St Illtyd’s foster sense of community for new students

During June, all pupils who were due to start at St Illtyd’s in September came up to St Illtyd’s for enrichment days. The day gave them the opportunity to have a tour of the school, learn about the school day and to meet their new Head of Year, Mrs Fry, and their Assistant Head of Year, Mrs Chapman. Pupils also had an activity in the Chapel with School Chaplain Mrs Wonnacott.

These enrichment days were followed by a transition day on Thursday 26th June in which pupils followed a typical school day with a timetable of different lessons. The transition day was a great success with all pupils having a positive and reassuring day at St Illtyd’s.

We hope that these days have given pupils a great insight into life at St Illtyd’s and that any nerves have been minimised.

Paul Moriarty, Deputy Headteacher

WJEC Innovation Awards

Back in September 2024, former pupil Aliyah Pooley had her work presented at the WJEC Innovation Awards. Working with the Welsh Government, the WJEC Innovation Awards encourage young people in Wales to be technologically innovative and appreciate the importance of Design and Technology.

Aliyah’s “children’s first aid product” gained a lot of attention for its creativity and quality of its manufacture. Aliyah recently popped into school to collect her certificate.

Eco Club Update

Assemblies

Eco Club members at St Illtyd’s have had another busy term. They ended the Spring term with a week of assemblies with the whole school. Members felt that we needed to raise awareness in certain areas around the school, and with this in mind, they put together an assembly to deliver this message.

The assembly was designed to raise awareness of the ongoing litter problem and to remind pupils to take pride in their school. Members also reminded pupils about the correct usage of our recycling bins as they are not always being used correctly. Finally, members used the assembly to try to cut our energy usage at St Illtyd’s. They delivered the message that if everyone remembers to turn off lights when they leave a classroom, we could all make a difference.

Energy Workshop

Following our assemblies, we invited Siôn Rockley, Energy Awareness Officer from Cardiff Council to the school to deliver a workshop with Eco Club members on energy. Pupils learnt where our energy comes from and learnt about the different renewal energy sources in Cardiff. Members then analysed statistics from the week before our awareness raising assemblies and the week after.

We were delighted to learn that thanks to our actions, in the week following the assemblies we had used 1133.42 kWh less than the week before the assemblies, enough to watch 4840 hours of TV or boil the kettle 2200 times! Our bill was around £300 cheaper and on average we saved 764 grammes of carbon dioxide being emitted every half hour. Over a year, that would be over two tonnes of carbon saved! We would like to say a huge thank you to Siôn for running the workshop and for all the calculations!

Goodbye Year 11 Members

In May, we said goodbye to some of our longest serving members of Eco Club- Chair/Secretary Evan Vaisey, Evaluations Officer Max Rutter, Lucas Howells, and Bethabara Opare. Evan, Max, Lucas, and Bethabara have been members of Eco Club since Spring term 2021 when they were in Year 7. I would like to thank them for their loyalty, commitment, and hard work with Eco Club over the years.

With our Year 11 members leaving, it was time to elect the senior roles in our Eco Committee. Members were invited to stand for the roles of Chair, Secretary, Evaluations Officer, and Communications Officer. Members gave speeches on why they felt they would be good for the role and then all members voted. We are pleased to announce that our new senior roles are as follows:

Tylor Marsh- Chair
Hope Davey- Secretary
Riley Russell- Evaluations Officer
Lexie Ewers- Communications Officer

With new roles assigned, all Eco Club members have ended the year by carrying out our annual Environmental Review. The Environmental Review is a review of all the Eco Schools topics around our school. The findings of this review will inform our action plan for the coming year.

Luisa May, Community Focused Schools Coordinator and Eco Club Lead

St David’s Pupils Visit St Illtyd’s

In April, it was lovely to welcome back some of our ex-pupils who are currently studying at St David’s College. Pupils met with our current Year 11s in small groups to give them information and answer any questions they may have had regarding studying at St David’s College.

The session was very useful and informative for our pupils. We would like to thank the pupils for giving up their time and we would like to thank the staff from St David's College for arranging this visit.

Llangrannog Residential 2025

At the end of March, 40 pupils from Years 7 & 8 went to Llangrannog for a two-night residential. Pupils took part in a variety of activities while on the trip. They took part in- BagJump, quad bikes, zip wire, climbing wall, high ropes challenge, low ropes challenge, go karts, campfire, beach craft, swimming, archery, dry ski slope skiing and tobogganing.

Pupils developed teamwork skills in the activities and were able to encourage each other to complete them. The experience of being away from home taught pupils organisational skills, resilience and independence. Pupils also had the opportunity to converse in Welsh while at the activity centre. A fantastic time was had by all. We would like to thank The Henry Smith Charity for subsidising the cost of this residential through their generous funding, making the trip more affordable for our families.