Remembrance, Live Music and Community Spirit

rememberance day

This morning our entire school community came together in the main atrium for our annual act of Remembrance. With more than 1,650 students and staff gathered in one space, the atmosphere was powerful and deeply moving. The two minutes of silence were observed with complete respect, creating a moment of stillness that reflected the significance of the day and the shared understanding across our community.

The ceremony was led with great professionalism by our CCF cadets and staff, who were joined by our Girl Guides. Their presence and conduct added real meaning to the event and reminded us of the values of service, commitment and courage that we honour at this time of year.

Students delivered thoughtful readings that encouraged reflection, and the Last Post was played with clarity and emotion before the school fell silent together. This was followed by the Reveille, marking the end of the silence and the return to the rhythm of school life, strengthened by a shared moment of unity.

Seeing the entire Torquay Academy community gathered together inside the atrium, shoulder to shoulder, was a remarkable and unforgettable sight. It was a privilege to witness such collective respect from our students and staff, and it stands as one of the most meaningful moments in our school year.

Remembrance Artwork Display

This week, our school community came together to create a powerful and moving Remembrance display. Students from across all year groups contributed handmade poppies, which now decorate the balcony in a striking sea of red, serving as a poignant tribute to those who gave their lives in conflict.

Year 8 students explored the theme of Remembrance and the experiences of WWI soldiers through a wide range of artistic mediums. Using photography, charcoal, mud, watercolours and black pen, they produced thoughtful, expressive pieces that reflect both the realities of war and the importance of remembering those who served. Some students also experimented with silhouettes to capture the stark atmosphere of the trenches and the anonymity of the soldiers who fought.

As part of their studies, Year 8 also examined how censorship and propaganda shaped public understanding during wartime. These insights informed their creative decisions, helping them consider how images can influence emotions, beliefs and collective memory.

Many of the artworks were personally dedicated to the fallen soldiers commemorated on the Torquay War Memorial at Princess Gardens, giving the display a deeply local connection. The resulting collection is both reflective and inspiring—a creative act of remembrance that honours the past while encouraging students to engage thoughtfully with history.

Sixth Form Musicians Light Up the Stage at Bomba Club

Our talented Sixth Form music students took to the stage this week at Bomba Club, one of Exeter’s top live music venues, for a spectacular showcase of musical talent that quite literally lifted the roof!

The evening featured a vibrant and eclectic mix of performances - from intimate acoustic solos and soulful duos to dynamic trios and full-band sets. Each act brought something unique, highlighting the breadth of creativity and skill within our Sixth Form musicians.

The students have been working tirelessly in preparation for the event, and their hard work truly paid off. The venue was packed with family, friends, and supporters, creating a fantastic atmosphere that celebrated not just musical ability, but also teamwork, confidence, and passion for performance.

We could not be prouder of what our students achieved - a huge congratulations to everyone involved in making the evening such a success.

The focus now turns to our much-anticipated Christmas Concert on Wednesday 17th December - be sure to mark the date in your diary for what promises to be another incredible celebration of music and talent!

Brunel House Brews Up Support for The Children’s Society

This week, our Year 7 students in Brunel House showed incredible initiative and teamwork by organising and hosting a Hot Chocolate Sale in aid of their house charity, The Children’s Society.

7B demonstrated outstanding commitment and collaboration throughout the event - from planning and preparation to the final mug of hot chocolate served. A special shout-out goes to Katie, Amelia, Kayleigh, Heni, Phoebe, Layla, Fran, Meelie, Isla, and James, who not only baked delicious cookies and biscuits but also helped make and sell the hot chocolates on the day.

Head of House, Miss Pappin, was full of praise for the group, commenting on the dedication, teamwork, and community spirit that shone through at every stage. As she prepares to take on the London Marathon in April to raise funds for The Children’s Society, Miss Pappin was thrilled with 7B's support and contribution towards the £2,500 fundraising target.

