News from MCS

As the penultimate week of term winds to a close, we are all looking forward to Christmas festivities, both at school and at home. Our magnificent Christmas tree is in the atrium, festive menus are being prepared in our food hall, and rehearsals abound from every part of the school for our carol service. You will find details of these in this jam-packed newsletter, as well as tips on how to keep your child safe online, help for families in the current cost of living crisis, and wellbeing support and resources that are available to all.

Thank you to everyone who came along to our Curriculum for Wales presentation and discussion yesterday. As you will have seen, there is significant evolution of education in Wales, and we want our whole community to have a voice in the consultations and planning that are a part of this. We are very proud of the outstanding work completed so far by colleagues at MCS in planning and delivering the new curriculum, and we also know that there is more to do in the months and years ahead as national policy and direction continues to be reformed. We will hold another event later in the academic year in order to provide further updates.

A note on student attendance - it can be tricky at this time of year as coughs and colds increase, coupled with the cold snap we are currently experiencing. Please do ensure your child is in school every day unless they are too unwell to attend. Attendance is a vital foundation for success at school, both academically and in a wider sense, and we do not want students to miss out on any part of the curriculum at any stage.

Finally, many thanks to all who supported the school in the Christmas Raffle run by MCS Friends. The lucky raffle winners of the magnificent prizes are Chloe in Year 7, Luke in Year 8 and Katie in Year 12. All winners have been contacted individually. Llongyfarchiadau!

All the best to you and your family for a restful weekend.

Hugo Hutchison
Headteacher

Year 12 students Phoebe Hodgson and Lucy Evans took part in a Gwent Young Farmers public speaking competition last week. Phoebe and Lucy were in a team of three, competing for Raglan Young Farmers Club. Phoebe won Best Speaker and Lucy won best Chairman, with their team placing 1st overall. 

This is a massive achievement and they will now go on to represent Gwent, at the competition in March for the whole of Wales.

A huge well done Phoebe and Lucy.
 

Andy Woolley, the DofE Coordinator for Monlife Outdoor Adventure was with us this week, handing out certificates and badges to our Duke of Edinburgh Award participants.  

Andy gave out 50 Bronze and 19 Silver Awards and with students signing up for their first or next levels (53 Bronze, 145 Silver and 15 Gold), it looks like we'll be seeing Andy once more on a regular basis at MCS.

We are still accepting DofE applications so if student still wishes to take part, registration forms may be collected from Reception or you can click HERE to download a copy of the pack.

Y12 student Jack Sims has been selected by the RYA Sailing sporting National Governing Body (NGB) to enrol on the Level 3 Pearson BTEC Diploma in Sporting Excellence (DiSE) qualification.

This is a great achievement. Only those athletes from across the country that their NGB deem as having the potential to progress to a higher level of elite performance are selected.  

RYA stands for Royal Yachting Association. Set up in 1875 as the Yacht Racing Association, the RYA has since become the national governing body for dinghy, motor and sail cruising, all forms of sail racing, RIBs and sportsboats, windsurfing and personal watercraft and a leading representative body for inland waterways cruising.

We have followed Jack's sailing success in the newsletter in the past and we wish him every success with this qualification with DiSE Loughborough College.

Sixth Form Open Evening Wednesday 18^th January 5-7pm

We are delighted to welcome Year 11 students and parents to our first ‘in person’ Sixth Form Open Evening for three years and to experience the range of learning opportunities we provide at MCS post-16.  Our twenty-first century learning environment and recent developments in technology support our Sixth Form students with acquiring the skills, knowledge and aptitudes for future learning and life-long success.

Please visit as many areas as you wish on this evening and enquire about courses, approaches to learning and extra-curricular activities. Refreshments are available throughout the evening on the ground floor.

We hope you will find this a useful and informative evening in planning for your child’s next pathway. We are a school that has the very highest expectations and are determined to do the best we can for every student to achieve their potential and  

5.00pm – 5.20pm
Presentation in the School Hall by senior staff and the Head Student Team.

5.00pm – 7.00pm            
Parents and students are invited to visit Faculties, see displays, experiments, view work and talk to staff and students about subjects and courses available.

6.00pm – 6.20pm            
Another opportunity to see the presentation in the School Hall.

