DofE Gold, Cadet Camp and another busy week of sport
First TA student to achieve DofE Gold success
Emma Harrison, in Year 13, has now received confirmation that she had successfully completed her DofE Gold award. Emma is our first student to successfully complete the Gold award. It is such an impressive achievement not only because she is the first student from TA to attain the award, but also because this is the highest level of the most prestigious young person’s character development award in the world. It will significantly help with Emma’s future prospects, including with university applications and with her career. Emma has completed all levels of DofE Award – Bronze, Silver, and Gold – here at Torquay Academy.
To complete the award Emma had to complete activities in the Skills, Volunteering and Physical sections over a 6 or 12 month period, attend a five night/four day Residential, and complete the DofE Gold Expedition over four days/3 nights. Learning to drive and getting her Driving Licence was her chosen Skills activity – which she successfully passed. Her Volunteering activity was coaching juniors in her athletics club – which meant giving up her own time to help others. The Physical activity was, of course, athletics in which Emma excels and has had many successes.
The Residential section is unique to the Gold level of the award. In her typical independent, organised and diligent style, Emma arranged a Residential placement camping and doing watersports in Dorset. Through this placement, Emma achieved a First Aid and Water Safety certificate.
The Expedition section has already featured in this blog after Emma and her teammates successfully planned and completed their hiking and camping trip over four gruelling days in the Lake District last summer.
Emma has worked hard in all aspects of her Duke of Edinburgh Award. She has been very disciplined, committed, and organised in working towards the award, but I think it is safe to say she has also had a lot of fun in getting there!
Below is a picture of Emma’s confirmation letter and the Gold brooch she received. She informed us recently that she has a date in May for her visit to Buckingham Palace! We are so proud of Emma for this amazing achievement and recognition of her fantastic efforts. Well done, Emma and thank you to Mr Adams and all of the other staff who have supported her.
Army Cadets Ex Rifle Warrior
Ex Rifle Warrior is an event available to Torquay Academy Cadets to allow participants to learn the safe handling of the Cadet Rifle L98 A2 GP.
Friday morning started with what was an epic weekend’s cadet training experience. Our senior cadets, CSgt Joshua Furze, CLCpl Finn Mallen and newly promoted CLCpl Logan Churchwood, helped load the kit into vans in preparation for the advance party to drive to Netheravon Camp, Wiltshire.
Arriving at the Guardroom, booked in and parking up in the training area, the advance party started work putting up the Mess tent (cooking and dining room), sleeping tents and weapons training rooms. As Friday night drew in, we could hear the distant sound of heavy artillery being practiced on Salisbury Plain.
Head torches on, sleeping tents were still being put up well after 9pm in preparation for the main party arrival on Saturday morning.
0555hrs Saturday was the start point for the 48 cadets and staff. Meeting at the main gates at Torquay Academy, loading bags onto a 56 seater coach, they all set off for a 2 hour journey to Netheravon.
Shortly after 0900hrs the coach arrived with some wide eyed cadets. For some the experience was a new one being away from home for the first time. With no time to think about that, the cadets were allocated tents. This was followed by an initial safety brief, spelling out the next 48 hours.
Safety brief over, the aim of Saturday’s activity was to teach safe handling, safety precautions and immediate action drills. The cadets were split into 4 training teams, each allocated a qualified Weapons Instructor. Allocated a training room, the cadets got their first handing of the rifle. The lessons began with an introduction to the L98A2 GP Rifle.
Taking lunch at 1230hrs, our camp chef for the weekend SI Simon Thacker laid on the beginning of the eating festival. A mix of hot food available, everyone settled down in the mess tent for lunch.
Back to the training for the afternoon with a few snack breaks led to dinner at 1730hrs. By this time everyone welcomed the time out of the training. Suitably fed and rested again we headed back to the training. This time for a couple of hours to practice the drills required to pass a Weapons Handling Test.
Training finished for the day, a quick snack and hot chocolate, the staff settled the troops into their respective tents. Now very dark and the continued distant sounds of Artillery shells landing, the cadets did not contest sleeping. Amazingly, all were asleep shortly after 2200hrs. As the artillery shell noise stopped the sound of snoring was heard all over camp. Not sure if the loudest snoring came from the girls or the boys camping area!
Reveille was 0600hrs Sunday morning. A crisp dry morning, blurry eyed cadets emerged from their tents. Packing kit away and preparing for breakfast at 0800hrs. Again the chef laid out what can only be described as amazing.
