Sweet home Alabama, ballet and lots of finals...
Alabama for Year 10s
Over the Easter break, the year 10 Motorsport team embarked on a school trip unlike any other. They jetted off to Alabama in Southern USA to enjoy a rich blend of activities designed to broaden the horizons of not only those lucky enough to go on the trip, but also their peers across the school.
The core reason for the adventure was to take part in a Greenpower race in another country. However, this would form just one small part of the epic quest.
The boys enjoyed a lakeside house with all of the space that you could wish for as their base whilst exploring education and culture with our transatlantic friends. We partnered up with Wetumpka High School who allowed our children to attend ordinary lessons gaining a unique insight into American youth culture. Our children were with a family to show them some true Southern hospitality as they took them off for an evening of entertainment and activities.
Despite it being our school holidays, our children enjoyed the experience so much that they actually opted to spend a second day in lessons later on in the trip!
They were treated to a mesmerising day at Barber Motorsports Park and Museum, where we were shown around an overwhelming array of exotic cars and motorbikes before being treated to a white-knuckled ride around the race circuit in 750 horsepower Porsches being driven by racing drivers!
On the following day they experienced significant periods of stunned silence as we learned about the atrocities committed by humans on humans through years of slavery, racism, segregation and mass incarceration. They absorbed so much as they were told about key figures and toured important sites, including Dr Martin Luther King’s house and church, Rosa Parks’ workplace and where she caught the bus that would change her life forever and the bus depot where the Freedom Riders riots took place.
To lighten the mood they then spent time at Six Flags over Georgia, Atlanta, where they scared ourselves silly on an assortment of ludicrous roller coasters.
They were then blown away by the amazing people and facilities at Auburn University, where they saw so many things, including their motorsport department, whose projects include an in-house built single seater race car, a Baja buggy and a completely Autonomous self-driving Indy car!
Of course there was the small matter of the Greenpower race itself. They competed against many teams from across the southern states; despite some early issues adapting to the very different track style, they finished 2nd and 3rd with a fastest lap thrown in for good measure.
This blog entry really only gives the briefest glimpse into this once in a lifetime trip; we sincerely hope that the experience positively influences the travellers and their peers for many years to come.
I would like to thank Mr Foulds who wrote the Turing bid which enable all of the students to be able to take part in this life-changing experience at no cost and to Mr Grinsill and Dr Hocking for accompanying him and the students on the trip.
Royal Ballet School for Olivia
Olivia, in Year 10, auditioned back in November for a very sort after place as a Senior Associate of the Royal Ballet School. We are thrilled to say that she has been offered a place and will start her training with them from September every Saturday in Birmingham. This a quite an achievement, and we are very proud of her hard work and dedication.
Olivia also competed in the Torbay and South West England Dance Festival held at the Palace Theatre in Paignton over the half term. Olivia placed 1st in her age category section and 3rd in the Senior Ballet championships. Olivia also competed in many other dance genres such as Tap, contemporary, Greek, Song and dance, Modern Ballet and National dance as well as taking part in some fabulous group performances from Totnes School Of Dance. Next stop Cheltenham for the All England Finals!
Year 8 Science
Students in 8T6 have started a topic where they are looking at the practicals that the exam board consider to be ‘required practicals’. We repeat this frequently during the time students are with us, ensuring they are very familiar with the practicals before their exams. In this lesson, they looked at how microscopes work and then students made slides from onions and looked at the cells
Year 7 Spring Fayre and Charity Collection
On Thursday, 7th April the long-awaited Year 7 Spring Fayre took place in the art playground. This event was the result of the hard work and dedication of the Student Voice Committee and had taken months of careful planning. Students were particularly eager at bringing in items that they could sell to their peers to raise money for our eight house charities: The Children’s Society, Rowcroft Hospice, Animals in Distress, The premature baby unit, The Royal British Legion, Torbay Coast and Countryside, The Red Cross and Stroke Support. We also held a non-uniform day so that the monies raised could be even higher.
The fayre itself was a huge success with the majority of students bringing in items to sell. We were inundated with cakes, sweets, biscuits, books, plants, jewellery and other items. It was truly inspiring to see Year 7 students lining up to leave their items with me at the start of the day. Many staff also kindly donated items to their designated house stall and our heads of house also made contributions.
During the afternoon of the event, the Student Voice Committee set up their eight stalls, decorated them in house colours, displayed and priced up their items and sorted out their cash float -before the rest of the year group came down to sample the occasion. Students had a wonderful time perusing the stalls, buying items and stocking up on goodies.
