Torbay Lifesaving Club at the RLSS National Speed Lifesaving Championships

Churston pupils recently competed with the Torbay Lifesaving Club at the RLSS National Speed Lifesaving Championships at the Ponds Forge Centre in Sheffield.

Cerys Stephens (year 12), Adam Reed (year 11), Tom Nuttall (year 10) and former pupils Kiera Stephens and Alice Nuttall swam in a variety of team and individual events, in the largest competition of its kind in the UK.

The girl’s team competed in the ‘Open’ age category and despite being up against older and more experienced University teams, held their own and gained very credible placements including 10th out of 25 teams for the rope throw relay.

As a team, the boys were one of the youngest in their age category but performed extremely well and were a credit to their school and the club.

Adam Reed performed particularly well in his individual events, achieving a top ten place out of 65 competitors in the 100m obstacle swim and 13th out of 61 in the 50m Manikin Carry. His achievements did not go unnoticed and the development squad have him on their watch list with the potential for joining the National Squad in the future.

There were 13 in all, including pupils from Torquay Girls Grammar and Paignton Community College.

Primary Visit for British Science Week

In aid of British Science Week, Churston hosted a visit from Stoke Gabriel Primary School. Dr Chris Hall, Head of Chemistry, and Mr Jon Murray-Smith, Head of Physics, ran the informative, friendly and fun session focusing on the importance of getting children interested in science from an early age. The children made exciting chemical reactions in a chemistry workshop, and learnt about electricity with the help of some shocking Van Der Graaf action that literally made their hair stand on end!

A handful of helpful A-Level students generously gave up their time to help with the primary school session. It was great work experience and the sixth formers were fabulous at helping the young protégées stay safe in the lab.

The children were a pleasure to have for a visit and hopefully left excited and enthused about science.

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South West Indoor Rowing Championships

On Tuesday 28th February, six Churston students went to Marjon to represent the school at the 2017 South West Indoor Rowing Championships. Here is a roundup of how our students did…

Karrie wins!
Karrie Spencer overturned the result from last year when she was narrowly pipped by 3m with a 14m victory and automatic selection for the Nationals – Go Karrie!

Spectacular Costumes for World Book Day at Churston

Churston celebrated World Book Day with staff and students dressing up in a fantastic array of well know (and not-so-well-known) literary characters. Organised by Snow White (Miss Godsland), there were events on throughout the day including prizes for the best dressed, a mannequin challenge and group photo sessions.

World Book Day is a celebration of authors, illustrators, books and (most importantly) it’s a celebration of reading. In fact, it’s the biggest celebration of its kind, designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and marked in over 100 countries all over the world.

The money raised from the day will go to Book Aid. They supply brand new books, donated by publishers, to public, community and school libraries across Africa. By partnering with national library services, government departments and NGOs they are able to send up to one million brand new, carefully selected books to Africa each year.

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High School Musical on Stage is a Sell-Out Success!

Once again, Churston pulled out all the stops to present a wonderful performance of High School Musical on Stage. Featuring a cast of over 105 students, a live band and crew, there was about 140 students involved from across all year groups. For some of these students it was their very first chance to ‘tread the boards’ and what a superb opportunity it turned out to be.

Every night was a sell-out success and the students did not disappoint; they succeeded in putting on an accomplished show.

The entire cast sang, danced and acted like professionals, treating the audience to a spectacular display. The Drama and Music Faculty worked tirelessly to make this show as bright and colourful as we have come to expect with magnificent costumes, scenery and special effects. The principal cast was made up of Year 9s, GCSE and A-level students who carried this huge responsibility brilliantly, and with confidence.

Well done to all those who took part, all the staff who have worked relentlessly to support the students and thank you to the audience who came and watched our show!

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The Author’s Apprentice Project

The Author’s Apprentice is an online program that allows school students to work with author Stephen Hunt in producing a novel in real-time. The Author’s Apprentice is a virtual author-in-residence program and a social network with a dedicated purpose: involving and engaging students in the process of creating an original novel across the time period of one year.

Thirty-three Churston Ferrers students from Key Stage 3 have volunteered to be part of this project and there has been much activity on the Author’s Apprentice forum. During the planning stage, readers will vote on such facets of the novel as character names and chapter titles. We are also encouraging ideas and opinions to be shared in school at lunchtime meetings and via Google Classroom. The novel is going to be released in three or four serialised instalments, with voting on future plot developments. A selection of titles will be proposed and again student feedback will be welcomed.

