On Thursday 2 February the Isle of Wight Indoor Rowing Championship took place. Carisbrooke entered a group of students who were mostly new to the sport, however this did not prevent them from putting in a good team effort with some spectacular individual performances.

In the Year 11 competition Ashton put in a great performance to come second in the endurance event whilst also beating a national rowing athlete in the process! Ashton was supported by Tom who gave everything he had and Jacob who put in a good sprint event.

The Year 10 performance of the day went to Aaliyah who came first in the sprint event in style. Aaliyah was supported consistently by Kian, Arthur, Harry, Grace, Delia and Chloe.

The Year 9 athlete of the day not just for Carisbrooke but for the whole event went to Bethan who destroyed the field in the endurance race and then backed it up by taking first in the sprint. Lucy, Theo and Lewis completed the rest of the year 9 races and did so with pride.

In Year 8 Rosie won the sprint race to give a timely boost to the Year 8 team also consisting of Lincoln, Rowan and Daisy.

The top performing team of the day for Carisbrooke went to Year 7 led by Summer won both the endurance and sprint races with such ease. Miley put in two very good performances to back Summer up and Jack, who won his endurance event led Harvey, Archie and Toby in the boy races to consistent outings.

Overall, Carisbrooke came 4th out of 8 schools with the potential to build into a very strong team over the next few years.

Well done to all the students for representing Carisbrooke with such pride!

For the first time, our Creative Arts department ran the Shakespeare Schools Film Festival as a federative venture with representation from all three of our sites – Carisbrooke College, Medina College and The Island VI Form. 

With only 8 hours to create, plan and film everything needed, the group based themselves at the Island VI Form drama studio and created an updated social media centred version of the classic “A midsummer night’s dream”. With hidden cameras and Vlogs the students recorded a mix of modern and Shakespeare scenes to blend the story and weave a tale of comedy, drugs and love. The performance was then edited by Mr Martin and sent to Shakespeare Schools Foundation. The production can be viewed on the Shakespeare Schools Foundation website. To watch our production please click here. 

The students recently received outstanding feedback on their submission, you can read the appraisal below. 

A huge congratulations to this very talented team!

Last Thursday a group of 45 students from years 9 and 10 made the trip up to London to a Mandarin Study Day hosted by the British Film Institute.

Students enjoyed a day of activities and the students were introduced to new Chinese vocabulary,. Students were able to analyse film clips and discuss the cultural background and meaning behind them. There were many school groups from around the country at the event, so we felt very proud when the organisers of the event commented on Carisbrooke students, saying our students in particular were “lovely”.

Mr Briscoe said: “Our students had their hands up throughout the event and contributed considerably. Overall I am extremely proud of the way Carisbrooke students engaged with the content, behaved safely and conducted themselves for the duration of a long and tiring day.” Chinese language assistant Mr Zeng, who also attended the trip said: “The trip was wonderful! Different types of movies were chosen – showing the culture from both ancient and modern China. Our students learned from the movie clips and characters and were the best ones in the cinema.”

Students at Carisbrooke enjoyed a fantastic morning at our Strings ‘taster session’ workshop on Monday, with Isabel Norwood (Strings teacher from Wight Music Tuition). During the session students were taught about the Strings family and had the opportunity to play some of the Violins, Violas and Cellos that Ms Norwood had brought along, even putting together several short performances at the end.

If your child would like to sign up for Strings lessons, Ms Norwood is offering group lessons (in pairs) for £80 a term; as we have already begun this term this means there would only be £56 to pay for February-March. There is also the option of paying in monthly instalments to help spread the cost of the lessons. Lessons will take place during school hours.

If you would like to sign up for these lessons please email beth.peckham@iwef.org.uk to register your interest, you will also need to complete an application form on the Wight Music Tuition website https://iwmt.org.uk/apply-online/, indicating which instrument and selecting ’20 minute in-person group lessons’. You do not need to select ‘yes’ for hiring an instrument as Ms Norwood can arrange this for you once lessons have started.

On Thursday 15 December nearly 60 students from across the Federation joined together to stage our first live IWEF Christmas Concert since 2019 at St. John’s Church in Newport.

