weekly newsletter from the headmaster · the week was rounded off with an instructor presentation...

Weekly Newsletter from the Headmaster www.shebbearcollege.co.uk

12th January 2018Issue No 155

Dear Parents,

Happy New Year!

The highlight of the Christmas holidays was the Ski Trip. The group enjoyed excellent snow and the colourful blog kept us all fully informed of the progress of the skiers. The party got home just in time for Christmas Day and some much needed r & r (skiing is very tiring). We had a hectic end to the term, but I am really pleased that such a large proportion of the school were involved in high quality events outside of the classroom. In addition to the forty eight pupils who went to Italy we proved we have a proper Orchestra, we produced a super Christmas Panto, and over a hundred pupils represented the school against West Buckland on the same morning. In a few weeks time our bi-annual trip to Auschwitz (and Krakow) will take place. These are all opportunities for our pupils to challenge themselves.

We are very close to the UCAS application deadline (15th January) and nearly all of our Upper Sixth have applied to and received offers from universities. There was excellent news this week that one of our pupils has received an offer to study Medicine at Oxford in the same college attended by Margaret Thatcher and Indhira Gandhi.

Another fantastic piece of news is that Rachel Pankhurst, our star violinist, has been offered an unconditonal offer to her number one choice university, Royal Holloway in London. Despite our small size and selecting from a wide range of ability our pupils attract interest from world class institutions. Obviously the next challenge for all of our Upper Sixth is to get the grades, but they have five months to work on that!

Simon Weale

Ahead of the Upper School trip to Kraków, Poland, pupils have been watching ‘Schindler’s List’.



Congratulations to Dixie-Belle, James W, George, Elsie, Ben and Max for winning last week’s Golden Stickers. Our BAFTA (Behaviour Award For Thoughtful Actions) was awarded to Jemima, with the Manners Medals going to George. Felix is our musician of the week for his guitar rendition of ‘Seven Nation Army’ by the White Stripes. Well done to them all.

Our weekly Chapel Run took place as usual at lunchtime today and our hockey and netballers played at West Buckland this afternoon. Good luck also to those cross-country runners taking part in the latest round of the Gliddon and Squire league at Northam Burrows (starting at the later time of 11.30am).

I hope you have a good weekend.Matthew Foale

Under 11 Football v BradworthyWe welcomed Bradworthy on Wednesday afternoon, for our first match of the term and it proved to be a very exciting game, with some good football played by both teams. Bradworthy took an early lead, through some rather indecisive defending, although we fought back well to draw level before half time. In the second half, both teams pushed for a winner and with just over five minutes remaining, Bradworthy took the lead again, with a fine goal. An excellent and committed response from our team followed and very quickly, we drew level again. The final score was 2-2.

The team played well, with some fine goalkeeping performances from Demelza and Alfie, as well as committed play from Ben, Will, Freyja and Jack. Khaled and Max, both very new to school, played with confidence and skill, always looking to attack. Millie and Billy were our goal scorers and Will was player of the match.

Pre-PrepScientistsYears 1 and 2 have been investigating materials this week and trying to find which materials could be used to mend Tyler’s torn umbrella. We had great fun testing their effectiveness.

Prep SchoolA very happy New Year and I hope you have enjoyed a good break over Christmas.

The new term has started well, with the children getting into their routines and work very quickly and the holidays now seem rather a distant memory. Our assembly on the first day back, focused on how important perseverance and determination can be in the children’s learning. Mistakes are made and these must be seen as an opportunity to learn more and improve in that area. All of the children have been encouraged to recognise the value of learning from mistakes and to strive to improve throughout the term, setting themselves small targets for along the way.

Year 3 and 4 have started back with their swimming sessions and our under 11 footballers played the first fixture of the term on Wednesday afternoon. Our pupil School Council spent time recently looking at playtimes and the activities that all of the children take part in. As a result, they have now added some playground play equipment, which has been extremely well-received from Pre-School to Year 6. Our thanks to the class reps, as well as Mrs Kirby, for organising this new equipment to be available.

Calendars for this term were all given to the children to take home at the end of last term and an electronic version is also available on the parent portal. If you have not received a paper calendar, please let us know. May I also please ask that all girls have their hair tied back whilst in school.



News from the Pre-SchoolAll the Pre-School children have well and truly settled into the new term and have been very busy exploring the campus on foot. We have welcomed Emilia and Maisie to the group and it already seems as though they have been with us forever.

In relation to our topic of Journeys, the children have enjoyed looking at the map of the campus and every week the children will be taking turns to choose a place to visit. They will be responsible for looking at the map and finding the way to the chosen point. This week Charlie chose the Prep School.

We have done a literacy block on Mr Gumpy’s outing and in particular looking at the connective language in the story and finding suitable adjectives to describe Mr Gumpy.

