Christmas is here!
I can think of no finer way to draw to an end my first Autumn Term in Aberdare Community School than to have had the pleasure and privilege of attending our annual carol concert on Tuesday night. It really was a triumph, an event for which we can all feel justly proud. The choir, orchestra, vocalists, instrumentalists and readers all helped create a festive atmosphere which combined the sacred and the secular, the traditional and the modern. The pupils did the school, their families and themselves proud. I would like to thank all those involved in preparing and setting up the concert, especially colleagues in the music, RE and Welsh departments. I would also like to thank Father Robert and everyone at St Elvan’s Church for their warm welcome and for allowing us to use their beautiful and historic building. I wish everyone associated with St Elvan’s the very best with their forthcoming renovation project.
It looks increasingly as if the Christmas snow came a fortnight early to the Cynon Valley so I would like to take this opportunity to say a few words about the difficult decision I had to take to close the school for two days. No headteacher likes to close a school but sometimes conditions dictate that such a course of action is necessary due to the over-riding considerations of the health and safety of all members of the school community. On both days a risk assessment at the school site established that the yards and the MUGA were frozen over with hard snow and black ice. This could not be mitigated by salt as the temperature was too low for the salt to be effective. This meant that, amongst other things, we had no safe area into which to evacuate pupils and staff in the event of an emergency evacuation. Many thanks to everyone for your patience and understanding.
I’m going to keep the blog brief this time but I would like to wish all Year 11 pupils the best of luck with the GCSE results they will be receiving in the first week back after the holiday. I would also like to wish everyone associated with Aberdare Community School a peaceful and relaxing Christmas and a very happy new year.