20 minute read
Boudica (p
Senior Life
Be a Girl Chorister for a Day
We were delighted to be joined by so many aspiring choristers for this year’s ‘Be a Girl Chorister for a Day’ event. The girls were given a true taste of what chorister life is like, beginning with rehearsals at 8am followed by a typical school day in which they were given a glimpse into Truro School life.
After a busy start, the girls had a break for lunch to get to know their peers more, before heading down to Truro Cathedral, only a stone’s throw away from the school. There they enjoyed an afternoon of activities and rehearsals.
Our current choristers then joined them for an Evensong service at the Cathedral, which was open to the public and a great way for the aspiring choristers to finish their day. Thank you to all the girls who attended; we hope you enjoyed the day!
BBC Radio 3
Our boy and girl choristers broadcasted live on BBC Radio 3 this term. They performed the world premiere of a new piece by Paul Drayton, as well as music by Imogen Holst and Eric Whitacre. Beautiful!
The Heseltine Gallery Welcomes Visitors
We welcomed the launch of our new Heseltine Gallery exhibition, ‘Breathe’, a celebration of creative expression in response to being released from the Covid lockdown.
A big thank you to Vicky Cucknell for organising the exhibition, to our Sixth Form art students who worked hard to design and curate this wonderful collaborative exhibition and to all the ‘Breathe’ artists who responded to our Open Call.
Rex Reigns in Rainy Rocket Races
The Physics Club were out in the rain, testing out their rocket and parachute designs.
Despite the weather, they were using pressure to launch their rockets, with Rex’s taking a clear lead and going further than the others. Rex put his success down to his rocket’s pointed end.
Despite some successful launches, the pupils decided their rockets required some revisions. The parachutes attached (to return their rockets to earth safely) were slowing down the launch. The club will devise ways to keep the parachute inside the missile until it has been launched, to see if this will help.
With thanks to Mr Laity for this fascinating and fun club.
Pupils take on The National Spaceport Competition
The National Spaceport Competition tasked small teams of 1st and 2nd Years to design a UK spaceport. They used teamwork and considered performance, environmental sustainability and budget to deliver compelling proposals.
It was a challenging event that required the pupils to take on a lot of information and back up their designs with persuasive pitches. All the groups did exceptionally well and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
Senior Play: Boudica
A huge congratulations to all the students and staff involved in the outstanding production of the year’s senior play, Boudica. Directed by Johanna Egar, this intense, hard-hitting play, based on the history as recorded by Tacitus, was breathtaking.
“The performances were outstanding, complemented by staging, tech, and all that the Burrell Theatre and those who cultivate its life are able to conjure. The maturity of the themes was matched by the maturity of the pupils exploring them in their acting. I do want to give a real shout-out to all involved, which includes staff as well as pupils, and those of you who have spent time and energy ferrying your children to and fro, and supporting them with the resilience required to deliver such a show and manage the wider pressures on their lives at the same time.” Andy Johnson, Truro School Head. In her Director’s Note, Johanna wrote: When we began to rehearse Boudica, a common question amongst the cast was, ‘Is my character a goodie or a baddie?’. As discussions and rehearsals progressed, the difficulty in answering this question became increasingly a focus on what, for us, this show is about. The answer – both simple and complex at the same time – is that there are no ‘bad’ or ‘good’ characters in the world of this play. of Ancient Briton is not so very different from the huge and pressing issues of our own world.
This production [was] a beast to rehearse in almost every sense. We have battled with the epic scale of the themes and issues present, with a global pandemic, with all the demands on the time of the cast who are not just actors but also students, musicians, sportspeople – and who wear a host of other hats beside. I couldn’t be prouder of what they have all achieved.”
Senior Life
Building Friendships and Celebrating Achievements
A few weeks into their Truro School journey, the 1st Years headed to BF Adventure for a team-building day, where they enjoyed a day of water-based activities designed to build friendships and celebrate their achievements over the last few weeks.
