Great Torrington School Spring 2018

Great Torrington School Calvesford Road Great Torrington EX38 7DJ 01805 623531 [email protected] www.gts.devon.sch.uk HEAD TEACHER'S MESSAGE It is hard to believe that I am writing to reflect on a first term as the Head of GTS. Time always passes swiftly in education but this term has been especially fast for me and all at GTS. Settling in to a new role, despite many years at the school, has been in equal measure rewarding and challenging in terms of the learning required. I have enjoyed building on existing relationships with pupils, parents, staff and members of the community and I feel GTS is in a strong position to continue to build on its previous strengths.

Meeting our new intake of pupils was a real pleasure last month and we are all looking forward to welcoming the pupils and parents to the GTS family over the coming months of Transition. Seeing our current Year 7 now as confident, independent young learners is a testament to them as individuals and the school in its use of the curriculum and its ethos of pastoral care. It never ceases to amaze me how far our young people come in the first two terms at GTS and it is incredible to think that our new Transition Leaders were sat nervously in the sports hall only a year ago for their intake evening.

Whilst pupils have continued to work hard in the classroom, staff and pupils have found time to enjoy and develop their talents and interest in other areas. In Performing Arts, the GCSE Drama pupils delivered a gritty performance of Flesh and musically, two sold out performances of School of Rock, have showcased the talent available in musical theatre. There have been many successes on the sports field with the Rugby and Netball teams all doing well and it was great to see a team representing GTS at Handball for the first time. Chess at GTS has grown in popularity over the past few years and I was very pleased that we were able to host schools from across the region in a chess competition last week. The list of opportunities for pupils at GTS is extensive and although I am unable to capture all that has gone on this term I strongly encourage all pupils to get involved.

GCSE season is fast approaching and I know the Year 11 pupils are really getting their heads down for the final push. It is important that they make the most of the time left available for preparation and revision but equally we, as the adults supporting them, make sure we help manage the stress and pressures that come with the exams. The staff and pupils of GTS wish them the best of luck, we are all behind them and we are confident that they will achieve great things.

Wishing you all a peaceful and happy Easter break.

Mr A Bloodworth Headteacher As part of the school’s effort to raise Numeracy levels, we invited the Happy Puzzle HAPPY PUZZLE Company to run one of their workshops with all Year 8 pupils. This was a great hit last year, so on Tuesday 26 February they were back. DAY Each pupil in Year 8 attended a 100min session of puzzle challenges. Many of these could be solved fairly swiftly, but they required collaborative learning skills with a careful strategic planning in order to find a solution. If the temptation to give up started to appear, the programme taught the students how to persevere, put their own skills to better use as part of a team and overcome difficulties by approaching problems from a different perspective.

The pupils were completely immersed all the way through and revelled in trying out the different puzzles. Numeracy is widely regarded as the ability to handle basic numbers and deal with everyday number tasks. However, the skills required to solve these puzzles like logical reasoning are a core part of Numeracy, too. These are too often overlooked and they need developing as much as the plain number handling. When they can be taught in such an enjoyable way it clearly is a win-win situation for the pupils! Mr Klingenstein

OLD GTS ALUMNI NETWORK We are developing our Alumni network for former Great Torrington School students.

We are very keen to discover what our previous students have achieved since leaving us and how your careers have progressed.

We have stated to develop a group of people with a diverse education, career choices and shared experiences which can be acknowledge by our pupils.

We would like all members of the Alumni to keep in touch through our social media platforms, receive regular newsletters and school updates. Recently Chris Bright, Jayne Poole, Alice Hayward, Kevin Beer, Danny Holdcroft and Emily Herbert returned to Great Torrington Our aim is to inspire and encourage our School to spend the morning with Year 11. They talked about their current students at Great Torrington experience of school and their career aspirations and life School as well as publicise the success of experiences. Thank you to our alumni who generously dedicated our former students to the community. their time to assist or Year 11 in preparing for their futures.

