1. education
2. school

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July 2008
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Academic Success
Message from the
Head teacher
We have had a busy and eventful time at
Cathays High School since the publication
of the previous Cathays Eye in February
of this year.
Many of our students have faced the
challenges of GCSE, BTEC, DiDA, AS and
A level examinations. All of our pupils
have continued to have a wide range of
learning experiences especially during this
final half-term of the year through the
summer time table arrangements.
I was delighted that Cathays High was
included in the programme for Prince
Harry’s visit to Cardiff. It was a
memorable occasion and an opportunity
for our partnership with Malopo School
in Lesotho to have national publicity. Four
of our 6th form pupils are looking forward
to the experience of going to Lesotho in
October.
38 years of excellent teaching were
rewarded recently with the Ted Wragg
Lifetime Achievement Award being
presented to Mrs Silk in the Wales’
Teaching Awards ceremony in Cardiff City
Hall. In her time at the school Mrs Silk has
been a geography teacher, head of
department, head of year, student teacher
mentor and is currently head of 6th form
and co-ordinator for the Welsh
Baccalaureate. Mrs Silk is an outstanding
member of staff who has achieved much
during her time at the school. The whole
school wishes her well both in
representing Wales in the UK finals of the
teaching awards in London and on her
impending retirement.
This newsletter is an opportunity for you
to read about both these events and
many of the others that have take place
recently at Cathays High. I hope that you
will enjoy reading this edition of the
Cathays Eye.
09:05
The
a message to all students
Farahnas Ragi has always been extremely
driven in her ambition to study law, ever
since her first careers interview in Year
11. She took up each suggestion made by
the Careers Wales advisor that could
help her chances of reaching her goal.
She researched the progression route
into the legal system thoroughly to
ensure that she was aware of what she
needed to do. Alongside her A-level
studies, she sought out the additional
work experience placements in
solicitors’ offices and courts in order to
build up her portfolio of experience to
help her university application stand out
above the rest. This, coupled with her
extensive voluntary work in her own
time, has meant that she has been
offered places at high ranking law schools
including Cardiff University. Farahnas has
“
accepted an offer to
study at the London
School of Economics
in September 2008.
The LSE is ranked
third in the country for
Law by both the Times and
the Guardian newspapers. She has also
been offered a highly prestigious
scholarship from the Helena Kennedy
Foundation. This Foundation's mission is
to tackle injustice and social exclusion
through education by supporting
disadvantaged students from the further
and adult education sectors to complete
their studies in higher education and
move on successfully into employment.
This is what Sara Whittam, Careers
Adviser for Careers Wales has to say
about Farahnas:
Farahnas is an example in my opinion of what someone can achieve if they have the
determination and if they are willing to be proactive and seek to take up the
opportunities given to them. Her achievements are made even the more
extraordinary in light of the fact that she arrived from Iran in 2003 and as the oldest
sibling in the family she has had to cope with family health issues, and the
legal minefield which surrounds the immigration system in the UK.
Debating with an MP
Year 12 students recently had the
opportunity to discuss their opinions on
lowering the voting age to 16. Julie
Morgan MP visited Cathays High to find
out the views of young people about the
issue, for which she has been a long
standing supporter. The MP said that she
felt it was ‘the only way to engage young
people in politics.’
She compared the lowering of voting age
to the fight of the suffragette movement,
who, 90 years ago, won limited rights for
women to vote.
”
Her bid to make the change in the voting
age recently failed in the House of
Commons after a five hour debate.
Opponents of the move used
parliamentary procedure to ‘talk out’ the
legislation, effectively ending its chance of
becoming law.
Our Cathays Ambassadors will have a
chance to find out more about the role
of a member of parliament when they
visit Westminster in July. They will be
given a guided tour of the House of
Commons before meeting with Julie
Morgan MP at her
invitation.
..a good school with
many outstanding
features...
”
Y S G O L U W C H R A D D C AT H AY S H I G H S C H O O L
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The School Council, Cathays Ambassadors
and the Charities Committee
Pupils have a variety of ways in which they can make positive contributions to
decision making. School Council members have listened to the
opinions of all pupils when making decisions about how to spend
their £9,000 donation.
“This year has been another great year for the School Council,
with funding from Mr and Mrs Howell we have managed to
make new developments and get new equipment for the
school. We have improved pupil facilities in the school and
provided new equipment for Drama and P.E. lessons. New
computers for the LRC and new basketball hoops are
already set up and the 6th form has been provided with
lockers. We have used the rest of the money to go towards
summer timetable trips. As a School Council we have other
duties too including having representatives on the Charities
Committee and being responsible for reporting back to the school’s
governors. I am sure that the School Council will continue to improve our
school.”
Craig Bodman, School Council Representative for Year 8
The Cathays Ambassadors represented the school in the Urdd Good Will Day Message service at St
Joseph’s Primary School and will be joined by retired members of the community for a lunch before the end
of term. During this session they will discuss how best they can help local senior citizens.
