Year 7 Fund Raise

Every year our year 7 pupils complete a range of activities within their tutor group to raise funds for a chosen charity. This year their chosen charity is the Children’s Cardiac Unit at Southampton General Hospital.

This charitable cause was nominated by George Cook, a Year 7 pupil who has Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. This is a serious condition and has involved George staying at the hospital and undergoing surgery on a number of occasions. We hope that the raising of £400 can go some way to making the stay for children like George a little more comfortable.

Below is a newspaper clipping from The Daily Echo.

As a continuation in the year 7 fund raising campaign a small group of pupils have been selling  roses each break and lunch time in preparation for valentine’s day. They have also been selling valentine postcards and stickers.The roses have been very popular with our students and all 90 roses at 50p each have been purchased.The postcards have proved fairly popular and have sold for 25p each. Alongside this they have also run guess the name of the teddy bear at 20p a go.

To date this has raised in excess of £50. The year 7 pupils who have organised this are grateful to the support given by the head boy & girl.

BBC 'Off By Heart' Grand Final

Jack Gouldbourne beat more than 2000 13-15 year olds to participate in the grand final of the BBC’s ‘Off By Heart’ competition in Stratford-Upon-Avon on Sunday 29 January 2012.

His performance, in front of a 1000 strong audience, was the culmination of a week of workshops with professionals from the Royal Shakespeare Company. Jack worked with enthusiasm and
energy and everyone commented on his excellent attitude.

Hosting the Grand final was Jeremy Paxman, award winning journalist, author and television presenter, who soon put Jack at ease with his easy going manner, despite introducing the show as ‘the X Factor for people with brains’!

The panel of judges were Simon Schama, Imogen Stubbs and Samuel West. Jack faced stiff competition but acquitted himself well and did Swanmore proud. Although he didn’t win he said his prize was ‘participating in the event’

First Lego League National Finals at Loughborough University

The Mad Scientists team receiving their medals at the First Lego League National Final		The Mad Scientists certainly made themselves known with their brightly coloured wigs and lab coats!
The Mad Scientists were up early on Saturday morning, leaving Swanmore College to travel to Loughborough University at 5 am. The team (Ella Dixon Y9, Ethan Bunce Y9, Kieran Gate Y9, Aaron Price Y8, Michael Rudling Y7, Archie Rose Y7) had worked hard to prepare their robot and presentation for the National Final. 24 other teams from across the country were competing for the grand prize of taking part in the World Finals in St Louis, USA in April. The theme of this year’s competition was Food Factor and the team completed a design project based around designing a device to ensure hygiene when people come into contact with the raw materials. The team had even manufactured a product to demonstrate this by providing the judges of this category with a piece of chocolate cake! Sadly, the team did not secure enough points to make the quarter finals. At the Awards Ceremony, The Mad Scientists were delighted to be announced as the runners up for the “Core Values” Category, just missing out on a place in the European Final in Germany in June. A special thank you must go to Mr Ford, parent and STEM club supporter and to the team of pupils who were fantastic

BBC 'Off By Heart' Competition

In November Jack Gouldbourne and Sam Nolan took part in the BBC’s ‘Off By Heart’ Competition. The competition required young people to learn a selected Shakespeare speech and perform it in front of a panel of judges.

There were 9 regional heats taking place, across the country, with over 100 teenagers taking part in each. The judging panel then chose 4 winners from each heat with only 1 of these being selected to go forward to the grand final in Stratford-Upon-Avon at the end of January. Both Jack and Sam did incredibly well. Sam performed a speech by Mercutio from ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and impressed the judges with his maturity and depth of emotion. Jack performed the ‘Seven Ages of Man’ speech from ‘As You Like It’ and impressed the judges so much that he was selected as one of the four finalists of his heat. Jack then had a nervous wait to see if he would be chosen to go through to the grand final.

Finally, at the beginning of December, the news came through. Jack had won a place in the final! Jack will now spend 3 days working with the Royal Shakespeare Company on the new speech he has to perform, take part in a BBC documentary all about the competition, and have the experience of performing on the Main Stage in Stratford.

From over 1000 participants Jack is down to the last 9 and we wish him every success at Stratford!

STEM Club - Our "Mad Scientists" win the Regional round of Lego Mindstorms!

Stem club have been busy this term preparing for the annual Lego Mindstorms competition.   2 teams from Swanmore attended the regional rounds at INTECH on the 9 December.  This year’s theme was ‘Food Factor’. Pupils were preparing programs to work their way around the Mindstorm Board to enable the robots to complete the tasks set.

