Dance Showcase

Posted on 8 July 2015

On Monday 29th June over 60 pupils performed in the Dance showcase and Transition event. They performed dances choreographed by Miss Giles and some even performed their own work. Students participating were from year 7 up to year 10.

There were also pictures of pupils from all the local primary schools who Miss Giles has worked with over the past year. They all performed beautifully and the audience thoroughly enjoyed it. Big thank you to Sacha Hughes and Sabrina Parker for helping at dance club.

Well done to you all

Miss Giles

Tavistock College students win Carnegie Shadowing Award

Posted on 8 July 2015

At Eggbuckland School on Monday June 22nd, Tavistock College students won the Carnegie Shadowing event. Students have been meeting weekly for a few months to read and discuss all the shortlisted books for the national Carnegie Awards.

Each participating school was then allocated a book to present, in any way they chose. The presentation had to include not more than 5 students and had to last not more than 8 minutes. Tavistock were allocated the powerful and moving novel, “Buffalo Soldier” by Tanya Landman which is set in America at the end of the Civil War. A slave girl, Charley is the main character and her story of survival, through some desperate years, incorporates the desperate stories of the Native Americans, the settlers and the Yankee Cavalry.

The students presented the emotion of the novel through music and drama. They researched the songs and music of the time and of the different groups of people fighting for freedom. Issy Prout’s beautiful and soulful singing captured the misery of slavery; Zara Richards conveyed the idealism of the settlers with her flute music; Thanae Garland Tsirka represented the harrowing tale of the native Americans with her drumming, based on the earliest recorded drumming of Sioux warriors; Matt Boyle conveyed the aggression of the Yankee Army with his loud and expert snare drumming and Emily Handel, who had written a lot of the script, kept the whole thing together as a narrator.

The piece was powerful…it sent shivers down the spine and the group were worthy winners. They worked hard to research the era and to present the harrowing conflict between all the different factions. The audience were very aware of the question, which was left unanswered, “what is freedom?”

Many congratulations!

Dance leaders day

Posted on 8 July 2015

On Monday 6th July year 10 dance students went to teach at Mary Tavy primary school as part of their dance leaders assessment. They all had to teach a particular age group ranging from reception to year 6.

I was blown away by the talent this group have. Not only are they amazing dancers, their teaching skills were brilliant. They were so professional and had such a positive attitude to the pupils.

They should all be really proud. They will all receive a qualification from this which is fantastic.

Miss Giles
image1

BIG BANG SUCCESS IN EXETER

Posted on 1 July 2015

Almost five hundred students from across the South West were involved in the National Science and Engineering Competition at the 2015 Big Bang South West. Tavistock College Design and Technology student Darcy Brown, aged 13, wowed the judges and picked up two fantastic awards in this high profile STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) event. Darcy was selected along with five A Level students from the school to represent their fantastic product design work on a regional stage at the event hosted by ‘Education Business Partnership – South West’ (EBP-SW) at Exeter University.

The sixth-formers, Emily Spry (who picked up two awards at the previous year’s event), Holly Speare, Will Dax and Ryan Arnold exhibited their beautiful A Level products, while Darcy was chosen from hundreds of other possibles to exhibit her ‘Crazy Camel’ game. The Crazy Camel has been developed by Darcy to be an interactive toy as well as a game and assembly kit which aims to develop making skills and creativity while being a really fun game to play with friends. Darcy produced a finished product, instruction manuals and an assembly kit version and presented her product to the judges with passion, enthusiasm and business acumen.

Organisers of the event commented: “The calibre of student work in the South West is breath taking. Our judges were overwhelmed by the quality of what they saw”. After a fantastic morning of exhibiting, the students took part in a science and technology master-class with a focus on rocket science and then the day came to its climax, the award ceremony. Darcy was stunned when she heard her name read out as a winner of the ‘Enterprising Young Devon award’ for the fantastic business enterprise element to her work. Soon after returning to her seat after the ordeal of having photos and handshakes in front of hundreds of onlookers, Darcy was announced as a regional winner of the Technology and Engineering Award and had won a place at the national finals which will take place at the NEC in March.

Yvonne Paddon (Partnership Adviser EBP-SW) said after the results: “I am absolutely delighted that the Crazy Camel won an Enterprising Young Devon award as not only was it innovative and creative, but also excellently presented, showing before and after assembly and the research process involved. I am looking forward to working both with Darcy, supporting her with a local business, and also with the school on a STEM enterprise day.”

Darcy commented: “I’m really excited and shocked to be given a chance to be in the National Big Bang Finals! I wasn’t expecting to win anything and to win two awards was fantastic. It was a great day and was an experience I definitely will not forget.”

