Headteacher's blog 20.10.2023 - Milford Haven School

Shwmae, welcome back to this week’s blog. Please read on to find out some of the wonderful things we have had to celebrate this week and don’t forget to check out our upcoming events for some dates to add to your diary.

Celebrating last week's

Classchart Champions

Featured News...

TIME TO TALK

To celebrate World Mental Health Day MHS held a Time to Talk event for our year 11 pupils in order to support them with any issues they may need help or information with in such an important academic year.

We are very grateful to @Mind Pembrokeshire , CAMHS, PCC Youth Service, Sandy Bear, Celtic Deep, our local PCSO’s and the MHS Safeguardians for their conversations with the pupils and the information they passed on.

The pupils also participated in a virtual cycle challenge from Milford Haven to Cardiff to highlight the benefit of exercise for mental health.

MHS Trailathlon – Trailathlon yr MHS

33 Year 7 pupils took part in the MHS Trailathlon this week. They ran 1.5 miles from Stackpole Visitor Centre to Barafundle Beach, took part in some fun activities on the beach including trying not to blow away in the strong winds we had. They then ran back to Stackpole Woods where they got very wet and very muddy taking part in the obstacle course.

Thank you to Stackpole FitnessFitness for another fantastic Trailathlon and Milford Youth Matters for volunteering.

Pumpkin Carving Competition

MHS are excited to launch their annual Pumpkin Carving Competition. We have made our very own ‘Boo Basket’ and want to give it away to the best pumpkin carver in Milford Haven. Our ‘Boo Basket’ contains lots of Halloween goodies to be enjoyed, some Halloween activities and a £10 voucher kindly donated by @Sugar Loaf to purchase some of their tasty Halloween treats.

All you need to do to enter is choose a design, carve it into a pumpkin, snap a photo of you holding the pumpkin and send it to jcrolla@milfordhavenschool.co.uk

Pumpkin entries will be judged by our Heads of House during our Halloween Bingo event and will be announced live on social media.

You do not need to be associated with Milford Haven School to enter this event we encourage participation from our wider community.

Reading – Darllen

We love reading at MHS!

One of the Empathy Reading novels that the pupils read in Year 8 is ‘The Girl Who Stole the Elephant’ by Nizrana Farook. The main character Chaya, a no-nonsense, outspoken hero, leads her friends and an elephant on a noisy, fraught, joyous adventure through the jungle where revolution is stirring and leeches lurk.

This is Mr Green’s tutor group enjoying reading the novel!

HOHA News

The latest news from our Heads of House & Achievements

Miss Mansell is delighted to announce the Year 7 Form Captains. This morning pupils decided what committee they will sit on as part of the MHS Senedd and we can’t wait to see what creative ideas they come up with.

Put on your witches hat, grab your broomstick and fly on down to MHS to join us form Halloween Bingo.

With the most spooktacular prizes up for grabs you’d be a ghoul to miss it

Tuesday 24th October, eyes down 6.30pm, £10 per book or £2 per strip.

AOLE Highlights

This week's highlights from our AOLE departments.

Year 10 Built Environment students enjoyed a visit to the Cilrhedyn Woodland Centre courtesy of PCNPA. We had an informative guided woodland walk where we discussed managed woodlands and biodiversity and then saw how the team make the gates used on the Coast Path.

We are really grateful to the team at the Woodland Centre in the Gwaun Valley for their time, patience and expertise, students are making a section of a Coast Path gate as their heritage carpentry task so this will set the task up perfectly.

Watch this space as we are embarking on a project to make a gate to be used on a local section of the coast path with the expert help of the PCNPA team.

Sport News

This week's highlights from our sports teams

u12’s

– Year 7 Festival @ Ysgol Greenhill – 17/10/23

An excellent day of rugby for our year 7’s today, playing in their first ever festival for the school. Some great rugby and some nice tries scored by a number of the boys today. Led well by Iestyn, the whole squad played their part gaining 2 wins and 2 losses during the day.

Exciting times ahead for these talented rugby players.

Players Players: Iestyn

& Dylan

As always a PROUD Mr Edwards, PE department & the whole school

Massive DIOLCH to Ty Hotel for sponsoring our playing shirts

& DIOLCH to Evans Coaches for our top quality transport as always

u15’s – Year 10 Tournament @ Ysgol Haverfordwest High – 19/10/23

An excellent day of rugby for our year 10’s at Haverfordwest High, with every single players tackling their hearts out and playing some good rugby. In the group stages we played 3 games, winning against Ysgol Penrhyn Dewi & Ysgol Harri Tudur and the losing to Haverfordwest High. We then qualified for the cup semi final where we met Ysgol Bro Preseli, eventually losing 10-0. The team was led well by Alfie Th, Josh & Charlie D throughout the day. A few boys played their first ever games of rugby and showed some promise and played well.

