We had a fabulous day in school at our Year 11 leavers day.  The atmosphere in school was buzzing.  All pupils and staff enjoyed the day.  We wish all of our Year 11 pupils all the very best in their future.

Veteran Paul Harding joined the Army in 1976 and served for 12 years, rising to the rank of Sergeant. He is looking to compete in a mammoth six events at the 2017 Invictus Games: wheelchair basketball, wheelchair tennis, rowing, sitting volleyball, swimming and golf. Paul, who suffers psychologically as a result of his service, said: “Sport has given me a reason to engage with people again. I have spent so long isolated from everybody, but I am looking forward to Invictus and being around like-minded people again.” Paul has now joined the Cardiff Met Archers wheelchair basketball team, and is training hard with the Help for Heroes sports recovery team in South Wales, where he lives.  “Sport has also given me the opportunity to tell other veterans the benefits of engaging in sport. Help for Heroes is giving me excellent support, and I would like to be able to compete in more competitions to show being injured in service is not the end of your life”.  Paul works here at Llanwern High School with our Cadets.  We are so proud of Paul for undertaking this fantastic opportunity and wish him all the very best!

We had an amazing Year 8 Parental Engagement Day in school today.  Many thanks to all parents who turned up (and are continuing to turn up) to be informed about their child’s progress by key members of staff.  Many thanks to our fantastic pupils Gurdas Singh, Joshua Watkins, Zane Manship, Lorri-Anne Hurley, Kelsey Cole and Katie Taylor.  They helped massively today and were a delight!

Our Year 13 pupils had a fantastic time in London when they went to see the Twelfth Night production at the Globe Theatre in London.  This show was full of hijinks and bittersweet hilarity as Emma Rice directed Shakespeare’s timeless, soulful and irrepressible comedy.

Congratulations to Mark Jones! He is off to Estonia with 29 other cadets from Wales on the 22nd of July for 8 days. He will be doing a mixture of cultural activities, adventure training and military skills.  We wish you all the very best for this exciting opportunity!

Preston performed in an exclusive event for teachers at an inclusion through arts event for South East Wales Arts and Education Network.  Along with his mentor Dean Yhnell, Preston performed his own rap composition and received a rousing reception. We are so proud of Preston wheeler and all that he is achieving in his love of rap!

Congratulations to Emma Taylor Year 12 for being selected for the UCL Access to Justice Summer School to be held at UCL Faculty of Laws from July 31st – August 5th 2017.  Emma was picked from an overwhelming number of strong applications for the programme and they were particularly impressed with the quality of her application and written statement.  Awesome news Emma we are thrilled for you!

We were highly honoured today to have the Champions League Trophy in our school.  The atmosphere in school was awesome as pupils and staff  lined up to have their picture taken with the trophy ahead of The UEFA Champions League final on Saturday, June 3, which will be held at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium.  Many thanks to all from the FAW who arranged this with our school and really have made our football fans dreams come true with this once in a lifetime opportunity.

At the end of the qualifying competition for the Welsh Pétanque Association in Ghent Gemma finished 8th in the world, which placed her in the first round of the knock-out stage of the competition to face Sylvia Mrazkova of the Czech Republic, which Gemma won with a positive performance 13/9. Gemma’s next opponent is Phantipha Wongchuvej representing Thailand, who Gemma previously played in round one of the qualifying series. At the end of this competition Gemma will be ranked in the top 8 of world women’s single players, a great achievement.

The Welsh Squad on the whole has learnt a lot from the experience of attending World Championship and will take away many happy and positive memories.

Well done Miss Foster we are all so proud of you!