Eswatini and Mozambique Trip Opportunity!

Written by Gemma Long on April 18, 2024. Posted in News - CC, News - MC, News - VI, Uncategorized. No Comments on Eswatini and Mozambique Trip Opportunity!

Eswatini and Mozambique Trip Opportunity!

Medina College, Carisbrooke College and The Island VI Form invites you to join an online talk about our exciting eSwatini & Mozambique expedition, running in July 2026 for students currently in years 8, 9 and 11.

This is a life-changing opportunity for students to explore eSwatini & Mozambique with expert guides, while developing their life skills, confidence and independence. We’re partnering with World Challenge to offer this 20-night trip, which complements school learning. Here is a short video to give you a feel for what World Challenge is all about!

Applications are already open, so please visit our trip webpage for the sign-up link, itinerary, travel dates, Covid-secure booking terms and trip cost – examples of how past students have earned this themselves will be covered in the talk.

Paul from World Challenge will host the 30-minute Zoom presentation on Tuesday 30 April at 7pm. Please come along and ask any questions, or just listen in.

To attend, please register for the Zoom presentation here.

Please be aware that the trip will be open to The Island VI Form Year 12 students in September 2024. This means that current Year 11 students cannot sign up to the trip yet, but can still join the Zoom presentation to gather information and start planning.

Indoor Football Tournaments

Written by Gemma Long on February 23, 2024. Posted in Medina College, News - MC.

Indoor Football Tournaments

Last half term, during lunchtimes, an indoor football tournament was contested between teams from Year 7 and Year 8. Some great games were played with many great goals scored and memories created. The support for the other teams was also great to see.

Third place were Year 7 team The X Men, Second place was Year 8 team Reeves Rovers and the Winners were Year 7 team ABC United (pictured).

The Year 9 boys are regulars to lunchtime indoor football so it was great to see them playing a competitive tournament. Third place was Chunky FC, Second place was Big Boys FC and the Winners were Dibbens Doughnuts (pictured).

Top goal scorer of the tournament was Harry and the player of the tournament was Billy. Well played everyone. Special thanks goes to Bailey and Max from Year 11 who refereed all the games.

Resilience Challenge Success

Written by Gemma Long on February 23, 2024. Posted in News - MC, News - VI, Uncategorized.

Resilience Challenge Success

A resilience challenge took place last half term for schools and colleges across the Island organised by Ed-Wise. Students were given a hypothetical emergency scenario and had to put relief plans in place and present them.

IWEF students performed fantastically in this challenge with The Island VI Form team being crowned the overall winners and Medina College students being presented with the award for the most innovative response.

Students showed great career capital skills including: public speaking; teamwork; creative thinking; leadership and creative problem solving.

“During the Digital Twin Resilience Challenge our team of six, along with many other Island schools, were given a fake scenario (in which an unexploded bomb was unearthed during construction near the car park adjacent to the Council building) and tasked with creating a presentation detailing our evacuation plan and response, focused on infrastructure. Our favourite plan we came up with was to suggest sending children to the local soft play center, JR Zone, providing a safe and engaging environment during the crisis. This imaginative strategy not only prioritised the safety of our youngest community members but also showcased our team’s ability to think creatively under pressure and in an ever changing situation. Despite technical difficulties we won ‘best overall course of action’, making the difficulties and hard work worth it. Overall, we most enjoyed working together as a team and completing the wide variety of different tasks and responses needed, allowing us to get to know each other and complete tasks most suited to our individual skills. We knew this hard work paid off when we managed to finish our presentation with just four seconds left of the 15 minute time limit! We have learnt many skills from this experience, such as working well under pressure and communicating effectively with one-another, and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.”
– Amelie and Rachel, The Island VI Form students

“The whole experience was like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. We got to speak to people from many different jobs like the police and a water company, and we got to spend lots of time planning our own evacuation plan for a hypothetical situation. It made me think in a way I’ve never had to for any of my subjects and helped me understand just how much goes into planning evacuations in the real world; I found it a very interesting experience. The presentation at the end, I thought, would be scary to do, but because of how much work we’d all put into planning it, it was instead exciting as we got to share our ideas. I spoke to people from my year I hadn’t before and got to know other peers better. Also, the food was amazing! This has helped broaden my knowledge of future jobs and inspired me a lot. I would definitely recommend The Resilience Challenge happening again.”
– Imogen, Medina College

Dance Live! 2024

Written by Gemma Long on February 23, 2024. Posted in News - CC, News - MC, News - VI, Uncategorized.

Dance Live! 2024

Dance Live! is a competition for schools and colleges which sees students put together a choreographed performance to the backdrop of a giant digital screen. There is a focus on raising aspirations, strengthening health and wellbeing and developing skills for creative career choices.

Students from across the Federation have been working hard for the last six months to put together an amazing entry into this year’s competition. The piece focused on two young siblings placed into foster care and the impact this has on them. The theme was highly emotive and our students really brought it to life through their performance.

The team received some absolutely incredible feedback from the judges and received awards for their soundtrack and their technical skills – lighting, LED content and backstage efforts.

Throughout the development of this year’s entry, students have developed their leadership, creativity and teamworking skills. They have developed social bonds and have made memories that will stay with them forever. We are so proud of this year’s team and are very grateful to all of the staff involved. Thank you to Mr Williams, Miss Fairweather, Miss Stevens, Ms Ryan and Mrs O’Callaghan.

Glitter and Glow Disco

Written by Gemma Long on February 5, 2024. Posted in Medina College, News - MC.