The Charities Committee has been set up to take charge of fund raising at the school. They have selected
charities to support and will oversee fund raising activities. Proceeds from this year’s fashion show raised
over £700. Many staff and pupils were involved in this event but a special mention must be made to the
hard work of Mrs Pope and Miss Jones for organising the show.Together with the proceeds of other activities
that will take place before the end of term the proceeds will be given to ‘LATCH’. LATCH is a voluntary
organisation set up to support the special requirements of the children's oncology centre in Wales which is
based at the Children's Hospital for Wales to help affected families and promote research in childhood cancer.
Further fund raising activities will take place next term in conjunction with the Cathays Ambassadors.
Celebrating a life time of service to Cathays High School
On 26th June, Mrs Verity Silk, Head of Key
Stage 5 (6th Form) at Cathays High
became the winner of a very prestigious
award, the Ted Wragg Award for Lifetime
Achievement.
The Teaching Awards honour professionals
whose work stands out as being
exceptional. There are awards for
outstanding new teacher; special needs
teacher; teaching assistant; teacher of the
year in a primary school and in a secondary
school; governor of the year; head-teachers
and a ‘sustainable’ school. There were over
8400 nominations for the awards and a
panel of judges selects a short list for each
award. The judges visit schools to talk to a
variety of people and pupils about the
nomination. The panel of assessors for the
Lifetime Achievement award came to
Cathays High school in April and met with
Faisal Akhtar, who had nominated Mrs Silk,
as well as other students, one of our
parents, a school governor and members of
SCHOOL
the teaching profession who have worked
with Mrs Silk. The report written by the
three assessors made reference to the
written nomination submitted where the
students wrote that Mrs Silk is ‘a real
champion who still has the drive to help
kids’.
As the Lifetime Achievement Award was
the highlight of the Teaching Awards
ceremony held in the City Hall, Mrs Silk had
to wait until all the other awards had been
presented before she knew that she had
won!
Dame Shirley Williams presented Mrs Silk
with her award. Award winners were then
taken to the BBC studios to be
interviewed. There was an item on the BBC
television news in the evening that showed
Mrs Silk receiving her award and articles in
the South Wales Echo and Western Mail
about the award. In the interview for the
South Wales Echo Mrs Silk said
‘I have been able to pursue a vocation and
a career to help young people move
forward in education and to be able to use
the skills they have learned throughout their
lives’
In October she will
represent Wales in the
UK finals held in
London. By this time
Mrs Silk will have
retired from her post
in Cathays High after
38 years as a
member of
staff at the
school.
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An update on some out of Community Focused
and Out of School Hours Activities
Quranic Studies and Homework Club
Originally hosted by Gladstone Primary
School, this club now takes place in
CALCELLA, where pupils from local
primary schools and Cathays High can
make full use of the CALCELLA computer
suite.
The Club is supervised by an experienced
Arabic tutor and some of the parents also
help out. The classes are held on Monday,
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from
3.45pm till 5.30pm. There is an hour of
Quranic studies and an hour of homework
club which incorporates various school
lessons and activities. Pupils from any school
are welcome to attend and they are not
required to stay for the whole two hours.
The scheme at the moment is
proving extremely popular with
about 25 pupils attending
regularly. In September, the
sessions will have the help of
Year 12 pupils who will be
there to give support and
guidance to younger children
and in turn gain experience
that will contribute towards
their Welsh Baccalaureate
Qualification.
Rubicon Dance
Cathays Youth Club Battle of the Bands
Rubicon Dance sessions, tailored for
Cathays High School pupils, took place in
the Maindy Dance studio every Thursday
for 10 weeks this term and were open to
Years 7-10. The course was delivered by
Lauriel Williams an experienced freelance
dance leader.
The dance programme consisted of classes
aimed to develop pupils’ co-ordination,
imagination, balance and flexibility through
fun sessions. Street and break dancing
sessions proved most popular.
In July, Battle of the Bands heats took place
at Cathays Youth & Community Centre.
Youth Club bands who participated were
“Drown in Torment,” “Evil I,” “Look No
Further” and “State the Obvious.”
Cathays Youth Members hosted the
heat, provided hot food & drinks and
devised and ran a ballot that enabled
all young members to vote for the
bands. The winners then went through
to the finals of the county wide event.
Also, for the past year, youth band
members, Cathays youth members and
young people from all over Cardiff have
been actively involved on the steering
committee of the “Under
Construction” all day outdoor
music and dance festival, held
at Cathays High School on
Saturday 5th July.
Meet the Mouse
This is a free accredited IT course which
has been hosted by Cathays High School
for 3 years. It enables adults from the
community to improve their basic IT skills.
This year’s course was supervised by Jane
Jones a qualified tutor; however the main
support for the class was offered by
thirteen year 12 DiDA pupils from the
school. They were there to answer any
questions and assist the adults some of
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whom had not used a
computer before. The scheme
proved to be extremely popular
this year, with about 15 adults attending
each week. Both the adults and students
gained life long skills from the scheme, with
the year 12 pupils also gaining hours for
voluntary work as part of the Welsh
Baccalaureate qualification.
