had a period of quiet,followed by some DVDs. After the services we had thelegendary football quiz. The quiz joint winners wereJoshua Baroth and Harrison Lewis both of 8EH. Thejoint runners up were Sunil Vummiti and HarrisonPring both of 8GM.

An early start had its advantages as we were fortunatewith the traffic. The Etihad Stadium and grounds werevery impressive, with a live band, club shop and manyfood outlets all within the Man City grounds.

Overall a very enjoyable day was had by all.

Pupil Quotes:“The day went well. The Etihad Stadium was amazing.The match was good especially because I was actuallywatching Man City! Overall, a really fantastic day!” Jay Gunningham 7RC

“I really enjoyed the game as it featured an amazing team(Man City). Also, the trip was very well organised and thesites were spectacular. Overall the day was phenomenal.”Alex Glover 7OS

“It was a very good day. It was nice to see all the players.”Ioan Delbridge 7AE

“It was an amazing day out. It was good to see all the greatplayers. It was fun singing along to the chants on the bus.The day was topped off with a 3-0 win for Man City. Itwas an amazing day and an amazing experience.” Ioan Clift 7RC

“I think overall the trip was excellent. We had really goodseats in the stadium and we had a quality bus.” Cameron Beale 7HT


To make the most out of our Christmasholidays, 32 Sixth Form pupils went on askiing trip to Zell-Am-See in Austria. The

few amongst us who had never been before, hadabsolutely no idea what to expect; packing all wecould possibly fit into our suitcases (with an absurdnumber of thermals), we headed off on BoxingDay. On paper 26 hours on a coach doesn’t seemlike that much, but with just 4 DVDs and only somany games of Mafia we could play – the timewent by slowly…

Surprisingly, we all made it in one piece. Arrivingat the lodge, we all immediately felt underdressed,as we ran through the snow to get into the warm!Some of us (read: me) were kind enough to carryothers suitcases for them, but most just grabbed alltheir possessions and sprinted inside. Lugging oursuitcases up the stairs, we fell through the doors toour rooms and pretty much collapsed on the beds.Conversation over dinner was non-existent, andsome of us were eating with one eye open.Exhausted, we all went to bed early, except forsome of the boys, who had caught their secondwind and were determined to make the most oftheir holiday!

Woken up at the unearthly time of 7:15 (7:15!!)by Mr John, we were out and on the slopes by9:30. While the Advanced and IntermediateGroups were busy (by their own accounts)zooming down slopes and rescuing lost people, theBeginners were walking around in circles with ourskis on. The Advanced and Intermediate Groupswere making it down Reds and Blues with no fallsat all (except for poor Matthew Allen…), whereas,the Beginners were going down 5 metre slopes -

and still managing to fall. After lunch, theBeginners tried their first Blue slope. After aboutan hour, the decision was made to walk down theslope instead – I don’t think I need to explain why.While the Advanced and Intermediate Groupswent to bed with a big smile on their faces, I thinkit’s fair to say quite a few Beginners were worriedthey had made a terrible decision.

Up on the slopes again the next day, the Beginnershad a welcome surprise; they had been ‘promoted’to Kinder Parc (Or Kiddie’s Park in English).Complete with foam cut-outs of Flounder the Fish(of Little Mermaid fame) and a conveyor belt tothe top of the 5 metre high slope, the Beginnersfelt much more in their element. While Austriantoddlers were racing past us (apparently it’s just anatural gift over there, as we were regularlyoutclassed by children) we were crawling down theslight decline, ‘snowploughing’ all the way.Ridiculous as it was, it paid off. The Beginnersmade it down their first slope just before lunch to(possibly sarcastic) applause from the AdvancedGroup below us. Our fears gone, suddenly wecouldn’t go steep enough or fast enough!


Zell-Am-See, AustriaBeginners Group Intermediate Group Advanced Group


On 4th December, both Full CourseWelsh Year 10 classes took a trip toCardiff ’s Winter Wonderland.

