Eggbuckland

Newsletter
March 2015

Community College

I am delighted to report that, on Monday 2nd March, Eggbuckland Community College became a Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) with
Austin Farm Primary School. This means that our College is now responsible for the strategic decisions that affect the
running of the primary school and, consequently, their performance.
The formation of the MAT has been an extremely lengthy process which
started 15 months ago but we had to ensure that we were doing absolutely the
right thing for both schools and, most importantly, our students. The Local
Authority has been extremely supportive throughout this journey and have
committed funds to address some of the issues that Austin Farm faces,
particularly related to improving the school's learning environment.
Apart from Austin Farm Primary School now being known as Austin Farm
Academy, there will be no immediately obvious changes. However, in
time, I am confident that the students, staff and parents of both
schools will really see the benefits brought about by
this new partnership. Most of all, I believe that it
has the potential to really improve the life chances
of the young people who attend our schools.
Katrina Borowski, Principal

Outdoor

Years 7 and 8 from ... make use of our

Eggbuckland Woodland Area for
and Year 6 from
Eggbuckland Vale
Primary School ...

Learning

Plymouth University students visited to

deliver Citizen Science, collecting
information about the wildlife in the College
grounds. Our students had a great time
looking at leaf litter and pond organisms and
went in the woodland to look at lichens and
winter twigs.
In addition, Year 6 students from
Eggbuckland Vale have been to the
woodland to look at habitats and
adaptations. They researched the behaviour
of woodlice back in the laboratory, building
mazes and they found worms for a wormery,
that they took back to their school.

th

LOCAL CANDIDATES
VISIT AS
ELECTION FEVER
IS SET TO GRIP
EGGBUCKLAND
COMMUNITY
COLLEGE

With the General Election only a few weeks away, Eggbuckland Community College will be running their own
in-College election and have been helped in their preparations by the local candidates and MP.
Johnny Mercer (Conservative), Jonny Mercer (Green), Alison Seabeck MP (Labour) and Stuart Bonar
(Liberal Democrat) have all given generously of their time to come into College and meet with the students
who will be mounting their own campaigns in the build up to the General Election.
The idea was to run an in-College election alongside the General Election, fielding
representatives for four parties (Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and the Greens)
with a brief to mount a campaign to win hearts and minds and a College-wide vote to be
th
taken in tutor groups on the morning of May 7 .
The teams selected were: Jenson Sheppard and James Linford Labour; Lottie Stevens
and Laurie Sheridan Green; Ellie Sheridan and Gabrielle Wood Liberal Democrat; James
Stoneman andTom Boddy - Conservative.
Having met with the real life candidates, the next stage for the students will be planning and
running a campaign within the College. This will involve ensuring they are clued-up on their
policies and able to present them convincingly. They will be asked to present their policies in
a party political broadcast to be shown in tutor groups as well as running their own individual
campaign through April and into May.
Hustings are planned for Friday 1st May and students will be encouraged to vote for their chosen
th
candidate in morning registration on May 7 with the result to be announced later that day.

City Chefs
Three Year 10 GCSE Catering students entered the
Young Chef Team Challenge competition at City College
recently. The team was required to design a three course
menu suitable for Plymouth Raiders' players, Jordan
Clarke and Ben Mockford, who judged the event at the
College's PL1 Restaurant. Local chefs Mike Palmer from
the Two Bridges Hotel, Dave Jenkins from Rock Salt and
Richard Farleigh from City College also judged.
Eggbuckland students battled it out against six other local
schools. Jack Brown, Brandon Reeve and Jacob
Wollington produced an exciting menu consisting of
tempura battered vegetables with a homemade
mayonnaise and sweet chilli sauce for a starter. The
main course consisted of pan fried haddock served with
creamy spinach linguine, followed by a vanilla
pannacotta served with apple crisps and blackberry and
apple coulis. The boys did fantastically well by winning
the best main course in the competition. A massive well
done to the boys for their hard work preparing for the
event as well as their efforts on the day.

Prior to the Solar Eclipse on Friday 20

March during Period 1, we have been
fortunate enough to do some work with
Hannah from Exeter University, who is
completing her PhD in AstroPhysics.
Hannah was able to speak via a Skype
link to students in Year 8, Year 10 Triple
Science, the Astronomy group, and
some Year 12 students. Hannah
explained to us how we can view the
eclipse safely, as well as why an
eclipse may occur. We aim to stream a
live video of the event (weather
depending) across the College using
some of the College telescopes and
cameras so that you will be able to see
the moon passing over the sun. This is
a safe way to view the sun, whereas
looking directly at the sun, even for a
very short period of time, will cause
permanent eye damage.
Following the assembly Hannah
commented, I think video chats are a
great way of engaging with schools and
I am glad that you are embracing it as a
means of education.

