National quarter finals and graduating at Oxford

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EFCA National Cup

Our 1st team have been in great form leading up to travelling away to play in the last 16 of the ECFA national cup. After a strong win in the last round against Thomas Telford our next challenge was against the well established Strachan football foundation.  The squad travelled up the day before to prepare for the game the best we could.

After a good squad get together and an early night they met for breakfast in the morning in preparation for the game, there were some nerves on show but everyone was in good spirits.

The game started at a high tempo and after the first 5 minutes we settled in to our structure and were looking strong creating a few chances and looking solid at the back. With Strachan looking to play out from the back, we pressed higher to put them under pressure.  On the 20 minute mark we won the ball back to counter on the edge of there box with some clever play putting Olaf in to score to put us 1 up.

We then dominated the next 10 minutes with some great attacking play which ended with us forcing a mistake from them to snatch the ball off the centre half to play Passmore in who slotted home to make it 2-0.  We created two more clear cut chances but couldn’t finish them off so went it at half time at 2-0

The second half was exactly what we expected: they threw everything at us and adjusted the way they played to pile the pressure on.  The boys again showed the great character they have previously demonstrated, being disciplined in their positions and sticking to their jobs. Strachan scored half way into the second half after a dubious decision on a back pass to make it 2-1.  We continued to create chances but more importantly, we were outstanding defensively to see out the game winning 2-1 to take us into the last 8 in the country.

This is another huge step for our football programme and is the reward for all the hard work that goes on day to day from the players and coaches.

They are in the last 8 nationally, the 1st team will go top of the league if we win our game in hand, the 2nd team are currently clear on top of their league and we have players competing every weekend in the peninsula league or higher. What a great advert for what we do as a programme.  Well done to everyone concerned!

Brilliant Club Graduation Ceremony

It was a privilege to hear about our year 10 and year 12 Brilliant Club students, who attended their graduation ceremony at Wadham College, Oxford University, on Tuesday. They have worked hard over the last three months with a PhD tutor from Exeter University and have submitted a 1500 word assignment, based on their studies.

The year 10 students studied Comparative Politics with Nick Dickinson of the College of Social Sciences. They are Rebecca Willis, Tom Norman, Shannon Banks, Lacee Borge, Lauren Howells, Ben Harris and Jacob Almond-Abraham.

The year 12 students studied Oceanography and Climate Change with Dr Freya Garry of the School of Geography. They are Hannah Dale, Tom Gabl, Hayden Gibbings and Sarah Farrell.

I am very proud of all their achievements and of their commitment to the Brilliant Club programme. The aim is to give an experience of university learning to students, and although university may not be for everyone, the Brilliant Club programme will enable them to make an informed decision.

It was very interesting for the students see around an Oxford College and to learn about the way that undergraduates are taught there. The dining hall, library, accommodation and facilities were eye-opening and I know that all the students were impressed with what they saw. I also know that they benefited greatly from the tutorials they had in school with their PhD tutor and the tour of Exeter University during the launch trip back in November.

Skills for Work Visit

Last Friday a group of 35 students from year 10 took part in a visit to BT in Exeter, where they participated in a series of workshops designed to help them understand the world of work. This was specially designed to help students develop their skills, with activities, employer content and completion of a handbook so they can continue their development now they are back at school. It involved practice interviews (daunting at first!) with BT volunteers, careers coaching for students, help with preparing their CV, a goal-setting exercise, and an opportunity to ask BT staff any questions about their career paths and jobs and opportunities available locally.

The tutor, Jide Fado, said, “The students were a joy, really well behaved and a real credit to their school. They were incredibly supportive of each other in all the activities and brilliantly got on with all the tasks. The day resulted in 6 really well-constructed presentations from each team, their ideas were innovative and the delivery was creative. A big thanks to the teachers from Torquay Academy for playing their part, they clearly have a good relationship with the participants, they got involved in activities and were always on hand to pass on useful information”.

Mr Chadwick, Mrs Lancaster and Mrs Smith accompanied the students and agreed that the students were fantastic.

English Lectures

This week saw year 10 attend the first in a series of weekly lectures on Macbeth. This week they learnt about James I’s obsessive relationship with the supernatural and considered how Shakespeare presents the witches as agents of subversion against both the divine and the patriarchy. The English teachers are excited to share their expertise and passion for Shakespeare with the students in this highly academic format, and I know that many students appreciated the chance to get a flavour of what university life may be like.

Maths Department

UK Maths Challenge

250 students in years 9, 10 and 11 took part in the UK Maths Trust Intermediate Maths Challenge on Thursday. They had to solve problems which will then be marked and compared with thousands of other students across the UK in the hope that they will receive a bronze, silver or gold certificate. We can’t wait to hear the results!

