This morning year 7 students began their first day at Townsend C of E secondary school. Headteacher Mr Wellbeloved and Mr Buckland, Director of Learning for years 7 and 8 welcomed the students in an assembly, before the students started their various activities of the day.
First was form time - where students met their form teachers again as well as getting to know their form rooms and the rest of their forms, whether Exeter, Canterbury or Durham. During form time, students were given their Achievement and Record books - their diaries - where they recorded their timetable of lessons and homework timetable. Students were also given locker keys for their lockers located in their form rooms.
For the rest of the morning, the thee forms rotated round different activities. One activity was in the Gym, concentrating on team building, where the students had to stand on benches and put themselves in height order without touching the ground when moving!! They then had to pass a hula hoop between them quickly, then adding more and more hoops!
In the Discovery Centre, the activities helped the students to begin thinking about Christian values, taking part in discussions about forgiveness, how to deal with different situations that may arise and finally, recognising values and including them in everyday life. These included tolerance, care, respect, understanding and inclusion.
The final part of the morning's activities was a quiz in which students had to make their way round school to find the answers to the questions, including a visit to the Discovery centre, gym and canteen!