Home
World Bowl
It was fresh-faced Welsh teenager Ross Owen who produced one of the biggest upsets in years by dethroning the four-times world champion, 9-9, 7-5, to set up a second round meeting with his iconic fellow countryman John Price. Although the pairs final took centre stage as the BBC TV began transmitting live coverage of the championships, everyone was talking about the show-stopping performance of young Ross Owen, from the Cynon Valley club. Owen, who recently retained his Welsh junior singles title, looked totally unfazed by the drama of the occasion and the reputation of his opponent and the large crowd soon warmed to a ‘New Kid on the Block.’ If Owen had any nerves, they were quickly dispelled by a maximum count of four on the second end of the match, and Foster was relieved to gain a single on the last end to share the first set spoils at 9-9.
New School Banding
Dear parent/guardian
I write to wish you all a happy new year and to thank you for the continued support of our school. We have made great progress over the last few years and our results have dramatically improved. We have also invested over half a million pounds into the school which has helped create a first class learning environment for our children.
Our progress was confirmed today when the Welsh Assembly Government placed all secondary schools in Wales into one of five bands according to performance, with one being the best and five being the worst. This ranking system is to be found on the BBC website and WG , and has had extensive national media coverage. We were delighted that Mountain Ash was ranked in Band two . This places us among the 5 best schools in RCT and among the top 35% of schools in Wales.
I am very proud to be the headteacher of Mountain Ash Comprehensive and I’m sure that as parents and guardians you are proud to be sending your children to one of the best schools in Wales. Please spread the message wide :
“Mountain Ash Comprehensive School is now where it belongs –at the top!!”
The improvements at Mountain Ash could not have happened without your support and indeed the support of the whole community. As staff we are all committed to further improvements and look forward to an exciting 2012.
Diolch yn fawr a nadolig llawen I chi gyd
A heartfelt thank you and a merry Christmas to you all
Thank you.
Health and Well Being Day
On Friday 16th September 140 Year 7 students took part in an action packed day. Our focus for the day was to raise awareness of the importance of health and well-being.
This was the first time such an event had been held at the school and Mrs J Grashoff, who organised the event was very pleased with the enthusiasm shown by all who took part.
Pupils had the opportunity to take part in a taster of activities run by E3 and 5×60;
- Dodgeball
- Fitness
- Table Tennis
- Badminton
Pupils also enjoyed the Taste Buddies cooking demonstration and taste session. They emphasised the importance of 5 fruit and veg a day and encouraged pupils to try new foods including a gorgeous vegetarian stir-fry.
All pupils took part in a Health Eating Workshop, led by our School Nurse, Mrs L Perkins. Louise explained her role and pupils got to meet her.
The finale of the day was a Theatre group from London who performed to Years 7 and 8 on their personal best. This again reinforced the message of how exercise and a balanced diet gives you the tools
See the pictures on the news page.
GCSE RESULTS at Mountain Ash
Best performance ever!!
ITV New Clip
Well done to all at Mountain Ash where 78% of our students gained 5A*- C this year which is our best result ever!! The school has now come from a situation where it was achieving 9% 5A*- C barely 10 years ago, also 50% of our students gained A* – C’s in Maths! This is an incredible achievement and the school has won national recognition due to its rate of improvement and led to HTV Wales broadcasting on results day.
These results mean that more students than ever before will return to form six and that can only be good news for Mountain Ash and the Cynon Valley itself. It’s also worth noting that only 2 of our students left without qualifications and that 98% of our students gained at least 1 GCSE. The school was particularly pleased with the improvement in Maths results with 44% of the students now gaining a C grade or above.
We can all look forward to the new year with confidence. The extensive environmental, technological and curriculum improvements that have taken place over the summer will lead to the school moving forward again during the coming year. We are particularly looking forward to Mountain Ash students starting their Welsh Baccalaureate courses in September.
We also welcome Mr Martin Franklin our new deputy head teacher who comes to us after a very successful period as Assistant Head teacher at Maesteg Comprehensive. We look forward to the new ideas and innovation that he will bring with him.
