CO-CURRICULAR

For obvious reasons, our co-curricular activities have taken a slightly different form during 202021. After the first lockdown, the Michaelmas term saw us all get back together again and co-curricular activities resume. Although Sport and Music couldn’t continue in quite the same way, the majority of our clubs and activities were able to run and it was fantastic to get back together again in person.

Then the second lockdown hit in January 2021, and as we did in 2020, we continued running a wide range of remote co-curricular clubs and activities, with options including Choir, Cookery, Art, D of E, Fitness & Wellbeing, Construction, Sketching, Origami, Photography, Outdoor Education, Pet’s Corner and Performance, among lots of others! Music and LAMDA lessons ran remotely as did our House Challenges.

The Trinity Term has felt a bit more ‘normal’ and we have managed to get out and about a bit more, with the D of E Expeditions in June being a particular highlight.

Senior School Celebration Evenings

This year we decided to hold four separate outdoor Celebration Evenings instead of our whole school Speech Day so that we could celebrate our pupils’ achievements under Covid-19 regulations.

The first two events were held for our Sixth Form and Form 5 pupils respectively. We witnessed two extremes of weather with glorious sunshine at the Sixth Form evening and pouring rain at the Form 5 event! However, the rain didn’t dampen spirits and parents, pupils and staff enjoyed speeches, musical performances and a formal Prize Giving at both events before a drinks and canapes reception.

Two weeks later we held similar events for Forms 1 & 2 and Forms 3 & 4. Luckily the weather stayed dry both evenings and the audience was again treated to some fantastic musical performances by our pupils and some delicious refreshments!

This year, in addition to our cups, trophies and academic prizes, we also awarded prizes for our six School Values - Confidence, Courage, Creativity, Compassion, Courtesy and Curiosity. Congratulations to all our Prize Winners!

Our Careers Department

Whilst our Horizons department has not been able to continue as it usually would during the last year, we have still been able to work with our pupils to prepare them for their lives beyond school.

Our careers programme starts at Form 1 and goes right through to the Upper Sixth, guiding our pupils through important decisions for their future. We also work with Futuresmart, who provide independent professional advice through an expert careers service.

For our Sixth Formers, we have a programme dedicated to university applications, which includes advice on writing personal statements, choosing courses and universities, roadshow visits from international universities and talks from outside specialist speakers. We have talks on diverse topics such as finance, resilience and study skills (although these have been limited this year) and each pupil has individual guidance with their application, particularly their personal statement, from their tutor and from Mrs Aliberti, who oversees each application personally. There is also advice on apprenticeships and gap years for those who do not want to apply to university.

In 2020 our Sixth Form leavers’ destinations were wide-ranging and aspirational. We now have students from last year studying Theology and Religion at Oxford, Early Years Development and Learning at Norland, Aeronautical Engineering, French and Spanish, International Relations, Agriculture with Animal Science, to name but a few. Some of our pupils chose not to continue their studies but have pursued other careers in the forces or farming. They were a fantastic year group and we are very proud of them and wish them every success in the future. We hope some of them will return one day to advise current pupils about possible careers. I am particularly proud that all of our pupils who went on to Higher Education gained a place at the university of their choice.

Mrs Aliberti Head of Horizons

Destination Subject

Oxford Brookes University History University of Leeds Geography University of Lincoln Events Management (2021)

University of East Anglia

Pharmacy Loughborough University International Business University of Bath Mechanical Engineering University of Oxford (Mansfield College) Theology and Religion University of Winchester Liberal Arts Norland Early Years Development and Learning Loughborough University Aeronautical Engineering University of Plymouth Pyschology Teeside University, Middlesborough Broadcast Media Production University of Winchester Education Studies and Drama Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama Music, Pianoforte Plymouth Marjon University Sport and Exercise Science University of Winchester Film Production Harper Adams University Agriculture with Animal Science University for the Creative Arts Film Production Oxford Brookes University Economics, Politics and International Relations University of Birmingham Mathematics University of West of England (UWE) Business and Events Management Cardiff University French and Spanish Nottingham Trent University Professional Policing University of Bath Economics and Politics University of Bath Business University of Plymouth Nursing ( Mental Health) Royal Northern College of Music Music, Viola

WORK EXPERIENCE

We are also keen to develop our pupils’ experience of work and volunteering outside of school and they are encouraged to arrange something from Form 5 upwards. In the Trinity term 2021, Sienna and Ella in Form 4, who are considering careers within the NHS in the future, were lucky enough to have been accepted onto a virtual work experience programme run by North Devon District Hospital. This is quite an achievement in itself because there was stiff competition for the available places and they had to submit a very detailed application. The girls have written a report on their experience.

“This work experience has been a great achievement for us and has allowed us to develop our understanding and knowledge of the NHS roles we were interested in as well as any other jobs we may not have considered before and how they work together.

Achieving two out of 40 places on this work experience from hundreds of people that applied was an amazing achievement and the application process was a great experience for future job applications and interviews. During these odd times unfortunately work experience couldn’t carry on as normal so instead of being in the hospital we have had seperate zoom meets spread out over a few weeks where we spoke to the professionals. This was great because it allowed us to see the bigger picture of their job and lifestyle. We could ask questions about anything and this helped us to find the best way to get to where we want to be.”

Sienna has also been awarded a Scholarship to the Immerse Education Medicine Summer School Programme at the University of Cambridge this summer, having entered the 2021 Immerse Education Essay Competition - “Which field of medicine has the biggest impact on society?”, writing about Combat Medicine.

Sienna’s entry was recognised by Immerse Education as ‘one of the highest calibre of entries this year.’ They also said that this was ‘a record breaking competition with thousands of entries from students attending leading schools all over the world.’ An incredible achievement.