制服诱惑

It is with huge delight that I am able to report all of our six teams, thirty-six students in all, successfully completed Ten Tors 2023. A huge congratulations to all students who engaged with the event but also the training process. We have trained about eighty different students this year and each will have gained something from the experience so well done to all of them. Also, a big thank you to staff for volunteering huge amounts of their personal time and their commitment to 制服诱惑 students. The same goes to our colleagues from the National Trust, in particular Pete Davies, without whose expertise the programme in its current form would not be possible.

Torquay Boys鈥� Grammar School is reaching for the heights, preparing this year鈥檚 musical, In The Heights.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Students from both 制服诱惑 and TGGS have joined forces, as is annual tradition, and have been busily preparing the spring spectacular, since September. This year鈥檚 show is an upbeat homage to life in Washington Heights, a largely Dominican neighbourhood of modern-day New York.

Imagined by Lin Manuel Miranda, who brought us Hamilton and Encanto, this story is full of toe-tapping Salsa and hip-hop infused rhythms that are sure to be crowd pleasers. The story follows the characters balancing their hopes and dreams against the pull of finding a sense of home and belonging amongst their local community.

The cast have learnt many new skills with adapting to a very different style of music, and the 70 cast have worked really hard on perfecting the choral harmonies that make this show so uplifting, especially when accompanied聽by the talented 20+ strong orchestra.

The story is narrated by Usnavi (Jono Chant-Stevens), who runs a small bodega with his nephew Sonny (Charlie Baker). The shop sits alongside a cab company run by the Kevin and Camila Rosario (Josh Escott and Chloe Firrell) and Daniella and Carla鈥檚 (Grace Williams and Evie Perkins) salon. The community that interact within this small district of shops witnesses the blossoming relationships of Benny (Piran Wills) and Nina (Charlotte Key), and Vanessa (Hermoine Whetton) and Usnavi, alongside the daily struggles of Carla (Evie Perkins), a street seller, Piragua Guy (David Cooper) and local vandal, Graffiti Pete (Fin Gribbin), and all held together by the matriarchal figurehead of Abuela Claudia (Ellie Schaefer Davis).

With so many students involved, this is sure to be a powerful and uplifting production with something for everyone. Tickets are available now: . The production is often sold out by the end of the week, so book in advance to avoid disappointment.

Nervous smiles quickly turned to happy ones on聽the 5 of July when the 55 IB students collected their results.聽 They performed exceedingly well achieving with an average point score of 38.5% – the school鈥檚 highest ever! Their triumph is even more impressive when considered in wider context; the last time that students sat exams in 2019 the worldwide average was 30 points. Oxbridge offers start at 38 points and 34 of the 55 students achieved a score of 38 or higher. Half of the cohort scored 40 points (equivalent to 4 A* grades at A level) or better.聽聽Clearly, their dedication and hard work paid off with a set of phenomenal results that all 55 can be rightly proud of.

While all of the cohort have earned hearty congratulations it is worth noting that 6 students – William Aitken, Michael Sinnott, Isobel Thomas, Max Fullalove, Max Bowden and Sam Grimshaw – achieved 44 out of 45 points. In 2019 the percentage of students achieving a score of 44 or higher worldwide was 1.2%, and with these results, 11% of our cohort achieved this score. Further success came with Rupert Hill, Jack Jones and Sarah Probert all earning places at Oxford and Max Fullalove gaining a spot at Cambridge.

The International Baccalaureate is a high status qualification respected by universities and employers, as it develops lifelong skills 鈥� critical thinking, broad knowledge, open-mindedness. Students have to continue study of English, Maths, Science, a social science, and a language.

The uncertainties of the last few years make the outstanding performances of these 55 students even more impressive.聽 Not only did they all face the challenges of remote learning, but until May, they had had never sat formal public examinations.聽 Their impressive results are, therefore, not only evidence of their high academic abilities and hard work but also a testament to their sterling qualities as human beings.聽 We wish them the best of luck in all their future endeavours as they build on the impressive foundations they have laid.

