Connor’s selection comes after a lengthy trial process spanning back to October.  Following his progression through both the South West and South trial, Connor went to the final trial at Lilleshall in December, where he was selected as one of two goalkeepers for the final squad.  Connor played his first game Australia U18 on the 29th January in Birmingham.  The game finished 0-0, with Connor making what he modestly described as a ‘handful of comfortable saves’, to keep a clean sheet on his International debut.  On the 12th February, Connor will travel with the English Schools squad to Spain to play La Liga club teams Villareal and Valencia U18’s.  Following this he will play fixtures against all the home nations at some prestigious grounds, such as St James’ Park where England U18’s will play Scotland U18’s.

This is a remarkable achievement for Connor in his final year at Richard Huish College, where he is studying BTEC Sport and A Level History.  Connor’s talents do not finish there, as he is also a member of the performance golf programme at the college, currently playing off a handicap of just four. Harry Lee, Assistant Sports Development Manager at the college said “Connor’s selection for the England schools squad is a fantastic achievement. For a young athlete to perform at such an elite standard at U18 level, across 2 different sports is remarkable. Everyone at the college wishes Connor the very best with England U18’s and his future sporting endeavours, whether that be his football, his golf or both!”

Eight Huish students made the final trial in total, once again reinforcing the College’s strong hockey reputation both regionally and nationally. The National trialists were Roo Rosenwald, Josh Clarke, Josh Hancock, Kate Reynolds, Laura Stone, Maisie Robertson, Bryony Goddard and Ellie Eastaugh. 

In the coming months Roo, Josh and Kate will get the opportunity to train with the National squad and play a number of fixtures against other representative teams before travelling on a tour to Europe. 

Assistant Sports Development Manager, Harry Lee said “To receive National honours is an extraordinary achievement by all the students and just reward for their hard work and commitment to their sport at the college. The players’ coaches must also gain recognition for their fantastic efforts in developing the players during their time at the college. We wish all three the best of luck and hope they gain a lot from the experience.”

A dozen upper sixth students have taken physics extension classes this year to help prepare them for entry into top universities and for the Olympiad competition. Six students qualified to take the three hour Olympiad paper and gained outstanding results.  Out of over 1600 of the best physics students nationwide, Jack Humphries and James Darby gained Gold awards, placing them in the top 150 students in the country.  Sam Dewfall and Ryan Potter gained Silver, awarded to the next best 150 students.  Olly Waldron and George Mitchell were also highly commended. 

Jack plans to read Physics at Imperial College in London, James and Ryan have offers for Cambridge whilst Sam and Olly have offers at Oxford.  George is planning to read Maths at Warwick. 

Curriculum Area Manager Nick Anderson, who runs the physics extension classes, said: “It is very satisfying to see this exceptionally talented group do so well.  Not only are they outstanding students at college, they have shown that they can compete at the highest level nationally and come out on top.”

Shortly after the festival he was approached again by the BBC who offered him a role in the 2011 BBC Children In Need team helping with the outside broadcast at Weston-Super-Mare pier.   Matt said: “The evening was fantastic.  I was given the job of being a PA to one of the presenters and doing general runners work. I picked up yet more contacts, and they have said that when they are filming for BBC points west down in Taunton again they will give me a ring”. 

Matthew Pick, BBC Regional Broadcast Co-ordinator, who organised the volunteers at this year’s BBC History Festival and BBC Children in Need night, said:  “Getting experience by volunteering at events like BBC Children in Need is how many people make the first steps their broadcasting career.  We are grateful to all the students at Richard Huish College who gave up their time to help make the events a success and wish Matt Winlow, who showed enthusiasm and commitment, well in his chosen career of broadcast journalism.” 

Matt has always been interested in journalism, winning a competition in 2009 with ITV News b-live, called “Over to You” — a regional Search for talented young people.   Matt will continue to study Media, Sociology, English Language and Drama at Richard Huish College.  He plans to apply for the University of Bournemouth next year to do a degree in Multimedia Journalism and continue with a postgraduate degree in Journalism.

To achieve this highly respected status the Huish Business School had to meet a raft of criteria including proof of financial viability, evidence of structured learning programme and support for students, evidence of review of provision and results, competence of staff to deliver subject matter and a procedures for complaints. 

Once the desk review was complete, an inspector, Dorothy Wood (Head of Education at ACCA), visited in order to see the course and team in action and to speak to students about their experiences.  Dorothy found the course to be well organised, met all the set criteria and the students very happy and so Gold status was awarded. 

Dr Peter Avery (College Principal) said “I have been sure for a long time that this quality mark was within our grasp and it is hugely pleasing to have finally got there”. 

This sits along-side the Quality Partner Status that has been held for several years as awarded by CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants). 

