Month: April 2022

Easter Raffle

Written by Gemma Long on April 8, 2022. Posted in Carisbrooke College, News - CC.

Easter Raffle

Well done to Year 11 for raising over £900 for their Prom this week!

The Prom Committee have been working hard this half term to gather some amazing prize donations and sell tickets to help reduce the costs of the Prom and provide some exciting extras which will make the event even more special. They put in a great effort! Well done to everyone who won a prize.

Special thank you to Mrs Hookey, Head of Year 11, and parent, Mrs Edkins-Wherry, for all of their hard work and support throughout the organisation of the raffle and on the day of the draw.

Year 7 Disco

Written by Gemma Long on April 8, 2022. Posted in Carisbrooke College, News - CC.

Year 7 Disco

Wednesday 6 April saw the Year 7 Disco go ahead and what a great event this was! All of the students who attended had non-stop fun for the whole two hours.

We had a fantastic DJ for the event who did so much more than just play tunes. From magic tricks to games, dance-offs to blasting everyone with a foam machine, he kept all of the students fully engaged throughout! He even made balloon prizes and gifts for the students.

Head of Year 7, Mrs Lythgoe, said “It was such a joy to see all of the students dancing and enjoying themselves without a care in the world! They all got involved and just had the best time”

Thank you to the staff who gave up their time to support the Disco and show the students how to bust a few moves!

Treasure Island

Written by Gemma Long on April 7, 2022. Posted in Medina College, News - MC.

Treasure Island

Thursday 30 March saw our long awaited performances of Treasure Island finally go ahead and, wow, it was worth the wait!

In this wonderful pantomime, the famous Long John Silver, his parrot Polly, and a gang of pirates set sail in search of buried treasure in the Caribbean. Jim Hawkins and Jenny Trelawney strive to outwit the wily seadogs with the help of Jim’s mum and her friends from the local Women’s Institute.

The whole cast worked so well together to bring the show to life and kept the audience engaged and entertained throughout. Their delivery was described as ‘hilarious’ and everyone in attendance would agree that it was a roaring success.

Covid has certainly thrown a few spanners in the works along the way as enhanced lockdown restrictions meant that the original performance dates at Christmas had to be postponed. Previous to that, restrictions within schools meant that no live performances could take place, so this was the first time that students had performed live on stage in at least two years. Year group bubbles also meant that students had not worked with anyone outside of their own year group for two years.

The cast worked very closely with the Carisbrooke College cast and supported each others’ performances by taking on the ensemble role for each other.

Huge thanks to the following:

Mr Lyle, Mrs Peckham, Mrs Shorrock and Miss Elkin for their expert leadership, direction and choreography
Mr Winsor for supporting and playing in the band
Ex-student Harry for his expert help with lighting and sound
The Art Department for their help with props and set
The Food Tech Department for providing the interval refreshments
The Bushell family for all of their help with costumes
Blackgang Chine for the loan of some of the set and props
Our Year 10 Stage Crew for being amazing and working hard throughout
Our Year 9 hair and make up artists

“Treasure Island gave our students the opportunity to work together as a team and it has been fantastic to see them bonding and developing new relationships. Since rehearsals began, we have seen the confidence of every student involved soar and it has been fantastic to witness this. I am incredibly proud of the students – they are all stars of the future!”

Mr Parr-Burman – Executive Headteacher and Head of Medina College

“Last week saw the culmination of so much hard work from our staff and students. They created a dynamic and hilarious show. Through the high winds of Covid regulations and the turbulent waves of delays they have battled through on the pirate ship “The Hispaniola” to perform a phenomenal show. Working closely with Carisbrooke students, the Medina Team proved “ship shape” and ready for action. Over the top characters and fabulous songs and dance led the audience on a pirate adventure across the sea to the sunny caribbean. The audience were fantastic joining in with the classic pantomime participation. Every Student involved gave it their all and were an absolute credit to Medina College. What a fantastic end to term! oh no it isn’t – OH YES IT IS!!!”

Mrs Shorrock – Teacher of Drama

“The panto was incredible!
I know how nervous some of the cast must have been but absolutely none of it showed through at all. I was sat in the very back row and could hear every line delivered confidently – including the ad-libbing. It was fantastic for me personally to see some of my quieter and more shy students come out of their shells into leading roles and absolutely owning their space and time in the limelight on stage. The presence of the leads must be commended here! If you had told me the year groups and ages of some of the actors/actresses, I just wouldn’t have believed you – a testament to their maturity.”

Mr Jager – Teacher of Science

Head of School’s Blog – 1 April 2022

Written by Gemma Long on April 5, 2022. Posted in HoS Blog - VI, The Island VI Form.

1 April 2022

Next week we will be welcoming 55 German students and their teachers to the VI Form and the Island. They will be with us from Monday 4th April to Thursday 7th April up to lunchtime and in the afternoons they will be exploring the Island, taking part in other activities.