Congratulations to all six 制服诱惑 and National Trust teams who successfully completed this year鈥檚 Ten Tors Challenge!

The Ten Tors 2022 event was preceded by some trepidation but also anticipation this year. After two years of the event being unfortunately cancelled, it was a relief to be finally able to restore this hugely beneficial part of school life.

At the beginning of the year, it was clear to see the pent-up frustrations of students living under lockdowns with over one hundred students signing up to be involved in the event. Over the course of a year’s tough training, this became 37 competitors and reserves for the Ten Tors weekend.

Huge congratulations go to these 37 students for what they have achieved this year. As a teacher, it is so heart-warming to see the best characteristics encapsulated so prominently in a group of young people.

Leadership, team work, resilience, and maturity were all on full display over the Ten Tors event and both Torquay Boys’ Grammar School and National Trust Teams put in very impressive performances.

The 制服诱惑 45s came back 1^st聽in the morning and the NT 45s 3^rd聽in their distance. All 35-mile teams across the two organisations came back before 2:30pm.

As always, so many thanks are needed for so many people who make a year’s worth of training at weekends and all the preparation and organisation for the event possible. Particular thanks of course to our colleagues in the National Trust and particularly Pete Davies.

We have had 19 adult helpers this year, and without them we simply would not be able to provide such an opportunity to young people. We are sincerely grateful. Well done to all and bring on 2023!

Thank you so much to all of the parents and students who donated items to our appeal at the start of March. We were completely overwhelmed by the generosity of our school community – as were Torbay Rotary Club who organised the collection and delivery of all the much needed items to Ukraine and Poland.

Thank you also to the team of sixth forms and staff who helped to sort all the donations, label all of the bags and boxes and transport the huge volume of donated goods between different parts of the school – it really was a team effort!

Students from Torquay Boys’ and Girls’ Grammar schools have just completed an electric production of Sweeney Todd, held over four nights in the Cavannah Centenary Hall, March 8-11, 2022.

Work started six months before with rehearsals for cast and orchestra, at the start of the academic year: those familiar with the show will know it is a huge challenge in terms of complexity of the music, characterisation and staging. Despite the hurdles to overcome (blood special effects, teasing out the light with such dark characters, and endless music-action cues, to name a few) it turned about to be the perfect show choice as a spectacular to welcome the community back to school as we edge back to normal from the pandemic.

Over 100 people were involved either on or off stage, as well as in the orchestra; all their contributions were invaluable in bringing the story to life on stage, and no doubt a hair-raising experience that will be long remembered.

Language: Friend or Foe?聽

Wed 23^rd March 2022

3.45 鈥� 6pm

This event marks an exciting new era of collaboration and mutual exchange between TGGS and 制服诱惑. It is open to anyone in Years 9 鈥� 13 from both schools and is an opportunity to discuss a range of gender-related topics such as feminism, abortion and human rights in small, safe community of enquiry groups. Welcome refreshments and a buffet tea are included in the ticket price. Please ensure your school email address is given at the checkout so that you can have exclusive access to the pre-event stimulus materials. Also let us know if transport home could be an issue. All enquiries about this event to sgodfrey@tbgs.torbay.sch.uk

Congratulations to the year 10 rugby team on reaching the national vase final at Twickenham, following their semi final in Worcester on the 5th of March 2022

You will NEVER see a better kick than this – Glyn Jones of U15s, with a unbelievable 75metre left footed spiral!

Perhaps the moment of the weekend 馃く馃憦馃徏

鈥淚t鈥檚 a 22:22鈥�!!

— Scott Eburne (@scottebu11)

Tickets are on sale now!

Sweeney Todd is the infamous tale of an embittered barber, whose quest for revenge on London society for his being wrongly convicted, sees his victims cooked in Mrs Lovett’s Meat Pies.

Students have been working hard to learn all the music, choreography and staging of this spectacle of a show since September, and can’t wait to share this macabre world with you.