The success of the event has inspired 8B and 9B to plan their own hot chocolate sales in the coming weeks - so keep an eye out for more sweet treats and warm mugs across Brunel!

sixth form cafe

We are delighted to share that the Sixth Form café has been fully renovated over the half term break. The space now has a brand new kitchen and a fresh look that has already made a huge difference to the daily experience of our students.

The café has been buzzing since students returned. They have been extremely positive about the improvements and particularly appreciative of the free hot chocolate, tea and coffee that are now available. It has created a welcoming space for students to study, relax and spend time together.

We are very pleased with how the café has turned out, and it is wonderful to hear how much our students are enjoying it. This renovation is another step in our continued commitment to investing in the facilities our young people deserve.

Fun Friday

Our students ended the week on a real high with another brilliant Fun Friday, a chance to relax, connect, and share some laughter after a busy week of learning.

Each year group brought great enthusiasm and teamwork to their activities, filling the school with music, laughter, and the occasional burst of friendly rivalry.

Year 7 tested their musical knowledge in an Emoji Song Quiz, deciphering a series of clever emoji clues to uncover hit songs. Their energy and quick thinking made for a fun and fast-paced start to the afternoon.

Year 8 took on Sweets in the Jar, where careful estimation, and perhaps a bit of luck, determined who got to claim the sweet prize. The room was full of smiles as everyone made their guesses and eagerly awaited the reveal.

Year 9 travelled the world with their World Flag Quiz, putting their geographical knowledge to the test. From national flags to capital cities, the competition was fierce, with some impressive global expertise on display.

Year 10 and Year 11 turned up the volume for Karaoke, filling the hall with incredible performances, plenty of confidence, and a great mix of current hits and classic anthems. The supportive atmosphere was fantastic, with loud cheers and applause for every singer who took the mic.

Once again, Fun Friday proved why it is such a highlight of the week. It gives students the chance to unwind, connect, and celebrate the brilliant sense of community that makes TA so special.

We are already looking forward to seeing what next week’s activities will bring.

Year 7 Celebrate Day of the Dead in Art

This term, Year 7 have been exploring the vibrant traditions of the Mexican Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) through a series of colourful and creative art projects. In Art Club, students produced eye-catching sugar skull designs using Brusho inks and oil pastel resist. The bold colours and energetic patterns really brought their designs to life, reflecting the joyful spirit of the celebration.

During their Year 7 art lessons, students continued the theme by experimenting with oil pastels to create their own papel picado—inspired by the beautifully patterned paper banners often seen at Mexican festivals. Some students worked independently at home to carve potatoes into skull shapes.

The final altar display is a lively, colourful celebration of culture, pattern and imagination. Well done, Year 7, for bringing the traditions of Day of the Dead into our school with such creativity and enthusiasm!

Reading in Miss Daw's Classes

In Miss Daw’s classroom, we continue to celebrate the joy of reading!

During TA Canon week, and after their enthusiastic exploration of Lord of the Flies, Year 7 have relished reading a selection of Greek Myths - including learning about why the daffodil has its name and where the word tantalise comes from. Year 8 have been studying the Gothic work of Edgar Allan Poe, including the infamous raven that chants ‘nevermore!’, whilst Year 9 have loved beginning their study of The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta – a coming of age narrative. Year 10 have just finished studying their first GCSE text, An Inspector Calls, and Year 11 have been working very hard preparing for their PPEs.

In our library, we have just celebrated lending out the 100^th book of the term – well done, Shay Holden on being the lucky winner of a chocolate bar. Chocolate being the perfect accompaniment to any novel, in my opinion.

Remember students: the library is open every break one as a quiet space.

geography with miss fannon

Miss Fannon's 7T9 Geography class have been busy this week continuing to develop their Map skills. They have been practicing how to use four and six figure grid references, learning how to use symbols and in this lesson today calculating scale on a 1:25,000 OS Map.

Miss Fannon's 11B2 class have been very busy preparing for their GCSE Mock Exams over the past few weeks. In lessons this week the Year 11s have been revising their fieldwork collected from Year 10 and Year 11 in preparation for Paper 3, revisiting data collection methods and presentation techniques.

