Staff workout, NHS based at TA and fundraising for the NHS
Home Learning
We have spent a lot of time over the Easter break ensuring that our students have access to the highest quality resources to support them at home. They have been receiving a daily email which details exactly what they need to do each day.
Fun Friday staff workout
Joe Wicks maybe the nation’s new PE teacher, but this morning our students were treated to a workout by TA staff. I was slightly misled on the brief – colleagues can’t always be trusted!!
Tutor Reading
One of the most important parts of the day is the tutor time where our students spend time reading. We want this to continue as listening to somebody reading has a very large impact on students’ reading ages. Students are currently having their teacher read to them each morning – we are currently reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night time, you can see the playlist on our You Tube channel.
NHS take over the Sports Hall
Over the Easter break I had a number of discussions with the NHS about how we could support them further. In order to fight the coronavirus they have ordered millions of pounds of new equipment to be used in hospitals, surgeries and pharmacies across South Devon. The NHS are using our Sports Hall as a distribution warehouse where new equipment can be delivered, commissioned and tested prior to being sent out across the area.
Fundraising for the NHS
Tyler Urch, in Year 10, was inspired to help out after seeing news about healthcare workers struggling to get by during the coronavirus pandemic. So with the help of his mum, picked up the scissors and cut off all his hair to raise money for the NHS. Videos of nurses unable to buy food after working long hours because of stockpiling, and hospital staff risking their lives for others without enough Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), propelled Tyler to make a difference.
Tyler set out to raise £500 – a target he has already broken. If you would like to support Tyler in raising money for NHS you can visit his Just Giving page here.
Open over Easter
The school was open every day over the Easter break, including weekends and Bank Holidays. This was to ensure the children of our key workers had somewhere safe to go whilst their parents undertook essential roles in our community. Given it was the holiday we tried to make the days fun and varied. We are very grateful to George and his team from Kinetic Sports who came in o support our staff in giving the students an enjoyable couple of weeks.
Food parcels
We were able to continue to support many families this week as they came into school to pick up food parcels that we have bee making up over the Easter break. We are now supporting families in receipt of free school meals with supermarket vouchers. We are also part of a Torbay-wide group supporting families who are in desperate need of support with food. Please contact the year teams in school if your family is in need.
Sparx Classrooms
This week the maths team have moved to using Sparx classrooms for students home learning. All students are vey used to using Sparx as we have been using it for a while to get our maths homework completed, with almost every student being up to date so far this year in maths before the school closures.
It has been a learning curve for staff and students with the classrooms, with Mr Thatcher and members of his team recording short tutorial videos every day for all years to try and help with the work. Well done to all who have mastered it this week and have got loads of work completed, it was great seeing so many class’s markbooks each day looking like this one above, with lots of questions answered, students using the videos that each question has and students giving questions more than one go to try and get them right. Well done, I know the Maths Team are really proud of the efforts and work that students have put in.
If there are any issues you are having with the maths work, email mathsstaff@tqacademy.co.uk and one of our great Maths team will get back to you soon as they can.