They will be visiting a range of lessons to observe the English education systems and to improve their English and when not in lessons they will be based in the Upper common room.

Please make them feel welcome in your lessons, help them out if they can’t find a room / lesson and maybe pop into the Upper common room to speak to them. If any students have time on Monday morning to help show them around, it would be much appreciated. Just pop into Student Services and let them know that you can help.

All of our visiting students will be issued with a temporary Lanyard. And just to remind you, ALL students must be wearing theirs as well.

Finally, we are inviting members of the current Year 12 student cohort to apply for the positions of Exam Helpers at Medina College. As part of a small group of Exam Helpers, you would be expected to set up the appropriate number of tables and chairs in the Sports Hall and / or Gym at Medina College as directed. Exams will be mainly in January, May, June and early July. You need to be reliable and physically fit, and able to be at Medina College ready for a 7am start and /or a 3:30pm start. Work is allocated on a rota basis, so you would not need to be available for all sessions. Details of how to apply is on the Student Services Hub.

Have a great weekend

Head of School’s Blog – 1 April 2022

Written by Gemma Long on April 5, 2022. Posted in Carisbrooke College, HoS Blog - CC.

1 April 2022

Welcome to my fifth blog post for the second half of the Spring term.

Last Friday our dressage team of Freya, Jessica and Amelia had a successful day at the Inter School Team Dressage competition. They, as a team, finished a creditable 2nd which was excellent as they did not have a discard score. Freya won her test, Amelia was 6th and Jessica 8th overall. They all did incredibly well. The Jumping competition is 20 May. Anyone interested in taking part needs to see Mrs Peake or Mr Phillips.

I was so pleased that we were finally able to hold our Federation pantomime – Treasure Island. I had the privilege of attending both performances. The casts in both were fantastic! The production was witty and very entertaining and the lighting and sound effects added to the performances we amazing. A huge congratulations to the cast and staff (Mr Lyle, Ms Elkin, Mrs Peckham and Mrs Shorrock) and the production crew for making it such enjoyable evenings. There are some pictures later on in the newsletter.

The Pathways form was sent home with year 9 students on Thursday. A link to the information on the website is here. We have used the straw poll feedback to create the four blocks in the timetable for the option subjects. We are anticipating that most students will be able to complete it with their straw poll preferences. If you need further conversations, please contact your child’s tutor in the first instance.

Attendance to the Year 9 parents/carers evening was good and feedback from staff has been very positive about the evening.

Next Friday will be a mufti day for all students. The student council wants to support some of the humanitarian initiatives set up for the Ukrainians. Please can we ask that you support us by encouraging your child to dress appropriately for the school environment.

Year 11 has 6 weeks until their first written exam. Information will be coming out next week about revision opportunities available over the Easter holidays. They need to make sure that they use their time wisely – the hard work they put in now will be reflected in their final grades.

Congratulations to our top achievement point winners for last week – Year 7 Tali (second week running!), Year 8 Nathan, Year 9 Isabella, Year 10 Alfie and Year 11 Jenson.

Have a lovely (hopefully not too cold) weekend.

Head of School’s Blog – 1 April 2022

Written by Gemma Long on April 5, 2022. Posted in HoS Blog - MC, Medina College.

1 April 2022

Welcome to the penultimate blog post of this half term.

I would like to start by congratulating and thanking the cast who performed, and the crew and staff who supported the production of Treasure Island yesterday evening. The delivery of the roles by the cast was funny, engaging and I was proud to watch them enjoy themselves and entertain the audience so much. I look forward to the next production! Please look out for a full report, with some photos of this event next week.

Thank you also to our Year 9 parents/carers who attended the virtual Year 9 Parents’ Evening, we hope that you found this useful. The KS4 Pathways forms have been sent home with your child this week, following analysis of the straw poll that we did a couple of weeks ago. The straw poll gave us an early indication of which subjects and combinations of subjects would be popular. This feedback then enabled us to produce the Pathways form with the final lists of the subjects available in each of the four timetable blocks. Before you complete the form with your child, please consider all of the information that has been available. A link to the information on the website is here. If you need further conversations, please contact your child’s tutor in the first instance.

We are another week closer to the Year 11 exams starting, I will be adding a tip every week from now on about exams, both the preparation for and the sitting of them. The first tip is regarding mobile devices. We remind students several times on the way into the exam hall, and before, that no mobile phones or watches may be worn or carried on their person during the exam. These must be turned off and left in their bags. If a student is found in possession of one of these items, it will need to be reported to the exam board as malpractice. Depending on the individual circumstance, this could result in them receiving zero marks for that particular paper, potentially the subject, or even all subjects that season. This is a very basic expectation but unfortunately each season we do need to report an instance of this. The students have all worked extremely hard in some challenging circumstances, please make sure that they do not risk any of this by not complying with this rule.

