Twenty year 8 students spent the morning exploring the making of flapjacks! They trialed the use of different sugars, spices, fruit and seed fillings. There were some crazy colored designs, for example, red oats with cherries and cranberries – very suitable for a Halloween party. 

The taste testing was great fun and the majority agreed that Demerara sugar gives a good texture and taste. A raisin and apricot slice was the group’s favorite.

In the afternoon we had a tour of Devon vale factory where students learnt several things. It was hot! And wearing the correct hygiene and safety outfit makes you hotter still!

Students witnessed the use of the metal detector in a factory situation.

They also saw the packaging machine, rotary oven, slicing machine and storage.

It was great fun to be allowed to see inside the factory and to recognise the amount that can be made in a small space.

Our thanks to all at Devon vale for allowing the visit to happen. 

Mr Nathan Riggs, one of the College’s ICT Support Technicians, this week completed his OCR Level 3 Advanced Apprenticeship (IT Practitioner). He has been studying and submitting work based evidence to Exeter College since September 2008, he has also been attending day sessions each month at the College.  For Honiton Community College this is a first as Nathan has been our only apprentice to date. He is now a permanent member of the ICT Support team and is looking forward to his next challenge.

 

Nathan is pictured with Lucinda Sanders, from Exeter College, Doug Piper and Martin Stone from the ICT Support department.

 

On Thursday the 28th June I took thirty four students to the BigBang South West science fair. Four teams of pupils from Honiton Community College were competing in different categories. One team consisted of Toby Pym, Samiya Roache, Alex Sutcliffe, James Turner and Zara Sillitoe. They were demonstrating and explaining a project that these pupils did at school. Their project was based on nappies, and they carried out several tests to find out which type of nappy would be best for astronauts.

Another team consisted of four year 9 pupils: Emma Prettejohn, Sam Riley, Sirin Bozkurt and Louis Groves. These pupils had conducted an investigation on teeth toidentify what type of carbonated drink caused most decay of teeth. They were comparing regular and diet drinks. A team of three sixth formers: Kate Storey, Chris Hack and Adam Greenland entered a project based on engineering where they had made and developed a product. The final group was our successful group. I have run a science club this year at school and the five pupils that have turned up to every session entered a project.

During science week, we hatched, looked after and did a study on chickens. We linked thehatching up to the school intranet so pupils at school could watch the chicks hatching. This was the project that won the category "Best Communicator prize science and maths"   The Successful group consisted of James Craig, Matthew Jones , Jack Llewellyn-Dare, Scott Retter and Daniel Sampson These boys each won a certificate and as a group won £100 in vouchers for themselves. The pupils that were competing were grilled by judges about their projects for 15minutes, and the pupils were fantastic especially as for most of them it was the first time they were put in this position. The other pupils that weren’t competing had lots to do and see. There were lots of different activities that the pupils could do ranging from eating fizzy crisps and salt and pepper chocolate to extracting DNA from a banana. Pupils were also able to see a show about the sounds of the Cosmos. All the pupils were great ambassadors for the school and many have been thinking about new projects in preparation for next year’s event. I would like to say thank you to Mr. Slade and Mrs Bowles for also supporting the pupils on the day.

Mr Hudson

 

 

HCC TV crew and 40 Year 9 ICT Students headed to the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London to explore the magic of the Harry Potter™ films – the most successful film series of all time. This unique walking tour took us behind-the-scenes and showcased a huge array of beautiful sets, costumes and props. It also revealed some closely guarded secrets, including facts about the special effects and animatronics that made these films so hugely popular all over the world.

The day began as we were escorted through the VIP doors ready to watch a short clip on the making of Harry Potter. The cinema screen raised to the roof and the huge doors to the actual Great Hall was revealed.

The tour included all the different aspects which made Harry Potter what it is today. The important part of the tour included the green screen area, this showed how the special effects of Harry Potter were made. This is a big element to our video editing course in ICT so was particularly useful. We got the chance to learn how the creatures were brought to life with green screen effects, animatronics and life-sized models.

The students then stepped onto the famous cobbles of Diagon Alley, featuring the shop fronts of Ollivanders wand shop, Flourish and Blotts, the Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, Gringotts Wizarding Bank and Eeylops Owl Emporium.

The final part of the tour was a 360° view of the incredible, hand sculpted 1:24 scale construction of the Hogwarts castle. It took 86 artists and crew members to construct the first version which was then rebuilt and altered many times over for the next seven films. The work was so extensive that if one was to add all the man hours that have gone into building and reworking the model, it would come to over 74 years. The model was used for aerial photography, and was digitally scanned for CGI scenes. The model, sits at nearly 50 feet in diameter, has over 2,500 fibre optic lights that simulate lanterns and torches and even gave the illusion of students passing through hallways in the films.

Miss Ricketts