This Wednesday we held our first IWEF Spring Concert at Carisbrooke College. The concert was titled ‘Sound Minds’ and featured a programme of songs linked to themes surrounding mental health with over 50 students coming together to be creative and express themselves through the powerful medium of music!

Audience members gathered in the school canteen before the event to view a display of some of the fantastic work being done in our Creative Arts Faculty, while Year 11 student Oliver Kurt, from Medina College, serenaded everyone on the piano and our Parent Voice and School Pastors served refreshments.

The concert began at 7pm and featured a variety of musical performances from our CC School of Rock groups, MC Band, CC Ukulele Club, IWEF Stage Band (comprising of students from Carisbrooke, Medina and The Island VI Form), various soloists and both our CC and MC choirs performed.

Tilly S, a Year 8 student from Carisbrooke College, delivered the first ever live performance of her song ‘Jealousy’, and we were later treated to another original song from Tilly G, a Year 13 A-level Music student at Island VI Form. All of our performers then joined together to perform a concert finale of The Beatles’ ‘Help!’ having learnt and workshopped the song earlier in the day.

The concert was raising funds for the IOW Youth Trust and we were grateful to Michelle Moorman (IOW Youth Trust Fundraising and Communications Manager) for coming along to share some words about the valuable work they are doing in our local community.

In many ways this event encompasses the Five Ways to Wellbeing ‘Give’ that we have been focusing on as a federation this term. If you were unable to attend the concert but would like to contribute towards this event’s donation to the IOW Youth Trust there is an option to do so on School Gateway.

Thank you to all the students, staff, parents and governors who came along to support this lovely evening, and to our Creative Arts Faculty for organising this fantastic event. We are thrilled to see so many of our students so keen to perform at live music events, and look forward to all the exciting opportunities Summer 2023 will bring! All students are warmly encouraged to take part in our musical clubs and activities: please see your Music teacher for more details about how you can get involved in our next event.

Island VI Form students have returned from an unforgettable Classical Civilisations trip to Greece – with an unexpected bonus extra day for extra measure!

Thirty A Level students travelled to Athens to support their studies in history, literature, tourism, art and politics, three years after the original trip had to be cancelled due to the pandemic. They enjoyed a guided tour of the Acropolis, including the world heritage sites of the Parthenon, Erechtheion and Ancient Agora on a beautifully sunny day. This was followed by a trip to the mountains to walk up through the sanctuary at Delphi, which was once the base for the oracle at the Temple of Apollo.

Listening to Mr Stott in the Tomb of Agamemnon

Due to unforeseen circumstances the group had to stay an extra day in Greece, and they took the opportunity for a rare visit to the Bronze Age citadel at Mycenae. Once home to Agamemnon before he set sail for the Trojan War, the students explored the 3,500 year old site, including the shaft graves and beehive tomb. During the week away, VI Form students also managed to visit the National Archaeological Museum, Corinth Canal, the towns of Arachova and Nafplio, and took the funicular up to enjoy the views of Athens at the top of Mount Lycabettus. They were accompanied by History and Classics teachers Miss Lowthion, Mr Stott and Mr Corner.

Miss Lowthion told us that “the trip was an incredible adventure for our young people, some of whom had never been abroad before. Our Classical Civilisation students have been studying these ancient sites for many months but to explore them first hand is invaluable for their learning. It was such a pleasure to spend a week with our students, and share this exciting cultural experience with them all.”

On their return the students commented that “the architecture was interesting… the sheer scale of the walk to the temple at Delphi was a favourite… and the trip was a great success!”

On Wednesday 1 March, 60 students from Carisbrooke College, Medina College and The Island VI Form went to see a production of ‘Freshwater Five’ at the Quay Arts in Newport.

The play told the story of five fishermen from The Isle of Wight who were convicted of drug smuggling in 2011. The five men in question have always pleaded their innocence in the face of contradictory evidence. 

It was an excellent piece of storytelling, highly creative and very well acted. It should provide our students with lots of ideas about how to create and develop their own productions in the future.

This years Isle of Wight Story Festival took place over February half-term at Quay Arts. This year the festival had a variety of performers, including authors, musicians, poets and artists. 

Students from The Island VI Form took part as young journalists and photographers over the course of the event. Jake, Taylor, Makenzi, Rosie-Lou, Rosie, Allister, Izzy, and Faith all took turns interviewing the likes of Horrible Histories’ Simon Farnaby and former CBeebies presenter Cerrie Burnell.

The students received access to all the shows to allow them to carry out reviews and take photos. The articles will be published on the Isle of Wight Story Festival website shortly, please look out for this! The photos that were taken by Taylor and Makenzi are already published and can be found in the Gallery section of the Isle of Wight Story Festival website here – https://www.iwstoryfestival.com/gallery/

This was an amazing opportunity for our students, which they truly embraced, resulting in some fantastic work being produced. 

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!

The Island VI Form criminology students had the opportunity to work with a member of the police in a fast paced workshop this Thursday. Acting Inspector Stuart Ross kindly paid a visit to the class, giving the students a real insight in to crime, using local and regional crimes as examples to highlight certain points such as that of the missing person Damien Nettles.

Acting Inspector Ross facilitated discussions of perceptions of the police force and why some people have these. The group worked with Acting Inspector Ross to look at criminal mindsets and the role of evidence and CCTV. They then discussed the campaigns that have lobbied Parliament to change the law, such as Harper’s Law. The group looked at the process of the criminal justice system and Acting Inspector Ross offered some case scenarios which our students had to make decisions on as if they were police officers.

The visit was very informative, the students and staff were all engrossed! Thank you very much to Acting Inspector Stuart Ross for taking the time to visit our criminology students.

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.

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.