The job market for students leaving school or university can be tricky and now more than ever we need to help them as much as we can to secure the very best opportunities when they enter the workplace. We would like to extend our invitation to you for our very first parent / carers information evening event.

We have leaders from some of the biggest employers in their industry IBM, HSBC, PwC, bp, University of Bath, Clifford Chance & Capgemini coming to talk to you about how your son / daughter or young person under your care can navigate the job market to find some incredible work experience / internship placements as well as graduate and apprenticeship opportunities. We will be sharing some useful tips around psychometric testing, how to prepare for assessment centres, CV’s, and applications as well as lots of information around preparing your child / young person for the workplace / university.

This event is free of charge and it will be running on Thursday 30th September, 6pm – 7:30pm. You will have the opportunity to join this event virtually with your son / daughter / and or young person, ask questions you want directly to leading employers and obtain lots of useful information. The booking link can be found below here.

Booking Link:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/YP-Insight-Evening 

We look forward to welcoming as many of you as possible and if you have any questions, please let us know!

Best Regards,

Young Professionals / Dan Miller

Dan Miller
Founder and CEO |
W: young-professionals.uk

PRC Junior Race & Fun Run 2021

Race headquarters and presentations at:-

Prestatyn Cricket Club, LL19 7LH

Medals will be given to all participants

Top 3 prizes given in each race (please note this does not include the fun run)

Online entry only, no entries for main races on the day. Only 30 spaces per race.

https://data.opentrack.run/en-gb/x/2021/GBR/pjrxc/

Race Schedule:

Please register 30 minutes before race start time, to collect your number

10:30 Family fun run (under 7’s) - Free

10:45 Girls Under 9 Race (1.2 KM approx)

11:15 Boys Under 9 Race (1.2 KM approx)

11:45 Girls Under 11 Race (1.6 KM approx)

12:15 Boys Under 11 Race (1.6 KM approx)

12:30 Girls Under 13 Race (2 KM approx)

12:45 Boys Under 13 Race (2 KM approx)

All races start and finish on the field next to the cricket club.

Please note there is no parking at the cricket club, public car parks are next to the Nova Centre

For further details email eva.brewer@welshathletics.org

I hope you and your child have enjoyed the summer break.

As we return to school, there are some new arrangements in place when someone tests positive for COVID-19. These changes have been made possible by the vaccination programme and the significant reduction in numbers being hospitalised and suffering severe illness due to COVID-19 over recent months.

If your child tests positive for COVID-19 using a PCR test, NHS Test, Trace, Protect (TTP) will contact you, using the details provided when the PCR test was ordered. They will ask questions designed to identify recent close contacts of your child, and for contact details - if you know them - of the individual or their parent/carer. TTP will then get in touch with these close contacts to provide instructions or advice.

Those who are under 18 or fully vaccinated are no longer required to self-isolate if they are identified as close contacts. But they will be contacted to let them know that they’ve been in close contact with someone who has tested positive. They will also be offered two PCR tests and provided with information and advice on how to minimise the risks of onward spread. If your child is identified as a close contact, they can still attend school unless they develop symptoms or are advised otherwise by TTP. Please continue to let the school know if your child tests positive.

If a child tests positive, only a minority of their classmates will be identified as close contacts. But if there is a pattern of cases TTP may ask us to update you on the situation and remind you of key steps, including advising you to keep an eye out for new symptoms your child may develop, and to stay away from vulnerable family and friends in the short-term.

We do expect that there will be cases of COVID-19 across our community over the coming weeks, but this does not mean that COVID-19 is spreading within the school. Please continue to be vigilant for any symptoms. If you are in any doubt, order a PCR test for your child at https://gov.wales/get-tested-coronavirus-covid-19 or by calling 119.

Anyone with symptoms - a new continuous cough, fever or high temperature or loss of, or change in, sense of smell or taste - should remain in self-isolation until the test result is known. You can find the latest information on self-isolation arrangements on the Welsh Government website.

We recognise how difficult the past 18 months have been and the sacrifices that all families have had to make. Thank you for everything you have done to support your child and our schools.

Yours sincerely

G W Davies

Interim Head of Education

Huw Hilditch-Roberts

Lead Member for Education, Children's Services and Public Engagement

Dear Parent / Carer - Download the letter ALN_reforms_2021

As we have shared with you previously, the system for supporting children and young people with special educational needs and disability in Wales is changing.