Back in the weapons lessons, the realisation of a weapons safety test was becoming apparent on the cadets faces. Calming the nerves throughout the morning, the test started with the first few passing with flying colours. Amazing to see the delight on everyone’s face to discover that everyone passed the Weapons Handling Test. Well done all.
More food, lunch was dealt with quickly to ensure some competitions in rifle slinging and magazine filling and emptying. All cadets lined up with the rifle and a rifle sling in preparation for a speed competition to attach a sling to the rifle.
The command “GO” was given, some 15 seconds later, Cdt Ivy Hodgson-Hunt won the Rifle Sling fitting.
Loading a magazine with drill rounds can be quite fiddly but Cdt Kelsey Drew with an amazing time of 18 seconds won the magazine filling completions. The final competition was to take the drill rounds out, Cdt Maisie Sandercock finished in an amazing time of 8 seconds.
During the weekend the staff were briefed to nominate an outstanding cadet from the Year 8 and Year 9 Army cadets. The award goes to the cadets that showed the best determination, enthusiasm and all round effort for the weekend’s activities.
The Outstanding Army Cadet for Year 8: Cdt Orley Copeland
The Outstanding Army Cadet for Year 8: Cdt Paige Clements
Well done all, very well deserved.
As we prepared to break camp down and wait for the coach journey home, time was taken to reflect the amazing effort carried out by everyone. The cadets were all presented with a certificate of achievement. The instructor staff from the Army Training team were acknowledged for their amazing experience, knowledge and enthusiasm throughout the weekend.
The training staff from Torquay Academy again played a huge part in the delivery of an amazing weekend for the younger ones. The continued commitment of the staff ensured the cadets got the very best experience.
A very busy hard working weekend resulted in staff and 46 Army cadets gaining a Weapons Handling Test. This will enable them to be considered for the Cadet Training camp in July. The focus now is to get the remainder of the cadets on a training weekend to enable them to have the same opportunity.
Pengelly House Captains
Mr Chadwick enjoys nothing more than dressing up in one of his many purple outfits and visiting his house tutor groups and winding up the other houses. This week, when he was handing out his star of the week certificates, he was joined by his House Captains Angel McKenna and Katie Taylor. You can see by their faces just how pleased Angel and Katie were with their purple high viz jackets
Tubers
Our students continue to take part in their after school club at Tubers. They are working on filming and editing their own video ideas at the moment. We’re looking forward to seeing their final projects!
English with Miss Smith
This cycle, Miss Smith’s Year 8 English class have been exploring war and conflict poetry. The cycle began by reading the famous works of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sasoon.
This week students are looking specifically at poetry from World War 2 with a focus on aviation. Having looked at ‘The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner’ by Randall Jarrell, students began to craft their own piece of creative writing, imagining that they were in a ball turret on the front-line.
Alongside creative writing, students have demonstrated a sound understanding of crucial key concepts such as ‘jingoism’ and the ‘state apparatus of ideology’.
U15 National Cup
On Friday 3rd March, the U15 Girls Football team took on Churston Grammar School in the first round of the National cup. It was a very tough game, and the final score was 2-2. After extra time, Churston took the win and the final score was 4-2. The girls played fantastically well and keep their heads high when it got tough. Well done to Ava and Lana for two awesome goals.
Year 9 Go Out on Penalties
This was a tough one to take and always an awful way to lose when it comes down to pens. The game was evenly matched with both teams having periods of play and opportunities, we broke the deadlock after a throw-in found Charlie Green in the box who slotted the ball into the bottom corner.
We had quite a few chances to add to our lead but we lacked the ruthlessness in the box to take advantage of the chances and ultimately that then came back to bite us as after a 50/50 in their box won by them allowed the keeper to go long and caught us sleeping in midfield, this resulted in a clever through ball that split us open for the Plymstock player to score from the edge of the box.
The game continued to be very close but we missed some easy chances near the end of the game which would have sealed it but it wasn’t to be our day in front of goal. Unfortunately the game had to be decided on penalties and their keeper with more experience than most made it count with some good saves and mind games which affected our players on the day. Plymstock came out with the win after it being 4-3 on pens.
A lot to learn for us and hopefully we can bounce back on Monday when we play Teignmouth in the Torbay cup.
U13 Girls Progress in the National Cup
Our U13s travelled to Churston on Thursday on a very wet and muddy day! The game was always going to test both teams with the conditions being against them. Weirdly enough, our girls loved the muddy pitch and seemed to adapt really well and came away with a 6-0 victory, taking them into the next round. Goals coming from: Leela x2, Neeve, Farah and Kayla x2.