National Poetry Day
This year, for National Poetry Day, Truro School Book Clubbers were tasked with creating poetry using different book titles. With so many books to choose from, there were lots of creative, imaginative and fantastically comical results.
On a Roll with Skateboarding Club
Held at Mount Hawke Skatepark, skateboarding is one of several offsite extra-curricular clubs on offer as a part of Truro School’s Wednesday Afternoon Activities.
Dungeons and Dragons
Wednesday Afternoon Activities saw 17 pupils across all year groups of the Senior School take part in an online game of Dungeons and Dragons. The game is run using theatre of the mind, where everything is described verbally and each player visualises what is happening in their mind.
“In the adventure I’m running,” explains one of the Group Leaders, or Dungeon Masters, “the players are investigating a disease called Frigid Woe that has broken out in a small village in the frozen north. They’re trying to find out where the disease came from and find a cure for it. So far on their adventure the players have encountered a criminal gang also looking for the cure, they’ve travelled to caverns infested with giant ice frogs, and are now exploring a mysterious island shrouded in a perpetual winter with ancient ruins from a long-lost civilisation.”
A New Arrival for the DT Team
Forklifts were at the ready for a huge arrival for the DT Department this week. There was much excitement as a long-awaited CNC router was delivered.
The CNC (Computer Numerical Control) router is a computercontrolled cutting machine that works by programming tool paths from the DT Department’s computer systems; the Truro School sign shown in the photos was designed and cut in a matter of minutes.
Yogic Calm in the Heseltine Gallery
The Heseltine Gallery has, this term, provided a fabulous new space for weekly yoga sessions at Truro School. Run by Ms Monnier-Gilcrest, the sessions take place every Wednesday 4pm – 5pm for students and 5pm – 6pm for staff.
The sessions focus on strength and wellbeing, with poses interspersed with intentions and verse.
Senior Life
Life Drawing Class
Another one of our AfterSchool Clubs is our popular Life Drawing Class. Pupils and students from Year 1 through to A-Level take part and learn the skills needed, including observation, anatomy and proportion.
Art in Nature
From 1st Year to Sixth Form, our ‘Art in Nature’ WAA group have been exploring the use of colour and mark-making with our Head of Chemistry, Dr Brogden.
Our older students support and encourage our younger pupils (and vice versa), sharing resources to design and create an accurate animal collage. We can’t wait to see the final artwork!
Eva, placed 1st in her group, the U14s. An impressive achievement and the first of many wins to come we hope.
A number of Truro School pupils took part in the English National Surfing Championships in September. Three students managed to come in the top four in their categories: Tegan, Eva and Sammy.
Sammy has honed his skills in the Elite Group at Truro School’s Surf Club. He hopes to go on to win in his next competition, having placed an impressive 4th in the U14s.
Finally, Tegan managed to build on her 4th place at the recent Boardmasters Festival with 2nd place in the U18s, and placed 6th in the Women’s group. She has been surfing for ten years and now volunteers at the Truro School Surf Club, helping others to fulfil their championship dreams. Well done to everyone who took part in this event; it is brilliant to see Truro School Pupils doing so well in national sporting championships.
Needle Work
Our popular needlework group has proved an excellent way to wind down at the end of a long week!
Senior Life
Performing at the Royal Albert Hall
Congratulations to our 11 pupils selected to join singers from across the country to champion their climate-change message during an exceptional performance at the Royal Albert Hall.
George, Lowenna, Harry, Georgia and Archie from Year 5, Gabriel from Year 6 and Elsie, Lily, Imogen H, Oriana and Imogen D from the Senior School travelled to London over the half term to address climate issues at the Music for Youth’s Remix Prom 2021.
Whilst championing their home county, the singers gave a performance about sea pollution and climate change to Coldplay’s hit song, Fix You. The band’s lead singer, Chris Martin, sent a video message of support for the performance and for the choir’s acts of climate protection. On their return, Lily and Imogen joined Angela for an interview with BBC Spotlight, which was broadcast on Friday evening.
