Ten Tors, Pathways and Haldon Forest Cycling

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Fun Friday – Open Mic

The fun continues! This Friday lunchtime we held a karaoke showcase in The Platform. There were some amazing performances from both staff and students.  The atmosphere was just amazing and I’m already looking forward to next week…

Ten Tors Training

The 45 milers took on a route which included an icy start heading out onto the Moor and went out to Cranmere Pool letter box. In days gone by tourists used to need a guide to find it. Our team came back with various evidence that they had all made it. What an amazing sunny day they had for it.

The 35 mile cadets had their first experience out on the Moor having carefully planned their route before they left school. They took in Yes Tor and found a few icy bits but all returned at the correct time looking a bit more tired than when they started. A really promising start with plenty of students out. The difficult times will be cutting them down to a squad.

Elite Club

It was lovely to visit Mr Christopher’s elite club on Wednesday after school. They had baked some lovely chocolate chip cookies with the help of Ms Spiller and Mr Chadwick.

Year 8 Pathways

It was a brilliant evening on Thursday as we invited students, parents and carers into school to discuss GCSE options. Dr Hocking gave a presentation in The Platform outlining the options process for everyone. There was then an opportunity to speak to subject teachers as well as fellow students about the GCSE subjects. I am so impressed with the maturity of our students as they make decisions about the future academic studies.

BIMM University Music Auditions

We couldn’t be more proud of our sixth form music students Charlotte Povey, Sam Beer, Emily Haddon and Kasey Dickson who have all been invited to audition at their first choice university, BIMM (British & Irish Modern Music Insititue). BIMM is the largest and leading provider of music education in Europe with colleges in London, Berlin, Dublin, Manchester, Bristol, Brighton, Birmingham and Hamburg. Our students are hoping to secure places on BA (Hons) degree courses which specialise in Popular Music Performance, Music Production, Events Management and Performing Arts

BIMM students make up the largest alumni network in European music, with graduates working across all areas of music and the creative industries. From award-winning solo artists such as James Bay and Tom Odell, to chart-topping singers like George Ezra and Izzy Bizu, to multi-million selling band The Kooks, and music business professionals like CODA’s booking agent Natasha Bent and UNILAD’s creative lead Charlie Martin. We can’t wait for our amazing students to join the list!

To secure an audition at this leading music university is a huge achievement. All of the students have been working extremely hard preparing their audition performances, music theory knowledge, and production portfolios. We’d like to wish them the very best for their auditions over the forthcoming weeks. Watch this space!

Year 11 Food PPE

It was great to see the Year 11 Hospitality & Catering students in their mock practical exam this week.  There has been some great work so far with some very impressive skills demonstrated.

Team TA Sports Roundup

Devon into semi finals

Many congratulations to our Team TA Sport boys who helped The Devon FA Under 18 progress into the national inter-county semi-finals.  Many congratulations to Josh Nicol, Jamie Passmore, Cole Harford, Matt Roberts & Josh Parry.  This is an incredible achievement to have progressed so far in the competition and to have almost half of Devon’s team attending our school.

First team training

Why are our boys the best performing school or college team in the Southwest? It’s because they work the hardest, day in and day out. This video shows not only their incredible skill, but just how hard they work.

Year 7 Football

Year 7s beat Churston in county cup by 2 goals to nil, the first coming from Sam Hext after great work on the wing by Alfie Porter. The second goal was scored by Amari Hadley after a neat through ball by Sam Hext. We now start preparing for our last 16 fixture next week against Toynbee school front Eastleigh.

Well done to Lewis Vinson, Harley Sneap, Liam Poole and Charlie Tout who played for the district side against mid-Somerset on Thursday, they all played extremely well and came out winning 8-3. Congratulation to them and we look forward to seeing who they play next.

Table Tennis – Zone Champions

Our Under 16 table tennis team travelled to Plymouth on Sunday to take part in the South West zonal finals of the table tennis national qualifiers. The team had to play against teams from Cornwall, Dorset and Somerset as well as Eggbuckland School from Plymouth who we tied with in the Devon Championships early this year but lost on countback to them. In the group stages we were up against Penryn College Cornwall and Highcliffe School Dorset, it was obvious from the start that adding Ivan Vaplak and Jaukb Piwowar to the team was going to pay dividends.

We beat Penryn 8-0 and then dispatched Highcliffe 7-1, although this was a much tougher game than the score would suggest. These results ensured that we had made it through to the semi finals where we would meet our old adversaries Eggbuckland. This was to prove to be a very different affair than the last time we played them. We quickly stormed into a 3-1 lead and carried on to win 6-2, This was a great result for the team, in particular Will Bevan and Nick Turner who played some excellent basketball.

