Graduation, Dictionaries, netball selection and artwork

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Brilliant Club Graduation Ceremony

Twelve of our year 10 students have successfully completed their Brilliant Club assignments, marking the culmination of a programme which has involved a series of seminars with a university tutor over the last six weeks.

Their graduation ceremony took place at the University of Bath yesterday. They were involved in a campus tour, a reflection session and a chance to hear more about university life, and then received their certificates from Susie Whigham, the National Programme Director.

The students involved are: Demi-Lee Breheny, Amelia Bunce, Paige Godwin, Azize Isufi, Emily Johns, Conner Lawrence, Lucas Macfie-Jones, Charlie Moore, Chloe Nickels, Jay Rich, Mia Sharman, Hannah Vizcaino. We are very proud of them all for their hard work and perseverance.

We are very grateful to Nancy Galloway, without whom the programme could not run, and to Ana Tomcic, our PhD tutor from the University of Exeter, who led the course on Literature, Society and The Body 1900-1960.

TA Dictionaries

1200 copies of the TA Dictionary were given out to all students and staff from year 7-11 this week. The dictionary contains over 1000 keywords from across the curriculum from year 7-11 and is used to reinforce explicit vocabulary teaching. It is also anticipated that young people will start to make links between their learning in different subjects and from year to year.

Photoshoot – Take 2!

Our students got to show off our amazing new kit again this week as we take advantage of a dry day to finish the photoshoot with VX3.  Boys and girls look incredibly smart and I really like how the kit brings together all of the Team TA sports.

Year 9 Artwork

Year 9 Art and Design BTEC students have been exploring the theme of colour. Having previously looked at and studied the work of artists Derek Gores and Jonathan Yeo they were then asked to purposely select colour from a variety of magazines in order to create these striking and very individual portraits. Here is a selection of their completed artwork.

Tomorrow’s engineers

It is action stations in the Enterprise Department as they start to run through the Tomorrow’s Engineers Robotics mat challenge. This shows their 5 mins condensed into 20 seconds.  The ‘Robot showtime’ is not included in this video, it’s top secret!

Aladdin

On Tuesday after school, the PAA cast of Aladdin treated me to a sneak preview of some of the numbers from their upcoming production. I thoroughly enjoyed watching our talented students perform Prince Ali, One Jump Ahead and Friend Like Me! Charlotte and Jess couldn’t wait to get me involved… I can’t wait for the official showing of Aladdin in The Platform on April 21st, 22nd & 23rd April.  (The photograph has been included under duress…!)

LORIC

Alfie Harnett in 7C has really impressed us with his LORIC book completion and was recently awarded a certificate by Mr Harries ( Head of Christie house). This was for his COMMUNICATION, where Alfie has evidenced how he has used his voice to encourage team mates in PE, used his English words of the Week in conversations and provided verbal feedback on a performance during a Music.

Well done Alfie, keep up the great work!

Eyes down for Fun Friday

This week’s activity was bingo!  The Platform was full of tension as we competed for chocolate prizes.

The winner of the full house was Stephen McMullen

Team TA Sports Roundup

Regional netball selection

Tammy Wetacott and Summer Connolly have recently been attending a series of trials to gain a place in the regional netball Under 14 Performance Squad. Having attended the final trials last Monday, they have just found out that they has been selected for the squad. It has taken a lot of dedication and hard work and, as you can imagine, they are thrilled.  Many congratulations Tammy and Summer.

Under 12 Basketball

Our Year 7 Jnr NBA team played another of their pool games this week, carrying on from where they left off before Christmas with an excellent 22-12 win over the Spires College. That keeps their record at 100% with only Ivybridge to play in their league before they hopefully progress to the knockout stages. Well done to our two newcomers Riley Batten and Frankie Garvey who both got themselves on the score sheet and the stalwarts of the team Jake Green, Charlie Selby, Alfie Wildy, Sam Stapleton, James Lovell, Bailey Wright, Rhys Phillips and Matthew Oborn.

Devon Table Tennis Championships

What an amazing day Wednesday was for our table tennis team. We entered 11 players in the Devon Championships at Under 16 and Under 13 level. The 11 did not include our England International Jakub Piwowar or one of our potential National finalist team, Nick Turner, who were both unavailable.  However, the boys that did play did not let us down in any way.

For many, it was their first tournament of this nature, whilst others were well versed in these types of events. Amazingly out of the 11 players 8 made it through to the last 16 of their event.

In the Under 16, where the competition was very good, William Bevan made it through to the quarter finals where he met an older player with a lot more experience than him and unfortunately went out.

The Under 13 event was a very different affair; hopes were high as we had 4 qualify for the last 16.  Joe Hoskin, William Howard and Ivan Vaplak all topped their respective groups. At this stage there were still 4 players from our old foes Colyton Grammar School left in the competition so we knew we were up against it.  Sadly Joe went out at this stage to a Colyton Grammar boy who we knew was an excellent player.  In fact he had beaten his next opponent William Howard comfortably in the team event last November so William was going into the match expecting the worst. If ever there was a match that defined how much a player has improved it was this match.  William played some amazing table tennis to earn a place in the semi finals. On the other hand, Ivan found his opponent in the quarter finals a much easier proposition winning 3-0 comfortably.

