Student of the year awards

I hope you are all having a good break, the Academy is now officially closed. I will be posting some photos from the last year, the ball and other events in the next few weeks. Meanwhile remember remember - that Extended Essay won't go away, e mail for help if you have a problem.

The following recognition is deserved:

CAS student of the year: Boris

Award for International understanding: Jae

The student of the year award: Janet

Arts award: Semyen

Science award: to be announced

Leadership award: Daria

Progress award: Valeria

Well done to you all. There was a lot of competition for these awards of recognition. See you all September 1st!

Group 4 project, science

This was the end of day activity after a hard days work of experiments! The challenge: each of the 4 teams had to defend their bottle for as long as possible before the incoming tide took it.

Group 4 project, science

Photo's from the Group 4 project.
Here we see the famous Seafront huts being used for science testing. Here group 3 testing with a vibration machine.






We had two days of sunshine on the Beach at Goodrington, some excellent science presentations in the gazebo and excellent group cooperation. Well done everyone - good that you all recognized how the sciences are connected.

IB is a struggle

Semyen asked me to watch this today - you will all enjoy this. You are not alone!

EFIA Election result

Congratulations to our two IB students who took part in the first ever EFIA mock election. Sofia and Karl had both planned and prepared well for a very challenging role play. I cannot imagine how difficult it must have been to engage in a full scale debate in a second language, role playing leaders from political systems in a country you have lived in for only just over 2 terms. I especially enjoyed Karls late surge and brilliant arguments about limiting cctv surveillance. I am sure this led to him winning the debate for the Liberal Democrats.
The week beginning May 10 is assessment cycle week 3 so be prepared for exams from group 3 subject teachers. There are a number of deadlines coming up so please drop by the office if you need any more help with time management. Also please make sure you see you EE supervisor this week.

Volcanic dust and election fever

Last week we were still missing a lot of our group, the volcano is causing travel and IB Diploma problems. We are beginning to see deadlines on the horizon and major pieces of assessment due. Extended Essay has reached the point where you all have presented your title ideas. Now is the time to fully realize the size of the tasks ahead of you. You should aim to enjoy this though, as we talked about in TOK this week, you are on an exciting learning journey. Your Extended Essay is your opportunity to demonstrate your academic ability in an area you are really interested in, likewise across the hexagon you have opportunities to show personal ideas and creative skills. From now on its BIGTIME, use the Covey time management quadrant to help you to PRORITISE your tasks. Find time in your planned schedhule for rest and relaxation, leisure time BUT make sure you EARN this time. PUT FIRST THINGS FIRST.
We have Karl and Sofia who have volunteered to represent the IB cohort in a mock election, I hope one or two more of you might come forward and get involved. This is a great opportunity to learn about UK politics and formal debate. Well done you two for volunteering.
So whilst we wait for the late arrivees to rejoin us I would like you to be thining about this terms theme for yourselves. What theme links us across the disciplines right now and in the immediate future?

End of term 2

Firstly a big well done to you all for getting through to this point. Enjoy your holiday and break from class. Due to the loss of TOK this week we will look at the essay plan next term after Chris has delivered his TOK/ History session. Do not be late back as you will definitely want to experience Chris' perspective on History.

Thank you for getting the EE contracts in to Wyn and Claire, these should all be in now and those brave enough will be wise to give a quick presentation on April 12th of your idea/ title. Its not something you need to worry about, just be ready to tell us what you're thinking about researching and where you are at now.

I enjoyed seeing most of you in Ryans on Wednesday, probably the scene was more for me and Fleur but still, it was good to meet and relax for a while.

Well done to Jay for achieving the IB recognition award for this term. Jay demonstrates many fine qualities, he is academically exceptional in a couple of areas and motivated (and very able) across his academic subjects. Most importantly he is working well in the core areas; CAS, EE and TOK. He also was the only student who stayed to watch me play in Ryans. So there!!!

Finally a commendation for Boris, thanks so much for the help given at International day, we could not have done it without you. Additionally Sergey and Jay with the programme and Chingis with the Camera work. Thanks guys, make sure you CAS log your experiences, there was a lot being learnt (especially when things go wrong!).

End of term social

My highlight of the week was popping in to Liz's evening event to catch a little bit of "Lord of the Flies", the 1963 film version. It was great to see you all and hear the familiar cry "its not like that in the book!!".

Crucially before you leave you must finish any outstanding assessment tasks, submit your extended essay form (signed by your supervisor) and hand in a TOK set essay plan (just a plan - template for this will be on edline Monday)

Well, you have nearly completed 40% of your IB Diploma! To celebrate the end of term 2 we will be meeting at Ryans next to Merlin Cinema on Tuesday evening. 8Pm. There is an open mic acoustic night and so far there will be myself, Boris and Chris hoping we have the confidence to have a go. I hope you can all make it on Tuesday.

Holes in English B

I have been trying to get hold of this for a while now. Well done Max, I believe this is more watchable though if you have read the book Holes by Louis Sacher.

I love popping in to the English B (and SSST) groups in 115. There are always great activities and presentations etc going on. Wendy's group were doing more presentations and I caught a little of Vivianne ands Janet, who are becomming very familiar with presentations! This week in SSST Liz and the students were in a circle analyzing the anarchy in Lord of the Flies. Everyone contributed and I would like to ask if you can answer the question on this blog? What would have happened if the population of children left on the island had been females instead of males. It was international womens day this week. Good to celebrate and remember that male and female are different and especially equally unique. I heard an argument that men need to be reminded to be more sensitive on womens day (this was osho - the mystic we watched in TOK) Do you agree? If true then what would have happened on the island if all the people stranded were girls? By the way, in the circle you described anarchy as chaos, is it.... we had some debate about this in TOK???

