St Illtyd’s enjoy a variety of experiences

Students at St Illtyd’s Catholic High School were treated to a variety of experiences recently with activities including Construction Experience Days, Hay Festival, a visit to St David’s Sixth Form, the STEM Roadshow, and the No More Knives campaign.

Construction Experience Days

This term a small group of pupils from Year 9 were invited by Wales and West Housing Association and Cambria Maintenance Services to two construction experience days. Pupils had the opportunity to try several different disciplines which included construction, tiling, electrical, plumbing and carpentry.

The days proved to be extremely valuable and gave our pupils a fantastic insight into these different careers. We would like to thank all the staff at Wales and West Housing Association and Cambria Maintenance Services for giving us this opportunity. We would also like to thank Adrian Cole, Business Engagement Adviser at Careers Wales for arranging this for us.

Luisa May, Community Focused Schools Co-ordinator

Hay Festival 2023

The Hay Festival Secondary Schools Day has become a permanent fixture on the St Illtyd’s calendar. We were incredibly lucky to receive funding from the Arts Council of Wales Go and See Fund this year that allowed us to cover most of the cost of coach hire of two coaches.

At the event pupils listened to performance poet and playwright Jospeh Coelho, who became Waterstones Children’s Laureate in 2022. Joseph spoke about his recent book, “The Girl Who Became a Tree”- a story about grief, magic, loss, new strength, and healing. Pupils also listened to the poet Nicola Davies who made them think about how they would feel if they were forced to leave their home. She discussed the experiences of real-life refugees who inspired the poems in her collection “Choose Love.”

Later in the day pupils got to listen to award-winning author Patrice Lawrence talk about the real-life inspiration behind her books. In the final session of the day, Young Adult Book Prize shortlisted author and Brit School Performing Arts graduate Laura Dockrill delivered a superb masterclass on how to become a creative writing superstar. The pupils were extremely excited to bump into Laura after her talk and have photos taken with her.

Overall, this was an amazing day, and all pupils thoroughly enjoyed it. We are extremely grateful to the Arts Council of Wales for funding this trip- we would not have been able to run this trip without their support.

Here are some of the comments from staff and pupils on the day:

"The speakers really engaged and connected with our pupils. Our pupils had an amazing time and bought many books in the bookshop."
Myfanwy Bowering, Head of Faculty: Literacy, Language and Communications, Head of English, and Trip Leader

"It has been an honour for me to be able to organise this trip and to encourage pupils to read and write more. Our pupils would not ordinarily get the opportunity to attend an event such as this, so I am extremely grateful to the Arts Council of Wales for giving us the financial means to do this."
Luisa May, Community Focused Schools Co-ordinator and Trip Organiser

"We had really good seats. Laura Dockrill was very funny."
Rocco Gentile, Year 7 pupil

"It's the best trip I have ever been on!"
Levi Woodward, Year 7 pupil

"The Hay Festival trip inspired me to start reading. I wasn't interested in reading before, but I am now."
Keisha Tapia, Year 8 pupil

"I really enjoyed it- being with my friends. Listening to the authors was interesting. I bought a book and have started reading it."
Mya Davies, Year 8 pupil

"I enjoyed the opportunity to ask a question during one of the author talks."
Quineesha Malunga, Year 8 pupil

"I wasn't really interested in reading but following the trip, I am inspired to read more."
Riley Gauci, Year 8 pupil

"The trip inspired me to see that books are not boring and that there is always a meaning behind them."
Elda Daniel, Year 8 pupil

Luisa May, Community Focused Schools Co-ordinator

No More Knives

On Wednesday June 28th we had the No More Knives Tour visit us at St Illtyd’s. They brought one of their bands, Social Beings, into school to help raise awareness about Knife Crime.

Mr Jones, one of our Teaching Assistants, got the amazing privilege to go to the No More Knives Concert on the Friday evening which 350 young people from schools across East Cardiff attended, over 100 of these being from St Illtyd’s. It was such a great evening with amazing music where they featured a song that had been purposely written for the tour called “No More Knives Down.”

At the end of the night one of the band members of Social Beings gave a great talk to the young people who attended which resulted in 118 young people responding and being prayed for by the response team and being gifted a Bible.

At the end of the night, they played the song “No More Knives” and when it got to the chorus, you could hear all the young people singing at the top of their voices- "Lay Your Knives Down". A serious topic was promoted in such a professional way and at such a great event. All the pupils from our school absolutely loved it.

Jordan Jones, Teaching Assistant

Year 10 visit St David’s Catholic Sixth Form College

At the end of June, the whole of the Year 10 cohort was invited to visit St David’s Catholic Sixth Form College. St David’s is our feeder college, and the visit gave pupils a fantastic opportunity to get a feel for the college and to find out more about some of the subjects that they can study there. In an update to previous year’s visits, this year pupils were able to choose two subjects from a range on offer and were then able to experience a session in each. Pupils were able to choose from Performing Arts, Sport, Criminology, Maths and English amongst many others.

We would like to thank Alwyn Lloyd and all the staff at St David’s Catholic Sixth Form College for such a warm welcome and for a well-organised visit. St David’s will hold an open evening in November and all pupils are invited to visit.

Luisa May, Community Focused Schools Co-ordinator

STEM Roadshow

This March we were delighted to welcome back the STEM Roadshow- a collaboration between BAE Systems, the Royal Air Force, and the Royal Navy. The theme of this year’s presentation was “From the Depths of the Oceans to Outer Space” and the innovative engineering solutions that enable us to get to these places. Pupils in Years 7 and 8 thoroughly enjoyed the presentation and took part in activities covering communication challenges and putting planets in the right order. The highlight of the show was a large inflatable sun that demonstrated how small the Earth is compared to the sun. We would like to thank all the Roadshow Team along with BAE Systems, the Royal Air Force, and the Royal Navy for another great production.