This is an interactive process with each instalment taking on board reader feedback. Towards the end of the process, readers will vote on the final cover design. This is an interesting opportunity for keen writers to offer their thoughts and opinions and understand better how a professional writer undertakes the writing process. It is hoped that at some point in the year Stephen Hunt will have time to visit the school and speak to some of the students involved.

Toby Goatman and Jasper Hopwood Selected for U16 County Rugby Squad

Churston’s Year 11s Toby Goatman and Jasper Hopwood were both selected, after training at Sandy Park, for the Devon B squad playing last weekend against Somerset.

The successful county B team ran in five tries to claim a 29-24 victory over their Somerset counterparts, one of the tries from Toby!

At Churston we are extremely proud of the boys being selected. Dan Greaves, Head or Year 10 and 11 said “In my experience, representation at County level in Rugby is one of the most difficult sports to gain representative honours in as the standard is so high. A fantastic achievement.”

Connor Myers Wins Sailing Sponsorship from Rockfish

Local eatery Rockfish are big supporters of our local sailing and watersports communities, including Churston’s own Year 10, Connor Myers from Brixham Junior Sailing Club.

Connor approached Rockfish with an articulate and impassioned plan asking them to support his aim to represent Team GB at Tokyo 2020. Rockfish described him as “A young man with absolute determination and drive, who has shown great resolve and ingenuity working with very limited resources”. Rockfish wanted to be part of helping him make a success of his bid and have promised to buy him a boat to start on that bid and support him along his way.

You can find out more about Connor’s journey and progress through the Rockfish website, blog and his own Instagram and Twitter accounts.

Connor begin sailing at Brixham Junior Sailing Club at the beginning of 2013. In Brixham he trains twice a week with the club but when he gets his new boat he will be joining The Royal Torquay Yacht Club and will be sailing most days during both the week and weekends. Off the water he enjoys going to the gym, running and tae-kwon-do where he is a black belt.

In the next year he hopes to place well in the European championships and other races to get some competing experience before moving on to the next level, which would be joining the National squad and then the British Sailing team. Ultimately he hopes to be in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Connor said, “I am extremely grateful for Rockfish giving me this opportunity and words aren’t enough to express how I feel and for my family for the sacrifices they are making for me to take me around both the country and the world for both competitions and training. I am really excited about the future, I will work hard, I am fully committed to my sailing, it is something I love. I am looking forward to being part of The Rockfish Red Sailing Team and the Rockfish Family.”

For the full interview go to http://www.therockfish.co.uk/features/rockfish-and-sailing/

Ex-Churston Student, Dan Wolf, Named Devon Young Player of the Year 2016

PAIGNTON batsman Dan Wolf was named Young Player of the Year at the Tolchards Devon Cricket League annual meeting and awards night.

The Bob Bridges Trophy goes to the outstanding youth player in any division of the league over the season. Previous winners have included Chris Read (Paignton) and Mark Lathwell (Braunton), both of whom went on to play for England.

Former Churston Ferrers student Dan won the award for an impressive season with the bat for Paignton in the A Division. He made 590 runs at an average of 45.38 in the promotion-winning side. The only English-qualified batsman to make more runs in the A Division last season was Bradninch captain Gary Chappell – and he was named player of the year!

Wolf – 19 in June – finished the season in Devon’s Minor Counties side. Dan left Churston in July 2016, and is now at the University of Surrey studying Criminology.

Chemistry Success for Churston

A team of Churston Sixth Form students has been awarded 3^rd prize in a prestigious national competition organised by the Royal Society of Chemistry. The Schools’ Analyst competition gave Oliver Biggs, Hannah Nolan and George Bamford the chance to work with state of the art equipment at the Plymouth University laboratories, competing against teams from the whole of the South West.

The 3 team-mates, who had been selected from a strong cohort of A-level Chemistry students, solved complex practical problems using advanced skills practised with their mentor Dr. Chris Hall. The experiments were particularly difficult this year, with a number of teams failing to finish. In fact, the Churston team completed the 4-hour challenge with seconds to spare!

Headteacher, Mr Owers, congratulated the students on their outstanding achievement, commenting that their success reflects the high standard of Chemistry at Churston.

 

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