Touching base, transitions, new uniforms and workbooks

Year 10 All Week School – English Lessons

Following the last few weeks of studying a poetry collection based on the themes of power and conflict, one class of year 10 spent a lesson crafting their own poems exploring the themes of power within society and performed them in front of the class. Some students chose to explore the power of the law and the power of peer pressure. Topically, some discussed the power of white privilege while others focused on the power of friendship. These were then crafted for performance as spoken word poems and it was a real treat to witness our students using the writer’s techniques they’ve examined over the last term so successfully in their own work.

Year 12 touching base

As part of our touching base program, Year 12 students studying BTEC courses have been coming back into school to spend the morning with their teachers. One of these sessions was in music performance. All of the students turned up and 4 of them performed their assessment recitals to a socially distanced audience. It’s definitely given them a much-needed lift and helped to build up some much-needed momentum again. They made every second of the morning count. Here’s a clip from Alex Corbett’s amazing performance.

Transition for our Year 6 students

Since half term, we have been sending each of our new students a weekly email to help them get started at TA. In this email they get videos to introduce them to different staff, routines and the building. They have also started on our literacy and Maths programs. The students have also been providing us information about themselves which has helped us to get to know them all before we have even met them!

Mr Jones has personally called the parent of every child who will be joining us in September. Given the difficult circumstances, I could not be more proud of what we have done to support our new students.

Students awards

Congratulations to Year 7 Student of the Week – Heather Rowe

Congratulations to Year 8 Student of the Week – Penny Richards

Congratulations to Year 9 Student of the Week – Oakley Watkins

Congratulations to Year 10 Students of the Week – Amelia Bunce, Issy Dicken, Kacper Tatrynowicz, Michael Brooker.

Not photographed – Olivia Bridgman and Kayleigh Ullah

Good Deed Awards in the All Day School for Kayla Wiilams and Lacie Benson

Enrichment

It is great to see so many different activities still being undertaken by our students.

Workbooks start to arrive

On Thursday the first four pallets of our new workbooks arrived. During the partial closure, our amazing teachers have written bespoke workbooks for each year group in every subject. Over the next few weeks tens of thousands of these books will be arriving ready for September.

Workout Wednesday

This week our Year 10 Full Time School students had a work out with a game of rounders and some trips up the climbing wall. This was a well-earned break from their intensive studying.

Year 7-9 Touching Base mornings

It was wonderful to see so many more students this week in school. It really is such a pleasure to welcome them back into school for a morning. I can’t wait to see everyone in September.

New CCF uniforms

Mr Cawood and Miss Dunn spent Thursday organising all of the new kit for our CCF students. They are now the proud owners of their “Blues” uniform. I look forward to seeing them all on parade in September.

Duolingo Achievement

Penny Richards in Year 8 has been keeping on top of her French learning by completing a 14 day learning french streak on the Duolingo app. She is currently in first place in the gold league and has earned the sage badge. She currently has the highest score in the country. Well done, Penny.

UKMT Junior Maths Challenge

On Wednesday 1st July, 109 of our Year 7 and 8 students took part in the UKMT Junior Maths Challenge. Due to the current situation with schools only partially open, the challenge moved online for the first time. We are so proud of all of the students who took the time to complete the challenge:

Nisha Cosslett, Abby Green, Michalina Jarosz, Samuel Eaton, Curtis Poynton, Joshua Walsh, Finley Herbert, Mollie Stanion, Melvin Page, Kole Gjikolaj, Joshua Nagy, Jazz Povey, Freya Davies, Joshua Hawkings, Erin Loader, Grace Povey, Lily-Anne Winterton, Matt Budavolgyi, Aj Sims, Kai Alexander, Phoebe Lown, Bogdan Pamfile, Charlotte Sweeney, James Scrimgeour, Finley Gaisford, Ethan Phillips, Melissa Piper, Ben Puddicombe, Ava Sams, Josh Thompson, Lily-May Bruton, Harrison Spurle, Robbie Wright, Heidi Wright, Gabriel Prior, Roberta Bankes-Fay, Riley Batten, Kasha-Lily Borge, Oliver Boyce, Esme Brabon, Damian Bratusa, Sophie Brown, Samuel Cooper, Lucas Cox, Aliyah Davey, Mikey Davies, Marcus De Lucis, Nikola Drygiel, Merissa Farrington, James Ferris, Daisy Gibbings, rebecca glasson, Maisy Green, Jacob Green, Thomas Harrison, Nina Hocking, Serena Iordache, Olivia Kirby, Elliot Lawton, Bella Lester, Lucy Mangan, Olivia McCormack, Emily Miller, Gabbi Mulhearn, Sophie Packer, Jakub Piwowar, Woody Ronson, Heather Rowe, Megan Sellick, Riley skinner, Jude Snell, Thomas Stimpson, Kieran Taylor, Daniel Thomas, Calen Thomas-Tyrer, May Treadaway, Alfie walker, Alaric Wills, Olivia Wood, Callum Yeates, Reef Beer, Rachel Breach, Hannah Carr, Sophie Caton, Ellie Denby, Mia Denby, Danny Frankum, Keryn Giffard, William Green, William Harrison, William Hemus, Will Howard, Jasmine Huxtable, Georgia Jones, Zach Jones, Oliver Lucas, Lauren Major, Oriana McCaul, Ellie Mitchell, Anya Page-Dove, Rowen Poulain, Penny Richards, Bobbie Royal, Ethan Sanders, Harley Stevens, Elsie Taylor, Dylan White, Richard Wynd, and Jack Iris.

In order to qualify for an award, participants had to achieve over 75 points in the challenge. We would therefore like to say congratulations to the following students for achieving this accolade:

BRONZE:
Nisha Cosslett, Abby Green, Samuel Eaton, Curtis Poynton, Finley Herbert, Mollie Stanion, Kole Gjikolaj, Joshua Nagy, Freya Davies, Joshua Hawkings, Erin Loader, Grace Povey, Lily-Anne Winterton, Kai Alexander, Phoebe Lown, Bogdan Pamfile, Charlotte Sweeney and Melvin Page (Best in Year 7).

SILVER:
Jazz Povey, Matt Budavolgyi, Aj Sims and Gabriel Prior.

GOLD:
James Scrimgeour (Best in Year 8 and Best in School).

Cupcakes!

The staff in our All Day School we are delighted to receive an unexpected gift from Big Bakes Bakery in St Marychurch this morning! They were treated to some of the wonderful cupcakes. Thank you so much from the team here.

Year 10 Charity head shave

At the beginning of lockdown a group of year 10 students (Tyler Urch, Lucas Macfie-Jones, Charlie Swiderski, Dylan Glancy and Harrison Lee) wanted to do something to help charities which they admire. So they decided as a group to shave off their hair! They raised a total of £780.00, split between Rowcroft Hospice and the NHS. Well done boys we are very proud.

Cooking out of Lockdown!

https://www.turningheads.org.uk/imagine-this/

These cooking videos are being produced by Turning Heads and being paid for and supported by the Youth Trust in Torbay with a view of getting young people aged 13+ to get cooking out of lockdown, learn new skills and for those younger people who might be heading off to uni a chance to get some recipe ideas and practice in.

It will be a 10 week course and the recipes have all been designed to be cheap, vegetarian, easy to cook and follow.

Torquay Academy