Category: Latest News

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Our celebration of National Careers Week draws to a close today.  We’ve explored virtual careers fairs, welcomed parents and carers into school for our GCSE Options Information Evening, challenged ourselves to careers quizzes, enjoyed tutor time activities and celebrated International Women’s Day!  It’s been an incredible week!  Here are some of the highlights of our #NCW22 experience.

Staff and students at Churston Ferrers Grammar School have been raising funds to support humanitarian relief in Ukraine.

Wednesday 9th May was ‘Wear it Blue and Yellow’ day at Churston, with students donating whilst visually showing their support for the people of Ukraine by dressing in the colours of the Ukrainian flag. There was also a cake sale at lunch to raise further funds.

In addition a parent of two Churston Students is driving donations to a collection centre in France to be taken to the Ukraine; and members of the school community are bringing in items that will be of most use including toys, sanitary products, nappies, sleeping bags etc.

Head of Sixth Form Adam Killeya said, “The idea for these efforts came directly from the students; they care about the world around them and wanted to show their support for the people of Ukraine whilst also doing something practical to raise money. This is a credit to them and reflects our values of Active Citizenship and Social Justice – that our students get involved and support those in need.”

Student Vice President (Enrichment and Charity) Abigail said, “In December we supported a UK charity helping poorer families at Christmas and it’s important for us to help people facing crisis abroad too. It was great how many people wore blue and yellow and helped by bringing or buying cake!”

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The final total raised is still being calculated, but will be well into the thousands of pounds.

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Year 10 GCSE Drama student’s have just finished two workshops with theatre practitioner Katy from Paddleboat Theatre Company. This was organised through Erin at Doorstep Arts as part of their Devising Discovery Platform. Students have explored different ways to effectively devise around different stimuli. This will be really beneficial to the students, as they are just starting to work on their devised pieces for their exam in the Summer.

Nicholas Bright ( y 12) and James Bright ( y8) recently took part in the South West of England Karate championship ( KUGB Karate) in Exmouth. Nicholas won the gold medal and cup for the South West of England kumite, free fighting, in the sixteen to nineteen year old category. James won the silver medal for the under five foot four category, Kumite, free fighting .

Congratulations to them both!

Huge congratulations to our students for winning the South-West heat of a national Chemistry competition – the RSC ‘Top of the Bench’ devised by the University of Plymouth.  This demanding challenge required our team to analyse the results of online experiments on saponification (soap-making) to decide which product to recommend as the best candidate for mass production.  In addition to understanding some very tricky Chemistry, they had to balance a range of other factors such as cost, pollution and sustainability.  The judges praised our students for the depth of their discussion in choosing their preferred soap (made from coconut oil) and awarded our students an incredible 97% for their final report.

Alex (Y9), Abigail (Y9), Archie (Y10) and Freya (Y11) demonstrated incredible intelligence and first-class teamwork skills. We wish them the very best of luck when they represent the South-West of England at the national final.

Dr Chris Hall

Head of Chemistry

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