Newsletter Christmas 2013

Combe Pafford School
Bulletin
Dear Parents and Carers,
As we approach the end of the Autumn Term
there always seems so much still to do in
school, rehearsals for the Panto, practicing
for the Carol Service, organising the
Christmas lunch, cinema trips and discos etc besides planning for the start of the new
term in January 2014…… well that’s my excuse
for not being ready for Christmas sorted out!!
There have been a massive number of events
and trips just this term, Enterprise Week,
China visit, Media Challenge, work experience,
Cadbury's World visit, World Skills Event,
Riviera Concert Brass performance…..the list
is endless, and as you read this you will see I
have only mentioned a few. As always it has
been a very busy term and I want to begin by
acknowledging and thanking all the teaching
and non teaching staff for their hard work,
and not just this term but all throughout
2013! We are very fortunate to have such a
talented and committed team of staff who
constantly try to provide the very best
education for all the pupils at school, I know
from the feedback that I receive from
parents how much this commitment is
appreciated.
That isn't to say that everyone hasn't been
working equally as hard to help pupils improve
in the classroom, we have invested heavily in
maths this year, new computers in classrooms,
maths software you can access at home and a
new maths intervention team. More time has
been given to literacy support and we continue
to look for improvements in the progress of
all pupils across all subjects.
On the vocational front, the builders began
work on our new community café at the end of
December 2013
October and hope to have it completed by
the end of May. This is an exciting new
development to our school and will enable
older pupils to have their lunch in a more
adult environment as well as provide a first
class training base for anyone interested in
hospitality and catering. We also intend to
open it to the public and have a separate
secure entrance to enable this to happen. Our
café will have a wildlife theme and the design
will enable customers to observe the wide
range of animals used in our animal care
lessons.
In April 2013 we became an Academy, in
truth I don't think many people will have
noticed a difference and we are pleased
about that, the focus needed to remain
firmly on the pupils and their learning, not on
a different bureaucratic structure. However
I would like to thank the Governors and the
admin team for all their work behind the
scenes, it is their commitment also, which has
enabled many of the above developments to
take place by sourcing the funding necessary
for our continued development.
So, I look forward to an exciting year ahead
in 2014…..well once I have written the cards
and bought the presents!
Have a great Christmas and a Happy New
Year.
Mr Lock, Headteacher
Apprentices inspire other schools – page 3
Wildlife Café, plans revealed – see page 7
Year 10 pupils win Media Challenge – page 8
Work Experience news – page 9
New Sixth Form at CP – page 10
Christmas Gift Boxes
By Mrs Gardner, teacher of class 4G
4G have been busy this term raising money to
fill shoe boxes, for Romanian children this
Christmas.
Right: pupils of
class 4G, doing a
sponsored walk on
the school field
By pupils of class 5B
The children in 5B took part in a range of
activities during Business & Enterprise Week in
an effort to raise money for the British Heart
Foundation.
The class decided to collect for the BHF as part
of their block of work on healthy lifestyles.
First the class embarked on a sponsored walk
around the field, with all the children completing
fifteen full laps.
The class also made cakes, biscuits and
chocolates, which were all snapped up at the
trade fair.
5B designed calendars for 2014 that were sold
to parents and teachers and the class also made
some money from their Play Your Cards Right and
Coin in the Bucket games.
They did a sponsored walk, which raised enough
money for their project. The boxes were then
covered with brightly coloured Christmas paper
and carefully filled with nice surprises for poor
children in Romania.
The boxes were delivered to Rora House, who
organise the delivery of the gift boxes ready
for Christmas.
Above: Mrs Cox helping Phoebe Stewart to pack her
shoe box. Marcus Cann pictured at Rora House
delivering his box of gifts for Romanian children
WE ARE ADOPTING A
PENGUIN!
By pupils of class 6U
6U went to Living Coasts for a visit and we learnt
a lot of things about penguins. We also learnt
about why they are in danger - oil spills, global
warming and dangers made by people. Living
Coasts have asked us to raise some money to
adopt a penguin, so that we can help penguins in
the wild. We have been raising lots of money for
this and after Christmas we hope to get a Combe
Pafford penguin!
Left:
members of
6U at the
Living
Coasts
Centre
CELEBRATING HARVEST
Key stage Two took part in a number of
activities to mark Harvest.
Some children read out poems and summed up
what Harvest is all about in a special event in the
sports hall.
