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!

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.

Year 8 students have recently been looking at composite materials and their uses in real world applications.

They were set a challenge to build the strongest bricks using nothing but flour, water, and different types of pasta/cereal. They then tested their designs by hanging weights from their bricks. The designs were incredible and some were so strong Mr Spence had to go on the hunt for extra weights!

The students were very engaged and had a lot of fun designing, building, and testing their own composite materials!

We are pleased to announce the implementation of the Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) programme at Medina College. The MVP project is an exciting peer-led leadership and bystander programme. MVP trains students as mentors and equips them with the confidence, knowledge and skills to identify and speak out against bullying, abusive behaviour and violence. It aims to tackle the beliefs, attitudes and culture which can give the message that some violence is acceptable.

We share a vision for Medina College to be a place where all students can attend school free from violence and the fear of violence in all its forms. The MVP mission is to achieve ‘prevention through connection’. Our team of mentors are focused on driving the change required within our community to successfully tackle the acceptance and consequences of violence.

The Year 10 mentors successfully completed their training and, last week, delivered their first MVP session to the Year 7 cohort. The mentors did a fantastic job and the Year 7 tutor groups engaged well with the mentors and the lesson themes. The mentors will deliver further sessions across the year, passionately driving the MVP message to support the safe and healthy environment that enables our community to thrive. Well done mentors.

On Tuesday 15th November, the Young Enterprise Company Programme teams from both Carisbrooke College and Medina College attended a Dragon’s Den style presentation.

The presentation took place at One Holyrood in Newport where the Dragon’s were enlisted to listen to the teams speak about their business ideas.

Carisbrooke College students, also known as Wicks of Wight (Mia G, Sophie B and Jo M) presented their aesthetically pleasing, aromatic candles with a focus on environmentally friendly packaging and ingredients. The team explained that their next step was to design the packaging in the style of a cereal box.

Medina College students (Ruby H, Dillon D and Elsie May P) impressed the Dragons with their original app idea ‘Open Up’; aimed at teenagers and young adults who might struggle with mental wellbeing. The app takes the form of a game, which is designed to provide positive vibes for the user.

Both teams secured a well deserved investment injection of £50 from the Dragons who were impressed with the organisation and hard work both teams had shown. The Dragons were particularly impressed at how confident the students were.

On Saturday 19 November, seven students from Carisbrooke and Medina College organised and facilitated the most amazing Takeover Day at Independent Arts.

Our determined team rose to the challenge and took on the responsibilities of Hub Manager, Workshop Coordinators, Fundraisers and Hub Coordinators all in response to our incredible Biosphere project. They managed to organise some fantastic workshops, sell a range of merchandise and organise some fabulous live music, courtesy of our wonderful VI Form music students.

27 students from across the federation gathered together at the Island IV Form last Saturday for a federated singing workshop with Mrs. Peckham and Mrs. Brear, to rehearse their repertoire for our upcoming musical events.

We are very excited to be performing in the Durbar Room at Osborne House on Tuesday 29 November in partnership with IOW Music Hub and English Heritage, and at our IWEF Christmas Concert on Thursday 15 December. Our singers will also be featuring in the upcoming Isle of Wight Education Federation production of The Royal Shakespeare Company’s ‘Wendy and Peter Pan’ at Medina Theatre on Wednesday 7 and Thursday 8 December.

Mrs Brear runs our MC ‘Sing!’ choir at Medina College on Thursday lunchtimes in M3 with Mr Gray, and is always keen to welcome new members! Please speak to Mrs Brear or Mr Gray for more details.

We had excellent feedback from students and parents following the workshop on Saturday, we are so please that everyone enjoyed themselves!

On Friday 11th November, the Medina Community came together in an Act of Remembrance to take time to remember those who had lost their lives in conflicts.

Year 11 students Ernie P H and Francis C presented the wreath to Mr Parr-Burman infront of where the students and staff were gathered. Sasha R read the Exhortation and Evie C read The Kohima Epitaph. The two minutes silence was coordinated with the firing of a maroon from County Hall at 11.00am and at 11.02am, when The Rouse was played.

Our thanks go to Mr Len Pullinger who performed the Last Post and the Rouse. The students behaviour and the respect shown on such a sombre occasion was impeccable and reinforced our sense of pride in them.

This culminated a week of remembrance focused activities including researching names on the war memorial in St Thomas’ Square in Newport by years 8 and 10, using information from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website. Mr Binfield also led Assemblies on the subject.

The wreath will now be laid at the war memorial in St Thomas’ Square.

On Thursday 3 November, a group of 180 students from Medina and Carisbrooke Colleges travelled to Southampton to watch a production of the play An Inspector Calls at the Mayflower Theatre.  This play forms part of the GCSE English syllabus. It was an opportunity for our students to experience the play which will enhance their understanding and hopefully their enjoyment of the text.

An Inspector Calls, one of J B Priestley’s best-known works, was written in 1945, although the action takes place over a single night in 1912.  The play centres on Inspector Goole’s interrogation of the Birling family, following the death of a young girl called Eva Smith. Are they to blame?

Students were asked, “What was the best part of “An Inspector Calls”? Over fifty students responded. Here are a few of their views on the performance.

I liked the added details, for example the group of people near the end of the play representing all of the ‘John and Eva Smiths’ who are suffering silently in society.  Oliver K.

I liked the part where the house fell down because it resembled the family falling apart. Ruby B

I really enjoyed the stage set and how the rich were above the poor, really highlighting Priestley’s view on social responsibility.  It really helped me understand the text better and will benefit my revision massively. Emily B

The house collapsing as the relations between the family fall apart – the sparks flying around, the house falling to its side, and the plates just smashing – definitely caught me off guard. Set was a 10/10, I would see it again. Francis C

I thought the set was really good and my favourite part of the play was the end when the family realised the inspector wasn’t actually from the police. Jack C

My favourite part of seeing the play was the inspiration I got from the set design. I am also taking drama for my GCSEs, so to see how the set designer took the text and the era, as well as the characters and reflected that through the set and the costume was very interesting and inspiring.  Summer G.

I loved all the hidden messages we see on set. First, the children suffer in silence and the inspector is the only one able to talk to them as he’s a socialist. Then the umbrella is the only thing left behind by the inspector and that is being used to cover Shelia, showing that she is no longer sheltered by her parent’s capitalist views. Lexie G

I think that it was a thought provoking play with a very spectacular set! Isabella H.

The best part for me was when the house went boom and tipped over, I think they did it to give us a visual that the family was falling apart after they each found out what they had done to this girl. And I liked how the house went back up when the person on the phone said there wasn’t a dead girl there, Mr and Mrs Birling basically thought everything was okay and the house going back to normal really showed that. George S.

I loved it, before I didn’t understand the whole story line of An Inspector Calls but watching it really helped me understand what was going on and how each of the characters felt. Jaszmine W.

As you have read, the students not only enjoyed the play but they have also reflected on it. We hope that this will assist their understanding of the play and their revision for their upcoming GCSE exams.

As always, our students were a credit to their respective Colleges. Thank you to all the staff who supported the trip – it is much appreciated.