As a result, Darcy has won a local business link that will be set up by EBP-SW which will help Darcy to further develop her product. Darcy has also won a free STEM enterprise day for Tavistock College and she has decided that this will focus on Year 7. Darcy will take a leadership role to help maximise its impact. Head of Technology at the college, Pete Keegan, commented: “We are incredibly proud of all the students who exhibited their work this year. It was great to see such talented students being celebrated. Darcy is a true asset to Technology at the college and we are delighted to have her as a role model to inspire others into Design and Technology.”

Big Bang 2015

Students participate in Newquay Greenpower Formula 24 Event for the first time

Posted on 22 June 2015

Tavistock College’s new Greenpower Formula 24 racing team had a fantastic day of racing at Newquay Airport on 18th June. The event involves teams of 11-16 year olds who have to compete in at least one regional heat and finish in the top three to automatically qualify for the International Final held in October at Rockingham Motor Speedway. The event challenges youg people to design racing carts, all using the same, sustainable electric motor.

Tavistock College’s electric endurance race car was solely built by a team of talented Years 8, 9 and 10 students (aged 12-15) as an extracurricular project: Jack Kelly, Jack Kerswill, Erin Bolding, Tom Harrison, Bryce Lovell, Ben Anning and Sebastian Hennessy-Dobbs.
The race track, which was several kilometres long, gave the different teams some fantastic racing experience over two 90 minute endurance races. Cars ranged in design dramatically and throughout the day the students discussed how they would improve their car by shedding weight here and there, changing gear ratios, tweaking aerodynamics and all manner of other engineering decisions.

Pete Keegan, who launched the project at the college, commented: “What was noticeable with our team is it was the students who were tweaking the car’s performance, fixing problems and thinking fast to get issues resolved. I am so proud of their achievement and how they have developed in this last year. They have transformed from a group of kids into young passionate engineers.”

In the first race the students secured an impressive 9th place out of 20 cars. This is a superb achievement for our first time entering a ‘Greenpower’ event. In the second race the students clawed their way up to 8th place and then suffered a broken chain and had to be recovered. Some fast thinking, cool heads and swift spanner work and the team had the car back out to complete a final lap and finish 11th. The students were absolutely beaming after the day’s racing.

“Seeing the variety of cars and engineering involved was awe inspiring. We have been building our car, ‘Mad Max Racing’, for about six months and we have really learnt a great deal in that time. However, the amount we learnt on the day was incredible and we are full of ideas for developing the car further,” said Tom Harrison. Mr Keegan and Mr Moore are going to recruit a new team in the autumn term which will be open for all year 8 and 9 students to apply. This new team will need to fund raise and seek sponsorship in order to raise the necessary funds from the project as the current team did and are still doing in order to keep making these incremental improvements to their car. Special thanks to our sponsors, Tavistock Round Table and the Tavistock Lyons Club for supporting the project from the start.

Year 8 Atheletics Report

Posted on 22 June 2015

Y8 athletes took part in Plymouth and West Devon championships at Brickfields on Tuesday 16t June.

A team of 7 made up from 5 girls and 2 boys from Year 8. Girls were Leah Parnell-Moses (100m & High Jump/relay) Emily Frost (200m/relay) Mia Cole (200m/relay) Izzy Hiller (long jump) Sophie Isaacs (Shot)

Boys Gabriel Schraibman (100m hurdles/200m) Ben Edmunds (1500m/long jump)

A winning start with Gabriel Schraibman running to 1st place in an excellent 100m hurdles field. Next the 100m girls sprint saw another Tavistock 1st place with and excellent run from Leah Parnell-Moses who out in a PB and fastest overall time over 2 heats.

Mia Cole ran a very good race in the 800M coming 3rd in a very strong field which included county runners.

Emily Frost ran home 1st in the girls 200m, putting in a great performance.

Ben Edmunds ran an excellent 1500m to come home in 4th place and was also placed in the long jump event, competing very well.
An injury to Schraibman (hip) during the 200m was enough to rule out further success, but to his testament he carried on, finishing the race showing real determination.

Isabel Hillier took 3rd place in the girls long jump and Leah Parnell-Moses came in1st place in the girls high jump with another PB, beating a strong field.

The big finish didn’t disappoint with Tavistock again taking 1st place honours in an excellent 4x100m relay. The team of Frost, Parnell-Moses, Cole and Hillier took a very deserved 1st place and finished the event with the fastest relay time overall.
An excellent and talented Athletics team who represented the college in style.

Mr. Hosking