Remembrance, Motosport, International Finals and Art...

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Remembrance – two minute silence

The school gathered to stand in silence at 11am today.  In a service led by our own Combined Cadet Force, the two minute silence was impeccably observed.

The silence began following the Last Post played by Cadet Butler.  It came to an end when he then played the Reveille.  Then came a second reading:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

When you go home, tell them of us and say,
For your tomorrow, we gave our today.

Remembrance Assemblies

As usual, Mr Whelan led an incredible assembly for each year group.  His assemblies are fascinating, thought-provoking and moving, all at the same time.  I know how much the students feel privileged to listen to somebody who served our country and what remembrance means to him and his former colleagues.

Team TA Motorsport Update

Across the first half term, our Team TA Motorsport team have been very busy, hitting the road for three awesome events featuring hundreds of other teams. For our year 10 team, Castle Combe was their first opportunity to attend a race with their car so they could finally see what all of the fuss was about.

We had missed out on the first half of the season as our cars were held up in America so there were only two chances to qualify for the prestigious International Final at Goodwood. In the first race, both of our cars suffered from some technical issues, which provided us with some challenges but these were overcome, providing many valuable lessons along the way.

Next up was Dunsfold Park, which is always a favourite as it is better known as the Top Gear test track. The teamwork and strategies employed were simply brilliant to see, especially on such a tight track with a staggering 100 other cars on the track! After some awesome battles, we finished 2nd and 3rd overall, meaning that both teams collected trophies and qualified for the International Final!

The final itself was a great event, with thousands of children representing schools from across the world. Once again, our teams performed brilliantly on the day against all of the very best teams in existence. After 180 minutes of racing, our cars had covered an astonishing 132 miles and finished 6th and 11th overall. This was our year 11 team’s final race, their car has now been passed down to our newly formed year 9 team who will stamp their own mark on the car over the winter ready for their first races in the Spring.

Chemistry with Mr Gale

Mr Gale’s year 12 chemistry class have made a fantastic start to the A-level chemistry course.  Their first topic is called ‘Elements of Life’ and they have learned about the structure and types of molecules, atoms and ions that make up living things.  There has been a heavy emphasis on practical work, which the students have thoroughly enjoyed and in which they have developed several important new skills.

Among the topics they have covered are atomic structure, learning about orbitals where electrons are located, and the shapes of molecules, in which they found out that water molecules are V-shaped and that molecules of methane gas are tetrahedral in shape.  They have also learned about atomic emission spectra (important in understanding the colours of fireworks), the arrangement of the periodic table, and how to measure the quantities of chemicals in a wide range of reactions.

In this practical they are analysing Epsom Salts, which are a commonly sold laxative(!).  By carefully heating a sample of Epsom Salts to remove water molecules, they have worked out the exact formula of Epsom Salts, which turns out to be MgSO4.7H2O.

Art & Design

Mrs Lynch’s year 9 Art & Design students have made an incredible start to their BTEC studies in The Creative Arts Department.

The students have recently been studying the work of sculptures Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore and have been exploring the art of carving.

The students initially experimented by drawing pieces of popcorn, in a variety of media and then progressed onto sculpting their designs in bars of soap! After completing more drawings of their work, the students have now graduated onto carving into florists Oasis! As you can see in the photographs, these amazing small sculptures were inspired by these iconic artists. What a fantastic start to their art journey : )

House News

This week’s featured house is Kitson. The four Year 7 students to whom Miss Risk spoke were Maxwell Murphy, Keane O’Neill , Grace Simpson and Sanije Hoxha.  They had plenty of lovely comments on why Kitson was the best house. When she went to speak to the group this morning, every single student wanted to be interviewed to promote Kitson to the wider community.

Maxwell Murphy stated: Kitson is a really good group; I have lots of friends in it. We all stick together as a group and- although we have a few class clowns- we always know when to be polite. We even won ‘Tutor Group of the Week ‘ because of our good manners.

Keane O’Neill added: Our house-captain Miss smith is great because she is very calm and encouraging. I feel very proud to be in Kitson. Some of my successes since starting school are that I have made lots of friends and I have won the ‘Homework of the Week’ award.

Grace Simpson commented: On Friday’s Mr Bindon and Ellis, our sixth-form representative, always visit to award the certificates; they make a good pair and both of them wear green. I enjoy being in tutorial in the mornings as it is always really calm in the room.

Finally, Sanije Hoxha said: Miss Smith is really nice. People in Kitson work hard and get lots of house -points. Everybody in the group gets on well.

Miss Risk then asked the students to tell me what they would say to a Year 6 students who were wondering which house they would like to be in . Everybody stated ‘Kitson!’ without hesitation. ’It’s the best house, it’s a good colour and we can all pull it off!’

Pudding Club

The beats ending the week that seeing what pudding club are up to!  This week it was jam tarts.

English with Miss Elson

Year 7

This week, Miss Elson’s Year 7 English class experienced their first TA Canon. This is a mini-unit that students are able to take once they have completed their knowledge tests, based around texts that we want students to have the opportunity to read before they leave school. These are often texts that are very influential or are referenced in other novels or poems and Year 7’s topic this cycle can be found referenced everywhere in literature – Greek mythology!

