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.

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. 

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! 

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.

Tuesday 29 March saw the 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. 

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