China’s One-Child Policy to be Relaxed

After over 30 years of China’s strict, and controversial, one-child policy, it has now been announced that the regulations are to be relaxed in certain aspects. The law should say that if one of the parents is an only child, the couple shall be allowed to have a second child, as opposed to only one. In many rural areas this is already is the case, if you apply, and only then if the first child is a daughter, or suffers from some kind of disability, though the gap between the two children is expected to be 3 to 4 years usually.

While the policy was introduced to help decrease the population of China, it has been the cause of some unwanted effects. For example, it has created a slight gender imbalance, this is due to gender specific abortions, generally a couple will abort a baby if it is to be a girl as they wish for a male child to be able to carry on the family name. This now means that there are far more men than women, and therefore, there will be ‘leftover men’ that will be unable to find a wife. The policy has also created something known as the 4-2-1 phenomenon, something which occurs because there is a strong sense of tradition in China where the children will look after their parents in old age, and the aging population in China. This means that an only child at a working will be left to care for two parents and four grandparents in retirement single-handedly.

The media attention around this has been generally positive; however there are those who question how effective it will be. The new policy should be beneficial to China and its people, and experts say that a relax on this policy is highly unlikely to lead to a dramatic population as some may fear, as this is why the policy was introduced in the beginning.

Emily Hayward

Llys Llywelyn News - 1st Half Autumn Term 2013
Many Llys Llywelyn pupils have been very busy clocking up lots of fantastic achievements both inside school and out. There have been sporting achievements including Jamie Yung, from 10LL1, who competed for Wales in an international kickboxing championship and Lewis Webb, from 7LL2, who is part pf the Cardiff City Football Academy and joins George Ratcliffe and Jake Clarke as aspiring professional players on Cardiff City's books.

October also proved successful for Llywelyn in school competitions. In the Spelling Bee Competition, Llywelyn earned 3rd place in Year 7, 2nd place in Year 9 and scooped 1st place in Year 8! Well done to all our keen spellers!

Congratulations are also in order for all the Llywelyn pupils of the month (October) . They are Kelsey Walters, Ethan Packer, Lexie Smith and Connor Cantelo from Year 7, Morgan Evans, Alliyah Hussain, George Ratcliffe and Halimah Ahmed from Year 8 and Owen Bevan, Molly Andrew, Afran Bari and Kayleigh Morgan from Year 9. In Year 10 the pupils of the month for October were Chloe Logford, Mahida Rahman, Morgan Rees, Adam Jones and Fazania Perveen along with Amy Williams, Ryan Robinson, Alex French, Sunna Tariq, Phoebe Arthur and Ben Stacey from Year 11. Pupil of the mnoth for the LDC was Morgan Steed.

Early in October Llwyelyn House Captains and House Leaders were chosen - Charlie Wheeler-Jones and Grace Morgan have started their roles as House Captains, while Alex French, Mohammed Zia, Kate Kennedy, Phoebe Arthur, Lily Stubley-Adje and Aliyah Nerachavi are serving as Llys Llywelyn Leaders.

Early November saw Year 11s sitting their GCSE Maths exams - fingers crossed for the results!!

Grace Morgan

Football Update

Barclay’s premier league round up – 28/9/13 – 30/9/13

Star Match

Aston Villa 3 – 2 Manchester City

Another blow in the hopes of Manchester City’s title dream as they suffered a shock 3-2 defeat at the hands of Aston Villa at Villa Park. It seemed as if Man City were heading to victory through goals from Yaya Toure and Edin Dzeko either side of a Kevin El Ahmadi goal until a bizarre 3 minutes starting in the 72^nd minute changed the game with Andy Weimann scoring the winner after another bad defensive display by City.

Shock UpsetMan Utd 1 – 2 West BromThe shock upset of the day came at Old Trafford where West Brom continued to pile pressure on new Man Utd boss David Moyes with a stunning victory. Morgan Amalfitano scored the first for west brom before another stunning free kick. By Wayne Rooney who set a new premier league record by scoring three free kicks in 3 consecutive games. The game was won in the 67^th minute when Saido Berahino continuing his amazing run after a hat-trick against Newport County slotted past David De Gea. United piled on the pressure but to no avail and they face a crunch match in the Ukraine on Wednesday. Consistency is keySwansea 1 – 2 ArsenalArsenal continued their brilliant run of form after an opening day defeat to Aston Villa with a solid 2 – 1 over rising Swansea. Swansea came into the game full of confidence after a convincing 3 – at Valencia but found themselves 2- 0 down just after halftime .Goals by Aaron Ramsey and Serge Gnabry sent Arsenal top of the table. Wilfred Bony did pull one back for the Swans but it proved only in vain for them. Suarez returns with a bangSunderland 1 – 3 LiverpoolLuis Suarez returned from a 10 match suspension with 2 goals and an assist as Liverpool beat managerless Sunderland at the Stadium of light. Liverpool controlled the first half with goals from Sturridge and Suarez giving them a 2 nil lead at half time. Giacherini did give Liverpool some nerves when he scored just 7 minutes into the second half but Suarez popped up with another in the 89^th minute to seal a victory which was never really in doubt. Torres shown redTottenham Hotspur 1 -1 ChelseaFernando Torres was sent off 9 minutes from time as Chelsea held Tottenham at White Hart Lane. Gylfi Sigurdsson gave Tottenham the lead after 19 minutes before John Terry equalized from a Frank Lampard free kick. Torres was shown red for a second bookable offence in a game remembered for a bizarre slap from Torres at Tottenham’s Jan Verthongen. The ref did not see the incident which that if they wanted the FA could of gave Torres a  2 match ban but they decided not to.   The other premier league resultsEverton 3 -2 NewcastleHull city 1 –0 West hamFulham 1 – 2 CardiffSouthampton 2 – 0 Crystal PalaceStoke 0 – 1 Norwich

