Fun Friday, Silver DofE on Dartmoor and House Mascots

Fun Friday

The Year 7s had their Fun Friday in their playground today. There was a wide range of games for them to play and winning would lead to sweet prizes. We had lots of fun in the sunshine!

House Awards

It seems the biggest House competition is between the Heads of House to see how large their entourages can be when delivering certificates on a Friday morning! The Year 7s (as well as the other years) loved seeing them.

Highest Tassomai Points

Congratulations to Finley Thompson who has achieved 4487 tassomai points the most in the whole school, coming a close second was Ela Uven with 4134 points and Jack O'Connor achieved 3684 points. Well done to you all, a fantastic start to the year to three students who are all in 7B!

Gold Sports Mark

We are delighted to announce that we have achieved the School Games Gold Mark Award for the 2023/24 academic year. The School Games Mark is a Government-led award scheme launched in 2012, facilitated by the Youth Sport Trust to reward schools for their commitment to the development of competition across their school and into the community, and we are delighted to have been recognised for our success. Our sporting achievements last year were phenomenal and we have had more students than ever competing in local inter-school competitions this year. We are extremely proud of our students for their dedication to all aspects of school sport. As part of our application, we were asked to fulfil criteria in the areas of participation, competition, workforce and clubs, and we are pleased that the hard work of everyone at our school has been rewarded this year. This is the feedback that we received:

TA work hard to provide a wide variety of opportunities for all their students. They offer leadership training and hands-on opportunities to practice the skills they have learnt. They engage and support the School Games programme as much as they can and have excellent community links.

Year 7 Homework

We were very proud of how well the Year 7s worked in the Period 5 homework sessions this week. They worked with the Heads of House until 4.15pm to ensure they have a deep understanding of how to complete their homework.

DofE Silver: Dartmoor practice walk

Last Saturday 24 Duke of Edinburgh Silver Award students from Year 11 undertook a training walk on Dartmoor. The aim of the walk was to practice map and compass navigation skills, prior to their expedition in a few weeks time. This training was essential as the students' own routes they will plan for the qualifying expedition may cross the southern edge of Dartmoor.

With an 8.30 meet at school the students were in good spirits and the weather was looking good. This Silver cohort is a very mixed group in terms of experience. The experience ranges from none, to DofE Bronze expeditions, and up to Ten Tors 35 mile team members. However, after a Summer Holiday that may not have included much moorland hiking, the 12km circular walk above South Brent to Spurrells Cross was a perfect opener to the season.

With some map to ground skills practiced in the lanes from South Brent to Wrangaton Golf course, the route shortly entered open moorland. On the lanes the students proved adept at matching map landmarks to the actual landmarks on the ground. Here on the open moorland the students were trained in walking on a bearing and pacing skills. The first challenge was taking map bearings along the moorland path from the golf course to Spurrells Cross. They soon saw how important it was to walk on these bearings as they noticed the number of sheeps tracks that branched off the route and the gorse bushes that were growing all around the path!

The students really showed resilience in completing the 12km walk, particularly as the rain came in after lunch! And they continued to get stuck into practicing their navigation skills. Mr Adams, Mr Brett, Mrs Schwarz and Mr Whelan allowed their groups to take the lead in navigating much of the 12km circular route. And all did a brilliant job!

Next challenge the Practice Expedition - 27th September to 29th September, then on to the Qualifying Expedition - 18th to 20th October.

Well done to the following DofE Silver students: Cerys Lowe, Summer Faulkes, Emma Matthews, Amber Dicken, Amelie McCaul, Noah Butler, Lewis Watt, Joe Taylor, Ollie Coleman, Jack Hicks, Leon Mugliston, Finn Moncrieff, Rayan Nafim, Adam Wright, Jemima Jones, Millie Sneap, Eve Cameron, Amy Harrison, Ivy Hodgson-Hunt, Sara Martins, Nelly Siuchninska, Agata Sadlik, Ema Kestell.

A Level Art

Our A level art students have made an enthusiastic start to the year by exploring a variety of drawing exercises all designed to awaken their drawing ability and build confidence. We’ve used traditional media, such as pencil, charcoal, and ink, with a focus on mastering line, shape and form whilst working from a still life of musical instruments in the art room. Students have also been challenged to push the boundaries by completing paired drawings and distance drawing with the assistance of a garden cane; these tasks were to build communication skills and create different qualities of line which could later be developed into sculptural responses.

Performing Arts Auditions

It is another year and the PAA audition are underway for years 8 -13, there was a huge turnout for the first evening and everyone did really well.

Draculin

Draculin played at the Princess Theatre last weekend to an audience of over 700 people. They were a huge success and went down very well, with huge applause and a standing ovation at the end of the gig! Well done, we look forward to seeing where this year takes you.

Year 11 Sport Science

This week, Year 11 have been gathering data to use in their final coursework assignment, which is focussed on the short and long-term effects of exercise and the use of technology. The students were required to exercise for 15 minutes, working at over 60% of their maximum heart rate and then monitor various physiological changes due to the onset of aerobic activity. Students worked to gather data and record their results in a table, which they will then analyse as part of their written coursework. The year 11s worked very hard to gather a strong set of data results and will continue next week to complete their coursework write-up and application of the knowledge gained so far.

Parents' Information Evenings

This week we have held parents' information evenings for Years 10, 11 and 12. They were all exceptionally well attended and provided parents with an overview of the year ahead and information about how they can support their children over the next 12 months. Thank you to the staff who led the evenings and to the parents who attended.

Athletics Personal Bests

Frankie & Mimi Skelly and Keeley & Annalise Little finished a great season of athletics on a very wet track in Yeovil at the weekend even producing some personal bests for the season in the wet conditions.