Mrs Peet’s Welcome
Welcome to our second newsletter focusing on one of the new curriculum’s Areas of Learning Experience: Language, Literacy and Communication. With our lives in lockdown, the ability to communicate with others helps us to stay connected to each other, even whilst we are apart. Many of us will be enjoying reading and writing, in a variety of languages, to help us to unwind and manage our wellbeing. With this in mind, it is fantastic to see the variety of events and competitions undertaken by our pupils to develop their language, literacy and communication skills. I hope that you will enjoy it, too.
Cymraeg/ Welsh
Eisteddfod
On the 5th March, to celebrate St David’s Day, we held our annual eisteddfod with KS3. Years 7, 8 and 9 were involved and had a true celebration of the Welsh culture. The pupils were entertained by the choir and orchestra performing and we saw musical performances and recitations from the pupils in each year group too. The house competition sing-along could be heard from miles away, with Dwr y Felin truly showing it is part of the land of song! During the day certificates were awarded for homework competitions which had been completed on the lead up to the day also. Each eisteddfod was concluded in the traditional chairing of the bard ceremony followed by the national anthem.
This year in year 7 the yellow house won and in year 8 the blue house were the winners, although everyone involved had a fabulous time and really embraced the spirit of the day!
Llangrannog
32 year 7 pupils spent a fun filled weekend in Llangrannog. Despite the awful weather we had on the lead up to the weekend, we had a fabulous weekend of activities. Pupils participated in activities ranging from tobogganing, skiing, quad biking, archery to zip wiring. The pupils were encouraged to speak to staff in the campus in Welsh and use as much as they could whilst doing the activities. All of the pupils and teachers had a wonderful time.
Edrych ymlaen at flwyddyn nesaf!
Criw Cymraeg
The Criw Cymraeg has been spreading the Welsh word around the school, taking part in a variety of activities to promote the Welsh language and culture. In the lunch time club, Criw members rose to the challenge of making a leek out of balloons. The older members helped adjudicate the school Eisteddfod, no easy task given the quality of entries!
English/ Literacy Department
World Book Day 2020
The English department and staff and pupils across the schools had a wonderful time taking part in DYF’s World Book Day celebrations. With the theme “Reading is Power”, there was a scavenger hunt and fancy dress competition, which featured our very first group winners! Characters including The Boy in the Dress, minions, and Draco Malfoy crammed into the library at lunchtime for some bookish fun.
Book Swap
Mrs Ewens organised a Book Swap for staff and year 7 pupils, where people had the chance to pass on a book they had enjoyed to someone else.
Literacy at Home
With the time you have at home, now is an ideal opportunity to read one of those books you haven’t got around to.
https://literacytrust.org.uk/family-zone/9-12/book-hopes/ You can enjoy some free uplifting lockdown reading in the Book of Hopes, edited by author Katherine Rundell, at the National Literacy Trust website.
Email Miss Quick at QuickG2@hwbcymru.net with your book recommendations, and she will pass them on to other pupils!
Debate Club
Year 9 Debate Club members got to experience the thrill of debating at the National Assembly in Cardiff. The topic under discussion was whether Health and Wellbeing should be a core subject in schools, and the debaters had plenty of ideas about its importance for pupils’ physical and mental health. Thank you to our AM Jeremy Miles and his team for organising this event, which we hope will be the first of many!
Modern Foreign Languages
MFL Marvels
A huge congratulations to our year 9 MFL pupils who participated in the Business Language Champions’ “Glastonbury Goes Global” event!
Throughout the day they had to complete a number of tasks (all in French) based around planning an international music festival in France. This included planning all elements of the event and choosing dates and locations, interviewing their French headline act, fielding difficult questions from the local council, preparing and performing a radio advert, producing an information leaflet and building a model of their festival site to present to the other teams.
It was a tough competition but the Dwr y Felin team left victorious! The pupils involved (Riley Davies, Jane George, Efanna Hawking, Abigail Lewis, Morgan Matthews and Thea Williams) gave it everything they had, and it clearly paid off.
English/ Literacy @dyf_literacy
Welsh Dept @dwryfelinwelsh
MFL @DyfMfl
Credits:
Created with images by JOSHUA COLEMAN - "There is a store in Hollywood that has always fascinated me. I have had a lot of wonderful shopping experiences there and they have talked about building a bar in the back related to Charles Bukowski. They put up this mural and for years, it has been so simple, yet so smart to me. I love books and a mural of a bookshelf of your favorite author is such a great idea. I don’t own a kindle and have never read a book on my computer. These books might be a great reminder to go to your local library." • Sara Kurfeß - untitled image