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Focused
s
Prom Night
Year 11
SCHOOL
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There’s more to learning than sit
The flexible time table during the second half of the summer term provides the opportun
experiences. There have been visits to museums and places of interest that sup
been made of the provision of sessions by a range of organis
These are a few of the pupil
Year 8 Citizenship Day
“In July, pupils in Year 8 spent a whole day
participating in a range of workshops
learning all about young people’s rights. The
day was run by Anthony Hill and his team
from the Children and Young People’s
Partnership and we were grateful to them
for their commitment and expertise in
working with our pupils for the day. The
workshops in which the pupils were able to
participate included Children’s Rights;
Community Rights; Black and Ethnic
Minority Rights; Sherman Theatre Drama
workshops; Young Consultants team
building activities and ‘Sprout Workshop’
web based activities on the sprout website
for young people in Cardiff.
It was a really good learning experience for
all the children and we would like to run
this event again next year.”
Mrs McRobbie, Head of Key Stage 3 who arranged the day.
Enterprise Days
Pupils competed in teams to carry out
activities arranged by Careers Wales and
Cathays High’s ‘Careers and Work Related
Education’ team headed by Mr Stuart
Davies. They had some exciting and
challenging tasks.
Year 7’s challenge was to make Fashion
Show outfits suitable for wearing to a
ball using some very basic materials.
Year 8’s teams had to reconstruct a
model of a building that only one of
their team members had seen. Year 9
had to name, design a package and
produce a marketing campaign for Valentine
Day strawberry chocolates. Year 10 met
with members of local businesses to learn
about setting up small businesses and then
had to devise a new computer game. They
had to think of the concept, a name, the
packaging and the advertising.
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Carnegie Project at ‘The Gate’
June 24th and 25th saw Cathays High pupils
take part in the annual Carnegie Project.
The project was held at Howells School
and the beautiful Gate Theatre.
Seven lucky pupils were chosen to
represent Cathays High in the competition
held at Howells School. Each pupil had to
read a book from this year’s Carnegie book
nominations.
On arrival at the school, the pupils were
separated and placed with pupils from
other schools where they had to produce a
short play that summarized the story of
their book.
All Year 7 pupils were taken to The Gate on
25th June to watch the plays and were
given the opportunity to vote for the best
performance. The standard of acting was
excellent and pupils enjoyed the experience
very much. Nicky Richard’s group won the
best group performance
for their presentation of
‘Here Lies Arthur’
by Philip Reeve.
While Nathan
Phillips won
best individual
performance
for his
representation
of a monk from
‘Gatty’s Tale. The
pupils had a
fabulous time and
are already looking
forward to
returning
next
year.
Y S G O L U W C H R A D D C AT H AY S H I G H S C H O O L
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rning than sitting in a classroom!
er term provides the opportunity to plan a range of activities that extend pupils’ learning
and places of interest that support study in a variety of subject areas. Advantage has also
f sessions by a range of organisations both in school and at other locations.
These are a few of the pupils’ experiences:
The China Experience
Pupils have been involved in a whole range
of multi-cultural activities including the week
long Year 8 project organised by First
Campus. Through a successful application to
the ‘China Now’ HSBC/ British Council
project , our Year 9 students worked with a
Chinese Opera company from London as
part of two days of workshops arranged by
Mrs Jones, Head of English. Year 8 and 9
were involved in one day workshops aimed
at furthering pupils’ understanding of the
culture of the children of our partner
school in Chongqing, China. Pupils had
opportunities to experience ribbon
dancing, Chinese calligraphy, Tai Chi, take
part in drama activities, and a variety of
other activities.
Getting out and about in Geography
The Geography Department made good
use of the Summer Time-table
arrangements to carry out GCSE field trips.
88 year 10 pupils took part in two half-day
visits. They carried out a survey on land use,
environmental quality and pedestrian flows
in the centre of the city. A visit to the
Merthyr Mawr sand dunes took them to a
totally different environment where they
looked at the impact of recreation on the
area. Mrs J Rogers, Head of Geography said
‘All pupils collected data for their
coursework and found the visits
enjoyable and productive’.
.
SCHOOL
Year 7 Space Day – report from
Miss J Holland-Lloyd
“As morning broke the sun was shining and
the sky was blue, a perfect day for a Mission
to Mars! Year 7 entered their classrooms not
quite knowing what was going to happen to
them, five hours of science was on the
schedule. The day started off with designing a
Mission Patch. The next stage involved
designing and building a solid fuel rocket to
launch as high as possible -aerodynamics, fin
shape and just looking cool were all
important factors that the designers had
to consider. After successful, if slightly
messy, launches the next stage of the
mission was to design and
manufacture a device that could cope
with the rigours of space travel and
then land a delicate rover on the
surface of Mars from limited resources
and budget. In reality they had to make
a device to safely land a raw egg dropped
from two storeys. Again this was a messy
affair with a few more casualties, but on the
whole there were more successes than
failures! Finally, the pupils needed to design
either a water rocket or air-powered rocket to
get back safely to Earth. Some fantastic
designs were produced that covered amazing
distances. The five hours passed by very
quickly and some groups had time to make
shuttle gliders and straw rockets as well.”
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Transition News
Mrs McRobbie, Head of Key Stage 3 took
advantage of The Welsh Assembly
Government’s invitation to schools to
submit a bid for funding to finance an
innovative transition project. Her bid was
successful.
