Royalty, cinematography and many, many stars!

A reminder that Monday 29th October is a non-pupil day.  Students will return after half term on Tuesday 30th October 2018

 

Automotive Engineering Student gets Royal Approval

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The achievements of last years’ year 11 cohort just keep on accumulating! Courtney McElhinney was invited up to the Institute of the Motor Industry’s annual awards ceremony in Hertfordshire where her amazing achievements in Automotive Engineering were acknowledged and rewarded by royalty.  Courtney scored distinctions across the board in the subject and wrapped up her studies with an outstanding project on developing vehicle safety systems where she put forward some excellent ideas about how airbags could be developed to improve passenger outcomes in the event of a collision. She won the award of ‘Young Achiever of the Year’ beating nominees from a network of over 600 establishments nationwide that deliver Automotive qualifications. The award was presented by keen motor enthusiast Prince Michael of Kent who was very impressed with Courtney’s achievements, attitude and ambition.

 

Lexonik

19.10.18Lexonik

Lexonik is a new teaching programme that teaches students to read for knowledge. It is aimed at students who have real potential and we are delighted that we are now delivering it to our students.  We set high expectations for all of our students and strive to ensure they all achieve the grades they are capable of. We also believe that Lexonik will help them achieve their goals across all subjects.  The programme trains students to decode subject-specific words quickly and effortlessly. It teaches them the complexities of the English language allowing them to develop a deeper understanding of the subjects they are being taught.  We are delighted to congratulate our first cohort of students to complete the Lexonik programme. The students who took part in six lessons over six weeks said that they found the course challenging, fast-paced and a lot of fun.  All the students made progress and the average reading increase over the six week programme was 3.8 years. This is an amazing achievement and we would like to congratulate all the students in involved, and look forward to watching their ongoing improvements.

Pictured are; Ameisha Taylor, Teigan Brooksbank, Aaliyah Harford-Brown, Megan Smith, Ethan Hewett, Sean Andrews,  Hannah Vizcaino, Caitlin Graham, Madeleine Reeve, Judith Blackmore, Lottie Prowse, Benjamin Arscott.  Also completing the programme but not pictured are, Molly Brooksbank, Emma Harrison and Sean Brown.

 

Graduate Visit to TA

19.10.18 Kitty Oldfield Physics

On Tuesday morning, Mr Broome was delighted to host Kitty Oldfield, a recent graduate of Physics at Swansea University from the local area.  Kitty spoke to a variety of Year 10, 11 and lower sixth form girls on what sparked her interest in Physics, the topics she studied at university, the challenges she has had to overcome throughout her education and what it is like to be a woman in a male-dominated industry. Kitty spoke with great enthusiasm and honesty about her journey through education. Our TA students left the talk feeling inspired about the prospect of further education and with the realisation that the door is open to them for a career in Physics.

We would like to extend our thanks to Kitty for giving up her time before embarking on her first steps in her career as an engineer at Atlas Electronics in Dorset.

 

Robotics team praised by robot challenge event organisers for hard work in school club

Students are continuing to use our practice Lego NXT robots to sharpen their programming skills in advance of our 2019 entry in the Tomorrow’s Engineers Lego Robotics Competition. I received really positive feedback from the event organisers, Raising Robots, this week to say just how impressed they are with our commitment to the 2019 challenge and how much they’ve enjoyed the blog posts and online videos. To show their gratitude, they sent the team a complimentary expansion pack worth hundreds of pounds which includes specialised Lego components and a highly sophisticated EV3 robot control brick. I would like to say a special thank you to John, Erika and their team for supporting our 2019 campaign.

In this latest video, you’ll see persistence, determination and refinement demonstrated in abundance as James explains how he programmed his robot to solve the ‘Collect the Engine’ mat challenge.

 

Meet the TA Librarian Team

19.10.18 Librarians

Here is the Student Librarian team: they are here to help students at break and lunch time in the Study Centre. Whether they want to find a new book to read, borrow a Chromebook or need help with homework, the Student Librarians are here to help. All Student Librarians give their time to help other students in the school and all of them have completed induction tasks and full training with our Study Centre Manager, Mrs Aitken. Being a Student Librarian is a good way to contribute to the school community and teaches individuals responsibility as well as key librarian skills. Any student in Years 7 and 8 can be a Student Librarian; if they love books, enjoy helping others and learning new skills.