Paula Judge, Head of Professional Accountancy said, “I am delighted for the team and the students.   This makes Richard Huish College the only FE College in the South West to hold both accolades for professional accountancy courses.” 

Accountancy courses (AAT, ACCA and CIMA) start in September, with some papers starting  January each year.  For further details contact the Huish Business School on 01823 320863 or visit http://www.huish.ac.uk/professional/courses.

There were a record number of entries from local schools this year.   This may have been due to the fact that the Agatha Christie titles particularly appealed this year, or that the competition was opened to year 9, as well as years 10 and 11 and to all 24 of the schools within the Somerset/ Devon boundary.  There was also a quality of writing that made judging by the English department and this year’s external judge, (publisher and Taunton’s independent bookshop owner Lionel Ward of Brendon Books), very difficult. 

Three new schools to the competition submitted entries: Chilton Trinity Technology College, Robert Blake Science College and The King Alfred School.  Molly Harding from The King Alfred School submitted an entry to both the Brunner competition and its sister competition, The Lucas Cup for Artistic Writing (which had a theme of ‘Mystery’ as its topic) and was awarded joint first with Heathfield’s Molly Meikle in The Lucas Cup section for her atmospheric piece.  

The schools that entered were The Castle School, Chilton Trinity Technology College, Court Fields Community School, Haygrove School, Heathfield Community School, The King Alfred School, Kingsmead Community School, Robert Blake Science College, The Taunton Academy and Uffculme School. 

The winner of the Brunner Cup was Richard Huish’s Jack Humphries for the second year in a row, with a technically impressive, decidedly sinister take on ‘Endless Night’.  There were joint winners of the partner schools’ section, with Sam Dunnett (Castle) creating a witty expose of  21^st century values in his ‘Crooked House’ and Hayley Smith (Heathfield) a poignant piece about a mother’s ‘Endless Night’ waiting for news of  her very sick child. 

Once again, Heathfield had a large number of winning entries in both Brunner and Lucas Cup categories and Haygrove’s 40-plus Brunner entries provided consistently high order writing. 

As has become traditional, members of the Huish English team read extracts from the winning entries to an appreciative audience, which really did round off a ‘sparkling’ evening.

Course Manager for English Language, Marcus Barrett, explains: “Student feedback suggested last year’s email mentor scheme was helpful but commented that students would like to meet their mentors in person. We linked that to celebrating English Language Day; October 13th 1362 was the first time the English Language was used to open Parliament and symbolises the return of English as our national language. We decided to hold our mentoring event and put our own competition in place linking with work the English Project are doing which asked people to think about sporting clichés in the language.

“English Language at A level is all about words, grammar and how language develops, from childhood and through periods of time; it’s a fascinating course which includes training students to write well, to research and investigate their own and others language both in speech and writing.”

One group of students won the 6-minute contest by coming-up with 32 sporting clichés, including common English phrases such as ‘don’t rock the boat’, ‘bowled over’ and ‘take the plunge’.  Tom Willis (Upper 6th) and Jess Faulkes (Lower 6th) were among those in the winning group and are pictured being presented with their cash prize by Marcus Barrett, adding: “It’s easy to overlook how much influence some activities have on our language.  With the Olympics coming up, it is fascinating to see just how many sporting clichés and phrases there are. This idea was a great example of ‘team spirit’… and we think the students ‘raised the bar’!

Six students were selected for this special event which took place at Exeter Cathedral hosted by the Two Moors Festival.   Those lucky enough to be chosen included Tom Francombe – Tuba, Jess Robinson – French horn, Melanie Hosken – Bassoon, Jenny Key – Viola, Alice Brooks – Clarinet and  Daisy Newberry – Violin. 

The fantastic concert was conducted by David Curtis and featured many of Elgar’s best loved pieces.  Sue Francombe, a professional music tutor commented that “all students were as good as their professional counterparts”.   There were students from all over the West Country but Richard Huish had the largest representation from any school or college.

Representatives from University College Plymouth St Mark & St John (Marjon) attended and Huish Principal, Dr Peter Avery addressed the congregation in the impressive Long Room at Somerset County Cricket Club.

Dr Peter Avery, Principal of the college stated in his speech: “Richard Huish College is making the meaningful contribution that we set out to create and nurture. Our contribution is still growing and this year our second Foundation Degree in Sports Development & Coaching students are graduating alongside students on the longer established Foundation Degree in Business and Management.  I’m delighted to host this ceremony in such an iconic part of our county town; I remain in awe of the achievements of our professional and higher education students who have to juggle so many other demands alongside their studies”.

Friends and family were invited to join in the celebrations which made for a fantastic atmosphere and helped to make the occasion really special for the students. 

For further information about our higher education courses including Foundation Degrees, please visit www.huish.ac.uk/professional or call 01823 320863.