The project is about supporting pupils
from our associated primaries who may
have social or emotional difficulties in the
transition process. Year 6 teachers
identified the pupils and 25 pupils across
our 4 main feeder primary schools were
identified. A Pastoral Supervisor, Mrs Sue
Williams, was appointed to assist in the
running of this project. Mrs Williams
worked with Mrs McRobbie to develop a
programme of group
based activities to
ensure an
effective
transition
process. The
project began
in February and
ended in June.
The programme involved Mrs Williams
visiting the primary schools every week and
working with the pupils on activities aimed
at raising self esteem and confidence. The
pupils enjoyed several visits to Cathays High
School, and their parents were invited to
the school one afternoon to meet teachers
and find out more about the aims of the
project. The school’s 5x60 officer was also
involved in the programme. Mr Ieuan
Davies organised team building activities
that encouraged pupils to take part in
active pursuits.
The transition process will continue in
Year 7 and these pupils will be tracked to
ensure that they make progress in their
learning and in their personal and
social development.
On July17th there will be an
induction day for all our
Year 5 and 6 pupils. This is
when the pupils will get
an opportunity to follow
a timetable when they will
be given a variety of lessons.
There is also an opportunity for year 6
pupils to take part in the week-long
programme of activities during the first
week of the summer holidays. This is being
arranged by Mr Chisti, Cathays High’s
Community Learning Coordinator.
Another ‘induction’ day will take place on
the 2nd of September for
new Year 7 pupils
Cathays High School achieves a Silver award
Cathays High School has recently been
awarded the Eco Schools Silver award. This
year, Miss Cari Merriott, Head of Year 7, set
up an Eco-Committee made up of 12
pupils from Year 7 to Year 12. The
committee decided on a plan for
environmental action which included
carrying out a survey around school to
decide what areas to focus on. The areas
the Eco Committee have decided to
improve on are litter, waste minimisation
and healthy living. Once we achieve this we
can apply for Green Flag status.
Representatives from ‘Really Rubbish’ have
given the Eco Committee a talk about
recycling. Some aspects of Eco Schools have
been integrated into the school curriculum;
in PSE lessons Year 7 pupils have produced
posters on making Cathays a greener place.
The whole school engages in a number of
Eco School activities such as using recycle
bins in most classrooms and ensuring lights
are switched off when rooms are not in
use.
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Mr Clive O’Rourke’s application for Lottery
funding to create an ‘Eco Garden’ in the
school grounds was successful. The garden
has now been finished and a number of
pupils have volunteered to help look after
it. It is intended for use by groups of pupils
and by members of the community. The
garden will take time to mature and will
need additional hardy plants, shrubs and
herbs to develop it as
intended.
Any parents who are
willing to donate
some plants or
gardening tools
to help with the
maintenance of
the garden, or
are prepared to
give some of their
spare time to help in
the garden, should
contact Miss Merriott or Mr
Chisti at the school.
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A ‘Welsh recipe’ to celebrate
St David’s day
Cathays High School prides itself on its
‘international perspective’ with over 30
languages and countries represented by its
school population. There is also a
continuing pride in the Welsh culture at
the school. This was clearly evident in the
annual school eisteddfod held on 29th
February. Competitors demonstrated
their talents and skills in a wide range of
activities both on and off stage. During
the day Key Stage 3 pupils also took part
in sports activities and the winners’
points were added to those achieved
from drama, music, dance and other
competitions many of which were
performed in Welsh. Through the use of
a computer link to the new screen in the
upper hall, the audience was able to see
winning entries for Geography and
Maths competitions. There was also an
impromptu speaking competition on
“Castles” for the History department
and a ‘Geek is Chick’ Science competition
on stage.
Unfortunately the winner of the main
poetry competition for the Bardic chair was
ill and unable to be in
the eisteddfod. To
give the pupils
the experience
of the
ceremony,
particularly
as the
National
Eisteddfod
will be in
Cardiff in August;
it was decided to
‘chair’ Catrin Frew, the
runner-up.
SCHOOL
Yasmin Grant’s winning poem also reflects
the ethos of the school; it is called ‘A Recipe
for Cardiff ’
Towering buildings, served with cheerful moods,
Accompanied with flower gardens
Served with sweet foods.
Hundreds of different cultures blend,
Peace and happiness spread through Cardiff.
Peace and happiness that I hope will never end.
Culture is our main sprinkle of love,
God is pouring sprinkles from above.
Mixed cultures open more opportunities for us.
Coffee shops, malls and cafes,
With a drop of beautiful nature.
Cardiff is the best of both worlds.
The same Bardic chair has been used in the
eisteddfod since 1932 and everyone who
has ‘won’ the chair in the eisteddfod has their
name engraved on a plaque to add to the
ones already there. Since her retirement,
Miss Mair Davies, ex assistant Headteacher
of Cathays High, has annually donated a
replica of the chair to present to the winner.
Interestingly some information about the
chair recently came to light. Mr Gareth John,
Reprographics Manager, saw the Autumn
Term 1933 magazine of the Cathays High
School for Boys on sale through Amazon.
The magazine was duly purchased and this
is an extract from the headmaster’s letter in
the magazine:
‘Although the school Bardic Chair was an
anonymous gift in the first instance, I am
now permitted to state that it was
presented for annual competition by Mr
Francis B George, of Cardiff ’
If anyone has any information about the Mr
Francis George or Charles Hayward who
donated the ceremonial sword to the
school in the 1930’s, please get in touch with
the school.