Pictured: Finlay McClements, Bradley Thomas, Madelyn Palmer-Kerslake, Isaac Caddick, Maddy Brewer, Boris Pugh, Erin Colclough, Rebecca Lovegrove and Riccardo Iordache, Codie James, Jessica Breach, Amber Hollings, Emily Johns.

 

Future Film Maker

19.10.18 Ollie Hill

Last weekend, Ollie Hill in Year 7 took part in a Documentary Film Making workshop at Torquay Museum. He learnt about film-making techniques, production planning, location scouting, and interviewing, and, as a group, they produced a short film for use in the Museum’s forthcoming exhibition, More Deadly Than War: Spanish Flu and the Threat of Pandemic. The film produced as a result of this workshop will premiere at the English Riviera Film Festival 2018 in November. Ollie will attend a premier at Torquay Museum on Wednesday 7th November.

 

The first university offer of the year

12.10.18 Kyle Farrell

This is a wonderful time of year as students share the offers they start to receive from around the country.  Kyle Farrell has received an offer from Exeter University to read Maths.  His offer is A*AA.

I look forward to hearing about more offers over the coming weeks.

 

Team TA Sports Roundup

House Triathlon

TA’s annual house triathlon took place on Wednesday at Clennon Valley.  It was our biggest triathlon to date with nearly all previous competitors returning to compete for medals and a lot of new entrants. The day had a great competitive edge and students showed real sportsmanship throughout the day. During the event we saw plenty of great battles with a lot of students having the same times or unusually close times going into the final running event.  Thank you to our Year 10 sports leaders, Mr Chadwick and Mr Harries for the smooth running of the day. Congratulations to all 59 competitors.
The top 3 medal winners are;

Year 7 Boys
Gold – Will Harrison
Silver – Pierce Gerry
Bronze – Reef Beer
Year 7 Girls
Gold – Lauren Major
Silver – Freya Hyde
Bronze – Matilda Bindon
Year 8 Boys
Gold – Angus Graham
Silver – Will Bevan
Bronze – Jonathon Woodward
Year 8 Girls
Gold -Deanna Rowe
Silver – Mya Green
Bronze – Elizabeth Cameron
Year 9 Boys
Gold – Emanuel Korolyk-Markiewicw
Silver – Kieran Gagg
Bronze – Alfie Sams
Year 9 Girls
Gold- Emma Harrison
Silver- Olivia Foster
Bronze – Caitlyn Graham
Year 10 Boys
Gold – Ben Woodward
Silver- Will Makinson
Bronze – Archie Bindon

 

19.10.18Tri919.10.18Tri14

19.10.18Tri619.10.18Tri21

19.10.18Tri2419.10.18Tri22

 

Year 7 National Cup v Torquay Boys’ Grammar School

19.10.18 Y7 Football Team

This Tuesday saw us play our first national game for our new crop of Year 7s.  Our first round draw was against Torquay Boys’ Grammar, a fixture that over the years has always been very tough and always a close battle between the schools.  This term our new Years 7s have shown a great appetite and look very good as individuals, but this was the chance to show how we were as a team.

We started the game with lots of energy and looked sharp from kick off.  After only 3 minutes we put a cross in the box that was spilled by their keeper for Josh to score our first goal of the game.  Five minutes later after more pressure we had a shot cleared off the line but it fell to Charlie who smashed it home to put us 2-0 up.  The rest of the first half we were in control and only looked under pressure when trying to play out from the back.  Mistakes will happen but that’s how we will learn so we will continue to promote our style of play and give the confidence to trust each other.

The second half started like the first with the lads playing great football and the defence looking solid.  Four minutes into the second half some great play down the right hand side ended with a driven ball into the box for Charlie to score his second of the game.  We made some changes and lost a bit of tempo for a few minutes and lost concentration allowing TBGS took the opportunity to hit us with a good bit of play to end up 1v1 with our keeper and they slotted it in to make it 3-1.  The rest of the game we kept pushing forward and continued to play when we could with confidence and bravery, with around 10 minutes to go we added to the final score with a good goal by Will to end the game winners by 4 goals to 1.

This is a really exciting group and we’re looking forward to how we get on in all competitions this year. Well done to everyone involved and thank you to the parents who came along to support the boys.

 

Girls Football Under 13s

19.10.18 U13s Round 2

Darcie Baker opened the scoring after just 5 seconds as she closed down the Coombeshead defence in the first round of the national cup. She then got another goal shortly after a nice solo effort, picking up the goal in her own half from keeper Abi and dribbling her way through 4 Coombeshead players to bury it bottom corner.   Ella Sandbrook, Lily Ella Monk and Megan Bird were incredible in defence protecting young keeper Abi on her debut for the U13s. Sandbrook, in particular, had a stand out performance and was the player of the match.

