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Students grow in confidence

Year 8 students, Summer and Sarah, have both recently completed their level 1
Certificate in horse Care at the erme Valley Riding School. They have been riding
since the beginning of September and learning about stable management.
Both girls will now move on to level 2 and continue to improve their riding.
Four Year 9 students, ophelia, Flynn, lewis and Rayne-ella have been attending
the Dartmoor Pony Centre at Bovey Tracey. They have been on guided walks at
Bellever Forest and Postbridge, where they have learnt about the history of both
places. They have also been caring for the ponies at the Centre; learning about
their behaviour and taking the ponies for a walk around Parke estate.
BTeC students in Year 9, namely, elliot, logan, Caitlin and levi have completed
their level 1 Certificate in horse Care at the erme Valley Riding School. They will
now start working towards their level 2 Certificate.
Paula lomas, a Teaching Assistant who accompanies the students said, “In my
opinion these extra-curricular activities really help with the students’ confidence,
wellbeing and social skills. We are so lucky to have the erme Valley Riding
School so close to the College, and to be able to use their newly built
classroom which was finished this year. Money for this was raised through local
fundraising, including a cake sale at the College.”

Character Education
8 head of Department:

how Being an NhS Responder Can help Wellbeing

Kylie Nichols, teacher of Food Studies, has given a very honest account of her
time away from the College environment.
She explains, “During lockdown the working day was very different to being in
College so having another focus and being able to support vulnerable people in
my community gave me the pastoral role that I was missing.
As lockdown has eased, the alerts as an NhS Responder have become more
frequent and I am honoured that I have been able to support the NhS and step
in for those who have been shielding or are simply unable to go out and about
themselves. Now that I have returned to College I plan to volunteer during
holidays and at weekends when my workload enables me to.”
“Kylie’s selfless contributions as an NhS Responder during this challenging period
should be commended and we thank her for what she has given back to our
local community at this time. Thank you to Kylie for showing our students a
real life example of Character education in action.” Kelly olive, Deputy Principal.

Student geographers have Designs on their local Area

To celebrate World Town Planning Day on 8 November, our Year 7
and 8 students entered the Royal Town Planning Institutes’ annual
competition. The competition was to pitch a plan for regeneration
to the local council. Students were given a site in Ivybridge and
asked how they thought the place should change and what issues
the local council Planning Department need to consider to make
it happen.
Students came up with some brilliant and innovative regeneration
schemes and they thoroughly enjoyed the project. Marcus in Year
8 said, “I enjoyed doing this task as it meant we could make the
area more environmentally friendly.” Whilst Tom, also in Year 8
added, “I loved that we were able to write about economical and
beneficial things we can do to help the environment and
ourselves.”
“It has been great to take part in the RTPI competition as it’s given students the chance to think about how
they can regenerate their local area in a sustainable and inclusive way. The students’ ideas were really
imaginative and it was nice for them to see how they can progress to having a career in the geographical
field.” Charley Richardson, Assistant Team leader of geography.

Character Education - Respect, Ambition and Charity