CYFLECYFLECYFLECYFLE Caring Yields a

Flourishing Learning

Environment

Ysgol Uwchradd Y Drenewydd

Newtown High School

Newsletter

December

2011

C A N U

GREAT NEWS! It was with great delight and relief that we re-

ceived the news in November that Powys County

Council have decided not to close our school and

merge it with another school. And we are keeping

our 6th Form too! Everyone

should be really proud of

the effort they put in to

‘Save our School’ cam-

paign. So now we keep

moving forward to make

Newtown High School

even better.

Mrs Pryce and the staff of

Newtown High School would

like to wish all students and

parents a joyous Holiday

Season, and a happy and

peaceful New Year.

Remember this time last year?

And now we have been placed in the Band 2 category in the National Banding system. We’ve always known it and now it’s official—our school is great!

Fund Raising Update

Charity Fayre £950

Bag Packing £620

Children In Need

£200

CLOTHES SHOW TRIP

A much cheerier morning greeted us this year for

our Clothes Show Live Visit. No worries of frost or snow

as we headed off to the NEC in Birmingham to look

at the Fashion World’s predictions for the coming

year -although some still looked a little chilly in their

fashionable outfits!

Spirits were high with excitement for the school’s first

visit to the final Clothes show day,:how many bar-

gains would we buy between us? We did not disap-

point! With stall upon stall of fashion clothing and

accessory bargains or freebies to please everyone’s

taste plus loads of tips on customising and makeo-

vers to give new ideas for our fashion looks.

The red carpet fashion show was described as

“amazing” , “awesome” and “fab”, with a number

of famous celebs appearing, ‘Lucian’ and ‘The Risk’

being voted the most popular and photographed.

A lot of bargains were purchased on the close down

sales of the last day, the coach was crammed with

bags of goodies on the return journey. A number of

fashion statements have already been included in

GCSE projects predicting next year’s Interior design

trends so Newtown students will be a fashion step

ahead.

To allow a student the last words to sum up

“I thought the day was amazing, I loved every mi-

nute of it, I would definitely recommend it and I

can’t wait to go again. “

So years 10, 11 and 12 watch this space in 2012!!

There are more events taking

place before the end of term so

we will give you an update on

the total in the next newsletter.

Since the last newsletter the total raised for the Air Ambulance in memory of Casey

Breese has soared to nearly £8000. Here are some of the activities that helped to raise

this phenomenal amount:.

A huge thank you to every-one who has contributed!

Christmas Artists

Year 7 Pontio class entered a

competition to design a

Christmas Card and two

students’ cards were picked to

go through to the North Wales

final. They were in the top 30 of

300 entries. So congratulations to

Charlie Pritchard and Danny

Roberts. The whole class went

with them to a special lunch in

Llandudno on December 9th.

Unfortunately they didn’t win the

final prize but we are very proud

of them. Well done boys!

Battlefields trip to Belgium October 2011

A group of students' from Years 9 to 13 visited the battlefield sites over half term. As always it was a both sombre and inspiring trip and the students got an excellent insight into the experiences of the soldiers who fought there. Rhodri Francis and Scott Bound did a fantastic job of laying a poppy wreath on behalf of the school during the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate - a pretty daunting task in front of 500+ people, but they did it so well and did Newtown High School proud. Staff who went on the trip received many compliments on the behaviour and good manners of the students—they were excellent ambassadors for our school.

FAB Award Winners

Year 7 and Year 8 FAB winners for last half-term.

Music Competition The Rotary Club of Newtown sponsored a music

competition for instrumental and vocal

performers. There were entries for all Year

Groups and all kinds of instruments.

The competition was judged by members of the

Rotary Club and the winners were: Instrumental

section: 1st Jack Taylor, 2nd Kate Metcalf, 3rd

Jimmy Pryce. Vocal section: 1st Naomi Headley,

joint 2nd Millie Evans and Nikki Jones . Congratu-

lations to them all.

CANOLFAN CYFLE IS

OFFICIALLY OPENED

Saturday 10th December saw the official opening of Canolfan Cyfle. The

ceremony was dedicated to the memory of Casey Breese and Casey’s

parents very kindly agreed to attend the ceremony and carry out some of-

ficial duties. Mrs. Breese unveiled the plaque and Mr. Breese cut the ribbon.

Guests, who included Casey’s family and friends , school governors and

staff, parents, pupils and members of the community, received a brief intro-

duction by Mrs. Pryce, followed by Mrs. Vernon speaking on the meaning of

Cyfle and it’s importance in the school and the wider community. They

were then treated to a performance on the harp by Alice Butler Year 7,

and a reading by Corey Martindale and Patrick Fletcher ,both Year 8. The

event concluded with a delicious afternoon tea, with guests chatting and

enjoying the friendly atmosphere. It was a very special afternoon.

Year 12 Students travelled to London in

November to visit the Houses of Parliament

as part of their Welsh Baccalaureate Studies.

Students also had a choice of visiting

Westminster Abbey or the National Gallery. It

was a full and long day, but very

informative and enjoyable.

London Trip

Sports News Football Great effort shown by Newtown High School pupils at the recent Powys Schools Football Tournament: Yr7 team beat John Beddoes, Bro Dyfi, Builth and drew with Welshpool in their group. They unluckily missed out on reaching the final on goal difference. They narrowly lost to Llanidloes in the 3rd/4th play-off. Yr8 team beat John Beddoes, Bro Dyfi, Builth and Welshpool in their group. They went on to the final where they narrowly lost to Llanfyllin.

Yr9 team beat John Beddoes, Bro Dyfi, Builth and Welshpool in their group. They went on to the final where they met Llan-fair in an evenly contested final. After extra-time the score was still even so it was decided by a penalty shoot-out, which eventually saw Llanfair victorious.

Rugby - Rugby Gogledd Cymru (RGC) South Schools U15 Jack Owen yr10 has been selected for the RGC South Schools U15 team, playing against the some of the strongest schools teams in wales, including Rhondda, Ponty-pridd and Neath. Jack is pictured standing 5th from the right. Well done Jack!

National Recognition for Swimming At the national disability open short course championships in Sheffield , Ffion Butler, Year 9, achieved 4 personal bests. She knocked an incredible 15 seconds off her 100m breaststroke and had a bronze medal for her classification . There were loads of para-olympians there as it is one of the qualifying championships for the 2012 Olympics. Ffion was also chosen to be in the Welsh team for the 4x4 100m freestyle relay. What a star! The other swimmers were Ellie Simmonds, Stephanie Millward and Gemma Almond—all GB para-olympic swimmers. They got Gold!

Contact details if your child is off school for any reason:

Telephone: 01686 626304

Text: 07969 793389

Email: absence@newtown-hs.powys.sch.uk

Holiday forms can be requested from reception or the above

email address.

Ffon/phone: 01686 626304

Facs/Fax: 01686 629956

Website: www.newtown-hs.powys.sch.uk

Lost Property

If you have lost anything in school, check in the following places:

�The last place you remember having it

�Check with Mrs Evans the cleaner, who is usually in the foyer

at break and lunchtimes.

�In Canolfan Cyfle

�In the student office in the Humanities corridor

To help with identification please make sure that all items of clothing

have your name in.