Latest School News

Rotten Romans at Shebbear

Romans spent the day in Shebbear College Junior School. Year Four were quite taken aback when a scary soldier walked in the door and started speaking Latin. They enjoyed dressing up activities, looking at artefacts and being drilled in the Roman army. The day ended with a huge battle between Romans and Britons where they learnt how effective the Testudo formation was. In Ancient Roman warfare, the testudo or tortoise formation was used commonly by the Roman Legions during battles, particularly sieges.

 

 

Help for Haiti

Generous staff and pupils organised a 3 day fundraising effort to help the victims of the disaster in Haiti..Day 1 was a bring and buy cake sale..day 2 involved stalls and games and the ever popular 'throw a wet sponge at the teacher!..We raised over £500 towards this very worthy cause

 

 

The Prince,The Palace and the Frog!

Ezmay Jopling won a competition to paint a giant frog…..Ezmay explained

“I was sitting in World AIMS and a picture of a frog was placed in front of me. I looked in the bottom corner of the picture and it said "The Prince's Rainforest Project". I had heard of this before and had been on the website, so i decided to base my theme on rainforest fires.

I coloured the frog in, oblivious to the fact that the winner would have to paint a giant, 3D version, and handed it in to my teacher, Mrs Lovett. A few weeks later, in the half term, i was in my room when my mum came in and said "Ezmay, you've won a frog!" I had no idea what she was talking about so she handed me the phone that was in her hand. "Hello?" I said. The next thing I knew, I had found out that I had won the competition!

The frog arrived shortly after we got back to school and my sister, two friends and I painted it. He really did look amazing. I am so pleased with my achievement, but was sad to see him go. I would like to thank the people who selected me to win and to those who contributed to painting him.”

Shebbear College often enter National competitions and sometimes get some recognition but never of this calibre!! 12,500 people entered this competition and Ezmay was the winner from the Eco-shools category. The frog has been sent to Buckingham Palace where he will attend a party held by Prince Charles with other frogs designed by the likes of Paul McCartney and Vivienne Westwood!! Ezmay's frog will then spend 8 weeks at the National Geographic store on Regents Street in London before making his way down to The Eden Project for a further 8 weeks. He will then return to Shebbear College.

This was an amazing achievement for Ezmay and just goes to show that if you put the effort in, it can be worthwhile

 

Staff & Sixth Form Pantomine

The annual Staff & Sixth Form Pantomime…Beauty and the Beast, performed to packed audiences over two nights and everyone agreed it was the funniest show to date!

Two fairies, a princess, the traditional villain, and of course a very camp dame all contributed to a lot of laughter and ‘Oh no he didn’t Oh yes he did fun ‘ A colourful set design by Head of Art Ashley Barlow and first class direction by Head of Sixth Form Eleanor Bearpark ensured a successful two nights.

 

Boarders Christmas Extravaganza

Boarders,parents, staffand friends enjoyed a brilliant christmas extravaganza this year. The theme was a masked ball and everyone entered into the spirit of the evening. After a superb meal we moved up to the memorial hall and enjoyed an evening of entertainment by the children which was followed by a disco. Many thanks to Mrs Quirk for yet another superb evening

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Climate Change Conference

Nine members of the World AIMS group from Shebbear College travelled to Bristol for a climate change conference run by Oxfam. The main reason for the conference was to raise awareness before Copenhagen, where the governments are meeting to discuss climate change and how to try and reduce global warming. Oxfam want to get as many people campaigning to the governments so that they make the right decisions.

Unfortunately, due to the closure of the M5, we missed the morning sessions but arrived just in time for lunch and the  first afternoon session which was about how, in our schools, we can raise awareness on the issue of climate change and how we can overcome any obstacles which may get in our way of campaigning. This was particularly helpful as we ourselves had started planning how we were going to campaign and we now had all the information we need for it to successfully go ahead.

Our second session involved learning about how different countries in the developing world are being affected by global warming and the devastating effects it has on them. We presented our chosen country to the rest of the group in different ways such as news shows, posters and raps! We also all wrote a message each which will be sent to Gordon Brown to show our support on the issue about how carbon emissions need to be reduced by 80% in order for the earth’s temperature to not be raised by more than 2 degrees.

The third and final session of the day was a talk given by the local Liberal Democrats MP about how they feel global warming can be tackled and what we ourselves can do. The day was very enjoyable and everyone took a lot away from it.

 

New Netbooks in the Junior School

Numbers have been growing steadily at Shebbear College Junior School resulting in the computer suite being converted into a classroom.