by Ryan Robinson

Football's mega money moves this summer

The season of summer, for most people is a joyful time where you can relax and just have fun; however, if you’re a football fan it’s often a time of being bored on Saturday afternoons and waiting till the end of August for the new football season to start. While Jeff Stelling and friends hit the snooze button on their alarm on Saturdays instead of dashing to the Sky Sports studio, and the likes of Gareth Bale are out sunbathing on a beach instead of running through some extra finishing drills, something’s got to be happening in the football world, right? That something is the transfer window, a time where agents and negotiators are dashing around the globe to find the best new players for the club they work for. There’s a lot of money in this transfer window, so what are the biggest potential moves that could happen?

The biggest possible move would be for the golden boy of British football and PFA player of the year winner, Gareth Bale to leave Tottenham. The 24 year old Welsh wizard had a stellar season, and his dynamic style of play and extraordinary eye for goal led to comparisons to Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo, who is seen by many as the best player in the world. Despite Bale’s excellent form and ability to grab a game by the scruff of the neck and win it all by himself, Tottenham Hotspurs once again missed out on a spot in the prestigious Champions league. Seeing as all the top players will want to play in this tournament this could possibly spur Bale to consider a move, especially considering the many offers he’d have from the top clubs in the world. Real Madrid seems to be his most likely destination if he leaves due to the fact they have first refusal on him. Their club president, Florentino Perez, even described the winger as ‘born to play for Real Madrid’. However Bale will not come cheap at all, taking him away from Spurs would likely take a bid of more than a staggering £65 million!

Another potential move could be Liverpool FC's Uruguayan hitman, Luis Suarez. Suarez has just come off a mixed season with Liverpool, scoring a great total of 30 goals in all competitions, but he ended the season with great controversy after he bit Chelsea defender, Branislav Ivanovic, and got suspended for 10 games as a result of his actions. Despite saying earlier in the season that he was happy at plying his trade at Merseyside, it seems now Suarez is eager to leave for new pastures that include Champions League football. Like Bale, he is interested in the possibility of joining Real Madrid; but after seeing that the Spanish giants may not be as interested as he first assumed, Suarez has said that joining English clubs like Chelsea or Arsenal are viable options for him. 'El pistolero' is a world class player that would walk into any team in the world, with a maximum of 1 or 2 exceptions, but he will bring a lot of potential controversy and bad publicity wherever he goes. Taking all this into consideration he would most likely cost at least £40 million, with the price being higher if he was sold to another English club.

The last big money move that could be made is Wayne Rooney, the face of the Premier League for the last 8 years. When you think of Manchester United, you think of Wayne Rooney. Season after season he's proved himself to be a truly world class player, adapting to many different positions on the pitch whenever it's been necessary. However it seems that now he wants to leave, after being dethroned as top dog in the Manchester United attack by consecutive golden boot winner, Robin Van Persie. After putting in a transfer request 2 years ago because of a dispute over wages, Rooney has asked for a transfer once again this year after being benched in the crucial Champions League match against Real Madrid. The two possible suitors to attain the services of the former winner of the European Golden Boy award, would be Arsenal and Chelsea. Arsenal seems the less likely of the two due to the fact the chairman's board likes to run the club like a business, and has a specific wage structure that doesn't go too much higher than £100,000 a week.  Rooney would likely be demanding wages of higher than £250,000 a week so it casts a doubt over a move to the Gunners (all that money yet he still can't sort his hair out properly). Chelsea however would be able to afford Rooney's wage demands if they wanted, due to the seemingly endless funds supplied by Russian owner, Roman Abramovich. Current Chelsea manager, Jose Mourinho, has admitted to being an 'admirer of him (Rooney)' and seems to be searching for a top centre forward to replace the £50 million flop, Fernando Torres. Due to the extremely high wages Rooney will demand, it is likely it would take a bid between £20 million - £30 million to prise the Englishman from the red side of Manchester.

