I have been asked to write a few words to markmy retirement after seventeen years as theHeadteacher of Crickhowell High School. When Iwas first appointed in 1993 I had little idea that Iwould still be here in 2010 but such is the way inwhich the world turns.

Over that period of time the school hasexperienced a whole raft of new initiatives andexperiences, some for the good and some less so!The Local Management of Schools (LMS) was init’s infancy at that time but this is something thatwe now take for granted. We have also hadthree Estyn Inspections in that time and a capital building project in 1999/2000 whichmade the school an infinitely more pleasant place in which to teach. More recently ourICT capabilities have expanded beyond all recognition and this, too, has had a significantimpact upon our teaching.

League Tables and SATs testing at Key Stage Three have been and gone but we stillcontinue to perform very well as a school at both local and national levels. We nowstand on the threshold of the national School Effectiveness Framework which willundoubtedly have an influence on Crickhowell and every other school in Wales.

Locally, we are in the midst of the Powys Modernisation agenda which will certainlyhave an impact on everyone concerned with the school including parents, students,teaching staff and governors. I would urge everyone to become involved in theconsultation process now and again in the Autumn Term of 2010.

It has been a privilege to have served as the Headteacher of the High School over thatperiod of time. Both of my own children attended the school in common with thechildren of a number of other staff and I am pleased to say that this tradition continuesto this day. Beyond the academic achievement of our young people I have always beenproud to lead a school which is inclusive in every sense of the word and one whichrecognises all the achievements of children, in and out of the classroom.

Finally, I would like express my sincerest thanks to everyone who has contributed to theschool in the time that I have been here. I believe that everything that we achieve hereis the result of the key partnership that exists between students, their parents and all ofthe teaching and non-teaching staff.

May I wish you all well and good luck for the future.

Andy Timpson

D I A R Y D A T E S

AUGUST 2010Thursday 19thA-Level ResultsTuesday 24thGCSE Results

SEPTEMBERWednesday 1st

Staff Training Day (1)Thursday 2nd

Restart school for everyone (Day 4)Tuesday 7th

Year 12 Guidance Evening 6.30 pmThursday 9th

YEAR 13 Consultation Evening 4.00 - 7.00 PM

Thursday 16thYear 11 Guidance Evening 6.30 pm

Monday 20thYear 7 CATS

Thursday 30thOPEN EVENING

OCTOBERYear 9

Interim Reports IssuedMonday 18th - Friday 22nd

Year 11 Work Experience WeekThursday 21st

Year 12/13 Monitoring Reports IssuedFriday 22nd

End of Half Term

Monday 25th - Friday 29thHALF TERM HOLIDAY

NOVEMBERMonday 1st

Start School for Everyone (Day 1)Friday 12th

Year 7 Interim Reports IssuedThursday 18th

Year 7 Guidance Evening 6.00 pmFriday 19th

Year 10 Interim Reports IssuedMonday 22nd

Year 11 Mock Exams Start (2 Weeks)

DECEMBERThursday 9th

Christmas at CrickhowellFriday 10th

Year 8 Interim Reports IssuedSki Trip Departs 4.00 pm

Wednesday 15th Year 12/13 Interim Reports Issued

Tuesday 21stEnd of Term

Summer 2010

‘LAST THINGS FIRST’

New Road, Crickhowell, Powys, NP8 1AW.Tel 01873 813500 Fax 01873 813550 www.crickhowell-hs.powys.sch.uk

Science day at CrickhowellOur day started off with a bubbly bang as our first lesson was soap making.

The moment we walked into the class room our noses were greeted with the smellof rose petals and lavender. We eagerly took our seats and watched a shortpresentation about natural soap, how it is made and how it is better for you. Thewhole class couldn’t wait to get started on our designs, we were handed out somebase colours and a few carving tools and told to let our imagination run wild. Ourclass designed all sorts of things from cherries to slices of pie to be moulded intoour bars of soap. We then had to decide what fragrance to add to it, all of our classchose the natural fragrances as we had just learnt that the industrial ones hadcarcinogens in them (a bit of a worry). All we had to do now was let them set for 20minutes.

After our first instalment we all couldn’t wait to see what was next on theagenda. Smiles filled the room as our teacher announced that it was the

planetarium. The whole class slowly made their way into a large blow up dome with a projector pointed towards the ceiling. As theprojector powered up the ceiling was suddenly filled with thousands of stars and planets. The host of the lesson gave us an in depth talkon our star signs and all of the surrounding galaxies (we all felt quite small compared to them).

After a short break so we could get over all of the excitement pharmaceuticals were up next. A professor from the Cardiffschool of pharmaceuticals and 3 students told us how a pharmacist can have many different roles as well as giving out prescriptions. Theyeven brought along a few placebo asthma pumps and blood pressure monitors for us to try out. It was a really fun and interestingexperience for us all!

