A Busy Week for Tavistock College Students

The week beginning Monday March 4th was a busy one for some of our students. We were thrilled to have the time of Alan Wroath, Governor of the College, Classics teacher and former Principal of Launceston College, to teach two sessions last week to some of our able gifted and talented students in Year 8. He held a fast paced Latin workshop for those who specifically chose to extend their knowledge of Latin. He also led a session on Greek, in which students learnt the Greek alphabet.

On Thursday Year 7 Able Gifted and Talented students had a wonderful visit to Exeter University. They were hosted by the Astrophysics department who took them on a tour of their buildings and laboratories, where they looked at incredibly valuable lasers and watched experiments with liquid nitrogen. They were then treated to a lecture from Dr Nathan Mayne, who fascinated all of us with his presentation about his work on the discovery of exoplanets and the chances of life beyond our solar system.

Students then were given a tour of the University by undergraduates. It was a wonderful insight into University life and astrophysics in particular and we are grateful to Exeter University for all their time.

On Friday the same group of Year 7s spent the night in College! They worked with a local astronomer, learning about life in the space station and the exploration of Mars. Although we were ready with enormous telescopes to view Jupiter, Saturn and the visiting comet, the skies were cloudy all night….so we might have to repeat the exercise on a cloudless night!

The group had great fun, building rockets and their own space stations and presenting their amazing projects which included a presentation on the phases of the moon, illustrated by the eating of jaffa cakes! Little sleep was had, but a great deal of fun.