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An update on our China link
We were very concerned about the effects
of the earthquake in South West China and
e-mails were sent from Cathays High to the
British Consulate office and our partner
school,Qiujing High School, in Chongqing.
We had the following replies:
“Thank you for your lovely message. I am
okay and so are all my colleagues in the
Consulate office. In general, there is not much
damage in Chongqing city, so please do not
worry about us. During the last two weeks,
our office has moved to a local hotel. Our life
is now back to normal, though we still struggle
to cope with the stories and reports from
epicentre in Sichuan...” Ma Qingyun, British
Consulate manager, pictured here with
Gary Davies from the Welsh Assembly
Government.
“Although
Sichuan Province
has suffered the serious earthquake, I still
believe Sichuan natives will get over all
difficulties, and in the near future, Sichuan will
become more beautiful than before. And there
is no doubt that China will succeed in hosting
the Olympic Games in August. Chinese people
are strong, powerful and energetic.
No one can prevent the tragedy, but we can
overcome it with the help of the people around
the world. On behalf of the dead people, I send
my great appreciation to you, your colleagues
and your people in Cardiff.
I have informed the management office of the
school of your visit in the summer of 2009. They
showed great hospitality to your visit and feel
pleased and excited about your visit.”
Annie, who is a member of the English
Department at Qiujing High School and
translator for Mrs Davies-Scott and Mrs
Jones while they were at the school.
It was disappointing that British Council
Cymru plans for a visit from the head
teachers of partner schools in Chongqing
10
had to be cancelled because of the
earthquakes. Fifteen head teachers were due
to arrive in Cardiff on May 18th and spend
time in schools during the week including
Cathays High.
Annie has mentioned the visit in the
summer of 2009. Mrs
Lynne Jones, is
heading a
group of
over 30
pupils
and 4
staff
who will
be visiting
China in
July 2009. We
are hoping that
they will build up
contacts with pupils from Qiujing School in
preparation for the visit. Mrs Wendy Chong,
Headteacher of the Chinese School in
Cardiff has also offered to give the pupils
some basic language skills and there is a
strong possibility that Cathays High will be
working with the Confucius Institute at
Cardiff University to develop further
language provision in the new academic
year. Recently this term Mrs DaviesScott, Head of Community
Education, met with Professor Siyi
Fu, Academic Director of the
institute, to discuss plans for
future partnerships.
In April, Cathays High received
a delegation of head teachers
and directors of education from
counties in the provinces of
Southwest China. The visit was
arranged by Zhang Jing, Senior
Education Manager, Cultural and
Education Section of the British
Embassy Beijing, China while she
was on secondment in Wales.
The group were interested in learning about
language teaching, use of ICT and special
educational needs provision in Britain. They
were given a wealth of information from our
experienced team of staff and were very
impressed with the programme prepared
for them at Cathays High. All the
presentations had to be given with the
assistance of interpreters as very few of the
delegates spoke English.
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A ‘Welcome’ in 16 languages
Year 11 students and their parents joined
staff and guests at the Reardon Smith theatre
in May for the annual Presentation Evening.
Sixteen students from the year group
welcomed everyone in their first language –
this year greetings were given in English,
Welsh, Arabic, Bengali, Czech, Dari, French,
Lingala, Malay, Malayalam, Mandarin,
Nepalese, Portuguese Spanish, Urdu, and
Xhosa.
The display of items
made by GCSE
and A level
Design and
Technology
Textiles
students was
particularly
spectacular
this year.
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Many of the challenging garments made by
students were evening and bridal wear.There
were also garments made for leisure wear
modelled. All the garments were
personalised in some way by the students.
AS students showed their skills in haute
couture design while the A level students
had printed their own fabrics using
sublimation printing techniques for their
garments. Many of those modelling their
outfits were accompanied by escorts who
had been fitted out with appropriate attire
hired to the school, free of charge, by Dyfed
Menswear, Whitchurch Road. There were
also two very young models, one wore a
party dress made by her year 11 brother
and the other wore a dress made by her
year 11 cousin.
Guests, including governors and
friends of the school, presented
students with their Personal
Achievement Files and a
closing speech was given by our Chair of
Governors, Ms Kris Hedges. A gift was
presented to Mrs Jackie White from the
Inland Revenue Office as a way of thanking
her for being a voluntary mentor to Year 10
and 11 students at the school for several
years. She has made an invaluable
contribution to the school’s careers
programme and many students have
benefited from her contributions to work
related education.
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A Royal Visit
The most exciting event of the year was
Prince Harry’s visit to Cathays High on
Thursday 5th June.
This was Prince Harry’s first official visit to
Wales on his own and Cathays High was
chosen as one of the places in Cardiff that
he would visit because of our link with
Lesotho.
Prince Harry’s interest in Lesotho was
sparked when he did volunteer work with
AIDS orphans in the country while on his
gap year. Prince Harry is now the first Royal
Patron of Welsh charity, Dolen Cymru -the
Wales - Lesotho Link. He was in Cardiff to
attend a conference on Lesotho in the
Millennium Stadium.