The aim of each house was to raise the most money for their charity and the event was won by Brunel who had some wonderful ideas including slush and popcorn making machines. However the effort from all involved was phenomenal and everybody is to be commended for their caring attitude and desire to help the less fortunate.
Ever competitive, Mr Chadwick, Head of Pengelly sold raffle tickets -allowing the winner to shave his head, not surprisingly this provided Pengelly with extra funds.
In total £1,348.83 was raised by the event-making it extremely worthwhile.
Spanish with Mrs May
We are really fortunate in the MFL department to have had a Spanish Language Assistant for the first time. Lia was with us for six months and really helped our KS3 and KS4 students to improve their speaking skills and here she is in action, playing a game with Year 8 students.
Our MFL PGCE student Miss Rasseneur is playing Bingo with Year 7 Spanish and the students are showing their more competitive sides! Fabuloso.
Year 7 Science
7Q4 have just started their Energy topic in their science lessons. Students performed an experiment to see which insulator will keep a beaker of hot water hot for the longest time. They linked this to insulation in our homes and how well-insulated houses are less expensive to keep warm than poorly insulated ones.
Year 7 Star Readers
The following students have tracked their reading for four weeks and completed one Accelerated Reader book quiz: Ollie Cooper 7K, Connor Dean 7C, Amelia Lawton 7C, Marlee White 7P, Ellen Scott 7B, Kiki Marker 7B and Nataliya Spasova 7B.
The following students have tracked their reading for eight weeks and completed two Accelerated Reader book quizzes: Rufus Scrase 7N, Jack Slater 7H, Rebecca Quarchshie 7F and Lucas Chappell 7C.
The following students have tracked their reading for 16 weeks and completed four Accelerated Reader book quizzes: Ethan Lynch 7K, Ellie Farthing 7D and Oscar Mills 7N.
Year 8 Star Readers
The following students have tracked their reading for four weeks and completed one Accelerated Reader book quiz to achieve their Bronze Star Reader certificate: Colby Britton 8N, Charlie Hope 8N, Brooke Tully 8C, Zack Shaw 8D, Lucas West 8D, William Denega 8D, Olivia Walters 8P, Erin Bond 8P and Elvin Fellows 8B.
The following students have tracked their reading for eight weeks and completed two Accelerated Reader book quizzes to achieve their Silver Star Reader certificate: Henry Tregea 8D and Elvin Fellows 8B.
The following students have tracked their reading for 16 weeks and completed four Accelerated Reader book quizzes to achieve their Gold Star Reader certificate: James Hutt 8D, Agata Sadlik 8F, Anthony Hewett 8P, Millie Sneap 8P and Ellie-Jayne Scott 8B.
Year 7 English
As it’s Super Teaching Week, 7Q5 with Miss Croucher and Miss Brayne have been looking over their Knowledge Test results from the week before the Easter break to plan targeted learning for the class.
Using this information, lessons have been designed to target learning to address any misconceptions or misunderstandings before we move on to the next cycle. It’s important that we do this so that students have a complete and accurate understanding of the key concepts necessary to be successful in English at TA.
In cycle 3 they explored the incredible tragedy ‘Romeo and Juliet’ by William Shakespeare, students learned about the key concepts of hamartia, peripeteia and anagnorisis. These concepts (names by the Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle) can be quite tricky to remember so consolidating learning about them in Super Teaching Week is really useful, and this learning will be vital all the way through to GCSE when students get to explore ‘Macbeth’.
Here you can see Connie’s brilliant (and colourful) notes on those key concepts. She’s getting used to using some really advanced vocabulary. Leonardo’s notes were excellent too. Both of them have made excellent progress.
They then moved on to revising the differences between coordinating and subordinating connectives. Sienna and Hope made their own flashcards to keep in their pencil cases.
They then moved on to some Power Up, an online learning system we use with classes to support literacy learning. Here you can see Oscar, Brody and Cody hard at work. 7Q5 have worked really well this year in English and it’s really exciting to think about how much more they can achieve.
Year 10 Netball Academy Selection Process
Over the past couple of weeks, several Year 10 Netball Academy players have attended trials for Dart Netball Club and Teignbridge Titans Netball Club. The girls were trialling in the U16 age group bracket which meant that they were up against individuals who were their age and a year older than themselves. Consequently, it is with great pleasure that we can announce Evie Sutton and Lily Unsworth have been selected for U16 TTNC Development Squad and Skye Warner and Ellie Chammings have been selected into U16 Dart Tsunami Netball Club. Congratulations to all 4 academy players!