The decision was made to buy 30 wi-fi enabled, state of the art Netbooks that can be used in any location in the Junior school..Complimented with headphones and coloured ‘mice’ the netbooks have proved to be a very popular in the classroom both with pupils and teachers!

 

Maasai Warriors visit Shebbear

Shebbear College pupils and staff were captivated by the performance of the Osiligi Warrior Dance Troupe .The group come from Kesamis near Kiserian in Kenya, about 30 miles from Nairobi where they had started to perform for tourists in order to raise money to support the best aspects of their culture. In recent times, the Maasai have had to adapt to a less nomadic existence, build more permanent settlements and find ways to educate their youngsters. Thanks to their first brief tour in 2005 and subsequent yearly tours the troupe have worked wonders in their village improving housing, health and education, and their 2009 tour in the UK will further these improvements.

The performances were narrated by one of the warriors who explained the stories behind the dances,whistling talk and songs. The children were invited to ask questions about the Maasai way of life and explanations were given in the warmest way by this tremendously charming group. Watching the Maasai leap high into the air, the pupils were spell bound especially when pupils, and teachers were invited to join in.

Everyone who saw the performance learned a great deal about the warmth and joy of the troupe as well as gaining a greater understanding of a very different culture.

Infants Violin Lessons

The music department at Shebbear College has recently introduced violin lessons for the Infant and Junior classes and they have proved to be a great success. 18 pupils started learning on  baby quarter size violins and teacher Mrs Frith is delighted at their enthusiasm. So much so that many of her pupils asked for their own violins for Christmas  and have returned this term with their presents ready to perform !

 

Joseph Fiennes visits Shebbear College

Hollywood film star Joseph Fiennes, who is well known for his roles in the award-winning Shakespeare in Love and Elizabeth, visited Shebbear College.

He accepted an invitation to the college by the school's head of religious studies, Dr Richard Warner-Hoskins, who has written a book called Sacrifice which will be made into a film starring Joseph Fiennes. The visit was met with huge excitement by staff and students of the college.

The actor worked with the students on a drama workshop — enacting a scene from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

Staff & Sixth Form Review

Audiences enjoyed two nights of sketches, drama and singing during a very successful review..

 

 

 

 

 

Independent Schools Inspectorate Report 2007

. To view the findings please click on the attached link

http://www.isinspect.org.uk/reports/2007/0980_07.htm

 

Exam Results

A Level Results 2000 – 2009			Figures show number of passes in each grade boundary
	Grade A	Grade B	Grade C	Grade D	Grade E	Grade N	Grade U	Pts /Can	Pts/Sub	Sub/Can	Pass Rate
2000	7	6	9	20	0	0	2	16.06	5.01	3.17	96.29
2001	4	9	13	9	5	8	0	15.07	4.91	2.71	83.33
2002	17	16	8	13	2	0	7	214.16	81.58	2.65	88.88
2003	13	20	11	15	9	0	8	214	72	3	89.47
2004	7	20	15	8	3	0	5	240	77	3	91.4
2005	14	11	21	14	7	0	0	213	78	2.4	100
2006	12	15	10	18	3	0	2	235	82.3	2.9	96.66
2007	21	14	13	11	5	0	2	306.3	88.18	3.4	97.0
2008	26	32	19	12	5	0	4	282.9	90	3.2	96.0
2009	15	22	20	6	4	0	0	291.4	91.3	3.1	100
GCSE Results 2000 – 2009			Figures show accumulative percentage pass rate at each grade boundary
	A*%A*	A*%A*-A	B%A*-B	C%A*-C	D%A*-D	E%A*-E	F%A*-F	G%A*-G	%5A*-C
2000	13	27.7	58.1	82.2	94.1	99.2	99.6	99.6	75.86
2001	8.52	32.17	56.2	80.23	91.47	97.67	98.83	100	63.8
2002	8.3	35.9	67.4	84.9	94	96.7	100	100	67.7
2003	3.61	18.8	40.5	67.62	86.6	94.55	96.35	97.43	50
2004	4.9	25.3	59.7	82.5	95.5	98.6	99.6	100	72.8
2005	14.8	36.5	64.3	86.9	98.3	100.0	100.0	100.0	81.8
2006	15.5	38.8	63	89.7	98.8	100	100	100	85.0
2007	10.5	31.9	63.8	92.0	95.3	98	100	100	87.0
2008	7.0	30.5	62.2	88.2	96.5	99.2	100	100	78.0
2009	11.8	38.3	59.6	82.4	93.9	98.3	98.3	100	85