F l i n t T i m e sN o v e m b e r 2 0 1 2

Welcome to our first edition of Flint Times this year. Iwould like to express my sincere thanks to staff,students and families for their on-going support, whichmakes our school such a happy, thriving and successfulcommunity. The school governors are delighted withour exam results and the excellent progress overall.With thanks,

Flint High School’s Jade Jones hailed the armed forcesas the “real heroes” as she helped launch this year’sPoppy Appeal at Flint High School on October 23rd.

Jade, pictured alongside Tom McCarthy, was joined byCathryn Griffiths – mum of Wrexham soldier Jamie

Shadrake who was tragically killed in Afghanistan in Au-gust – in promoting The Royal British Legion’s 2012Poppy Appeal.

Jade has enjoyed hero status since clinching gold atLondon 2012 but she believes past and present service-men and women are the true heroes.

She said: “It’s an honour to do this and to try and getpeople behind the appeal.

“Fighting for your country – it’s an amazing thing to do.They’re the real heroes.”

Jade also spoke of her sympathy for Cathryn and otherfamilies who have lost loved ones in battle.

Guardsman Jamie Shadrake had only just turned 20when he was killed defending a checkpoint in Afghani-stan.

His mum Cathryn says the Poppy Appeal is vital forsupporting bereaved families and injured troops.

“It’s very important, not just this year but every year,”she said.

“People are forgetting towear poppies and theyshouldn’t as war isstronger than ever.”

Cathryn added: “Jamiewas very lively, very bub-bly – the life and soul ofthe party.

“He never had a badword to say about any-one, he was always thereto help people.”

This year the Legion’s na-tional fundraising targetis a record-breaking£42m, and they are hop-

ing North Wales’ contribution will be as much as£500,000.

Peter Kingston, North Wales District chairman, said:“All money raised will go towards providing vital sup-port for the armed forces and their families, so we’reurging everyone to get involved and raise as much asthey can.”

Flint High School students sang and read out poemsduring the launch event which was also attended byarmy, air and sea cadets from our school.

Headteacher Pam McClean said: “We are honoured tobe able to participate in this launch and proud to wel-come back Jade.

“The community of Flint and our school always sup-ports the Poppy Appeal by selling poppies and hold-ing a special remembrance service attended by localdignitaries and friends of the school.”

Students from Flint High School and Ysgol MaesHyfryd have been making giant leaps into the worldof ceramic sculpture during an arts based project.The collaborative project, aimed at furtherdeveloping integration, involves around 60 students

fromYear 8throughto Year10 frombothschoolsworkingingroupsto makesmallscale

sculptures of ‘giants’ using clay.The project was organised in conjunction withFlintshire Arts Service who commissioned localceramics sculptor Katie Scarlett-Howard to deliver theworkshops. Katie says “the inspiration for the projectcame from a book called ‘Giant Tales from Wales’ byBrenda Wyn Jones. The book is full of legendsassociated with giants across the seven regions ofWales but there is nothing that mentions a Flintshiregiant. This led to the idea of involving schoolstudents to create clay Flintshire giants based on theirown ideas and research.”“The students have modelled all the limbs andconstructed their giants which will be fired in a kilnback at my studio. On 22nd of November, anexhibition of the finished giants will be held at ClwydTheatr Cymru.”Katie adds “This is a really exciting project. It’s greatto see how the students have incorporated elementsfrom the stories in the book and used this to helpinfluence their own designs. Each giant is unique andthe students have really taken ownership of their

artwork. It hasbeen awonderfulexperience andseeing thestudents fromboth schoolsworking so welltogether hasbeeninspirational.”

We were thrilled again with our exam results in thesummer. All our Year 13 students passed their A-levelsand many have now started at university. We wish themall the best. It was a great day, as you can see from thephotograph. We have welcomed back a very strongcohort into year 12, who are hard working and able; nodoubt they will be record breakers in two years’ time.

For Year 11 too, there was much to smile about. A record88% of students achieved at least 5A*-C grades and whenyou include Key Skills as well, the figure of Level 2 passes( equivalent to A*-C) rises to an amazing 94%. MrsAndrea Roberts, Chair of Governors, said she wasdelighted that students and staff have worked togetherto achieve this set of results. She and the governors arevery proud and wonder whether our current Year 11 -,whom we have dubbed the Diamond Year – can do evenbetter.

