News from MCS

Jack Harris, MonLife, held his first meeting with our 2022/23 Monmouth Leadership Academy students this week.

Students from Years 7-11 volunteer/support extra-curricular activities promoting health and wellbeing within the school and the community.

The Leadership Academy is a really exciting opportunity for these young people to develop their skills and confidence and to give something back to their school and community. They will now have the opportunity to lead and support a number of events that will be taking place both inside and outside of school time from marshalling Primary School Cross Country events to supporting the organisation of Primary School Football tournaments. 

Jack is really looking forward to working with these keen students over the coming academic year – a busy year lies ahead for them and we look forward to sharing the success of these events with you.

A number of MCS students have joined the Academy over recent years and have now transitioned to paid work with MonLife.  Y11 student Robin Comben has been accepted to the National Young Ambassadors Steering Group, delivered by Sport Wales and the Youth Sport Trust, through his involvement with the Academy.

Archie Smith, Robin Comben, Eva Harris, Lucas Harris, Charley Handley, Adam Hawkins, Isabelle Young, Jessica Cooper-Jones,  Arianne Allford, Theo Harrison, Isla Davies, Kayden Boliver, Oren Beaumont, Hollie Collings, Rosie Carmen, Jonathan Finlay, Joseph Davidson, Harriet Howarth, Chase Lane, Maya Thomas, Ryan Lloyd, Charles Vickers, Charlotte Cope, Laila Martine, Joshua Horsley, Libby Copping, Sienna Oliver and Max Stapleton.

We welcomed Ffion and Rachel from Welsh Cycling into the school this week to give a presentation on the talent ID programme that they are launching in South Wales.

As well as finding out more about the life of a track cyclist, students had the opportunity to test their power in the 6-second power output challenge, with staff getting involved too!

It was a great opportunity for students to get inspired to try track cycling and, hopefully, replicate the success that past students have had in the sport.

The Food rooms have had a very exciting start to the academic year.  We have welcomed the new GCSE students onto the Hospitality and Catering course and seen lots of new skills showcased in Year 7.

Throughout KS3, the students focus on building skills in the kitchen and each year students develop their confidence and expertise in the food rooms. Year 7 begin their food journey with a salad in a jar, allowing them to develop knife skills.  They also look at the Eatwell Guide and what a healthy balanced meal looks like.

Year 8 students gain knowledge and experience in Year 7 and now start to look at some more complex dishes.  Their first practical challenge is breadmaking. Later in the year, the students begin to work on a ‘Foreign Foods Project’ and the outcomes of these practicals are some of the most exciting throughout the year.

Year 9 is a true test of culinary skills when students will home in all their previous experience in the kitchen and participate in ‘The Great Monmouth Comprehensive Bake Off’. There are three areas of focus: dough, pastry and a showstopper celebration cake to finish with.

We currently have four Hospitality and Catering classes running throughout Year 10 and 11 as the subject is exceptionally popular.  We have some extremely talented students, as you have probably seen on the MCS DT twitter page. The latest practical for Year 10 was the portioning of a chicken, a lifelong skill to have, where the students will make three separate dishes from each part of the chicken. Chicken Goujons are made from the breast, chicken curry from the legs and a chicken stock form the carcass.

Baking Club is an optional after school Club, open to KS3 students.  The Club has been running for four years with some loyal members and lots of new faces. KS4 and KS5 students volunteer for their Duke of Edinburgh award and help out during Bake Club. The outcomes can range from sausage rolls to Valentine cupcakes.