In the semi finals the boys were up against more boys from Colyton, this time William now playing the table tennis of his life found his match easier than Ivan’s and ran out a 3-0 winner. Ivan, on the other hand, was playing in a very difficult match against the number 1 seed from Colyton.  After a hard-fought match, Ivan eventually came out as the 3-1 winner.

This set the final up nicely. William Howard Torquay Academy v Ivan Vaplak Torquay Academy. Whilst they were both familiar with each others’ game and Ivan was the clear favourite, it was worth bearing in mind the form William was showing and that anything could happen. The first 2 sets went according to script with Ivan winning both, but then William fought back to make the score 2 sets all.  By now the boys were playing some fabulous table tennis really entertaining the ever-growing crowd. Eventually, Ivan came out of the game as the new Devon County Champion and William picked up the silver.

This was a fantastic advert for table tennis and for Torquay Academy. Well done to all that played on the day and good luck to Ivan who now moves forward to the National Finals in April along with fellow Torquay Academy student Jakub Piwowar who qualified by virtue of the fact that he is Number 1 in England. Exciting times for our table tennis team as the Under 16 play this weekend in Bristol as they challenge for a place in their own National team finals.

We are always looking to build on the numbers taking part in the sport and would welcome any student to training on Wednesday lunchtimes and Wednesdays after school, in particular, it would be great to see some girls playing.

Jakob representing England at Development Camp

Continuing on the table tennis theme, Jakub Piwowar Year 7 has been in the Czech Republic this week, representing England at an under 13 development camp. There were 13 players from 11 countries at the camp. The idea is that the best players from across Europe meet 5 times a year to receive coaching from some of the best coaches in the world. We look forward to reporting more about Jakub’s successes in future blogs.

Last 16 National Cup

Last Friday our year 7s played in the last 16 of the national cup against Toynbee school from Eastleigh. To get to this stage in their first year is an outstanding achievement in itself, with nearly 700 schools entering the competition getting to the last 16 is some going. The game was like nothing we had seen before, we started in such great form and with 22 minutes gone we were 6-2 up and looked a threat every time we had the ball. We then had a lesson that switching off against stronger teams will cost you. The last 7 minutes of the first half they scored 3 more to go in at half time 6-5 up. This was a big shock to some of our boys and you could see the confidence drain from us and Toynbee grow in confidence.

The second half was a really nervous performance and errors that we would not normally make started to creep in, we had chances to further our lead but the final decisions and some good defending stopped us scoring.

In the final stages Toynbee pushed on again and scored 3 more goals to, unfortunately, win the game 8-6. After the shock and upset of having a game turn like that we have to make sure we learn from it and let the feeling of disappointment duel us for our next challenges. As we say: we win or we learn!

Students of the Week

Students of the week this week are: Ivan Vaplaks, William Howard, Louis Capstick, Lucy Woolacott, Elizabeth Cameron, Mia Hardy

Principal Certificates

Bronze:  Amalia Mihai, Immi Festorazzi, Henry McManus, Evie Reece, Ruby Denison, Kevin Vieira, Mitchell Watkins, Oly Jackson, Nikola Drygiel, Daisy Bond, Phoebe Hewings, Madison Lovegrove, Tilly Watson, Sophie Bastow, Shelby Astley-Rubin, Hannah Carr, Phoebe Asplen, Max Beer, Thomas Johnson, Amelia Batten, Luke Gerry-O’Connor, Emily Harris, Noah Handford, Scott Rhodes, Emily Johns, Mya Edralin, Brooke McCann 

 Silver: (not in order) Aliyah Davey, Ashton Jeffs,Ryan Hooper, Serena Iordache Marcus De Lucis, Ava Sams, Phoebe Lown

Gold: Maja Davies, Summer Connolly

Governors Bronze: Finley Herbet

House Stars of the Week

Year 7

Brunel – Ruby Denison

Christie – Coral Stewart

Darwin – Mia Weston

Fawcett – Cameron Bolton-Caulfield

Harrison – Joe Hosking

Kitson – Tyler Jay Stirling

Nearne – Thomas Stimpson

Pengelly – Harry Russell

Year 8

Brunel – Honey Darke

Christie – Nikodem Piasecki

Darwin – Richy Wynd

Fawcett -Rachel Breach

Harrison – Melissa Piper

Kitson – Francis Breslan

Nearne – Robin Pightling

Pengelly – Josh Batham

Year 9

Brunel – Thomas Speed

Christie – Freddie Kingdon

Darwin -Kieren Lei-Flay

Fawcett – Lily Rogers

Harrison – Caitlin Kirby

Kitson – Maggie Minty

Nearne – Charlie Tout

Pengelly – Cody Mack

Homework Stars of the Week

Year 7

Brunel –

Christie – Abbie Dodd

Darwin – Phoebe Hewings

Fawcett – Kenzie Livermore

Harrison – Maddison Rees

Kitson –

Nearne – Aleah Coombes

Pengelly –

Year 8

Brunel –

Christie –

Darwin –

Fawcett – Matt Budavolgyi

Harrison – Nadia Wisnik

Kitson –

Nearne – Seren Williamson

Pengelly –  Bogdan Pamfile

Year 9

Brunel –  Bobby Western

Christie – Bethany Jones

Darwin –

Fawcett –

Harrison – Alfie Summerfield

Kitson – Dylan Chalmers-Wood

Nearne – curtis Hancox

Pengelly –