Carved in Stone

Twenty students at Kingsbridge Community College have had a fantastic opportunity this week to take part in a Stone Carving Residency.

Taking the art and symbolism of North American and Pacific North West totem poles as a starting point, students worked on small scale clay models of animals, fish and spirit faces, which then had to be transferred onto one foot square blocks of Bath stone. Professional sculptors, Kate Semple and John Candler, were on hand to teach the very technically demanding stone carving skills.

The finished sculpture will stack up the individual blocks to make a monumental totem pole, over 12 feet tall, to be erected on the college site as a permanent landmark.

Head of Art Peter O’Sullivan said ‘It is inspiring for the students to work with professional crafts people on an extremely demanding challenge. This will be an invaluable life experience as well as creating a local landmark for future generations.’

Kingsbridge Students Face up to a Gruelling Challenge

Some 30 youngsters from Kingsbridge faced the 51st annual Ten Tors Challenge last weekend. All of the 5 teams of 6 students representing Kingsbridge Community College and Horizons Youth Centre completed the gruelling Dartmoor challenge walking distances between 35 and 55 miles.

After an early wake up on Saturday morning the artillery guns sounded at 0700 and the challenge was on. Many parents had made the trek to Okehampton to see the teams start.  With favourable weather conditions on Saturday all five teams progressed well on their routes and reached their 8th Tor. A sharp start in the morning saw all teams moving just after 0600 with Torrin Blazeby’s 35 Mile team in just after 11am and Adam Quick’s 35s in close on their heels. James Montague’s team crossed the finish just after 1pm having covered 55 Miles in just less than 30 hours; an amazing performance indeed. Roger Harris’s 45 Mile team came in at 1400 with Beth Walker’s 45s in shortly after. The teams were presented with their medals by officers from the 43 Wessex Brigade, who organise the annual event, and certificates to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Dartmoor National Park.

“I’m so proud of all our students’ achievements both in the event and training” says Neil Cameron, Leader of Outdoor Education at Kingsbridge. “We had nearly 50 students’ complete training for the event this year and it was really difficult to choose teams to represent Kingsbridge at Ten Tors. Our motto this year had been “Teamwork; less me, more we”. For us this is the key for both students and staff. We rely upon a large team of college and volunteer staff throughout the season to train and keep our students safe. We even had a website running from our marquee in Okehampton to update parents on our teams’ progress. Well done to all our students and staff who have been part of this highly successful programme. Training starts for next years’ event in the new college year in September.

Year 10 Employment Day

Students from Year 10 at Kingsbridge Community College spent a day rehearsing for future employment.   They had been getting ready for the event for weeks, writing CVs, rehearsing for the interviews with friends in tutor time, and most difficult of all, choosing the right outfit for the day.

Vero Thomas, in charge of Work Related Learning at the College said, “The idea behind Employment Day is to prepare students for their work experience placement in July, which for many is their first contact with the world of work.  Although students were a little nervous before their interviews, the smiles spoke for themselves as they came out”.

Students were briefed about Health and Safety in the Workplace and had the opportunity to discuss careers and progression routes post-16 with our Connexions Personal Advisors.  But as always, the highlight of the day was the individual interview:  25 interviewers, local employers, college governors and members of the community kindly gave of their time to help students develop good interview techniques and build their confidence.  

Certificates were awarded for best interviews and CVs and all students received individual feedback on their interview skills and tips on how to improve their CVs, which will stand them in good stead for the future.

Roger Pope, Principal, said: “Linking what we do at College with the world of work brings real motivation and we are very grateful to all the interviewers and many staff who made this day possible”.

Academy Journalists

Congratulations to the team of student journalists who have just produced the second in the Academy Gazette series being published by the Kingsbridge Gazette. Not only is this a superb way to broadcast the many trips, visits and success of students from the College to the community, but it is an excellent way in which students can gain first hand experience of journalism.

Thank you to Mrs White and her team for all the hard work and effort which goes into making the articles so interesting and informative.

Wicked Trip

34 Kingsbridge Community College students across all year groups travelled by train to London on Wednesday 27th April to see the show "Wicked”  at the Apollo Theatre in Victoria.  For some students this was their first experience of a West End show and even to London itself.  Having performed a selection of songs from the show at the Spring concert, members of the choir were very excited to see them performed by professionals in the stunning Apollo Theatre in Victoria.  Many thanks to Amy Stephens, Rod Birtles, Sian Jamison, Caroline Montague and Alison Naylor who gave up the time to join Ms Mitchell on this trip.

Roger Pope, Principal, said: "We were delighted to subsequently receive a telephone call from a member of the public who phoned in to comment on the excellent behaviour of the students on the train. She said, “My heart sank when the group of students joined my carriage but they were a total delight and a credit to your school”.

Raising Aspirations

On 7th April, 30 Year 8 students from Kingsbridge Community College went to Exeter University to find out more about University life. The day started with a talk from the University about the types of courses they could study and some fascinating facts about Exeter University.  Students then went out in groups with a student ambassador from the University and toured the campus and facilities, this was a real highlight for a lot of the students.

In the afternoon the students took part in an interactive quiz about the truths and myths of University and then students from the University talked about all aspects of student life and answered the questions from the Year 8 students.
At the end of the day many of the students commented how it had changed their perceptions of what it takes to get to University, some were overwhelmed at how the physics block was bigger than our main block and technology block combined!

Matt Bindon, Head of Year 8, said: "As ever our students were a credit to the college and we hope this trip has raised the aspirations of students who might not have thought that University life was for them".

Below are some of the thoughts of our students on the day.

 “It was really interesting learning about the sports leagues and facilities the university has” George Jones

“I think today was really useful, because I was unsure about wanting to go to
University but now I realise I do want to go” Chloe Yalland

“I found looking around the campus really interesting it made me realise how big it is” Nicola Hill

Kingsbridge Students take Silver

On Thursday 31st March, a team of four students from Kingsbridge Community College went to the regional finals of the UK Team Maths Challenge at the Plymouth Guildhall. This national competition is run by the UK Mathematics Trust, an educational charity working to promote Maths Education from a base at the University of Leeds. The team, made up of Daisy Hughes and Lewis Newton from Year 8 and Michael Carson and Sebastian Ansley from Year 9, did a brilliant job and came a close second out of the nineteen schools taking part.

So what did they have to do to achieve this outstanding result? The day was split into four rounds of fiendishly difficult questions designed to test team work as well as mental agility and mathematical ability. They began with a fairly straightforward round of ten tough questions to tackle in 45 minutes, distributed amongst the team as they saw fit – the first test of strategy as well as mathematical aptitude! Our team were then paired with a competitor group to for a frantic head-to-head round where they competed against their opponents to be the first to correctly answer a series of questions. They then recovered with a well-earned lunch before the next round, a cunningly devised crossword where all the answers were numbers and some clues needed other questions to be completed before they made sense. Oh, and only half the team were allowed to see the across clues and half the down – so excellent team work was required! The final round was probably the most exciting of the day: a mathematical relay with the students running to give in their answers and collect the next questions – they kept this up for around 40 minutes of mental and physical effort!

Richard Kilby, Head of KS3 Maths at Kingsbridge, said: “The students did a brilliant job and enjoyed the day. At end of it all, the teacher who was working with them (teachers swopped schools to ensure no cheating!) was extremely complimentary about the group’s attitude and ability, and although they were just pipped to the post for first place, we are all really impressed with their achievement. Congratulations team!”.

To follow:-
Pictured are students (L to R):
Seb Ansley, Michael Carson, Daisy Hughes and Lewis Newton