St Illtyd’s students continue to explore and develop
Students at St Illtyd’s College, Cardiff, are continuing to explore and develop their Lasallian ethos with a range of activities, with one of the highlights of the past few months being the Bee’s Knees sustainability project.
CAVC Aero Challenge is back
After a break of two years, it was fantastic to be invited back to Cardiff and Vale College’s Aero Challenge inter-school competition at the International Centre for Aerospace Training at Cardiff Airport Business Park.
Two teams from St Illtyd’s attended the event. Pupils took part in a carousel of activities that tested their mental agility, hand skills and problem solving. Challenges included maintenance work on a plane, creating dog tags, programming a drone with measurements to follow a flight path and landing aircraft in a flight simulator.
Both our teams did really well on the day, but we were no match for the day’s worthy winners-St Richard Gwyn Catholic High School. Congratulations to the winning team of the day.
Our pupils had a great day and we look forward to returning next year.
Luisa May, Community Focused Schools Co-ordinator
It’s the Bees Knees
Over the summer and autumn terms, pupils from our Eco Club have been following the Bees Knees sustainability project in our weekly Eco Club sessions. All resources and lesson plans for the project have been kindly provided for us by First Campus.
In our sessions, pupils have been learning all about sustainability and biodiversity with particular reference to bees. Pupils have learnt about how important bees are for biodiversity and also about threats to bees.
A highlight of the project was being invited to Cardiff Metropolitan University’s Cyncoed campus to visit the beehives there. On the day, after an introduction to the beehives, everyone got kitted out in beekeeper outfits and got the opportunity to get up close to the beehives. It was a wonderful feeling to be so close to so many bees but knowing that we were safe inside our bee suits. The next activity was honey tasting and we found it incredible how different crops can produce different tasting honeys. Our final activity of the day was building bee houses which will take pride of place in our garden area at the school.
All in all, we all had an amazing day at Cardiff Metropolitan University. We would like to say a huge thank you to Alex Nita from First Campus for inviting us to be part of this project. We would also like to say thank you to Rob, Megan, Anna & Bethan for all their support on the day.
Luisa May, Community Focused Schools Co-ordinator
Free Books
This term, every pupil in the school was lucky enough to receive a free reading book. They could choose from a huge selection of modern literature, with popular titles such as ‘We Were Liars’ and ‘Shadow & Bone,’ and even authors such as Marcus Rashford and David Walliams. Pupils in Key Stage 4 (Year 10 and 11) were also given the opportunity to get a free copy of an exam text for English (Of Mice and Men, Heroes or An Inspector Calls) to help them with their revision.
All of these marvellous books were brought to use by Caban Bookshop in Pontcanna. This has been a wonderful opportunity for our pupils and one that they have really enjoyed: some pupils are half-way through their new books already! We would like to thank Caban Bookshop for bringing the books to us and to Welsh Government for funding this initiative.
Mel Cooper, Literacy Co-ordinator and Teacher of English
Creative Pathways 2022
At the beginning of October, a group of 35 Year 11 and Year 10 pupils visited the Choose Your Future Creative Pathways careers event at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, organised by Careers Wales. The Creative Pathways careers event is a unique event in that it brings together a whole host of employers, apprenticeship providers and educational providers specifically from the creative industry.
Our pupils were able to meet almost 60 exhibitors and ask questions about the best paths into the industry. Pupils also made the most of the array of workshops and panel discussions on offer- everything from “Careers in Casualty and Pobl y Cwm” with BBC Studios to a dance workshop with Kinetic School of Performing Arts.
Year 10 pupil Lolani Lane said “I want to get into acting but had no idea where to start. Today has given me a much better idea of what I need to do to get to where I want to be.”
We would like to thank Adrian Cole- Business Engagement Adviser at Careers Wales along with all the team at Careers Wales for organising the event.
Luisa May, Community Focused Schools Co-ordinator
Expressive Arts Showcase
Back in the summer term, the faculty of Expressive Arts put on a showcase for parents, carers and visitors. Pupils from music, drama and PE took part to showcase their talents. Thank you to all staff from the faculty for organising this and thank you to everyone that came along to support our pupils. Here is a selection of photos from the evening.
