Queen Elizabeth High School / Ysgol Uwchradd Y Frenhines Elisabeth

We are proud to have strong links within our local Community. Many different organisations, individuals and national charities have benefited from the generosity and support of our pupils and staff. This area recognises some of that great work. 

The Eco Team completed their first litter pick of shared school and community grounds around the Sports Facilities as part of a Keep Wales Tidy project. 

Fantastic efforts from all on the litter pick! We weighed it at the end and in total they collected 10.90kgs of rubbish! Well done to all of you!

This will be continued throughout this year with plans to tackle and reduce the litter over time.

Thank you to everyone that contributed to the Easter Raffle and participated in the 'gift an egg' in aid of the Adrian Brown Fund. A fantastic £910 was raised. Well done all.

Pupils have done extremely well this year, raising a grand total of  £1,604.96 for Comic Relief! In addition to the red nose day activities pupils have also been making and selling ribbons to raise money for the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine as a separate fundraiser for the Red Cross. The total amount raised for the Ukraine now stands at £232.04.

Selected from thousands of nominations, Canolfan Elfed Inclusion Centre at Queen Elizabeth High School has been honoured as one of 102 Pearson National Teaching Silver Award winners across the country.

Canolfan Elfed Inclusion Centre was honoured with a Silver Award in The Lockdown Hero Award for Learner and Community Support for their outstanding commitment to changing the lives of the children they work with every day.

Sir Michael Morpurgo, celebrated author and former Children’s Laureate, and President of the Teaching Awards Trust, said:

“Thank a Teacher Day gives us all a chance - children, families, all of us - to pay tribute to those wonderful educators who change more lives than they will ever know. Today we say thank you to the teachers who have helped our young people navigate these most difficult of times, and who will continue to inspire countless young minds over the coming years.”

Sharon Hague, Senior Vice President of Schools at Pearson UK, said: “After a year like no other we want to take today to say thank you to all the incredible school staff who have kept children and young people learning despite unprecedented challenges. We hope the celebrations today show how much you are appreciated, and that your hard work has not gone unnoticed nor unrecognised.”

Helen Starkey, Chair of Governors of Queen Elizabeth High School, said: “As Chair of Governors I am fortunate to have regular opportunity to witness first hand the excellent practice within Canolfan Elfed so I am not surprised by this prestigious acknowledgement of good work however I am delighted for our learners, their families, the Centre staff, Queen Elizabeth High School and the community we serve. As a Governing Body we are proud of the Inclusion centre and its contribution to establishment of the inclusive ethos and community spirit of our school. Many congratulations to our dedicated Team!”

The Pearson National Teaching Awards

Today, we were very privileged to have a visit to the school from the new Minister for Education and Welsh Language in Wales, Mr Jeremy Miles. This was his first visit to a school in Carmarthenshire, and one of his first visits to a secondary school in Wales. During the visit we were able to share with him some of our recent successes, including our orchestra winning First Place in the Urdd Eisteddfod and Canolfan Elfed’s Silver Award in the Pearson National Teacher’s Awards.  

Mr Miles was able to meet with staff, pupils from Year 10 and students from Year 12. We shared with him our experiences of lockdown and the pupils and students were able to ask Mr Miles, often searching questions, regarding the future direction that education and qualifications would be taking in Wales, as well as asking about Mr Miles’ personal journey and career path and any advice that he could offer to them. Mr Miles concluded his visit with a tour of Canolfan Elfed to congratulate staff on their Pearson’s Teaching Award. 

Accompany Mr Miles was Diane Pritchard, ALN Legislation Manager, Welsh Government, who took the opportunity to talk to staff in our ALN department and to tour Canolfan Elfed. She took a keen interest in the experiences of staff and pupils during lockdown and to discuss with members of the leadership as regards the forthcoming reforms in ALN education. 

This was a really positive and rewarding day for all involved and we would like to thank the minister for taking a personal interest in our school and our community. 

Dave Williams

Headteacher QEHS