Year 7s Ava Mitchell and Lilly May Bond were introduced just before half term to apply more pressure, and instantly Mitchell was a nuisance down the left-hand side of midfield; she broke through from a huge goal kick from Abi, beating her defender and getting her first goal of the game. 3-0 HT.  Second half again was much of the same with TA dominating the game, more chances fell to Baker and Sofia Clarke, who both narrowly missed the goal. 5 minutes from time Mitchell again showed her pace and ran on to a through ball from Captain Baker to make it 4-0 and send TA through to the next round.
Player of the Match: Ella Sandbrook.

 

Girls Football Under 14s

19.10.18Girls Under 14

Our Year 8 and 9 girls entertained Churston Grammar School in the first round of the National Cup this week.  This was the first time that our girls had played together and many of the team were drafted in at the last minute to make up for unavailability, these were both contributing factors in the outcome of the game.  Our girls lost 3-2 but had the game gone on for longer who knows what might have happened.  As the game progressed the girls became more and more confident and began playing the football we know they are capable of.  Two fantastic goals, one from Leah Harman and one from Taylor Ford along with some excellent saves from Ellie Mitchell meant that we were able to come off the field very proud of the performance and looking forward to the next game. Well done to all girls, who were a credit to the Academy.

 

Year 9/10 Girls Football

19.10.18 Y9/10 Girls v Churston

On Thursday the Year 9/10 girls team took on Churston in the second round of the ESFA National cup. The girls played some incredible passing football and dominated the game in every sense from the first whistle until the last. TA raced in to a 5-0 half time lead and eventually ran out 8-1 winners.   TA will now play St Luke’s School from Exeter away in the third round.   Mr Grinsill was impressed by the desire, work rate attitude and quality of football from the girls.  Goals from Sianna Goddard x 4, Taylor Ford, Leah Harman, Ocean Latto, Wiktoria Jarosz,

 

FA Youth Cup

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Tuesday evening saw our first eleven playing under the Torquay United banner take on Yate Town in the fourth qualifying round of the FA Youth Cup. Yate arrived at the game and it was clear to see that they were a much bigger and more developed physically than our TA side.

The game started at a frantic pace and instantly was a battle for TA with Yate dominating possession and continuously attacking. TA were hanging on and within 10 minutes found themselves 2-0 down. TA then rallied and started to play their normal free flowing passing football along with mixing it with Yate and not allowing them to have it all thier own way. TA produced 80 minutes of football that can only be described as close to a perfect performance you will see. We were 4-2 up at halftime and finished winning the game 7-2. The goals came from Olaf Koszela x4 and Cole Harford x3. TA will now play in the first round of the FA Youth Cup at home with their opponents to be decided. Reaching this far of a national club competition is an incredible achievement for a sixth form school side.

 

 Under 18 School National B Team Competition

19.10.18 Y12/13

This year we have entered a second team into the B team national cup for the first time; this is another opportunity for our players to play against different opposition in a national competition.  Ivybridge were our opponents in round 1 and being a footballing school we didn’t know what to expect in the lead up to the game.  With a buzz still going on around the school from the previous nights win in the FA youth cup, our second team were asked to put on a performance to match that.  It was great to see the lads from the night before come along and support us and they were treated to a game with bundles of goals and great performances from all our players.  The lads were tremendous and put on a performance to cap off the week with an 11-0 victory.  The goals came from Kane Gonzalez (4) Cameron Fewings (2) Ben Clark (2) Harry Smith, Harry Ford and Josh Parry with one each as well.  We had all types of goals to watch in this game from 2 yard tap ins to 25 yard curlers and we even had a solo effort from 30 yards after beating 4 players so a very entertaining game to watch. I hope we can take that into the next round when we travel away to Poole.

 

University of Plymouth Health Taster Day

19.10.18 plymouth 119.10.18 Plymouth 2

On Thursday 44 level 2 and 3 Health and Social Care students were given a fantastic opportunity to attend a specialised event at the University of Plymouth, which gave them an insight into the careers within the sector and more importantly how they can achieve it. Real hands-on experiences allowed the pupils to demonstrate their practical skills, ask questions and get a real feel of what would be involved in their chosen role. Pupils were particularly impressed with a tour of the campus and the vibrancy that Plymouth could offer. The day was rounded off with an inspirational talk from local para Olympian David Hill, who wowed us with his level of commitment, focus and enthusiasm. A fabulous day.

