STANWELL School has had a number of events to be proud of this month from sporting excellence to a Techniquest challenge.

Two of their senior rugby players, Sam Laity and Sam Sellick, have been selected to represent the Crawshays team at Youth Level.

Formed in 1922, this famous touring amateur team play fast, entertaining rugby. It is regarded an honour to be invited to play for such a prestigious team. They are usually a mix of seasoned internationals and promising youngsters. Many Welsh rugby legends have played for them, including JPR Williams, Phil Bennett and Jonathan Davies.

Crawshays Welsh XV has played all over the rugby playing world so this is a superb opportunity for Sam and Sam to play against the very best.

With trampolining success, Ieuan Murray and Taiya Jones, represented the school on January 19 at The Central Zone Schools’ Trampolining Competition in Loughborough. They both performed extremely well and faced some very tough competition. Ieuan narrowly missed out on third place and a spot in the National Finals by 0.2 of a mark. Taiya achieved third place and did manage to secure her place at the National Finals in Newcastle on March 22. This will be the first time a Stanwell pupil has competed in trampolining at this level.

Selected students were given the opportunity to take part in a Qualifications Wales consultation. Across Key Stage 4 and 5, pupils participated in a focus group discussion with a representative from the independent organisation ‘Cognition’. The pupils were involved in a stimulating recorded dialogue regarding the future of Qualifications Wales and both the current and future education systems and institutions in Wales.

Raising a number of salient and insightful arguments, the students generated a pertinent discussion including numerous ‘vox pop’ quotes to be used in future presentations by Cognition. All those who took part in the scheme made a commendable contribution to the debate and were thanked by representative Andy Marshall.

Year 9 pupils participated in a workshop event led by the staff of Techniquest and the National Office of Statistics called ‘The Backstage Challenge’. They were provided with tasks such as organising a concert event and designing a theme park and had to use their numeracy, teamwork and Welsh language skills to come up with creative solutions. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day.