On arriving at Cathays High, Prince Harry
was greeted by Mr Brian Rees High Sheriff
of South Glamorgan and his wife; Captain Sir
Norman Lloyd-Edwards, Lord Lieutenant of
South Glamorgan; Cllr. Kate Lloyd, Lord
Mayor of Cardiff and her Consort, Mr Mike
Arrowsmith; Cllr. Freda Salway, Executive
Member for Education, Cardiff Council; Mr
Tony Powell and Mr Paul Willicombe,
Cathays High Governors; the Headteacher
and Leighton Piper, Chair of the School
Council.
We wanted as many pupils as possible to
meet the prince; year 7 and 8 pupils made
up the welcoming crowd and year 9 and 10
pupils were outside to see him as he left. He
spent time
12
speaking to many of the students, many of
whom were waving the flags of Lesotho and
Wales.
In the Learning Resource Centre, Prince
Harry
met
Mrs
Portlock-White,
representatives of Dolen Cymru and Mr
Mike German AM. He talked to our four
year 12 students who will be going to
Malopo school in October ;some of the
pupils who have been involved with the
fund raising and student members of our
Charities Committee who will take over to
continue fund raising in the future. The year
12 students, Cherianne George, Almanita
Walker-Yip, Joe Harrison and Jack Hadley,
also gave a presentation to the conference
and attended the reception in the City Hall
later on in the evening with the head
teacher and Mrs Portlock-White.
Working with Mr Mike German AM,
Cathays High has been raising money for
Malopo High school since 2005. During
Mike German’s visit to the school in 2005
the head teacher of the school was very
anxious about the plight of the HIV/Aids
orphans who attended the school and how
the school could help to fund their
education. His idea was to have milking
cows at the school. With the produce and
income from these he would be able to
sustain these children and provide a better
diet for the young people of the school.
Mrs Portlock-White
visited Malopo
High school and
took with her
stationery
and other
gifts from
pupils
of Cathays. In January 2006 we had a
return visit from a Malopo teacher.
Following on from this, pupils at Cathays,
inspired by Mrs Portlock-White, started to
raise money to help the headteacher see his
vision become reality.
Through a range of fund raising activities as
well as donations enough money has been
raised to buy a small herd of cows (Brown
Swiss variety that are very expensive and
have to be bought in South Africa). As well
as this there has been enough money to
fund fencing, a milking parlour, a cow shed, a
greenhouse, seedlings, and an irrigation
system including a new water tower and
pump.
The next stage is to build a bunk house for
the orphans and the breeze blocks are there
ready to start the work. Cherianne,
Almanita, Joe and Jack, will help with this
project while they are there.
We have also had a team of students from
Lesotho at the school when we hosted one
of the rounds of the World Schools
Debating Championship in July 2006. Some
of the senior government officials of the
country also visited the school in 2006.They
met with Mr. Phillips to learn more about
education in Wales and also sat in on some
of the lessons.
We were delighted that the school, and our
work in raising money for Malopo school,
had a great deal of media coverage,
including a feature in ‘Hello’ magazine! The
pupils themselves were very impressed with
the way he spent so much time talking to
them and the interest he took in the fund
raising project.
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It was a different experience to the things
we normally do in school. He shook our
hands and asked us what football teams we
supported. He looked better in real life than
he does in the photos I have seen of him.
Emma
“
”
“
It was amazing to see royalty right before
my eyes; he shook my had with a firm grip
and was very friendly. Next time I hope he
bring his whole family.
Rose
“
”
He was very pleasant and he made me
laugh. I asked him how he was and he
replied with a smile and said ‘Great Thanks’
That was such a good day.
Leena
“
I never thought he was going to be that
nice. I thought he would go straight inside
but he took time to talk to us. I though he
was really down to earth.
Komal
”
“
It was interesting to hear his views on
Lesotho and to find out about the sort of
things he did there. It was a wonderful
opportunity to meet him.
Lucy
”
He said he was sorry he couldn’t bring any
sunshine with him. I asked if it would be all
right for him to have his picture taken with
me, I was surprised when he said ‘Yes of
course’ so I had a picture taken with him
and my friend Aisha.
Samantha
”
”
“
He asked me if I was in the 6th form and
when I said ‘yes’ he replied ‘stay in school’.
Aisha
“
SCHOOL
”
I asked him how old he was, he
said 23 and I think he was pleased
when I said he looked younger.
Adanne
”
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Insects and Scarecrows share the stage
Mini beasts and scarecrows were just two
of the colourful images represented by
primary and secondary school pupils in this
year’s concert held as part of the Calcella
Celebration Week.
Pupils from Cathays High joined pupils
from Allensbank Primary, St Monica’s
Church in Wales Primary, Gladstone
Primary, Albany Primary and Ysgol Mynydd
Bychan to perform in the concert. There
was a range of dance styles represented in
the performances including creative dance,
Morris dancing, Bhangra dance, urban and
disco dancing. Costumes designed and
made by pupils and staff (and some
parents too!) gave a rainbow of colours
and complemented the themes of songs
and dances.
This annual event gives pupils of all ages an
opportunity to show their talents and it
is an added opportunity for our
local primary schools’ pupils to
get together and to visit
Cathays High with their
families. It is always a successful
evening with a ‘full house’. The
quality of the performances is
always excellent and very
enjoyable.