Yesterday Jeremy Miles, the Minister for Education, gave an update on the phased implementation of the new ALN system. Despite continued activity and significant progress, it has become clear that the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in plans being revisited. He shared that all partners require further space and time to manage and plan for aspects of this important reform to ensure successful delivery of new arrangements and the best for children in Wales.

Written Statement: Additional Learning Needs and Educational Tribunal Act 2018

Implementation (14 July 2021) | GOV.WALES The implementation of the ALN system for the first year will now be sequenced.

From 1 September 2021, the ALN system will commence for children who:

• are or are newly identified as having additional learning needs, (that is, those without already identified special educational needs (SEN), or are not awaiting or undergoing an SEN assessment)

From 1st January 2022, the ALN system will commence for children who:

• attend maintained schools (including Pupil Referral Units PRU’s) in Nursery Years 1 and 2 (N1 and N2) and Year 1, Year 3, Year 5, Year 7 and Year 10 who have special educational provision via early years action / early years action plus or school action / school action plus.

Welsh Government will publish guidance for parents and families in the Autumn Term.

If you would like any additional information or advice, please contact our Additional Learning Needs Co-ordinator or contact SNAP Cymru who offer free independent advice and support to parents by visiting: www.snapcymru.org or call their helpline on: 0808 801 0608

I hope you find the information in this letter reassuring. School and other agencies will continue to work together, to reflect on guidance and carry on with the preparatory work to secure the best outcomes for our learners.

Additional Information

The interactive e-learning course giving an introduction to the new ALN system is now available on the Welsh Government's Hwb platform. Here is a Hwb news article introducing the course, which is currently on the Hwb homepage:

https://hwb.gov.wales/news/articles/20686965-8669-40ac-bdc5-599f4a4dfe8b And here is the link to the course itself: https://hwb.gov.wales/repository/publishers/9fb2afc9-6408-4aa3-9474-3c745006535b/resource/c8033263-aaa0-42fc-9511-ab7d33bd8084/en

Welsh Government web-site: https://gov.wales/additional-learning-needs-special-educationalneeds

Yours faithfully,

Neil Foley - B.Sc. MA.
Pennaeth Headteacher

Andrew Christian
ALNCo

Dear parents / carers

I write to you before the end of term to update you on the system that replaced examinations and the results days that take place earlier than usual in the summer.

Due to the lost curriculum time the Education Minister announced in November that there would be no summer examination series for students taking GCSEs, AS levels or A levels in 2021. In January 2021, it was confirmed that these qualifications would be awarded using Centre Determined Grades. This meant schools would determine the actual grades awarded for each qualification based on the evidence provided by learners.

WJEC and Qualifications Wales provided schools with regular updates and GCSE, AS level and A-level specifications were amended by the WJEC to take into account lost curriculum time. Each subject area was also informed of the skills and knowledge which they had to cover before the end of the qualification in order to ensure the learner could progress to their next stage of learning / employment.

Learners in Yrs. 11, 12 and 13 were the first to return to school on the 15th March to enable them to work with their teachers to generate the evidence needed for their CDGs.

During this period learners completed adapted exam papers supplied by the exam boards. The assessments completed gave learners the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge, skills and understanding of the key requirements and assessment objectives of each subject.

When deciding on an overall best-fit grade teachers were not to award CDGs based on their professional predictions or the potential of a learner. Teachers applied their professional judgement and made a decision as to whether the learner had demonstrated the standard required to be awarded a specific grade. Departments had to support awarded grade(s) with a clear and unambiguous rationale which had to be underpinned by evidence documented on an assessment recording sheet.

To ensure consistency and fairness the WJEC provided schools with online continuous professional development on unconscious bias and objectivity. As a school our approach was very transparent and we communicated with learners and parents regularly and published our assessment plans.

Departments were required to implements internal quality assurance processes to ensure consistency and we also worked with our alliance school to quality assure our processes and our data.

Learners received their provisional CDG grades in early June. This gave learners an opportunity to appeal their grade if they believed an error had been made. Grades could only be appealed in learners believed an error had been made in determining their overall grade.

We only received four formal Stage One Centre Review requests which is testament to all the hard work put in by our staff to ensure the grades awarded were robust and accurate.

It has been an immensely challenging time for learners who were expecting to sit their A-levels, AS and GCSEs. We are immensely proud of the resilience and tenacity shown by them and it was fantastic to see so many happy faces when they received their provisional grades.

