Thursday marked the 25th World Book Day. The aim of the day is to celebrate and encourage a love of reading for pleasure and to encourage opportunities for all children to have a book of their own that they love. 

“Spending just 10 minutes a day reading and sharing stories with children can make a crucial difference to their future success and it’s fun for all involved.” – World Book Day founder, Baroness Gail Rebuck.

We celebrated this event at Carisbrooke College all day with a reading takeover! Every lesson began with a section of the story – The Case of Four and Twenty Blackbirds.

Throughout the day, murders were revealed, suspects interviews and, eventually, a resolution achieved. There was a real buzz around the school as the story unfolded and both staff and students really enjoyed it!

Here are some quotes from staff and students: 

“LOVING THIS! Can we do it every week?”

“Going really well so far!! Loving it. But have no idea who dunnit…”

“Love it – they are enthralled”

We are excited to announce that our performance of Treasure Island has been rescheduled to take place on Tuesday 29 March 2022. Don’t miss out, purchase your tickets on School Gateway from Monday 7 March! Tickets are priced at £5 per person. 

On Wednesday afternoon, a group of year 8 students headed over to Medina to compete in the Island Schools Sports Hall Athletics Competition, whereby our team of 5 boys and 6 girls took on 5 athletic events each.

The students performed well across each field event, with stand out performances in the speed bounce which saw Euan take 1st position with 76 bounces in 30 seconds. Taylor also put in a commendable effort with 68 in the girls competition. In the triple jump Lucy gained a PB with 4.98m and Destiny just behind with 4.88m. In the shot put Freya got 6.30m. Benji and Theo also performed well in the vertical jump coming in the top 5.

On the track events, the boys put in a superb effort on the obstacle race which saw them dominate and this was followed up by excellent performances in the 2 lap race by Euan and Jack with both gaining a 2nd place. Jack also gained a second in the 4 lap race.

Theo also inspired others with his excellent motivational coaching from the sideline and also through his strategic conversations with officials.

Overall, an excellent performance by team Carisbrooke!

On Thursday 17th February, it was the annual Indoor Rowing Championship at The Bay Secondary School. This is the 9th year straight that Carisbrooke have been part of this. They previously came 6th in 2013 followed by third in 2014 and back to back runners up positions in 2015 and 2016. In 2017 the Carisbrooke Blades were crowned champions and became the first school to take the championship away from The Bay who have always dominated the event. In 2018, Carisbrooke went back to runners up and in 2019 came in third followed by 4th place overall in the last event in 2020. Therefore, the Carisbrooke side were ready to start a new era and were aiming for a top three spot this year. On the day a few last minute changes occurred to the roster which couldn’t be helped but the team still managed to put in some excellent performances and whilst they finished 4th overall slightly below target they did themselves and the school proud.

In year 7 Lincoln, River, Tayler, Beau and Tiff performed well in their first outing for us. Lincoln and Tiff both gained second place in their endurance events and Lincoln also followed this up with a 2nd in the sprint. In the relay they gain a 3rd overall and so they should all be very proud of themselves. In year 8, Bethan gained a second in the endurance and Logan came from fourth at the beginning of the race to win his individual event thanks to some amazing pacing from him. Logan would have backed this performance up in the sprint but unfortunately, a mechanical failure prevented this from happening. In year 9 Harriet took 1st place in the endurance event and 2nd in the sprint and this outstanding performance was backed up by Kian in the sprint who also gained 2nd. The year 9 team then went on to win the relay and final event of the day with a classy and well polished performance. In year 10 both Emily and Tom gained 2nd placed in the endurance event and Emily backed this up with a 2nd in the sprint alongside Seb who also gained 2nd. In the relay they also gained 2nd overall to finish a very consistent performance. In year 11, Amy stood head and shoulders above the rest gaining a 2nd in the sprint and a 1st in the endurance which was also backed up by Oakley with a 2nd in the endurance.

Every student who took part for Carisbrooke pushed themselves to the limit in this very intense and exposed situation and this demonstrates a real brilliance physically and strength mentally. Both Mr Fleming and Mr Peake are very proud of them all.

Well done!

On Wednesday, Year 11 held a cake sale to raise funds for their prom. All  202 cakes were made in school the night before by students on the prom committee. The cake sale was a huge success with over £100 being raised towards the prom. Well done Year 11.

Oliver and Bailey

Oliver, Macy and Amy

25 Year 8 students from Carisbrooke College attended their first University visit on the Learn with Us programme. The University of Southampton were super excited to have us!

We had a great day learning about University life, touring the campus and looking at the different courses available. Students created a poster and presented it to the rest of the group, followed by a game of ‘The Chase’ which was an interactive game, answering questions on what they had learnt throughout their visit.

The students had a fantastic day, making memories and starting to think about what their futures could look like.

Last week, we had the Speakers Trust in to complete a workshop with a group of Year 9 students. The workshop was an opportunity for students to learn and build on skills that they require to speak out in front of their peers. The aim of the workshop was to build confidence and give students the awareness of the skills required to speak out as well as preparing for future speaking and listening exams that they will complete.

I was immensely proud of how the students conducted themselves, pushed themselves out of their comfort zone but were always willing to attempt the challenges, even if they were unsure!

We learnt so much about each other and I witnessed those who may not have chosen to work together, build relationships, rapport and respect for one another.

Mrs Smy – Careers Leader

Over the last few weeks, Carisbrooke have been participating in their first basketball games since before the pandemic prevented such games from taking place.  However, despite such a long time passing, the students have represented Carisbrooke with pride and performed very well throughout these games. 

After losing the first few games to sides from The Bay and Christ the King College, Carisbrooke were able to achieve their first victory against Christ the King in a year 8/9 fixture. 

There have been some outstanding individual performances throughout these games with Oakley (year 11), Alfie (year 10), Charlie (year 9), Matthew (year 8) and Shai (year 7) being just some of these.  

All sides are preparing for the competitive tournaments that will be taking place in March next term and any students wishing to play for the school teams simply need to attend training on a Tuesday lunch time or after school.