Shaftesbury School Spring 2022 Newsletter

@Shaftesbury

SPRING 2022

Mr More shortlisted for national teaching award Ukraine Appeal Youth Speaks Competition SCHOOLS ACHIEVING SUCCESS TOGETHER

S

SHERBORNE AREA SCHOOLS' TRUST

1718

Shaftesbury School

2.

WELCOME It has been another busy and event filled term here at Shaftesbury School and I would like to thank you all for your support; the staff and students here have been wonderful in supporting each other and the community feel of the school is very much prevalent, which is wonderful to see. Despite still seeing Covid cases affecting many of our families and teachers, we can start to feel that school is returning to normal, with the welcoming of visitors and a rich and varied extra-curricular programme very much on offer. You only have to follow our social media channels to appreciate how much goes on in our school and how well this helps develop students' character and understanding of the world outside of their taught curriculum. I am incredibly proud of how well this school helps to support and nurture the talents of our young people to 'Be the best that they can be' by challenging them to take part in activities that otherwise may not be available to them.

Following the terrible situation unfolding in Ukraine, as a school we looked at ways to support the crisis appeal and decided on a number of fundraising activities. A bake sale was organised and an online fundraising page was set up in partnership with ‘School in a bag’. This campaign works with the existing charities at the forefront of the Ukraine crisis to help get school bags to families seeking refuge. We had a fantastic response in a very short space of time and actually tripled our initial target, which the staff and students should be immensely proud of. Congratulations to the school for the amazing efforts and generosity shown.

Highlights from this term include the Rotary Club's Youth Speak Competition which we hosted. Students from our school and our neighbouring schools entered several debates tacking some contentious issues in a very mature and engaging manner. Talking in public can be very daunting, but these young people did this with confidence and professionalism, we look forward to growing this event in the future. Two of our talented teachers have been nominated for the Pearsons National Teaching Awards, both Miss Yeo and Mr More, and I was delighted to hear that Mr More has progressed to be shortlisted in the category of Digital Innovator of the Year. Good luck to Mr More, let’s hope all the work you have done in Future Classroom and for STEAM will get the national recognition it deserves!

Donna London-Hill Headteacher

Alex More has been shortlisted in the Digital Innovator of the Year category at the 2022 Teaching awards.

Congratulations Alex!

Alex More has enriched the lives of children at Shaftesbury school and beyond. Alex has created a Future classroom in school, funded by reaching out to EdTech companies to help sponsor the space – for example Epson and CatchBox to name a few. It’s a space where knowledge and skills co-exist, a space where technology supports the teachers and doesn't try to replace them. He’s designed a learning environment that is engaging and practical. Lessons are taught through interdisciplinary learning with content that overlaps subject disciplines. Alex has trained 42 of Shaftesbury School’s 62 teachers to use the room and opened the doors to local primary schools and community groups. The impact of his work to date has been transformative with students highly engaged in lessons, working in teams to solve complex problems. Each team has a leader, a scribe, a researcher, and a presenter.

The future classroom is being used by our school and other local schools to support teaching, learning, innovation, teacher training, staff development, STEAM Lab, parent engagement, and coaching. 258 students at Shaftesbury school participated in a survey and of these 46% said that all classrooms should look like this in the future and the remining 54% believe parts of it are desirable in all classrooms.

Not only is Alex pushing innovative teaching and learning at Shaftesbury school that the students are very engaged in, he has also been and continues to be a great coach to our trainee teachers, staff needing support and those wanting to progress their career academically. There have been very positive impacts shown here and clear progress has been made with staff that he has supported.

Alex now progresses to the final round of judging – we will keep our fingers crossed!

We would also like to congratulate Becky Yeo who was also nominated for an award.

Becky works hard making our most disengaged students curious about the world and the way it works, looking beyond exams and academic achievement. Her enthusiasm and dedication to the students at Shaftesbury School is incredibly deserving of recognition, congratulations Becky!

Classroom Expectations Mobile phones and social media are part of everyday life in so many ways. At school, our policy states that mobile phones must be off and away in a student's bag. With an increased amount of usage since lockdown, many parents and carers are requesting support with security controls of their child's social media accounts. The school are happy to support you with this in any way we can.

