2020 JANUARY Ambitious, Capable Learners

Ethical, Informed Citizens

Enterprising, Creative Contributors

AMBITIOUS, CAPABLE LEARNERS ANNUAL PRIZE CEREMONY

On the last Tuesday of the autumn term, it was a privilege and pleasure to hold our annual prize ceremony to celebrate the amazing achievements of our learners. Several of our leavers from last year, along with current year 12 pupils, received their official certificates for their external qualifications achieved last summer. Our guest speaker was Mr Siôn Tomos Owen who delivered an entertaining message emphasising how important it is to take advantage of every opportunity in life and to do our best in every circumstance. We also had superb vocal performances from Cari and Ffion Wilson, Arwen Jones and Sophie Williams.

Enillydd Gwobr Coffa Mary Griffiiths: Elliot Phipps

Gwobr Y Prifathro Bl 11: Lleucu Jones

CHRISTMAS SERVICE

On December 17th the school held our Christmas service at All Saints Church, Porthcawl. It was an amazing evening and a fantastic concert celebrating all the talents of our learners and staff. Many thanks to all the staff members who supported the learners and to all participants for their outstanding contribution.

STEM—CODING ROBOTS WITH BBC MICRO:BITS In November, 20 learners from year 9 were selected to take part in a STEM activity. Two members of STEM Cymru came to show us how to use micro:bits to control a robot.

We discussed the development of the computer and the story of Alan Turing creating his first computer, Christopher.

We learned that many jobs are going be available in the future that will link to STEM work and skills. We also got a taste of what we will do if we choose Computer Science as a GCSE in year 10. In the session we had to write code in order to move the robot. After practising how to turn the robot around and moving from left to right, there was another challenge in creating a code to use a controller to move the car around. After all the work we were allowed to play different games against each other with the robots. It's fair to say everyone thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The ICT & Computer Science Department has received funding to set up a coding club within the school where learners will have the opportunity to further develop their coding skills.

By Cadi Clark and Ella Rees

CONGRATULATIONS RHYDIAN

Congratulations to former pupil Rhydian Jenkins, winner of the Bryn Terfel Scholarship 2019. Rhydian is the recipient of a £ 4,000 cash prize and will be performing at one of the worldwide celebrations for St David's Day in 2020.

What inspiration for learners at YGG Llangynwyd!

Llais y Llan

www.yggllangynwyd.cymru @yggllangynwyd

Healthy, Confident Individuals

ETHICAL, INFORMED CITIZENS

BIG BEACH CLEAN On the 23rd of October, year 8 learners visited Coney Beach in Porthcawl to take part in the 'The Big Beach Clean' campaign. The aim of the trip was to raise awareness of the impact of plastics and pollution on our seas, especially in our local area. As a year they collected over 15 bags of rubbish on the trip with over half being plastic pollution. During the next term in their Art lessons the learners will use the findings to create 3D sculptures of sea creatures out of their collected materials. Well done year 8!

TRIP TO GLAN-LLYN At the start of the new school year, year 8 at Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Llangynwyd had the opportunity to attend a special trip to Glan-llyn Urdd Camp and we were pleased, by the last day at least, that the sun was shining on us there. They had amazing experiences there and it was nice to have the opportunity to spend time with friends and communicate through the medium of Welsh. We had the opportunity to try out a variety of activities on Llyn Tegid, for example rowing, kayaking, raft building and canoeing. We also had lots of fun singing and dancing together at the disco. Many thanks to the year 10 juniors for helping us and to the school staff and Glan-llyn staff for giving us this valuable opportunity. We also had the privilege of singing the anthem as part of a video to wish the Welsh rugby team good luck in the Rugby World Cup championship. (Nia Compton, year 8)

SHOWING RACISM THE RED CARD 2019 On Friday 25th October most learners and school staff wore red to school to show our support for the prevention of racism in sport and in our society at large. Everyone contributed financially to further support the cause and we are delighted to say that we raised £ 442.90 - thank you everyone!

CLIMATE CHANGE The school was delighted to support Gracie and Iestyn Eco officers and our learners in expressing their views on #climatechange. Our promises as a school - reducing litter and plastic and switching lights to LED. The voice of the young is very important to us!

SUPPORTING CHARITY Learners at the school have been very busy supporting several charities over the first term. In addition to the money for the various causes, wash and hygiene items were collected for the charity Llamau for Christmas. We would like to thank everyone for supporting the learners and charities.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH

POLITICS IN LLANGYNWYD We thank Luke Fletcher who came to discuss with our 6th form learners about the political system as they will soon be voting themselves. The learners had shown so much interest in the democratic process and political issues and so it was a very beneficial session. It was a good day with lots of interesting questions on Brexit, Independence and why politics is so important.

Following this a mock election was held at the school on December 11th. Long rows of learners were seen waiting to cast their vote. It was pleasing to hear learners discussing politics and the importance of voting.

ENTERPRISING, CREATIVE CONTRIBUTORS

JUNIOR EUROVISION Many congratula-tions to Sophie Williams on reaching the Final of ‘Junior Eurovision’ that took place in Llandudno on 24th September and was televised live

on S4C. Sophie, with 5 other competitors, competed to represent Wales this year in Gliwice, Poland. Although unsuccessful on the night, this was an amazing experience for her and everyone in Tîm Llan is very proud of her!

THE SOUND OF MUSIC Huge congratulations to Arwen Jones, Menna Phipps, Cari Wilson and Ffion Wilson for performing in a successful production of the Sound of Music in Porthcawl Pavilion last October.

The performances were outstanding and it is brilliant to see our learners participating in community activities.

