News from MCS

We have welcomed our incoming Year 7 2023 students to school this week for their induction, and it is always a highlight of the year for us all. Particular thanks to the existing students who have contributed to running sessions, giving a student perspective, guiding the younger students around our site and helping them to start to feel at home here. Croeso!

Thank you to everyone who has contributed their view to the survey - please click here if you have not yet responded. We are trialling a new external service, and the advantage of this is that we will be able to compare results with other schools nationally. A possible disadvantage is that some aspects might make it feel less personalised to our school - for example, needing to select between Years 1-13 for your child. Additionally, there have been one or two glitches on the answers, for which I apologise. We hope that the new approach will improve our feedback processes further overall - the survey is open until the end of Monday 10th July.

We have drawn the Summer Raffle today - many thanks to everyone who bought a ticket, and additional thanks to MCS Friends, who once again have organised a superb raffle. The winners will be contacted individually, and are: 

1st prize - Daniel, Y11
2nd prize - Holly, Y10
3rd prize - Calula, Y7

Many congratulations to them, and thank you again to everyone for your support.

Hugo Hutchison
Headteacher

Year 8 student Rosie Exton competed in the Leamington Spa Competitive Harp Festival last Saturday.

Rosie came third with both her Harp solos and her ensemble (Gwent Music Harp Ensemble) came first. 

Congratulations Rosie.

We are delighted to introduce the new Student Leadership Team for 2023-24. 

Sam North, Edie Geddes-Bell, Phoebe Hodgson and Matthew Keenan were appointed after an intense interview process following nominations by staff and the School Council. 

Mrs Guest, Director of Sixth Form Studies, offered her congratulations to the new Team, who are keen to get started with their duties and have already been supporting the Year 6 transition activities in school.

A busy year lies ahead of them!

We'd also like you to introduce the Prefect team who will be supporting Sam, Edie, Phoebe and Matthew:

Nelly Penny, Henri Dubé, Hannah Rogers, Ffyndlan Parry, Ruby Jones, Alex Orledge, Rosie Powell, Rosie Lane, Clea Lewis, Greg Johnston, Gemma Thomas, Cadey Morgan, Seren van der Horst, Rowan Cleary.

Further to the email to parents, sent  home on Monday, we are trialling the use of an external survey service in order to improve how we receive and respond to the range of views held by parents and carers.

Please Click Here for the link to the first survey, which will be open until the end of Monday 10^th July. We would appreciate it if you would spend a few minutes to contribute your views.

As you will be aware, the Summer Learning letters were sent home via Parentpay recently but are also available on our website on the following link:

SUMMER LEARNING 2023

We have not received all the consents for the activities - please complete the consent form as soon as possible to ensure your child may take part in the planned activities.

All students will be required to remove their padlocks and empty their lockers by the end of term on Thursday 20th July.   We are giving an early reminder as the last week is always exceptionally busy with Summer Learning and students may wish to empty their lockers w/c 10th July to ensure they have all their items and their padlock.

As we will need to clean the lockers over the summer, ready for the start of term in September, any padlocks left on will be removed along with the contents.

Please remember, for September, that a padlock with a shackle diameter of 6.3mm (1/4 ‘’) is required to secure any locker.  Please do not use a diameter smaller than this as it will not secure the locker.

Could we also ask that Parentpay accounts are kept topped up to ensure students can continue to use the Food Hall until the end of term.  Thank you.

Athletics

The U14 Girls Athletics team competed in Newport in the U14 Team Finals recently.  They finished in third place after a brilliant performance as a team.

Dottie Williams achieved a PB in the 1500m, alongside Millie Cross and Kacey Batty winning their events, which were the high jump and 200m. What an incredible day. Well done girls!

Cricket

The U13 Cricket Girls took part in the final of the Cricket Wales tournament at Bridgend Cricket Club recently. They finished in third place after losing the semi-final by 4 runs.

The girls have made a lot of progress this season and the PE Faculty is very proud of how they have evolved as a team.

If you have recently completed Year 11 or 13 and would like support from Careers Wales with your next steps, please get in contact to arrange an appointment.

Contact details can be found on our leaflet (click HERE) as well as useful links to different sections of the Careers Wales website.

As you are aware, MCS Friends have run a second hand uniform service for several years now, gratefully receiving uniform donations throughout the year from parents.

If you have any uniform that you would like to donate (including PE kit), we would be pleased to receive it.  Could you please drop off any donations at Reception where it can be stored in the uniform pods until it can be passed to us to be checked and sold at the Bridges shop in Monnow Street. This raises funds for the school and ensures parents can access uniform items for their child/children at a discounted price.

Thank you in advance for all your support.  

MCS Friends

The Carers Support Fund will be opening on 10^th July, so is not currently available. The primary route for information and to apply for the grants is the website. Information will appear here; Want To Apply for A Grant - The Care Collective and will be available in:

• Caerphilly
• Cardiff
• Monmouthshire
• Vale of Glamorgan
• Rhondda Cynon Taf
• Merthyr Tydfil

Any contact for queries should be info@thecarecollective.wales. The volume of enquiries and the turn around can be an enormous task and therefore this is dealt with as a team effort using this email address.

Grants are still available through the Small Grant Fund offered by The Care Collective, and the form for this can be found at the bottom of the page using the same link.