Events

Our Spanish guitar students and their tutor Mr Ben Spender had the pleasure and privilege of performing at  the British Mandolin and Guitar Federation Rally which was held at St Mary Redcliffe and Temple School in March in the presence of hundreds of guitar enthusiasts, worldwide experts and author Louis de Berniere. Our students performance was very well received by the rally and our students performed at a very high standard.

Thanks to: 

A Schuman
R Lewis
A Temple
M Tilsey
J Muir
S Cadell
M Tekane
D Turner
M Butters (former pupil)
J Hartley

And Y Ji who was sound engineer for the day.

- Mr Hare, Music Teacher.

In July 2013 our school orchestra were asked to perform at the Colston Hall with Bristol’s biggest community choir ‘The Gurt Lush’ directed by our singing teacher Sam Burns. The orchestra is non-auditioning so all of our student musicians were represented from beginner violins to grade 8 tromobonists! We played an integral part of ‘A Romany Journey’ a suite of vibrant Roma gypsy tunes arranged superbly by Sam. The orchestra rehearsed solidly for six months prior to the concert and all of their hard work paid off with a spectacular concert alongside not only the Gurt Lush Choir but also nationally acclaimed Roma band ‘The Gypsy Stars’. Have a look at our video of one of our favourite songs 'Maki Maki’.

Our Carol Service on Monday 19th December was a huge success; the school choir sang a range of music both traditional and contemporary including carols composed by Peter Dyke, Morten Lauridsen and our own director of music, Edward Davies. Here is a recording of Felix Mendelssohn’s Hark the Herald Angels Sing:

Our thanks go to the school choir (all 80 of them!) the school brass ensemble and SMR church organist Andrew Kirk.

Our thanks also to UWE Music Technology students Saoirse Christopherson and Solomon John-Addey for recording and mixing our carol service. To hear all of the items from the service please visit the Music department's soundcloud page at:

https://soundcloud.com/smrt-music-department

A joint project between the website Bristol24-7 and a team of student reporters at St Mary Redcliffe and Temple School has produced a series of features offering a ‘kids-eye view’ of Bristol attractions, written by students themselves. These places, events and activities are all Bristol highlights aimed at entertaining whole families and our cub reporters followed a strict brief: to hold the fun they offer up to serious teenage scrutiny.

The project aims both to build both top-notch writing skills and instil confidence in students. Each of those taking part has had advice on writing for websites, coaching on how to conduct phone interviews, as well as assistance with editing to a tight brief and producing copy to a deadline.

Chris Brown, Bristol24-7 editor, said: “I am delighted to be able to offer this opportunity to young people interested in what can be an exhilarating profession. Huge credit is due to everyone on the editorial team whose hard work is, I hope, appreciated by all who read their work over the next few weeks.”

The articles, which run weekly until the end of this month, can be viewed on the Bristol24-7 website.

Here are the direct links to the first two:

Rowena's piece on the Gromit Unleashed trail

http://www.bristol247.com/2013/09/30/read-all-about-it-bristol-children-making-the-news-headlines-47039/

Lucy's view on the Bristol Aquarium 

http://www.bristol247.com/2013/10/07/read-all-about-it-enchanted-by-beauty-of-bristol-aquarium-29338/

Year 8 History Cabot Project   The Cabot Project is an international project trying to discover more about the Bristol discovery voyages – in particular, those undertaken by the Venetian adventurer and explorer, John Cabot. As part of the project, year 8 students from schools around Bristol, including SMRT, participated in a research and presentation project, about Bristol in the 1500's.   We kicked off at Bristol University, with a presentation from Dr Evan Jones (a Historian, Senior Lecturer and founding member of the Cabot Project.) Then we were divided into groups of four within our schools - my group decided to study John Smyth, a man who was a successful and influential Bristol merchant, who had a dark side of smuggling and bribery.   Having agreed our area of research we then set to work with sources allocated to each group member. After that, over the course of many weeks and two group meetings, we learnt lots of new information; studied primary and secondary sources which we selected ourselves; and created PowerPoint's teeming with fascinating facts and superb sources. We ended the project with every group presenting their research, back at Bristol University.   Through this project we've got to know new people, we've learnt research and presentation skills, and we've discovered Bristol in the 1500's - a totally different Bristol to the one we know today...   Oliver Year 8 History Student