CREATION COURSE

During the summer holidays, I went with Nathanael Stinton and Shannon Davies-Evans from year 9 for a week on the Urdd Creation Course. During the week, we took part in workshops with Osian and Branwen from the Paper Flowers band. We enjoyed getting to know people all over Wales and taking part in games throughout the day. Then we worked together to plan and prepare for a special performance and to record our composition work in a dedicated studio at the Wales Millennium Centre at the end of the week. This was a unique and truly wonderful experience and I'm delighted to have taken this opportunity to work with some of Wales' most talented people. (Gruffudd Lewis, Year 9)

NATIONAL POETRY DAY

On this year's National Poetry Day, Key Stage 3 focused on the topic 'Truth '. Learners enjoyed discussion sessions during registration time as they thought about different types of poetry and issues relating to the 'Truth ' theme that poets discuss in their work. Learners learnt about rhyme and then tried to create a Limerick as a class. Learners also had the opportunity to attend a poetry writing workshop during lunch.

TRIP TO THE PANTO On Tuesday the seventeenth of December, a crew from Year 7 and 8 went to watch the 'Arwyr ' pantomime from the Mega Company in Nedd Hall, Neath. It was a fun experience and there was an important message in the pantomime too. There was lots of festive dancing and singing! We would like to go and see the pantomime again and would highly rec-ommend it to others!

(By Briallen Harvey and Ava Phillips ~ Yr 7)

STEM AND BT Ten Year 8 girls were selected to attend a STEM session at the Cardiff BT Centre. The day was intended to help the learners understand simple algorithms and to collaborate on team activities. After the girls had mastered effective communication to create the different tasks, they went on a tour of the BT centre to see all the public data storage. The tour took an hour to visit the data store and see differ-ent people solving business problems. The girls were provided with an insight into how technology and science work together to safely protect personal and business data for the UK.

HEADTEACHER’S COLUMN A Happy New Year for you all!

It is hard to believe that we have reached a new decade and we celebrate that after twelve years since the opening of the school, work is embarking on renewing our multi-weather field! As you know, we inherited the field of Maesteg School that was opened in the 80s! So it will be wonderful by the end of March to use a new multi-weather field and build on the hard work of our Physical Education Department and offer it to local community teams.

The spring term is always a busy time as learners and staff prepare for the preliminaries of the Urdd Eisteddfod which is taking place this year in Denbighshire during Whitsun week. There is also a host of sporting activities afoot with the department and also through our Urdd workers, Lauren and Jordan. But above all this is an extremely busy period academically. There will be Key Stage 4 and 5 options evenings, together with practical and oral examinations as well as coursework completion deadlines. It is important to remember the need to schedule time to prepare and complete these different tasks. We are encouraging learners to plan a work timetable for home and to take advantage of the after school sessions and the late buses to transport home.

I wish you all a happy new year and I look forward to another successful season here at Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg

Llangynwyd! Amdani Tîm Llan!

HEALTHY, CONFIDENT INDIVIDUALS

OSPREYS RUGBY WORLD CUP

A great day at Llandarcy with the Tîm Ty Derwen on their first taste of rugby in the Ospreys Disability World Cup event! The boys were in awe when past learners and Ospreys players, Harri Morgan and Dewi Lake came to see the team!! The Tŷ Derwen learners also won the school’s Rugby World Cup competition having chosen Gareth Davies as our Welsh player. Congratulations Tŷ Derwen!

ICE SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS

The school extends our congratulations to Martha Herbert

who has been chosen to be in the UK Developmental

Squad in the Individual Ice

Dance category for the 2019-20

season. We wish her the best of luck!

URDD NETBALL

Excellent netball games from the year 8 girls team at the Urdd com-petition this year. Their skills and team work improved from game to game and this was led to victory in one game in a very talented group. There was even an in-terview by “Stwnsh” so look out for them on S4C.

YEAR 7 RUGBY

It was great to take year 7 over to Coleg Cymunedol y Dderwen to play round robin games against CCYD, Brynteg and Bryntirion. Competitive games were played full of spirit and energy! Well done to the boys for not complaining (too much!!) about the rain and the cold!!!!

Also 31 learners from year 7 went to Barry on a lovely November af-ternoon to play Ysgol Bro Morgannwg!! Two very exciting games against their B and C team with Llangynwyd victorious in both games! A great time had by all - thank you to Mr Rees, Jacob and Ifan from year 12 for their help.

FIRST TEAM RUGBY

Following on from the success of winning the league last year, this year was always going to be aimed towards development, learning and building for future campaigns with a number of new players involved in this year’s Llangynwyd Seniors 1st XV cohort. It is a huge success to finish 3rd within the league table considering the relatively young players we have within our squad compared to neighbouring schools. We’ve seen the passion to play and embrace the style of rugby and tempo traditionally associated with Llangynwyd teams. Who knows what might have been had we managed to clinch victory in the 4 games that we lost by only 1 score early in the year, or if we hadn’t been hit by such important players having long term injuries either. Well done to all who pulled on the Blue & Black jersey during the league campaign, your efforts have been praiseworthy.

Following the Christmas break, attentions will turn to-wards the Welsh Schools Plate competition, where we welcome Caerleon Comprehensive School to the YGG Llangynwyd Playing fields on Wednesday afternoon of 22/1/20 in the 1st Round. We look forward to the next challenge!

INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL

Huge congratulations to talented Year 9 pupil Tianna Teisar on captain-ing the Wales girls Under 15s team in October. An excellent 2 -1 victory over Scotland. Amazing Tianna, the school is very proud of your achieve-ments so far.