MCS Careers and Higher Education Fair (CHEF)
Wednesday 8^th February 6-8pm

This annual event is designed to support young people and their parents or carers to find information and make contacts that will help young people make informed choices about their post-16 and post-18 pathways. We have over 100 employers, education institutions, apprenticeship and training providers coming to MCS and this is the biggest event of this type in the region.

The Fair will prove extremely useful to students from a variety of year groups:

Year 9 and 10: Will be considering their Year 10 subject choices and their pathway after GCSEs.  By talking to career professionals, further education and university representatives, Year 9 and 10 students and parents can get subject advice relevant to their future goals.

Year 11: Will soon be deciding whether to stay on at school in the Sixth Form, go to college, undertake training or enter into employment. The Fair will help their research with all of these pathways so they can develop a Plan A, Plan B and Plan C for next year.

Year 12 and 13: Will soon be considering, or are in the process of, applying for their University or career choices. The Fair will help with both.

We are extremely grateful to the many individuals who have given their time freely, and in many cases travelled long distances, in order to represent their career, college or university. Please do talk to them to find out what they do, how they got where they are and what advice they can offer.

Tips, advice, guides and resources to help keep your child safe online

As a parent or carer you play a key role in helping your child to stay safe online. You don’t need to be an expert on the internet to help keep your child stay safe online. With the fast approaching Christmas break and some of you may be considering gifts that involve technology, here are some timely reminders (see attached).

The UK Safer Internet Centre https://saferinternet.org.uk/ also offer a wide range of advice and resources to support you as you support your child to use the internet safely, responsibility and positively.  Take some time to explore a wealth of information here https://saferinternet.org.uk/guide-and-resource/parents-and-carers

Further to our email home to Year 9 parents and carers, giving the links for the booklet and Options form, you may also access them HERE.

Please note the closing date for the return of the forms is Thursday 22nd December. 

The Goethe Institute have a limited number of free German Online Training Courses that we would like to offer to parents of German learners at your school. The training is online, and the user can practice listening, reading and writing skills on the learning platform. The learner can train his/her German independently without a teacher and with a variety of exercises. If the parent has some prior knowledge of German, we can do a free assessment to determine the write level.

More information on the course may be found here. The user will have access for 3 months to the platform if s/he signs up in December.

There’s been a wealth of experimentation happening in the Art Department this term. Our GCSE and A Level classes have been developing their projects toward their final pieces in the past few weeks and, once again, are impressing us with the variety of ideas on show. From traditional techniques such as painting, drawing and ceramics, through to digital art, fashion design, architectural models, animation and kinetic art, students are confidently exploring a wide range of disciplines with success. We’re very proud of them!

Our Year 13 students currently have an exhibition in our Art Hub. They have taken part in degree-style group critiques to celebrate their pieces whilst also gaining valuable commentary from their peers on the next steps within their projects. It’s also a lovely opportunity for the rest of our students to see what our eldest artists have been up to!

Year 10 have been sculpting away to create some impressive clay outcomes for their Natural Forms projects.

Our Year 8 have been gaining confidence with mixed media, semi-abstract landscapes inspired by the work of Mary Lloyd Jones.

Lastly, our Year 12 have been exploring a range of printmaking techniques as part of their skills development and coursework. Some beautiful outcomes have been created using lino, etching, collagraph and mono-printing.

There will be CAMHS workshops running online from the 4-6th Jan 2023 for any student who wishes to attend.

These workshops include support for Exam Stress, Understanding Anxiety and 5 ways to Wellbeing. Please see dates/times below - if students wish to sign up, please use the QR code below or this link:

BOOKING LINK

As the number of nominations for the Parent Governor Representative on the Governing Body of Monmouth Comprehensive School exceeds the number of vacancies, it is necessary to hold a secret ballot.  Only parents/carers of students registered at the school are entitled to vote.  

We have two Parent Governor nominees.  You are invited to cast your vote; you can view and select your nominee HERE.  

Parents/carers of students registered at the school are entitled to select one candidate per parent/carer.  In the event of a tie, the result will be determined by the drawing of lots.  

The closing date for all nominations is Wednesday 21 December at 5pm. Any votes received after that time will be deemed invalid and will not be counted.  

Victoria Smith
Chair of Governors