Leadership, Mafias and Movies

Apart from the hugely significant birthday of Bryan this week (congratulations and thanks for the cakes!)The IB students "stepped up to the plate" this week. This expression is an Americanism taken from baseball, it means you take charge, lead, take a risk. We had two leadership moments that I witnessed and i'm sure these are happening more frequently now. Paula took charge of the international Universities group and I look forward to seeing that groups presentation on Monday. Celine stood up and led the groups into planning the logistics for the Philippino schools project. (Kuba must get a mention here for already doing much work on this on his own - he has already established everyone's credentials). Well done you 3 - as I said 3 house points each. Next week I will want to see each groups list please.

This mafia game is great, I played it tonight and was dealt an ace. I was then voted out second after Nick - it was very unfair. Good to see so many staying after school and mixing together and pscho-analyzing within this game in ENGLISH. Also good fun.

Movies is the relief that we have our budding Film maestro with his batteries and new tape. I cant wait to see the first screener. Thanks for letting me borrow your hat Semyen! If you do that school film idea I may just have a song from music group!!

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London Trip Returns

Thanks to you all, Wyn and Claire too for making the London trip so enjoyable. Day 1 was cold but the sun came out at Trafalgar square and 7 of you enjoyed Billy Elliot in the West End on Friday evening. The British Museum is great and I hope you enjoyed it. Saturday we walked miles and miles but there is so much to see in London. I also enjoyed weatching you all working out your share of the bill in the Italian restaurant, you guys do cooperate really well together.

University Guidance

Exeter University: A Campus University

This week we set up an inquiry based task where you were placed within a discovery group. There are three groups and these are:

Dicovering UK Universities

Discovering London Universities

and International Pathways.

The presentations from each group will take place on 1st March so be ready by then. To help you in your individual research you should look at the following on line resources.

UK and London University Research This site is the most comprehensive guidance site I know of and is endorsed by the Careers Advisory Council in the UK. You will find lots of information here about UK Universities and the UCAS system.

International Universities The IBO maintains excellent up to date country and specific University requirements data. This should be your first stop in starting your research.

Specifically for North America? Then you need to find and follow this link to the Fulbright Commission.


This is an exciting collaborative piece of research, think about what you wish to find out yourself and also try to anticipate questions from other students who may need your help. A useful way of presenting your ideas can be by developing within your grouop a FAQ (frequently asked questions hand out).

Theory of Knowledge Forum

All Ib students are to register and post a forum topic on a TOK thought to get the forum up and running by next Monday (8th February). You can register and get started by clicking here. Life, the multi-verse and everything!

London trip, Whats on

Find out whats going on in London this weekend by clicking here

CAS, EFIA and TBGS gathering

This photo will always remind me to carry a camera around, this is from my phone camera , again. A great shot though, that one day we hopefully can point at and say I was there when we started something between our two sixth forms/ schools. Lets see what develops here....But if and when we meet up again can we all extend a courteous welcome and reciprocate with our new friends. I hope Janet, Vivianne, Karl, Silje, Boris, Sofia and Dina enjoyed the lunch and be acknowledged (including 5 house points each) for being Ambassadors for EFIA Torquay/Devon.

TOK Presentations

This was Valerias cartoon strip used to demonstrate her TOK question today in an excellent presentation on understanding fate. As she pointed out " the man who will drown will never be hanged" a nice connection with Russian folklore. Can you see in the cartoon the two possible paths, look closely at the events that unfold depending upon choices made, or choices guided by fate?!

Also Max Dota attempted to question whether all lifes happiness ends up as zero? This was based on the following Vietnamese model by Huu hung:






The red horizontal line is a time line and the large sine waves above and below represent times of happiness (above the line) and times of sadness (below). In the end the theory is that it all balances out and happiness = 0. The clever question posed was, should you live your life close to the horizontal line or experience highs of sadness and happiness? The accompanying cartoon strip featured a monk in panel 3, this was demonstrated as a lifestyle along the line...zero happiness, zero sadness. Very smart. And thank you to all who presented today - there was lots of great thinking and everyone did very well. Thanks also for getting involved in all the questions and answers, debate and argument. Great TOK!

London trip

The tickets are booked for the train to London. We depart at 7:30 am from Torquay Station of Friday morning 29th January. It's an early start but it will give us an extra day in the capital if we arrive nice and early. You can also sleep on the train. A big bit of advice though - bring your own breakfast as the food on the train might be boring, cold and expensive! We change at Newton Abbot so watch for that, we are all sitting together so if you fall asleep you should be spotted!

The aim of the trip is to demonstrate how you can have a fun weekend away in London, how to travel and stay in the city safely. On the Friday after arrival we will head to Russel square and spend some time at the British Museum, some of you may wish to find the Fulbright ~(US Universities) office, I will show you where it is at. Friday night will be an optional West End show and the plan at the moment is Wicked - this is the story of the prequel to the Wizard of Oz. See me as soon as you can if interested in going to this show.

Saturday we will take the tube to the tower of London and after some time at Tower Bridge will walk along the embankment to the London eye. From here we can see Parliament and Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and then walk to Buckingham Palace. Bring comfortable shoes for walking!

Well done Paula for suggesting we do this trip, it should be great fun and one we will do every year.