Maths has been very practical this week and a particular challenge that the children enjoyed was finding out how many and which animals Mr Gumpy had on his boat, by only counting the legs.

They have done some particularly good cutting out of animals and created a beautiful piece of artwork for the wall, as well as painting some very colourful paintings of Mr Gumpy.

May I ask that if you have not returned your child’s learning journey, please do so at the beginning of next week. Thank you.

Events in the Prep School Next WeekWednesday 17th JanuaryU.11 football tournament at St. Joseph’s (1.15pm)Years 3 and 4 swimming

Thursday 18th JanuaryHouse Assemblies

Friday 19th JanuaryAssembly: Mrs E. BearparkChapel Run 10

Education Art Prize Finalists - Again!A wonderful selection of art was submitted for this year’s Education Art Prize (see the ‘Picture This’ section) and the piece entitled ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’ by Mitzi, Lillie, Luke, Christian, Evie, Csongor and Sean has been selected as a finalist in the competition. Congratulations!

About the selection of work the organisers of the competiton stated ‘each was an explosion of riotous colour which we recognised immediately as coming from Shebbear!’

We will now attend a Finalists Workshop in the hope of being awarded overall winners.



Coming up in the Senior School:Saturday 13th January09.30: Boarders’ Barnstaple Trip 11:00: Girls’ Netball v Plymouth College U13, U12 (A)12:00: Girls’ Netball v Plymouth College 1st VII, U15, U14 (A)

Sunday 14th JanuaryAll day - Ten Tors Training11.00: Prep Cross-Country at Northam Burrows

Monday 15th JanuaryAll Day: Readathon Forms 1 - 3 begins15:45: Boys’ Hockey U13 v Holsworthy (H)17:00: Basketball 1st V - Shebbear College

Tuesday 16th January11:35: Upper School Syrian Talk14:30: Football U14/U15 v Kingsley & St. Joseph’s (H)

Wednesday 17th January10:45: NCS Presentation to F514:00: Football U12 & U13 v Bramdean (H)14:30: Football 1st XI v Exeter School (A)16:00: F5 & Sixth Form House University Challenge17:00: Poland Trip : Schindler’s List (Pt 2) - Mr Rogers’ Classroom

Thursday 18th January14:30: Football U13 v Kingsley School (H)

Friday 19th January12:40 - 13:35: NCS Stand at Lunchtime

Saturday 20th JanuaryOSA Dinner - RAF Club, London09:30: Boarders’ Barnstaple Trip10:30: Boys Hockey U12, U13 v Mount Kelly (A)10:30: Boys Hockey U14/15 v Mount Kelly (H)11:00: Netball U12A, U13A v West Buckland & Mount Kelly (H)13:00: Netball 1st VII, U15, U14 v West Buckland & Mount Kelly (H) 13:30: Boarders’ Climbing Wall Trip

Congratulations Will!5th Former Will played rugby for Devon U16s A team against Somerset at Hornets RFC ground under floodlights last Sunday.

In freezing conditions both the Devon teams triumphed, albeit narrowly, against strong Somerset sides, the B team with a 7-5 victory and the A team winning 20-19 with a final play penalty kick.

Despite the cold conditions with at times an Easterly gale force wind the standard of rugby from both sides was very high and entertaining to watch. Gloucester next, then the local derby against Cornwall.

Ski Trip ReportWhilst the rest of the school took a well-deserved rest from the long Michaelmas term, 48 pupils and 5 staff flew off to Bormio in Italy to enjoy the excellent snow conditions in the Alps.

The group stayed at the Girasole Hotel located at 2000m and right opposite the main lifts. For the first time this year we had a beginner snowboarding group, much to the delight of teacher Mrs Burges and they were, without doubt the coolest group on the mountain. Due to excellent snow conditions, we were able to ski to places never skied before on the school trip to this resort and our expert skiers were soon whizzing from 3000m down to the village at the bottom of the mountain, only marginally slower than the professionals who could be seen daily practising on the ‘Stelvio’ run for the FIS ski world cup to be held later in the month.

Although our aim is to wear pupils out with 5 hours of tuition a day and an hour or so of supervised skiing afterwards, pupils also enjoyed trips into town, a quiz night, karaoke and a bit of night time sledging.

The week was rounded off with an instructor presentation and the results of the highly competitive ski race announced. Rob Temple proved to be the fastest, closely followed by Luke Maxa and James Law. Pupils also received medals for the top three in each group. For overall determination, attitude and improvement, the staff voted Jess Alexander skier of the week and Patrick Faulkner snowboarder of the week.

The next trip in December 2019 is already in the early planning stages, so watch this space! I also wish to extend my thanks to Mr Trask, Mr Steel, Miss Little and Mrs Burges who gave up a week of their holiday to accompany the trip.

Claire Cardoo



Picture this ... Ski Trip



Picture this ... Education Art Prize entries ... lots more on our Facebook page

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