Kelly College News

A huge congratulations to each of the 28 pupils who received Headmaster’s Commendations last week. Very well done, and keep up the good work!

Click here to view the Headmaster’s Commendation

The Kelly Rugby teams had a busy schedule of events to see out the final week of the first half term of the academic year. However, they rose to the challenge to produce some outstanding displays and some equally impressive results.

The Kelly first XV were in action in the first round of the Devon Cup where they were drawn against Colyton Grammar. Keen to progress into the latter stages of the competition, the Kelleians left nothing to chance and made sure of victory in the most efficient way possible. Almost straight from the whistle Kelly began to accumulate an insurmountable lead and provided an excellent template for their younger counterparts to follow. By the final whistle, the score was 62-10, and Kelly had secured safe passage to the next round.

Next came the chance of the U15 squad who faced Shebbear. The Kelleians put in a stunning display that demonstrated a wealth of attacking options. They put 62 points on the board to secure a comfortable victory. However, what made this result all the more striking was that the Kelleians’ defence matched their offense. They offered few chances to their opposition and remained unbreached throughout the entire game. The final score was a resounding 62-0.

The Friends of Kelly Association is delighted to have recently made the generous donation of £825 to the Tavistock branch of Operation Sunshine, a charity dedicated to providing humanitarian aid to East Africa.

Operation Sunshine, which sends practical aid directly to people who are struggling against starvation, deprivation and disease in East Africa, has been run entirely by volunteers for over 30 years. It’s primary goal is to send five or six 40 foot shipping containers filled with donated goods to refugee camps, leper colonies, hospitals, orphanages, schools and remote villages throughout rural areas of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Felicity Derry-Thomas, Operation Sunshine Trustee, said that “Kelly has, over the years, donated clothing and books to the charity; the girls’ long kilts have also gone to the women.”

Over 100 volunteers help prepare the shipments for dispatch by sorting and filling the containers at Hurdwick Farm, near Tavistock, and in September, the fifth container this year was sent to Zambia.  Ann Tregarthen, South West Organiser for Operation Sunshine said, “We are very grateful to the Friends of Kelly for raising this money which will go towards our next container.”

The money was raised through the production of the Kelly Ball Brochure which was given to Kelly College leavers and parents at the Summer Ball, last July. The Friends of Kelly would like to extend their thanks to all the sponsors who kindly advertised in the Leavers’ Brochure, to all those who supported the Ball, to Geri Parlby for producing the brochure and to all the girls who have donated their kilts over the years!

Next year, the Kelly Ball will be, as always, on Founders Day (6^th July). Full details are to follow, but put the date in your diary now so as not to miss this spectacular evening of fireworks, dodgems and dancing!

If you are interested in joining Friends of Kelly, please contact Christine at christine@rooksmore.me.uk. Or, click here for more information about Operation Sunshine.

Following on from a stunning performance in the first two days of the City of Plymouth Annual Swim Meet, the Kelly swimmers did not disappoint as the competition drew to a close last weekend.

33 Kelly College swimmers competed at The Life Centre in Plymouth. They left with 54 medals, 82 personal bests and 20 new records, ensuring that this competition was one to remember for all who took part.

For a full breakdown of results, click here. Or, click here to visit the Kelly College Swimming Website.

A total of 12 Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards were bestowed onto Kelly College pupils this week. The awards, both Silver and Bronze, are in recognition of the hard work and dedication of each participant across volunteering, skill and physical fields.

Everyone at Kelly College offers their congratulations to these pupils and wishes them the best of luck in attaining further awards in the future.

To see the full list of awards, click here.

For six days at the start of October, Kelly College pupils embraced vocabulary acquisition with enthusiasm and aplomb. So much so, that Kelly came eighth in its class in Vocab Express’ Annual Challenge Cup.

The Challenge Cup is held by Vocab Express, an online vocabulary learning application, and is part of it’s Yearly European Day of Languages Championships offers participating schools and students the chance to compete against each other using their foreign language skills.

Traditionally, Kelly College has done well in this competition, and this year was no exception. The participating Kelly pupils were required to get to grips with a diverse mix of languages including Urdu, Mandarin and Arabic, and in doing so, were able to amass a total of 150,075 points.

Testament to the diligence of the Kelleians, of the 122 pupils who took part, 72 gained over 500 points and 36 over 1000 points.  It is a remarkable achievement for so many competitors to achieve such high scores; however, a special mention must go to the following students.

Bethany Bourne, Alex Byrne and Callum Worth scored 890 points in German, 340 points in Mandarin and 330 points in Urdu, respectively. Several prizes of chocolates were also awarded to pupils who put forward outstanding performances. Lydie Jenks, who scored 5,120, as well as Charlotte Allen and Jack Skinner, who both scored over 7,000 points, all received minor prizes. The major chocolate prizes went to Freddie Shere who came out top in Spanish and Will Bennet who collected 11,655 points in French and a huge 12,090 points overall.