An excellent all round performance from the boys, and on a different day we could have reached the cup final which is taking place next Thursday. Da iawn Bois

Tries scored in the 4 games:

Seth Walker

Alfie Candler

Alfie Thomas

Will Gent

Charlie Davies

Coaches Players from the 4 games:

Kian Jones

Finley Turner

Odin Cook

Bobby Hooper

As always a PROUD Mr Edwards, Miss Carrington, PE department & the whole school

Massive DIOLCH to Tŷ Hotels for sponsoring our playing shirts

& DIOLCH to Evans Coaches for our top quality transport as always

Hot Chocolate Friday

Da iawn to last week's HCF pupils

Extra-Curricular

Latest news on extra-curricular and well being activities

Enrichment
Please use the link below to access our current Enrichment booklet for the autumn term:
https://milfordhavenschool.co.uk/enrichment/

Wellbeing Friday’s
Please use the link below to access our current Wellbeing Friday schedule for the autumn term:
https://milfordhavenschool.co.uk/wellbeingfridays/

Cluster Band
The new Milford Haven Cluster band is rehearsing in Steynton Hall from 1.30 – 3.00pm on a Friday afternoon. This band is an exciting new opportunity for pupils throughout the Milford Haven Cluster to perform with others. If you would like to take part, please speak to Mr. Sanders-Swales or Mrs. Jenkins in the music department.

Drama Club
Join Drama Club and take part in our annual school production.

Surf Club
Surf Club is back, Outer Reef have launched their after school surf club, scan the QR code to book.

Coding Club
Year 10 Computer Science pupils will be back running MHS Coders every Friday Break 1. This half term our coding club is running a competition to create a Halloween themed game in Scratch. Competition entries need to be submitted before Friday 27th October, prizes and points up for grabs!

Creative Classwork

Some wonderful work produced at MHS

Welsh Phrase of the Week

Cymraeg Yr Wythnos

‘Dyfal donc a dyr y garreg!‘

‘Slow and steady wins the race!‘

UNICEF RIGHTS OF THE CHILD

Article of the Week

Non-discrimination
The Convention applies to every child without discrimination, whatever their ethnicity, gender, religion, language, abilities or any other status, whatever they think or say, whatever their family background.

Dates for your Diary

Please note that these are subject to change.

Follow the link below for our full parent calendar.
https://milfordhavenschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/PARENTS-September-2023-2024.docx.pdf

Announcements

Uniform Shop – Siop wisg

If you have any MHS uniform at home that your child has grown out of please consider donating it to the MHS pre-loved uniform shop. We have an on-site uniform shop that pupils and parents can access anytime they need for jumpers, t-shirts, trousers, coats and more. Any donations are greatly appreciated and can be dropped off at reception. We are needing some larger size sweatshirts and t-shirts.

Important Announcement – Cyhoeddiad Pwysig

An important reminder that Milford Haven School is a nut free school.

We have several pupils with nut allergies and more who have joined us this September.

Please remember not to bring nuts into school. This includes all nut types and all products containing nut based spreads such as Nutella and Peanut Butter.

If you are unsure if something contains nuts please check all packaging for allergy information.

Important Information

Please click the link below for full details of our term dates as well as the school calendar.

Website Link: https://milfordhavenschool.co.uk/school-calendar/

A reminder that copies of all the letters we have issued this academic year can be found on the ‘Letters Home’ page of our school website. It is advisable to check this page on a regular basis to ensure that you stay up to date with school information. Link to ‘Letters Home’ website page: https://milfordhavenschool.co.uk/letters-home/

GCSE POD is a fantastic resource which Milford Haven School continues to promote amongst learners and their parents/carers.

GCSE POD holds a wealth of support for a range of subjects, with some content specific for KS3 as well as KS4. Learners are encouraged to use their MHS Google log-in to access the site and start exploring the site which could prove extremely beneficial for our KS4 learners.

Please look at the following parent site tour where you can see what is on offer: https://bit.ly/2P1hJKZ

Young person’s mental health toolkit from HWB.

Below is a link to the young person’s mental health toolkit from HWB, designed for 11 to 25-year-olds. Here you will find six playlists to direct you to a wide range of online resources to help you through the lockdown and beyond. In each of the playlists you’ll find self-help websites, apps, helplines, and more that are here to support your mental health and well-being.

Please remember: if you’re finding it difficult to cope, make sure you speak to someone you trust. Who this might be is different for everyone, but it might include family members or carers, a teacher, a helpline, or a doctor. How you feel is important and lots of people are here to help if you need them.

Link to toolkit: https://hwb.gov.wales/…/e53adf44-76cb-4635-b6c2…/en