“Every child has the right to learn free of disruption" Shaftesbury School believes in this statement and supports the notion of disruption-free classrooms where children can learn and teachers can teach free from disruption. Our classroom expectations poster is displayed in every classroom to remind our young people of how to be.

3.

Ukraine Appeal – School in a Bag School in a Bag provides a School Bag which is filled with essential resources that will enable a child to access education. A typical School Bag contains: 12 pencils, 10 biro pens, 12 colouring pencils, a math set, a ruler, a pencil case, 6 exercise books (line/square/plain), a water bottle and a Lunch Box containing a Spork. Every School Bag is new and individually numbered to allow donors to track their progress on the website. Each bag costs just £20 to pack and send.

A Target of £1,000 was set for our school, in anticipation of each student donating £1 and staff contributing too.

Mrs Burfitt visited each year group and delivered an assembly informing students of our fundraising target and raising awareness of the conflict in Ukraine.

Comments from Year 9 students after their assembly included:

‘Although heart-breaking, I think it is necessary to educate people’ – Olivia ‘Interesting to see what we can do to help’ – Annie ‘Thank you for raising awareness about Ukraine in school and helping out’ - Owain An online fundraising page on School in a Bag was set up and two hours after our InTouch message was sent to parents our online total stood at just over £250 which is a fantastic achievement.

Fundraising in school commenced with Miss Frazer and Mrs Elphick setting up an activity colouring in Sunflowers and asking students to write messages of hope in exchange for a voluntary contribution. Over 3 days they raised an amazing £60.

In school on the 10th and 11th March we held a Bake Sale raising a massive £160 and students were invited to wear an item of clothing or an accessory in the colours of the Ukrainian flag on the Friday.

The generosity of students, staff and parents and carers has been simply heart-warming.

School Governor and Rotary Club Member, Paul Whiteman, on behalf of the Governors approached the Rotary Club and secured a donation of £500. An interview on This is Alfred on Saturday 5th March opened the online appeal up to the general public on Social Media platforms sharing the link to donate.

By the end of our first week of fundraising we had over £1000 collected in school and £1400 online. Added to this since is the £500 from the Rotary Club and money that has come in since in school makes it that we have TRIPLED our target. We are immensely proud that Shaftesbury School can pack and send 150 bags to the children of Ukraine.

We are hoping to have the opportunity to take a few students to the charity in Yeovil and pack the bags ourselves.

Thank you to each and every one of you who has contributed to this cause and a huge thank you to Mrs Burfitt for coordinating the campaign.

Ghana Project 12 students from Shaftesbury School have connected with 12 students in Accra, Ghana to learn in real-time via Zoom. This project has been running for a year and connects both schools. Lessons take place every week, hosted from the Future Classroom. We were connected with Ghana via the Hundred.Org and work on a range of topics. To date, we have delivered lessons on sustainability, climate change, future of food, transport and the latest focus is AI (Artificial Intelligence) which the children in Ghana are fascinated about.

Shaftesbury students have started fundraising to bring the 12 students from Ghana to the UK. They set an ambitious goal of £10k but fell just short. £2.5k has been raised through a range of events and collections. The plan now is to use that money to build a Future Classroom in Tema, Ghana. Working with NGO Africa IT Right this will benefit 2,500 children in the region and create a technology hub in-line with the best.

4.

Poetry by Heart 2022

The Future of Food with Motcombe School Inspired by the Ikea SPACE10 project, 24 students from Motcombe Primary School followed up a previous visit to the Future Classroom with a cooking experience.

Mr Dines from Motcombe brought his Year 5 class to Shaftesbury School to work on future solutions to food shortages. Inspired by the work, the class had been working on solutions back in their own school, which blossomed into a project. The students were tasked with solving some complex

problems, such as; What will we eat in the future? How will we feed a growing population?

The solution was bugs, mealworms, crickets, and insect solutions that are high in protein and sustainable. Students came into our professional kitchen with Chef Clive and 8 student helpers from Shaftesbury School to make their creations into a reality, yuk! They had to eat them too!

In March students competed to become our representatives at the national Poetry by Heart competition. This saw students from Key Stage 3, Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5 reciting two poems from the Poetry by Heart website to a panel of judges, as well as friends and family, in the library. From there, films of the winning entries will be sent off to the Poetry by Heart team where they will judged by a team of professional poets and professors before they decide on which students to invite to the National Finals at the Globe Theatre on the banks of the Thames.

