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Our College Newsletter is published every term. Click here to download our Newsletter. (approx 2mb)

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Uganda comes to Shebbear

Last Thursday Uganda came to Shebbear! Following the Headmaster’s trip to Uganda in February we were pleased to host a visit from Margaret Nakato who is the founder of KWDT (Katosi Women’s Development Trust), one of the Charity projects that we visited whilst in Uganda.

Margaret spent the day holding various workshops with the senior and junior pupils to inform them of the work that she does within the community of Katosi. The pupils learnt about the Ugandan culture and what daily life in Uganda is like. Our pupils soon became aware that they should not take the things in their lives for granted and should be grateful for things like clean running water, enough food and education.

Ten Tors Update

Ten Tors’ training has been conducted in earnest this year, starting as early as October, at Shebbear College. The training has involved map reading, camp-craft and the odd mile or two along the way. Their most recent walk, over one and a half days, was a mere 35 mile stroll across Dartmoor! In fact, the group came in running over the last hill, eager for more.

Pictured from top left to right are Tom Stone, James Reader, Elliott Stevens, Richard Friend, Alexander Burnett, Luke Stock, Chris Prowse and from bottom left to right Kerry-Ann Little, Charlie Nielson and Tom Seccombe.

Sixth Form Intensive Language Training

During the Easter holidays three Sixth Formers from Shebbear College opted to spend four days working on their French language in Binic, Brittany. The long ferry crossings from Plymouth/Roscoff included three hours’study and the intensive training did not stop there! With Head of Modern Languages, Mrs Barnes in charge, the students were given various language tasks to perform, for example in the local market and in the hotel, and on the final day they recorded an interview with the Mayor of the town, Monsieur Urvoy. The Hotel provided entertainment each evening, one session being a French comedian who performed stand-up for an hour and a half – much concentration required!!

The students gained much from their four days’ training and we wish them well in their forthcoming AS/A2 examinations.

Canterbury Tales

The Canterbury Tales

Chickens, knights, drunkards, Kings, Queens and merchants filled the stage at Shebbear College when pupils from the 1st to the 4th form worked together to present a production of The Canterbury Tales.

Most of the audience had not encountered The Canterbury Tales since struggling with the original text at school; fear not .. This modern adaption performed over two nights proved to be both understandable and entertaining.
There were strong and self-assured performances from the entire cast, and the delivery of lines was seamless throughout the evening. These young actors were clearly versatile and accomplished .
Chaucer's work is based on the premise that a group of pilgrims were travelling on horseback from a tavern in Southwark to Canterbury Cathedral in Kent, to the shrine of the then recently martyred St Thomas à Becket and decide to pass the time on the journey by telling each other stories. Each pilgrim is identified with an occupation and their tales reflect this.
Many parents commented they were prompted to go away and read a little bit more about Chaucer and his work after a throughly entertaining evening.

Head of English and Drama Mrs Annie Farrell was especially pleased at how well all the children worked together

Katie Hopkins at Shebbear College

Shebbear College was delighted to host Katie Hopkins star of ‘The Apprentice’ when she kindly agreed to come and spend an afternoon with the 5th and 6th Form outlining the advantages of working in commerce. ‘Business is hard, business is about great relationships and great ideas, and business can be fun’ was the theme of her 20 minute talk followed by a question and answer session from 60 students. She advised them on selling techniques, presentation and answered questions on her experiences on the Apprentice and I’m a Celebrity "You need resilience, passion, tolerance, a good sense of humour and tenacity to follow a solution through to get results."

Katie also kindly spent a large proportion of her lunchtime signing autographs for pupils.

Summer Classical Music Concert

On a gloriously warm evening Shebbear College held it’s annual Summer Music Concert in the Memorial Hall

The audience enjoyed a diversity of performances both solo , duets and choral, culminating in the orchestra performing a spectacular rendition of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody ‘ by Queen.

Director of Music Mr Kevin Parker was delighted with, what was, a hugely enjoyable evening and is very proud of all the pupils who performed.

The 'Last Man Standing' visits College

Shebbear College welcomed Rajko Radovic, star of the BBC series “Last Man Standing”, which saw athletes from the U.S.A. and the U.K. travel the world for a year competing in different tribal sports, as the honorary speaker to the inaugural Rounsefell Dinner. After an afternoon of health and fitness master classes (he holds the world record for continuous lifts with 20kg dumbbells, completing 600, and has the equally jaw dropping ability of being able to do 1900 squats without pausing) he inspired all the students to challenge their perceptions about what was possible.

The main event of the day, for the sixth formers, was held in the auspicious surroundings of Buckland House, a fittingly grand venue for a 7 course formal dinner. After photographs, dinner was served with the Headmaster Bob Barnes opening the proceedings. Once the meal had been completed and everybody was replete, Rajko was invited to speak.

In a very eloquent and thought provoking speech he left all present with some interesting thoughts to reflect upon – don’t be afraid to open doors when they present themselves, you never know what might happen. The very worst moments of you life can be quickly be followed by the very best, for him this was illustrated by the moment in the series when cutting his foot badly preparing for a tribal cricket match off the coast of Papua New Guinea he was told he could not take part. However, after watching his team mates loose their wickets cheaply he decided to risk everything and his future participation in the year’s adventures by batting. He won the competition easily and one of the local villagers was so impressed he named his son after him. From the very worst moment to the very best at the turn of a ball.

A man of many talents, Rajko performed some of his songs for all those gathered as the evening conclude with a more relaxed air. A very pleasant end to a wonderful evening, and an excellent start to a new tradition at Shebbear.

