by Mr Ford - 8th November 22
FIFA World Cup fever will soon be gripping Bassaleg School and, on Tuesday 8th November, 8EPE became part of Welsh World Cup history by contributing to BBC Radio Wales’ broadcast of the unveiling of the Wales squad for the tournament.
For those of you who don’t know, the FIFA World Cup kicks off on Sunday 20th November and Wales will be taking part in the tournament for the first time since 1958! Wales manager Rob Page will be unveiling his squad of 26 players for the tournament on Wednesday 9th November, and this is where 8EPE came in…
Mr Chris Wathan, parent of Emilie Wathan 8EPE, is a radio broadcaster who works for BBC Radio Wales, and he contacted the school to ask if some of our pupils would like to be involved in the squad announcement, by having him record their voices announcing the names of the chosen players. The recording of our pupils' voices will be used in BBC Radio Wales’ live announcement of the squad, in order to symbolise what an important moment this could be for the future of Welsh football.
8EPE did a brilliant job in pronouncing the names of the Welsh squad hopefuls (Ethan Ampadu, Rabbi Matondo and Chris Mepham’s names all tested their pronunciation skills) and Mr Wathan was really impressed with how they were able to project their voices in a loud and clear manner.
8EPE were disappointed to learn that they weren’t getting a sneak peak of which players made the final squad of 26 one day ahead of this being publicly announced; they recorded the names of about 35 hopeful players, but were particularly enthusiastic in announcing the names of squad stalwarts like Aaron Ramsey, Kieffer Moore and, of course, Gareth Bale!
8EPE really enjoyed becoming a small part of Welsh World Cup history, and were very grateful to Mr Wathan for giving them the opportunity to do so.