Upwards of 1,000 schools, nationwide, always enter the event. Shaftesbury School has a proud tradition of performance poetry and this year’s competitors will be aiming to follow in the footsteps of Michelle Ezigbo (2015), Jacob Hulland (2017) and Lily Kiel Bechara (2018) who all made it to the national finals. The last time the school entered (2020) we were Dorset champions for KS3 and KS5. Good luck to all concerned!

Prom Prom is taking place on Monday 27th June at the magnificent setting of The Larmer Tree. Arrival time should be from 7pm onward. Speeches and food will be from 7.45pm with the DJ playing tunes throughout the evening.

This year we have a photographer available for the event. If you would prefer for your son or daughter to not be a part of any photos on the night, it will be their responsibility to ensure they are not a part of any group photos as staff will not be able to ensure this does not happen. The committee have done an amazing job at fund raising and have baked their little hearts out to raise a considerable amount of money so far, with more fundraising events planned.

We recognise that the cost of such an event may be an issue for some. With this in mind, we do have a selection of Prom dresses that have been donated that students are welcome to come and have a look at. We also have a small number of suits and shirts available if required. If you would like to make use of this provision, please contact jo.stuart@shaftesburyschool.co.uk or call Jo directly on 01747 857690. In previous years, we have asked parents of any small business if they would be prepared to sponsor an element of Prom. For example, paying for the cost of a balloon arch, DJ, the arrival drink etc. This means the cost of tickets are lower. If this is something you feel you could donate, please contact Jo on the number or email above.

5.

Spring term has been a very busy time in Maths! It began back in February with 42 year 11 students who had a great day out to Cardiff to see a selection of professional mathematicians talk about their work and some incredible applications of mathematics. Highlights include Sami Buzzard explaining how she uses maths in the fight against climate change and Ben Sparks discussing the mathematics of card games. Also in February, 38 of our Year 9, 10 and 11 students participated in the UKMT Intermediate Maths Challenge. The UKMT IMC is an international mathematics competition for students in Years 9-11.

Students were given 25 questions that aim to encourage mathematical reasoning, precision of thought and fluency in basic mathematical techniques to solve interesting problems. Only 50% of participants receive a bronze, silver or gold colour certificate. In total, 20 of our students received a colour certificate, our best results in recent years. In addition, three of our students qualified for follow-on rounds: Leo the Maclaurin Olympiad, and Seth and Emily the Grey Kangaroo. All three sat their rounds on 17th March and we await their results with bated breath. Our next event was Pi Day (March 14th). We held the

Maths following activities for students and staff: a dingbats competition, recalling digits of pi and a pie tasting. The recalling digits of pi competition is still on going at time of writing, but the winner of the pie tasting was AJ, with her fantastic key lime pie and 12/13M1 won the digbat competition scoring a perfect 20/20.

Our fourth event was the Year 10 Maths Feast, organised by the AMSP. Eight Year 10 students (and one sixth former to help mark work) attended The Blandford School to compete in a team maths competition.

There were four rounds of questions with

the students having to work alone as well as together to solve a variety of problems using a range of skills and strategies.

Students worked in teams of four to tackle the questions. In total, there were eight teams from four schools in attendance, and in the end, our teams finished 4th and 5th, with only two points between them. They all displayed great resilience and determination to successfully solve as many problems as possible. A particular highlight of the day was the Shaftesbury 1 team scoring full marks in the third round. Very well done to all involved.

Science Week

Science week took place during March and this year’s theme was ‘Growth’. Shaftesbury School focused on the growth of plastics and what we can do about this. Students spent time learning about plastics, how it's made, why it doesn't decay and then spent time being inventors and creating something new from recycled plastics. Students created bird feeding stations and designed eco homes.

Kids Judge BETT – March 2022 On March 25th, 16 Shaftesbury School students travelled to the Educational Technology conference known as BETT at the London Excel. After a two-year absence due to COVID, it was great to be back. Mr. Sweetenham travelled up with the group who had spilt responsibilities.

Six students were selected to judge BETT, tasked with identifying then short-listing the top ten innovations. Once decided, they had to stand on the main arena stage and present the prizes. The other ten students were tasked with finding new technology solutions that would be effective for teaching and learning SAST-wide. They were also interested in developing new partners and connections for our Future Classroom project. It was amazing how many EdTech companies had heard of Shaftesbury School and the work we do.