Year 9 Torbay District Semi Final vs Dawlish
Our Year 9s started off a busy week of fixtures on Monday with a confident performance against a strong Dawlish side. It took a while for us to break the deadlock but with persistent attacking play coming from TA gave Fin Herbert the opportunity to put us 1-0 up which he took very cooly. As TA grew into the game, we created many more chances and were soon 2-0 up, with the goal again coming from Fin Herbert. The second half was a lot closer and after some lovely combination play we scored our third and final goal of the game coming from a great finish from Sean Crawford. The guys are very happy to have the chance to compete for the South Devon Cup trophy in the final on the 9th May.
Goal Scorers – Tim Herbert x2, Sean Crawford x1
Year 7 Torbay District Semi Final vs Kingsbridge
A busy week for our year 7s with two semi finals to play, the first one being against Kingsbridge on Tuesday. This young team again showed how good they can be with a very dominant performance seeing them comfortably securing their place in the final with an 11-0 victory. They are excited in their first year to be in their very first final which will be played next Wednesday 4th May. Well done boys!
Goal Scorers – Thomas Ross x3, Oscar Mills x2, Mikolaj Piasecki x2, Charlie Wise x2, Mason Bryant x2
Year 8 Torbay District Semi Final vs TBGS
After securing a place in the county final, this was a chance for our year 8s to also make it into the South Devon final. The game against Torquay Boys’ Grammar was always going to be a tough one, and unfortunately we were also missing our top goal scorer, Charlie Green due to illness. TA started the game nervously and had to weather a bit of a storm from the Grammar. After the substitutions and slight change to our structure we looked far more comfortable and within a couple of minutes we took the lead from a goal from Sam Alcock.
The rest of the first half was very close all the way up until half time with both team’s creating chances. The second half the Grammar came out looking for the equaliser but TA showed great strength and determination to remain solid at the back whilst still looking to snatch a second. With 15 minutes left to go a mix up on the edge of the TA box allowed Grammar’s wide forward to cut inside and bury a shot into the top left hand corner. The next five minutes was very hectic with Grammar pushing for the winner, a blocked clearance in the box resulted in the TA defender and Grammar forward competing for the loose ball with both players falling to the ground, this was deemed to be a penalty by the referee which Grammar converted to take the lead. The final five minutes we tried everything to draw the game and take it to extra time but a counterattack and a wonderful finish from the Grammar forward finished the game off. A tough one for the boys to take but they now look forward to their County Cup final on the 11th May.
Goal Scorer: Sam Alcock
Year 7 County Cup Semi Final vs Ivybridge
This semi final was an unbelievable match with two very good teams giving everything to reach the County final. For anyone watching I’m confident in saying that the performance on the day would have been worthy of the final. Eventually the game was won by Ivybridge 2-1 but the year 7s can hold their heads high after a great performance. This group now have their South Devon final to look forward to on Wednesday 4th May.
Year 11 Torbay District Semi Final vs Kingsbridge
Our year 11s booked their place in the South devon final next week with a brilliant display against Kingsbridge. On a hard and dry pitch it took TA a while to adapt to the conditions but once they did they showed their quality running out 6-1 winners with goals coming from Harley Sneap x3, Liam Poole, Frankie Cuss, Kobi Hammacott
They now look forward to having their final game as a group at TA contesting for the South Devon trophy.
Grace Represents South West in Shot Put
Over the first weekend of the Easter holidays Grace Povey, along with another 6 Devon girls, travelled to Colchester University to compete in the National Indoor Sportshall Finals 2022. Through her involvement with South Devon Athletics Club, first local, then county, and onto regional heats, she represented the whole of the SW region, from Gloucestershire down, in the Under 17 Girls Shot Put. Due to a very last minute injury of another team member, she also competed in Standing High Jump and 8 lap Paarlauf. The whole team were a credit to themselves and Devon, and finished as the 6th best county in the country!
South Devon Athletics
On Sunday, Hannah & Grace competed for South Devon Athletic Club at Braunton, N.Devon
Not deterred by a strong headwind on the track home straight, Grace finished 3rd in her 200m heat with PB, scored a long jump PB & a shot put PB too!
Hannah scored great PBs in high jump & shot put & narrowly missed a 300m PB.
