Saltash Community School hosted a special guest speaker in Religious Education this week.

Jonathan Marshall MBE paid a virtual visit to the RE Department just before half term. Miss Sayer’s and Mr Pomfret’s GCSE classes learned about Jonathan’s life as a Buddhist and how he interprets key Buddhist teachings.

From the story of how he met a monk when he was 19 to his explanation that Buddhism leads people to engage with the world to help make it better, Jonathan covered a range of topics. The experience was a memorable one and will help the pupils embed their knowledge of Buddhism as they approach their mock exam after half term.

As well as the excitement of this virtual visit this week, Performing Arts students absolutely smashed it in their production of Into the Woods Jr. Over the course of the week they have performed the show to more than 300 students from local primary schools and three nights to a packed audience of friends and family.

A school spokesperson said: “We could not have been prouder of them, their commitment to their roles and to each other was incredible to see. Big thanks to Mrs Venner and the performing arts team for, once again, putting in those extra hours to make this show a success. We look forward to seeing what they put their minds to next year!”

Finally, this week, students from Year 7 were invited to Plymouth University to work alongside children’s author, David Lawrence Jones, and a team of university staff and students.

David has published a book, in conjunction with the ‘Children’s University’, called ‘Cub’s Adventure’ and he challenged our students to produce some additional pages for this book. David was very strict about the brief and Cub the bear had to visit some important landmarks in Cornwall and Devon in order to add to his journey of learning.

As the school’s elected ‘Chair of the Board’, Jaiden led the generation of ideas and collated the best suggestions for locations which ranged from Charles Church to The Eden Project. Then, the students worked in small teams of illustrators and writers to produce the text and images for their pages.

Students were revisiting what stanzas are and AABB rhyme schemes, along with perfecting their punctuation to ensure that they met publication standards. Quality assurance was carried out by Fleur, Ethan, Erin and Phoebe who were also supporting Jaiden on the board of directors.

A schools spokesperson said: “We were really proud of all of our Year 7 students who attended this fantastic opportunity and they demonstrated excellent motivation, even having a working lunch in order to meet their publication deadline!

“The ‘Children’s University’ recognise and celebrate students who participate in out of school hours activities and experiences so please do continue to get your university passports stamped to be in with a chance of attending a graduation ceremony.”