Whole-School Photo
This year’s whole-School photo took place when the weather wasn’t quite on our side. It was a momentous occasion nonetheless, complete with a ‘masks-on’ photo for the archives.
Final Autumn Term WAA
As the Autumn Term drew to a close, it was lovely to walk around the Art Block and see the pupils finessing their ceramics, fine art and textiles skills in their final projects. These ranged from delicate flower drawings in fine art to using sharks as inspiration for their ceramics pieces.
Jumping for Joy in Trampolining Club
Spirits were high, and it was great to see so many happy faces enjoying Trampolining Club.
Pupils of all abilities can take part and it is fantastic to see them perfecting skills and taking on the challenge of new, more advanced movements.
They encourage each other and help their peers to improve on individual movements, from somersaults to tuck jumps. Pupils also get to see coach Zoe Levin perform some more complex moves.
North Cornwall Book Festival
On 24th of September, nineteen pupils from Truro School Book Club attended the North Cornwall Book Festival at St Endellion Church.
The pupils were treated to three inspiring, energetic and hilarious workshops by leading writers: Christopher William Hill, an accomplished playwright and radio dramatist; Matt Abbott, a Yorkshirebased poet, educator and activist; and Joff Winterhart, a Bristol-based comic-book writer and author of the Costa Award-shortlisted Days of the Bagnold Summer.
All the writers and volunteers commented on how talented, creative and polite Truro School pupils were.
House Music Competition
Having been narrowed down from hundreds to just a handful, the finalists of the House Music Competition gathered on Thursday evening to showcase the best of their musical talent.
There were some stunning performances, including Tilly on the flute and a rousing rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ from the pupils and wind band to celebrate Dr Pope’s birthday.
The overall winners were: Juniors: Isaac Middle School: Luke Group: Cello Duo Seniors: Imogen
A huge congratulations to the overall winners and all of the finalists who made this such a fantastic night.
Autumn Term Projects
DT pupils have had a busy term. Here are some pictures of the 1st Years making boats, 2nd Years with their trinket boxes, 3rd Year oil burners and 4th Year jewellery.
4th Years put on purple in support of Great Ormond Street Hospital
The 4th Years came together for a whole-year group Charity Day, in support of Great Ormond Street Hospital. They chose to wear purple to support the charity, with pupils donning purple clothes and accessories ranging from purple socks and ties to jumpers and coats.
Great Ormond Street Hospital has a special place in one of our 4th Year pupil’s hearts, so being able to support him, and ultimately a wonderful hospital, seemed a good choice of charity.
120 Years On...
We visited the Marconi Centre in Poldhu nearly 120 years to the day that Marconi sent the first transatlantic radio message from Cornwall to Newfoundland in 1901.
We were warmly welcomed by the custodians of the museum, and were given a series of interesting talks and films about the history and development of radio transmissions.
Pupils were able to send Morse code messages, `watch` meteorites hit the Earth`s atmosphere and speak to a person in America via a radio transmission.
Tree Planting
Two years ago, our Wildlife Club potted some trees. The gardeners have been lovingly looking after them since, and were pleased to invite the pupils back to plant them around the School fields.
Trurovision
Back by popular demand (sort of), this year’s Trurovision contest saw the return of Poms and Sparkes and their reignition of the competitive rivalry with SLadeT.
Sadly only one group could win and pupil votes placed Poms and Sparkes in 1st place. Well done everyone!
Boxes of Kindness for Christmas
Following on from the success of last year’s Cornwall Christmas Box Appeal, staff and pupils created boxes of festive food and treats for local families in need.
Each box contains enough food for a family Christmas dinner, with all the extras included like mince pies and, of course, Christmas pudding. A typical box costs around £30-40 to create, but forms across Truro School worked together to fill boxes. Filled boxes were collected in the upstairs of the Chapel, and distributed to disadvantaged families across Truro and the wider Cornish community. With thanks to Mrs Kenward, Mrs Alford and the Charity Committee for their hard work in organising this worthwhile campaign.