Nigel Williams, the managing director of local
charity Anode, gave a short talk about where all
the food and drink the children kindly donated
ends up.
The children then had the opportunity to
decorate biscuits, try our delicious potato and
leek soup and showcase their artistic talents
with some leaf and potato painting.
2
COMBE PAFFORD
APPRENTICESHIP
RECRUITMENT INSPIRES
OTHER TORBAY SCHOOLS
By Mr Davies, Head of Vocational Learning
In January 2013 our school appointed three new
members of staff, Kayley Redman to the
Administration team, Elliot Wolsey became an IT
Technician and Beth Wood looks after animal
welfare in the growing Animal Care department.
Apart from joining us at the same time they have
one other thing in common.......they were all
recruited under the Apprenticeship scheme.
Apprenticeships offer young people a paid job
with work based training and a structured
learning programme leading to a national
accredited qualification. This allows them the
opportunity to get a head start on the career
ladder. With so many young people finding it
hard to get high quality job opportunities in the
local area, Combe Pafford took the decision to
create three brand new job openings.
And what a great decision it turned out to be
with all three young people quickly establishing
themselves as valued and respected members of
staff. They are all well on track to complete
their training after Christmas and have put
themselves in a favourable position to gain a
permanent contract with us or seek posts
elsewhere.
In May, the school became actively involved with
Torbay
Council’s
survey
about
youth
unemployment and we received some additional
funding from them that we dedicated to
increasing opportunities for young people across
the Bay. Our own apprentice experience had
taught us well and it was agreed that there was
no better way to spend this money than to put it
towards creating new posts for young people.
As the total number of apprentices working in all
of Torbay’s forty two schools at that time was
only eight, we felt it would be beneficial to
promote all of the advantages that we were
getting from our young trainees. With local
authority money we were in a position to offer
small but welcome financial incentives to any
school prepared to create a new apprentice post.
In June and July, Kayley, Elliot and Beth made
presentations to groups of Torbay head teachers
Combe Pafford’s apprentices Back row - Dani :
Beth : Rebecca : Elliot : Front - Kayley
explaining their job roles and how the
opportunity had benefitted (and even changed),
their lives. The audience was impressed, interest
was immediate and recruitment soared.
Since September the number of brand new
apprentice posts created by schools across
Torbay currently stands at twenty four with a
further four posts yet to be filled.
Torbay Council have been rightly pleased with
the impact our strategy has had and are
currently looking into ways that it might work in
other employment sectors.
The National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) has
responsibility for the quality, design and delivery
of Apprenticeships in England and they have
commended the actions of the school.
Devon’s employer account manager Fiona Parsons
says.......’The fact that Combe Pafford School
have been able to convert an idea with limited
resource into twenty four new Apprenticeships in
Torbay is a great achievement in itself. It also
demonstrates how responsive and flexible the
Apprenticeship programme is in being able to
recruit and match so many young people with
schools in a six week period.’
Finally, we are pleased to say that our own
apprentice total is now up to five as we welcome
the recent appointments of Rebecca Gabriel and
Dani Goodwin to our Learning Support teams.
Children in Need 2013
The school collected £236 for
the fund this year.
Thank you to all those
who contributed.
3
Our Continuing Links
With Nigeria
By Mrs Kay & Mrs Duffield,
Literacy Support Assistants
Thank you to all parents and carers who have
purchased books from the Scholastic Club
over the last year. Your purchases have
enabled us to buy lots of books for all our
children to enjoy.
Our visitors from Lagos in Nigeria, with
Mr Lock & Mrs Dudman
By Mr Lock, Headteacher
We were very fortunate to receive eight
visitors from Lagos, Nigeria early in October.
Mrs Ola Ola, the Honourable Commissioner for
Lagos State Ministry of Education, and her
colleagues came for lunch and went on a tour of
the school and then in smaller groups went into
lessons to observe what was being taught. The
group were the guests of Paignton Community
and Sports Academy and visited several local
schools during the week. We have links with
the Eva Adelaja Junior Girls Secondary School
in Nigeria and two of our teachers - Miss
Bishop and Mrs Twomey, visited the school last
April. We hope to receive teachers from this
school shortly.
Above: Adam Prosser with his fruit face picture
Making vegetable and fruit faces saw children
demonstrating their creativity in 5B.
The piece of work was part of the class' topic on
healthy lifestyles.
Each child drafted a sketch of how they wanted
their faces to look and then made them using real
fruit and vegetables.
