An important part of our Literacy Strategy is to ensure that Key Stage 3 students are equipped with the key literacy skills required and the belief that they can succeed at GCSE level. In order to achieve this we aim to remove as many taboos about Literacy as early as possible and make it seem less scary to year 7 students as well as building their confidence with regards to school and their own abilities. 

Last week we took a small group of year 7 students and immersed them into the Shakespeare text, The Tempest. Initially, students were worried about not being able to understand the words and the writing but by approaching the text through The Arts, the students soon became comfortable with the ideas and themes within the plot. 

These year 7 students worked with local artist and forest school practitioner, Steph Brittain, and English teacher, Mrs Smith to access this tricky text. Through drama, music and art the students were plunged into the Elizabethan text and encouraged to think about the characters and how they felt. 

By visiting the beach the students were able to experience the atmosphere of the sea and understand and appreciate its power. They were able to imagine that they too were castaways washed up on the sand and how frightening that might have been. The beach also allowed the students to create some fantastic art works and to act out sections of the text. When visiting the forest they were able to feel nature and talked about the language that could be used to describe the environment. They worked with clay to recreate characters using woodland materials to help add detail and texture to their work.

Back at school, students used their beach experience to compose a musical response with Mrs Peckham. 

Later in the week, students performed Act 1 Scene 1 with Mr Lyle to gain further appreciation of the text. 

All of these project activities allowed students to break down any preconceived notions they may have had relating to Shakespeare. Students ended the week by producing an exhibition for parents last Friday afternoon.  

Thanks to Miss Begley for driving the minibus and Ms Ryan for supporting throughout the week. A big thank you to the Creative Arts Faculty for their assistance and unending positivity.

Carisbrooke Cougars have recently been competing in the annual basketball tournaments at Medina Leisure Centre. Over 50 students represented the Cougars over the five tournaments with some excellent individual and team performances. Shai was the teams Most Valuable Player (MVP) for the U12’s outfit who just came up short losing in the final game against The Bay to claim runners up spot overall. An outstanding achievement for their first competitive outing together.

The U13’s again represented themselves with pride and, despite finishing with a losing record overall, Matthew captained his team and produced some stunning performances to also claim Carisbrooke’s MVP.

The U14 tournament was a strange one as some teams who were expected to win comfortably slipped up against perceived easier opposition, but then beat teams they probably did not expect to before the tournament started. The Cougars were not exempt from this. After losing two of their first three games, they then went on to win their final four with superb team play throughout. This allowed them to eventually come joint runners up after previously losing on a shootout to The Bay and eventual champions Medina by two points. MVP for the Cougars went to Charlie but Matthew playing up an age was a close contender.

In the U15s competition, the Cougars struggled with consistency but, despite losing all their games, they did so by fighting hard within every game and did themselves proud. Alfie, for his composure, was awarded MVP for Carisbrooke.

In the final tournament, our U16’s started with one of the more exciting games of the season in which they were down 2-6 with 30 seconds left. With Matthew again playing up and showing no fear, he came on and attacked the basket straight away scoring a superb jump shot. Shortly after Carisbrooke were able to steal the ball and quickly level the score at 6-6 which meant, as the final whistle went, the Cougars had the opportunity to get one over The Bay who previously beat Carisbrooke in a shoot out in a previous tournament. After both schools missed their first shots, Oakley (MVP for Carisbrooke) stepped up and scored the winning bucket to give the Cougars a surprising win over a very dominant side. Despite this being the only win for the side, this did not stop them from enjoying the rest of the tournament and, with others such as Charlie, Ashton and Alfie playing up to support a depleted team, the Cougars have a bright future in front of them.