The highlights were plentiful, but in terms of technology, floor projectors, Virtual Reality, Robotic kits and audio solutions stole the show. We also managed to secure some products and funding to help our Ghana project.

In addition, students took part in a poster competition to raise awareness across the school with the top 10 earning a certificate and small prize and the winner Beau O collecting a box of goodies.

STEAM Workshop for Year 7 on Blue Carbon In March, 25 Year 7 students got to experience our award-winning STEAM program for the first time. We invited PhD Marine Biologist Jocelyn ElsonRiggins into school to lead a workshop on ‘Whale Poo’, also known as Blue Carbon. Students were taught about how whales are the engineers of marine ecosystems. Did you know that when a whale dies and sinks to the bottom of the ocean, it sequesters (sucks out) the equivalent of 1,500 trees? Structured around the UNESCO sustainable development goals, students had to work in teams to find solutions to the harm and dangers that whales face daily.

Students were joined live in the Future Classroom by world-leading experts on whale conservation Frank and Nynkye who buzzed in from Holland’s Rugvin Whale Foundation. A week later students presented to Frank via Zoom their solutions and became official Whale Poo Ambassadors!

STEAM Interviews We are taking new applications to join our STEAM program in May. STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths. Year 7, 8 and 9 students will be invited to interview for 24 new places as we expand our program this summer. We have been running taster mornings and workshops so students can get a feel for STEAM at Shaftesbury School.

6.

Library Update

Theatre Studies Performance A huge congratulations to the Year 13 A-Level Theatre Studies students this month, who after weeks of rehearsal performed their exam piece which was an extract from Amelia Bullmore’s Di and Viv and Rose - a funny and thoughtful exploration of friendships during the 1980s at University. The A-Level students worked tirelessly to prepare for the performances and it was brilliant to see them finally being able to perform to a live audience of family and friends again! Thanks to all those who supported and congratulations again to the students, who should be extremely proud of their efforts. We’re now fully in rehearsal for the Year 11 GCSE Drama student performances which take place next month, so watch this space . . . !

Shaftesbury 2030 Choosing our Future The UN Sustainable Development Goals are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and improve the lives and prospects of everyone, everywhere. This May, there are two events at Shaftesbury School which look at how to address these goals in our everyday lives. ‘Looking Forward’ on 11th May brings together 9-14 year olds from SAST academy schools across Dorset. They’ll explore aspects of sustainability through workshops and talks so that each student becomes an ambassador taking a message back to their school communities. ‘Shaftesbury 2030: Choosing our Future’ gathers older students, parents and adults from across the wider community. In the first half of the evening, through short talks and films, we’ll get background information and many positive and practical examples of what’s happening elsewhere in communities like ours to create positive change. In the second half of the evening, we’ll have a meal together, discuss what we’ve seen and heard, what’s relevant to the Shaftesbury area and our own households, and come up with some questions about how to move things on: what else do we need to know? Afterwards, Alex More of Shaftesbury School, the organiser of the ‘Looking Forward’ event, will put these questions to a panel of the speakers. You’re invited to join in.

Attendance is free, come along! Choose which talks or films to go to. Enjoy a chat with neighbours. Many of us doing small things will make a big difference. Be inspired, alongside our youngsters, to make sustainable choices. Registration from 5.45pm. There'll be films running from 6pm and a choice of short talks between 6.30-7.30pm; Meal 7.30-8.30pm; Panel discussion 8.309.30pm Link to FREE tickets: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/shaftesbury-2030choosing-our-future-tickets-301288741737

WORLD BOOK DAY We promoted reading for pleasure at Shaftesbury School this year for World Book Day, with the usual book tokens for all of KS3 and optional tokens for KS4/5. For the first time this year we ran a 'Masked Reader' competition, inspired by the Masked Singer show.

We asked various members of staff to disguise themselves in a costume or with a video filter and then film themselves reading an extract from The Gifted, The Talented and Me by William Sutcliffe. A video of the 'Masked Readers' was sent out and students then had to guess who the 'Masked Reader' was in each clip.

Thank you again to Ms Sullivan for her awesome editing skills and to all the staff members who volunteered and participated. We obviously did a good job of disguising staff because none of the entries managed to guess all 10 correctly. Our best three answers came from 10TE, 11VN and Saffron B. Well done everybody who had a go at guessing.

