Courier Autumn

Page 8 Kennicott News Every year, you come across amazing students who will go the extra mile to strive for success. It could be at GCSE or A Level, and undoubtedly this is why we become teachers, so that we can be part of their incredible journey. I first taught Niall in Year 9. I then taught him until he left us at the end of Year 13. I also had the privilege of being his Sixth Form tutor. I can whole-heartedly say that Niall is one of those amazing students; his successes will resonate with us for a long time. Niall has a condition: he has Asperger’s syndrome, a form of high functioning autism. His journey at KEVICC has been phenomenal. He has become an amazingly articulate young man, overcoming the difficulties that A level would throw at him. I remember when I learned he was going to do French A level because he loved French, I wasn’t sure how he would cope with the difficulty, the intricacy of the content of the programme. We talk about diversity in French society, racism, gay marriage, immigration, politics, marginalisation, freedom of speech, strikes and even Frexit. Students need to be able to talk about those topics, offering their opinion, justifying their views, to using statistics and facts while incorporating complex language structures. He proved me wrong. Niall worked relentlessly to improve his fluency, listening, to learn his vocabulary and improve his translation skills (he completed a whole grammar book over the summer for that!) Steadily he improved and improved. His essays in French were all A* by January and he was still not happy with them, he wanted full marks. His expected grades were A and A* in his 4 subjects including Maths, Further Maths and Physics and with a little help fromMr Salt and Mrs Withers when in August some of the grades came back lower due to the dreaded algorithm, he quite rightly got back the expected grades he deserved and his place at Bath University . Every time I saw him, he took the time to ask me about my weekend (in French of course), to thank me for the lesson. Niall is a ray of sunshine on a sometimes very rainy day in Devon. He has made many friends at Kennicott and has come out of his cocoon. And now he is ready to make the next step to go to Bath university this month to study Maths with a year abroad in France. It is also thanks to the help he received along the way to make his story a success, teachers, teaching assistants and in particular Christine Higgins his TA who has been absolutely amazing with him. He will be missed but the world is your oyster Niall. I wish you every success and let us know about all your future steps. Brigitte Taverna Sixth form tutor and Teacher of A Level French Au revoir Niall! This brilliant infographic on the history of the atom was created by Hamish Osborne, in Year 12, as part of his Chemistry induction task. Hamish used Affinity Designer to create the graphic. Hamish is currently in Kennicott, studying Chemistry , Biology and Maths . Hamish hopes to go onto university to study a field of biochemistry. Inspirational Chemistry