Everyone arrived in really high spirits readyto take our tentative steps on to the ice. Afterqueuing and having the rules shouted at usby an extremely enthusiastic helper, wegrabbed our skates and prepared to face theice.

Torvill and Dean many of us were not; morelike Bambi on ice as we slipped and slitheredtrying to keep our balance and pride!Fortunately, there were no major injuriesand, after an hour, we left the rink quite sorebut unscathed.

There was plenty of choice of food. Both MsDavies’ were seen enjoying some verycalorific cheesy nachos!

A few of us more intrepid pupils decided toface our fears; pay £5 and go on the scariest,tallest ride in Winter Wonderland, namely,the notorious Sky Swing. It was certainlyworth the fear as the view on such a clear,crisp night was stunning. We could see formiles!

Before we left, most of us went as manytimes as we could on the Funhouse. It reallywas back to our childhoods!! We arrived backat school around 10.30pm, worn out buthaving enjoyed a fun evening.

We can’t wait for next December!!

Layla Millar and Charlotte Clarke Year 10

Winter Wonderland

On the third and fourth days the beginners finally started toget… decent at skiing. Making it down slopes of increasingdifficulty, we were getting more and more arrogant – until oneof us (who won’t be named) managed to wipe out half the teamand our instructor. While the Beginners were trying to commitmanslaughter on the Blues, the Advanced Group went off pistewith their instructor. Going to a restaurant off the beatenslope, they got to really experience some proper Austriancuisine; and then rub it in our faces (not literally). We spentour nights watching Go Pro footage of the day’s events, andhearing horror stories of skiing - like how Dylan managed towipe out a little toddler, or how Tom’s skis detached in the airafter a very high jump.

On the final day of skiing, the instructors set up a slalom forus to complete. Having the same course for every skier was arecipe for disaster, but some of the times recorded wereblisteringly fast! Admittedly there were a lot of tumbles, buteveryone recovered well enough. Except for Jack Power, whowas too busy punching the snow in a rage to get back on hisskis. After lots of photos and goodbyes, we descended downthe slopes for the last time. The Advanced, some of theIntermediate and Matt Ellis of the Beginners skied their waydown to the town like true pros. The rest of us were happy justto slug along in the gondolas.

With our cases packed we hopped back into the coach, readyfor the journey home. We all had a fantastic time skiing, andwith no broken bones I’d call it a success! All of us immediatelystarted thinking of when we could do it again, raring to godown those slopes again. A massive thank you to all of theteachers - Mr Stradling, Miss Davies, Mrs Callister - andinstructors who made it possible, and especially to Mr Johnfor organising it all. It was definitely an amazing time, one wewere all very happy to be a part of.

Nick Slade Year 13

‘Mooses’ of the week: Alex Davies, James Long, MatthewAllen, Rhys Barrett, Jake Furness.

Beginners:1) Matt Ellis, 2) Tesney Lewis, 3) Nathaniel King

Intermediate: 1) Mollie Rees, 2) Aaron Martin, 3) Caleb Burnett

Advanced: 1) Lewis Evans, 2) Joshua Bell, 3) Thomas Phillips

SlalomResults




Once again, All Saints Church provided thevenue for Porthcawl ComprehensiveSchool’s Annual Carol Service. On the

18th December, pupils, teachers, parents andfriends gathered to enjoy an evening of hymns,readings, carols, orchestral pieces and drama items.

As is tradition, the Girls’ Choir began the evening’sproceedings by performing ‘Silent Night’ as theprocessional carol. As ever, this was very movingand vocally strong.

Canon P Masson welcomed everyone to the serviceand introduced the congregational carol ‘Hark theHerald’ which was superbly accompanied by ourWind Band.

Our Wind Band then went on to perform ‘TheLittle Drummer Boy’ and ‘Joyful all ye Nations’under the direction of Mrs Karen Hnyda. Thiswas definitely one of the highlights of the eveningand the performance was exceptional. We are sofortunate to have so many talented pupils at PCS!