AUTHOR VISIT To help celebrate World Book Day we also had a full day of creative writing workshops with author, Chris Vick.

Chris has written several books for teenagers, most notably Girl. Boy. Sea., which was nominated for the Carnegie Medal in 2020. Several classes from across KS3 participated in his workshops. The year 9s found his sessions very interactive; they were enjoyed so much that students have asked to have more time in the writing workshops next time he comes in. High praise indeed. Some of the year 7s had this to say about their visit: “I was in his lesson and it was a fantastic. I learnt so much about writing stories and what it takes to write one. He taught everyone so much in the lesson and everyone enjoyed it.

We had a sheet of paper and there was a spokesperson. In my group I was the spokesperson. However everyone got to share their ideas to the fullest and he even questioned what we were thinking which challenged our brains. I love how he shared his life story and told us why he write the books and where he got the ideas from. He let us have fun but still learn and I think that’s really important when teaching children as they might just dose off!”

Aleah Denham

“We learned that Chris likes to write books about the sea but also base it off previous events that have happened to him. He gave us advice on writing and top tips from his history of writing - one of the ideas was that he said not to use long complicated words all the time and to make it simple like you’re telling the story to another person. I really enjoyed it and hope to see more lessons like this because it has inspired many people I know to write more stories.”

Isabelle Fuller and Arthur Kirby

“The author visit we had with Chris Vick was one of the best school moments I’ve had. He walked us through the basic way to start a book and it was amazing to see how he started to write. I was inspired by Chris Vick to write my own book and with everything he taught us I feel like it will be a success. The books he wrote look amazing and reading them will be incredible. With everything he taught us and showing us his inspiration and combining it into one. Chris Vick is a real inspiration and hero who has taught me to continue writing even if it takes a while to find the book.”

Jake Commons

ACCELERATED READER We are almost at the end of term again and hopefully lots of KS3 students will have reached their Accelerated Reader targets so that they can attend the reward party. Names of the super star students who have reached their targets so far are: Christopher D, Maisie B, Olivia P, Ethan L, Patrick A, Rowan H, Edmund D, Noah B and Alfie S. Keep up the great reading and quizzing everyone!

KS4 BOOK CLUB We meet once or twice a term for KS4 book club and have most recently read, Windrush Child by Benjamin Zephaniah. I think I can speak for us all when I say that it wasn't what we expected and was even better than we thought it would be. A relatively quick read (useful when Year 10 are busy prepping for exams) and much more personable and less angry in tone than we were anticipating. A very emotive topic that was fictionalised in a relatable and interesting way. Our next read is One of Us Dies at the End by Adam Silvera, which has recently

become popular thanks to a BookTok video. We are investigating what all the fuss is about.

UPCOMING EVENTS Carnegie Shadowing Group will be launching on Tuesday April 5th during both lunch periods. Anyone interested can come along or sign up with Mrs Sammons/Mrs Wyatt. We will be reading and voting on the books on the Carnegie Award shortlist. This group will be working collaboratively with a group from King Arthur's, Wincanton which is another school from our SAST community.

Student Shoutouts Congratulations to Josie H (Y10) she has recently competed in the Poole Regional Qualifier Open Meet. She placed amazingly well in the following categories: • Bronze = 200m breaststroke • Silver = 100m breaststroke • Gold = 50m breaststroke and a regional time!

Congratulations Josie, Mr Cooper and Miss Karai are very impressed. Well done!

A huge thank you from Drama Club to James F (pictured above) in Year 11. He has been an amazing role model for us all in drama club! He supports us, guides us and gives us performance advice and critique.

It is wonderful to have a student helping us in the club and is inspiring to see an older student leading. Thank you James for your support and attention.

Congratulations to the following students who took part in the Millfield Maths Challenge recently and competed against schools from both Somerset and Dorset.

• Amy R (Y10) • Kajal T (Y10) • Seth C (Y9) • Amelia D (Y9)

Shaftesbury School visit ICELAND – April 2023 There is an exciting trip to Iceland planned for 2023, open to all Year 12 students, and all current Year 11 students who will be continuing to Shaftesbury sixth form. The trip will last for four days and three nights, taking place at the beginning of the Easter holidays 2023 and will focus on the natural beauty of Iceland.