It was lots of fun experimenting with different
designs.
Salon International Hair Show
By Mrs Day, Hairdressing Tutor
On Saturday 14th November we went to the
Salon International Hair Show at the Excel
Centre in London. There was a mixture of pupils
from Combe Pafford School Years 9, 10, 11 and
also a small group from Mayfield School. We
set off very early as we had a long journey
ahead of us. We stopped off for breakfast and
then carried on the drive. We arrived at the
show about 11.30am; and then split into small
groups to look around the show. There were a
lot of things to see and take part in. We also
found out about new products on the market
that we could use. The group really got to see
professionals at their very best and it was awe
inspiring to see what can be created. We then
left at 4pm for the long journey back. The
group throughout the day were fantastic and a
pleasure to take. Thanks to Mrs Howe and
Michelle, from Mayfield School, for helping me
on the trip.
P.T.A. Committee – BIG Thank you to all
Thank you to all those people who contributed to the recent
Christmas Fair. We raised approximately
£1100,
which was really amazing.
Spring Dates 2014
Pupils return: ……… Tuesday 7th January
Half Term: ........Monday 17th February –
Friday 21st February (incl)
Term Ends: ………... 3.30pm Friday 4th April
4
This
summer
Combe
Pafford
entered
the
Annual
Bay
Blooms
competition, which was
organised
by
Torbay
Council.
Our gardens at Brunel
Karen Humphries
Manor, which were judged
receiving the
by Patricia Hill in July,
school’s prize
were the work of our Year
certificates
10 & 11 horticulture pupils,
pupils doing the six week horticulture tasters
and the Paignton College Post 16 groups. They
should be very proud of their achievements, as
they won two prizes in the schools section. They
won third prize in the ‘Best School Garden’
category and third prize in the ‘Best
Environmentally Friendly Garden’ category.
Karen Humphries, our horticulture tutor was
presented with prize certificates on behalf of
the school, in October. Well done to our pupils
for all their hard work.
AMAZING
TRIP TO
CHINA FOR
YEAR 11
PUPILS
By Mr Lock
In October another twelve pupils and four staff
visited our link school in Beijing. Whilst there
they joined in lessons, visited the Great Wall,
Forbidden City, Summer Palace and the Olympic
Stadium complex.
We then flew to Chengdu and visited the Wolong
Panda Sanctuary. We then flew back to Xian to
see the Terracotta Warriors before getting the
overnight sleeper train back to Beijing and flew
home.
It was an amazing trip, which everyone enjoyed
and brings the total to sixty one pupils who have
visited China on the five visits we have organised
in the last six years.
£750 Donated to School
Mr Hutchins, the president of the Torbay
Country Bowling Club, has kindly nominated the
School, as the ‘President’s Charity for 2013’ and
has presented the school with a cheque for
£750. The money will go towards subsidising
residential visits.
Year 9 pupils on the platform at Paignton
Brunel’s local Influence
This autumn, Year 9 Historians have been learning
about the influence of Isambard Kingdom Brunel
on modern transport and our local area. As part
of our studies we spent a morning travelling the
Steam Railway line between Paignton and
Kingswear. This opportunity allowed us to
experience the sounds, smells and sights of
Victorian transport. We enjoyed watching our
coastline pass by and were able to imagine how
the Great Western Railway would encourage
tourists to visit our home towns.
5
ABSENCES
If your child is unable to attend school
for any reason, please ring the school
on: 01803 327902 by 10.00am please.
We are rigorous about attendance; please visit
our school website for further information.
8K Have Become Chef's
By Mrs Cole, Autism Support
All of the boys in 8K have thoroughly
enjoyed the autism friendly method
of cooking and have produced
exceedingly good food. We worked
tirelessly to produce our Gingerbread
houses and I think you will agree they
look amazing.
Chefs – Mikey Simmons : Aidan McMahon :
Toby Biddulph : Ed Fullarton of 8K
Greenway House
By Mrs Drumey, 8K teacher
8K NEWS
What a wonderful and busy Autumn Term for
8K! I have to say an enormous THANK YOU to
everyone for the level of commitment to learning
we have had this term.
We had a fantastic trip to Agatha Christie's
Greenway as part of our CSI topic. Toby was
allowed to actually play on Agatha Christie’s
piano and gave us a super rendition of a Police
song.
