Top Class Display leads to National Semi Finals for the 1st team!

1st team reach national semifinals

Our post 16 football program faced the Foxes Academy on Wednesday in the quarter-finals of the national ECFA cup. We prepared the best we could in the lead up to the game after some bad luck with injuries the past two weeks, which saw two of our centre backs and a midfielder out with long term knee injuries. Thankfully we have great strength in depth within the squad and adjusted well to face the team from Leicester. We felt confident before the game and every player stuck to their task once they stepped onto the pitch. The game ended up being a very dominant performance by Torquay Academy as we ended up running out 6-0 winners. Our goalscorers were Jamie Passmore (2), Ben Clark, Olaf Koszela, Matty Roberts and Alfie Edwards (the picture at the top of this blog is his goal).

We now have a semi-final to look forward to in the next couple of weeks. The draw will be done on Friday to see who we will face next. The team also made history by making it into the last 4 as this is the furthest any of our school teams have gone in a national cup competition. We are so proud of what the program is achieving, we are also on course to win both our league, so there are a lot of important games coming up for our boys.

If you want to be part of this outstanding group of players and compete in these competitions next season get in touch as we are recruiting now.

Here are all the highlights from Wednesday, enjoy!

And our Tomorrow’s Engineers team head off to the national finals

Year 11s Jack and Tom from our public speaking team critiqued our team’s project presentation on Tuesday as they continue their detailed preparations.

On Thursday they made a mock-up display area which was great practice for their final presentation. They even played ambient noise in the background.

I will have a full report on their finals appearance next week.

Junior Maths Challenge

The Maths department took a team of students to Exmouth Community College on Tuesday to compete in the South West Regional Final of the Yr8/9 UKMT Team Maths Challenge. The students worked incredibly hard all day solving mathematical problems presented to them and came an amazing 13th out of 28 schools. Well done to Anthony Brooking, Will Bevan, Jess Breach and Paige Godwin.

Theatre Site Construction Visit

Our Construction students would like to say a huge thank you to Morgan Sindall Construction and in particular to Warwick Roberts, the Site Manager, for his informative tour of the site.

Once we had put on and checked we all had the correct PPE we made our way down to the site where we were met by Tom who showed us to the briefing room. We were given a site induction and informed of the various site rules and jobs that were being carried out on the day. Warwick gave us a really clear overview of the project including the constraints and environmental issues that needed consideration during the planning stage of the job. This was of particular interest to the students because it forms a large part of the theory work currently being undertaken by them.

It was great for the students to see such a well-organised site and that the contractors, like TA, had an effort board too! With Attitude, Equipment and Correct PPE ie: Uniform, it mirrored our own effort boards in the dining area.

We then moved onto the site where we looked at the technology and design of the space. Again lots of information from Warwick regarding the programming and management of the various stages of the build which will be invaluable when the group look at designing their own buildings later this year as part of the UNIT 2 Module. Thanks again to Warwick and his team for being so accommodating and we look forward to our return visit to see the next stage of the project.

Met Office Visit for maths feast

Last Friday a group of four of our most able Mathematicians in year 10 travelled to the MET Office in Exeter to take part in the AMSP Maths feast. This is a friendly competition run to allow students the chance to practice and use some different mathematics from their day to day syllabus. This year the topics were many and varied but included the use of Kruskal’s and Prim’s algorithms which is a topic usually found in A-level Further Mathematics. The four students who achieved a very respectable score on behalf of the school were (from left to right) Poppy Hodgson, Aisa Kana, Lottie Denning and Anna Hobson.

Grade 8 for Ellie!

Ellie Mitchell was delighted to find out this week that she had passed her Grade 8 Rockschool exam in singing! Even more impressively, Ellie scored 86% overall meaning she achieved a pass with Merit! For the exam Ellie told me that she had to perform 5 complete songs in front of an examiner. The examiner remarked on Ellie’s use of sophisticated phrasing, extended range and confidence on stage. Grade 8 is the highest Rockschool singing exam that there is and to achieve this in year 9 is a fantastic achievement Ellie, well done!