Christmas Card Making
Our card-making elves were busy designing and making these joyful Christmas cards during their Wednesday Afternoon Activity with Miss Husband. The handcrafted cards were then sold to friends and parents, with all proceeds going to Breast Cancer Care and The Pink Ribbon Foundation.
Senior Christmas Concert
This year’s Christmas Concert was an outstanding success. An exuberant start to the festive celebrations, the evening showcased music from the Chamber Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra, Recorder Group, Wind Band, Junior Band, Flute Choir, Senior Jazz, Junior String Ensemble, 2nd Year Rock Band and Senior Brass Ensemble, alongside some spectacular solos.
A huge thank-you to everyone who joined us on the evening and to all involved with the concert: pupils, students, parents and staff alike.
2nd Year Rewilding Talk
Our 2nd Year pupils had an inspiring talk all about rewilding, and how we can help to combat climate change.
The session included talks by mYcard founder, Malachy Dunne; Plant One Cornwall Co-Founder Rai Lewis and Caroline Muthoni from Kenyan charity LEAF. LEAF focuses on rebuilding highly threatened habitats in biodiversity hotspots worldwide, with a critical focus on rare tree species such as Mangroves.
Old Truronian Dr Harry Williams CO10 is Chair of LEAF, as well as being a toxicologist and conservationist.
Thank you to all of our speakers for sharing your expertise, and sharing how we can help change our planet for the better.
When Geology Meets Chocology
The aptly named Geology Meets Chocology Club is for 1st Year pupils working towards their Crest Award.
Over the term, they will be completing various tasks to answer the question “Can Co2 be stored in depleted oil and gas reservoirs?”.
This week’s challenge was to design a poster of the rock cycle, using sweets and cakes to model the processes and types of rocks in the rock cycle.
Laser Cutting
Harry made these beautiful notebooks for his family using the laser-cutting machine, and they look fantastic. The DT department now runs a lunchtime club for anyone who wants to come along and learn how to design and make similar items.
Senior Life
3rd Year Christmas Song Concert
3rd Year pupils got everyone into the Christmas spirit yesterday with their annual Christmas song concert, performing songs they had been working on in their Music lessons.
The pupils wrote their own songs, along with writing the music for the accompanying instruments, which ranged through drums, pianos, guitars, violins and ukuleles.
It was wonderful to watch all the pupils perform their pieces with such confidence and compassion. Thank you to everyone who came to watch, there was a great response from all audience members, and it was clear to see that everyone enjoyed the concert.
3rd Year DT
The 3rd Years have been working hard with Design and Technology Teacher, Ms Coleridge, to create some truly beautiful lanterns. Pupils used computers to help with their design and production, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable module for everyone to undertake. We think they are stunning and would be very happy to receive one as a gift at Christmas!
Spaceport Cornwall
Virgin Orbit, Goonhilly Earth Station and Spaceport Cornwall are working together to provide a satellite launching service from Newquay`s airport. Our WAA Physics Club visited to see the exciting new plans as Cornwall joins the `space race`.
Nine Lessons and Carols
The annual Nine Lessons and Carols took place at Truro Cathedral. The evening began with a wonderful rendition of ‘Oh Little Town of Bethlehem’, followed by a blend of stunning choral performances, readings, prayers and lessons.
When the final chorus of ‘Oh Come All Ye Faithful’ rang out across the Cathedral, it was a truly special moment for everyone there, and for all of those who were able to watch the live stream thanks to pupils from Tech Team and their assistants.
3rd Year Inspiring Futures Day
Thinking about the future was on this week’s agenda for our 3rd Year pupils, who took part in our Aspiring Futures Day. Their day was split between five different lessons, which included taster sessions in three subjects on offer at GCSE - Computing, Geology and P.E. - as well as a FutureSmart workshop and Looking Ahead session.