Thank you for your ongoing support in general, it is very much appreciated.

Have a good weekend.

Empowered Poetry Competition

Written by Gemma Long on April 1, 2022. Posted in Carisbrooke College, News - CC.

Empowered Poetry Competition

Students were challenged to put pen to paper and write a poem for the Young Writers Competition on the theme of “Empowered”. We are delighted to announce that a number of our students have been selected for publication and are through to the next round of the competition. Thank you to all who took the time to write a poem. It is always a bit disappointing not to be chosen but, don’t lose heart, there will be more opportunities. Well done and good luck to those who were chosen for publication.

Well done to: Amelia, Annelise, Ash, Eli, Isabella, Jack, Lissy, Maisie, Molly-Nora, Raven and Tilly.

Magnificent Macbeth

Written by Gemma Long on April 1, 2022. Posted in News - CC, News - MC, Uncategorized.

Magnificent Macbeth

A group of Key Stage 4 students from both Carisbrooke and Medina Colleges had the privilege of attending Shakespeare’s Globe in London last week to watch a production of Macbeth, which forms part of their GCSE in English Literature.

Attending Shakespeare’s Globe adds to the impact of the play and allows students to truly feel immersed in the theatre environment. Attending as Groundlings (an audience who stands in front of the stage) for the production also helped students further understand the context of Shakespeare’s time and experience the play as he intended.

Watching a Shakespeare play on stage allows the students to gain a better understanding of the themes and character development within this compulsory GCSE text and this helps them to develop their comprehension of the play.

It was a lovely, sunny day and was enjoyed by all.

Year 11 Basketball

Written by Gemma Long on April 1, 2022. Posted in Medina College, News - MC.

Year 11 Basketball

On wednesday 30 March, our 9 chosen students from Year 11 competed in a series of matches for a basketball tournament. These students were Louis, Will, Luke, Alfie, Issac, Josh, Adam, Korbin and Corey.

Their first match of the tournament was against Christ the King and, despite losing 7-0, their morale was kept high and their drive for victory was still strong.

Their second match proved that they were still determined to win by having a close and nail biting victory over Ryde with a score of 8-6. Our scorers were Korbin, Corey, Adam and Alfie all scoring 2 points each.

After a short break, the team went head on against Carisbrooke for their third match. Once again the team shone as a group and won an 8-4 game which boosted them up to second place. Our scorers for match three were Will, Issac, Korbin and Corey each, once again, scoring 2 points each.

After two victories, their fourth game was unfortunately a loss to Sandown. The team tried their very best but only scored 2 points against the opposing team leaving them with a 6-2 defeat. Our only scorer for that match was Luke.

The team tried their very best to win the competition. After valiant attempts at going for gold, they unfortunately came 3rd. Nevertheless, they were an outstanding team and made the school proud. They showed great communication and team work and, despite being under huge amounts of pressure, they kept their cool and made the top 3. Well done boys!

Treasure Island

Written by Gemma Long on April 1, 2022. Posted in Carisbrooke College, News - CC.

Treasure Island

Tuesday 29 March saw the long awaited performances of Treasure Island finally go ahead and, wow, it was worth the wait!

Treasure Island gave our students the opportunity to work together as a team and it has been fantastic to see the students bonding and developing new relationships. Since rehearsals began in September 2021, we have seen the confidence of every student involved soar and it has been a delight to watch.

The cast worked very closely with the Medina College cast and supported each others’ performances by taking on the ensemble role for each other.

Huge thanks to the following:

Mr Lyle, Mrs Peckham, Mrs Shorrock and Miss Elkin for their expert leadership, direction and choreography
Mr Winsor for supporting and playing in the band
Ex-student Harry for his expert help with lighting and sound
The Art Department for their help with props and set
The Food Tech Department for providing the interval refreshments
The Bushell family for all of their help with costumes
Blackgang Chine for the loan of some of the set and props
Our Year 10 Stage Crew for being amazing and working hard throughout
Our Year 9 hair and make up artists

“I was immensely proud of all of the cast. They did a fantastic job! I thoroughly enjoyed the performance. Huge thanks to the staff who have given up their time to make the production happen.”

Miss Begley – Head of School, Carisbrooke College

“The panto was incredible!

I know how nervous some of the cast must have been but absolutely none of it showed through at all. I was sat in the very back row and could hear every line delivered confidently – including the ad-libbing. It was fantastic for me personally to see some of my quieter and more shy students come out of their shells into leading roles and absolutely owning their space and time in the limelight on stage. The presence of the leads must be commended here! If you had told me the year groups and ages of some of the actors/actresses, I just wouldn’t have believed you – a testament to their maturity.”

Mr Jager, Teacher