Category: Latest News

Over two weekends in May our 90 Bronze DofE participants completed their practice expedition in fine style. The routes they walked took them straight from the school door down through the Dart valley, for a river crossing at Dittisham or Kingswear, before heading to their camp for the evening – many thanks to Stoke Fleming Primary School for the continued support in the loan of their beautiful field. All 14 teams showed great determination, and there were many new skills learnt along the way.  Everyone enjoyed being out in our fabulous local countryside, developing a new appreciation for looking after it on their journey.  The teams are now preparing for their Assessed Expedition in June, which takes place on Dartmoor, in the Bovey Valley area, a great challenge and for many the culmination of their Bronze DofE as they have already completed the other three sections of their award – well done! 

Lucas Tompson and Seth Yardy both in year 10 successfully completed the Ten Tors 35 mile challenge in May. Both Lucas and Seth are part of a voluntary group called Dart Trekkers which train young people to take part in the annual Ten Tors.

The boys trained for this event regularly with long walks each time building up their distance. Lucas said “I felt tired but it was the most rewarding feeling ever.” Both Lucas and Seth would like to challenge themselves further by taking part in the 45 mile challenge in September. Seth said “There is a big emphasis on mind over matter”. Lucas and Seth really excelled during their trek and showed exceptional leadership skills. Good luck with your next challenge!

Seventeen extremely committed Year 12 Physicists got up incredibly early to travel to Cambridge University for a taster day in a joint initiative lead by Churston Ferrers with Torbay Academy and Torquay Girls Grammar.

On arrival to the University students were given a tour around Churchill College which was built to honour Winston Churchill and was inspired by the MIT in the USA.  Students were given a taste of University life and were able to see the halls of residence, lecture theatres and sports facilities.

Students then walked to the world famous Cavendish Laboratory which boasts 29 Nobel Laureates and many exciting developments in Science including evidence for the structure of the atom and the structure of DNA.

After a talk on what it is like to study Physics at University, the students were invited to complete an experiment using a pendulum to find local gravitational field strength.  Our students executed the experiment well and obtained very accurate results using a university technique known as the method of exact fractions.

All students were a credit to the school and coped very well with the early start and very late finish to the day.

The Physics department is looking forward to developing this trip and perhaps incorporating an overnight stay next year.

V. Fairchild

Churston LAMDA students attended the 79th Torbay and Southwest Festival at the Palace Theatre in Paignton and were all placed very highly.
Jemima Horne placed first in her category of solo drama with Daisy Pulls It Off. Rufus placed first in his category for Shakespeare solo with his Hamlet monologue Jemima Horne and Tilly Croose placed first for their Shakespeare Duologue from Midsummer Toby Brooks And Merlo Lavender-Moser placed first for their Woman in Black Duologue and received the highest marks of the festival (90). Thea Harris Murphy and Amy McGuire also placed first with their musical theatre duo from Hamilton also achieving 90. And Marshall Roper-Lowe, Noah Blake and Daisy Little placed first with their group drama piece from Harry Potter with a score of 88.

Daisy Little, Thomas Fitzpatrick and Reuben Maloney (year 7) had their first festival experience Competition was high for the 12-13 years duologues and Thea Harris-Murphy and Tia Davies placed third with their scene from Little Women. Thea Harris-Murphy placed First in the solo musical theatre category with her song from Waitress, again achieving the highest marks of the day (90) Kayla Tummon Placed second with her song On My Own from Les Miserables. Amy McGuire and Georgina Archer both received distinctions for their songs.

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Tom Nuttal in Year 12 has been selected to represent Great Britain at the 2019 World Age Group Underwater Hockey Championships. This is an amazing opportunity for Tom after more than 18 months of intensive training. His place on the Under 19 Mens team of 12 was confirmed at the Junior Nationals. Tom said “I feel really proud and this is very rewarding after all the hard work.”

Tom has been playing underwater hockey since the age of 11 and is part of the Team South West club. Tom said “I would like to continue to be part of the squad in the future and hopefully join a university team.”

Following pre-tournament training, hundreds of athletes from around the world will be competing in Sheffield from the 16th to 24th of August 2019 for their chance to take home a gold medal. Good luck Tom!

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Georgia Smerdon in Year 11 completed a skydive this month raising money in aid of the Royal British Legion. Georgia jumped from 15000ft and has currently raised over £650.00.

Georgia is a member of the RAF Air Cadets and is hoping to become a pilot in the RAF. “Since joining the RAFAC, I have come to understand the importance of our forces and the work of the Royal British Legion. They support all of our forces.  Most people just think about Remembrance and the Poppy Appeal, but the Royal British Legion are so much more.”

Georgia thoroughly enjoyed her skydive, “It was exciting and a really good experience”.

The Easter edition of our Careers Newsletter is now available online! During the Spring Term, our Year 8 and 11 students have been making important decisions about their future academic and career pathways and our Year 12 students have started to explore their post-18 options. Many of our students have participated in a variety of university outreach events and our Year 9 Exeter Scholars attended their launch event in February. We always welcome employers into school to develop our students’ understanding of the world of work; this Term, students have been inspired to consider a variety of careers including business, veterinary science and commercial piloting. Torbay Hospital continues to support our students by providing some fantastic work placements, including Laboratory Tours. In March, we promoted National Apprenticeship Week to help our students consider apprenticeships as a viable alternative to going to university after school or college. The Easter edition of the Careers Newsletter can be accessed here.

For more Careers Information click here

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Erasmus Visit

Churston is pleased to welcome its Erasmus+ project partners form Norway, Portugal and Germany. During the six day conference staff and students are working on a joint two year project based around renewable energy. ‘ Could the lights go off across Europe’ a cooperation to shape a renewable vision for Europe by 2050. A busy week full of various activities, including a day visit to The Eden project, a beach clean, Hinkley Point Nuclear power station  and the Met office in Exeter are some of the many activities. The project concludes with a student visit to Norway in June.

Maria Harris   Erasmus+  Coordinator.

Update: Thank you all for your welcome to our visitors into school this week and for all those staff who helped out in numerous ways and participated in activities and visits.
We have all ended the week with a great day out at the Eden project with some good old ‘British rainy weather’!

England Under 15 boys Basketball team

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Fergus Caskey-Sutton, Year 10, has been selected to play for the England Under 15 boys Basketball team. Fergus will join the squad in an Easter training camp in Manchester and is aiming for tournaments in Paris and Copenhagen later in the year. In Paris, he will face the Polish and Lithuanian National teams as well as the French and Spanish Club team champions. Fergus plays for the South West region team and has won tournaments in Prague and Estonia.

Locally Fergus plays for Torbay Tigers U18 and the School’s U19 team, the School team is through to the semi-finals of the National Schools competition.