The concert began with a tinkling rendition of ‘Jingle Bells’ performed on the hand bells by members of the Carisbrooke College breaktime Music Hub. This was followed by the humorous ‘I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas’, performed by students from all 3 sites with a special guest appearance from our Brass teacher Mr. Stroud on the tuba – dressed as a hippopotamus!

Evie and Sherine, from Medina College, then took the stage with a mature performance of Fiona Apple’s ‘Paper Bag’, performing again later with the Medina College Band in a ska performance of Duke Ellington’s ‘Caravan’ with other students from the school.

Ensembles from the Carisbrooke College School of Rock group performed an eclectic mix of songs including Green Day’s ‘Brain Stew’, Chris Rea’s ‘Driving Home for Christmas’ and year 9 student Lucy’s own song ‘My Christmas Wish’. Some of our Carisbrooke College Year 7 students then joined the final School of Rock ensemble to perform the Makaton sign language alongside their rendition of ‘Rockin’ around the Christmas Tree’.

Our federated IWEF choir performed the well loved Christmas carol ‘O Holy Night’ and then ‘You will be found’ from the musical Dear Evan Hansen. While the Carisbrooke College Ukulele Club performed the folk number ‘Santa never brings me a banjo’, joined by local musician JC Grimshaw playing on the banjo.

Our Island VI Form ensemble got the crowd singing along with their lively cover of Slade’s ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’ and our stage band from the recent IWEF production of ‘Wendy and Peter Pan’ performed a popular item from the show, Emeli Sande’s ‘Sparrow’.

The concert ended with all of the evening’s musicians joining together for a massed grand finale performance of Kelly Clarkson’s ‘Underneath the Tree’. The concert was very well attended and raised over £220 was raised for our Creative Arts Faculty to put towards new sound equipment for future events.

On Saturday 10 December a group of Carisbrooke College and Medina College students from years 9 to 11 had the opportunity to take part in a mock court trial at Newport Crown Court.

The students were split into different roles, defence, prosecution, witnesses and jury. There were 9 island schools including sixth forms and colleges participating on the day.

Our students gave us the following feedback:

“I think it was a great opportunity that allowed people, who would normally be worried about their future and unsure of post-16 life, to spend a day exploring law as an option. Even though I don’t see myself doing law, It was still very worth it.”

“The day was spent having discussions with lifelong professionals, debating, and having fun with friends. Overall, it looks great on a CV and was lots of fun”.

Our students showed great resilience and teamwork and received some fantastic feedback from the judge. It was an amazing experience and we are really proud of all that took part.

On Monday 5 December, 36 Year 9 students from Carisbrooke College and Medina College travelled to London to visit the Natural History Museum.

The purpose of this trip was to enhance our stduents understanding in up and coming geography topics, looking at the structure of the earth and volcanoes as well as consolidate learning in history.

Despite the extremely early start (5:15am!), the pupils had an amazing time on the trip, learning a huge amount and for some, experiencing museums and London for the first time.

The behaviour of our students was impeccable, they were an absolute credit to the federation.

Last week students from across Carisbrooke College, Medina College and The Island VI Form came together and treated us to two amazing performances of RSC’s Wendy & Peter Pan. 

To ensure students had the opportunity to take on different roles, the cast were split into two groups. The crocodile cast took on the lead roles during Wednesday’s performance with tiger cast supporting, this was reversed for Thursday’s show when the tiger cast played lead roles, with crocodile cast supporting.

Wednesday night saw our amazing Crocodile Cast take the stage at Medina Theatre! The play opened with a touching scene in the home of the Darling family, with the children playing ‘battles’ in the Nursery before tragedy strikes the family. Evie gave a powerful performance as Wendy, shining as a strong-willed independent young woman keen to spread her wings whilst bearing her heavy sense of responsibility as big sister to her three younger brothers, John, Michael and Tom (played masterfully by Megan, Freddie and Zach). Isabella and Eleanor were exceptional as Mr and Mrs Darling, delivering a mature portrayal of a marriage in turmoil following the loss of a child. Ellie burst confidently into the story as a mischievous and somewhat clumsy Peter Pan, accompanied by Tink, a fairy big on attitude and played with sass-a-plenty by Akifa. We were then transported to Neverland where we meet the motley crew of Lost Boys: Flynn entertained the audience with his character of Tootles, a Lost Boy desperate to be brave, yet looked down on by the other Lost Boys (including the hilarious Lilly, Preslava and Chloe as Curly, Nibs and Slightly). Adventures ensue and the action is soon ramped up with the introduction of Captain Hook, played with fiendishly menacing charm by Bethany, and flanked by Alfie as Hook’s adoring, long-suffering Smee. Louis was uproarious as the cheerful yet useless pirate Martin, joined on stage with the other Pirates Murt, Jones and Doc Swain, played by Destiny, Kiera and River. Maisie also mastered an excellently gory death as pirate Skylights! The hero of the hour was Lucy’s Tiger Lily, the effortlessly cool and tough Picin Princess, uniting with Wendy and Tink to form a Girl Power trio determined to end Hook’s reign of terror.