These potential transfers could happen in addition to the many big money moves that have already happened in the football world. We've already seen Ballon d'or nominee, Radamel Falcao, move to AS Monaco for €60 million; Uruguayan star striker, Edinson Cavani, move to French champions Paris Saint-Germain for €63 million; and Brazillian golden boy, Neymar, move to Barcelona for €57 million. These are just a handful of the deals that have happened this season and they seem like a lot of money for someone who kicks a ball around for a living, right?

Reyad Malique

England Strike First Blood

England struck first blood in the Ashes series after a nail-biting 14 run victory over Australia at Trent bridge. It was a team effort but credit must be given to Jimmy Anderson who took all 4 wickets on day 5.

It wasn’t always England who looked the likely winners as just after lunch on day one England were bowled out for 215. No player hit a half century with John Trott top scoring with 48. High scorers Alistair Cook and Kevin Pietersen were bowled out for 13 and 14 respectively. However, England hit back when they took 4 wickets for just 53 with Australia finishing on 98-4. And England sensed the initiative when they took 5 more wickets at the start of day 2 with Australia looking down and out on 117 – 9. However, Ashton Agar and Phillip Hughes scored a 163 wicket stand before Agar was caught on 98. Agar was just 2 off his first professional century but did hit the record books becoming the highest scoring eleventh man in an Ashes test match.

On day 3 England wanted bigger scores to set Australia an unreachable target when they batted. After 2 early wickets were lost England started to get what they wanted. Over half centuries from Trott, Cook and Pietersen followed by a century for Ian bell meant England were bowled for 375 – setting the target for Australia as 310.

It started well enough for Australia as they lost the first 3 wickets for a respectable score of 124. They were over half way through their target when they lost 3 wickets for just 3 runs when they went from 161 – 3 to 164 -6. They closed for lunch on 197 for the 6 wickets. Cometh the hour cometh the man was certainly what Jimmy Anderson felt when coming out for the final session when he took the final 4 wickets as Australia were bowled out for 296. Superstar Ashton Agar who was moved up the order to eighth couldn’t rekindle his 98 as he was bowled out for the mere score of 14.

The second test starts on Thursday at Lords cricket ground.  Let’s hope England continue their success!

Ryan Robinson

Summer Sun

After a long and cold winter, you would expect we would be grateful for a bit of warm weather, however with temperatures reaching up to 30°C,  this is all becoming a bit much for some. The weather is set to stay for some time yet and there is a possibility it may last throughout the whole of August and rival the great heat wave of 1976.

This is good news for those who love the sun and holiday goers staying in UK resorts, however, how will the heat and the lack of rain affect the rest of us in our everyday lives? We could see a repeat of last year, where hoe pipe bans were put in place due to the water shortages in reservoirs. For now, though, it's time to get outside and enjoy the sun while it lasts!

Emily Hayward  

Llys Llywelyn Review of the Year 2012-2013

Pupils of Llys Llywelyn have achieved a lot over the past academic year, some of these amazing successes include 7Ll2 winning the Year 7 Benchball tournament with George Ratcliffe being the main man. The Year 7 football team also won the Newport Schools championships and top footballers included Jake Clark, Tomos Vinnicombe, Joseph Keating and Zach Chambers. However the pinnacle goal was provided by George Ratcliffe, who has been tipped to be the next Lionel Messi!

Another triumph was 9Ll2’s Oliver Blenkin who was selected to represent the Gwent Cadet force in a military tattoo in Germany in September; it’s a world class musical event and Oliver will be performing in front of 60,000 people! However it’s not only about doing things for the school or house as two Year 11 pupils (Lucy Bateman & Hannah Thorpe) have spent their free time raising money for the St Anne’s Hospice, a truly selfless effort to help others. Year 10 also joined in with the achievements with Llys Llywelyn pupils Kate Kennedy, Beth Counsell, Phoebe Arthur, Morgan Westacott, Maddison Williams and Samantha Rogers who have all been working with the British Red Cross to train in order to become peer mentors; this involves educating other pupils in the plight of referees and asylum seekers. They plan to represent the rest of the school in September.

Plenty of Llys Llywelyn pupils also took to the stage in the school’s performance of Bugsy Malone, but it was Llys Llywelyn’s Baris Carcabuk who blew everyone away with his performance of Fat Sam! At the end of the year all eyes turned to the annual sports day involving all four Year 7 houses but it was our very own Llys Llywelyn who stole the show with both boys’ and girls’ teams winning the relays, an absolutely fantastic achievement!  Well done to all involved.

A final congratulations to Sunna Tariq & Jay Starmore who were both awarded the title Pupil of the Year for Llys Llywelyn.  What a fantastic year it has been!  Have a great summer holiday.