Next up was sound. Now you are probably thinking as well as we were that sound doesn’t really have anything to do withscience; we couldn’t have been more wrong. Our host Rob showed us all of theregular house hold objects that you could get a sound out of and how sound istransmitted through the air and converted in our ears. We all had a go with theinstruments and we all learnt that you don’t have to be able to read music or be amusician to get a good sound out of something.

Finally the last lesson of the day was nuclear physics. Our two teachersdescribed to us how a nuclear reactor works and how it can benefit ourenvironment. After a presentation we were asked to go into teams, at the end ofthe lesson all of the teams had a debate about nuclear power stations and if wewere for or against them.

All in all we had a very interesting day packed to the brim with funactivities! And we are all looking forward to our next dose of fact filled science.

Lucas Arndell

YOUNG WRITERS PRESENTATIONBrilliant, Highly Imaginative, Quite Remarkablesome of the words used by Paula Brackston to describe the workproduced by the four winning entries in The Rotary Club of Crickhowell’sYoung Writers Competition.

The well known local Authoress described the task of judging some 240entries from pupils at Crickhowell High School as daunting but due to thequality of the work done, highly uplifting. The theme was “TheEnvironment”.

The four young winning finalists were invited to join the Rotarians for their weekly Dinner at The Bear Hotel, together with Mrs JackieParker and Mr Ted Jacobs Head of English, who had help judge the competition. The four winners shared a total of £75 prize money

The Winner Morgan Smith for “The Lost Kingdom of the Ice Bear”Runner up Amber Weaver for “A Fragment of What Was”

Third Prize went to Stuart Lewis for “When the Loggers Came to Call”Fourth Place went to Harry Webb for “A Condemned Planet or a Rescued Earth”

All four were congratulated and presented with their prizes. Their Parents came for the Presentation.

President Mike Axford thanked everyone involved especially the four finalists for producing such great work and the judgesfor all their hard work.

Summer 2010

Thank youfrom the School Council

Mr Timpson’s retirement is a huge point of transition for the school. From theStudent Council’s point of view change is generally seen as a positive, however on this

occasion we are reluctant to see it this way.

It was in the autumn term of 2009 that Mr Timpson revived the Student Council, a tribute to his beliefin student voice and the school as a community, which he believed the school needed. Following the

formation of the Student Council, Mr Timpson offered us support and guidance, attributes which he wasable to transfer to all walks of school life; to individuals, staff and pupils, whole year groups, and the schoolcollectively. He was able to combine strong leadership, management, and genuine concern for people,always being approachable and amiable. Mr Timpson allowed the Student Council to establish itself, giving

us the time and space needed for us to explore our role within school life. Now that the Council hasfound its feet, we feel we will be able to have impact and represent change for pupils.

The appointment of Mrs Parker, and the change that she and her different skills will bring, willbe important to the Council’s next stage of development, underlining a mood of change.

I have no doubt she will continue to support the Student Council, and thereforepupils, with the same heart and positivity set by Mr Timpson.

John Sowerby

A Hard Act to FollowI have been lucky enough to work in six very different high schools in various parts of the United Kingdom andthoroughly enjoyed teaching in each of them. However I still can't believe my good fortune that I am lucky enough tobe working now at Crickhowell High School, let alone be taking over as Headteacher from Andy Timpson in September.This is an exciting prospect but also daunting as Andy will be a very hard act to follow!

I realise now, that Andy is the eighth Headteacher I have been privileged to work with: when I think back every singleHeadteacher has brought a vastly different set of skills to the job. Some of those Headteachers spent very little timewith students at all whereas Andy Timpson has made students the central focus of everything he had done and perhapsthis is one of the main reasons why he has been so successful.

Apart from the obvious hard work, good humour, kindness, flair and expertknowledge one of the areas that Andy has particularly impressed me with ishis individual approach with students and his willingness to take all the timenecessary to find a suitable way forward to resolve individual student needs.

Whatever the problem is Andy will always work to find a solution: he shares avery special relationship with students, teaching them, talking to them andproviding the necessary coherence in the daily running of the school to allowall students to achieve their best.

He believes passionately that every student can succeed and shares thatconviction with both staff and parents. He ensures the school adopts a trulyflexible approach to meet the particular needs of individual students, endeavouring to include them within themainstream school community, no matter how much time and effort is required, in order to ensure both academic andpersonal success. All students are made welcome and their achievements valued in a truly inclusive school.