A busy B&E week; from car washing, to djembe
drumming, card making, chocolate marshmallow
By Mrs willdigg
Thrive Coordinator
Our Thrive programme has now been rolled out
across the school and is in full swing, providing
many of our children with additional social and
emotional support. They're really enjoying the
activities that we do and teacher feedback would
indicate that they are taking back things they
have learnt and using them in class.
The boys of 8K raising funds
making, painting Christmas wooden shapes - to
Lego making resulted in 8K raising an impressive
£85 towards Gambian Projects!
As part of our Crime and Punishment topic, we
had a memorable trip to Torrington 1646,
whereby 8K learnt all about punishments - they
loved all the gore!
It has been a delight to see 8K's proactive and
enthusiastic approach towards their learning and
I am truly grateful to the boys in 8K for all their
hard work.
You can now apply for free school meals
online, we have a link to the online form on
our website. If your child is eligible for free
school meals, it's worth registering them even
if they're not going to have the school lunch.
Schools are entitled to receive a pupil
premium for each child that claims free
school meals. Pupil Premium is currently
£900 per child per year and is spent on
various services within schools to enhance
learning. You can see how we spend our
Pupil Premium on our website.
6
By Ms Snow, Head teacher’s P.A.
A state of the art training kitchen and
community cafe are due to open in Watcombe
soon!
From September 2014 local residents will be
able to drop in to the Wildlife Cafe at Combe
Pafford School for a coffee and a chat and to
see the wildlife which will be housed there!
Builders are now on site and work has begun to
build a state of the art training kitchen and
cafe. The cafe will be run by pupils at Combe
Pafford School who will be undergoing training
for the hospitality industry.
This is an exciting development for Combe
Pafford School to add to their already
extensive vocational facilities which include a
ROAD
SAFETY
ISSUES –
11T
Dexter Hartrey, Charlie George, Harry David &
Rhys Thompson out in the community
painting and decorating workshop, an
electrical workshop, motor vehicle workshop
and hairdressing salon. These facilities are
already being used by not only Combe Pafford
pupils but also by over a hundred and twenty
pupils per week from other schools in Torbay.
Combe Pafford School are dedicated to not
only providing a good learning environment for
pupils in school but also to prepare them for
their working lives and this facility will
enhance their existing provision and help
them to do this.
Come and see the snakes, bearded dragons
and the rest of the ‘bug zone’ while enjoying a
cup of coffee and a piece of cake!
By Mrs Cole, Autism Support
Class 11T have become extremely
proficient at managing Road safety, they
have enjoyed putting theory into
practice, as we practiced our road safety
skills within the community. Well done
Dexter & Charlie you were great at
supporting your peers Harry & Rhys.
7
COMBE PAFFORD WIN
COLLEGE MEDIA
CHALLENGE
By Mr Thompson, Assistant Headteacher
For the first time since first entering the
competition in 2006, a team of six pupils from
Year 10 were successful in winning the Schools
Media Challenge at South Devon College,
organised by the Devon Education Business
Partnership in conjunction with Palm FM to mark
National Enterprise Week.
FM advertising team. This was a wonderful
demonstration of team work in action, and all
members of the team deserve to be warmly
congratulated on their efforts! Well done
everyone!
(Both the winning demo ad and the professionally
produced ad can be heard on the Palm FM
website at www.palm.fm then going to What’s On
and then clicking on the Combe Pafford tab).
Year 10 pupils – proud winners of the Schools’
Media Challenge at South Devon College
The challenge, which took place on Wednesday
20th November, and for which schools link up
with a local business, requires teams to produce
a short radio ad on behalf of their business
partner, and present their ad to a panel of
judges. Our school team hooked up with local
tourist attraction Kents Cavern, and prepared
for the project by visiting the caves and having
a guided tour, and question and answer session
with general manager James Hull. Further
research, discussion and planning followed in
school. On the day, the team worked with
James to identify that the annual membership
was what the ad should be focused on
promoting, and within one and a half hours, they
had written, rehearsed and recorded a radio ad
that
ultimately
captured
the
judges’
imagination. Beating off stiff competition from
no less than St. Cuthbert Mayne, Torquay Girls’
Grammar School and the College itself, our
team gave a confident presentation that proved
to be a winner. The pupils were rewarded with a
large cup, a certificate each and the thrill of a
tour of the Palm FM studios, plus hearing their
radio ad preformed professionally by the Palm
Year 9 pupils taking part in a Brunel workshop
By Mrs McVeigh, teacher
To enhance our learning about Brunel and the
development of transport, Year 9 visited one of
Brunel's greatest achievements, SS Great
Britain, in Bristol. All pupils took part in a
Brunel workshop where we time travelled back
to the 19th Century to learn about the use of
iron rivets in ship building and used Victorian
tools to recreate the building efforts. We even
attended the launch of the ship in 1843 in full
Victorian clothing! The museum was extremely
hands on and interactive and was enjoyed by all.