Functional Skills

Sixth Form students who passed their Level 1 Functional Skills Mathematics exam were awarded their certificates this week. They did extremely well passing the nationally recognised qualification. A huge congratulations to Jack Hellier, Billy Robson, Joanne Langley (pictured), Katie Stacey, Chelsea Bull, Mitosz Aleksander, Reagan King, Kieran Parker, Lily O’Sullivan, Jess Mitchel, Geraldine Meili, Giovanni Lubrano, Nathalie Klein, Umida Edova, Isaac Algar, Francesca Spiezia, Andrea Locotelli, Lorenzo Leo and SIlvia Belpeggio who all passed.

Senior UKMT

A huge congratulations to Kyle Farrell and Jacob Johnson who were both invited to compete in the second rounds of the Senior UKMT Mathematics Challenge. They both did extremely well and should be proud of their efforts.

Sparx Level 1

Well done to these students who have reached 10,000 XP on Sparx and have earned their first badge! (not in order) Madison Lovegrove, Brooke Mortimore, Evan Kinghorn, Freya Davies, Bogdan Pamfile, Oliver Lucas, Sophie Caton, Matt Budavolgyi, Lacee Kiff, Charlie Stevens, Jack Alcock, Alana Mitchell, Phoebe Lown, Jazz Povey, Lily-Anne Winterton, Dylan White, Benjamin McCarthy, Sophie Bastow, Lauren Major, Grace Povey, Melissa Arscott, Bobbie Royal, William Reed, Shelby Astley-Rubin, Mia Bewers, Fin Gaisford

Enterprise Twitter highlights

Highlights this week include all the tweets from our highly successful Lego Robotics Competition Regional Finals day, visitors from Torbay Hospital for our Health & Social Care students, a look into what Mr Foulds does in his spare time and our GCSE Product Design students taking apart Dyson vacuum cleaner parts to undertake detailed product analysis with intricate sketches, exploded diagrams and annotation – I just hope they managed to put them all back together again!

Science

Making Dye stuffs in A-Level Chemistry

Our year 13 chemistry students have been learning about how coloured dyes are produced by chemical reactions. They have created four different molecules which are brightly coloured. They are now going on to learn how to alter the colour of the product, using different starting materials, and how to make sure that the dye fixes onto the cloth without washing out.

Team TA Sports Roundup

Swimming

Lauren Major, year 7 Sports Academy Student, spent 3 weekends through January and February competing at the Devon County Swimming Championships held at the Plymouth Life Centre. She managed 15 personal best times, made 7 finals and a medal in her favourite stroke of butterfly. She now has 6 qualifying times for the Regional championships to be held in May at Millfield School and Bristol. The school are really proud of her as there was stiff competition from children swimming with the bigger clubs of Plymouth and Mount Kelly but the hours that she spends in the pool before and after school are really paying off. Well done, Lauren.

Netball

On Monday the Year 8 netball team attended the final CVL of the year. The girls have really progressed throughout the season so this was the final opportunity to see how they have improved.

The girls played 5 games that all resulted in a win:
TA v Spires (11-2, P.O.M Elisha)
TA v PCSA (7-0, P.O.M Lilyella)
TA v Dawlish (9-1, P.O.M Izzy)
TA v Stover (5-1, P.O.M Elisha)
TA v Trinity (4-0, P.O.M Elisha)

The team showed great progression from the start to the end of the season and have really gelled. There was great movement, communication and skills shown by every single one of the girls which shows just how successful and versatile this team can be. Well done girls, good luck next season!

Football

Our Year 7 girls travelled to Dawlish this week to play their Year 7s in a friendly match.  Our girls ran out 2-1 winners with an own goal from Dawlish and an excellent solo effort from Ellie Denby. The girls worked really hard to keep their lead and excellent defending from Pheobe Parker, Pheobe Asplen and Georgia Jones ensured that Dawlish were kept to one goal. Some excellent goal keeping in the first half from Abi Anderson at 0-0 meant that our busy and productive midfield of Milly Watt, Matilda Bindon, Ava Sams were able to build a platform for Ava Mitchell and Lily May Bond up front to keep their defence and midfield very busy. Overall an excellent game POM was Ellie Denby.

Basketball

The Under 14 basketball team played a friendly fixture against a strong Spires College side this week.  The game went right down to the wire with us eventually running out 32-43 losers.  Encouragement can be taken from the fact that all bar one of the Spires team were Year 9 students whereas all bar one of our students was in either year 7 or 8.  This game was seen as excellent preparation for next season when our team will all be in the top of their age group.

Ten Tors

After a somewhat eventful journey out onto the moor with closed roads, detours and then detours on our detours the students made it up onto Dartmoor last weekend for a walk focusing on building the confidence and independence with their navigation. As the students should have all the right equipment by now and be carrying it, they are also beginning to build real stamina and ability. All teams showed true grit and determination on some long climbs during the walk. Above is a picture of our 45 mile team stood on the summit of Butterdon Hill, Dartmoor’s southern most summit and their turn around point for the day. For more updates pleae follow https://twitter.com/OutdooredTA

Mindfulness

We are participating in the MYRIAD project in conjunction with the University of Oxford. MYRIAD is a £6.4m national research project funded by the Wellcome Trust and being carried out by the University of Oxford. It is being led by four professors, who are all experts in their fields.  Our students are facing increasing pressures for a variety of reasons and I am keen to do all that i can to support the mental health of all of our students.  The sessions help to prepare our students to improve resilience and manage emotional health during these pivotal years.

