Headteacher's Fortnightly Update -7th February

Last week the school participated in the Holocaust Memorial in St Woolos Cathedral. It was a real pleasure to accompany Tegan, Seren, Lexi and Olivia who read beautifully as part of the service.

We also held our 6th Form Open Evening on Thursday Evening. We continue to change and improve our 6th Form to ensure we provide the right pathways for pupils to access Level 3 courses and progress further with education. It was a pleasure to meet parents during the evening and discuss pathways and courses, including those interested in our Newport County in the Community Football Provision which seems as popular as ever and remains a key part of our 6th Form. We look forward to growing and developing our 6th Form over the next few years.

If you would like to know more about our Newport County in the Community Programme please follow this link.

https://www.llanwernhighschool.co.uk/County-in-the-Community-Football-Programme/

On Thursday our school improvement partner visited the school to discuss the improvements made and the next steps for the school. As part of that visit, she discussed learning and books with a number of pupils in all year groups. It was fantastic to hear how positive and passionate the pupils were about their learning and the level of aspiration they had for success. They spoke confidently and with pride about their learning and progress and the quality of their work was excellent.

I would also like to congratulate all our year 10 & 11 pupils who have now completed all of their mock assessments. Their diligence and determination was evident throughout the assessments.

We have been holding assessments with Year 10 and 11 over the last few weeks. All Pupils involved have approached the assessments with real determination and drive to succeed. The temperature of the sports hall during the cold weather has been challenging and we have taken steps to improve this moving forward. The site team will be monitoring temperatures the day before to preheat when needed and we have purchased some heaters that will help to warm up the large sports hall prior to pupils sitting their assessments.

Newport local authority have asked us the share the following information with you:

Please be advised that in respect of the proposal to expand Ysgol Bryn Derw by 40 pupil places with effect from September 2025, a Statutory Notice is now published and is available at:

https://www.newport.gov.uk/schools-and-learning/proposals-and-consultations

Hard copies of the Statutory Notice are available on request by emailing school.reorg@newport.gov.uk

Punctuality. I would also like to reiterate the importance of all pupils attending lessons on time. We are really pleased to see the improvement across the school, particularly after break and lunch, where most pupils now make their way promptly to lessons to ensure a good start to the lesson.

We are still working with a small minority of pupils who delay getting to lessons and need constant reminding to make their way to the classroom. Please can you discuss this with your children so they all know the expectations. As a reminder:

At 11:15am (break) and 1:55pm (lunch), a warning bell is sounded to remind pupils of the need to start making their way to lessons at that time.
At 11:20am (break) and 2:00pm (lunch), a second bell is sounded to inform pupils that they should now be in their classroom.

Any pupil not in class after this time is then late for that lesson.

Social Media. Following some careful consideration, we have decided to remove the school from the X social media platform. We feel that the platform is no longer in line with the values a school should have. We will continue to provide information and share things about the school on our other platforms, in particular Facebook and Instagram.

Following on from this we would like to direct parents to our Facebook page for our Alder provision ‘Alder at Llanwern’.

Kindest Regards,

Mr D Lawlor

Headteacher