The items performed by the Year 8
students from Cathays High were
created by them during a week of work
shops arranged as part of the school’s
summer time table of events. The pupils
worked with Anika Young from First
Campus of the University of Glamorgan
and a team of people including Deri
Roberts from the Welsh College of Music
and Drama;
Ani Townsend, Senior
Costume Designer for the Welsh National
Opera Costume and Design Department
and Louise Harris, Educational Consultant
who supervised the drama as well as the
lighting and music for the final
performance.
During the week pupils explored
the theme of culture and diversity.
They chose their own themes,
prepared a short drama, learnt
African Drumming (in 2 hours),
choreographed their own dance
routines and made all the costumes for the
performances.
The concert was the first
opportunity for the school
to try out a new system
installed to relay
performances live
from the hall to our
plasma screen in
the lower hall.
This event
was also
used to raise money for the National
Eisteddfod of Wales that is being held in
Cardiff in August of this year. Free
information and a very useful guide to
some basic Welsh were given out to the
audience to promote the eisteddfod.
Sherman Theatre Dance Performance inspired by chess
Fifteen pupils ranging from Year 7 through
to Year 11 took part in this year’s Sherman
Theatre dance production. Schools from all
over Cardiff and Barry performed in the
theatre during the first week in March.
Cathays High’s theme was chess. The pupils
put on an excellent performance of their
interpretation of a chess match. Each
dancer represented a piece on the chess
board and the dance ended with one piece
remaining standing on the chess board
(stage).
The dancers were Meg Lewis, Catrin Frew,
Sophia Odugleh, (Year 7); Charlotte Alford
(Year 8); Elizabete Costa, Shazia Marquis,
Jade Arnold, Anisah Umar (Year 9); Ruksana
Tajul, Sophie Moore, Ceri Stevens, Rebecca
Frew (Year 10);,Rajaa Gailani, Sarah Poole
and Florence Rutson Griffiths (Year 11).
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The idea for the theme of Chess came
from a project submitted for GCSE Dance
by Year 9 student, Lucy Glanville-Ellis. Miss
Webb, teacher of Dance, thought this was
an excellent project and warranted
development to a group piece.
This is part of Lucy’ s explanation of her
dance:
“My dance is a duet based on the game. I
used the 2 colours on the board, black and
white, for the costumes. There are 32 pieces
on the board and I tried to use the characters
and develop a motif to represent some of
them. There are 64 squares on the board and
I used squares as a recurrent shape in my
performance. Movements made by the pieces
are horizontal, diagonally, vertically, forwards
and backwards. I use all these
directions in my duet.”
Lucy was assisted in the
choreography of her
dance
by
Laura
Griffiths, one of our
past students.
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INDIE Project goes European
The Inclusion and Diversity in Education
project was featured in the February
edition of Cathays Eye. Since then Shazia
Marquis made history in the European
Parliament when presenting the final
charter to ministers. She was the first
person to speak in Welsh and have her
speech simultaneously translated for the
Ministers. This newsworthy event was a
good way of bringing the Charter to the
public’s attention with articles appearing in
the Times Educational Supplement (where
Shazia’s photograph appeared
on the front cover), the South
Wales Echo and the Welsh
language magazine Golwg. We
are also hoping that the INDIE
group will be able to meet up
with Jill Evans MEP who is
anxious to find out more about
their work.
Shazia spent four days in Brussels,
accompanied by Mr Phillips,
Headteacher of Cathays High and
Mrs Jane Griffiths who is coordinating the work of the Cathays
High INDIE group. Mr Phillips had an
opportunity to meet with head teachers of
other European schools while Shazia
Gymnastics
On the 27th February Negin Zakria and
Sophia Odugleh entered the Welsh
Gymnastics Partner Balancing championships
held in Welsh Institute for Sport at Sophia
Gardens.
This was the first
time that the girls
had taken part
in a competition
and it was a
very nerve
wracking
experience for
them. All balances have
to be held still for a minimum of 8 seconds.
Both pupils performed to an excellent
standard and came second in the event,
receiving silver medals.
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worked on the final charter with pupils
from Germany and the Netherlands. Finally
all representatives including of Spain,
Portugal, Belgium, Italy, Greece, Scotland
and England agreed on a nine point charter.
“Each group of pupils were given the task of
devising their own projects reflecting three
charter points of their choice. With our
partners from the Netherlands and Germany
we chose charter points 1,2 and 9 and have
agreed on two projects that
involve all three schools.
Our first project is called ‘Our
Lives’ and it aims to create
intercultural awareness of
education and cultural
backgrounds in the three
countries. Currently the team
are preparing a
questionnaire on culture to
distribute to our pupils.
They will shortly be
making ‘mini movies’ to
portray their own
identities and cultures which they
will share with their counterparts in our
partner schools.
Our second project is to share ideas about
the work of our school councils so they
become even
more effective
in our
schools. The
School
Council at
Cathays
High has
already had
an opportunity
to discuss the
charter
points with
some
valuable
comments
and
suggestions
made for the
Indie team to
consider.
The outcome of these projects is to
encourage everyone to embrace culture and
value diversity. Through education we hope to
help break down barriers, build trust,
strengthen relationships and promote better
and clearer communication.”
