Dear Parents and Carers,
 
I would like to take this opportunity to share with you some of the highlights from Year 8 since the start of term and some future events to look forward to.
 
As I have previously mentioned, the Year 8 boys won the Central Fixtures Football League and congratulations go to:
 
Leyton Beavan, Mackenzie Campbell, Jaydon Rowe, T-Jay Marshall, Malik Meghaoui, Joshua Mills, Jack Owens, Oliver Rowe, Dan Stimpson, Allan Tercjak, Roman Wilson, J-J Honeywell, Noah Taylor and Jaydon Rowe.
 
I know that Mr Smart is very proud of all the players and this win is very well deserved.  We have a strong football focus in Year 8 and I was impressed to hear that Amelia Nation has been selected to play for Plymouth Argyle FC.  During lunchtimes we run a football club in the sports hall which regularly has over 60 Year 8 students attending and, from the 21^st March, they will be able to show off their football talents in an inter-house football competition organised by Mr Cota.
 
Not only do we have a year group of enthusiastic sports boys and girls, they also have the lowest absence rate of the whole College.  Miss Warring and Mrs Davies are immensely proud of the Year 8’s high standards of uniform, their low absence rate and how the students have excellent attitudes towards their studies.
 
Stars of the Week:

• Luke Ford was selected for being a great ambassador for Year 8
• Wayne Sandercock and Dillan Smith were recent motivation card winners
• Our two week praise challenge was won by Brandon Ellison, Kyla Hatrey, Billy Pope and Blake White

The praise challenge is reset every two weeks so that students have the opportunity to impress their teachers with their excellent efforts.
 
I regularly visit lessons and, during visits this term, it has been pleasing to see the Year 8 students fully engaged in learning and, when I speak to them about their aspirations, they tell me their hopes and dreams.  In a maths lesson this week, students had the chance to see the relevance that maths has to a range of careers.  Students met with an engineer, a forensic scientist, an architect, a civil engineer and a statistician.  We have received excellent feedback from these professionals on the range of questions that students asked.
 
What is also impressive about our Year 8 students is how organised they are: we have received 100% of options forms before the deadline!
 
If your son/daughter takes part in something outside of the College that we could share and celebrate, please do not hesitate to contact Miss Warring (l.warring@sjhcsc.co.uk), Year 8 Pastoral Leader, as we would love to highlight their achievements.
 
I know that it can be challenging at times to try and find out what your son or daughter has been doing at College and would like to suggest some ways of doing this:  you could ask about the book they are reading in English – ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ or, for next week, we are celebrating Science Week and Year 8 will have the opportunity to take part in a range of lessons and activities that include: rockets to Mars, transport across the water and exploring the impact that plastics have on our oceans.  At the end of April, Year 8 will have the chance to take part in the junior Maths Challenge, a competition in which we are always successful.
 
As you can see, there is plenty going on in Year 8 and when you ask your son or daughter what they have learned or done in school and you get the reply ‘nothing’, ask them about sports events, homework club, books they have read or the Science challenges and I am sure that will get them talking.
 
As always, it is a pleasure to meet and work with parents and, if you have any feedback, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
 
Yours faithfully,
 
Mrs Bevan
(Principal)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Every year we ask you to give us feedback on how we are doing in supporting our students. Please could you spare 2 minutes completing the following survey.

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/XQPVVFF

Many thanks

Mr Carpenter
(Assistant Principal/Pastoral Leader)

Talented music students from two local schools will be performing live in order to raise awareness of mental health in young people. Music For Minds will be a showcase of talent arranged and delivered by the students from Sir John Hunt CSC and All Saints Academy. 

The event is due to take place at Livewire (Saltash) on Thursday 14th March and will feature music from different genres, ensuring that it will be a great night out for music lovers of all ages! 

Morgan from Sir John Hunt CSC, who has helped organise the event said, “there is such a big focus on mental health in young people that we wanted to raise more awareness of it and show how music can help them to express how they feel”. 

Mr Cleverley, Music teacher at Sir John Hunt CSC added, “the students have worked tremendously hard to produce a great event. Not only has this helped to highlight mental health issues but it has given them skills in event management that they can carry forward into a future career”. 