It would be great to have you join! https://networks.futurefirst.org.uk/signup/greattorrington

BIKEABILITY This term saw quite a few of year 7 pupils complete their level 3 Bikeability programme, which has been an ongoing assessment in partnership with the Plymouth School Sports Partnership who provide Bikeability Level 1 & 2 training across Devon in Schools. Bikeability enables our pupils to gain practical skills and understanding on how to cycle on today’s roads – it gives everyone the skills and confidence for all kinds of cycling.

During their programme, they learnt how to prepare for a journey and;

· understand advanced road positioning · pass queuing traffic · perceive and deal with hazards · understand driver blind spots · react to hazardous road surfaces

We’re very proud of the pupils for their achievements and were extremely lucky to have good weather despite a little bit cold on some days. All pupils behaved and performed exceptionally well.

Congratulations!

To celebrate National Science week, the Science Department and the newly appointed Science Ambassadors held their annual Great Science Bake off. We are pleased to annouce that Maddie & Robyn's Constellation cupcakes - a journey through the star were awarded 1st place and Andrew Dawson's science cookes were runner up. Cakes were sold at breaktime in aid of charity and this is also an inter house competition, points go towards the ASH cup.

At lunchtimes throughout the week there were a whole host of activities held in Maths, Science and Computing. Mr Bryant's coded AMBASSADORS robots that battled each other were a huge hit, I don't think many more people could have been packed into a room.

MEITNER DAY A fantastic day of science was provided by Luke Graham from the University of Exeter and Links to a life , a creative learning company working through story to combine the disciplines of the arts and sciences as a way of engaging young minds.

They introduced the Maths and Physics Lise Meitner used to explain nuclear fission, through card games, Miss Neve-Scott, Head of Science said, "They all put in a huge amount of effort looking at the equations and numerical problems that Meitner used in her work. I am really proud of them."

DAY OF DIVERSITY

On the 8th March Year 10 had their Day of Diversity. In the morning we challenged what a society was and how we can become part of one very quickly and how we often do not like change. We looked at mindset and how we should not get set in our ways and always be open to new ideas; new people and different ways of life.

In the afternoon we were lucky enough to meet over 15 visitors to the school. We met a family from Syria who have been welcomed to Bideford; we met charities who work out of Great Torrington and we met charities that work with young people and advise and support them. It really was a diverse group of people and it’s interesting to see the ways north Devon is changing and growing.

Year 10 were fantastic and worked well together. They were grown up in their approach to the day and they asked some wonderful questions. Year 10 should all be very proud of themselves.

- Mrs Tillier BIG BANG TRIP - BIRMINGHAM

GTS pupils recently attended Big Bang UK Young Scientists & Engineers Fair at Birmingham NEC. It is the largest celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) for young people in the UK. With a large exhibition space filled with stands featuring scientists, and engineers passionate about their jobs they were there with their interactive stands offering an insightful view into STEM world and showcasing the many industries available to our generation including medicine, marine biology, astronomy, coding, robots and chemistry.

Pupils enjoyed the hands on experiences with unique clever machines, racing cars, and a army truck that they were able to sit in and touch. Popular stalls had interactive quizzes and challenges from solving the world’s health challenges, to 3D selfies to scan yourself with 96 DSLR cameras and make into a virtual character.

Exhibition stands such ‘The UK’s national supercomputer’ which was made up 18 Raspberry Pis and a display on how computer hardware and algorithms work to the Virtual Reality headsets that were enjoyed by pupils who were able to fly a VR aircraft. Quite a number of our pupils were spotted enjoying the challenge to put together a model tractor in the shortest possible time, which they were very good at! Will May entered a competition on the Royal Navy stand and won himself a fantastic set of Lego.

Pupils left the Big Bang Fair feeling tired, but excited and many were inspired to create a path leading them into a STEM career.

GTS ATTEND TAKEOVER DAY AT Recently GTS joined over 140 secondary school pupils at Petroc College. Lifestyle Centre for The Springboard Charity Takeover Day designed to promote careers in hospitality and tourism in North Devon.

