As we begin 2020, I wish all of those within and associated with our school community a very happy New Year! Our pupils have certainly made an excellent start to the year, engaging in this month’s exams with a real sense of focus! Their efforts in November’s GCSE examinations were rewarded with a most impressive set of results for Numeracy GCSE. Well done to all those that took this exam!
While not a full Estyn inspection, such as that of January 2018, we were visited by Estyn this month as part of their thematic inspection work centering on the way in which schools are preparing for the new curriculum, the final version of which is due to be published by Welsh Government at the end of this week, and which will be implemented in 2022. It was most rewarding and encouraging to receive very positive feedback on the work undertaken so far, with affirmation of all that is being done by way of preparation for this huge transformation of the ways in which we facilitate the learning of young people. We will be posting more information about this in the coming weeks, following the publication of the curriculum, and look forward to working with our pupils and their parents to shape provision for the future.
During the final week of this month, we will be remembering the victims of the Holocaust - those six million Jewish people persecuted and murdered during the Holocaust. The citywide Memorial Day, which is held at a different Swansea school each year, will this year be held at Pentrehafod School on Monday 27th January, and representatives of Bishop Vaughan will be attending alongside their peers from other schools and key visiting dignitaries, for a programme that will mark the 75th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz. In addition, pupils and staff will be attending an event on Wednesday 29th January at the Liberty Stadium, at which they will have the opportunity to meet Dr Martin Stern, a holocaust survivor, and to ask questions about his experiences as a child living in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s during the Holocaust. We remember those who lost their lives, the survivors scarred by their experiences and all affected by this atrocity during our prayers throughout this month.
On Wednesday 29th January we have an exciting programme activities planned for our Problem-Based Learning Day. Watch our ‘News’ section of this site for photographs of the day and of the trips and experiences in which our pupils will have been involved.
Mrs Pole