Some of our GCSE English results were disappointingand no grade boundaries were changed, because we takeAQA not WJEC. We have protested on behalf of thestudents who we believe were entitled to a grade C (17of them) and some have re sat the exam. We hope theywill be given what they deserve.

Hundreds of people packed out Flint High School towatch talented students perform in their annualshow.Students from all year groups took part in theproduction of Sandy Wilson’s The Boy Friend and puton four sell-out shows for friends and family.Leading roles went to Year 10 GCSE drama students.Devan Woodward starred in the role of Polly Browneand her would-be boy friend, Tony, was played byTom Harrison. The show was organised by the sixthform as part of their performing arts A-level course.Teacher Olivia Tattum added: “We had a liveorchestra for the first time in many years at Flint High,a mix of professional musicians and students, whichadded a wonderful atmosphere to the show.“I am so proud of my students, to turn this around injust six weeks is incredible. There were 22 songs inthe show, each one choreographed, so they have hadto sing, dance and act! They have come so far in sucha short time. Their talent astounds me!”

Year 7 students recently embarked on a mountain-side maths lesson asthey studied topicsfrom angles toestimation on theslopes of MoelFamau.The MathsDepartment havesuccessfully run thisactivity each yearand continue to giveYear 7 students afirm foundation inthe practicalapplication ofmathematics.

On Wednesday the 26th September 16 year 7students were selected to go to Llangollen for the

European Language Day. The first workshop we did wasan interactive French course. We played lots of gamesand learnt new words, some of us were in the winningteams.After an enjoyable snack, we learnt about children'sbooks from across the European Union, and read somePortugese literature. After lunch we split into twogroups; one group went to learn Chinese writing and theother went to learn how to speak Chinese, we thenswapped over. It was soon time to travel home. We had agreat day.Hannah Wilson 7SH and Sarah Tunney 7SH

Burnaston Hall was bursting at the seams when Flint HighSchool students joined more than 50 other young peopleof TMUK’s Young Engineer school clubs to present theirwork to the Management team and Directors of TMUK atthe annual end-of-year presentation and prize-givingevent.

The aim of Young Engineers is to inspire young people torecognise the importance and excitement of engineeringas a career. Flint High School thanks Pete Dove whosupports the Young Engineer club on a weekly basis byproviding professional guidance and technical advice.The Young Engineer club aims to open students’ eyes tothe diversity of technical activities involved and illustratethe enormous impact that engineering has on themodern world. Hopefully this will inspire some ourstudents to follow a career in engineering through eitherthe higher education route or as technicians andapprentices.While at Burnaston, students were treated to a triparound the test track and lunch, and were presented witha gift to recognise their hard work over the academicyear.

Congratulations to the year 10 &11 dodge ball teamon winning the Flintshire schools’ tournament. Theywon all of their matches. The team were soindestructible that in 1 game it took them 15 secondsto get 6 of the opposition players out; that’s speed!They will now go on to represent Flintshire in thenational finals in Manchester. Well done to DannyMcAdam, Tom Bibby, Liam and Ryan Lloyd, IeuanRowe and Om Roscoe!

Lunchtime dodge ball on a Wednesday is verypopular this term with 30 students playing in thesports hall over lunch. All year groups are welcome,but don’t forget your trainers.

Anyone interested in playing basketball for the under14s team please see MrsRoscoe,

We are very lucky to have avery successful basketball

club in school and trainingis

Ms Grandy is re-starting her verypopular Kayaking Club. It runs onWednesdays at Flint Pavilionfrom 7.30pm until 9.00pm.For more information pleasesee Ms Grandy.

Well done to all those students that have attended PEextra curricular clubs this term. Remember you getachievement points for attending after school clubs.

What a great season! We’ve won 3 out of 4tournaments so far! (Flint, Connah’s Quay, SaintRichard Gwyn and Holywell).

Year 11The one we didn’t win was this one. We lost 0-1 toConnah’s Quay and we ground out a fine 0-0 drawwith SRG. Head up son!

