Christmas 2023

Hello Everyone

Christmas has arrived at last and the long term is finally over. Everyone is tired by now, especially our year 7 pupils who have completed their first term with us, and all the older pupils who have been in the middle of mock exams for a fortnight. It has been a busy time for everybody, and as a school we would like to thank everyone for all their hard work and support.

Christmas Concert

Last night it was great to be able to enjoy performances by our talented pupils at the Christmas Concert. It was lovely to see everyone coming together with a full hall enjoying the musical entertainment. Thank you to Mrs Thomas and the team for all their work preparing the pupils and thank you to the Cyfeillion for organising the variety of refreshments and the recent raffle.

Christmas Jumper Day – Save the Children

A new seasonal mystery – we are not quite sure how today’s Christmas Jumper Day turned into a pyjama day (?!) but the school was full of colour, with even one dinosaur making an appearance! Pyjamas or jumpers, the whole purpose of the day was to raise money for Save the Children – so please make sure that you have contributed on Parent Pay – a minimum of £1 per pupil. Here is the message on ParentPay:

WJEC Innovation Awards

Three pupils were recently honoured at a ceremony in the Senedd, which was part of the WJEC Innovation Awards for the best Technology projects submitted to WJEC as part of the annual exams.

In the GCSE category, Alys Jones, now in year 12, won the top prize for her GCSE project which was a device to reduce thrombosis on aeroplanes, specifically for people who suffer from DVT.

In the AS category, two of our pupils, who are now in year 13, came in the top three. Sonny Normansell took the second prize and Rhys Wijeratne the third prize for their innovative projects.

Twelve prizes were available to pupils across Wales, so Bro Edern’s Technology Department took a quarter of the prizes available. Congratulations to everyone! We are very lucky to have Mr Dewi Thomas inspiring our pupils in the DT Block. Thanks very much to him once again.

Preparing for 2024

On returning to school on Monday morning 8 January, all pupils will attend a session with their form tutor from 8:30am until the end of the first lesson, in order to set their goals and hopes for the coming year. This will be an opportunity for everyone to settle back into school successfully on the first morning, and give everyone time to reflect on what lies ahead, and what needs to be done in order to succeed. It will also be an important opportunity for the tutors to check all pupils’ wellbeing after the holidays. It is essential that everyone is punctual on the first Monday morning in order to fully benefit from this morning activity.

Assemblies

During the first morning, we will hold assemblies for all pupils in years 7-11, following this timetable, before pupils attend lesson 2 onwards:

• 8:30am Years 9 and 10 – usual assembly time
• 9:00am Year 11
• 9:25am Year 7 and 8

In the assemblies, we will remind our pupils about the opportunities available at Bro Edern in 2024 and about the school’s expectations. With a new year comes a clean slate for everyone. We will talk about attitudes towards learning and the importance of the Welsh language, in order to ensure that our pupils are confidently bilingual for the future. During the assembly, we will check the following:

• School uniform (please see here) including checking that everyone has a school jumper – if not, we will provide jumpers from the Swap Shop for pupils
• Shoes – leather (or leather looking) shoes have always been required – no logos, nothing that looks like trainers or boots
• Jewellery (one pair of studs, as pictured below, and a watch only). Everything else needs to be left at home in 2024.
• Nails (false nails and any varnish need to be removed before 8 January)
• Mobile phones (they need to be switched off completely and put in the bag before arriving at the school site each day, they can be used again after 3pm)
• Earphones / AirPods – just like phones, these are not to be used at all during the school day
• Everyone needs a school bag (not a handbag) and any phone needs to be at the bottom of the bag

If any of these aspects need to be discussed, parents should contact the head of year by e-mail.

Just to remind you again – these are the only earrings allowed. One in each ear only:

Restorative Behaviour Room

In the new year, we will relaunch our Restorative Behaviour Room, which will be held at the beginning of lunchtime, so that pupils have the opportunity to reflect and improve their behaviour and move forward positively if an incident has happened. Heads of Year and the Senior Leadership Team will schedule any relevant visits on a day-to-day basis. Pupils will be informed that they are expected to attend and they will need to do so promptly at 1:10pm. These pupils will then be free in the second half of the lunch break and can join the back of the lunch queue at that time. It is essential that pupils are punctual to the Restorative Behaviour Room on all occasions.

Only a minority of pupils misbehave at Bro Edern, but they must understand that there are consequences for their behaviour.

January Exams

Welsh Literature
Pupils in year 11 Welsh set 1,2,3 will sit their Literature exam, which is the poetry paper on the first Friday back, which is 12 January. There will be three revision sessions after school in the first week back, in order to assist pupils with their revision, on Monday night / Tuesday night / Wednesday night. Similar sessions have been held since October. The pupils have a lot of notes to revise, both as units on paper and all the resources on their Google Classroom. The pupils going on the trip to Germany will need to ensure that they revise before going, because there will be no opportunity to revise in an action-packed Berlin.

English Literature – Resit only
A few year 11 pupils will resit their English Literature exam from the summer on the first Wednesday back, which is 10 January. These pupils have already sat the exam at the end of year 10, so they are fully aware of what lies ahead and understand the expectations in terms of revision during the holidays.

Art and Design GCSE Paper
A digital copy of the GCSE Art and Design paper will be available to view on the pupils’ Google Classroom from the second of January 2024 onwards. Everyone will need to look over the paper to start thinking of ideas, before looking over it with their teacher during their first lesson back in the new year.

Science Coursework
All Science sets in year 11 will complete their coursework between 17 and 19 January.

