Your leisure: the opportunities
Your Sixth Form years should be a time of opportunity, discovery and fun.
Beyond qualifications
You will find that there is a great deal happening outside the classroom at Truro School Sixth Form. You will have the chance to take an active part in sport, music and drama and a wide variety of other activities. Some of our students work towards the Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award. You could also participate in the Young Enterprise programme and have the experience of running a real small business. We want you to develop all your talents and discover what you are really capable of doing.
Involvement and participation
You will be part of an active and energetic community of students of your own age, with your own places to study and relax. Social life in the Sixth Form is excellent, perhaps because people are working closely together, doing things they enjoy. As a senior member of the school, you will also get the chance to lead and guide younger pupils. You will leave us with much more than a set of qualifications.
The best universities demand more than academic excellence and we will give you the opportunity to build a powerful personal portfolio.
Truro School Student Enterprise Scheme
Art*
* there is further information on these in the main Truro School section of the website.
Towards the end of the Lower Sixth year about 60-70 students are selected as School Prefects. The prefects system offers you the chance to take responsibility, lead and work with a team, and put something into the school community.
During the first year a large number of Sixth Formers follow a training programme for this “Advice, Care, Help and Empathy” scheme which offers a “listening ear” peer-counselling service to younger pupils. This involves a series of workshops and lectures provided mainly by experts from outside the school. The students are trained not as counsellors but as good listeners, caring members of the school community who know how to ‘signpost’ some of the problems to professional helpers.
The committee of Sixth Form students plays an important part in organising a series of lectures designed to widen horizons and in hosting visiting speakers socially.
Truro School Student Enterprise Scheme
Each year two or three groups of Lower 6th Formers set up small partnerships to produce, advertise and sell products or services, as part of this enterprise scheme. There is a competitive as well as an educational element to our enterprise initiative.
It's usual to see 30-40 Sixth Form students participating at Gold Award level. Expeditions take place on Dartmoor and other West Country wild country areas, the Lake District and further afield - recent assessment expeditions have taken place in Venezuela (2006) and Slovenia (2007 & 2008).
The other sections of the award are: Skill, Sport, Community Service and Residential Experience.
Participants in the DofE Scheme regularly represent the school in the annual Ten Tors event on Dartmoor.
The school has organised recent trips during the holidays to South Africa, Russia, Hawaii, France, Austria, Italy, Iceland and the USA, and ski trips to Norway and France, as well as trips to Scotland, Dorset, the Lake District and many other places closer to home. Some trips are just for Sixth Form students, while others involve pupils of all ages. There is a scheme of exchange visits with pupils in Germany, Spain and France.
Tens of thousands of pounds have been raised in recent years – for causes such as the Shelterbox Appeal and Cancer Care. Students themselves form a Charities Committee and there is a strong tradition of initiative and commitment to particular projects suggested and arranged by students. These include a now regular annual rock and jazz concert.
In Drama a major production, involving many Sixth Formers, is held in
the spring term and Sixth Formers are much involved in all areas of the theatre,
from operating lights and sound, designing and building sets, to box office and
front of house. There is often a Sixth Form production in the Autumn Term. A
Performing Arts Centre, the Burrell Theatre, was opened in September 2002.
Theatre in Residence
Truro School has a relationship with an emerging dynamic theatre company, cube, as part of its focus on developing the Burrell Theatre and drama within the school.
cube is led by artistic directors Ben Oldfield (Zenith Theatre and Hall for Cornwall) and Benjamin Symes (Truro School’s former Director of Drama) and operations director David Gibson (New Cornwall Opera).
Their most recent productions, "The Uninvited" - written and directed by Jon Welch - and "Hamlet" have received amazing reviews. Pupils from Truro School and other local schools have benefited from seeing the production process at various stages and the English Department at Truro School has enjoyed similar benefits for students studying drama as part of their English courses.
Drama & Music Events - Summer Term 2010
To book your tickets for Truro School events
and events hosted at Truro School
The school has one of the biggest and busiest Music departments in the South
West, offering Sixth Formers numerous, varied opportunities to perform, whether
or not they are studying music at A-level.