We have had support for our teachers from Oxford University in delivering a mindfulness programme, and teaching one of the courses.

Star Readers

At Torquay Academy, we value reading and install a love of reading in all our students. One way we do this is during our library lessons once a fortnight, which gives students a dedicated lesson during which they can read a book that they have chosen from a list of available books based on their individual ability. Students earn certificates for the number of books they read, bronze for 25, silver for 50 and the gold award for 75 books. In addition, students who manage to read a massive 100 books, earn the title of Star Reader. Congratulations to all the students pictured including this year’s first Star Reader. The number of students receiving awards shows just how hard they’ve all worked.

The Star Reader is Ava Mitchell with the following students receiving certificates:

Bronze: Pierce Gerring, Freya Tripp, Courtney Dowen, Joshua Robinson, Joshua Hawkings, Penny Richards, Alexis Vowles, Kane Adamson, Grace Cayford, Lilyella Monk, Rebecca Lovegrove, Oliver Waring, Xander Tostevin

Silver: Dimitar Dinev, Amelia Batten

Tesco Bags for Change

The Torquay Academy Greenpower Racing Team will be competing in the Tesco Bags for Change vote throughout March and April. If you visit any of Torbay’s Tesco stores, please ask for a blue counter to cast your vote in the ballot boxes as you leave the store.

Students of the Week

Students of the Week this week with me are: Aimee Evans, Hannah Mabbutt, Harry Denby, Georgia Large, Clara Joy Crawford, Hannah Carr

Principal Certificates

Bronze: (not in order) Lilly-May Bond, Megan Dorling, Layla Batten, Phoebe Parker, Alana Mitchell, Abigail Taylor, Erin Loader, Millie Randall, Summer Mansell, Brooke Mortimore, Nikita Howells, Thomas Beazley, Freya Davies, Bradley Russ, Callum Edwards, Charlie Trapp, Luke Gerry-O’Connor, Mason McCarthy-Payne, Abi Jones, Jasmine Brown, Alice Little, Sonny Houlahan, Lilyella Monk, Sam Foley, Aurora Rosser, Amber Hollings, Sophie Wright, Kian Bowness, Lydia Ladd, Max Gamble, Dakota Robinson, Alex Green, Holly Roberts, Marissa Murray, Emily Harris, Finley Last, Finley Wood, Isabel Cresser, Ellie Mitchell, Lottie Prowse, Marcus Stanley, Troy Seddon, Finn Beer, Madeleine Reeve, Nikita Dolling, Sam Griffiths, Cameron Smith, Patrick Handford, Kacey Kenyon, Tamla Wells, Saoirse Murphy, Leon McMullen, Joshua Poston, Ellie Bevan, Myah Brett-Wilson, Jack Evans

Silver : (not in order) Georgia Jones, Taylor-Ann Floyd, Joe Lawrence, Tyler Bayliss, Gabriella Fouche, Oscar Bidmead, Gabriel Prior, Kelsey Hawkings, Olivia Walker, Finlay McCelments, Sofia Evans, Grace Cayford, Amelia Batten, Ellie Holloway, Lucia Aguado-Georgian, Max Grimley, Jayde McAllister, Tyler Stuckey, Jake Peters, Juliette Loud, Dylan Gale, Chloe Martin

Gold : (not in order) Sophie Caton, Josh Thompson, Ava Sams, Shelby Astley-Rubin, Benjamin Gosnell, Shannon Adamson, Riccardo Iordache, Codie James

Governor Certificates

Governor’s Bronze: Cody Furze

House Stars of the Week

Year 7

Brunel – William Green

Christie –

Darwin – Ruby Trewin

Fawcett – Lauren Major

Harrison – Joshua Hawkings

Kitson – Freya Hawkings

Nearne – Benjamin Peagam

Pengelly –

Year 8

Brunel – Aurora Rosser

Christie – Lucia Aguado-Georgian

Darwin – Gareth Mufford

Fawcett – Keira Davies

Harrison – Lola Green

Kitson – Bradley Thomas

Nearne – Abi Jones

Pengelly – Lottie Hodgson

Year 9

Brunel – Ameisha Taylor

Christie –

Darwin – Gracie Harris

Fawcett – Skye Milton-Jones

Harrison – Harvey Wright

Kitson – Sienna Pethard

Nearne – Troy Seddon

Pengelly –

Building Update

Theatre

I would like to thank Year 11 Marcellus Heath who took these great photogrpaghs of the theatre.  As you can see the concrete flooring planks have been laid on the ground and first floors.

Dining Hall

The tiling has almost been completed and we are hoping to be able to move into the area after half term.