This year, we had one of largest Senior Choirs ofthe past few years. It was lovely to see so many ofour senior pupils perform and participate. Theysang two contrasting songs. Firstly, the lively andenergetic ‘Jesus Child’ by John Rutter, then apoignant performance of the traditional carol ‘Inthe Bleak Mid Winter’. Mitchell Davies andPhoebe Lewis sang beautiful solos and the choirfinished the piece a cappella.

Mr Jefferies, our guitar peripatetic teacher,supported the Guitar Ensemble with a funkyversion of ‘Silent Night’, very different from thegirls’ processional version! Pupils from Year 9through to Year 11 were involved and it was lovelyto see some new additions to the groups.Unfortunately it was the last carol service at PCSfor one of our key guitarists – Trystan Winn-Davies as he leaves us to move to London. Trystanis a great guitarist who will be truly missed - Goodluck for the future Trystan!

Once again, the Junior Drama item had thecongregation laughing! Ethan Griffiths, EvanDavies, Rohan Johns, Stella Marks, WilliamFoskett, Rhys Jones, Carys Rosser-Stanford, OliviaPownall and Alex Glover were all involved and itis lovely to see such new talent coming through theschool. A massive thank you to Mrs Davies andMr Smith for their support with this!

Miss Hardwick choreographed a beautiful routinefor the Senior Drama item. With the support andhelp from Year 12 girls who take BTECPerforming Arts, they danced a stylised piece to thebeautiful song ‘Light of the World’. It was a veryemotive item in the service and beautifullyperformed!

Junior Choir were fortunate enough to have twopieces written for them by composer Mrs LynneBurr. The choir premiered songs called ‘Hush A

Bye’ and ‘At Last it’s Christmas Day’, both ofwhich were greatly received by the congregation.Thank you to Mrs Burr for giving pupils at PCSthis opportunity. Well done to our soloistperformers also!

String Ensemble gave another wonderfulperformance! This year they performed a lovelyarrangement of pieces from the film ‘The PolarExpress’ and “Pieds-en-l’air”.

Both Junior and Senior Orchestra performedto their usual superb standard! It was amazingto see 11 (!) Grade 8 musicians performing inSenior Orchestra!! We are losing so manytalented musicians as they move ontouniversity and we wish them luck in theirfuture career paths. However, it isencouraging to see the talent of the futureflourish on these occasions. A special thankyou must go to Mrs Hnyda and Mrs Williamsfor their exceptional support.

A huge ‘thank you’ once again, to all ourwonderful peripatetic staff for their help andsupport with the Music in this service all year.Thank you also to the many other staffmembers who were involved or supported thisschool event.

The Music Department

School Carol Service



On the 2nd of December, the Year 12Welsh Baccalaureate class held theirAnnual Christmas Fayre. We began the

organisation of the Fayre back in September, aspart of the enterprise component of the WelshBaccalaureate qualification.

We started off by electing each other to fill certainroles, based on people’s individual strengths. Wethen decided as a group which 2 local charities wewould donate the money to, as we were all veryconscious that we would like the money raised tobe used locally.

The first of the charities we decided on was Latch,a charity that supports children with cancer andtheir families, established in Cardiff in LlandoughHospital. The second was Grace's Gift, a charitywho aim to raise awareness of maternal health andfoetal wellbeing, which was established by aPorthcawl family. Both these charities are fantasticcauses that we all felt passionately about. As aclass, we set ourselves a target of £500, as thiswould allow us to donate a large amount of moneyto each of our chosen charities. In order to do this,we organised various cakes sales as an additionalway of boosting our profit.

In the weeks before the Fayre, we visited Year 7form classes and invited them to run their ownstalls, as well as running a competition between

them to see which form could make the mostmoney. Each form presented a stall run bymembers of their form, and the money they madecontributed hugely to our overall total. We alsohad several outside stalls involved in the Fayre.