In the final we were up against Highcliffe School again and having already dispatched of them in the group stages we were quietly confident but knew from the group stages that they were capable of playing some excellent table tennis.  As it turned out our confidence was not misplaced as we went on to beat them 7-1, making us the zonal winners. An excellent achievement for these four boys and the table tennis programme we run at the school. They now go onto the Regional finals that serve as the qualification for the National finals, our task will be much more difficult in this round as we are playing the best of the best and will be without our number one Jakub who is away on a European table tennis training camp.

U13 Cricket

The year 8 cricket team travelled to Exeter University to take part in the County Finals for indoor cricket on Monday. Upon arrival most of the boys were thankful that Mr Richardson told them to dress for the outdoors as the temperature inside the dome was even lower than the freezing temperatures outside! The boys went through a thorough warm up and started their first game well. They were just edged out by the opposition and lost by only 6 runs. The next game the boys romped home to an easier victory winning by over 20 runs. The final group game saw the boys unknowingly face the eventual finalists and only lost out by under 10 runs. Some great cricket played in a very competitive group and had the boys been placed in the opposing group things might have been different. That said the boys went into the final game playing the team that finished in the same position in the other group. The boys bowled them out for just 28 runs (the lowest score of the day) and smashed an incredible 128 runs (second highest score of the day) in reply.

A great, if not chilly, day of cricket was thoroughly enjoyed by all. Congratulations to all involved.

Haldon Forest Cycling House Competition

Last Wednesday the Year 8s were taken to Haldon forest for our annual cycling house competition. They raced on Haldon blue run with the top 4 qualifying for finals at the Olympic Velodrome in Newport Wales. Congratulations to the following students who finished in the top 4 to join the year 7s in our finals in February.

Year 7 Boys
Kieran Taylor
Finley Anderson
Issac Jacobs
James Lovell

Year 7 Girls
Maddison Rees
Taylor Reynolds
Roberta Bankes-Fay
Isabella Aguado-Georgian

Year 8 Boys
Will Howard
Will Harrison
Robin Pightling
Sam Sherwood

Year 8 Girls
Ava Sams
Nikita Howells
Melissa Arscott

Jim Gamble’s TEDx Talk – ‘Online safety – It’s not about the Internet’

Jim Gamble QPM, is a retired senior police officer and the former chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP). He is now the CEO of the Ineqe Group, the Independent Child Safeguarding Commissioner for the City & Hackney Safeguarding Children Partnership and the Independent Chairperson for Bromley Safeguarding Children Partnership.

Recently, Jim Gamble gave a thought-provoking TEDx talk on online safety ‘It’s not about the Internet’. The talk considers the nature of the online threat including the nature of the beast, the suggestion that blaming tech companies is too simplistic, the importance of individual leadership and simple ideas that can make us all safer.

Students of the Week

Students of the week this week are: Kevin Vieira, Thomas Murr, Mia Lewis, Lewis Rusby, Joel Copping, Kaja Kuryluk

Principal Certificates

Bronze: (not in order) Sophie Packer, Marcus De Lucis, Kasha-Lily Borge, Liam Cartwright, Aj Alexander, Mollie Stanion, Lee Ross, Mya Sharpe, Ella McLachlan, Karl Burton, Melvin Page, Calen Thomas-Tyrer, Nina Hocking, Chloe Rae, Harry Hollomby, Jayden Gardner, Isabella Aguado-Georgian, Ben Puddicombe, Amy Hoskin, Shania Blades, Jamie Nunn, Adam Pac, Alice Little, Cody Mack, Mason McCarthy-Payne, Charlie Nunn, Jessica Breach, Toby Leaver, Elizabeth Cameron, Emily Mahoney-Billis

Silver: Penny Richards, Oriana McCaul, Aidan Chadwick, Olivia Wood, Callum Yeates

 Gold: Rebecca Glasson, Finley Herbert

House Stars of the Week

Year 7

Brunel – Honey Buckingham

Christie –

Darwin –

Fawcett – May Sharpe

Harrison – Brooke Bowden

Kitson – Oliver Stevens

Nearne –

Pengelly –

Year 8

Brunel –

Christie – Steve Fitzpatrick

Darwin –

Fawcett – Danny Dryden

Harrison – Redd Benson

Kitson – Oliver McMullen

Nearne –

Pengelly –

Year 9

Brunel –

Christie – Archie Hughes

Darwin –

Fawcett –

Harrison – Finn Drew

Kitson – Shay Connolly

Nearne –

Pengelly – Holly Bastow

Homework Stars of the Week

Year 7

Brunel – Melvin Page

Christie –

Darwin –

Fawcett – Sean Crawford

Harrison – Jaydan Dawson

Kitson – Kaitlin Wright

Nearne –

Pengelly –

Year 8

Brunel –

Christie – Cameron Sengupta

Darwin –

Fawcett – Danny Dryden

Harrison – Harrison Shaw

Kitson – Kai Alexander

Nearne –

Pengelly –

Year 9

Brunel –

Christie – Will Bevan

Darwin –

Fawcett –

Harrison – Finley Last

Kitson – Holly Roberts

Nearne –

Pengelly – Cody Mack