Our team, “The Mad Scientists”, won the Regional round and are now through to the National competition in the Spring.  Congratulations go to:
Ella Dixon, Ethan Bunce, Keiran Gate, Michael Rudling, Archie Rose, Miles Elvidge, Lewis Heathfield, Aaron Price.

The pupils also nominated our parent helper Mr Ford for the special prize of Adult Helper and they pitched their cause well as he was awarded the prize for all the helpers of the Regional section.

Swanmore pupils are runners up in the final of Create and Cook 2011!

Their recipes can be found here

Global Rock Challenge 2011

On Monday 28 February 80 pupils from Swanmore College of Technology took part in the Global Rock Challenge competition held at Southampton Guildhall. Back in September 2010 over 100 pupils auditioned for a place in the cast.  With such talent amongst the pupils it was a difficult decision for the teachers to narrow it down.  After 2 weeks of various auditions, 62 pupils were chosen from all year groups.  Since then they have taken part in numerous rehearsals.  Before Christmas they were choreographing their dances with assistance from the staff and then after Christmas the rehearsals lengthened to 2 hours after school and included working with costumes and scenery.  It was a very busy schedule and with half term the week before it was a nervous time returning to College with this on the first day back.

 They arrived at the venue at 9am, took part in their rehearsal, watched the other schools practicing, had lunch, applied make up, prepared hair and got into their costumes ready for the performance at 7pm.   The pupils were well behaved from the minute we arrived.  They were very apprehensive with the number of schools competing, and some did feel daunted with the prospect of performing in front of their peers. However, by the time the curtain went up they were all full of high spirits and gave an excellent performance.  The judge commented on how well they grasped and performed the demanding choreography.  She very much enjoyed the happy atmospheres and theme of the Dance and said that “she would pay to go and watch performances like that”.  The judge was also complimentary about the costumes and was impressed with the timing of lighting, dancing and scenery altogether.  Swanmore College did not win the competition but they did win the award for `Concept Interpretation’.

During this experience and after receiving questionnaires from the pupils it is evident that they have gained a lot from this experience.  Not only have they improved their self confidence and been able to perform in front of 100s of people but they have also learnt team working, leadership, and social interaction skills.  Most pupils also recognised how their patience has improved after working with pupils they didn’t know.  They also learnt how to appreciate other people’s ideas and how to voice their own opinion when needing to.  This experience has also influenced some Year 9 boys to take Dance further.  6 boys have been attending extra Dance classes after College and are performing again in an all boy Dance Show held at The Point in Eastleigh on Saturday 5 March.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those involved.  Firstly the parents who have been very supportive from the start and were certainly very loud on the night.  The pupils themselves who have worked so hard and made many people very proud.  The site staff at Swanmore College for constructing some excellent scenery that will now be used for years, it would not have been possible without you.  The staging and lighting crew did a fantastic job on the night, and also a huge thank you to Miss Lewis and Mr Bryce for their support, encouragement and patience!

Thank you,
Mrs S Collins

Shakespeare for Schools Festival is the UKs largest youth drama project with over 13, 000 students from 658 schools performing in 2010. Every school takes an abridged Shakespeare play and performs it in a professional theatre on the same night as three other schools. This year is the festival's tenth anniversary and Swanmore College of Technology took to the stage, at The Point Theatre in Eastleigh on Friday 5th November, with their interpretation of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'.

The cast - a group of Year 10 and Year 11 pupils – had a fantastic day and a brilliant experience. They arrived at the Theatre at 9am for a Technical rehearsal and a Dress rehearsal. Having previously only performed and rehearsed in a drama room at Swanmore, transferring to the theatre was a big task. Pupils found they had to project and use their voices a lot more than when at School. All pupils rose to the challenge however, and left the Theatre at lunch time well prepared for their evening performance.

Swanmore College of Technology were asked to perform last in the evening which meant the pupils had the opportunity to observe two other performances by local schools.

They enjoyed a physical and dark interpretation of Macbeth, and Othello performed as a pantomime.
Then it was Swanmore’s turn and what a way to end the evening. All pupils rose to the occasion and produced sublime performances.The cast were congratulated for their ensemble playing, their well paced performances and their clear storytelling.

Congratulations for the cast were effusive as seen below:

‘Swanmore were the stars of the show – they all shone!’

‘…each individual and all team effort was so evidently directed towards the audience and our entertainment and with great polish.’

‘Swanmore had to be our favourite…The production included a great deal more colour than the others with the costumes, and music … and dance as well as demanding the actors’ clear and well-directed use of the dialogue.’