 

Students of the Week

19.10.2018 SOTW

Students of the Week with Mr Chadwick, Mrs Hosking and me are; Yr 7 – William Green, Yr 10 – Alanah Dorling, Yr 12 – Amber Kennard, Yr 13 – Kyle Farrell, Yr 9 – Natalie Crawford, Yr 8 – Darcie Baker.  (Yr 11 – Libby Kenneford not in photo)

 

House Stars of the Week

Year 7

Brunel – Oliver Wright

Christie – Lily Rae-Hooper

Darwin -Mia Denby

Fawcett – Matt Budavolgyi

Harrison – Abigail Taylor

Kitson – Faith Barnett

Nearne – Jasper Dommett

Pengelly – Leo Murray

Year 8

Brunel – Ben Paddon

Christie – Maddie Hele

Darwin – Lewis Vinson

Fawcett – Jessica Breach

Harrison – Daniel Kersey

Kitson – Kelsey Hawkings

Nearne – Lauren Wills

Pengelly – Zoe Manley

Year 9

Brunel – Nicole Mintern

Christie – Cody Bose

Darwin – Harvey Kendall

Fawcett – Emma Harrison

Harrison – Louis Mellitt

Kitson – Emily Johns

Nearne – Tallulah Robson

Pengelly – Hannah Vizcaino

 

Stars of the Term

19.10.18 Stars of the Term

It was wondderful to be able to hand out so many star of the term certificates and badges this morning.  These awards students who have excelled in subjects.  I am very proud of their efforts.

Year 7 
Maths – Abigail Taylor
English – Georgia Jones
Science – Evan Kinghorn
History – Ava Sams
Geography – William Harrison
Religious Studies – Archie Cox
French – Adele Stewart
PE – Mia Denby
D&T – Ollie Hill
Music Performance – Ben German
Art – William Green

Year 8 
Maths – Abi Jones
English – Jasmine Armour
Science – Josh Furze
History – Teah Gaisford
Geography – Gareth Mufford
Religious Studies – Abi Jones
French – Amber Hollings
PE – Kezia Stanley
D&T – Amelia Batten
Music Performance – Ben Eales
Art – Chloe Dance
Drama – Aimee Evans

Year 9 
Maths – Felix Houghton
English – Jake Winstone
Media – Noah Handford
History – Ellie Mitchell
Geography – Jayde McCallister
Religious Studies – Emily Johns
French – Mya Edralin
PE – Sean Andrews
CPLD – Mya Edralin
H&SC – Molly Carter
Product Design – Azize Isufi
Food Technology – Ryan Johns-Kouadio
Music Performance – Lottie Prowse
Music Technology – Maddie Alder-Howson
Art – Lauren Bowden
Drama – Ellis Knowles
Construction – Felix Houghton
Automotive – Anthony Brooking
BTEC Sport – Thomas Brown

Year 10
Maths – Lottie Denning
English – Jake Peters
Media – Mia Burns
Science – Mateusz Baczynski
History – Gessaley Gutteridge
Geography – Tyler Stuckey
Religious Studies – Linda Aspbury
French – Mia Burns
PE – Mya Miles
CPLD – Jasmine Winterton
H&SC – Emily Stentiford-Crook
Product Design – Josh Poston
Food Technology – Mateusz Baczynski
Music Performance – Jack Manley
Music Technology – Cody Ironside
Art – Maria Gabl
Drama – Ben Trebecki-Wright
Construction – Marley Hayes
Automotive – Leon McCMullen
BTEC Sport – Gracie Bradbury

Year 11 
Maths – Leah McDonald
English – Rebecca Hall
Media – Daniel Pratt
Science – Hannah Mabbutt
History – Bradley Stapleton
Geography – Cruze Batten
Religious Studies – Bartosz Demkowski
French – Reece Talbot
PE – Malish Nonis
CPLD – Kane Gardner
H&SC – Niamh Howlett
Food Technology – Brittany Carrington
Music Performance – George Swift
Music Technology – Archie Endicott
Art – Emily Wilson
Drama – Chloe Forbear
Photography – Hannah Mabbutt
Construction – Hassan Hussain
Automotive – Cory Allen
BTEC Sport – Jamie Watson