Year 8 Football
We faced Coombeshead on Tuesday in our first round of the South Devon cup. The team put on another fantastic performance and continue to gel together as a group. We made a couple of positional changes and they worked really well. This group had a tough start to the year but their attitude at training and matches has been brilliant, we hope they continue on that path to keep developing and progressing as players.
Year 7 Football
On Wednesday, a small team of Year 7 students played at the Paignton Academy Central venue league. They faced some tough games against Coombeshead, Dawlish, Paignton and Teign. All in all we finished with two draws and two losses, but there were some fantastic goals by Maria and Poppy. Well done for taking part girls!!
Well done to Imogen, Maria, Dolly, Poppy, Ellie, Katie, Sophia, Anastasia and Adalynn.
Principal’s Bronze Certificates
Year 7 – Cassandra Foster, James Beer, Sunny Weedon, Stella De Rose, Ella Weeks, Olivia Pope, Aleta Stojic, Alexa Lyons, Finley Dawson, Ruby Fitzgerald, Emily Colclough, Keane O’Neill, Mia Hawkes, Evie Ford, Holly Nunn, Neeve Thomson, Ashton Lynch, Oscar McLaughlin, Imogen Clifford, Alesha Black-Matthews, Sophie Peryer, Kaitlin Jarvis, Ollie Martin, Finley O’Leary-Black, Theo Beresford, Toby Howell, Reef Whayman, Cody Burton, Daisy Humphreys, Tyler Evans, Dolly Gagg, Vinnie Frankum, Oscar Rogers, Matthew Campan, Anastasiia Tukilush, Chloe Bayliss
Year 8 – Rebecca Quarshie, Isabella Bentley, Harry Newman, Barnaby George, Mikolaj Piasecki, Farrah Ambrose, Ethan Anyon
Year 9 – Lily Phillips, Laila Heavens, Ollie Coleman, Aliyah Smith, Brooke Tully, Daytona Vickers, Ema Kestell, Jamie John Palmer, Finley Allnutt, Liam Baillie-Hogan, Benjamin Watts, Jessica Mitchell, Oliver Jones, Harrison Hogg
Principal’s Silver Certificates
Year 7 – Harry Pitman, Oscar Rogers, Finley O’Leary-Black, Mollie Longthorpe, Scarlett Hill, Robyn Higgins, George Viediernikov, Harry McCarthy
Year 8 – Laurentiu Mihai, Abigail Hytche, Grace Gibbings, George O’Hanlon, Ella Randall, Oliver Welsh, Lauren Tanton
Year 9 – Wojcjech Tabaczuk
Principal’s Gold Certificates
Year 7 – George Evans, Sean Canham
Students of the Week
Year 7 – Louise Porter and Maxwell Murphy
Year 9 – Billy Wilcox and Ruby Donaldson
Year 10 – Daisy Bond & Dylan Nock
Year 11 – Evan Kinghorn and Gabrielle Jeneway
House Students of the Week
Year 7
Brunel – Olivia Stewart
Christie – Ollie Payne-Stanbury
Darwin – Sunny Weedon
Fawcett – Dylan Matthews
Harrison – Emily Kenny
Kitson – Lily Robins
Nearne – – Emily Locke
Pengelly – Reuben Harrison
Year 8
Christie – Millie Routledge
Darwin – Sam Johns
Fawcett – Alba Fogarty
Harrison – Ethan Anyon
Kitson – Sam Bowden
Pengelly – Daniel Elkin
Year 9
Christie – Brooke Tully
Darwin – Isabel Sockett
Kitson – William Jackson
Nearne – Madi Chandler
Pengelly – Madison Findlay-Peers
Homework Students of the Week
Year 7
Brunel – Kiara Ujj
Christie – Sophie Dean
Darwin – Charlotte Holmes-Vittle
Fawcett – Halle Walker
Harrison – Maria Nihtyanova
Nearne – Saket Raj
Pengelly – Ethan Veasey
Year 8
Christie – Connor Dean
Darwin – Ryan Allaker
Fawcett – Oscar Leonard
Harrison – William Candy
Kitson – Sophia Box
Pengelly – Ellie Mildren
Year 9
Christie – Amelia Rogers
Darwin – Henry Tregea
Kitson – Jemimah Jones
Nearne – Bartosz Mitula