A number of local businesses in the industry offered their support to help deliver an inspiring day for students who were given hands on sessions showing them how it feels to be both a guest and hospitality professional. Pupils took part in Butchery and Fish workshops, making Mocktails and the ins and outs behind the scenes tasks in housekeeping and much more.

One challenge included a tasting competition, where they used special designed spoons that gave off a smell to disorientate a person’s sense of smell by giving off a fragrance of something completely different to what they were eating! Alex Stacey was thrilled to be the winner of the competition by winning a £100 voucher to spend at Brends Saunton Sands Hotels.

Thank you Petroc and Springboard Charity for a wonderful day and a marvellous opportunity to showcase the hospitality and tourism industry. ROTARY

Young Chef In the Christmas newsletter you may remember that two pupils from Great Torrington School, Leah Thorne and Lauren Parker got through to the district round for the Young Chef Competition and produced some stunning dishes at the competition. Lauren then gained a place at Regional round in Exeter. An extraordinary achievement.

Youth Speaks Great Torrington School intermediate 'Youth Speaks' teams competed at in February where they won a place at the Northern Devon & Bude District Final which was held at Grosvenor Church. We are incredibly proud of the team who put themselves forward and worked independently and worked hard to produce their presentation.

The competition was a great experience for them all and it was a privilege to watch all the young people who competed in the competition. Well done GTS.

Young Photographer Budding photographers from Great Torrington School submitted three photographs centered on the theme 'The Beauty of Nature'. We had Kitty Sam, - Thanker some exciting entries and the standards were very high. The Rotary Club Amelia Turnwell - Chair of Torrington, had a difficult job on their hands choosing the winner. In Frances Crocker - Speaker the intermediate category first prize was awarded to Luke Pluckrose and his entry has gone on to win in the regional final. Well done to everyone who entered.

Local & District Winner - Luke Pluckrose (We are waiting to hear the National Results ROTARYSEPTEMBER 2020, ISSUE YOUNG 3 PHOTOGRAPHERONLINE TRENDS COMPETITION 2019

Entry by Sadie Dennis

Entry by Bethany Evans

Entry by Hope Busby

Entry by Megan Evans This year's inter-house literacy competition was called 'The Hive' - a spelling bee with a collaborative twist! "We're all mixed up together like bees in a hive" (An Inspector Calls).

After Round 1, in which tutor groups established the winning members to form an elite team from each house, we held the final round on the 28th. We were inundated with names from this round, with each house producing a team of eight, plus a reserve team of willing students across all years 7-10. House teams busily worked together to identify the meanings of words, as well as to define the prefix, roots/stems and provide word origins or associations.

Lastly, a single nominee from each team was put forward for a traditional spelling bee round. This was a high pressured three-strikes-only individual performance, which took considerable courage to even stand up for in front of such a large audience.

The competition was intense, but all the houses showed excellent resilience and teamwork. Particular thanks to all the Literacy Leaders who were involved in designing and organising the event.

The winners will be announced in assemblies after Easter. One of the new Lbacc challenges this year is ‘Who do you think you are?’ This challenge is based on pupils asking questions about their own town and learning some of its history. They do this at the same time as juxtaposing this with a comparison to towns in South America. They compare the education, society, beliefs and family dynamic as well as exploring the languages used. The cohort stage a book launch for each challenge to which they invite parents and other Y7 pupils. The book will be released to iTunes at the end of this year once all 6 groups have contributed and edited the final edition.

Mr Robilliard Lbacc Challenge Winners - Spring Term Big History Who do you think you are Effort: Georgia Parker, Gilbert Samuel Independence: Isabel Sylvester, Oliver Bryant Independence: Daniel Bacon, Marissa Hancock Effort: Summer Turner, Stacey Poole Accomplishment: Lani Conrad, Jonny Lang Accomplishment: Finley Naylor, Kristian Darby Knowledge: Daniel Bacon & Stanley Irvine Knowledge: Hannah Bowen, Jacob Blease

