On Wednesday 17 April, Carisbrooke College hosted The Priory in a mixed year group basketball game. This allowed for those who have been attending basketball clubs all year to get some additional playing time before the end of the season.

The game remained closed for the first three quarters with both sides playing some lovely basketball. Ashton and Charlie, two of our year 11s and who have been part of the school basketball team for the last five years, played one of their best games ever, combining for 28 points and double digits assists. Harry and James, the other two year 11s, contributed well with some good rebounds and defence throughout. Our year 10s were led by Matthew who played hard throughout as the point guard, but it was Oli who came away with 10 individual points and just as many rebounds to help the team battle it out close to the basket.

Alban and Oakleigh supported with some fast movement away from the ball and supported an allround performance from the team. Jim, who had a standout performance earlier in the season at the annual tournaments, continued to dominate near to the basket with his strength. Logan and Dylan, two of our year 7 students, played without fear despite being many years younger that the other team’s players and with great confidence whilst on the ball, shooting and taking big hits defensively; clearly showing the potential these two have.

However, it was in the fourth quarter when the combination of Ashton, Charlie, Jim, Oli and Matthew started to show the difference between the teams and it was here that a 15 point lead opened up which pretty much gave the win to Carisbrooke. With a few minutes left, players were rotated but Carisbrooke came out as winners with a 51-43 final scoreline.

The team has two more games next week and we hope they can put similar performances together for. Well done!

Cooper, Lilly, Jacob, Dakota, Jack and Karla represented Carisbrooke College at the annual Faraday Challenge, hosted at Christ the King College by the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET). The challenge is a competition in which pupils are given a brief – this year the theme was on road safety – and then asked to design, produce and present a prototype product that meets the criteria of the brief. Pupils are given a budget of ‘Faraday Bucks’, which they must use to buy electrical and mechanical components from a ‘shop station’ (run by the IET) which they use to make their product.

It should be stressed that the pupils do not receive any help from teachers or adults, aside from purely technical guidance from the judges if they get stuck, making the engagement, dedication and hard work from the pupils all the more impressive.

Inspired by island roads, the team came up with an idea of a device that alerts cars on blind corners that an on-coming car is coming. Over the course of the day, our six Year 8 pupils impressed the judges with their prototype, organisation skills and teamwork, as well as their confident presentation.

They went on to beat the teams from Island Free School, Ryde School, Priory and 2 teams from Christ the King to win! Only 3 points separated the top 3 teams, and the judges expressed that they were particularly impressed by the quality of the prototype, the pragmatism and simplicity of their idea, and the team’s meticulous and clear write-up of their project! They now have a chance at attending the grand finals at Silverstone this summer, once all 251 schools in the project cave competed!

Earlier this half term, 55 students went to The Mayflower Theatre to see Blood Brothers. The play is the GCSE drama set text, so seeing it live was an amazing opportunity to help our students answer questions for the their written exam. The students were exceptionally well behaved throughout the day and thoroughly enjoyed the play. It was lovely to hear so many discussions about particular scenes and characters on the boat on the way home!

Island SACRE Event Promotes Environmental Stewardship and Interfaith Dialogue

Island SACRE hosted their first ever Youth Voice event on the Isle of Wight on Friday 1 March, at The Bay CE School. The aim was uniting schools in a shared exploration of environmental stewardship and spirituality. The pupils participated in workshops led by PeaceJam, Hampshire Child Services and staff from Island schools.

Students delved into the question: “Do you have to be religious to be a good steward?”

The event saw enthusiastic participation from students who were a credit to their schools.

Students enjoyed fostering collaboration and insightful discussions across schools. They also benefited by gaining knowledge, critical and deeper thinking skills, and also a deeper sense of responsibility towards the world around them. The students were a credit to Carisbrooke College as they engaged with the activities and peers from other Island schools.

As part of Carisbrooke College’s Chinese New Year celebrations in February, Mandarin teacher Miss Yao gave out traditional red envelopes (or Hong Bao) to some of the highest achievers in the year 10 GCSE group.

Red envelopes are traditionally distributed to youngsters in China and are a way of bringing good luck and fortune to those that receive them.

Lessons at GCSE are infused with culture and fun as well as knowledge and this GCSE group are continuing to impress everyone with their language skills. We look forward to watching them take their Mandarin abilities to the next level with the help of Miss Yao and Mr Briscoe over the next year.

On Tuesday 20 February, our year 11 boys basketball team took part in the annual basketball competition at Medina College. In their first game, they took on local rivals and home team Medina and in what was a very tight affair, Carisbrooke managed to sneak through winning the game by one point, thanks to a three pointer from Ashton.

In the second game, Carisbrooke carried on their positive start and beat The Bay (current defending champions) 8-2 thanks to some more impressive scoring from Ashton and solid defence from Harry, Alfie and Louis.

The third game saw a change of venue in the shape of a smaller court which would account for Alfies three point shot which went over the top of the backboard, but in the end Ryde Academy were stronger throughout and more consistent on the rebounding and scoring and eventually took a convincing 13-3 win.

Due to other results, Carisbrooke still had a chance to win the tournament if they beat Cowes in their final game. The game proved to be another close encounter with some excellent play from Matthew and Charlie and the rest of the team chipping in with good all round play. Unfortunately, the final score saw Cowes win 4-0 and, as a result, any chance of winning the tournament for Carisbrooke was gone.

Overall, the boys did very well and maybe surprised themselves with how close they came in the end. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the boys for taking part and to make a special mention to Charlie and Ashton for being a constant positive contribution to basketball at Carisbrooke over the last five years. I am sure they will make the Carisbrooke Hall of Fame someday.

Mr Peake.

Our Year 7 students have just finished their British Heart Foundation CPR Training and passed with flying colours!

They all engaged well and worked hard to practice the necessary life saving skills involved in performing CPR on a casualty. We would like to thank Dana Edkins-Wherry and Steve Read who are volunteers with The British Heart Foundation and were kind enough to give up their time to teach our students these valuable life saving skills.

Steve Read is also the founder of IOW Defibrillators and is responsible for ensuring we have defibrillators on site to save lives in the event of an emergency. We are truly grateful for their support.

Both Dana and Steve were very impressed by the effort of all students. The students asked interesting questions and fully engaged in the sessions. Well done Year 7, we are very proud of you!