Torquay Academy CCF Weekly Update

Last night’s session was packed with energy, learning and teamwork across both sections.

The RAF Section continued to develop their leadership and problem-solving skills through command tasks and first aid training, demonstrating great focus and teamwork throughout.

The Army Section proudly welcomed our new Year 8 intake. The recruits observed an initial parade before forming up in three ranks for the first time — an impressive start to their cadet journey! Their induction session introduced them to the Core Values and Standards, the Army Cadet experience, and the rank structure, followed by a well-earned break.

Afterwards, the cadets took part in a series of potted activities, including drill, a command task, a uniform relay, and a code-breaking exercise — all designed to build confidence, teamwork, and fun.

A huge well done to everyone for another fantastic evening and for giving it their all!

8Q8 History with Miss Essam-Wood

In cycle 1 of history year 8 have been learning and investigating about the Industrial Revolution with a focus on democracy and suffrage. This lesson is the final lesson before their assessment where they are investigating the different groups of the women's suffrage movement and deciding how effective they are. You can see here how they have been given the information, have read through it and answered some comprehension questions on it and then decided on a continuum how effective the group is. Once we have discussed their thoughts as a class, they then write up how effective the group is by judging both sides and coming to an overall judgement. The purple pen work is where we feedforward by doing one as a class first so they were confident in writing up their own independently. They have worked so hard this cycle and are very excited about learning about WW1 in Cycle 2! Well done 8Q8!

French and Spanish with Mr Dipode

All of Mr Dipode’s classes, from Y7 all the way up to Y12 have been hard at work this week putting all their learning into practice in a series of assessments to showcase all the skills needed to succeed in language-learning (“Three assessments, Sir?” gasped a Y7 student, utterly flabbergasted; he then went on to get every question right on all three of them— a learning legend if Mr Dipode has ever seen one!).

Students have tackled knowledge quizzes, listening and reading tasks, as well as full paragraph writing in French or Spanish. Across the years, they have talked about topics ranging from their family and friends (Y7) to their town (Y8), their activities and hobbies (Y9), and their holidays (Y10).

Year 11 students, on the other hand, were ready to give answers on any and all topic they have studied for the past four years (and a bit!) in their mock examinations, and they did so brilliantly, from what Mr Dipode has marked so far.

Finally, and for the first time ever at Torquay Academy, the Y12 students in the newly-launched A-level French course have had a taste of what an A-level paper is like — a very different experience to their GCSEs, but one that they took on with their usual steadfast determination.

With so much hard work, integrity, and pride demonstrated in all year groups this week, the future of language learning looks bright at TA!

Students of the Week

Year 7 - Meelie Harvey and Corey Watt

Year 9 - Ania Rozanska, Ben Walters and Chris Csapo

year 8 netball

The Year 8 A and B squads took part in a netball tournament, facing a range of challenging opponents across their respective divisions. Both teams rose to the occasion, showing resilience and determination.

The A team battled through several tough matches, many of which were closely contested. Their teamwork and communication improved with every game, and they demonstrated excellent movement and commitment on court, finishing their day with a convincing win!

The B team also impressed, especially with three debutants stepping into the squad for the first time. All three players delivered confident performances, contributing strongly to the team’s success and settling into tournament play with ease. The B team showed fantastic development across their matches, combining improving skills with great team spirit.

Overall, it was a day of progress, positivity, and hard-fought netball from both squads. Well done, girls!