8
Work Experience News
Left: Alex Forrest
working at the
Kwik Fit
On Monday 18th November, Year 11 pupils
embarked on two weeks of work experience in
placements dotted around South Devon as far
afield
as
Buckfastleigh,
Teignmouth,
Kingsteignton and Totnes in addition to Torbay
and Newton Abbot. Out of the twenty two pupils
in Year 11, sixteen successfully completed the
two weeks (73%), whilst a further three
completed one week (14%) and one pupil
completed an in-school placement with one of our
junior classes. Work experience has a unique role
to play in the development of work readiness
skills for our pupils, and this year was no
exception. The following pupils proved to be
outstanding in their placements and deserve
special recognition for the mature way in which
they approached their placement, and the
independence and confidence they demonstrated
throughout the fortnight.
National Enterprise Week
Nov 18th - 22nd 2013
A fantastic week was had by the whole school for
our National Enterprise Week with children
working on business and enterprise projects or a
social enterprise project.
The week was launched during a whole school
assembly on Monday with a focus on famous
entrepreneurs including our very own Mrs
Hardwick with her floor cleaning baby grow and
Mr Bamsey’s anti theft sandwich bag! Staff also
got creative with Christmas decorations and Mr
Hayes shared his children’s Homeless social
enterprise from the previous year.
A variety of projects took place in the week
including a sponsored walk in 5B for the British
Heart Foundation, deforestation work in Year 7
with the opportunity to buy a real tree for
Christmas, Fairtrade work in Year 8 with their
very own cafe and 9P and 10M had a toy sale to
raise money for the Salvation Army to buy
presents for children in poverty at Christmas.
The children’s work was sold and displayed at the
Trade Fair on Thursday afternoon.
Mrs Allaway's Bees Knees Candles that Year 7 and
8 worked on made an excellent £147.90 profit for
Rowcroft Hospice.
This was a brilliant event with a great turn out of
parents, grandparents, governors and other locals
who came to celebrate the work. The children
were an absolute credit and were proud to
confidently share their work with our visitors and
also in persuading them into parting with their
cash, which amounted to £1315.42 – amazing!
The whole school’s work was shared in Friday’s
celebration assembly with a variety of media and
the profits were sent off to the children’s chosen
charities.
Above: Elliot Harrison at the Cary Arms
Jordan Millward (Pets at Home store, Kingsteignton)
Oliver Sharrock (Pyramid Photography, St.Marychurch, Torquay)
Alex Cook (First Great Western, Newton Abbot)
Elliott Harrison (Cary Arms, Babbacombe, Torquay)
Hannah Watts (Queensway R.C. Primary School, Shiphay, Torquay)
Leanne Carpenter (Preston Baptist Pre-School, Preston, Paignton)
Brendan Lee (Babbacombe Model Village, St.Marychurch, Torquay)
Patrick Roberts (H and S Tool Hire, Teignmouth; and Abbots Hire
Ltd, Newton Abbot)
Well done to Mrs Caroline Milner (School Careers
Advisor) for all the hard work in arranging all the
placements!
Jacob
Yonwin &
Owen
Bellamy of
class 7W,
raising
money
during
B&E
Week
9
0
What’s Happening in Our
NEW Sixth Form!
By Miss Monnington, Head of Sixth Form
Our new Sixth Form has now been running for
just over half a term and we are all eager to
work! Some of the students have already gained
part-time employment and they must be
congratulated on this important step into the
world of work. A very well done to Charlie
Hutchins who has a paper round and is regularly
used to cover others because he is just so good!
Well done too to Panay Karamanlis who is soon to
start work at Torbay Hospital in the catering
department whilst continuing his studies with us.
The group have also been successful in taking up
voluntary opportunities. Panay spent much of his
half term working voluntarily at the Acorn
Centre, a great achievement. Louis Madelin is
working regularly at the youth project he helped
to set up in the summer but is really interested
in working outside. Gaevyn Allwood has spent
some time working at the same café in Paignton
and has recently been busy raising money for
Children In Need. Gaevyn would like to volunteer
to help older people with straightforward tasks
and maybe offer a little company.
