Wrexham and Flintshire schools and pupils in the spotlight

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Darland High School, Wrexham

The school become a hub of innovation and enthusiasm as 36 eager Year 8 students participated in the prestigious IET Faraday Challenge Day.

Winning Team, from left: Jacob Hughes, Gethin Wilshire, Lloyd Shelmadine, Elise Perrin, Lexie Law and Gracie Roberts.

This dynamic event, hosted by See Science representative Katy Johnson, provided students with a unique opportunity to apply STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) concepts in a practical and competitive environment.

For many students, this was their first experience working on a structured engineering project, and the excitement was palpable. Working in small teams, they tackled the challenge of designing and building a prototype to meet a real-world need. From an educational toy for young children to an assistive device for sports participants, each concept had to incorporate circuits, a battery, and at least one additional electrical component.

One of the participants said: "It was so exciting to take an idea from just a thought to an actual prototype. I never imagined we could create something like this in just one day!"

Another added: "We had to really listen to each other and work together to manage our budget. It was challenging but so rewarding."

Beyond engineering and design, the event placed a strong emphasis on financial planning and collaboration. Each group meticulously documented their progress in their logs, ensuring that every step of their development process was recorded - just as crucial to the judges as the final product. Managing their budgets with the Faraday currency system, students had to carefully plan their expenses, mirroring real-world financial constraints that engineers face.

IET Faraday Challenge Day at Darland High School.

The challenge was intense but students rose to the occasion. Their creativity, problem-solving abilities, and teamwork were evident in the quality of their designs and presentations. Each team showcased their prototypes with impressive oracy skills, articulating their design rationale and answering questions from both judges and peers. The thoughtful, probing questions posed by fellow students reflected their engagement and understanding of the engineering process.

At the end of a day filled with innovation and excitement, Team 2 - Jacob Hughes, Gethin Wilshire, Lloyd Shelmadine, Elise Perrin, Lexie Law and Gracie Roberts - emerged victorious, securing the trophy with their outstanding concept and execution. However, every participant left the challenge as a winner, earning the Industrial Cadets Challenger Award - an acknowledgement of their dedication, ingenuity, and teamwork.

STEM Ambassadors Phill George and Penny Lancaster, along with See Science host Katy, praised the students for their impressive efforts, highlighting the potential they demonstrated throughout the challenge.

Dr Debbie Moore said: "It was a pleasure to see how engaged and enthusiastic they all were. The way they supported each other and thought through their designs was fantastic to watch."

St David's Catholic Primary School, Mold

PCSOs Hannah Taylor and Kaya Watson visit St David's School.

Sitting in the police car during a visit to the school.

As part of National Careers Week, pupils at the school had a visit from North Wales Police.

PCSOs Hannah Taylor and Kaya Watson visit St David's School.

Sitting in the police car during a visit to the school.

Youngsters were able to sit in the police and wear the police hats, during the visit by PCSOs Hannah Taylor and Kaya Watson.

Ysgol Yr Hafod, Johnstown

Headteacher Alison Heale, Mayor of Wrexham Cllr Beryl Blackmore and Consort Dorothy Lloyd and Cllr David A Bithell, with pupils, Laura and Poppy who were the tour guides.

Chair of Governors, Cllr David A Bithell, welcomed the Mayor of Wrexham, Cllr Beryl Blackmore, to visit the new school.

The Mayor was given a tour by pupils, including seeing some of their creative work on display.

Creative work by pupils at Ysgol Yr Hafod, including Talacre lighthouse.

The new primary school was refurbished last year as part of the 21st Century Schools programme.

Nercwys VA School

World Book Day at Nercwys VA School.

Pupils at the Flintshire primary school had a fun filled, if slightly delayed, World Book Day. Children came into school with their favourite book, and dressed as their favourite character.

Ysgol Licswm, Lixwm

Eisteddfod winners at Ysgol Licswm.

Since St David's Day, pupils at the school have been learning more about and celebrating Welsh heritage, history and culture.

Part of this included a visit from their federation partner school, Ysgol yr Esgob, to participate in a theatre show from Mewn Cymeriad on the topic of Llywelyn The Last Prince.

Mewn Cymeriad show at Ysgol Licswm on the topic of Llywelyn The Last Prince.

Eisteddfod winners at Ysgol Licswm.

Some excellent follow up work was completed by the children from both schools working together afterwards, learning and celebrating Welsh history together.

We also enjoyed a wonderful eisteddfod celebration, where the children excelled at singing, performing and sharing their wonderful artwork, recipes and writing in both Welsh and English.

The event also shared with many family members and friends of the school.

Ysgol Licswm held an Easter egg hunt.

On Saturday, Ysgol Licswm hosted a community Easter egg hunt. Pupils past, present and future, family, friends and staff all came together for the event, enjoying a morning of hunting clues in and around the school grounds.

Everyone that managed to solve the riddle won an Easter egg to take home.

Hamper prize as part of some Easter themed fun at Ysgol Licswm.

The school thanked parent helpers, who ran a refreshment stall, with hot cross buns and crumpets.

After the hunt the children were able to take part in Easter crafts in the hall. And there was an Easter hamper raffle that was won by Year 6 pupil.

Ysgol Bryn Alyn, Gwersyllt

The school council recently met with school councils from their primary feeder schools, to develop the Wrexham School Councils Consortium.

Working on the Wrexham School Councils Consortium with pupils from feeder schools.

The had training delivered by Wrexham Youth Services, working collaboratively on their team building skills.

The schools all mixed into different groups and worked together to make as many paper aeroplanes in three minutes as they could, pass a hula hoop along a row as quickly as possible (the winning team did it in 16 seconds) and building the tallest tower made of spaghetti and marshmallows.

After the ice was well and truly broken, the school councils designed their perfect school and, from there they set some achievable actions for our new consortium. The school council has worked for over a year and developing links with other councils and are excited to take pupil participation in a new direction.

School council talk environmental improvemants at Ysgol Bryn Alyn.

• As environmental concerns continue to grow, it's more important than ever to adopt sustainable practices, especially within schools.

Tim Wort, from Keep Wales Tidy, a charity focused on improving the environment, visited YBA to discuss with the school council how they can reduce their environmental footprint.

They had some key takeaways on how we can all help make the school eco-friendlier, including reducing food waste, banning single-use plastics, and keeping our school tidy.

The School Council is now set to implement lots of new way to make the school green and achieve the 'Green Flag' status-with the help of the entire school community.

Ysgol Bryn Alyn's First Lego League Challenge team.

• As part of Science Week YBA pupils travelled to Llanduduno's Venue Cymru to compete in the First Lego League Challenge, and came back with a trophy and a personal best. Over the last few months, a team of seven YBA pupils from Years 7 and 8 have been building and programming Lego robots to take part in this year's First Lego League Challenge, called Submerged.

As part of the competition AO.COM funded the team's Lego Board, where they had to construct a series of Lego challenges for their robot to complete including: release the shark, rescue the octopus and construct an artificial reef. This year the theme was oceans. The team also produced a presentation on the oceans theme. They chose to express their worry over the amount of plastic waste in the oceans and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

The team came up with ideas about how to address this, including their trip to AO to see how they are recycling white goods waste, including how they separate plastics from other waste. They were delighted to have beaten their score from last year's competition and came away with a Lego trophy for the team that showed the most promise in the future.