Year 10 Exams

Thanks to our year 10 parents for attending the recent parents’ evening. During the evening, many of you heard the presentation in the hall, outlining the arrangements for your child’s exams in the summer and you received a leaflet with a list of all the external exams facing year 10 this summer.

A copy of the presentation can be seen HERE

A list of all the exams facing year 10 this summer can be seen HERE

November Maths Numeracy Results

GCSE Maths Numeracy results will be announced nationally for the pupils who sat the exam in November, on Thursday 11 January. The pupils will receive the results during registration time.

A List for Santa

Recently, we have been monitoring the pupils’ attitudes to learning and checking how ready they are to learn. Some pupils need a few things to help them with school life. Please would you ask Santa for the following? A fully stocked pencil case in September doesn’t necessarily mean that it is still full of pens that work!

• Black biro (WJEC only allows black ink these days)
• Green biro (for pupils to carry out reflection tasks on their work)
• Pencil
• Ruler
• Mathematical equipment: compass, protractor
• Calculator
• School bag – some pupils come to school without a bag – but there are many things that need to be carried daily
• Uniform – see below

School Uniform

As it is winter, the school is cold, so pupils need their SCHOOL JUMPER every day. We would like to remind you that the hoodie is an optional extra curricular garment that is not part of the daily school uniform. We will check pupils’ school jumpers in the assemblies on the first Monday morning. We will provide spare jumpers from the Swap Shop for pupils who do not have a school jumper to ensure that they do not become cold.

A number of pupils have started wearing sportswear to school e.g. joggers or leggings. We need proper school trousers in the new year, please.

A description of our school uniform can be found HERE.

Extra curricular activities

The activities of the Music, Drama and PE departments will continue to be announced weekly in the new year. Many thanks to these departments for all their work with the many extra curricular activities that they organise.

Two new clubs:

English Creative Writing Club for year 7 and 8 pupils in S5 every Wednesday lunchtime with Miss Rose.

Coding Club for year 7,8,9 pupils after school 3pm to 4pm every Wednesday in T8 with Mr Wood. An opportunity to learn programming using Python.

Sixth Form

The Sixth Formers have had a busy period recently with all their mock exams. A number of year 13 pupils have also been busy with their UCAS forms and the excitement is evident as pupils receive their offers back from universities, far and wide. If your child has not yet completed their UCAS application, they need to do so urgently. If your child does not intend to apply via UCAS this year, then a parent or guardian needs to e-mail Miss Land in order for her to remove your child’s name from the UCAS list. It will not be possible for Miss Land to send any UCAS forms away after the first two weeks back – it will be too late.

We would like to remind you that attendance at Sixth Form assemblies is crucial, because so many important messages and key conversations take place during these sessions. Here are the details of the first assemblies in the new year:

Year 12 – Monday 8 January 2pm

Year 13 – Tuesday 9 January 2pm

2024 Parents’ Evenings

A number of parents’ evenings will be held soon in the new year. Please would you ensure that you have noted all the dates? They were originally published in the summer blog in July.

• Thursday evening 18 January – Year 8
• Thursday evening 1 February – Year 11
• Thursday evening 8 February – Year 12 and 13
• Thursday evening 29 February – Year 9 Options
• Thursday evening 16 May – Year 7

Please also remember these important dates:

• 5,6,7 March – Performances of our musical – Annie
• 4 July – Cluster Cultural Evening

Our full list of dates has been published in a few previous blogs. You can see the latest list at the end of the October Half Term Blog.

Visits

Visit to Berlin 2-6 January

The bus will leave Bro Edern with the GCSE German pupils at 4:45am on 2 January to travel to Heathrow. Remember to set an alarm! Please contact me if there is a problem.

Football Visit to Madrid

The Real Madrid tour will take place soon – during February half term 10/02/24 – 14/02/24. Make ensure that your payments on ParentPay are all up to date. All the pupils have been fitted for the trip kit over the last week.

Skiing Trip March 2024

An important link for all parents of pupils going on the skiing trip will arrive over the holidays. All information will need to be filled in by 19/1/24, please. By then, everyone will need to ensure that they have paid all due payments.

Storey Arms Visit 2024

A visit has been organised between 17/1/24 and 19/1/24 for the pupils studying the Outdoor Learning course. A deposit is required on ParentPay and please could you complete the Google Form on Google Classroom by Sunday 7/1/24.

Heads of Year

Mr Kerry Lerwill will be away from school for an extended period of time. Because of this, we have had to restructure our pastoral team temporarily. Here are the arrangements that have been put in place: Mrs Lowri Jones will move from year 7 to look after year 9. Mrs Bethan Prosser, who is already very familiar with year 7 in her capacity as their Learning Coach, will be responsible for year 7. Here are the contact details for the new list of heads of year:

Year 7 – Mrs Bethan Prosser BProsser@

Year 8 – Mr Josh Ward JWard@

Year 9 – Mrs Lowri Jones LJones@

Year 10 – Mrs Lowri Loader LLoader@ // Mr Cai Milsom CMilsom@

Year 11 – Miss Bethan Yapp BYapp@

Year 12 and 13 – Miss Nia Land NLand@ // Mr Alun Evans AREvans@

All Bro Edern e-mail addresses end in @ysgolbroedern.cardiff.sch.uk

I hope that you all have time to relax over the holidays. I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year when it comes. Thank you all for your continued support of everything we do as Teulu Bro Edern.

Best wishes

Ceri Anwen James
Deputy Headteacher