News & Events

Staff from Tavistock College have begun an exciting new development for the school. Having secured funding from the British Council, Principal Helen Salmon and Assistant Principal James O’Connell, were fortunate to visit Adarsha Saula school in Kathmandu, Nepal – currently judged to be the most successful state school in Kathmandu – over half term.

The aim of the visit was to build a partnership between the two schools so that students and staff from both schools can learn from each other. The broader aims are to develop a spirit of global citizenship and to create strong links so that more staff and students can visit Nepal and Adarsha Saula.

Students in Nepal and Tavistock have already begun communicating with each other via email and letters and there are a number of joint projects beginning in both schools to enable the students to learn from each other. These include studies of each other’s festivals and cultural traditions, a study of diets and food where students will attempt to make each other’s local dishes, and a science and geography project looking into the effects and power of water.

Helen Salmon, Principal of Tavistock College said: “It has been a real privilege to visit Adarsha Saula where we received an extremely warm and hospitable welcome. What impressed us most was the passion and enthusiasm of the students who are desperate to learn, recognising education as their chance for fulfilling careers and happiness.”

Saroj Acharya, Principal of Adarsha Saula, Kathmandu, said: “We have been very happy to welcome our visitors from Tavistock and learn more about your school and area. We very much look forward to our visit in 2015 and building an even closer relationship.”

‘Tavistock College student, Tate Budge, won at the British Taekwon-do championships last Saturday and is now British under 16’s sparring champion and British under 18’s 2nd degree black belt patterns champion! He has been on stage with John Bishop at Plymouth Pavillions to celebrate, and met the comedian back stage after his show for some photographs and a chat about the sport and becoming a world champion.

A group of Year 10 and 12 students from Tavistock College have recently visited Cambridge University in order to learn how to apply successfully to Oxbridge and Russell group universities. The group were the guests of Downing College and found it highly motivating to stay in the Undergraduate halls ( we stayed in a room formerly occupied by John Cleese, in his undergraduate days!)

The group of very able students were shown around both Downing , Emmanuel College and Trinity College and spent an afternoon viewing the College “backs” from a punt on the River Cam.

They attended two academic sessions to show them what a typical seminar would be like and honed their critacl thinking and debating skills.

We are hugely grateful to Downing College who host Tavistock College every year and their schools liaison officer goes so far as to say, “it is one fo the highlights of his calendar to host students from Tavistock College.”