Sparx Level 1

Certificates awarded to (not in order) Mia Church, Nikodem Piasecki, Mia Denby, Shania Blades, Karolina Lagodzinska, Penny Richards, Nikita Howells, Melissa Piper, May Connolly, Oakley Hayes, Tyler Bayliss, Kye Wren, Hollie Hand, Sophie George, Jemima Holt, Rachel Breach

Literacy Awards

Today we awarded certificates and badges to students in years 7 and 8, who have made outstanding improvements with their literacy levels through hard work and dedication, during literacy intervention sessions.
These students have improved not just their English levels, but have also made notable improvements in reading and spelling levels, enabling them to better access the entire curriculum across all subjects.
Congratulations to Cody Cockram, Lilly-Ella Ross, Owen Woodcock, Milla Schwarz, Finley Bolton, Charlotte Bush.

Team TA Sports Roundup

Year 8 Football

The Year 8 football team avenged last year’s narrow South Devon Cup Final defeat by Newton Abbot College with a comprehensive 5-1 win the quarter finals of the same competition. This year, on a larger pitch where we could really utilise our strong pass and move game, our opponents could not get near us. A blistering start saw us 2-0 up inside 2 minutes with goals from Daniel Green and Finley Wood. Kyle Graham soon made it 3 before a powerful header by Liam Poole extended our lead further. Poole added his second in midway through the second half to round off the scoring.

Emphatic win for TA Girls vs Cuthbert Mayne

Miss Fannon was able to select from a very strong 18 (missing from photo was Kasey Dickson) which allowed for plenty of rotation and meant a mixture of experience and new players. Fielding a combination of year 9s, 10s and 11s, and with the age limit allowing us to play Sixth form student, Kasey Dickson also meant we were versatile. A dominant display from TA saw us win the match 12- 1. Goals from Scarlett Williams (4) Taylor Ford (3) Sianna Goddard (3) Leah Harman (1) and Shannon Crawford (1).

Squad:
Cassie Seal, Leah Harman, Taylor Ford, Gessaley Guttridge, Ellie Mitchell, Roisin Payne, Kelsey Cresser, Ocean Latto, Shannon Crawford, Chloe Fisher, Zane Sibiya, Ellie Gilligan, Wikitoria Jarosz, Sianna Goddard, Scarlett Williams, Emma Harrison, Olivia Foster and Kasey Dickson.

Basketball

Our Year 8 Basketball team travelled to Uffculme Community College this week to take part in their annual Central Venue League competition. We were invited to take part largely due to the positive impression that our Year 9 team left when they played there recently. We entered 2 teams of 4 and played against another 14 teams. At the end of the preliminary rounds both of our teams had qualified for the Premier competition, an excellent achievement. Both of our teams acquitted themselves very well, eventually finishing 2nd and 4th overall. All of the boys were excellent on the day and are developing very well as a team. Well done: Josh Thompson, Owen Woodcock, Finley Burn, Freddie Kingdom, Sonny Houlahan, Ollie Laker, Alan Kumiega, Xander Tostevin.

Students of the Week

Students of the week this week: (not in order) Riley Isaac, Angel McKenna, Cain Lees, Gracie Bradbury, Holly Porter

Principal Certificates

Bronze : (not in order) Ella Ryan, Steven Jeffs, Joshua Nagy, Jazz Povey, Honey Stevens, Erin Allen, Max Beer, Hailie Windsor, Amy Wilson, Ewan McLachlan, Samuel Charman, Amelia Washbrook, Nadia Winik, Jett Bradford, Scarlet West, Freya Boote, Liam Poole, Harry Goodwin, Finn Drew, Kyra Kuczmyjiw, Euan Smith, Ainslie Hambleton, Danny Stanners, Tyler Potter, Aaliyah Hardoyal, Flynn Brown, Jake Winstone, Hayden Waring, Olivia Bridgman, Rhyanna Lewis, Macie Simmonds, Sean Coulson, Ellis Chapman, Bronwen Price, Byron Rowe, Callum Thomas, Thomas Murr, Ollie Mellitt, Zane Sibiya, Robbie Hartley, Hayden Rowe

Silver : (not in order) Jamie Nunn, Rowen Poulain, Jess Bamsey, Harrison Spurle, Isabel Blamey, Karolina Lagodzinska, Madelyn Palmer-Kerslake, Olivia Kenyon, Troy Riley Erin Colclough, David Waddington, Summer Bayliss, Daryl Fortune, William Heron, Hannah Vizcaino, Skye Milton-Jones, Ellis Knowles, Lucas Macfie-Jones, Maya Wolsey, Tyke Bond, Rebecca Willis, Joshua Hayman