There are opportunities for Sixth
Formers to help younger pupils prepare for concerts and there exists a strong
pupil-run
Rock tradition at the school. Sixth Formers regularly go on to perform in
the music world.
With some thirty specialist music teachers, many students sign up for individual
lessons. Informal concerts take place just about every week of the school’s year
and students regularly perform in Truro Cathedral and the Hall for Cornwall. Sixth
Formers regularly sign up for the Symphony Orchestra, Senior Jazz Orchestra,
Senior Choir and Wind Band, all of which perform to a high standard.
Music Calendar - Autumn Term 2010
The school has its own collections of works of art and organises a number of exhibitions each year as well as the examination assessment shows, and there is always evidence of artwork on show around the school. There are frequent trips to galleries here in Cornwall as well as those in London and elsewhere. Several students choose to do Art at A-Level in addition to their other subjects, in their own time, but for any student the facilities for art and pottery for fun are available at various times of the week. The Art Department has recently been joined by newly-appointed Artist-in-Residence, Jane Ashdown.
The main team games are rugby, netball, hockey, football and cricket; there is an extensive fixture list of matches at 1st team level, and often for 2nd teams as well. In addition there are opportunities for badminton, tennis, athletics, swimming, basketball, cross-country running, horse-riding, gymnastics, fencing, golf, orienteering, rowing (estuary), squash, surfing and skiing. In nearly all sports there is a competition between the school's four competition houses at each age-level including 16+.
For more information about Sport at Truro School see our Sport pages in the Truro School area of this website.
There are two Sixth Form Common Rooms, one intended primarily for the Upper Sixth and one for the Lower Sixth. These are social centres - each with a television, drinks machine and a full range of newspapers - but they can also be used for study.
There is a Sixth Formers only café which serves light meals throughout the majority of the school day; the school’s main dining hall is also available for full meals at lunch-time, and for full board for those who are resident.
A series of social events is organised every year for the Sixth Form. At the beginning of the Lower Sixth Year there is an induction day and a quiz evening to welcome the new Lower Sixth. Balls are organised in such venues as The Twilight Zone in the early part of the Autumn Term, at Christmas and in the summer. Many departments organise social evenings, often with outside speakers, so that students and staff can get to know each other.
EXTRA-CURRICULAR PROGRAMME MISSION STATEMENT
1. We encourage all pupils to become involved in at least some extra-curricular activities.
2. The benefits of such activities can include:
(i) the possibility of catching an enthusiasm that might enrich their future life
(ii) learning a new skill
(iii) the social value of being with other pupils (often of different ages) and with staff in a non-classroom context
(iv) the discipline and reward of being part of a team
2. The school recognises that the Cornish environment offers an unusual range and quality of opportunities and staff are encouraged to exploit this resource.
3. In order to ensure participation by all pupils, at present the school runs an activities afternoon on Wednesdays, which is compulsory for all those below the 6th Form. Use of 6th Formers to help run these activities is encouraged, and participation in the activities by 6th Formers is welcome when practicable.
Pupils have a choice of activity and the majority are able to join one of their first two or three choices. Changes during the term are discouraged but allowable with good reason. Those required for teams must attend matches or practices.
All members of staff are expected to be involved in this afternoon scheme, and it is hoped that they run, or help run, activities which interest them. Some staff are involved only in supervision or transport.
Some groups are very small or have a low pupil:staff ratio, but this is acceptable in order to preserve minority interests.
In the Summer Term the 5th Form do Private Study to prepare for GCSE exams instead at this time.
The school recognises the value of team games and understands the needs of such teams if they are to function satisfactorily, while also recognising that other forms of non-team or less strenuous activity may be just as valuable. If a pupil is required to play for a team in order to make the matches possible and to offer the strongest possible side, they must attend practices and matches. This sometimes leads to a conflict of interests and staff running teams will always try to be as flexible as possible, balancing the needs of the team with the claims of other activities.