PSHE Day, Microscopic Creatures & ECDL Computing

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6th Form Art & Photography Exhibition

Some of the 6th Form A Level Art and Photography students are busy planning for their half term art exhibition that is going to be held at ‘The Artizan Gallery’ in Lucius Street, Torquay. Last Friday saw Mrs Lynch and Mr Haring take 15 of the students over to the gallery, so they can begin to plan their first professional show there. Students will organise everything from designing the posters, invites, arranging a private view and hanging the work. The show will run for a week and will open on the evening of 26th October 2015.

PSHE Drop Down Day

Our latest PSHE day, organised by Miss Martin, covered a range of valuable learning experiences for our students. Year 7 students explored emotional health and learnt some mindfulness techniques. They also looked at the importance of keeping safe online and the dangers of arson.   Year 8 students spent the day looking at how aspects of emotional health contribute to their general well being and the impact of social networking to this well being. The Year 9 day was a series of sessions around the topic of ‘consent’ and this theme continued into the Year 10 day which was based around healthy relationships.  We helped our Year 11 students to prepare for leaving our school and moving on by inviting local employers in to work with small groups of students to identify what makes a successful job application.  Students also had the chance to practice interview techniques with these employers.  Sixth form students explored issues of bullying, including those that occur in the work place.  All of the above contributed to an extremely interesting day.

PSHE Day in 6th Form

The day started on a positive note, despite the rain, as our Sixth Form students arrived in non-uniform for a Charity Mufti Day. They raised £100 for PAPYRUS, the national UK charity dedicated to the prevention of young suicide.   This fitted well with the PSHE topic for the day- exploring and understanding how to identify, deal with and prevent bullying in our community. The day started with an assembly in which bullying was clearly defined and the issue of inappropriate ‘banter’ amongst young adults was raised. The hard hitting message was conveyed through song, Monty Python sketches and extracts from the Anti-Bullying Alliance website.

Our students then went into their tutor groups and participated in 5 sessions prepared and delivered by our Sixth Form tutors. Topics covered were; abusive relationships, bullying amongst peer groups, cyber bullying, bullying in the workplace and how to report bullying. Students were engaged in lively debates, challenging quizzes and role play scenarios. For some it was an emotional and challenging day, but thanks to the positive and supportive atmosphere and sensitive handling of the topics, our students felt safe to explore these difficult issues.The sessions were completed by each student making a personal Anti-Bullying Pledge and all 130 pledges are now displayed in the Sixth Form Study area.   Finally, tutees were encouraged to make plans for the forthcoming Anti- Bullying week (16th – 22nd November) to enable our Sixth Form to share their learning and make a positive difference within our school community.

Our Sixth Form Vision –  Together we can stop bullying and create a safe environment in which children and young people can live, grow, play and learn.

Future Teachers Conference

On Monday afternoon, a group of Year 11, 12 and 13 students attended a Future Teachers Conference at Buckfast Abbey Conference​ Centre.  Organised through Kingsbridge College, the event was attended by representatives form Exeter University, Plymouth University and Devon Secondary Teacher Training Group.

The afternoon started with an inspirational talk from a Primary School teacher, who gave the students an insightful journey through life as a Primary teacher. The students even got to join in with phonics training! They then had talks about the different routes into teaching and hot seat sessions, which gave the students an opportunity to ask any questions.

As usual, our students conducted themselves perfectly, and hopefully gained more of an insight into routes into teaching.​

A Level Biology – Water Fleas

In A level Biology we have been investigating the effect of caffeine on the heart rate of daphnia (water fleas).

Abbie Sykes’ experiment was interrupted by the release of a juvenile daphnid from the mother’s brood pouch, luckily it did not effect the results. She was able to capture an amazing picture of the daphnia and its hatched daphnid with her iPhone down the microscope using the low power lens.

