Sportsday 2017

On Friday 7th July, Churston held our annual sports day. Check out some of the photos from the event.

Check out some of the photos from the event, there will be a full report to follow……..

Sportsday 2017 Photos

 

Churston competes at National Level.

We would just like to say congratulations to Jessica Owens in Year 9 who through sheer determination and perseverance is competing at a national level in gymnastics. At a recent competition she competed against girls from across Great Britain and she came 21st out of 48 gymnasts. This places her 21st in the country at National Grade 2. Her highest placing on individual apparatus was 10th (for range and conditioning).

Well done Jess!

PSHE Enrichment Day

On Wednesday 24th May the whole of Year 10 suspended their normal timetable to take part in the PSHE Enrichment Day. Students followed a carousel of workshops run by outside agencies on a variety of themes from the PSHE curriculum in order to support and enrich their learning. These included: NatWest Moneysense, the Fire Service, Yoga and Self Defence.

NatWest Moneysense- Professionals from NatWest Bank were on hand to help support and advise students in a workshop designed to encourage financial awareness. Students were given a project looking at the best value for money mobile phone contracts. They shared their current phone usage and discussed preferences for different types of contracts. Groups researched a variety of packages for a chosen character and presented their findings to the class.

Google Expeditions

On the 27th and 28th of March, we were thrilled to have access to Google Expeditions once again.

We were lucky enough to enjoy Google Expeditions at our school for two days, which meant we had:

• 60 Google Cardboards at our very finger-tips;
• 750+ students participating in the ultimate learning experience;
• And 30 staff imparting their wisdom through VR technology!

BEST EXPEDITIONS: PARIS, SPACE AND NORTHERN LIGHTS

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Interview with ‘Google Expedition’ leader: Mark Baglow

“What does your job with Google entail?”

“I go around different primary and secondary schools, giving the expeditions and helping with them. Before this, I worked as a history teacher at a school in Cornwall and I didn’t enjoy the marking, so I was just a supply teacher for a while.”

“How did you get the job?”

“I just got a message through ‘LinkedIn’  from Google, which I first thought was spam and after I did some research I realised it was real and I took the opportunity.”

“What do you enjoy most about running expeditions?”

“I enjoy the reactions and the experiences the students get but charging the phones every night isn’t that enjoyable!”

“What’s your personal favourite expedition?”

“I really like the Space ones, also the 7 wonders of the world are good but there are so many good expeditions to choose from.”

“Do you personally believe there is a future in using virtual reality in schools?

“I believe that there certainly is a future for virtual reality if it is used in the correct manner, especially from what I’ve seen today, it is an exceptional experience if you haven’t got access to these places in your everyday life”

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Feedback from Google Expedition staff

“I was really impressed with the Digital Leaders and how quickly they have grasped the types of support needed – they could do me out of a job!”  

In comparison to other schools, Mark has been very impressed with the level of engagement from our students and the fact that they are considering the Expeditions from a more intellectual, educational point of view rather than just a novelty. He has noticed students making notes and really taking information from the experience which is exactly what Google hope to achieve with this free Expedition Programme.

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Student Feedback

From a year 11 class we selected three students to ask a few questions about their Google experience:

How did you find the experience?

Victoria: “Excellent, I found it spectacular”

Fliss: “Very good, it enhanced my learning experience, but made me feel dizzy”

Billy: “Great but made me feel slightly nauseous”

Which one was your favourite?

Victoria: “The space one was my favourite one”

Fliss: “I thought the one about space was amazing”

Billy: “The Aurora Borealis, was very interesting and gave some exceptional views to something you wouldn’t normally see up close. ”

How do you think that virtual reality can enhance education?

Victoria: “Going and experiencing new places around the world can enhance your imagination and it innovates you to explore new things”

Fliss: “It allows you to see what you’ve been taught in a classroom, almost in real life something you wouldn’t otherwise experience if not through VR.”

Billy: “By taking the words in a textbook and being able to visualise them in practice”

Y7 pupil Achieve karate Black Belt

On Friday 14^th April 2017 Nicholas Bright (7S) from Torbay Karate club  – took his black belt under Sensei Sherry 9th Dan black belt. Nicholas achieved first Dan and was rewarded third place in the Kata discipline which reflects hard work and dedication in this martial art.

 

Year 8 Get Creative in Science!

Year 8’s produced some fantastic homework in response to a biology lesson where they saw the dissection of a pig’s heart, liver, and lungs. Pieces ranged from some amazing cakes, a T-shirt, a jigsaw, an original music piece, posters and artwork. The students said they really enjoyed this task as they were allowed to be creative and put what they had learned in their science lesson into a completely different context.

Please take a look at some of the amazing pieces that were produced.

 

 

Chemistry Success at Churston

Year 13 students from Churston have been extremely successful in the national Chemistry Olympiad Competition this year. Organised by the Royal Society of Chemistry, this is a challenge accepted by the top A-level Chemistry students in the UK. Weida Liao, Joel Gregory, Robert Williams and Phoebe Sloper tackled a variety of strange and complicated chemical problems, including a chemical explanation of the green swimming pool in Rio and an analysis of Iron Man’s suit – it turns out that this is actually an alloy of titanium and gold!

Robert and Phoebe attained Silver certificates, while Weida and Joel finished in the top 7% of entrants and were awarded Gold certificates. Joel remarked “The Chemistry Olympiad was very challenging, so I’m very proud to have achieved a Gold certificate. It was interesting to use my current knowledge of Chemistry to solve problems in a new context”. Chemistry teacher Dr Hall is extremely proud of their fabulous achievements and said “They are exceptional young people and their results place them amongst the top Chemists in the country”.