The itinerary includes: • A glacier hike and a swim in a geothermally heated pool.

• Visits to locations such as the Mid Atlantic Ridge at (where two tectonic plates meet) and volcanic and geothermally active areas • Visits to waterfalls, black sand (volcanic) beaches and coastal landscapes.

• A visit to a geothermal field and a Reykjavik city tour.

If this sounds of interest please go to Parent Pay for further details, or email Miss Brown claire.brown@shaftesburyschool.co.uk.

6th Form UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS Shaftesbury Sixth Form is delighted to announce that we have submitted a total of 68 University applications for our current Year 13 students, as well as several of our former students. Offers are already coming in for many of our students for a range of courses all around the country, and we look forward to hearing more as they come in. As part of the application process, we are delighted to share that two of our students have been offered places to study at Cambridge University, Aron and Megan, both to study Maths. We are also pleased to share that Paige has received two offers to study Veterinary Science.

These are just a small selection of the many exciting and varied progression destinations that our students could be heading towards next year.

To receive such offers is a testament to all our students’ hard work. We look forward to continuing to share in the excitement as we receive further news from applicants. If any student or parent wishes to discuss any aspect of university further, please get in contact with the Sixth Form Office, and we would be happy to provide some guidance.

PROGRESSION TRIPS It has been a busy term for student progression. We passed the January deadline for UCAS and were delighted to support 68 students with their university application. However, we have also been busy supporting students with other progression routes, particularly our Year 12 cohort who need to start researching their options and thinking about where they are going after Sixth Form. We held a

Parents Information Evening on Tuesday 22nd March where Mr Motteram and Mr Almond discussed the main options when students leave Sixth Form and what the next steps could be. On Wednesday 30th March, we took students to the National Apprenticeship Show in Exeter where they were able to explore a wide range of apprenticeship providers and find out about the exciting opportunities to earn while they learn. We are also taking all Year 12 students to the UCAS Discovery convention on Wednesday 6th April at Bournemouth University, where students will have the opportunity to explore not only higher education, but further education and other progression providers. Moving into the summer term, Year 12 students will receive ongoing support with our internal ‘Progression Day’ with staff delivering a range of seminars and workshops covering Gap Years, Personal Statements, CVs and more.

If students or parents need any support or advice on progression, please ask them to come to the Sixth Form Office.

STUDENT LEADERSHIP On Thursday 17th February, Shaftesbury School hosted the Youth Speaks Debate Competition, in partnership with the local Rotary Club. Despite Storm Eunice, the event was a huge success, with teams representing Shaftesbury, Blandford and Gillingham Schools debating on a topic of their choice, with students proposing, opposing and chairing their conversations.

The audience included staff, parents, local Rotarians and even our MP, Simon Hoare.

The debate topics were diverse and included Ghosts, Veganism, Crime and

mixed gender PE lessons. The standard of the debates were very high and the judges had a tough job to pick their winning teams. We congratulate the Blandford Team for winning the Junior competition and Shaftesbury School were delighted to win the Senior competition. Both teams will now progress to the District finals in the summer term. We would also like to thank Chef Clive and his brilliant team of Sixth Form Students that provided a delicious buffet to all our guests and look forward to hosting future competitions.

LAUNCH OF NEW SIXTH FORM PREFECT STRUCTURE Alongside our recent launch of the new Student Leadership structure in the lower school (Tutor and Year Captains), we have been busy restructuring our Sixth Form Prefect Team into separate responsibilities - to ensure greater accountability for students and to allow them to really focus on an area of school improvement. It should also allow for a closer link between Prefects and subject departments and the lower school students. Alongside a new structure involving distinctive responsibilities, we have created job descriptions for each prefect role to allow a bit more accountability and direction.

The deadline for applications is the 25th April. Once the prefects are appointed, we will internally ask for students to put themselves forward for the role of Head Prefect and a student/staff vote and hustings will take place. We very much look forwarding to continuing our development of student leadership at Shaftesbury School.