Year 7 Rugby

Torquay Academy’s Year 7’s continued with their fantastic winning start to the season. On Tuesday they played a tournament at Churston Grammar School, their toughest test to date. We took a squad of 32 students allowing us to enter an A and B team. Our A team recorded wins against Churston Grammar School, Brixham, Cuthbert Mayne and Paignton, only losing to a strong TBGS. Our squad is also showing some good depth with a number of B team players pushing hard for a shirt in the A team. Well done to the squad for a tremendous start to the season.

Year 9 Netball Tournament

The Year 9 girls’ netball team went to Paignton Community & Sports Academy to participate in the second round of the Year 9’s netball tournament on Tuesday 6th October 2015.  There were 5 minutes each way with a 1 minute break in between.

• Our first match was against CFGS and we lost 8-0.
• Our second match was against Stover and we lost 9-3, there was some good shooting from Georgia Harvey and also Kasey Dickson.
• Our third match was against Brixham and we lost 5-1.
• Our fourth and last match was against Paignton and we lost 4-2, there was great defending from Kayleigh Perrow also Keeleigh Grimes and good shooting from Georgia Harvey also Kasey Dickson.

Overall they were very close games against Brixham and Paignton. All the games were well contested. There was a great amount of effort from every single player on the team: Kayleigh Perrow, Courtney Brown, Kasey Dickson, Georgia Harvey, Keeleigh Grimes, Gabby Baker and Izzy Mackinson. Finally the whole team would like to give a big thank you to Mrs Low for taking us.

By Kayleigh Perrow

6th Form Football News

On Wednesday the 6th Form first team travelled to Bideford to play Bideford College in the their third league game. The boys started on the front foot dominating and soon took the lead when Alex Constantinou finished after some good build up play. TA were soon 2-0 up through Owen Stockton with what he describes as a screamer. TA were in total control and 3-0 up through Constantinou again after he latched on to a loose ball in box to fire home. TA then scored a fourth just before half time when Louis Roberts broke through the Bideford back line to fire the ball through the goalkeeper’s legs. TA started the second half with the same purpose and dominating possession and scored again with the what can only be described as the goal of the game when Louis Roberts struck the ball into the top corner from fully 25 yards. Bideford then rallied scoring two quick goals. TA then rounded off the scoring when Constantinou grabbed the match ball with his third after a cool finish in the box. Final score 6-2.  Man of the match was Alex Constantinou.

Stars of The Week

Stars of the Week this week pictured with Mrs Nicol, Mr Withers and Mr Fuller are : Anna Hobson, AJ Tehrani, Noah Johnson , Sam Kelly, Joe Belsten

Peer Teaching Project

I was interested to learn about an exciting peer teaching project with some of our year 9 and year 7 boys which is being run by Mrs Mortimore and Mr Gale. They have selected a group of Year 9 students who once a week take on the role of teachers of the Year 7 students, covering key subject skills in English and Science. In English the year 9 boys have planned a series of sessions about how to use semicolons properly in their writing, and in Science they have planned an investigation into factors affecting how long a candle burns. The response from the Year 7 students has been very encouraging. They have found it novel to be taught by some teachers who are only slightly older than them, and they are impressed by the expertise of the Year 9 students.

I am certain that this project will benefit both groups of students and that they will make better progress in English and Science as a result. We will try this approach in other subjects during the course of the year.

ECDL- European Computer Driving Licence

ECDL is the world’s number one IT user qualification and  is the benchmark for digital literacy in educational systems around the globe. ECDL equips students with the skills to use a computer confidently and effectively, building on existing knowledge and motivating further learning. Tried, tested and trusted, ECDL programs have been delivered to over 11 million people, in 41 languages across 148 countries. Over 2 million people have taken ECDL in the UK since 1997. At Torquay Academy this qualification is being undertaken by Year 11 students who have training, diagnostics and exams.  We have an initial group of 15 students having training by Ms Mailing and testing prior to exams invigilated by Mr D Roberts.   This week Angel Harper completed her first exam, many congratulations to her !