Regular updates and news can be found here! Also check out our "gallery" page.

• Creative Art Exhibition 2019

  Sun 16 Jun 2019 Mrs Cox-Wall

  The Bridge has been invited, along with schools all over South Wales (and some Bridgend schools) to exhibit their GCSE Art work at Cardiff Met Uni School

  of Art and Design.

  We are limited to 3 boards and of course we can only use our Y10 Art work due to the Y11 GCSE moderation, luckily our Y10 work is awesome! 

  Have a browse through our gallery and if you can, pop into the Llandaff Campus from 20th-26th June and enjoy.

   

  

• The Bridge Kids animated film wins runner up at Into Film Cymru's April competition!

  Sat 01 Jun 2019 Mrs Cox-Wall

  Working with our Applied Drama Practitioner Izzy Rabey and animator Jane Hubbard our KS3 pupils wrote, designed and produced this animation with Izzy and Jane's support and sound mixing.

  The animation gives a fun and lighthearted view of friendship and identity - getting through tough times. There are lots of reasons for children and young people to enter a pupil referral unit (PRU) like The Bridge and the film explores some of these.

  The film is now on the Into Film Cymru YouTube site and our own website and twitter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taN_BjcZYuU&list=PLyOHB4V8B-q7Y0dXjL9IhodC82Lb_MzVZ&index=5 

  These are some of the lovely comments the Into Film Cymru judges made about our work:

   

  • An inspiring film project that took filmmaking and rewired it from the ground up in order to make it a learning tool for filmmaking and artistic self-expression. I loved the individual stories and ideas. The film editing and sound were excellent.

   

  • There was no clear narrative to this (or so I thought) but you could tell the young filmmakers had so much fun making this! I liked that they used different materials for different scenes and particularly liked the bits where they used their fingers to draw their names on paint. Although this one might not score the highest in terms of narrative, this is my favourite from this week!!

   

  • A heart-warming, engaging animation which promotes a strong message of friendship and being there for one another. Good use of animation techniques to explore self-expression, identity and individuality. The narrative could have been developed a little but overall a lovely film which I really enjoyed watching.

   

  • The time and effort put into The Bridge Kids is something to be admired. It is surreal, visually very creative and technically very fun to watch unfold.

   

  • A fun, bright and cheery animation which is a joy to watch. It's full of original and creative scenes ('What are you doing here Mr Fox?') which made it very engaging and enjoyable. I thought the music and sound effects were wonderful and happy - I particularly loved the creature munching on the hearts. My favourite scenes were those portraying human interactions and feelings, for example 'Give him some space' and the cloud/sunshine, because they drew really clear lines to the theme of identity. Overall, I felt that the whole film was beautifully artistic and I would love to see more!

• Sustainable Development Goals with the "Size of Wales" charity

  Fri 17 May 2019 Mrs Cox-Wall

  This week we welcomed Nigel Little from "The size of Wales" charity. He came to talk to us as part of our work on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which is in turn part of our journey to Rights Respecting Gold status. We are raising awareness and understanding of the need to meet these SDGs so everyone can live in peace, safety and without fear or illness. We aim to contribute to the awareness raising and in practical ways such as the event today.

  Nigel explained how his charity works to re-forest areas of developing countries like Uganda and show people how to live more sustainable lives.

  By donating money to the charity, which we raised in school by growing and selling tomato plants for 50p each (bargain!) then we can help plant at least 20 trees to re-forest a part of another country and hopefully contribute to creating a re-foresting the "size of Wales".

  Well done to everyone who helped grow and look after the tomato plants, who made posters and organised their sale, overseen by Mrs Morris and Mrs Paice.

  Nigel was appreciative of the donation and no matter how small, every penny has power!

   

  

• Spooky Sagas

  Thu 09 May 2019 Mrs Cox-Wall

  Three of our KS2 pupils (who have now reintegrated into their mainstream schools) have had their "Spooky Sagas" published by Young Writers Wales. Their original stories were all their own work and show how much they developed in their time in The Bridge. 

  Great work, lets hope there are more to come!

  

• Surf Therapy with the Wave Project

  Thu 09 May 2019 Mrs Cox-Wall

  What a great start to our summer term!

  All of KS3, both BESD and MAPHR provisions had the opportunity today to attend the Surf Therapy course in Rest Bay Porthcawl and begin to learn surf skills. 

  Staff and pupils felt that tingly nervous feeling as it was new to nearly everyone, I'm proud to say everyone who wanted to go in the water did, got wet and tried amazingly hard! Some pupils felt comfortable observing today and will join in next week, such a great effort from everyone and thanks to our instructors, safe and fun!

  What are the benefits? 

  From the Wave Project website:

  "Impact and evaluation has been embedded in The Wave Project since day one. All our programmes evaluate wellbeing change from a participant and whole-group perspective. Every young person who has ever taken part in one of our programmes has completed a questionnaire before and after their course to tell us how it affected them. These client questionnaires use validated items to ensure they are accurate and robust. We also work with parents and referral partners to get their perspectives on changes to the children we support.

  In the past 10 years, we have gathered information from over 3,000 young people in the UK, so have a large dataset measuring change across 17 measures of wellbeing including self-esteem, resilience, confidence, social trust, positive functioning and friendships."

  Looking forward to next week!

  www.waveproject.co.uk

  

• KS3 Castles and Kingdoms memorable experience visit

  Wed 03 Apr 2019 Mrs Cox Wall

  KS3 set off last week to visit a castle and not just any castle but one with a leaning tower! Caerphilly Castle is a popular historical landmark, in the heart of the town and a fine example of a 13th century concentric castle built by Gilbert De Clare, with distinctive water parks surrounding. 

  The pupils were able to explore the great hall, see the impenetrable walls, tiny arrow slits, the garderobe (loo) and lots of other exciting historical features. 

  Lets hope this inspires their topic work! 

  

• Seaside News March edition

  Wed 27 Mar 2019 Y9
  Check out the latest edition! 

  

• Staff Wellbeing

  Wed 27 Mar 2019 Staff

  Our termly staff survey identified that staff were generally happy and well supported in their work. The survey also asked for wellbeing ideas and those put forward were:

  knitting and crochet,

  yoga,

  mindfulness, 

  more training.

  Staff voted for yoga and everyone enjoyed the session with Kelvin. 

  

• The Big Clean Up!

  Wed 27 Mar 2019 Mrs Cox-Wall

  SWEET BTEC pupils took advantage of the fabulous spring weather to complete their environmental task. The group went to Bryngarw Park with Mrs Morriss and Mrs Morgan and collected large amounts of litter (sadly lots of single use plastic). They also collected water samples from the river and brought them back to school to test the quality. 

  A valuable task and important work. The best message is “take your litter home!”. 

  

• Revision Workshop for Y11 parents

  Wed 27 Mar 2019 Mrs Cox-Wall
  See attached picture for details -  hope to see you on 8th April. If you can’t make that date, get in touch!