For many the highlight was Santa's Grotto alongwith his reindeer! Many children queued to havetheir photos taken with the reindeer, and to receivea little gift from Santa.

We managed to make a grand total of £630 whichmeans we will be donating £315 to each of ourchosen charities. We'd like to thank everybody fortheir support on the evening.

Robert Young Year 12 Welsh Baccalaureate

2014 Christmas Fayre



Once more we set off to the NECBirmingham for our visit to The ClothesShow Live. This year we had 48 pupils

and 2 members of staff.

We had a good look at the FashionCollege/University displays to give us some newideas and we were able to speak to some studentsto get a real insight into college life. Some of thecollege work was similar to some of the projectsour A Level students have been doing, which gavethe pupils great confidence and assurance that theirwork is of the highest level.

In the middle of the day we all went to watch theincredible catwalk fashion show, which was hostedby Jamie Laing from MIC fame (Made inChelsea). There were 12 models and 12 dancersand they were fantastic – lots of hot young menwho kept waving and blowing kisses at our girlswho were probably making more noise than therest of the 2000 girls in the audience!

What the pupils thought…

“Inspirational for my current research for Y12Textiles. Learned a lot and spent too muchmoney!” Emily Drew 6CL

“I found the university graduates’ stands reallyinteresting and informative.” India Davison 6LB

“Third year of going and it gets better everytime. It really inspired my AS Level project andthere were amazing clothes.” Sophie Crole 6HC

“Loved the experience and such an excitingatmosphere! So many inspirational designs I sawthat I could put into my textiles design work.”Layla Sedgwick 11LM

“Really enjoyed this day out, loved the designson the catwalk.” Cerys O’Sullivan 10AC

“An amazing shopping experience with afantastic catwalk show that was better than ourexpectations.” Nia Powell 11JW, CharlotteOwen 11JW and Lauren Thomas 11HP

“As good as the shopping was, the fashion showwas by far the best! It was absolutely amazingand a completely unique experience.” Emily Stradling 10EC

“Amazing day! I recommend it to anyone.”Naomi Dykes 6LT

“Really good trip, great day would love to goagain.” Shannon Sumner 10AW and JodiePoacher 10RP

“Really motivating day - got some inspiration forour GCSE garment designs.” Georgia Comley11LM and Kate Rossini 11NM

“Fun day out with amazing people and lots ofshopping!” Bethany Beck 10AE and JessTownsend 10HB

“Lots of fun and some good bargains!” Jess Sutton 6CD

The Clothes Showlive


GIRLSOn Wednesday January 28th the U16 Girls’Basketball Team played in the final of the CardiffCity Foundation Tournament in the House ofSport. The girls entered the final as the top placedteam with a qualifying round that saw them comethrough in first place and with a very high pointdifference. In the group stages the girls took onStanwell, Bryn Celynnog and Pen y Dre andplayed fast and strong in all three games. BrynCelynnog proved the girls toughest game as theyfaced two Basketball Wales players. Year 11 playersChloe Jenkins and Sarah Williams had gooddefensive games against Pen y Dre and LucyEdwards dominated at the offensive end of thefloor. After a busy morning the girls got a welldeserved rest as they skipped the quarter finals andwent straight through to the semi finals in 1st placeposition. Here they played Bryn Celynnog onceagain and this time, even the Year 7 and 8 girlsstepped up to the mark and Porthcawl pulled awaywith a convincing win. The final was the girls’biggest challenge as they faced Ysgol Gyfun CwmRhymni, the only other undefeated team in thetournament. Cwm Rhymni put the first points onthe board but the girls kept their heads up andreally started to make Cwm Rhymni work hard.Emily Stradling led the way with the scoring andmanaged to draw a large number of fouls to pullthe Porthcawl girls ahead 12 points to 4. The leadremained comfortable until the dying minutes ofthe game when Cwm Rhymni had a number ofeasy points in the paint due to a tired Porthcawldefence and brought the score back level at 17-17.Luckily a cheap foul in the last few secondsbrought the Porthcawl girls back on top for whenthe buzzer sounded! For a group with lots ofyoung players, Porthcawl had done extremely welland were very happy to come away with two girlsin the All Star Five. Well done Lucy Edwards andEmily Stradling!

