Highlights from schools across Wrexham and Flintshire

If you would like to feature anything from your school, you can share with us direct here or email claire.pierce@newsquest.co.uk

Ysgol Maes Garmon, Mold

Four budding engineers from the school recently had amazing success at the F1 in Schools regional final.

Tân Gwyllt Racing team from Ysgol Maes Garmon.

The Tân Gwyllt Racing team - Mari Edwards, Ffion Thomas, Zahra Yasin and Ceri Davies - impressed the crowd at the event held at Denbigh Leisure Centre.

Having spent 18 months designing, engineering and testing their own F1 model car, they won the Fastest Entry Class Car with a time of 1.617 seconds. They then won the Best Engineered Car and were declared Entry Class Champions, as well as an award for best research and development across all classes, beating many professional class teams.

Project manager Mari stated: "This experience has taught us so much, inspiring us for the future whilst showing us what it means to be women in STEM and more importantly, how to get there."

Tân Gwyllt Racing team car.

Teammate Ffion added: "This was an amazing experience for all of us. We had an insight into engineering and I loved every moment of the journey!"

The learners intend to continue with their work, hoping to expand the engineering and enterprise skills they have developed. They are grateful to their sponsor, Wind2, for their support.

Deputy headteacher Nia Jones said: "We are so proud of the team and their success. They have worked tremendously hard, spending so much of their spare time developing their ideas and putting them into action. I would also like to thank our head of design and technology, Adrian Evans, for supporting the team along their exciting journey."

Ysgol Rhiwabon, Wrexham

Students at Ysgol Rhiwabon during the Bank of America IT event.

Bank of America recently attended the school, where students from Year 8 and 9 took part in fun, organised computer programming activities.

As a relaxer, the students started by building a tower made out of spaghetti, masking tape and string, seeing who could create the highest. This set the scene and students were relaxed and ready for more fun.

There were three activities set out from Scratch, Python and Raspberry Pi.

Students at Ysgol Rhiwabon during the Bank of America IT event.

Students were placed into groups and were challenged to beat the time allocated to achieve the result required. It was challenging and most students did very well and enjoyed the activities.

Prizes were given for the best teams, from water bottles to piggy banks.

Paul Slater, ICT teacher said: "It was a fun few hours and students really enjoyed themselves in a relaxed but challenging atmosphere. Bank of America were great and really made IT programming come alive for the students."

St Ethelwold's CiW VA School, Deeside

Easter fun with prizes and chocolate at St Ethelwold's School.

Staff and children at the Shotton primary school enjoyed celebrating Easter. Children took part in an Easter bonnet and egg decorating competition.

The whole school delivered Easter cards to the local community, and an Easter bingo was held in the school hall by entertainer Jeff Ford-Foyne.

All the themed fun was enjoyed by everyone.

Easter fun with prizes and chocolate at St Ethelwold's School.

Ysgol Maes Garmon, Mold

A talented English teacher at the Flintshire school has released a song especially written for the school as a celebration of the Welsh language and its future.

Jacqueline Jones came up with the idea for Y Dyfodol (The Future) during the covid pandemic, having never before written a song. An enthusiastic singer in her own right who has performed in the past for Princess Diana, she contacted her friend Tim Wright, a Welsh video game composer, and together they worked on developing the song, despite the fact that Tim was working in in Switzerland at the time!

Jacqueline Jones, English teacher at Ysgol Maes Garmon.

As a former pupil of Ysgol Maes Garmon herself, Jacqueline was keen to create a song that would bring the Maes Garmon family together, celebrating the friendship and ethos of the school, as well as highlighting how the future of the Welsh language is secure in the hands and hearts of future learners. The song was recorded by Jaqueline, staff and the school choir, along with vocals from Ynyr Llwyd, the celebrated Welsh singer/songwriter who is also head of music at the school.

Jaqueline said: "My goal in writing the song was always to lift the heart, to make people feel connected, to boost morale and to generally create a feeling of the family spirit which we are so fortunate to have within Maes Garmon.

"It's always been at the heart of our school's ethos, so I tried to gather my memories from when I myself was a student and share the traditions which both myself and the multitudes of others over the years have been privileged to be a part of."

Headteacher Bronwen Hughes added: "We are delighted Mrs Jones was able to develop a song that has brought so much joy to our learners and staff.

"As the only Welsh-medium secondary school in Flintshire, we are proud of all our learners and their commitment to the language, and Y Dyfodol captures our hope and aspirations for the future of our school and the Welsh language.

"I am grateful to Mrs Jones for her commitment to this project, and to Tim Wright for his help in producing the track. Thanks also to all the singers who contributed to the performance, and to Craig Colville for his work in generating an accompanying video."

• Y Dyfodol can be heard by visiting the school's YouTube channel.