Chloe Cockram is working very hard at her NHS
placement where she works with adults with
special needs and has recently completed some
NHS funded training. Craig Dark continues to
impress in the school kitchen with his hard work
and responsible attitude. According to our school
chef, Craig has a talent for kitchen work!
Perhaps you know of a caring and nurturing
environment where Craig could pick up some more
catering skills outside school?
Other members of the group are full of
determination and willing to work. Stacie Danby
is searching for a voluntary position working with
animals and has shown herself to be
extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic whilst
working at school within our animal care area.
James McKenna is firing off applications to work
in charity shops throughout Torbay, as well as
writing to his local newsagent asking to be put on
the list for a newspaper round. James is strong
and fit and would ideally suit an outdoors job.
Another of our students has been searching the
streets of Torquay trying to find paid part-time
work. She has recently, independently, secured
herself voluntary work in a local Animals In
Distress shop. She would like a paid job soonhard working and with lovely customer service
skills, she won’t be on the market for long!
Also looking for employment are Christianna
Tunkin and Connor Rapier. Christianna has been
approaching the idea of work with her usual
thoughtfulness. She has seen some voluntary
play scheme vacancies that she is considering
and she is checking apprenticeship websites with
enthusiasm and eagerness. Well done. If you
have space in your business for a polite and kind
young lady, let us know. Connor is trying hard to
find some work near his home but is finding this
a little troublesome at present. Connor is a very
polite, conscientious and easy going young man
with an interest in ICT. He lives in Lustleigh, so
any suggestions or thoughts would be welcomed
by us all!
We are always on the lookout for new and wideranging work experience placements. As you will
appreciate, the more employers we can work
with, the more successful our Sixth Form will
be. If you can help any of our Sixth Form into
paid or voluntary work or you can indeed offer
us work experience placements, please get in
touch. One day it could be your child determined
to work!
Scandanavian Themed Day
Scandinavia:
Denmark,
Sweden, Iceland
& Norway.
In
December
we
celebrated the latest of
our themed days which
was
based
around
Scandinavian countries.
Father Christmas
visited from his grotto in Lapland whilst Mr
Davey dressed as a Viking and Norwegian music
was played during dining. Mr Lock, Mr Dowell,
Mrs Brown and Miss Witcombe sang Abba songs
in assembly and Mr Richards explained how the
Northern Lights were formed. At lunchtime
the kitchen staff had prepared a Scandinavian
banquet of Swedish Meatballs, spiced Danish
biscuits and an Icelandic Berry Moose. Pupils
and staff really enjoyed the day.
10
Welcome to the Bug Zone
By Dr Milligan,
In September the Science Department opened our
new “Bug Zone” resource. This is a collection of
exotic and very large invertebrates, including a
range of tarantulas, scorpions, giant millipedes,
land hermit crabs, praying mantids, hissing
cockroaches and giant stick insects. Pride of place
goes to our adult female red knee tarantula, and a
juvenile salmon pink bird-eating spider that will
eventually have a leg span of 30cm!
Our bugs have greatly enhanced our animal care
provision, as well as helping to bring biology
lessons on classification, adaptation and ecology to
life.
UPPER SCHOOL TAKE IN
THE SKILLS SHOW AT
THE NEC
By Mr Thompson, Assistant Headteacher
Matthew Adams in a jet plane and Sarah-Jane O’Neill
enjoying the hairdressing section at the Skills show
The schools’ Giant Stick Insect
Animal Care News
By Dr Milligan, Head of Science & Technology
This term we have been busy ‘growing on’ the baby
reptiles that were hatched out over the summer
months….. we still have fifteen young corn snakes,
a dozen baby bearded dragons and four juvenile
leopard geckos to look after in addition to our
permanent adult stock. We are starting to find
good homes for some, and others will form part of
our animal care centre display in the new café.
Our breeding projects for this term include
praying mantids, giant stick insects, train
millipedes and red claw scorpions!
Most excitingly, we have recently acquired,
through trading surplus livestock, a juvenile male
Yemen Chameleon. This reptile has entranced the
pupils with its ability to change colour, its
swivelling eyes and its prehensile tail. It truly
looks alien!
We have also welcomed pupils from other schools
to study Animal Care at Combe Pafford for the
first time. This course is being run by teachers
from Bicton College, assisted by our apprentice
Beth.