Year 10Won all 3 matches v CQ 1-0, v SRG 2-0 and Holywell3-0. What a great bunch of lads who richly deservethis success. I love the camaraderie of this team. Abig well done to Tom Collins for his immenseimprovement in performance over the last couple ofyears.

Year 9v SRG 2-0, v Holywell 2-1. A great performance fromthe lads. We didn’t ever look in trouble. The defenceare much stronger thanks to Jack “the rock” Collinsand the teamwork has improved massively. Da iawnto MVP Luke Rodber and new super signing JoeJohnson.

Year 8v SRG 0-1, v CQ 3-0, v Holywell 2-0. Fortunatelyresults went our way, although we should never havelost to SRG. A bit of dodgy finishing let us down andwe fell foul to one of their few attacks. However werode our luck and Charlie Hughes came good in frontof goal and the midfield and defence stayed solid. Abig shout out to Tom Hyndman who was super skilledin midfield and Tom Burrows, Stefan Owen and KieonDavies in defence. Well done all the boys.

I was thrilled to complete my third marathon in under4 hours - 3 hours and 54 minutes to be exact. This isbetter than my two previous marathons in Blackpool(4 hours 30 minutes) and London (4 hours 15minutes).The run started on the Wirral, taking in the front atNew Brighton, the North Sea and The Mersey. Theweather on Sunday was fantastic which helped. Myaim was to run 9 minute miles, however I was awarethat I would dip at the end so I would have to run

faster at thestart.On enteringthe tunnel at12 miles Iwas feelingok, but a littleconcernedabout themileage infront of me.Coming outof the tunnelhowever, thedoubtstartedcreeping inand my legsstarted toache, but

with support from the crowd and other runners I kepta steady pace.Parliament Hill at 16 miles was not pretty, but I gottalking to another runner who had lost 9 stone in ayear through his training. Inspiring stuff and I stayedwith him and his mate for a little way.Great to see and hear my wife and her friend on 20miles. This is where traditionally I crash and burn, butthanks to all the training, although I was feeling it, mypace stayed consistent. The plan was working!As the end approached, I realised that I could dipbelow my 9 minute mile pace and still achieve mygoal. This was good as with 2.5 miles left, the crampkicked in causing me to stop and stretch for 30seconds or so.Knowing I was going to complete my target time keptme going in the last few miles. It was a fantasticfeeling to cross the line; all the training and hard workhad paid off!

I was running to raise money for the Dystonia Society, asmy mum suffers from this disease. Dystonia is acondition which causes sufferers to experience painfuland uncontrollable muscle spasms.Thanks to everyone who sponsored me, as with the helpof staff and students I have raised approximately £1000for the Dystonia Society.

Jade Jones wasn’t the only Flint High School student toappear at the Olympic Games, Sixth Former BethanPhillips got fully involved in the Olympics byvolunteering as a Games Maker at Cardiff MillenniumStadium. Bethan writes;“If I could do itagain I wouldwithout a secondthought. Just to bepart of it wasamazing! I have somany memories,but if I wrote themall down, theywould easily exceed50 pages and Iwould still havemissed things out.Being there as partof the greatestshow on earth,made it feel like Iwas part of something special. I would do it again just sothat I could see the happy faces of all the people that Ihelped in any one of a hundred different ways.”Bethan’s experience is a lesson to us all in her desire toget involved. You reap what you sow. The challengenow is to use the inspiration of the Olympics to get morepeople involved in positive activities such as sport.Parents, please encourage your sons and daughters tosupport the school’s extra curricular programme. Unlessyou try you will never know what amazing things youcan achieve.

Flint High School Year 7 Netball Team recently took partin a tournament at John Summers High School inDeeside. They challenged Castell Alun and won 4-1;John Summers and won 5-0 and drew 0-0 with St.Richard Gwyn. The girls displayed teamwork andsportsmanship throughout the tournament and earnedrecognition for themselves and the school.However, none of this would have been possible withoutthe input of Miss Tondziel and Mrs Roscoe and the girlssend their thanks. Keep up the good work girls and PLAYON!Hannah Wilson - Yr7 Netball Captain