Maths Feast, Rugby, Swimming & Construction Site Visit

ParentMail Registration

Thank you to all of those parents who have already registered with ParentMail, we have had a fantastic response so far.  Now that you have registered, you will all be able to have full access to everything that the new system offers including instant communications from us via e-mails and texts as well as booking appointments for Parents’ Evenings and reporting student absences.  To make it even easier for you, there is a free ParentMail App (available for iPhones and Android devices) which has the following benefits:

• Receive school messages instantly – perfect for busy parents
• See all school communications on one easy feed – so they don’t get buried in a busy email inbox
• Book parents’ evening as soon as you receive it – making the process quick and easy
• Receive in app notifications – so you’ll never miss a school message again!

If you have not yet registered with ParentMail, please be aware that our current email/texting system finishes on 19th March. You will have received an email or text from ParentMail inviting you to register. If you choose not to register, you will still receive text messages or e-mails from the school but you will not be able to book appointments for Parents’ Evenings or report student absences through the system.

Schools’ Badminton Tournament

A squad of 16 went to Paignton this week to compete in a schools’ Badminton tournament, including our first ever KS4 girls’ team. It was a brilliant and highly enjoyable day, particularly watching the improvements and progress made by these players over the course of just a few weeks. All players made a valuable contribution to their team, but overall TA Player of the Tournament has to go to Year 7 Matt Leighton for his excellent dedication, skills and enthusiasm. Well done, everyone!

We are also looking for new recruits, particularly any girls who would enjoy playing. So if you are interested, come to Badminton club on Monday lunchtime 1.20- 1.50pm in the Sports Hall or speak to Mrs Knowles.

 

Maths Feast

Year 10 students, Ocea Jackson, Alisha Norcott, Jacob Johnson and Kyle Farrell, represented Torquay Academy at the FMSP Maths Feast at UTC in Plymouth this week. They were all brilliant and put in huge amounts of effort throughout the competition, which was incredibly difficult. I am really proud of them all for showing how they could work efficiently as a team under a lot of pressure.

 

 Play Cafe Fundraising

Four Torquay Academy students were involved in a Fundraising event last Sunday afternoon at the Play Café, Torquay. The event was held to raise money towards purchasing a special machine for the Louisa Carey Ward at Torbay Hospital. The Optiflow Machine is an expensive but crucial piece of equipment that is used to provide comfortable oxygen delivery for patients during an illness.  Kacie Milton, Jordanna Maddern, Katie Green and Jordan Kuczmyjiw were placed in charge of the delicious cakes and sweets stall, and their tenacious selling tactics helped to raise an overwhelming total of £1675.00 on the night. Outstanding effort, girls.

 

Swimming Achievement

Last Sunday Daisy Poole-Crampton competed in the Devon Sprints Swimming at Plymouth Life Centre. For Daisy, the gala consisted of four individual sprints using the four different swimming strokes.

1st race: Butterfly – 3 seconds off her PB score
2nd: Backstroke – 1 second off PB score
3rd: Front crawl – Came 4th out of 10 competitors
4th: Breaststroke – Came 3rd out of 10 competitors.

Daisy attends the Torquay Leander Swimming Club, and trains 3 days per week. She swims for fun, with her current ambition being to become a professional horse rider! Congratulations on your achievements, Daisy.

 

Construction Students visit school new building work

Mr King, our Construction teacher, took a  group of year 11 students to the current school construction site this week  to experience a real working site. The visit went very well with students asking questions and given the opportunity to look at the plans and view the current works.  More visits for the students are planned as work progresses.

 

Football Roundup

Year 11 make it through to Devon Cup Final

On Monday the Year 11 Football team played Torquay Boys’ Grammar in the semi final of the Devon Cup. TA dominated the game from the first whistle and were 3-0 up at halftime after goals from Callum Morton x2 and Joe Constantinou . TBGS started the second half brightly and scored a goal within the first couple of minutes of the re-start. TA took control of the game again keeping the ball and applying more pressure on the TBGS goal. This eventually told when Shaun Johanneson broke through and rounded the goalkeeper to slide the ball into the net. TBGS grabbed a late consolation to make the final score 4-2.

6th Form win again to get even closer to College title

On Wednesday the 6th Form travelled to Callington to play against Duchy College. The conditions can only be described as gale force winds and a leveller. TA started on the front foot but were caught off guard and went 1-0 down. TA continued to have the greater possession and control the game and eventually levelled the scores through a fine volley from Louis Roberts. TA took total control from here on in and ran out 6-1 winners with goals from Jamie Down x2, Nathan Hebbes, Owen Stockton and Alex Constantinou.

 

 

Devon Schools Rugby Finals

Topsham Rugby Club was the venue for our U13 Girls’ Rugby Squad to compete against all the other successful teams in the local rounds. The girls lost their opening match (to eventual runners up Clyst Vale ) but a draw in the next match saw them go through as second place in the Shield competition against the other second places. The girls fought hard, some superb tackles and tries dominated the next three matches, winning one and losing two (but only by one and two tries respectively) . It was a fantastic day out, giving the squad valuable experience, all girls contributed brilliantly and it was a tough deliberation to pick player of the day. However Ella Squibb was given the award for her massive, crunching tackles at crucial moments. Superb achievements also by Sam “the powerhouse” Gourlay and Georgia “Usain Bolt” Davies.

 

Outstanding Homework

There has been more outstanding homework in the Geography department this week. Year 7 students Finlay McLaren  and Lizzie Harris  have made comprehensive and attractive brochures about the tourist attractions of Tokyo City. Well done, Finaly and Lizzie.

 

Student Blog

In Music in Year 7 we are learning about Chinese music. We have already created our own music for characters and some pairs even got to share their pieces with the class. Making the music is very simple, as all we have to do is press the black keys in any order on the keyboard. To make the music sound more Chinese we set the keyboard to the harp to give it more effect.
Bethan Jackson (Year 7)

 

So far in Art, we have been learning about colour and mixing colours! We learnt what primary and secondary colours are and about other colours. For example, we mixed paints and added more of one colour to see the shades.
Aisa Kana (Year 7)

 

Students of the Week

Pictured with me this week are Matthew Leighton, Aston Hutchings, Santiago Ramirez-Piedrahita, Caitlin Wale.  (Chelsey Bull not available for the picture this week)

Star Readers

 

Star Readers this week include : Kaytlan Mortimore, Gabriella Wright, Chloe Hayward, Robert Macmillan, Joe Hedworth, Jack Muford, Zak Ellis, Davinia De Lucis (not all in picture)