Pictured is Raiko with the Sixth Form students at the start of the evening

Uganda

As part of Shebbear College’s World AIMS scheme, Headteacher Mr Barnes and World AIMS co-ordinator Fran Lovett recently visited Uganda in East Africa to look at joining partnerships with local schools and charity projects. During the two week visit they visited various secondary and primary schools around the capital city, Kampala, and looked into the education system within the country. All education within Uganda must be paid for, whether it is a state or private school. This is difficult for most families as they do not have a regular steady income and often can’t afford adequate food, let alone to pay school fees.

There are a wide range of charities running throughout Uganda but we chose to visit the charities run by the Methodist Relief and Development Fund (MRDF) as that is a charity that we regularly support as we are part of the Methodist group of schools.

The first project that we visited was Voluntary Action for Development (VAD), run by Benedict Male. This organisation is helping improve awareness about health and sanitation. They are providing schools and communities with new and safe latrines and washing facilities. They have also provided water tanks to store rain water, water jars and shallow wells. All of these provide various communities with clean safe water which reduces the amount of illness and deaths related to water diseases. It also means that the children and adults don’t have to walk miles to the nearest water source.

The next project that we visited was the Katosi Women Development Trust (KWDT), run by Maragaret Nakato. The Katosi project has empowered women to take control of their situation and keep livestock and grow crops in order to earn a living and support their families. Most of the people that we met were raising between 5-10 children, some were their own or orphans of other family members. Katosi has greatly improved the lives of those involved, uplifting their status and wealth. The women have become more confident and can speak in public without feeling nervous. They have acquired knowledge in farming and livestock rearing and sanitation and hygiene has improved due to the installation of drying racks, tippy-taps and new latrines. This in turn has helped with nutrition. All Katosi members are encouraged to keep a cow that will provide them with a regular milk supply and also to grow a kitchen garden with herbs and vegetables to ensure a balanced diet. We were astounded at the amount of work being done by KWDT and how much of a large impact that had on the lives of those involved.

The next organisation that we visited was Rural Health Promotion & Poverty Alleviation Initiative (RUHEPAI). This organisation are based in the South West of Uganda in Mbarara. This organisation encourage communities to grow crops and keep livestock so that they can support themselves and their families. RUHEPAI encourage the communities to work as ateam, pooling resources and helping one another tend the land and harvest crops. Like VAD and Katosi, they encourage and educate good sanitation facilities as high importance in the health and welfare of families. RUHEPAI hold training sessions for their members who can learn ways of effective farming on small holdings, such as managing a banana plantation, keeping small livestock, growing crops and fruit trees. When a member attends a training session they are rewarded with a tree sapling that they can then plant and make a living from. One member that we spoke to, Jane Ndegyeya, told us that RUHEPAI has improved her situation dramatically. Now the community can accomplish activities by working together. The biggest impacts have been the improved child health through better knowledge of hygiene, improved crop productivity and the variety of crops being grown.

Flying Visit to Shebbear!

Last Friday afternoon the tranquil peace of our campus was disturbed by the rotorblades of a Sea King helicoptor landing on the edge of Mr Bryan's cricket pitch! A team from the RAF Search and Rescue based at Chivenor spent a couple of hours telling pupils about their work in the area and then allowed those who wished to climb on board and explore the 'big bird'

Organiser Lin Quirk " The children throughly enjoy the visits from the RAF and appreciate the hard work and dedication of the Sea King crew. The information and guidance given by the RAF gave some of the pupils some food for thought on future career paths.

Youth Speaks

Once again Shebbear College hosted the annual Torridge District Youth Speaks competition. There were 8 teams taking part this year, 5 from Shebbear and 3 from Great Torrington School. The standard was particularly high this year and all participants impressed the judges. Of particular note were the team who spoke on the subject of Sweeney Todd. The speaker, Amy Thompson, spoke with energy and enthusiasm about this most gruesome topic.

The winners of the evening were a second form team from Shebbear who spoke on the subject of ‘They don’t make wives like they used to’. Chairperson Jessica Sayers held the team together in a professional manner and led the meeting with a cheerful yet controlled air. The main speaker, Joe Hedges, held the audience in the palm of his hand with his witty and ironic speech that focussed on what a good wife should be!!! The team’s effort was rounded off by Elliott Haskins as the proposer of the vote of thanks who spoke with wit and clarity. The well polished performance was very worthy of the win.

The winning team then went through to the area final which was held at North Devon College where they met 4 other teams from around the county. The competition was tough but Shebbear held their own and gave an excellent performance. However, despite their valiant and strong effort they were pipped at the post.

Staff and Sixth Form Pantomime

Set in ancient Rome this year's production was full of laughter in what was a very entertaining evening complete with dancing skeletons and a very convincing Mr Steel as the traditional pantomime dame..

Shebbear Portfolio Investors

Student Investor Update – Portfolio Challenge

A group of upper sixth business pupils’ have qualified for the regional stage of a prestigious national share competition. Student investor is organised by theSchool of Finance and supported by international banking organisations; the pupils’ from left to right – Jonathan Betambeau,Greg Paton-Kerr, Jack Horwell, Derek Fan – have managed a share investment portfolio of £100,000 for the past 4 months. Over 5000 teams, nationally, have competed this year for 80 regional final places; they will now compete with 19 other regional finalists from the South West of England, in Bristol on the 18th March, for a chance to be one of the 2 teams selected from this region to move on to the national final. The winners of the national final will then get a week long, all expenses paid educational trip to New York. They also win £2000 prize money for their school and £200 for each team member. The trip to New York will include excursions to the financial district as well as some of the famous landmarks.