Slice of Pi Money for nothing Accomplishment: Toby Cann, Isabel Sylvester Effort: Matthew Hogg, Maddison Hooper Effort: Finley Naylor, Ewan O'Neill Independence: Thomas Bryant, Evie Grills Independence: Harrison Brown, Eden Hurst Accomplishment: Grace Potts, Bobbi Manning Knowledge: Toby Cann, Finley Naylor Knowledge: Jesse Binmore, Toby Cann

Frankenstein Rock 2 Count Accomplishment: Stanley Irvine, Cody Gardiner Independence: Hebe Thompson, Mya Heal Effort: Callum Bunn, Maddie Alexander Effort: Kristian Darby, Amelia Hammersley Independence: Toby Shadbolt, Hayden Dayment, Grace Accomplishment: Jacob Paiano & Oliver Bryant Potts & Kyla May Knowledge: Jacob Paiano, Hebe Thompson Knowledge: Stanley Irvine, Erin Rowtcliff GTS CAREERS PLAN Our aim is for all pupils to achieve their personal best by ensuring they have all the information, guidance and support they need to make the right choices for each stage of transition.

We will do this by:

· providing good quality independent and impartial careers advice to pupils which inspires and motivates them to achieve their potential · provide advice and guidance which is in the best interests of the individual · contribute to raising achievement; encouraging pupils to develop high aspirations and consider a broad and ambitious range of careers · provide opportunities to work in partnership with employers, training providers, local colleges and others to provide opportunities to inspire pupils through real-life contact with the world of work · develop enterprise and employability skills including skills for self-employment · support inclusion, challenge stereotyping and promote equality of opportunity · encourage pupils to see career development as lifelong learning · support pupils at key transition points

How will we do this?

Careers education and information will be delivered through 3Rs lessons, House time, assemblies, visits and trips, work experience and collapsed days.

Impartial 1:1 careers advice and guidance will primarily be provided by Peninsula Training Services with support from Careers South West. TECHNICAL QUALIFICATIONS (T LEVELS) ARE COMING…

These new qualifications which will start to be delivered from September 2020 will transform technical education in the UK. They will be two year Level 3 courses, equivalent to A levels and will include a substantial, high quality industry placement alongside classroom learning leading to a specific occupation such as engineering, computing, accounting or hospitality.

From September 2020, pupils will have the choice of three pathways; A Levels, T Levels or apprenticeships. For more information visit www.careerpilot.org.uk and type in 'T Levels' into the search bar.

Our New Mental Health Ambassadors Our new Mental Health Ambassadors completed their training this term and have been awarded their certificates and badges. Our Mental Health Ambassadors, along with others trained across Devon will; Take an active role in thinking about mental health; Participate in assemblies and contribute to and feedback on mental health around school. Thank you for being an ambassador and promoting a culture change around Mental Health L GARDEN NEWS The Tesco Bags of Help grant scheme helped us fund the transformation of our garden area last summer. This week members of the gardening group placed the plaque proudly on display on the garden shed.

The pond area is already starting to attract signs of wildlife and we look look forward to watching this area transform.

These past few weeks pupils in enrichment and curriculum classes, have been planting, sowing and digging and working incredibly hard to tidy it up and further develop our area for a great place to learn and have fun. We were once again delighted to welcome our good friend and local landscaper, Colin Porter, who has been actively helping out this term.

Social Media

If you’re on Facebook why not ‘like’ the ‘Great Torrington School’ page and also follow us on Twitter. We post news on Facebook almost every day, so it is a great way to keep informed.

Official Pages Find us at Twitter @ GTSDevon Facebook: GreatTorringtonSchool Instagram: GTSArtTeacher Linkind : GreatTorringtonSchool GTSAlumni Group Page: Great Torrington School Alumni Join our Alumni: https://networks.futurefirst.org.uk/signup/greattorrington

GTS IN PICTURES Enrichment

Industructables MODERN FOREIGN LANGUAGES COMPETITION

As I arrived at Pilton School I didn’t know what to expect being as this was my first time going to a speaking competition in another language. Was it going to be in front of lots of people ? Just judges? What was going to happen was just the few of millions of thoughts popping and wheezing about in my brain. I wasn’t too nervous at first until I spotted all the others schools which at this point fear took over my body, possessing me like a demon.