B Team Squad: Isla-Mae Gale, Bella Stevenson, Dee Davies ©, Kamile Degutyte, Rhia Holding, Achara Edmund, Myah Bishop, Chloe Eales

Oppositions Player of the Day: Myah Bishop, Chloe Eales, Dee Davies

Players Player of the Day: Myah Bishop

Coaches Player of the Day: Chloe Eales

A Team Squad: Ela Uven, Milly Skelly, Mimi Skelly, Eva Thompson ©, Zenna Venter, Abigail Harkin, Mia Kost

Oppositions Player of the Day: Zenna Venter

Players Player of the Day: Eva Thompson

Coaches Player of the Day: Eva Thompson

Devon Schools’ Table Tennis Team Championship 2025/26

This week we took twelve of our students to Plymouth to compete as teams of four across three age categories. It was a fantastic day of table tennis and every student represented Torquay Academy with pride, determination and great teamwork.

Our Boys U13 team of Oliver, Evan, Finley and Rupert played brilliantly. They progressed from the group stage in second place and remained unbeaten through the knockout rounds, finishing in an impressive fourth place overall.

The Boys U16 team of Harrison, Ben, Gustaw and Olivier performed exceptionally well. They topped their group and earned their place in the final, where they narrowly lost 3–5 in a thrilling match. They came away with a well deserved second place trophy.

Our Boys U19 team of Brodi, Caiden, Ronni and Riley showed real resilience and commitment throughout the day. For most of them it was their debut in an older age category, yet they rose to the challenge and secured third place while gaining valuable competition experience.

A huge well done to all of our students. You made us incredibly proud both on and off the table.

We now look forward to the next round.

Year 9 football

On Monday afternoon, our year 9 team welcomed Milfield School in the last 32 of the Elite National Cup. A prestigious independent school, renowned for its sporting excellence, has become accustomed to trips to TA over recent years, with them visiting 5 times this year alone in various age groups. We knew beforehand what a big task this match would be, but equally, given the individual talent and collective fight we have within this team, we knew we could give this game a right good go.

Milfield were, as expected - athletic, skillful and organised. Whilst we battled valiantly in the first half, we were overrun and with a few individual difference makers we found ourselves 2-0 down going into half time. With that being said, we had 3 brilliant opportunities of our own and knew we were not out of the game yet.

The messaging from half time was simple - we were still in the game. Offensively, we knew that we could really get at Milfield, but needed to stay defensively resolute and be braver going forward.

Despite this, we conceded a third after a promising start to the second half. However, despite several injuries and positional changes, we made a couple of tactical switches which paid off immediately, and in style. With just over 20 minutes to go, Calum played in Gio to make it 3-1. Gio then set up Alfie to make it 3-2 before TA erupted as Calum and Gio combined again for 3-3. With Milfield on the ropes, TA pushed and created several opportunities to win the game, before the full time whistle let our opponents off the hook. If we had had 5 minutes more, I am convinced we’d have scored.

That momentum shift was so important to the game. Unfortunately the extra time disruption slowed the game down and allowed Milfield to reset. We conceded two goals in the first half of extra time to eventually lose the game 5-3.

However, more important than the result was the incredible character, resilience and work rate that the whole squad showed on Monday. The team played with pride for their school and the shirt, and pushed an unenviable opponent all of the way. This has set the bar for the type of performance that this team can produce and everyone involved is very proud of this group for their efforts and never-say-die attitude.

principal's silver certificates

Year 7 - Bonnie Beedle-Grigg and Dominik Mohacsi

Principal's Bronze certificates

Year 7 - Mila O'Connell, Erin Cooper, Scarlet Seton, Rupert Jones, Ruby Hand, Aimee Byrne, George Bailey, Lennon Head, Aisha Dunkley-Kennedy, Nathan Hooper, Charlie Pearson, Freddie Osborne, Isaac Armitage, Annie Reece, Benjamin Kittow, Lewis Tandy, Izzy Beer, Lucy-May Stevens, Maisy Sellick, Bogdan Piasta, Oakley Johnson, Issac Churchill, James Rackley, Heni Ujj and Kimberley Madge

Year 8 - Charlie Skinner, Isla Parsons, Georgina Morton, Liv Andrews, Lilly-Ella Smith, Sophia Hill, Myles Anyon, Amaris Quennell, Erin Gayton, Tyler Fudge, Fi Bellamy-Hall, Karim Taha and Poppy Pope