Shwmae bawb

I had the pleasure of observing the Head Student recruitment process this week, which was led as usual by the current Head Student team, who choose their successors. Student leadership is well-established at all stages of the school, through form reps, Year Council, School Council, Eco Council, Charity Committee, and prefects, and every year we have a strong field of nominations for the Head Student roles. However, this year, the field was particularly strong - we had 25 nominated students, and even the process of shortlisting from that group was incredibly difficult.

Eight students were taken through to interview, and each had the opportunity to present their vision for the Head Student role to the recruitment panel of current Head Students, before engaging in a question and answer session. The quality of these shortlisted candidates was once again very high - I don't think I have ever observed a process before where it was so clear that every single candidate was an excellent option and absolutely appointable. The erudition and clarity with which they all spoke was very impressive, the ideas that they had for the role and our school were excellent, and their ability to answer a demanding set of questions was also very good indeed.

This all left our current Head Student team with a challenge - given that the candidates were all appointable, how to make a decision? The discussion went back and forth for well over an hour after the end of interviews (fuelled in part by biscuits), and observing this discussion was also an absolute highlight for me. In the end, the decision was unanimous, and the Head Students for 2025-26 are:

Rhys Doubtfire, Mia Owen, Rani Smith
and Jack Painter
 

Many congratulations to them all. Congratulations also to all shortlisted candidates for achieving such superb standards and for providing such a quandary to our recruitment team. Finally, a note of sincere thanks to our current Head Students, who were deeply impressive throughout this process. Dai iawn, bawb.

Hugo Hutchison
Headteacher

A massive congratulations to Year 11 student Miles Chambers, who represented Dragons Under 16s against Ospreys Under 16s at St Helens this week.

A superb achievement, well done Miles.

Many thanks to those who have responded following my newsletter item two weeks ago (Newsletter 21 03 25) on developing a county-wide smartphone strategy for schools. I aim to set up a working party at the start of next term, which will bring together staff, parents and students, as well as representatives from local primary schools. The working party will meet two or three times through the summer term to inform our approach, both at school level and across the county. 

If you are interested in contributing to this working party, please let us know by emailing monmouthcomprehensive@monmouth.schoolsedu.org.uk. Those who have emailed expressing an interest already will be included on the invitation.

KS4 Health, Social Care and Childcare students took part in a Careers Wales Engagement Event on Weds 2^nd April. Students showed their amazing practical talents as they carouselled around a variety of activities presented by practitioners from industry.

All HSCCC students accessed lead practitioners from Childcare Flying Start, Mon Workforce Development, the NHS Trust Nursing Academy and We Care Wales, as well as the University of South Wales team. The discussions and sharing of best practice were very inspiring.

One student commented “I never knew that I could use my practical skills and even become a nurse”. Other students really enjoyed practising the Makaton that they had discovered. A Year 11 student was really keen to share that “life-saving actions like knowing how to attend to a choking child, adult or baby need very specific levels of physicality – everyone should learn how to deal with a choking incident”.  We all agreed.  Da Iawn Year 10 and 11.

Families Race to Raise funds for the School

On Friday 28^th March, Monmouth Comprehensive School Friends Association invited families into school for their first ever Race Night. It was a fun evening with families really getting into the spirit of the event; cheering on their horses and collecting their winnings with smiles on their faces and a lot of laughter.

The atmosphere was also heightened by the wonderful music provided by MCS students Gloria Sacree’s lovely flute playing, Jack Painter with his easy, mellow singing voice  and Evie Jones with her beautiful operatic tones (also the winner of Monmouth’s Got Talent); with thanks to Matt Royston and Sam Chilton for running the Racing. The event was also supported by equipment bought by MCS Friends with a National Lottery Community grant.

The Friends, which is run by a small group of volunteers, organise events twice a year to raise much-needed funds for the school and to bring the school community together in an informal atmosphere. Quiz and Bingo nights have been well-received in past years and The Friends are always looking for new ways of bringing families together in school. They also sell second-hand uniform collected in school through the Magic Cottage Charity shop, next to Shire Hall, providing a valuable service to the community and sharing the profits with the Magic Cottage charity, which also supports children.

Funds raised at the event will go towards The Friends extremely successful Staff Requests Scheme, which allows staff to apply directly to the Friends Association for funds to support their particular subject area. Funds have been used to support projects right across the school curriculum and all year groups.

If you would like to support the school, you can easily whenever you shop online through Easyfundraising. Just visit the Easyfundraising website (easyfundraising.org.uk) and sign up to support The Monmouth Comprehensive School Friends Association – don’t forget to download the donation reminder.

The Welsh Government has asked that we share an item from the latest copy of Dysg  - Protecting children from financially motivated sexual extortion.

This item gives advice for parents and carers on understanding financially motivated sexual extortion, discussing it with your child and supporting them if they become a victim.  

PROTECTING YOUR CHILD

Teacher of Maths - Closing 7th April at 12 noon

Teacher of Engineering, Design & Technology - Closing 28th April at 12 noon

Alternative Provision Lead Teacher - Closing date: Thursday 1st May at 12 noon

Teacher of International Languages - Closing date: Monday 28th April at 12 noon