I had learnt my speech, performed it to multiple groups in the school but I was still timid. The day started off withArtist a little ofintroduction the Month to the events of the day-how everything was going to work. Then it came to my category.one by one the queue to my turn to perform kept getting shorter and shorter until it was time. I was ready to face the judges and everyone else. And guess what? I did it.

This event was a great experience to me and to represent the school. We may not have won but we had two runners up - Gracie Avery and Juliette Reed. Gracie was in my category, non-native speakers, and Juliette was in the near native category. Overall the experience was very enjoyable and I would love to go again. I now know what I can do to get better and what the competition is like but furthermore which competitors I will be up against. If you have a true passion for languages and would love to take part I would definitely recommend it to you. I thank Madame Miller for organising me and my peers to go but also the people who ran the competition.

By Harley Weston GTS HOSTS FIDELIO TRIO FOR A RARE OPPORTUNITY

We were delighted to welcome Fidelio Trio into school during March as part of the North Devon Sinfonia music festival. The professional trip performed to our music students, explained their music and putting them into context for them.

They also coached two of our Year 10 vocalists, Mia Lewis and Molly Harding. The coaching was astute and sensitive providing both musicians with some excellent advice for their future performances. Artist of the Month January - Callum Knox 'Cityscape' in watercolour & ink. February- Joe Mitchell 'Chefs Hands' in acrylic on board.

March - Lucy Hearn - 'Mayfair'

SPORT REPORTS

Year 8 Netball Team Year 8 Rugby Team

U13 Girls Rugby Today the GTS U13 rugby girls’ squad played in the end of season Devon festival at Topsham Rugby Club. They had a very tough first game against an experienced team from Kingsbridge School, of which they came second by a long way! Hot off the press Our U13 Girls Football team are North Devon Winners They managed to regroup and pull their socks up who beat Park 1-0 in the final! GTS have now been to take on Okehampton Community College. It was invited to represent North Devon at the County Finals in nip and tuck and unfortunately lost 4 tries to 3. In Newton Abbot on Tuesday 21st May 2019. the words of Grace Butler-Jones ‘another minute and we’d have definitely at least drawn!’ After Girl’s football season Yr. 7. coming 3rd in their group they then had another Mark has taught us so much this season, and for that I selection of schools to play. First up was thank him. Thanks to Mark, without him we wouldn’t Teignmouth. Another good side that were just too have played any games or even had a girl’s football strong for our very inexperienced girls. Next up team. The training has been very successful as everyone was Pilton. Local rivals! The girls really stepped up turns up eager to play and learn. All the players have their game for this one and convincingly came out been so supportive as they encourage you to bring out on top of that one. There was time for one last the best in you. Whenever we play games the game, another local team wanted to play so we atmosphere and work rate is always good as everyone took on Holsworthy Community College. Hannah seems to get on well with each other. I really enjoy Burton has been desperate to play against these as playing football with all the girls and Mark, so I would they had some of her friends playing and she like to thank them for all their support. definitely stood out in that game scoring 2 or 3 By Eden Hurst Y7. tries against them. GTS won that game but the day KS3 Badminton was more about the experience than the results. This year badminton club has been very popular Our girls are at the start of their rugby careers and compared to previous years. We have had one they have definitely improved massively over the badminton tournament which went well for both last couple months and improving all the time. teams. The girls team included: Adrianna Jankowska, Their school season is now over but they are Juliette Reed, Leah Roy, Riah Anns and Charlotte Wade. already looking forward to next season! The boys team included; Harry Brown, Harry Bryant, Matthew Daniel, Harvey Betts and James Leonard. The Mr Avery has coached them since September and girls’ team did very well during the tournament, coming said ‘the girls have shown an excellent attitude 3rd. The boys also were very successful during their every time they have played. They have always matches winning most of their games. played with smiles on their faces and that’s the By Adrianna Jankowska. main thing. Well done to all that have played.’ GTS RANKED 11TH IN THE BRITISH SCHOOLS JUDO TABLE

What a great day for two GTS members of Kingsley Judo Club who enjoyed the British Schools National Championships at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield as they represented their school, Great Torrington.