Andy knows all our students by name and he has an incredible memory for ex-students as well, delighting in seeingthem when they visit school. He loves teaching and some of his PSE lessons are legendary. There have been a numberof students who have found a particular level of care and support in Crickhowell High School that they might not havefound elsewhere and Andy has revelled in the genuine success of each of them. It has been a great pleasure to workwith him and to learn so many invaluable lessons of leadership from him which will be immensely important to me

when I take over as the new Headteacher.

Summer 2010

Summer 2010

E A R L Y Y E A R S

“I’m forever Blowing Bubbles....”Year 11 Last Assembly 2010

F O R M A L

Summer 2010

F U N D R A I S I N G

U G A N D A

On Sunday the 23rd May, Georgina Davies, Rhiannon Burton,Phoebe Davies and I represented Crickhowell High School in anInter-schools one day event at Stonar School in Wiltshire. A oneday event is a horse riding competition. It consists of dressage, atest of obedience and harmony between horse and rider, ashowjumping course and a cross country course, both at theheight of 2ft 11.

We arrived at 11 o’clock leaving us time to walk the coursesbefore it was all systems go to get ourselves and our horses readyfor the dressage test. We were all quite nervous, but we all didvery well and received great results. The showjumping followed,we mostly went clear and we were very pleased and happy withour horses. After a good lunch, and probably too many ice creams,we got ready for the cross country course. It was a great course toride around and we all had lots of fun as well as again goingmostly clear. Georgina did especially well as she completed half ofthe course with just one stirrup! After a fantastic day, we made

our way home.

Thank you to Mrs Thomas whoorganised us to go, to MrsWinter who sponsored us tobuy some great new colours!And to our parents who droveus all the way to the event andback, Thank you!

Holly Gedge (pictured riding Dai)

Summer 2010

STOP!THINK!WHO

MADE IT?

This Citation HonoursLesley Ann Alexander-Carter

for fifteen years of service to theUnited Kingdom Be Your Best Foundation

and the International Rock ChallengeFoundation.

Lesley has served the organisation withdedication, loyalty and unfailing support;

providing young people in Hampshire, Powys,Blaenau Gwent and Ceredigion with

opportunity to perform to the best of theirabilities in a non-auditioned forum.

The organisation wishes to acknowledge thetremendous ambassador Lesley has been,

recording the grateful thanks of everyone forthe fifteen years unbroken service.

WELL DONE!!We came home with the

Following Awards:Portsmouth City Council Award for

STAGINGThe award for

POSITIVE INCLUSIONand

THIRD PLACE OVERALL

The theme for our Rock Challenge entry thisyear was child labour.

In years gone by many young children in Britainworked hard for a living.

Today in areas of Africa, India and South America375 million still do,

ruining their eyesight for the sake of our fashion!Before you buy - stop - think

who made it?

Once more all members of our team showed truecommitment to the project and were justlyrewarded. We were also very pleased that LeslieAlexander-Carter received recognition for all she hasdone for Rock Challenge (see citation on right).

To be performedin The Clarence Hall

2nd - 5thMarch 2011

Please watch the board for notices

ROCK CHALLENGE PHOTOGRAPHS

Photographs from this years competitionare on display on the board opposite the Library, in

the main corridor.

They can also be viewed on Nick Scott’s websitewhich can be accessed via a link on the Rock

Challenge site - please see either Mrs D or Mrs S for the password.

£1000CHALLENGE

forBREAKTHROUGHBREAST CANCER

Having raised a staggering £827 for thischallenge - on our “Pink Day” we decided to

continue our fundraising with a Sponsored Walk.

So on a glorious sunny Saturday in May, 14 humansand 4 dogs met at the Foxhunter car park on The

Blorange.....

To enhance or fundraising another work isplanned for the near future, a gentle walk

on the Sugar Loaf.

We hope to send a couple of ourstudents to visit the Research

Centre.

Thank you

EXAM RESULTS

A-Level Results Thursday 19 th

GCSE Results Tuesday 24 thAugust 2010

Staffing Update

The school is pleased to announce theappointment of Miss Anita Burbridge to thePhysics teaching post within the ScienceDepartment to replace Matthew Smith who willbe taking up his teaching post in Rome thisSeptember. We have also appointed Mrs SusanWoodley to the post of part time teacher of HomeEconomics following the retirement of MrsCaroline Jenkins at Easter. This appointment willenable Miss Julie Phillips to remain in her currentpost as a teacher of Humanities and AdditionalLearning Needs..

Finally we are delighted that Ms Tracy Robins hasmade a full recovery from her illness and will bereturning to school on a phased basis with effectfrom September 2010. The school is very gratefulfor the work that Ms Helen Barnes has undertakenwithin the History Department during her absence.Helen stepped in to the breach at very short noticeand has done a marvellous job covering for Tracy.

