Our Chairing Ceremony was held on 1 March as part of the school’s St David’s Day celebrations. This year, a brand new chair was created for the occasion: one that will be used and treasured for years to come. Thanks very much to Mr Brian Evans and Mr Bridgens for their delicate work creating the beautiful chair. The reigns were handed over, as usual, to the school’s head pupils, i.e. Anna Mathews and Iestyn Davies, who presided over the ceremony superbly.

This year, the Chief Poet Aneirin Karadog was the judge. It was good to welcome him back to us after he held two poetry workshops at the school recently with Yr 9 and 10 boys.

Everyone listened attentively to the criticism for the Chair and it became obvious that ‘Saunders 2’ had pleased the judge greatly. It was wonderful to see Sara Dafydd of Year 13 rising from her seat at the back of the packed hall to accept the privilege of being the school’s top writer this year. Huge congratulations to her. Second for the chair was Lowri Powell of Yr 10, with Hannah Morgan of Yr 10 third. The Welsh department would like to thank everyone who competed, particularly the staff and pupils who were part of the ceremony – especially Jasmine Lewis and Rhys Whatty for accompanying on the harp, Kirsty Lewis for singing the chairing song, Rachel Hadley and Sam Dawson for playing the fanfare, and Tara Camm and Rhys Evans for fetching the winner. It was wonderful also to see representatives from every year on the stage after they were chosen for commitment to Welshness at the school.

Congratulations also to Bethan Levy for winning the English trophy.

Here are the other literary results:

Yr 7 Poetry

1st- Angharad James

2nd- Dafydd Roberts

3rd- Kiera Fetch

 Yr 7 Prose

1st- Sion Thomas

2nd- Mirain Owen

3rd- Anest Cunliffe

 Yr 8 Poetry

1st- Ffion Tomos

2nd- Annwen Morgan

3rd- Ben Lervy and Hannah Non Cordingly

Yr 8 Prose

1st- Ffion Tomos

2nd- Amy Johnson

3rd- Grace Lancey

Yr 9 Poetry

1st- Thea Wood

2nd- Aaliyah Janes

3rd- Erin Owens

Yr 9 Prose

1st- Angharad John

2nd- Thea Wood and Megan Davies

3rd- Cameron Jenkins and Erin Owens

Film Review

1st- Jasmine Lewis

2nd- Ffion Gould

3rd- George Foley

Yr 10 Poetry

1st- Lowri Powell

2nd- Hannah Morgan

3rd- Lowri Evans

Yr 10 Prose

1st- Rhys Beynon

2nd- Manon Keeble

3rd- Rhodri Jenkins

Yr 12 and 13 Prose

1st- Sara Dafydd

2nd- Rhydian Cleaver

3rd- Sara Dafydd