Great achievement award went to Tristan Walters (Gold) & Fintan Connor (Bronze) at the recent Competition. The boys were lucky enough to have a photo opportunity with 6 time All Japan Champion, Double Olympic Silver medallist and 5 times World Championship medallist Yoko Tanabe after the medal ceremony.

If anyone wants to start or have a go at Judo, then please pop along to one of their training sessions held on Tuesday or Thursday from 6pm for under 13 or 7:30pm if older. Simon Ward Kingsley School Judo Club British Judo Association Great Torrington School ranked 11th (out of 350) in the British Schools Judo medal table!

RFU U14 Devon Boys Rugby Finals The boys competed in a round robin competition with all of the top teams in Devon today. The standard of the competition was extremely high Great Torrington School gymnasts competed at the North and the boys rose to the occasion playing some Devon Schools Gymnastics Competition at Barnstaple. great rugby. They competed as an U19 team; 2 year 7 boys, 2 year 10 girls and a year 11 girl. The boys came 3rd in the Results: lost to Okehampton 5-2, lost to TBG 5-1, individual competition and they came 2nd in the mixed won 3-2 against Sidmouth and won 9-2 against competition. All showed great composure and fantastic Stoke Damerel. Finished 3rd overall. sportsmanship throughout the afternoon.

Sports Leaders Sports leaders at GTS are a fantastic crew of people, the leaders have helped in many local primary school festivals here at GTS, North Devon events and County events. Without the leaders we and other providers wouldn’t be able to deliver such fantastic smooth running events without these amazing, incredibly patient, polite and enthusiastic crew. Thank you for all your positive attitude and hard work this term. It is an incredible honour to be asked to be a Sports Leader and one that we hope you Sports Leaders in Training with enjoy. Ms Miller-Marshall Uganda with Edukid In February 16th 2019 I embarked on a journey I never thought I would take. I travelled to Uganda. Each year a member of staff from GTS travels to Gulu to see the work of Edukid and visit the children GTS sponsor, to enable them to receive an education. This year was my turn. I had so many fears before I travelled; but returned with a heart full of wonderful memories and a desire to return. Throughout our week-long visit we spent time in two schools meeting children who had all had the opportunity to attend school through the work of Edukid. These children are making a difference to their lives, and their families lives; they are breaking the cycle of poverty. I met the GTS sponsor children; Brian; David; Daniel and Irene and learnt how they were progressing and their hopes for the future. I was able to deliver gifts from GTS pupils to them. I also met Kenneth, one of the first children ever to be sponsored by Edukid, who has recently graduated from University with a degree. Kenneth was very proud to bring his graduation robes to show us all. The highlight of the visit for me was to meet Patience Gloria, the child my family and I have sponsored for the past ten years. That was a life changing moment and the reason I plan to return Term Dates one day. Summer Term 2019 It truly was a most life enhancing week which I feel so privileged to Term Begins: 23rd April have been part of. Half Term: 27th May - 31st May Mrs Whiterod Last Day of Term: 23rd July Mayfair Day: 2nd May Parents' Evening 2018/2019 May Transition Dates 7th Year 10 Parents' Evening Tuesday, 4.00pm - 7.00pm 13th Year 8 & 9 Preparing for Exams Workshop GTS Visit Primary Schools Friday 17th May - Friday 24th May Year 6 Transition Week Key Dates 2018/2019 Monday 24th June - Friday 28th June May Year 6 New Entrants Evening 13th Y10 Work Experience - Week 1 - Group 1 Monday 8th July, 6pm - 8pm Sports Hall 13th Torrington's Got Talent - lunchtimes all week Year 5 Taster Day 20th Y10 Work Experience - Week 2 - Group 2 Friday 5th July 2019, 8.50am - 3.00pm July Booking details can be found on our 4th GTS Summer Concert, Quad area, 6pm website - Under 'Our School/ Visit Open Days'