Page 4 - Summer 2020 Echo final draft lower res

Audition Success in elite Programme

Year 8 student, Anna, has successfully auditioned to be trained on the ‘Performers College
elite Programme’. Anna explains that due to the Covid-19 situation, she had to submit a
Dance Biography by email and then audition by video dancing two of her strongest dances.
This was instead of travelling to essex to the College for the audition in person.

‘Performers elite’ is a training programme for young students aged 12 and over, and
selection is by invitation only. It consists of a day of intense training held once a month on a
Sunday, designed to challenge the students and, most importantly, build confidence. each
day of training is unique and devised with diversity in mind.

Former Student's lockdown
Wedding to Remember

Former student Alice hurn was featured recently on BBC Radio 2.
The postponement of her special day with Rob, and her incredible
commitment to her role as an NhS Nurse were celebrated with a
'Wedding to Remember'.

Alice was a founder member of the College's Musical Theatre group
(MTg). Please follow this link for more information.

2 News

emily undertakes further studies to support
students through research

During this academic year emily Tyers, Teacher of Social Sciences at the College, has
undertaken further studies on top of her teaching commitments.
emily explained, “At the beginning of the year, I completed my Masters in education
(Med) at the University of Cambridge. I am very passionate about the importance of
conducting social research within the context of education, as I believe it is essential
that our teaching practices and strategies are informed by an empirical evidence
base. Furthermore, I believe that social research can be used as a tool to enable us
to increase students’ progress and also to establish targeted interventions to support
students. I was delighted to find out in the Spring Term that my Med Thesis had been
awarded the Best Dissertation Award by the University of Cambridge.
Following the completion of my Masters in education, I have decided to undertake a
Doctorate in education (edD) at the University of exeter, starting in September 2020.
This opportunity will allow me to conduct more research within the context of
education, at a much larger scale than my previous research projects. I hope that this will be an opportunity
to develop an intervention strategy designed to support students who face barriers to their learning both
inside the classroom and beyond.
During recent months, I have worked closely with Professor lee elliot-Major (University of exeter) and
Robin Chu (the CeO of Coachbright) in order to co-author a proposal paper for the government. Our
proposal addressed the need for additional tutoring to be provided for socially disadvantaged students
across the country, in order to support these students to recover from potential learning losses as a result of
school closures. Our proposal is based on research evidence from the UK and the USA, and in our proposal
we have suggested the need for a National Tutoring Service to be established.
In addition to this proposal, we have also co-authored an article which was recently published on the Times
education Supplement.

Site Security

A new fencing and gate project around the College site has commenced. The main entrance area is having
fully automatic, controlled access gates for parking and pedestrian access in accordance with DFe
guidance. New manual gates are also being installed at other access points. This will mark the completion of
6 months’ worth of work from design, planning and installation by the appointed contractor, the estates Team
at Ivybridge and Westcountry Schools Trust. Funding for this project was provided via a bid to WeST for a
share of the government School Capital Allocation (SCA) budget and is one of several projects given the go
ahead by the Trust Board for the next 12 months.

Character Education - Courage, Honesty and Authenticity