Author: Paul Radmore

27 Y12/13 DofE Golds went to Dartmoor from school on Friday afternoon, and have spent two days getting into the expedition zone, with outdoor cooking, bunkhouse sleeping, early starts, late nights, high-level navigation skills, first aid and other technical sessions. Interspersed with much chat, and team forming shenanigans.

Thank you to Mr Sutton for ace pancakes,  amongst other valuable input over the weekend, and Mr Troake for coming bimbling on Saturday – and our freelance team of Rog, Fi and Danny. 

Julia is one of a small group of people worldwide to be congratulated for their outstanding support for young people through The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award

To mark International Volunteer Day on Sunday 5 December, a Churston DofE Leader has received Royal recognition for their exceptional dedication to supporting young people to do their Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE). 

Julia has run the DofE at Churston Ferrers Grammar School for 20 years and involved with DofE for 33 years, giving young people the chance to take on challenges, discover new skills and passions and develop their confidence, resilience and self-belief.

Julia is one of a small group of volunteers to receive a personal letter of commendation from HRH The Earl of Wessex – a DofE Trustee – and a special commemorative coin marking the life and legacy of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, the DofE’s patron. The coins have been donated by The Royal Mint.

The 50 coin recipients, including Julia, were selected to reflect some of the different roles, successes and activities on behalf of more than 45,000 people delivering DofE across the UK. Many have given decades to supporting young people, while others have gone above and beyond to make sure young people can continue their DofE despite personal challenges or the effects of the pandemic.   

The DofE’s CEO Ruth Marvel said: “If young people are the heart of our organisation, volunteers are the lungs, breathing life into our programmes, changing the lives of young people so that they have the confidence and resilience to deal with whatever life might have in store.  

“At a time when so many young people are facing unprecedented challenges, DofE volunteers are instrumental in helping them to regain a sense of purpose, possibility and control over their futures. Thank you to everyone in the DofE volunteer family who has helped support so many young people through the most difficult of times.”

On Friday 5th November our Lamda teacher Heidi took lots of our students to the Torbay Acting Festival at the Palace Theatre.  All of our students did extremely well.  Kayla in Year 12 won for Musical Theatre solo.  Faye and Cairistine in Year 13 won for Musical Theatre Duo.  Scarlett in Year 13 won for her Shakespeare and modern drama solos.  Lower school students who were successful were: Charlotte who won for solo drama.  Rainey and Sylvie who won for drama duo.  Rainey also won for Shakespeare solo.
A huge well done to all of our students who were involved and to Heidi for organising.

Students at Churston Ferrers Grammar School have raised £539.86 for Devon Wildlife Trust. 

“We would like to acknowledge the brilliant effort from our year 12 students: Holly, Daisy, Scarlett, Liam, Emma and Emmie in organising this event and securing its success for such a worthy cause.” Co-Sustainability Coordinator Jo Hadley

The school held a sustainable non-uniform day to coincide with the last day of the CoOP26 summit in Glasgow, where students were encouraged to attend school in something recycled, upcycled or otherwise environmentally friendly. The original idea came from the Student Presidential Team, and the students selected the Wildlife Trust to benefit from the money as a local environmental charity.

“Whilst it is important to address the global climate emergency and associated biodiversity crisis, supporting local charities helps our students to understand the potential impacts closer to home, notably the impact of climate change on Devon’s wildlife species.” Co-Lead Dr Ben King

Sustainability, alongside Social Justice and Active Citizenship, is one of Churston’s three core values, and is an area that the school is seeking to actively promote and develop as part of the school’s contribution to tackling the climate emergency and the ecological crisis.

The Trust said, “thanks to donations like these the Devon Wildlife Trust can take practical action to secure the future of some of Devon’s rarest and most threatened wildlife, and care for our 58 nature reserves.”

“The school has a long standing relationship with the Devon Wildlife Trust, and we greatly appreciate valued the work they did with the school and its partners over many years” Deputy Headteacher David Lewis

We dropped all of the food off at PATH yesterday and they were extremely grateful for the 20 boxes of food and other donations that Churston had put together. We dropped off the food at 4:45pm and there were already a number of people collecting much needed parcels as well as a queue of people waiting for their hot takeaway meals which PATH prepares from donations everyday.

From Christmas Eve until New Year PATH is the only food bank open in Torquay but the need for help doesn’t stop so Cath and the rest of their team pass on many thanks to everyone at Churston. Cath told us how PATH is supporting so many who are on the verge of homelessness and how so many families rely on the support of the food banks and other support charities in Torbay. Cath emphasised how the small donations from individuals mean so much more to those who receive them.