1718

North Dorset Virtual Can Do Rowing Championship 21-22

Rugby YEAR 7 RUGBY Eighteen Year 7 students attended the NDRC Presidents Trophy 2022. Friday night lights played against Gillingham, Sexeys and Sturminster Newton School. A brilliant first game where they won four tries to one against Gillingham school, which helped build confidence for the rest of the tournament. The Year 7 boys showed great commitment and determination, scoring a range of outstanding tries, beating Sturminster six tries to one in game two. The final game was decided with a successful final kick between the posts, crowning them winners of the 2022 trophy in a nail-biting final game. The final score was 19-17. Congratulations to the Year 7 rugby team.

Sixth Form Boys’ Basketball The Sixth Form boy’s basketball team has gone from strength to strength.

After losing their opening game of the season to Gillingham School they have a maintained a 50% winning ratio, enjoying games against QE, Yeovil College and Gillingham. The lads are now sporting a brand-new kit, Black & Yellow has become their tag line. The lads train hard and have impressed with their attitude and progress.

Football

BATH RUGBY DDP Josh P, Rares N, Charlie S and George G attended Bath Academy trials during the school holidays and have been selected to attend weekly Bath Academy training sessions. This is a huge achievement – congratulations from Shaftesbury School!

Images are on our Shaftesbury School P.E Instagram

• Fin P (Year 7) - 478 metres - Overall placing in ND League 1st Position • Ellie B (Year 7) - 404 metres - Overall placing in ND League 1st Position • Harry D (Year 8) - 763 metres - Overall placing in ND League 1st Position • Archie S (Year 8) - 673 metres - Overall placing in ND League 3rd Position

YEAR 8 RUGBY A new sport for many of these Year 8 boys. A first run out against Sturminster Newton School, winning eight tries to one in their first ever game of rugby union.

The team then attended the North Dorset Sevens tournament playing against a host of schools, not only winning all their games but playing with smiles on their faces ready for a fixture full rugby season in Year 9.

YEAR 9 RUGBY An enjoyable rugby season for our Year 9 team. An enthusiastic group of boys played against Gillingham and Sturminster Newton Schools to start the season.

The 10s tournament came up next, which was played at Chapel Gate, home of Bournemouth RFC. The team played five games, winning three, drawing one and losing one game against other students not from the local area, which overall was a great result for these students and they should be proud of their achievements. Lastly, rugby sevens season. We won three games, 8-0, 4-1 and 3-1 and topped the group.

Special mention to Christopher D and Connor B on joining the rugby team, plus outstanding players of the season Josh P and Charlie S for their constant commitment. The whole team deserve recognition as this season they have really stepped up and shown improvement.

A number of students from the school took part in the North Dorset Can Do Rowing Event which was held on the 31/3/2002 at Shaftesbury. Students rowed as far as they could on an indoor rowing machine in a set amount of time; Year 7 for two mins, Year 8 for three mins, year 9 for four mins. We had some incredible individual performances from the following students.

Also, due to the excellent performances across the year groups, it meant that we also placed highly with some team positions which consists of four rowers per age group.

The Year 7 Boys team (Danny A, Jude B, Cody M & Fin P) finished with an overall placing of 1st Position in the North Dorset League with a total distance rowed of 1767 metres.

The Year 8 Boys Team (Harry D, Archie S, Billy J & Marli B) finished with an overall placing of 3rd position in the North Dorset League with a total distance rowed of 2701 metres.

The Year 9 Boys Team (Connor B, Freddie B, Liam J & Hogan C) finished with an overall placing of 3rd position in the North Dorset League with a total distance rowed of 3422 metres.

The Year 8 boys team had a brilliant win at Home against Gryphon. 2-0 down at half time they showed hard work and determination to come back and win 4-3. Luc R was Player of the match with three assists. Year 9, 10 and 11s recently played a multi fixture at Sherborne School. Some excellent football was displayed, with all teams showing great commitment. The Year 9/10 girls team came 2nd at the annual Gillingham Astro Tournament. Winning two and drawing two. They were really unlucky not to win the tournament after a fantastic display from the whole team.65 students from Years 8-13 went on the annual fixture to Millfield. Great effort from all the players, with special mention to the Sixth Form team for an outstanding performance.

Shaftesbury School, Salisbury Road, Shaftesbury SP7 8ER • 01747 854498 • shaftesburyschool.co.uk

Congratulations to all those students who took part. An open indoor Rowing Event will be taking place at Bryanston School on Thur 28th April. If you are interested in competing then please see Mrs Mattocks in PE.