Huw Lloyd
August 2011
Check out the picture here!
Lego Innovation Centre
We have today with help and funding from: WAG, Darren Las, Fernhill/Glenboi Community First Partnerships launched our highly acclaimed ‘Lego Innovation Centre’.
As a school and community partnership we proud to be able offer the use of this centre to the whole community, including all primary schools in the surrounding area.
Headteacher Mr Huw Lloyd quoted:
“We’re extremely proud to be the first school in Wales to purchase a LEGO Education Centre,
we will establish a reputation of being at the cutting edge of education and the LEGO Education products will further reinforce our position as an innovative and forward-thinking establishment. We believe that gaining competencies in certain technologies is key for our students’ future success, and that the LEGO Innovation Centre will provide them not only with great skills but also inspiration and scope for development.”
Prize Night
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your support during my first year as head teacher of Mountain Ash Comprehensive School. We have experienced a particularly successful year together. Tonight is a particularly joyous occasion, and I wish to congratulate all of the students receiving prizes this evening. Your success is an inspiration to us all. I would also like to thank Mr Phil Morgan from the Education Business Partnership for accepting our invitation to speak this evening. Phil has always been a fervent supporter of our school and I very much look forward to your contribution this evening.
Results last summer were the best the school has achieved with over 70% of pupils gaining 5A*-C at GCSE.
The school is immensely proud that it has moved from 9% to 70% over the past 13 years and these results now class us as one of the top performing schools in Wales. We were all excited last summer when Radio Wales came to visit on the morning of exam results and five of our students opened the dreaded envelopes live on air!They were all successful. These results do not come by themselves and the hard work and dedication of our staff is a key factor in this improvement! Equally the dedication shown by our students to attend early morning revision classes prior to exams is certainly worth mentioning. Our A level results were also outstanding and over 40 pupils went on to university to study a variety of subjects from Ancient History to nursing degrees. Many others have moved on to apprenticeships, training or employment.
As ever the achievements of our students amaze me. I was born and bred in the Cynon
Valley and it makes me very proud seeing our young people succeed. Some achievements deserve special recognition:
The school production of Dracula as ever was an enormous success displaying the full range of talents in Mountain Ash.
The school’s year 11 rugby team won through the local and regional rounds of the national school competition narrowly losing to Preseli School from West Wales in the quarter final. Similarly our netball and hockey teams have been very successful this year. I have also been particularly impressed with our fully trained young sports leaders who coach in our feeder primaries on a weekly basis.
A special mention must also go to our Olympic Gold Ambassador, Rachel Murphy, one of only two chosen from RCT. This is a very prestigious role and we are very proud that a Mountain Ash pupil was selected from a very very strong field of applicants.
This year has also seen a Senedd being set up at Mountain Ash for the very first time. The Senedd is a development from the old school council and gives pupils a voice in the running of our school. It reflects the democracy in which we live and will be added to through the use of year group councils.
And so to the future, I am hoping for another bumper set of results this summer and to see as many students as possible back in form Six. In these times of financial uncertainty, this will certainly be a wise move. We also have exciting trips planned to Iceland and Spain and have already booked tickets for the Olympic Games in London. It’s crucially important that our students gain experiences beyond the Cynon Valley as part of their education.
The school itself has moved on in many ways this year. Over a 100k has been spent on updating our ICT facilities, and we can now boast of some of the best provision in Wales. This will be added to this summer when all departments will be provided with interactive smart boards. Similarly our canteen has been redeveloped as Caffi Macs and now provides quality meals within a pleasant environment. A biometric cashless system will soon be added removing the stigma of free school meals forever. As a result of much hard work by our community partners a state of the art LEGO studio has been developed within school. We are the first school in Wales to have use of such a facility and it will be of enormous benefit in developing a curriculum capable of combining Technology, Maths and ICT in an exciting and relevant way for all our learners.
Lastly a word for our students. As you have proved over the course of this year you are as good as anybody anywhere. I think it was Walt Disney who said “If you can dream it you can do it”. We want you to achieve success whatever f
