1. Presentation Evening 2009 17 th January 2008 Preview of Events 2007 - 2008

2. Presentation Evening Headmaster’s Introduction Guest Speaker: Mr G. Owen Musical Item: I Know Him So Well Hayleigh Brooks & Julia Pittard accompanied by Dale Cutlan Presentation of Prizes Musical Item: Hero Lindsey Williams-Miles Presentation of Certificates Vote of Thanks Chairman’s Remarks Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau

3. Important Dates Friday 25 th January – Year 11 & 13 Reports Issued Tuesday 5 th February– Year 10 Parent Evening Half term – Week 11 th February Wednesday 27 th February-Year 9 Options Issued Friday 29 th February – Eisteddfod Wednesday 5th March-Year 9 Parent Evening Monday 10 th March-Entry Level examinations begin Monday 18 th March – Year 8 Parent Evenings Thursday 20 th March-Progress Reports Issued Thursday 20 th March-Easter Break

4. ASDAN ICE SKATING VISIT TO WINTER WONDERLAND As part of the Sport and Leisure module, year 10 and 11 pupils enjoyed their visit to the ice skating rink installed outside the City Hall, Cardiff as part of the Christmas festivities in the capital.

5. CROSS-COUNTRY CHALLENGE Three pupils from Blaengwawr were selected to represent Glamorgan Valleys at the Cardiff Cross- Country challenge held at Blackweir, Cardiff in January. Congratulations to Bradley Wickham (year 7), Jamie Jones (year 8) and Connor Wickham (year 10).

6. Head Boy & Head Girl Congratulations to Irfan Sardar and Natalie Williams (both of year 12), who were selected as Head boy and Head Girl after interviews with the Headmaster and Head of Sixth Form. Both performed very well at interview and had impressive lists of achievements to date. Joshua Crisp was selected as Deputy Head Boy and Rebecca Morgan and Siwan Owen as Deputy Head Girls.

7. YEAR 9 QUARTER-FINALISTS IN WELSH SOCCER CUP

8. BLAENGWAWR HOCKEY TEAM PLAY THEIR WAY TO UNDER- 16 WELSH CUP FINALS Blaengwawr reached the Under 16 Welsh Cup Finals by becoming County Champions. In the preliminary round they beat Ysgol Cwm Rhymni by the convincing margin of 7-0. The County Finals were held at Porthcawl Comprehensive School with a three way competition between the hosts, local rivals Mountain Ash Comprehensive School and ourselves. Blaengwawr beat both schools by the same 4-0 margin.

9. SLIPPERY SLOPES DON’T ALWAYS SPELL DISASTER !

10. ASDAN BRONZE XL CERTIFICATES Pupils in year 11 received their certificates at the ASDAN Award Christmas party.

11. YOUNG ATHLETES’ AMAZING ACHIEVEMENT Congratulations to Carl Hill, Daniel Bodman and Craig Sprod who competed in the Nos Galan Adult Race, held in Mountain Ash on New Year’s Eve.

12. IT’S NEVER TOO LATE TOO LEARN! Do you have an instrument at home that is gathering dust? Or do you fancy becoming the next Lisa Simpson on the saxophone? Then why not come and find out what instruments are available for you. Take advantage of the lessons from our team of visiting instrumental teachers. At Blaengwawr all music tuition lessons are free. If you are quick there may be still opportunities for you to try out for string, brass and woodwind or guitar tuition. You can even have lessons on our drum kit as well! All school facilities exist for aspiring rock bands to rehearse using school equipment, so what are you waiting for? Come and make some noise! Er, we mean music.

13. BLOOD BROTHERS In December 2007, Miss Williams, Miss Dodwell and Mr C. Thomas took year 11 English sets 1 and 3 to the Phoenix Theatre, London to see a production of Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers. This tragic play tells the tale of two brothers separated at birth who grow up in different social classes totally unaware of their true kinship until one inadvertently kills the other.

14. HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE WELSH DEPARTMENT

15. ICT MOVES FURTHER INTO THE DIGITAL AGE The innovative ICT department is now approaching a new era! The introduction of the new multimedia courses has been such a success that we are now expanding the opportunities for the pupils. An increase in digital cameras and video cameras is giving pupils even more opportunities to create their own material for their work. At Easter the introduction of the new ‘Riff’ music creation software, now gives all pupils the opportunity to create their own soundtracks to add to their films and videos.

16. PUPILS SHINE IN FOUR COUNTIES’ HOCKEY CHALLENGE In December, five Blaengwawr pupils represented Glamorgan Valleys County in the inaugural Four Counties Challenge tournament held in Swansea. Our representatives were Naomi Stone, Demi Jackson, Stephanie Nicholas, Rebecca Weekes and team captain Ffion Jones. This represented a tremendous achievement for a school of our size. In the semi-final Afon Nedd Tawe were defeated 3-0, including goals from Demi Jackson and Ffion Jones. In a very tough final East Wales were beaten 3-1, with Demi and Ffion again scoring.

17. SCHOOL UNIFORM MAKES AN IMPRESSION Josh Vater, Samantha Byers, Jonathan Loring and Mulenga Mwansa of year 9 model the school uniform.

18. A MUSICAL CHRISTMAS On 18 December St. Margaret’s Church in Aberaman was the venue of the Annual Carol Service.

19. CHOIR IN THE COMMUNITY The 65 pupils who make up our school choir made three successful trips in the community to spread a little musical joy at the end of the Christmas term.

20. MUSIC DEPARTMENT EVENTS AND CONCERTS The choir perform with assistance from the residents of the Cwmaman Care Centre in Morris Street

21. AFRICAN DRUMMING AT BLAENGWAWR Adam Jones, Meirion Williams and Sam Rees get into the rhythms of the Djembe drums.

22. YEAR 5 ROCKS! Blaengwawr Primary School Oaklands Primary School

23. YEAR 13’s BRAVE VENTURE TO THE NORTH Year 13 students outside the Lowry Theatre, Manchester

24. TEACHING AND LEARNING INITIATIVES What the hats represent: Blue = process White = facts Black = problems Yellow = benefits Red = intuitive Green = creative

25. DYDD GWYL DEWI SANT! We held our St. David’s Day celebration a day early this year and what a celebration it was! The afternoon was opened with Ar Hyd yr Nos performed by the choir and for the first time, the school orchestra. This was followed by each class presenting a class item. There was plenty of singing, poetry, plays and dancing. The afternoon was enjoyed by all!

26. SPORTING NEWS In January the tag rugby boys went to a training session with the Cardiff Blues in Treforest. The Welsh Guards were there and they had a climbing wall and an inflatable assault course. We had one game at the end of the training session. The training was good with Phil the Legend as our referee. He took us for a training session and then we went in the changing room for a chat about the Cardiff Blues. The hockey club have been training hard since September and have had plenty of support from past pupils who have been helping to take them through their paces on a Friday night after school.

27. KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES Ben, Ffion and Nathan Jones

28. THE HOLOCAUST REMEMBERED Natalie Williams, Head Girl: Auschwitz – the survivors

29. WELSH REVISION WEEK – UNIVERSITY OF GLAMORGAN A time to study...

30. WELSH WORK EXPERIENCE

31. GREAT BRITAIN HONOURS FOR PAST PUPIL Gary Williams presents his Great Britain jersey to the Headmaster