Many young children have never had Santa visit or presents delivered at Christmas because their family can barely provide the bare minimum amount of food to stop their family going hungry. Therefore the donations from Churston will be used to form Christmas hampers, meals and food parcels that will be delivered all over the Christmas and New Year period.

Thank you for helping to organise.

Abigail

Thanks to a generous donation from the PTA, we were delighted to officially open the newly furbished fitness suite in the Autumn term, 2021.

Sam Knapman was joined by Headteacher Kieran Earley, Head of PE Martin Swannell and some of our Year 11 Sports Leaders to open the doors to our fantastic new facility in October.

The impressive new facility replaces the existing equipment and will be used by students within lessons and as part of the wider extra curricular programme, in order to provide our students and staff a purpose-designed space in which to exercise.

Our new facilities are proving extremely popular among all students, who are able to use the room from Year 9 to 13. The impressive new facility in designed to ensure that Churston continues to provide a broad and balanced curriculum for all of our students.  

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Head of PE, Martin Swannell, said “we are incredibly grateful to the PTA for their donation. This facility will help support our curriculum and further encourage our students to follow a healthy, active lifestyle within a familiar, safe and non competitive environment.”

The range of equipment includes:

• Refurbished fitness suite with professional gym flooring and mirrored walls.
• Enhanced audiovisual system, including sound system and live-linked monitor.
• A collection of cardio equipment, including treadmills, cross trainers, upright bike, recumbent bike and rower.
• Multi gym station for up to 8 users at a time.
• Resistance machines, including leg press and chest press
• Free weight and benches, included a stack of barbells, dumbbells and sand bags

Year 11 Sports Leaders, Austin, was equally delighted with the new facility and said: “I’m really impressed how we have managed to use the space in such a productive way. I use the gym with my friends at lunch times and it has also helped me to have a better understanding of some of the theory we learn in GCSE PE, by putting it into practice.”

A special thank you should go to all those volunteers who have worked tirelessly to  contribute towards the PTA and their much appreciated fund-raising efforts that have been used to such good effect.

The Y11 students at Churston Ferrers Grammar School have enjoyed great success in their GCSEs despite an exceptionally challenging year.

Across the cohort, our students received top results – 65% of grades achieved were grade 7 or above. 

Amongst those celebrating the results of their hard work, Hannah Newton and Heather Wells achieved straight grade 9s for all of their subjects. Whilst Katie Bond, Lottie Burrows, Joel Clifton, Ruby Garrett, Jodie Heather, Lily Reshad and Jodie Tang achieved 8 grade 9s in their GCSEs. 

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Head of Y11, Gemma Longhurst, said “Our young people should be incredibly proud of their results, which are a just reward for the commitment and determination they have shown over the last few years.  Our students have responded with fortitude during turbulent times; their ability to dig deep, give it their best and adapt to an ever-changing national picture during their GCSE years has impressed me on a daily basis.  The students all deserve considerable recognition for their endeavours and fantastic results. We would also like to thank all of our staff who have worked relentlessly to give our pupils the greatest chance of success.”

A Sixth Form student at Churston Ferrers Grammar School has been rewarded with a scholarship for her outstanding effort and achievement during her A Levels.

Luci Reynolds received the award, granted by The Reading List Foundation, which provides a grant to cover the costs of books for her university studies. 

She was chosen for the award based not only on her outstanding results, but on the challenges that she overcame to achieve those results 

Luci achieved A* in Business Studies and History, and an A in English Literature, and has a place to read History at Durham University.

Head of Sixth Form, Adam Killeya, said “We are very proud of what all of our students have achieved this year, but Luci particularly stood out for this award for her outstanding attitude and achievement in the face of challenge. She is an extremely worthy winner, and we are very appreciative to the Reading List Foundation for offering this award”

Sixth Form students at Churston Ferrers Grammar School have enjoyed great success in their A Levels despite an exceptionally challenging year.

Amongst those celebrating the results of their hard work, three Churston students secured their places at Oxford University – Adrienne Knight, to read Music, Chloe Howgate to read Law, and Ash de Silva to read Biology. The three students achieved ten A* grades between them! 

Several others students – Emily Brown, Seb Carlstrom, Megan Caunter, Ola Ebbutt and Cleo Widdecombe – achieved A*s across the board.

In total nearly half of the grades achieved by Churston students were As or A*s.

Head of Sixth Form, Adam Killeya, said “We are immensely proud of our young people and what they have achieved. A Levels are challenging at any time, and to come through two such difficult academic years as they have, and to have achieved such success, is testament to both the hard work put in by students and the support given by staff”.