Preparing for the

the darkness &
On Friday 20th March, Students
witnessed, for the first time in their
lives, a partial Solar Eclipse. You can
see a video of the eclipse that was
recorded from the College telescope,
and broadcast to local primary
schools, via our Facebook page
which had over 27,000 hits.

th

WORLD

BOOK
DAY

On Thursday 5 March, Eggbuckland joined the World in

celebrating World Book Day. This day shows the
importance and privilege of reading and encourages
everyone to share their favourite books and imaginative
ideas.
Eggbuckland celebrated by inviting staff to dress as their
favourite literary character; Ev Spiking looked fantastic in
her Noddy costume.
The Library hosted visiting author Peter Lockhart who gave a
fantastic presentation of his newest book, Time Raker. He
discussed his process of writing and how and where he gets
his imaginative ideas. He spoke to students about how he
became a writer, what inspired him to write about time travel
and his new novel Time Raker. The story combines time travel,
history and science fiction, in which 14-year-old Tom Raker
travels back in time and meets history's most famous rulers
and leaders in his quest to find his missing father.
Some Year 7 and 9 students also had the opportunity to try
on Viking costumes and chainmail.
Also visiting the Library was poet Michael Sullivan, the first
Adult Poet Laureate of Plymouth. He was engaged in
November 2013 and performs his poetry at different events
as well as being commissioned to write poetry for different
organisations such as Derriford Hospital. He led with the
st
question Is poetry still relevant in the 21 century? and
argued his case to persuade most of the students by the
end of the session.
The Library ran two Doctor Who competitions and the
winners were Mollie Calvert-Townsend and Jack Knowles.
There was also a short story competition, the subject being
Time Travel and the winners are to be announced on
th
Wednesday 25 March with prizes of 2 Kindle Fire HDs.

RED NOSE DAY

Well done and thanks to all involved.

g
n
i
s
i
a
R

ASPIRATIONS

Year 12 aspirations to raise money for Comic Relief

proved to be another 'Super Sixth' success.
Sporting events organised through the week to
inspire interest saw Edgcumbe House victorious in
both Key Stage 3 and 4 football tournaments whilst
Year 7 and 8 playing dodgeball proved amazingly
popular.
The main event on Friday included a fantastic Main
Hall concert from our multi-talented musicians plus
stalls and games throughout the College.
Final totals raised during lunch by Year 12 topped
250 and the final Eggbuckland total was a brilliant
946.16.

Boys' Dance Workshop

College Students
do Research
for the Natural
History Museum!

Tyler is
Regional
indoor
rowing
Champion!
Tyler Horn has exploded onto the sport scene of the College. He had experienced
indoor rowing while at primary school, so this wasn't a completely new sport to him
when he was selected for the Plymouth Indoor Rowing Championships, held at
Plymstock at the start of term. Tyler's performance in these championships, however,
was a revelation to everyone.
In a two minute sprint, Tyler managed to row 509 meters. For those in the know, that's
very impressive; it made him the Plymouth Champion.
Three weeks later, Tyler was thrown into a much bigger pool of talent, rowing against
the best from the region when he competed in the next round of the nationals held at
the College of St Mark and St John. This time around, Tyler was a virtual blur,
pounding through a distance 539 meters in the two minutes and now he's the Regional
Champion.
This weekend it will be off to London for Tyler to compete in the national finals. He will
be going up as part of the overall Plymouth Team and with him will be Kieran Kirby
from our sixth form who has also qualified for the nationals.
Fingers crossed that we'll see Tyler back in College with a third medal around his neck.
Special thanks goes to student teacher, Mr Will Price, for his fantastic support.

A group of Year 7 boys enjoyed a day of dance with professional

dancer and choreographer James Wilton. James has recently
performed his touring work 'Last Man Standing' at the Barbican
Theatre. Before travelling to London and then on to China to complete
his tour, he managed to fit in a visit to Eggbuckland Community
College. James spent the day working with the boys on a variety of
repertoire, but the most memorable has to be when he taught them the
choreography he created and performed for the Rugby League World
Cup in 2013. The boys really enjoyed working with James and the
buzz for boys' dance is starting to grow. As a result of this workshop a
request has been made for a boys only dance club. This will run on
Wednesday lunch times in the Dance Studio, starting on Wednesday
18th March. All year groups are welcome.
Thank you to all the boys who participated so enthusiastically.

Links with
the Royal
British
Legion
th

On Wednesday 11 March Eggbuckland received an

invitation to lunch at the Royal British Legion in Crownhill
with Mr Alan Tapper, President of the Crownhill Royal British
Legion, and Mr David Carnell, Chairman of the Branch.
Mrs Western, Mr Hateley, Mrs Troughton, Rebecca Morris
8-E6, Clayton Sargent 8-E3 and Dan Woodman 8-C1 were
treated to a tour of the facility and enjoyed a delicious lunch
as a thank you for raising 550 from the sale of the Ceramic
Poppies made by Year 8 students in Art last year.
Mr Tapper presented the students with a certificate of
appreciation and a selection of poppy gifts and asked that
we pass on their thanks to the students and staff who were
involved.