One pupil, Billy Allen, took the competition especially seriously and managed to be placed 15^th in the country for much of the championships.  Unfortunately, he fell ill for the final day of the championships and his highly impressive score of 9040 in Latin was not enough to avoid him being nudged off the championship leader board. Remarkably though, he was only just out of the top 30 positions at the end of the competition.

To find out more about Vocab Express, click here.

Swimmers from Kelly College produced a stunning performance worthy of 140 medals at this year’s Annual Swim Meet in Plymouth.

Kelly College had 36 swimmers competing in the first two days of the City of Plymouth Annual Swim Meet which is held over three days at the city’s Life Centre, the final day being Sunday 14^th October.

In total, 140 medals were awarded to Kelly swimmers, and of those, 54 are Gold, 44 are Silver and 42 are Bronze. In gaining these medals, a number of records also fell to the Kelleians. 180 personal best times were recorded among the competitors and a total of 31 Kelly and City of Plymouth records were broken.

Huge congratulations to all those who competed; however, a special mention must go to Thomas Brew and Nathan Linden. As well as breaking Plymouth City records, recording personal best times and winning Gold Medals, they broke two separate Kelly College Age Group records that had been standing for 10 years.

For a full breakdown of the results click here; alternatively, click here to visit the Kelly Swimming website.

Kelly College junior hockey and rugby teams have enjoyed a clean sweep in the early stages of this season, securing a number of emphatic victories.

First to set the trend were the U9 girls’ hockey squad. The team displayed impressive attacking talent by cruising to a 7-0 victory over local opponents, Mount House. The team are eager to continue this early season form and are hoping for a positive spell ahead.

Not to be outdone by the efforts of the girls and riding the crest of a wave generated by a recent victory over Truro, it was the boys turn to take to the field, and they did so in buoyant mood. The U9 A and B rugby teams also beat Mount House. The A team secured a 50-5 victory and, showing strength and depth, the B team also landed an 11-1 win. Notable performances from Ben Pitts, Henry Bennett and Joe Wheeldon contributed to an impressive display from the young Kelleians.

Further victories were enjoyed by the U12 and U13 rugby teams who took part in a rugby sevens tournament against three other local schools; Shebbear, Kinglsey and Mount House. In a dazzling display of defence, both Kelly sides remained unbeaten throughout the tournament. However, potency in attack allowed the Kelleians to add gloss to a very impressive overall display. In fact, the Kelly College U12 team won all of their matches scoring a number of tries, with the most notable victory coming in the win against Mount House. All the players contributed to a great performance and scored four highly deserved tries.

Lionel Will (pictured above), a 5th Form pupil currently studying at Kelly College, has been voted Star Pupil for the month of September.

The award was granted by Study Links International, a corporation dedicated to cross country learning through the placement and guardianship of foreign students, in recognition of Lionel’s work in the application of robotics in medicine.

Lionel, who joined Kelly College in September from Germany, has been developing a robotic arm to enhance the quality of life of hospital patients. The arm is designed to assist the feeding of food, liquid and medicine. However, his dream goes further than replicating a system that already exists.  Lionel wishes to develop a cheap system that can be used for patients, irrespective of their financial limits and claims that his design is different because of its size. Small enough to be added to any bedside table, the robot represents a new, innovative approach that addresses a serious problem in modern hospitals.

Lionel, along with his partner Julia, a student from Germany, has worked hard over the past six months to complete a functioning prototype robot, so its effectiveness can be measured and improved. Everything from the computer programming to the design of the arm itself has been designed, built and tested. Now, Lionel has bold plans for his second design. He claims that his next robot will use face recognition technology, speech controls and eye tracking to create a more seamless, functional piece of equipment.

This robot, and the valuable research done during its development, could improve the lives of countless people. It is this opportunity to help people that Lionel says has driven him to undertake the task.

During his time at Kelly, Lionel has continued to develop his robot, and enlisted the help of Mr Mark Tailyour, Science Technician at Kelly College. Mr Tailyour runs the popular robotics club at the college, and Lionel was quick to enlist both his resources and skills to help further his project.

Five naval CCF cadets recently set off for Jupiter Point, the Royal Navy’s main boatwork school. The crew, which consisted of Kate Blackwell, Amy Lloyd, Sophie Whitfield, Rosannah Morel and Theo Brown, left Kelly College at 8.15 with all the cadets eagerly awaiting the waterfront.

For the next five days they lived in a very confined space on board the yacht, Sea Lion. In truth, they were at times a bit too close for comfort. Nonetheless, whilst working towards the main aim of the excursion, completing their competent crew award, a good time was had by all.

Gaining this award involved a variety of challenges, from simply tying knots and helming, to man over board drills and lifesaving exercises. One of the main challenges for the girls, however, was putting up with Theo and resisting the urge to chuck him overboard: just to practise hard-earned lifesaving skills of course!

Congratulations must go to all the cadets, for each of them successfully completed the course despite the terrible weather conditions restricting them to Plymouth Sound.

Overall, it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience, and the cadets would like to extend their thanks to their Skipper Stewart, First Mate Geraldine as well as Mr Bottrell and Miss Hughes for organising the whole thing.