Tickets can be purchased here:聽

The show starts at 7pm each night. The usual bar, popcorn and icecreams will be on sale, and as a special treat this year, you can get boxed hot pies and chips (courtesy of Chef Bea), each evening to savour as you wait for the show to start.

As we come close to staging this year’s show, it seems fitting to reflect on last year’s against-the-odds achievement when we managed to stage our 30th consecutive school musical, by moving outside! In the height of the first lockdown, when we would have been choosing the school show for the following year, Mr Eastman persuaded Miss Pellant and Mr Hunt to do something different, suited to the very strong musical talented of our current students. So the three members of staff set about writing a jazz fusion-style musical, using the聽The Great Gatsby as a starting point. The novel is a very popular social satire of the 1920s commenting on the shallowness of the glitz of the roaring twenties 鈥� the parties and jazz that arose from the prohibition-era and the American Dream concealed corruption, bootlegging and broken relationships and Fitzgerald鈥檚 novel, although often glamorised, poses questions about the flaws of escapism and over-indulgence. As the summer 2020 lockdown continued, the three聽 writers met virtually over teams, often working late into the night, first distilling the story and then picking the best songs to tell that story in a juke-box style. As time went on, they got increasingly excited about the potential of this novel. Of course, they also learnt why such an iconic book had not had this treatment before 鈥� how do you put the Valley of Ashes, the booming growth of New York, and the numerous car chases on stage? It works superbly in Baz Luhrman鈥檚 film 鈥� but the Centenary Hall? We settled for a story within a story approach, with Nick, the lead character, lamenting his attraction to The Great James Gatz, retelling his glamorous interaction and its demise into Gatsby鈥檚 death, by pulling guests out of a speakeasy party to enact it using a range of physical and epic theatre techniques. Even the orchestra were embroiled as a band in the secret speakeasy, and their postmodern fusion of songs would carry Nick鈥檚 story. As we came back to school in September 2020, to begin rehearsals, it soon became apparent it would not be an easy feat. We had a bumpy road of rehearsing in bubbles, school restrictions and closures 鈥� but through a combination of online and outdoor rehearsals in the wind and rain, along with commendable determination from the students to make this happen whatever was thrown our way by the pandemic, everyone involved persevered to put on a show, that was truly Great! Rehearsing outside gave us the idea to stage the show in the manor gardens, and somehow, the weather gods took pity and gave us a glorious week at the end of term. Guests brought their own chairs and picnics, to spread out COVID-safe across the lawn. It made for magical evenings: the sun set during each show and the festoon lights and giant hanging chandelier sparkled, as the story took it’s darker end tones: the last number was a reworking of All Tomorrow’s Parties by Velvet Underground, which was somehow very fitting for the national mood by that point in the pandemic. There were many outstanding performances from the cast “onstage” (or patio), and the orchestra side stage, not least Oscar Garbett who played Nick, holding together the whole story and balancing the story-in-the-story tricks superbly. James Gibbs played the Nick inside the story, and brought his usual skill in building up character subtleties. Robert Harrison, Avalon Vowles, Kit Oliver-Stevens, and Matilda Nicholls took various leads in the story (Tom Buchannan, Daisy, Gatsby and Myrtle), bringing their vocal talents to the range of songs that got the show toe-tapping. They have been long-standing members of the cast, who have now headed off to university, along with the talented Austin Incles, who once again took part on stage and playing in the orchestra. All these students were in year 13, along with Seb Boot, Fred Williams, David Pearse and Cerys Smith in the orchestra, so by the time the show was staged they were on post-exam summer holidays, and so should be commended for their perseverance in supporting the show to the end. There were strong performances also from Lily Shanks as Jordan Baker, and George Menter as George Wilson, who with many others in the cast, return centre-stage for Sweeney Todd this year. As we hopefully leave the pandemic, 制服诱惑 has been working hard to rebuild all the important activities that are so vital to the all-round development of students at the school. This year’s production returns to the Centenary Hall, with a bigger cast, our most ambitious set, and a number of special effects, to bring the unnerving story of Sweeney Todd to life. We can’t wait to share it with you!