BOYSOn the same day, the U16 Boys’ Basketball teamalso played in the final of the Cardiff CityFoundation Tournament at the same venue.Having come through their qualifying round in2nd place, the boys were out to make a point intheir first game against Mary Immaculate who theyhad previously lost to. They took the onceconfident team by surprise and came away with aconvincing win. This was their first game in thetournament’s group stages and only more winswere to follow as they faced the other teams in theirgroup, Bryn Celynnog and Treorchy. AgainstTreorchy all Porthcawl players really stepped upwith Rob Davis and Caleb Denyer scoring a highnumber of points and Morgan Carter showingwhat an athlete he is with a rather memorabledunk. Next came the quarter finals and with suchan impressive group stage Porthcawl were the teameveryone wanted to beat. Cwm Rhymni provedweak competition for the Porthcawl boys but theirsemi final against Cardiff High told a completelydifferent story. The game stayed closethroughout but Porthcawl came out on topin the end leaving all of the supporters andcoaches very relieved! The boys werecompletely pumped for the final especiallyhaving seen the girls win theirs and it wastime to bring back the fight they had hadat the start of the tournament.Impressive assists from Ben Merchantand strong finishes from GabeWilliams-Rumble and Morgan Cartersecured a surprisingly easy win for thePorthcawl boys. At the end of the daythe team not only came away with thetrophy but Ben Merchant andMorgan Carter were awarded a placein the All Star Five.

Ethan Waters and Emily Stradling Year 10

BASKETBALL


Team ListsGirls:1. Lucy Edwards2. Alecia Wilson-Morgan3. Chloe Jenkins4. Aimee Vincent5. Sarah Williams6. Emily Stradling7. Nicola Hughes8. Amber Levey9. Amy Bradbury10. Hannah Davidson11. Maddie Wintle

Boys:1. Caleb Denyer2. Danny Coleman3. Connor Jones4. Ben Cannon5. Rob Davis6. Elai Platts7. Gabriel Williams-Rumble8. Morgan Carter9. Jacob Evans10. Ethan Waters11. Joe Stradling12. Ben MerchantExtras - Oliver Martin andOwen Davies

U16 CARDIFF CITY FOUNDATION TOURNAMENTWEDNESDAY 28TH JANUARY 2015

WINNERS WINNERS



One term into having a WRU officer in school andbeing a WRU School of Rugby, rugby is thriving inPorthcawl Comprehensive School. In the Autumn

Term 34 rugby fixtures were played by a total of 133 playersfrom Year 7 to 13. Of these players, 107 of them are alsoregularly playing on the weekend for local clubs at Porthcawl,Kenfig Hill, Bridgend Sports and Bridgend Athletic. Somenotable improvements on the last few seasons are the gamesthat the Senior XV were able to fulfil by playing in theOspreys Schools League this season.

Thursday nights have become a breeding ground for new andupcoming talent as the Year 7 and 8 squads train. Withnumbers of 30+ each week, the future is bright for local rugby.These players have benefited from coaching from at least 2PE staff and Year 11 pupil Euan Manley, who as part of hisGCSE Physical Education course, has taken the youngsters‘under his wing’.

The Year 11 team worked hard to get out of their OspreysSchools group and face the challenge of the knock out stagesof the Welsh Cup. They are playing in their new kit thatplayers purchased thanks to the local sponsorship from TheFountain Restaurant, Natural Solutions, Shoe 22 and NottageJoinery.

Some Year 12 and 13 pupils are currently following the WRURugby TAG and Leaders Award in school and will hopefullybe working in the community and local primary schools oncecompleted.