We look forward to seeing our learners again in August for the official results day; for results day arrangements please refer to the letter which we have posted home. All students who have applied to join our 6th form will receive confirmation on GCSE results day. If you would like to discuss joining our 6th form please contact Miss Reed, Head of 6th form.

Thank you for your continued support and I wish you all a restful summer break.

Yours faithfully,

Mr G. Turner

Deputy Headteacher

Dear all parents and carers

We come to the end of what has been a very challenging 18 months for education, for our community and for the world. As a whole school community, we have done amazingly well to contain the virus, continue to educate our young people and stay safe. Whilst other schools have sent multiple year groups home multiple times, we have only lost a small amount of learning time. Indeed, it was only until two weeks ago that TTP instructed us for the first time to send an entire year group home to isolate due to a positive case in Year 10. We are exceptionally proud of what we have all achieved over the past 18 months and I would like to thank all staff, governors, parents and carers for their support over these difficult times. Our goal was to minimise the impact of the pandemic on our learners education and with your support we have done this exceptionally well.

We now turn our focus towards September and the new academic year. A year we hold lots of hope for, a year of normality, a year of normal systems in school, a year of school trips and school clubs restarting. We will try to return to normal as soon as possible in the new term including uniform standards, behavioural expectations, attendance and also what we expect in lessons through teaching and learning. We want to make a fast start next year so that any missing gaps in education due to COVID-19 over the last few months will be bridged immediately. We will have a single focus which is getting back to great education and preparing our examination classes for their GCSEs and A-levels.

We have received the operational guidance from Welsh government and PHW for our return in September 2021. Many of the arrangements will remain the same when we return after the summer with some significant changes. The main changes are;

• • Pupils will not be required to wear facemasks in classrooms
• • Facemasks must still be worn in communal areas for the first two weeks until the school has had the chance to review the risk of infection locally and taken advice from PHW
• • The requirement to bubble classes into contact groups is removed from September
• • Those pupils who have signed up for testing are asked to complete an LFD COVID-19 test before they return to school. Pupils are not however, expected to test throughout the summer break.

Most other COVID-19 rules and measures will stay in place until we hear otherwise. As soon as we can, we will change our risk assessment so that we can remove other COVID-19 measures. If we receive further guidance over the summer, I will write to you over the holiday to inform you of any additional changes for September.

All teachers and staff return back on the 1st September in order to carefully prepare for the term ahead. I look forward to seeing all of our pupils on Friday 3rd September so we can make a great start to what promises to be a great year.

I wish you a very pleasant summer break and I hope you have a restful and safe holiday ready for a new start in September.

Best wishes

Neil Foley - B.Sc. MA.

Pennaeth Headteacher

The Welsh Government has made available funding to make free school meal provision available during school holidays.

Denbighshire County Council have made arrangements for these payments to be made weekly during the summer holidays (21^st July through to the 31^st August), with the first payment to be paid direct to parents on the 19^th July.

Dear Parents / Carers - 16th July_closing early v2 (1)

This year has been tough, gruelling at times and we have been grateful for every minute we have managed to keep our amazing pupils and students in face to face teaching. We are so proud of the whole community in allowing us to keep the number of days missed by all year groups down to a minimum. The school and the community have played their part in making sure that the infection rate has been kept to as low as possible. This effort throughout the year is something we should all celebrate and I would like to thank everyone for their vigilance.

As in previous years, and in recognition for the hard work our pupils have put in over the year, I am pleased to announce the school will be closing early at 12.20pm on Friday 16th July. This day will also be a non-uniform day. A donation of £1 is expected which will be donated to WCD young carers; click www.carers.cymru/wcdyc to find out more about the service they provide. The £1 donation is to be made via ParentPay.

Pupils are expected to attend school and lessons as normal. The school has made all the necessary arrangements for school buses/taxis to be at school early to transport pupils home.

School re-opens for new term: The school re-opens for students on Friday 3rd September. The 1st and 2nd of September are staff training days.

I look forward to seeing our years 13, 12 and 11 during the summer holidays as they collect their examination results; more information will be available on our website.

I’d like to wish everyone a lovely and safe break, and I look forward to welcoming our students back in September in full uniform, refreshed and ready to achieve.

Yours faithfully,
Neil Foley - B.Sc. MA Pennaeth/Headteacher