Jane Griffiths, INDIE Coordinator
Rugby training
In September this year Mr Thomas, Head of
Welsh; Mr O’Rourke, Head of Year 12; Mr
Coughlin, Pastoral Support Assistant and
Rhys Phillips from Year 11 set up a Rugby
Club. The Club meets weekly after school
on a Wednesday evening and is open to
every one of all ages, genders and abilities.
It has been hugely successful and has
developed a large following, 20 plus pupils
have been attending each week since it
started. Pupils have consistently raised their
skill levels through this coaching and from it
have had other related opportunities
including extra coaching from Cardiff ’s
development team, attendance at a TAG
Rugby Tournament at Llanrumney and also
free tickets to see two games at the U/20
Rugby World Cup at Cardiff Arms Park.
It also gives an opportunity for some of the
older pupils to develop their coaching skills
and we hope to offer some coaching
qualifications to senior students through the
5x60 programme. The members were
filmed for the BBC and interviewed by
Jason Mohammed, for a
news item about
the Welsh rugby
team’s Grand
Slam success.
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Basketball
Cathays High senior basketball boy’s team
reached the final of the Cardiff and the Vale
Basketball Championship. The Squad
consisted of mainly Year 10 boys with a few
talented Year 9 and two Year 11 boys; they
were competing against schools whose
teams’ were made up of Year 11 pupils.
Cathays High began their campaign with a
comfortable win over Llanrumney with
exceptional performances by Akram Saleh,
Ross Bolton and Shane Broad.
Following on from this the team
comfortably beat Glynderw and Mary
Immaculate with excellent performances by
Owain Jones, Thomas Anderson, Al-Sharif,
Shane Broad and again Akram Saleh.
A closely fought Semi Final was played at
Cathays High against Llantwit Major. The
Cathays High team dominated against a
very strong Llantwit side, coached by an ex
England Basketball International. Cathays
High won the game by four points with an
outstanding team performance.
The Final was against Barry Boys School
whose team had some excellent individuals
Cathays dominated the first two quarters
and were leading by six points at half
time. The second half was totally
different with Barry increasing the
tempo and eventually winning by twelve
points. Cathays were very disappointed
but a lesson was learned in how to
compete under pressure and play as team.
Congratulations on trying your best boys
good luck for next year.
Report by Mr G Smith
The Squad:
Shane Broad
Owain Jones (C)
Al Sharif Hassan
Thomas Anderson
Akram Saleh
Ross Bolton
Hamidullah Ahmadi
Abdirahim Ahmed
Umar Ahmed
Abdulrahim Abdullah
Ahmed Saleh
Joseph Nyamashwa
James Piddock
Ebrahim El Altaar
Through the 5 x 60
programme an even
more
varied
timetable
of
activities is now on
offer for pupils.
Basketball, football,
table tennis, street
dance, Teenfit and Boxercise
are well established out of school hours’
activities. Along side these activities there is
now Bollywood dance, cricket, tag rugby
and Rubicon dance.
This term there have also been ‘one off ’
events including a trip for Years 7 and 8 to
the Channel View water activity centre at
Cardiff bay.
The half-term water activity programme at
Cardiff Bay was a great success with 30
pupils taking part over two days. They
enjoyed a variety of activities including
rowing, canoeing, sailing and kayaking. The
pupils really enjoyed themselves even
though the water was ‘freezing’ according to
Mr Davies (5x60 officer).
A number of the pupils attending the 5 x
60 table tennis sessions have now joined a
club based in Sophia Gardens and are
taking part in events across Wales.
During the transition programme arranged
by Mrs McRobbie, Head of Key Stage 3,Year
6 pupils took part in a fun team building
session, arranged by the 5x60 officer. Mr
Davies prepared a series of challenging
tasks which the pupils and the staff really
enjoyed.
The school has benefited from receiving
new outdoor basketball posts funded jointly
from the 5x60 and the School Council
budgets. These are very popular as are
other pieces of equipment bought through
the 5x60 budget, including a cricket kit,
which pupils can sign out at lunchtime and
use in the school yard.
The 5x60 team was also involved in
hosting a sports festival to
celebrate the end of a
3 year lottery
funding scheme.
The main aim of
this funding was
to redevelop
sporting
facilities across
Cardiff and
included the
renovation of
Cathays High’s
sports hall and the
addition of a range of
facilities at Maindy, including
a gym, conference room
and dance studio.
Working closely with the
Sport Cardiff Community
Development team, Maindy
Swimming Pool, and Cathays
High School a full day’s
programme of
activities was planned for Friday 27th June.
Pupils from 7 primaries and 6 secondary
schools attended the event and
participated in various sporting taster
sessions including street dance; Bollywood
dance; karate; football; netball; synchronised
swimming; table tennis and hockey. There
were also demonstrations of karate,
Bollywood dance and Street dance. The
Jukebox Dance Club presentations were
very popular and demonstrated the high
level of performance which has made them
very successful; they will be competing in
Las Vegas later on this year. There was a
presentation made to each of the
schools attending by the Lord
Mayor of Cardiff.
Mr Davies is currently carrying
out a re audit ready for
September so the 5x60
programme can introduce
new fun activities and other
initiatives for pupils.
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