The girls of Porthcawl Comprehensive have experienced someTAG rugby in lessons but now have the opportunity to traintowards playing in a competitive touch or possibly a contactgame. This is an exciting new challenge and opportunity forgirls and we are looking for new members to join in on aWednesday night after school.

In addition to our own school news, at the end of November,Jake Furness and Christian Long both from Year 13, were

chosen to play for Crawshay’s Welsh RFC Youth XV against Christ College Brecon. This was a

tremendous achievement – well done boys!

Mr G Davies WRU School/Club Hub Officer

WRU SCHOOL / CLUB HUB OFFICER

Rugby

As a successful and motivated schoolrugby team, our Year 11 squadwere looking forward to the

challenge of playing in the U16 Welsh Cupthis year. We decided that if we couldwork with the PE Department and findsome sponsorship then we could purchasea new playing kit for this exciting seasonahead of us and really look the part. Weworked hard over the Summer holidays tofind some sponsorship and sourced a kit from school uniform provider Euro Schools. Thesponsorship greatly reduced the cost of the kit and all players in the rugby squad receivedshorts, socks and a new jersey. Thanks go to the generosity of Mr and Mrs Fry of NottageJoinery and Shoe 22, to Natural Solutions and The Fountain Restaurant who made thispossible. We feel proud to wear the new kit with its blue and red hoops, school badge andsponsors names.

Up until now we had been wearing the old senior kit, which we are sure Mr John used towear during his time in school! The new kit has brought us luck so far as we progressedthrough the regional stage of the cup and into the last 32 teams in Wales.

Euan Manley, Joe Fry and Leon Evans Year 11

YEAR 11 RUGBY KIT SPONSORSHIP

Cross Country NewsSouth Wales Region X CountrySelection Success

Congratulations to Ocean Poultney-Maddy, Nia Clatworthy and MegMcCloy (Year7) who were selected for

the South Wales Region U13 team to competein the Welsh Regional Championships inBuilth Wells in December. Only 15 girls intotal were selected to represent South Walesin this event. Well done girls!

Congratulations also to the following pupilswho were selected to represent GlamorganValleys in the National Cross CountryChampionships in Brecon in February.

YEAR 7- Nia Clatworthy, Amber Williams,Meg McCloy, Ami Fraser & Ocean PoultneyMaddy

YEAR 9 - Emily Phillips

YEAR 12 - Robert Davis & FelicityWilliamson-Sarll

Miss H.Davies PE Department

The Year 7 girls continue tokeep Porthcawl in theforefront of x country

championships. After competingin Brecon in November thefollowing girls had yet anothersuccessful result:

Nia Clatworthy 5th, Meg McCloy38th, Amber Williams 39th

The entry for this event was hugewith over 130 entrants from bothYear 7 and Year 8. The girls didexceptionally well to achieve theabove results, particularly as manyof the girls they competed againstwere a year older.

38th Welsh Schools InterSchools Cross CountryChampionships



An unseasonably mild December allowed the annualSchool’s House Competition to go ahead as planned.Pupils’ support of their houses was once again strong

and committed and it was pleasing to note that there wasgood support shown to the house system.

As in previous years, the old adage ‘You have to be in it towin it’ was borne out as the houses that were most stronglyrepresented generally tended to go on and win.

However, everyone who took part should be very pleased withtheir efforts and ‘wins’ for once were evenly shared. Thismeant that the overall result was in genuine doubt right upuntil the final whistle.

Every single pupil who took part needs to be commended forhow organised and committed they were to their house andtheir team mates ... WELL DONE YOU ARE A CREDIT!