Superb performances girls & the season has only just started!
Governor’s Gold Certificates
Year 7 – Hamish Herring
Governor’s Silver Certificates
Year 7 – Samuel Johns, Grace Gibbings, William Kelly, Ellie Farthing, GeorgeO’Hanlon, Summer Holmes, Joe Boyce, Millie-Ann Wigston and Ella Randall
Year 8 – Jayden Trevelyan, Leon Mugliston and Ellie-Jayne Scott
Governor’s Bronze Certificates
Year 7 – Samuel Johns, Amy Rogers, Ruby Sellick, Amelia Rose, Hayden Halsey, Abigail Yau, Orley Copeland, Harry Newman, Lora Cadman, Riley Calland, Abigail Hytche and Millie Swift
Year 8 – Ellie-Jayne Scott, Lottie Davis,Jeminah Jones, JJ Cossey and Willow Kendal
Principal’s Gold Certificates
Year 7 – Jason Mewett, Rebecca Quarshie, Leela Cartwright, Mikolaj Piasecki, Kelsey Drew, Lily Hawkings, Ella Hylton, Sonny Bond, Ashleigh Evans, Isabelle Kelly, Charlie Burton, Harrison Harkin, Leonardo Marcheggiani, Imogen Symonds, Ayden Goldbrough, Oscar Mills, Isabella Bentley, Mihai Marin, Lauren Tanton, Leo Maasz, Florence Mills, Nya Bettridge, Mia Lawrence, Farrah Ambrose, Leo O’Connor and Thomas Ross
Year 8 – Charlie Pettit, Lyra Bowstead, Joe Taylor,Phoebe Denbow, Liam Trapp, Benjamin Watts, William Jackson, Laila Heavens, James Evers, Caitlin Cornish, Harry Smith, George Peart, George Scrimgeour, Aliyah Smith, Thomasz Kowalski, Sophie Nicholson,Albie Baker, Leon Bell, Jessica Mitchell, Wojcjech Tabaczuk, Noah Butler, Joshua Rogers and Elliot Lawton
Principal’s Silver Certificates
Year 7 – Aaron Saunders, Halle Wotton, Donny Connors, Olly Whittred, Maks Adach, Harry Paull, Holly-Mae Robinson, Lottie Roberts, Larna Walker, Emilee Payne, James Bond, Halayna Hussain, Lucas Chappell, Jasper Franklin, Daniel Piper, Jack Slater, Daniel Elkin, Felicity Adams, Charlotte Little, Bailey Heaward, Lucas Chappell, Hannah Brazier, Scarlett Lacey, Ethan Leech, Daniel Piper, Jack Slater, Alfie Mahoney-Billis, Maisy-Mai Johnson, Felicity Adams, Lola Benney, Jasper Franklin,Aliviya Lawrence, Olly Payne, Scarlett Finley-Squires, Anisha Kale, Kiel Mortimer, Ollie Neale, Bella Blatchford and Analais Biggs
Year 8 – William Denega, Leah Hope, Zac Evans,Austin White, Ivy Hodgson -Hunt, Sonny Paton,Charlie Pettit, Bella Giffard, Amara Phillips, Brooke Tully, Liam Baillie-Hogan, Oliver Jones, Amber Dickson, Oliver Los, Jacob Crago-Gould, Emily Meloy, Billy Botten, Bartosz Mitula, Lisa-Marie Swewczuk, Dolce Zulhayir, Charlie Hope, Samuel Alcock,Dean Conway, Faith Batham, Amelie McCaul, kirah Clee, Emma Matthews,Norbett Tomsia, Ema Kestell, Gideon Prowse, Lucas Berry, Olivia Hosking,Gabrielle Buys, Ryan Williams,Callum Jackson,Gregg Hindom, Colby Britton, Felip Frankiewicz, Naomi Redmond, Noah Tyson, Emily Owen, Emma Matthews, Olivia Walters and Harry Marsden
Principal’s Bronze Certificates
Year 7 – Kaiden Mclaren, Chelsea Milton, Charlie Wise, Mya Brown, Charlie Toomey, Brody Cooper, Henry Brewer, James Northcott, Corey Batten, Maddison Ginley and Dylan Parker
Year 8 – Cerys Lowe, Charlie Frankum, Katie Rowe, Lily Phillips,Owen Waller, Molly Burns, Paige Clements, Toby Lee, Isabelle Roberts,Olivia Wilson, Callum Jackson, Lydia Bevan, Charlie Dudley, Elvin Fellows, Finn Moncrief, Alex Winterton, Austin Bradshaw, Diego Zulhayir, Lizzie Blackmore, Lenny Mugliston, Sara Santos Martins, Bastian Johns-Kouadio, Grace Milloy, Harry Taylor, Jaden Morris, Harvey Cooper, David Wanstall, summer Thompson, Louis Rowe, Madi Chandler, Charlie Grimley, Ava Shobbrook, Lewis Watt, Amelie Berriman, Ryan Williams, Elizabeth Rook,Lucas spriggs, Tom Thorner, Agata Sadllick, Lola Cornock and Abigail Mealin
