Page 7 - Summer 2020 Echo final draft lower res

Shane’s lockdown Singing Fundraising Marathon for MNDA

Year 10 student, Shane Brierley, has made it through to the live shows in the 'Teenstar' Competition.
This will be on YouTube and Facebook on Thursday, 23 July at 7.00pm. We wish him all the very best!
Shane also took part in a ‘24 hour Charity Singing Marathon’ to raise money for Motor Neurone
Disease. he started off the marathon with 45 minutes of singing and they raised over £1000 to be
able to buy a stair lift and funding towards speech therapy.
Shane also performed the song on the College’s wonderful ‘From Me to You’ video and has been
singing in online groups during lockdown to people from around the world, and has had a massive
response with wonderful comments.
gill Taylor, Deputy Principal, said, “I know Shane very well, because in Year 7 he asked me to be his
sous chef in a luxury breakfast competition, and so I was not surprised that he has taken it upon
himself to participate in a 24 hour singing marathon for charity. Shane is known to sing occasionally
in the corridors at the College, so I know that this is one of his favourite things to do! however, it is
such a fantastic achievement and to do it for such a worthy cause.”

Donkey hoaty in lockdown!

Donkey has been grounded in the lockdown and been confined to the fields between
Brixton and Yealmpton. It hasn’t stopped him dreaming of distant lands though and is
even sporting a geographical face mask. The face mask he has on shows Senegal.
here are three questions to investigate. What is the capital city of Senegal? What three
colours are on the flag of Senegal? What is the motto of Senegal?

News 5

Drama School Opportunity for Alex

Former student, Alex Ward, is delighted that after three years of auditioning he has finally
been selected into his dream drama school!
Alex said, “After leaving the College where I studied A level Drama and BTeC Performing Arts,
I enrolled on a one year foundation course at east 15 Acting School. I really learnt a lot as a
person and as an actor up at east 15, it was the best year of my life. After the course finished,
I moved back down to Plymouth and joined the Theatre Royal Plymouth’s lab Company,
which was a really great opportunity that sadly I will miss out on now due to Covid-19. I did
two jobs to afford to pay for my audition fees and costs and re-auditioned for drama schools
this year. I’m over the moon that after three years of auditioning I finally got into my dream
drama school! I’ll be studying on the BA Acting Musical Theatre course at the Royal Central
School of Speech and Drama. I’m really grateful for this opportunity after working so hard to
get here and I cannot wait to get started in October!”
Rachel Mcgarry, Performing Arts Teacher at the College said, “I first began teaching Alex in 2016 on the A level
Drama course and on the BTeC Performing Arts National Diploma, where he further developed his skills in Acting,
Singing and Dancing. During the two years Alex went from strength to strength and within this time committed
to developing his professionalism and dedication in readiness for auditions to Drama school - to huge success. It
was a pleasure to teach Alex for this time and to still keep in touch with past students, Alex has already hosted a
monologue workshop for our students, now I can't wait to have him host one for musical theatre in the future!”

Supporting National events during lockdown

VE Day 75 on Friday, 8 May was celebrated from the safety of our own homes. For
those wishing to participate there were a number of key moments during the day
that everyone was invited to take part in, which brought people across the country
together from a distance. This included a two minute silence at 11.00am and the

Nation’s Toast to wartime heroes at 3.00pm – "For those that gave so much, we thank you."

Mental Health Awareness week (18 - 24 May) This year the focus was on 'kindness', which
is always important, but now more than ever. ‘let’s get the nation talking about kindness
and mental health. At times like these, when the world feels upside down, kindness can
be the key to turning things around.’ Visit http://mentalhealth.org.uk/mhaw and join in!
#KindnessMatters #MentalhealthAwarenessWeek!

'School Diversity Week. The College participated in this national charity in June. This year, its focus was entitled
'Just like Us'. lgBT+ is a charity for young people working for a world where lgBT+ young people live awesome
lives. Their mission is to empower all young people to be the champions of lgBT+ equality
at school and work. Please follow this link for more information. https://www.justlikeus.org/