BADMINTONBadminton England 2014 Cornwall U13 Girls’ Singles - Gold Medal

Badminton England 2014 Oxford U13 Girls’ Singles - Silver Medal

Badminton Wales 2014 Junior Open U13 Girls’ Singles - Gold Medal

South & West Glamorgan Badminton Association 2014U15 Girls’ Singles - Gold MedalU17 Girls’ Singles - Gold MedalU17 Girls’ Doubles - Gold Medal

Badminton England 2014 Devon Open U13 Girls’ Singles - Gold Medal;

U13 Girls’ Doubles - Silver Medal

Congratulations toPaige Sheen (Year 8)who won the Welsh

Championships PairsAcrobatics Competition.

Miss H.Davies PE Department

Well done to Caitlin Rees of Year 8 who is takingthe Badminton world by storm! In recentmonths, she has achieved the following:- Gymnastics

Gold

FINAL RESULTS1st DYFED2nd GWYNEDD3rd MORGANNWG4th POWYS

Results of Interest to Individual Houses

DYFED1st Year 7 Netball1st Year 9, 10 & Seniors Hockey1st Year 10 Rugby

GWYNEDD1st Year 8, 9 & 10 Netball1st Year 7 Hockey1st Year 7 & 8 Football1st Year 7 Rugby

MORGANNWG1st Year 8 Hockey1st Year 9 & 10 Football1st Year 9 Rugby

POWYS1st Seniors Netball1st Seniors Football1st Year 8 Rugby

WINTER GAMES 2014


Jack Bridger, Felicity Williamson-Sarll, Nathaniel King and MatthewDangYears 12-13Members of the PorthcawlComprehensive School Team whowon the Bridgend Heat of the YoungConsumer Competition

Madeleine Williamson-SarllLast Year’s Year 13Achieved the top mark in Wales inWelsh A Level written paper Summer2014

Shannon RockLast Year’s Year 13Achieved the top mark in Wales inLaw A Level written paper Summer2014

Paige SheenYear 8Gymnastics - Winner of the WelshChampionships Pairs AcrobaticsCompetition

Christian Long and Jake FurnessYear 13Rugby - Selected to representCrawshay’s Welsh RFC Youth XV

Caitlin ReesYear 8Badminton – Numerous Gold andSilver Medals throughout the seasonin Badminton England andBadminton Wales competitions

Elis PowellYear 7Achieved Black Belt in ShotokanKarate

Rebecca SuttonYear 9Selected for Welsh Youth SwimmingTeam (She is the youngest evermember to be selected)

Alistair NodenYear 13Member of the National YouthOrchestra of Wales

Alexandra HuntYear 11Member of the National YouthOrchestra of Wales

Imogen KentYear 13Member of the National YouthOrchestra of WalesPiano Grade 8 - Merit

Katie WilliamsYear 11New Member of the Four Counties’Orchestra

Layla MillarYear 10New Member of the Four Counties’Orchestra

Katie DavisYear 11New Member of the Four Counties’Orchestra

Thomas Phillips Year 13Reserve Member of the NationalYouth Wind Band of WalesTenor Saxophone - Grade 8 -Distinction

Ethan WatersYear 10Selected for U15 Wales Basketball

Jamie Harrowing Year 8In WNO production of Hansel andGretel Spring 2015Oboe Grade 3 - Distinction

Rhianwen Keirl Year 10Selected for National Children’sOrchestra of Great Britain –performed in the Royal Festival Hall,London in December 2014

Lowri HowellYear 11Flute Grade 7 - Distinction

Isaak CronjeYear 7Clarinet Grade 4 - Merit

Adam WilliamsYear 8Clarinet Grade 4 - Pass

Elen McCloyYear 9Flute Grade 3 - Merit

Stella MarksYear 7Flute Grade 3 - Pass

Pupil AchievementsMany congratulations go to the following:-

PARENTS/GUARDIANSWe rely on you for our information!Has your child achieved success or recognition relating to an extra-curricular activity? If so, please [email protected]

Porthcawl

www.porthcawlschool.co.uk

Design : HathaGraphics 01558 668069


Answers from Maths Challenge on page 17 ~ Question 1. D Question 2. B


belated happy new year - porthcawl comprehensive school

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