Students of the Week
Year 7 – Isabella Voisey and Ethan Lynch
Year 8 – Summer Faulkes and Tom Thorner
Year 9 – Maisy Green and Dylan Nock
Year 10 – Hollie Hand and Will Harrison
Year 11 – Kelsey Hawking and Josh Furze
House Stars of the Week
Year 7
Brunel – Abigail Hyte
Darwin – Dan Hutchinson
Fawcett – Oliver Cocker
Harrison – Barnaby George
Kitson – Lora Cadman
Nearne – Briony Pightling
Pengelly – Lucas Quaintance
Year 8
Brunel – Noah Tyson
Christie – Finley Allnut
Fawcett – Ruby Bovey
Harrison – Mollie Stacey
Kitson – Oliver Los
Nearne – Caitlin Williams
Pengelly – Sonny Paton
Year 9
Brunel – Ollie Clarke
Christie – Abbie Dodd
Fawcett – Lucy Mangan-Smale
Harrison – Sophie Packer
Kitson – Sam Eaton
Nearne – Sophie Brown
Pengelly – Dylan Nock
Homework Stars of the Week
Year 7
Brunel – Nick Heale
Fawcett – Felicity Adams
Harrison – Roxy Johnson
Kitson – Darcy Mellish
Nearne – Edward Evers
Pengelly – Amy Rogers
Year 8
Brunel – Oliver Denison
Christie – Brooke Tully
Fawcett – Abigail Mealin
Harrison – Austin Howell
Kitson – Austen Bradshaw
Nearne – Willow Kendal
Year 9
Christie – Mollie Macfie-Jones
Fawcett – Raquib Shamim
Kitson – Elliott Mills
Nearne – Lily Lewis-Shermer
Pengelly – Shanice Rees
University offers this Week
Surname |
Forename |
Provider name |
Course name |
| Artz | Spencer | Plymouth Marjon University | Sport Coaching and Physical Education |
| Banks | Shannon | Lancaster University | Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology |
| Barnes | Rosie | Bath Spa University | Criminology and Psychology (Professional Placement Year) |
| Barnes | Rosie | University of Bristol | Criminology |
| Bell | Keely | University of Brighton | Paramedic Science |
| Bradbury | Gracie | Bristol, University of the West of England | Sport Rehabilitation |
| Brazier | Oliver | University of Bath | Sport and Exercise Science |
| Brett | Myah | University of Bath | Biology |
| Burt | Thomas | Plymouth Marjon University | Sport and Exercise Science |
| Collet-Evans | Jack | University of Leeds | English and Film Studies |
| Denby | Harry | University of Reading | Business and Management |
| Handford | Patrick | University of Plymouth | Marine Biology and Oceanography |
| Harris | Ben | University of York | Theoretical Physics |
| Hodgson | Poppy | Bristol, University of the West of England | Business Management and Leadership |
| Holmes | Caitlin | Durham University | English Literature |
| Holmes | Lizzy | Bristol, University of the West of England | Nursing (Adult) |
| Jarosz | Wiktoria | Bath Spa University | Environmental Science |
| Sargeant | Leon | Bournemouth University | Multimedia Journalism |
| Spence | Luke | Nottingham Trent University | Civil Engineering |
| Way | Joshua | University of Hertfordshire | Business Administration |
| Wells | Tamla | Bristol, University of the West of England | English Literature |
| Wells | Tamla | University of Plymouth | English |
| Wilson | Ryan | Solent University (Southampton) | Football Studies |
| Wilson | Ryan | York St John University | Football Business Management |
| Winterton | Jasmine | University of Plymouth | Early Childhood Studies |
| Woodward | Benjamin | University of Bristol | Mechanical Engineering |
| Zhelyazkova | Yuliyana | University of Kent | Law and Criminology |
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