We wish her well in her future career.

Summer 2010

Annual Awards EveningThis year we were pleased to welcome a former student MarkWallace to be our Guest of Honour at the Annual Awards Evening.Mark was contracted to Glamorgan County Cricket Club whilst he wasa student and moved to a full-time contract one he had completedhis 6th Form. Mark has gone onto complete his degree in journalismand as well as playing Wicket Keeper for Glamorgan he writes for theWestern Mail and was a recent contributor to Sky Sports Cricket.

Our awards are a mixture of individual Subject Awards at Key Stages as well as a mixture of Sporting and General Awards. Students canbe nominated by individual subject teachers, tutors and Heads of School. The individual departments are responsible for the subjectawards in their areas and the Heads of School, in conjunction with their tutors, nominate and decide on the Pastoral Awards. The SeniorManagement Team monitor all the nominations and awards and the Headteacher has the final choice of nominations for theHeadteacher’s Annual Award.

We are particularly fortunate, thanks to the support of the Battson and Hutton families to be able to give annual awards in memory oftwo former students, Joss and Calum. The Joss Battson Award is given to a student who has worked hard and successfully overcome a

barrier to learning and the Calum Hutton Award is given in recognition of a student’s Commitment to Sport.

S P O R T

5x60 NewsDuring the Summer Term Table Tennis, Street Dance, Girls Tag Rugby and Golf sessions took place at lunchtime and afterschool.

We were able to team up with the Youth Service to provide Street Dance on Mondays using the Youth Centre attached tothe school. An instructor from Powys Dance came in to deliver the sessions. Each pupil who attended was also given theopportunity to work towards an OCN accredited qualification.

Girls Football and Girls Tag Rugby fixtures against Brecon High School took place during the term. The Girls Tag Rugby teamsalso took part in a south Powys tournament held at Gwernyfed High School in the last week of term.

A team of seven boys represented Crickhowell at the Powys Schools Golf Competition at Llandrindod Golf Course in May.Afterschool Golf sessions ran weekly both before and after this event, led by the PGA professional from Cradoc Golf Club.

During the summer holidays we will be running the AYP Summer Fun week at Brecon Leisure Centre which is a week ofsports and activities for pupils in Years 5 to 9. This will take place over the week of Monday August 9th to Friday August 13th

from 10am until 4pm each day. Activities on offer will include Football, Swimming, Tennis, Fencing, Badminton, Golf,Dodgeball, Trampolining, and Table Tennis. Return transport is available from Crickhowell and Gwernyfed High Schools. Thecost for the week is £30 per person (£40 with transport). Numbers are limited so please book to avoid disappointment!

A further 2 ½ day residential trip to Ty Gwyn is also planned for the summer holidays (4-6th August). This trip is due to takeplace in conjunction with the other south Powys high schools with the cost of transport and accommodation subsidised by5x60 funding. Pupils will have the chance to take part in activities such as Kayaking, Rock Climbing and Orienteering.

For more information about the 5x60 Programme in Crickhowell or to reserve a place for any of the holiday activitiesplease contact me on 07788986365 or e-mail james@crickhowell-hs.powys.sch.uk

Summer 2010

ANNUAL SPORTS DAYAn enjoyable day for both pupils and staff. Every pupil from Y7 – Y9 were involved and staff appreciating fresh air,athletic talent and a stunning backdrop. Again so pleasing to see Records broken by individuals:

Jodie Buck Y7 DISCUS 17.60 meters Merle Andrews Y7 DISCUS 18.40meters Morgan Smith Y7 SHOT 9.24meters Lauren O’Loughlin Y9 300m 49.69seconds

A day for individuals to shine and for many to compete in long distance events – atotal of 223 pupils were in 1500m!

Individual Winners on the day Y9 Boys Joe Williams and Tomos Compton (joint winners) Y9 Girls Lauren O’Loughlin Y8 Boys Stuart Lewis Y8 Girls Heidi Bryce Y7 Boys Harry Purvis Y7 Girls Rhiannon Vaisey.

The H E Francis Cup, for outstanding performance on the day was awarded to the Tutor Group relay team from Yr9 Blue,9P who completed the mile – 4.08.18minutes (a new record).

The overall winning house was Cynnidr ( Blue) with Pedr(Yellow) a very close second.

Any interested athletes are urged to join Brecon Athletics Club (Monday evenings) who have provided development days,which were attended by a number of Y7 and Y8 pupils. Notable success was achieved in Multi Event Competition –Rhodri Boggust. Harriet Davies and Megan Purvis. The annual Powys School Track and Field Competition in May yielded

excellent performances for Harriet Davies and Matthew Tucker in the 1500m and Robson Blake in the Shot.