BBC Radio Wales visit among highlights
We had the privilege of being interviewed by a national radio station last month.
As part of the week-long series entitled How Wales Works, BBC Radio Wales visited us on Wednesday, January 27, where they conducted live interviews with four pupils and Mr McDuff.
We were the only independent school in Wales to be featured for the series due to the wide range of options given to pupils who study here.
Adele Parry, Theo Smout, Kate McCarthy and Geoffrey Fu spoke with journalist Chris Dearden during breakfast in the canteen, where they spoke about the benefits of independent school education and the range of curricular and extra-curricular activities that are available.
Mr McDuff then spoke about the school’s diverse curriculum and the advantages of not being tied down to the state school curriculum during morning assembly at St John’s.
Upper sixth pupil James Sanders, who has done some voluntary work with the station’s religious department, was then shown the technology within the BBC Wales van and given a demonstration of how it works.
Mr McDuff, said: “I would like to thank the pupils for getting up especially early for the interviews, and they were all a credit to themselves and the school.
“We have so much to offer here and it was wonderful for the BBC to choose us to appear on their How Wales Works series.”
The generosity of our pupils and staff was once again evident at the annual charity bag packing event.
A number of volunteers from the school took part, where they packed bags of Morrisons customers for a donation in aid of the RNLI.
Thanks to their hard work, a total of £669 was raised in total from their efforts on the day.
This is the latest in a long line of fundraising events we run for the charity, with the recent Christmas Carol Service also raising hundreds for the cause.
Mr Cashell, said: “All-in-all it was a fantastic day and I would like to thank all the staff and pupils that took part.
“We are very proud of our association with the RNLI, who provide a superb and critical service along our coastlines.
“It has been another extremely successful fundraising event and hope that we can carry on this fine tradition next year.”
Last month also saw the first of our Open Doors events here at the school.
Prospective pupils and their families were given the chance to see what goes on day-to-day with us on Friday, January 15, and the event attracted a significant amount of interest from those who visited.
This was the first of three events of its kind to be held this year, with the next two set to take place on Friday, February 26 and Friday, March 11.
Mr McDuff, said: “It was incredibly successful and I would like to thank all staff and pupils’ for their efforts.
“We have had a great deal of interest from the prospective pupils that visited the school, so that in itself certainly justified the change of format."