Thursday night saw our incredible Tiger cast take the stage! Evie reprised her role as Wendy, this time joined by Lily, August and Brooke as her three brothers John, Michael and Tom, with Luca and Daisy starring as Mr. and Mrs. Darling. The magic of Neverland was brought alive when Peter and Tink crashed on to the stage, with a confident performance from Hadley (Peter) and ‘the role of a lifetime’ for Megan as the brash fairy: a favourite with the audience! Joley, Lily-Rose, Amelia and Ella delivered great performances as Lost Boys Tootles, Curly, Nibs and Slightly, putting up a good right against the nasty pirates Murt, Jones and Doc Swain (played by Lewis, Evie and Mia). Sam charmed the audience with his performance as the hopeless Pirate-turned-Lost Boy, Martin, and Annelise took on the role of the fated pirate Skylights, dying a bloody death before changing out of costume to join our musicians on stage as singer. Carys wreaked brilliant terror on stage as the villainous Captain Hook, stalked by another favourite with our audiences – the crocodile himself! Cormac gave a committed performance as the slimy crocodile, who – in a plot twist – was also the Doctor who came to visit the youngest Darling boy, Tom, at the start of the play. Izzy played Hook’s long-suffering sidekick Smee, and Eloise saved the day as Tiger Lily, uniting with Wendy and Tink to storm Hook’s ship ‘The Jolly Roger’ and free the Lost Boys and Darling children from impending peril.

Throughout both performances our fantastic chorus worked hard alongside our principal characters as Lost Boys and Pirates, and our skilled team of Shadows (led by Mrs. Shorrock) enabled our characters to FLY! Miss. Elkin worked tirelessly with our students to choreograph some impressive sword fight scenes and stage combat, and our fabulous student band (led by Mrs. Peckham) accompanied the story beautifully with their eclectic mix of folk and popular songs.

Our student stage crew oversaw a number of set changes and transitions, during the shows, with seamless professionalism, and lighting was expertly provided by the Medina Theatre technicians. A huge thank-you to Mr. Lyle for directing this impressive production and bringing Neverland to life!

There was a poignant scene during both performances where members of the audience were invited by Peter Pan to light their LED tealights. All proceeds from the sale of these tealights and programmes will be going to the baby loss charity Sands, over the two nights we raised a total of £286.31! Thank you so much for supporting this special charity.

We are very proud of our students for taking on this challenging RSC play and delivering two high quality performances with such professionalism, talent and enthusiasm.

On Tuesday our ‘SING’ groups from Carisbrooke College, Medina College and The Island IV Form came together to perform at Osborne House as part of a ‘Christmas at Osborne ’ event. The event was organised by the IOW Music Hub in partnership with English Heritage.

The performance took place in the historic Durbar Room, the very room used by Queen Victoria and her family for their own Christmas performances  – a truly unique performance opportunity for everyone involved!

Students performed ‘You will be found’, a song they have been preparing for our upcoming performance of ‘Wendy and Peter Pan’, along with the quirky ‘I want a hippopotamus for Christmas’ and Adolphe Adam’s classic ‘O Holy Night’.’

We have included a photo from a book located in the Durbar Room which has an extract of an interview with Dorothy Blake, who was born in 1866 and was the daughter of Queen Victoria’s land agent. Here Dorothy describes her memories of Christmas time at Osborne.  

Our students performed beautifully. Mrs Brear and Miss Peckham are very proud of them all.