The event at Livewire runs from 7pm until 9pm and tickets are available on the door priced £1. 

Miss Norris 
(Music Technician)

On Thursday 28th February, after lessons had finished, a group of intrepid Year 10 students headed up to Dartmoor for a Duke of Edinburgh's Silver Expedition Training session. 

Having parked the minibus at the far end of Burrator Reservoir, near Norsworthy Bridge, the group set off into the moor. To develop and improve their navigational skills, each student was responsible for leading a leg of the walk, this included working out the grid references and bearing, estimating distance and height gained and calculating the time required to complete their leg. Having worked all that out, it was time to put theory into practice! 

For the first half of the walk, the weather was overcast, but dry. However, as we started to head back towards the minibus, the cloud base lowered and their navigational skills were put under increased pressure by the low visibility and rain. This provided the opportunity to hone their compass skills, to ensure that we ended up in the right place. We arrived back at Norsworthy Bridge, having covered just over 5 km, just as the sun was setting and only 5 minutes over time. 

Along the way, we passed through ruined farmsteads, disused tin working, stone rows, burial mounds and a potato cave. So from time to time, we 'did' a bit of history, to keep Mr. Carpenter happy! 

An excellent session was enjoyed by all and the students all improved at least one aspect of their ability to navigate on the open moor. 

In May, these students will be undertaking a 3-day expedition across Dartmoor, carrying all the food and equipment required for the 2 overnight camps, in order to complete the Expedition element of their Silver Duke of Edinburgh's award. 

Any students who would like to know more about the Duke of Edinburgh's award scheme, can either visit the DofE section of our website, or catch up with Mr. Whitfield after College in his workshop. 

Mr. Whitfield 
(Enrichment Leader)

Trampoline club is on Tuesday nights after College.

Well done to the Year 8 boys jumping for joy and developing aesthetic skills. In particular, the grace shown by Theo and Wayne during front and back somersaults. The club is for all levels and beginners are welcome! 
 
Jason Beynon
(Pastoral Leader | Teacher of PE)

Over the past 6 weeks the Year 7 girls netball team have been attending the citywide Central Venue Netball Tournament at Heles School.  The girls have played 9 matches and throughout each have developed their game play and tactical awareness beyond belief.  They have consistently shown commitment and team spirit and have been praised by members of other teams and staff for their sportsmanship and motivation. The girls were an absolute pleasure to spend time with and I cannot wait for the summer when our rounders fixtures will start! Well done to Leah, Erin, Macie, Romana, Rhiannon, Katie, Katie, Skye, Lillie, Katelyn and Summer.
 
Miss Warring
(PE Teacher)

Plymouth started off their league campaign with an emphatic win against an energetic Taunton side which saw 6 different goal scorers for the home side. 

Sir John Hunt’s Tylor impressed on his debut scoring the fourth goal, “Tylor broke from right back to finish a fine passing move with a volley across the keeper again from a brilliant cross”. 

Mid Somerset 1 - 7 Plymouth 

Plymouth continued their dominance in the group with an emphatic 7-1 win over Mid Somerset to guarantee a place in the semi-final of the Broad Shield competition. 

Plymouth and Tylor will be looking to continue their fantastic form as they look forward to their final game against East Cornwall to finish the group as champions. 

Stuart Fort 
(Assistant Head of Sixth Form/PE Teacher)

Employers help students to "figure out" their career choices 

As part of National Careers Week a team of employers visited school to work with students from Year 8 who are taking their option choices.

The event was aimed at making them more aware of careers that link to the maths subject and to introduce them to the world of work and employment. Various local, national and regional  companies were represented including WPS, the Regional Development Agency, Plymouth University, AECOM and the Mortgage Guy. 

Each employer spoke of their career journey and of their current roles which gave students more knowledge of the top 10 Employability skills as well as enhanced their communication skills.

As a result of the workshop,  ALL students felt that their aspirations were raised, they wanted to work harder to achieve better results and that they were now more confident when speaking to an employer.    

Miss Newberry
(Careers Co-ordinator)