This is a unit focused more on reading for pleasure and understanding than analysis and Year 7 have really enjoyed getting to grips with the stories of Prometheus and Pandora to begin with. Although quite a few students had previously read versions of these in primary, they were surprised to discover that myths often had multiple retellings and interpretations – they were particularly shocked to find Pandora opening a jar and not a box! The class was also interested in how Zeus was portrayed far more negatively than in myths they had read at school and were intrigued by the similarities between Greek origin myths and the story of the creation of man in the Bible.

After each text has been read, students are asked to summarise it, write down the key message and to pick out one memorable moment. They’ll also be revising this content in their Do Nows and weekly quizzes next cycle, so the stories will hopefully stick with them as they move through the school.

Year 9

After a wonderful effort with their assessments that clearly showed off their in-depth knowledge of Animal Farm and its historical context, Year 9 also had a chance to start their TA Canon this week. They are reading Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express and have been paying careful attention to all the clues given in the text to try and work out the murderer before Poirot reveals it at the end – some of them seem very close based on their predictions! As well as giving them a taste of the crime fiction genre, something not often studied in school, this text also links to ideas of othering and elitism previously discussed in Year 7 and Year 8; it also begins to establish tropes and cliches that will be useful when they begin their GCSE texts in Year 10.

Fame

I am always amazed at the progress of our Performing Arts Academy as they begin the rehearsals.  Some of the numbers are really coming together already.  This is going to be a great show!

Year 11 Karaoke

A lot of fun was had the Year 11s took to the stage!

Year 7 and 8 Girls National cup football

On Monday, the girls’ football team travelled to Eggbuckland to play in the first round of the National cup. We had a slow start and were 5-2 down at half time. The girls showed excellent grit and determination to come out fighting in the second half. With 5 minutes to go we had pulled it back to 5-5 with some excellent individual and team goals. The game was about to go to penalties when Eggbuckland scored in the last minute to take the win. This was a great effort from the team and they can take a lot from this game. Well done to all involved.

House climbing trials

TA’s annual house climbing competition started on Tuesday on our climbing wall. It involved the year 7 boys and girls with 8 of each qualifying for the finals at Exeter clip and climb before Christmas (Date TBC). Well done to everyone who competed for gaining house points. The year 8 trials will be held in 2 weeks time. Congratulations to the following finalists.

Year 7 Girls Climbing Finalist

Bella Kendal, Anastasia Tukilush, Alesha Black Matthews, Molly Hollomby, Robyn Higgins, Lily Thomas, Poppy Bettridge and Sienna Welsh

Year 7 Boys Climbing Finalist

Harry Pitman, Evan Ciavarella, John Sandbrook, Toby Howell, Archie Norcott, Aaron Hering, Zach Venter and Harry Pudney

Year 10 Boys Football

A busy week for the year 10s, on Tuesday they faced a strong challenge against Ivybridge College in the national cup. It was a big learning curve for the team and Ivybridge came out the winners comfortably after a lacklustre performance from us.

On Thursday they had the chance to redeem themselves with a trip to Camborne in the elite national cup. We didn’t start very well and found ourselves 3-0 down after 25 minutes, with every element possible happening in the game – wind, rain, goalposts breaking, grass above your feet, you name it both sides had to deal with it!

The boys eventually turned it around and played to the conditions coming in at the break 3-2.

In the second half we were camped in their half but one lapse of concentration allowed them in to make it 4-2. We fought back and showed some good character to finish the game 4-4 taking it into penalties. Our players kept their nerves and dispatched all their pens to take us into the next round.

Students of the Week

Year 7 – Halle Walker and Finley Dawson

Year 8 – Rufus Scrase and Faye Cassidy

Year 10 – Daisy Gibbing and Alfie Walker-Fenner

Year 11 – Kole Gjikolaj and Penny Richards

Sixth Form – Holly smith and Thomas Johnson

House Stars of the Week

Year 7

Brunel – Will Wrathall

Christie – Sonny Cayford

Darwin – Riley Burton

Fawcett – Talia Street

Harrison – Maria Nihtyanova

Kitson – Harry McCarthy

Nearne – Bella Kendal

Pengelly – Emily Cooper

Year 8

Brunel – Ella Randall

Christie – Anna Pearn

Darwin – Summer Holmes

Fawcett – Harrison Harkin

Harrison – Mihai Marin

Kitson – Nikkita Hookway

Nearne – Eva Spicer

Pengelly – Ben Jeffs

Year 9

Brunel – Elvin Fellows

Christie – Callum Jackson

Darwin – Summer Faulkes

Fawcett – Liam Churchward

Kitson – Wojcjech Tabaczuk

Pengelly – Charlie Pettit

Homework Stars of the Week

Year 7

Brunel – Euan Miller

Christie – Chandler De-Niro

Darwin – Finlay Clark

Fawcett – Toby Hamilton

Harrison – Molly Hollomby

Kitson – Grace Simpson

Nearne – Tanya Neil

Pengelly – April Hubbard

Year 8

Brunel – Grace Halsey

Christie – Sophia Burnham

Darwin – Grace Green

Fawcett – Lila Budavolgyi

Harrison – Eden Nelson-Minns

Kitson – Chloe Burton

Nearne – Vincent Leibrick

Pengelly – Phoebe Smith

Year 9

Christie – Joe Taylor

Darwin – Charlie Frankum

Fawcett – Torrin Byers

Kitson – Phoebe Denbow

Pengelly – Erin Bond

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