Year 12 Biology
students took part
in the Microverse
Project organised by the Natural History
Museum. The project involves taking
samples from surfaces on the outside of
buildings to discover the types of
bacteria that live on them. Dr Anne
Jungblut of the Natural History Museum
wants to know how different types and
ages of building and their position affects
the type of bacteria that grow there.
So on February 10th the Year 12 group
took swab samples from the surface of
one of the oldest buildings in the College
built in 1978. We sampled the brickwork,
the window frames and the windows and
sent them in for analysis. The Museum
will send us the results of their DNA
analysis. We prepared agar plates and
so already know that the window frames
had the most bacteria living on them with
up to 5 different types. It would be great
to find out that at Eggbuckland we have
a rare species!

HMS
Heroes
th

On 18 March Eggbuckland student, Megan Homer, spent the day on

HMS Ocean as a HMS Heroes Ambassador. The event marked the
launch of Armed Forces Day in Plymouth and Megan had the
opportunity to meet with personnel from the Royal Navy, Army, Royal Air
Force, Royal Marines, as well as representatives from the Royal British
Legion, the Veterans community, local children representing Plymouth's
Community Covenant and representatives from the cadet services.
Whilst Megan was busy on board HMS Ocean, another Eggbuckland
student, Jacob Wollington, was attending the Council Chambers as part
of HMS Heroes network meeting where he met the Lord Mayor with 20
other service children from around Plymouth and had the opportunity to
sit in the chambers and ask the Lord Mayor questions.
HMS Heroes is an organisation that offers support and opportunities to
children and young people who have parents and siblings serving in
any of the Armed Forces. Eggbuckland has been
involved with the project from the very start and
many of our students have benefitted from a
range of events and activities. If you have
a family member serving in the Armed
Forces and are interested in joining
HMS Heroes or would like to find out
more, please contact Mrs Kelly
Palmer who is based in Hartley
House or email her on
kpalmer@eggbuckland.com.

Careers

Best speaker at
Public Speaking
Regional Final

As part of National Careers Week and National Apprenticeship Week, students

th
participated in various activities on Friday 13 March to highlight the variety of
options available to them. Activities included:
The Young Chef Team Challenge at City College
A visit by Years 10 and 12 vocational students to Open Doors Mi-Space at
Mount Wise to look around the construction site.
A visit by Year12 Health and Social Care students to Derriford
Hospital for the NHS Apprenticeship event
Plymouth City Council Apprenticeship team presented to Year 11
P4L students on apprenticeship opportunities across their
organisation, where it was great to see ex-ECC student Jake
Holmes promoting his career pathway, well done Jake!
Participation of Years 7 and 8 in a huge Enterprise Activity
A Year 9 aspirational visit to Plymouth or Exeter University
A Year 10 Careers Exploration Day which saw a large number of
local employers delivering workshops to our students.
Jodie Williams and Kira Penaluna winners of the Year 10 Careers
Exploration activity, have both won a 15 gift voucher and had this to
say about the experience:
The objective of the work we did on Friday was all about raising
students aspirations. It was a day to show students the endless
opportunities available to them and to spend the time talking and
explaining to them about those possibilities. We were lucky to have
lots of help from Santander, Babcock, Growing Sustainable Futures,
NHS, MARJONS, Peninsula Medical School, Cornwall College,
Bond Dickinson, Careers South West, AMEY, Keepmoat, Focus
Training, The Army, The Royal Navy, MIDAS, Plymouth University
Business and Science Departments, Exeter University and the local
Roborough Rotary club. We thank them all for helping to make the
day so successful.
Don't forget to follow @Eggycareers on Twitter for further career
information and opportunities.

Our Year 11 Public Speaking Team comprising George Harvey, Abigail

Cundell and Kieran West competed against five other schools in the
South West Regional Final of the Churchill English Speaking Union's
th
Public Speaking competition at Blundell's School on Sunday 8
March. They performed with great competence and George excelled
himself by being voted the best speaker overall! Mrs Barry, Mrs Bruce
and Mrs Simpson were very proud of their performance and the hard
work and enthusiasm they put into this.

They are a credit to our College

- well done!

The College is
delighted that it
has finally been
possible to
upgrade the
seating in the
Drama Studio. The
seats are used most days for assemblies, for College
productions and special events and were badly in need of
replacement. At a cost of 42,687, this has been a significant
investment but students and visitors are already appreciating
the improvements.

New seating for

Drama Studio