House Art, rehearsals, climbing and PSHE day
House Art Competition – Years 7 & 8
Mrs Lynch and Miss Nixon have been running an in house art competition for year 8 and year 7 students, we have had some amazing entries. These will also be entered into the rotary international competition. The theme of this competition was ‘colours of nature’.
Oliver!
This week I have had the privilege of watching the Performing Arts Academy rehearse for next year’s performance of Oliver. It is already looking amazing.
Climbing Club
Each Friday Mr Bestwetherick runs a climbing club for students of all abilities. They get the opportunity to learn how to climb, develop their skills or learn how to set up a hammock on the side of a cliff!
TA Creative Arts
The Creative Arts department has produced a video that shows off our excellent 6th Form provision of music performance, music technology, drama, art and photograpghy.
Custard Tarts and Burgers
Kitson House -Top House of the Week
All students and many parents will be aware that every week we collate the number of house points that are awarded to all students and calculate which house has achieved the top weekly position. House points are awarded in Period 1 for homework completion and having the right equipment as well as in all lessons for excellent effort, behaviour and achievement. Our house point totals are always impressive and students eagerly await to see which house will be top of their year and the overall top house for the school. The totals, positions and top houses in each year group are colour coded and displayed on our interactive television screens across the school throughout the week.
This week, for the second time this term, Kitson are the top house having earned an extremely impressive 1893 house points. Furthermore, 7K and 8K were both top forms in their year with totals of 532 and 698 respectively. Mr Bindon, head of house, and Mr Yao, house tutor, are both delighted.
This morning when Miss Risk photographed 7K, she had the opportunity to talk to some of our outstanding students about how they had achieved so many house points. Jett Pheonix Butler told her that he always received points for answering questions in Maths, Louis Tillin explained that he has achieved 100% in a Geography assessment and had twice won a music tracking game, Sophia Box had been very helpful by giving out books in lessons and had also been awarded for a music performance, Daisy Cosh was praised for reading aloud in class and answering questions in full, articulate sentences, finally Ethan Lynch was able to answer a GCSE question in History. Everybody will agree, I am sure that these house points are very well deserved. This week’s picture is of 7K as they celebrate being our weekly top house.
PSHE Day
On the second of our PSHE days we welcomed Alterego theatre company to do performances to our year 7, 8 and 9. This focussed on sexism, sexual harassment and inappropriate sexual behaviour.
The year 7 students also looked at aspects of online safety and how relationships differ online. As part of the ‘health and wellbeing’ students looked at why people might take drugs and how caffeine can be misused. We continued with our emotional health education. Students also looked at changes through life including loss and grief.
Year 8 students looked at the potential consequences of gang membership. We also looked at aspects of health, continuing their education of alcohol and drugs, and how to reduce the risk of cancer. We also had sessions from ‘wellbeing workshops’ on identity . Also we looked at how we need to have healthy coping strategies in order to maintain our emotional health.
‘Next Steps SouthWest’ ran sessions on ‘careerpilot to help students identify future careers. We also looked at taking increasing responsibility for our own health, as we get older, and how to make wise decisions to support this. The ‘relationships’ theme continued with students identifying healthy and unhealthy relationship behaviours and strategies to deal with these. Finally, students looked at the importance of looking after their mental health, helpful strategies and how to seek help, if required.
The year 10 students also looked at healthy relationships alongside a more detailed session on exploitation. They looked at ways that their life style choices might impact their learning. A session on aspiring to university and the financing of this.
Year 11 students worked in curriculum areas.
The sixth form spent a large proportion of the day preparing for adult life. They looked at aspects of being safe of the road, as they become car drivers, or are driven by young drivers. We looked at the consequences of alcohol, distractions and excessive speed. We continued their financial education by looking at the impact of renting verses buying and the consequences of taking a payday loan. The advantages and disadvantages of taking an apprenticeship as a career option were considered.
Ex student Lauren Barrett talking to our Year 7s on PSHE day.
Sixth Form Open Evening
It feels that it has been too long since we have been able to welcome parents into school. On Thursday night we were delighted to be able to welcome Year 11 parents and students into school to learn more about our amazing 6th Form and to meet A level teachers to learn more about the different subjects we offer.
Devon Sportshall League Athletics
On Sunday, Year 10s Hannah, Ava, Grace & Penny headed to Plymouth Life Centre for the latest Sportshall meet that incorporated the Devon Championships. Between them they competed in the 2 lap sprint, 4 lap sprint, 2 lap hurdles, shot put, standing long jump & standing triple jump. The U15 relay team including Hannah & Grace finished 2nd. They gave 100% in each event, and in the Championships Hannah won bronze medal in 2 lap hurdles & Grace a bronze in shot put. Very well done, girls.
Another sunset
This one courtesy of Mr Gale.
Students of the week
Year 7 – George O’Hanlon and Freya Coatesworth
Year 9 – Isabelle Davis and Harry Russell
Year 11 – Jasmine Armour and Charlie Nunn
Sixth Form – Nick Turner
House Stars of the week
Year 7
Darwin – Riley Calland
Fawcett – Felicity Adams
Harrison – Emilie Payne
Kitson – Kyla Britton
Nearne – Analaise Biggs
Pengelly – Orley Copeland
Year 8
Darwin – Lucas Berry
Fawcett – Amy Harrison
Harrison – Owen Waller
Kitson – Lottie Davis
Nearne – Nelly Siuchninski
Pengelly – Olivia Walters
Year 9
Christie – Abbie Dodd
Fawcett – Maja Davies
Harrison – Marcus De Lucis
Kitson – Klaudia Opel
Nearne – Lilly John
Pengelly – Ollie Sillis
Homework Stars of the week
Year 7
Brunel – Lola-Grace Thomas
Darwin – Daisy Hellier
Fawcett – Aleksandra Treder
Harrison – Jack Slater
Kitson – Olly Payne
Nearne – Maja De Carvalho
Pengelly – Amy Rogers
Year 8
Darwin – James Hutt
Fawcett – Billy Wilcox
Harrison – Calum Harrison
Kitson – Benjamin Watts
Nearne – Madi Chandler
Pengelly – Ethan Lane
Year 9
Fawcett – Aiden Chadwick
Harrison – Libbie Green
Kitson – Frankie Garvey
Nearne – Lacey Nicholson
Sparx Leaderboards
Tassomai Leaderboards
Accelerated Reader Leaderboards
