Dear Parents and Carers, 

I would like to offer you a very warm welcome to the new academic year. 

I have enjoyed meeting the new Year 7 students and welcoming back all of our students to the start of a busy term. The enthusiasm and positivity from the students, as they have returned to school, has been evident during my classroom visits this week and bodes well for a successful and enjoyable year ahead. 

Thank you to all parents and carers who have ensured that students look fantastic in their new school uniforms. 

Recently, in assemblies, I have spoken to all year groups about the importance of maximising their time at school and taking advantage of every opportunity and support that is available to them. This will ensure that students achieve the best grades they can throughout Key Stage 3, Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5. Please discuss with your son/daughter their future aspirations and re-iterate the importance of trying their best. With a positive attitude towards school and homework, they will succeed. I invite you to contact me if you have any suggestions on how we can work together to improve students’ learning and progress. 

What motivates me is when I see our students succeed and I have had a lovely email from a former student who has recently graduated from university with a BA (Hons) degree.

I hope that you have had the opportunity to look at our new website and, as we move towards a paperless system in the future, it is essential that your contact details, including your email addresses, are kept up to date. Please inform Student Services of any changes. 

I look forward to continuing to work with you throughout the coming year. 

Yours faithfully, 

Mrs Bevan 
Principal

After 11 years of education, many revision sessions at the Learning Café and thousands of GCSEPods streamed, cohort 18 received their long-awaited GCSE results on Thursday 23rd August. It was fantastic to see so many students, parents and staff in the sixth form block on what was an opportunity to celebrate all the hard work the students had put in during their time at the College. Students once again celebrated some excellent GCSE results and there were many happy faces as students opened their results – there were even tears of joy. It was fantastic to see so many students who had achieved the results they had worked so hard for and which allowed them to go on to their chosen post-16 pathways. There were some excellent individual results including Jack Matthews, Lucie Bates and Blazej Gruchala who all achieved a number of GCSEs at grade 8. 

All students have positive destinations for the next stage of their education or training and we wish them all well as they take the next steps in their education and towards their future careers. Here’s to further successes in 2019! 

Ms Williams 
Assistant Principal

August 2018 was once again a time of celebration for our Sixth Form leavers who collected their long awaited A level, BTEC and Vocational course results. The students achieved some fantastic outcomes with a 100% pass rate on our A level and BTEC courses and a 97% completion rate for our Vocational students. Over 95% of students who progressed to degree level study were accepted at their first choice of university and course and every student leaving the Sixth Form this summer progressed to positive destinations including employment, higher level apprenticeships, foundation degrees and bachelor’s degrees. 

Of special note and worthy of special mention were Matthew Bull who achieved A grades in A level Maths and his Extended Project, a Distinction in Engineering and a B grade in A level Physics and Shannon Luscombe who achieved A* grades in her Sociology and Extended Project courses and a B grade in her Religious studies course. There were too many individual highlights and successes to list in full! 

Amongst our 2018 leavers we have students moving on to study Law, Psychology, Engineering, Teaching, Politics, Sociology, Criminology and Environmental Science at University, some moving on to higher level apprenticeships and others moving on to sponsored Marine Engineering courses linked to the Royal Navy. 

We are hugely proud of all our Sixth Formers and their successes and we wish them all the very best of luck in their new studies, courses and careers! 

Mr Dunkerley 
Assistant Principal | Head of Sixth Form

Our new Year 7 students have made a fantastic start to their time at the College and have impressed tutors, teachers and support staff with their willingness to participate in both lessons and extra-curricular activities. Routines and timetables have been learnt quickly and students have responded well to the high expectations of their behaviour, uniform and effort in lessons.

Students have been creative writing in English, based on the J.K Rowling book “Fantastic Beasts”; they have been honing their map reading skills in Geography and have enjoyed an independent project constructing a 3D globe as well as learning about renewable energy in Science.

After school, the Outdoor Adventurous Activities has been popular, with students enjoying gorge walking and lake jumping. Attendance at KS3 Learning Club has been consistently high and it is brilliant to know that our new students are making the most of this provision. Loyalty cards for attending Learning Club are flying in, and prizes for students will be awarded in the last assembly of term.

Miss Lewis
Raising Standards Leader KS3

Congratulations to the latest team of Year 11 Prefects. 25% of the year group applied to be prefects early in September with many of those applicants being invited to interview. After a gruelling interview process which involved questions surrounding some key College issues, the successful students were informed in person that they were successful in becoming a Prefect.
 
The Prefects this year have been selected as role models to all students in the College and are expected to demonstrate the highest standards throughout the College year. We are very proud of our new cohort and are looking forward to working with them this year and inspiring others in the College.
 
Mr Beynon
Pastoral Leader

Friday 5th October saw the summer come to end for our Year 11 students with the “last of the summer barbecue”. This was an event designed to celebrate the outstanding work and attendance of Year 11 students. Over 80 students had been invited to the barbecue by a range of staff for varying reasons. Just over 40 turned up and took advantage of the food on offer. A thoroughly enjoyable evening, well done Year 11! 

Mr Beynon
Pastoral Leader

This term has seen the Year 7s showing their adventurous spirit with over half of them signing up for an outdoor adventure. The lucky ones have been gorge walking, coasteering, rock climbing, lake jumping, and mountain scrambling. We have been very lucky with the weather and tides, apart from one particularly cold and wet lake jump on Bodmin moor! However the attendees have been brave and encouraging of each other which is great to see.

The Year 9s have signed up to begin their Duke of Edinburgh journey and absolutely stormed round their first walk without any mistakes, which bodes well for the future trips. The Silver Award students in Year 10 completed their practice expedition with some difficult and cold conditions, but again they did very well with their navigation and teamwork. Bronze Award is still open for any Year 9 to start.

Mr Alcock
OAA Coach

Over 150 awards were presented to students this week at our annual Celebration assemblies. The two ceremonies were supported by every student in Years 8 to 12 as the College acknowledged a wide range of student accomplishments from last academic year. 

To present the awards we were honoured to welcome our guest speaker Conrad Humphreys who has spent over two decades as a professional yachtsman. He has sailed around the world three times, competed as the youngest entrant in the Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race and as skipper, he led his team to victory in the BT Global Challenge, dominating the race and winning 4 out of 7 legs. Most recently Conrad was the professional skipper on board the tiny 23 ft open boat, Bounty’s End in the recreation of Captain Bligh’s epic story of survival, Mutiny on the Bounty for Channel 4. Using only traditional navigation equipment and surviving off the same meagre rations as Bligh, nine men were cast adrift 35 miles to the south of Tofua near the Kingdom of Tonga in a replica boat. Their mission, to survive and safely navigate across 4000 miles of open ocean to Kupang, Timor and recreate one of the world’s greatest open boat voyages of British history. The Channel 4 series is still available to download from here (although I have been warned as they become low on rations the crew mates language deteriorates, so check with an adult before watching!) His message to us all was clear, be persistent in our beliefs and don’t lose sight of our goals by following others. 

Mr Carpenter
Assistant Principal | Pastoral Leader