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The Story Behind Our Blog…

The story behind our blog by Miss R Griffiths.

At Pontypridd High School we encourage pupils to extend their learning not only through the curriculum but during lunch time and after school YEPS clubs, Discover More Something for the Weekend challenges and taking part in workshops/projects in school outside of their lessons. That is why I decided to start a PHS blog so that our pupils and teachers can be given a voice and share their success and celebrate school life. Not only with other pupils but with our wider community.

This blog will allow our pupils to share with you what they enjoy most about school and to share positive experiences. It will also help to develop their writing and ICT skills. To start the blog, I put out an advert to all year 7 pupils asking them to apply become a Champion Blogger. Surprisingly I had lots of applications which showed me just how fantastic and eager our pupils are!

From these applications, I was able to select 10 very keen and ambitious young people to join my team ‘Champion Bloggers’. They are very committed to attending the computer room during lunch times and work together as a team to create blogs for everyone to read. They have taken ownership of what their blogs are about and are constantly coming up with new and intriguing blog ideas!

So far, we have pupils writing blogs on their favourite topics in their lessons, what they have made in cooking, being a part of the school show, Fundraising events and behind the scenes review of the school’s production of Hairspray JR.

I am already extremely proud of my Champion Bloggers team and I hope you enjoy reading about their experience and learning journey as much as we enjoy being a part of it!

Thank you,

Miss Griffiths

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Hairspray JR review

Joshua Williams and Tomos Jones

 

Hairspray JR.

Hairspray JR 2020 performed by the students of Pontypridd High School was a stunning adaptation of the original musical written by Thomas Meehan. Set in 1960’s Baltimore the show explores the life of Tracy Turnblad after appearing on a TV show.

Directed by Miss L Passmore, the show gives an insight into living in Baltimore in 1962. From the show’s opening lines the audience knew they were in for a treat. The main characters Tracy Turnblad, Penny Pingalton, Corny Collins and Link Larkin alough played by the schools more experienced actors the inclusion of the year sevens fitted the script perfectly. But not just the students appeared there were guest appearances from PHS teachers Mrs Jones, Miss Griffiths and Miss Pritchard.

After the performance pupils on the champion blogger team were given the chance to interview the stars of Hairspray JR. Before the show it was understandable the nerves and doubts the children had. But the amount of time and effort Miss Passmore had dedicated to them, also gave them the sense that they could do it.

In conclusion, the show that needed humor and perfect choreography, delivered all this and more. I would recommend next year’s school show to everyone. Also the Champion bloggers would like to say a special well done to Finn in Year 9 for filming a brilliant insight into performing in the show. Well done to everyone involved in Hairspray JR 2020!

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Hospitality and Catering

Cole Saunders

In cooking we have been cooking pizzas, pasta, chocolate log, rock buns, fruit salad and fruit crumble.

When I cooked pizzas we had to follow the instructions created on the white board. We smothered the tomato puree over the French bread, furthermore we layered the toppings [ham & pepperoni was my choice] over the puree and then sprinkled the cheese over the nearly made pizzas and place them in oven for 10-15 minuets on pre-heated 60 degrees heat.

They were mouth-watering, so delicious.  You really should try to make your own!

 

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Moondance Project

Tomos Jones

On Wednesday the fifteenth of January, pupils from years 7, 8 and 9 visited the University Hospital of Wales to interview hospital staff. We interviewed many people including a surgeon and the ward sister. It was a very enjoyable visit and it was fun for all. It was very engaging getting first-hand experience of what journey the patients must go through from when they first had the symptoms of Bowel Cancer. The visit was made even more interesting when we got to experience the robotics that are used in the surgery and have a hands-on practical workshop in the hospital’s training room. It was surprising to see how surgeons can perform life changing surgeries with this machinery that have been engineered to work to precision.

Later in this project, all of year 7 had the opportunity to watch a live operation on a patient in the University Hospital of Wales. This was an experience that we will most likely not get to do again and it was amazing to watch a real-life live surgery! Wow!

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Reduce, Reuse, Recycle…

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

My name is Ffion Davey. We learned to Reduce, Reuse and recycle in our Design and communication class. This is what we learned:
We learned about how we are harming the environment with our ways of throwing away rubbish. A few of the ways we are hurting the environment is by eating our food and when we are done with our food, we throw our rubbish on the floor. This is a very common way how people harm the environment every day.

Another way we are hurting the environment is by wasting plastic bags and plastic bottles. To stop this we can reuse the bags and bottles over and over again. This was the main topic we learned in design and communication.

I really enjoyed this topic because it got me thinking about the way I live and ways I can live more sustainable.