A large group of over thirty pupils from Years 9,
10, 11 and the Sixth Form visited the annual
WorldSkillsUK event (‘The Skills Show’) at
Birmingham NEC in November. No fewer than
nine members of staff accompanied the party,
along with our three Chinese visitors who
happened to be midway through their stay in the
UK. There was a great deal on show for the
pupils to see and do, ranging from the national
finals in many different occupational trades, and
‘have-a-go’ sessions where pupils could literally
try things for themselves, to trade stands and
exhibitions, demonstrations and careers advice
points. Trades that were being showcased
included Hospitality and Catering, Construction,
Motor Vehicle and Engineering, Hair and Beauty,
Land Industries, Animal Care, Care, Fashion,
Marketing and Media. All returned home with
enthusiasm for what they had seen, and a better
awareness of the breadth of opportunities
available. Many pupils are keen to repeat the trip
in 2014.
Tour of Britain Cycle Race
In September, Mr Hayes, Mr Davey and Mrs
Wallace took Year 10 up to Bovey Tracey to
watch the Tour of Great Britain Cycle Race
which was travelling through the Dartmoor town.
Pupils waited patiently for the riders who
eventually zoomed past just in time before
departure back to school. Mr Hayes claims he
saw Sir Bradley Wiggins but we are not sure
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it was him.
6H SEND AID TO SCHOOL
IN THE PHILIPPINES
By Mrs Hafner, 6H teacher
6H were sad to hear about the Earthquake in
Bohol in the Philippines. They were especially
concerned about James Elliott's family who live in
Bohol. We learnt that his grandparents had lost
their home and his young cousins were sleeping
outside as they had nowhere else to go.
We quickly began to plan ways that we could help.
We baked two hundred delicious Halloween
cupcakes! We decorated them with orange and
black icing and topped them with Halloween style
toppers. We were overwhelmed with the orders
that we received. We completely sold out!
We straight away sent a cheque for £189.30p to
Bohol to help the school, as there had been so
much damage to the building that they had to buy
tents for classrooms! We wanted to learn MORE
about Earthquakes and so began our topic this
half term on Earthquakes. We began visiting
Torquay library to collect several books and using
Ipads to learn as much as we could about
Earthquakes. We used this information to write
our own non-fiction pages about Earthquakes.
Some of us then went on to learn about Typhoons
and how this had affected the Philippines.
During B&E week we decided that we wanted to
help even more! We decided to create '6H Shabby
Chic Designs' where we began designing products
made out of fabric. We designed Ipad bags, DS
bags, PE kits, Welly boot bags, tool kit bags,
bunting and our very popular Christmas rag
wreaths. We raised a further £79.11 by selling
these products at the Trade Fair!
We were so popular that we had several orders to
make! We have been in contact with James' Mum
who has been keeping us up to date. Bohol are still
experiencing daily after shocks! Due to the
James with his cousins who live in Bohol
amount of damage, it is difficult for the families
to book carpenters to help with repairs. James'
family are now back in their home as the
structure is safe but the toilets and bathrooms
still need repairing. They have been extremely
grateful for the money we have raised and have
already managed to make several repairs to the
school. They sent us the above 'Thank you' photo
to show us their appreciation.
Football Matchs This Term
By Mr Davey, PE teacher
Teams from Year 7 to 10 played in a series of
football matches against the Torbay School in
Paignton.
The matches were played at Parkfield Sports
Centre in Paignton and all the pupils really
enjoyed them.
The Year 7 & 8 teams won one, drew one and lost
one, whilst the Year 9 & 10 teams won one and
lost one.
The games were played in great spirits and
further matches will be played in the New Year.
Anti-Bullying Campaign
By Mr Davey, PE teacher
During Anti-Bullying week Mr Davey took an
assembly and pupils worked on Anti Bullying
projects in their lessons of Personal Development
producing some excellent work for a display. On
the Friday all pupils and staff joined hands to
form a circle of resistance against Bullying
around the school building. Each class then
released Blue Anti-Bullying balloons and passed
around a banner stating that Combe Pafford
School is united against bullying. There was also
a poster competition, which was won by Brioney
Waldron (upper school), Shanie Gliddon (middle
school) and Chloe Hart (lower school).
They won Commonwealth Games ruck sacks that
had been provided by Mrs Soffe who will be
involved in the Games next summer in
Glasgow.
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