Glitter and Glow Disco

On Thursday 1 February, we had our ‘Glitter and Glow’ themed Year 7 Disco to celebrate the students completing their first term at Medina College. The event was a great success for students and staff alike with face paint and glitter, glow sticks, Bahar’s tuck shop and an incredible set by DJ (Mr Turner) who provided the tunes. It was lovely to see so many students joining in with the fun and letting their hair down.

Thank you to the staff who gave up their time to organise and set up the disco and in particular to Mr Worsley who showed the students up on the dance floor. It was a well deserved treat for the year group and I hope those who came had a night to remember.

Bovington Tank Museum Trip

Written by Gemma Long on February 1, 2024. Posted in News - CC, News - MC, Uncategorized.

Bovington Tank Museum Trip

On Friday 26 January, 45 students in year 9 and 10 headed off to Bovington in Dorset for a Design and Technology based trip to the world famous tank museum.

As always, the museum and staff were incredible; the museum has over 300 vehicles across multiple buildings and is extremely well set up for catering to school kids.

Our first stop was the Mk IV world war one tank where, in groups, we got to spend some time in the tank and hearing what it would have been like to experience the earliest tanks in battle. It was a fairly horrific environment; 45 degrees celsius, full of toxic fumes, no suspension and so loud there was no way of talking to one another in the vehicle itself. By modern standards, this rudimentary design was a game changer in the war and helped turn the tide against the Germans in 1917 and 18 particularly.

Moving on, we got to participate in a similar experience but this time in a relatively modern Chieftain tank. These were in service until the early 1990s and, although far better protected and rather safer to be in than the deadly environment of the Mark IV, it was still an incredibly tight squeeze where the tank crew may have to spend days or even weeks.

In the afternoon, we looked around the conservation centre where we got to see the massive collection of stored tanks and the workshops where they are maintained and repaired. We were given a superb tour of the facilities and the mechanics and engineers talked us through the numerous issues they have encountered in looking after vehicles that, in many cases, have been out of service for decades.

It was a full on, fantastic day and the staff at the tank museum complimented the students on their impeccable behaviour, attitude and attentiveness on the trip, and were particularly impressed by their excellent manners.

Santa Dance 2023

Written by Gemma Long on January 3, 2024. Posted in Medina College, News - MC.

Santa Dance 2023

On Friday 15 December, Medina College held it’s first Santa Dance to raise money for the Wight Brainy Bunch.

For the past few years, students have participated in a Santa Dash which was a fun run around Seaclose. However, with the wet weather we have had lately, it would not have been much fun!

Over 100 students participated in an afternoon of fun ‘Just Dance’ action. They all donned festive attire and got fully involved. Over £300 was raised for this worthwhile charity, which is the most we have raised in our santa events.

Mr Williams, who organised the event, said “I have been blown away by the enthusiasm of the students at Medina and plan for next year to go bigger and better! Hopefully this is just the start of charity events that we will be putting on.

Trip to Ypres

Written by Gemma Long on December 12, 2023. Posted in News - CC, News - MC, Uncategorized.

Trip to Ypres

34 students from Carisbrooke College and 34 students from Medina College left a very cold Cowes on Thursday 7 December for a visit to the battlefields in Belgium. The first visit after a long trip via the Eurotunnel was Hooge Crater. This is described as the finest private museum in Flanders. The students were able to see genuine world war one weapons, uniforms and many other items including a full size model of a period bi-plane. Our next stops of the day were two cemeteries – Tyne Cot where many thousands of British and Commonwealth servicemen are buried and then onto Langermark, where thousands of German soldiers are buried. After an excellent evening meal, the students then went to the Menin Gate where 3 students from each school were able to take part in the daily Act of Remembrance by laying a poppy wreath.

The next day started with an early breakfast and then a visit to Flanders Fields Museum in the Cloth Hall of Ypres. This is a wonderfully interactive museum where students were able to find the story of local Hampshire soldiers and follow this through the course of the war. After this, students had some free time to explore the center of Ypres and the Christmas Market, before beginning our long journey home via one last chocolate shop.

It was an absolute pleasure to take 68 students who behaved impeccably throughout the whole of the trip. They were supported wonderfully by 7 members of federation staff from across all 3 sites.

Celebrating Success

Written by Gemma Long on December 12, 2023. Posted in Medina College, News - MC.

Celebrating Success

One of our school ASPIRE values is Success – We celebrate our successes – and our students have been giving us many reasons to celebrate recently.

Mr Pearce-Jones meets students every Friday morning for his hot chocolate treat where we reward 100% attendance and high achievement points. 40 students have taken part in this weekly celebration this half term and we hope to see many more students receiving this reward next term.

Today, 12 December, an additional hot chocolate celebration took place for our Snow White panto cast and Bronze Duke of Edinburgh students. These students have shown commitment and dedication to succeed in these ventures and we are extremely proud of them. As well as a hot chocolate and sweet treat, they all received a certificate of achievement.

Well done!

Call It Out Campaign

Written by Gemma Long on November 23, 2023. Posted in Medina College, News - MC.

Call it Out Campaign

Parents will have received a letter recently about a campaign we have launched in school called Call it out! You can read the full letter here.

This campaign aims to help tackle incidents of prejudicial language. Prejudicial language is when a person uses words that attack one of the core protected characteristics in society. These are characteristics such as gender, race, religion, sexuality and physical or emotional conditions.

If students experience any form of prejudicial language being used in school, we are urging them to Call it out! They can do this by speaking to a member of staff or by sending an email to callitoutMC@iwef.org.uk. This does not replace the preferred way of raising concerns by talking to tutors, teachers or other staff; this is purely an extra mechanism that can be used, should a student feel more comfortable doing this.