Funding for theatre secured & league tables updated

Funding has been secured for a new theatre (and more!)

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I take great pride in being able to offer our students the most incredible facilities.  In the past 18 months, we have secured funding for, and built, five new science labs and the block of nine new classrooms in on-track to be ready for September.

We were delighted to have been notified by the government that our bid for significant funding was successful that enables us to continue adding to our wonderful campus.  The centrepiece will be a 300 seat theatre with 2 changing rooms and 3 PE classrooms attached to it.  It will be built between the sports hall and the classrooms that are currently being built on the edge of our existing MUGA.

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The following drawings are artist’s impressions of how the new building will look.

 

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We will also be building an extension to the dining room to provide more space during break and lunch.

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A League Table update

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Somewhat frustratingly, the government missed out a number of our students’ results when the GCSE league tables were released in January.  What the tables showed then, as they do now, is that the incredible efforts of our staff and students led to some amazing results.  The Progress 8 score of 0.49 (up from 0.42) means that on average every student score half a grade higher in every subject than if they had gone to an average school.  That makes me exceptionally proud of all of our students who are currently in Year 12 studying for their A levels.

 

Year 10 Investigate Kirchoff’s Laws

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Year 10 students are expected to be able to analyse electrical circuits and make calculations concerning voltage, current and resistance in a variety of different arrangements.  Before Easter, students were investigating the laws they have learned and proving them by experimental result.

 

Ten Tors

20.4.18 Ten Tors

During the last weekend of the Easter break students taking part in the 45 and 55 mile Ten Tors teams took part in an extra weekend on the moor, being joined on the Sunday by the 35 mile teams who carried out a navigation exercise. Despite gorgeous weather on Saturday the teams were blessed on Sunday with some beautiful Devonian rain! Follow @OutdooredTA for more.

 

PAA Production, Guys and Dolls is only 6 weeks away!

Our brilliant Performing Arts Academy will be showing Guys & Dolls in just 6 weeks time! The Performing Arts Academy, made up of 50 students from Y7 – Y13 who all auditioned for a place, have been rehearsing since October for the production. It is looking brilliant already and set to be even better than last year’s Legally Blonde! This week they have been focusing on set design and the cast got to meet professional set designer Adrian Jenkins who we have commissioned to make the bespoke set for the production. Guys & Dolls will be showing for 3 evenings from Tuesday 22nd – Thursday 24th May. Here’s a taster to whet your appetite!

 

GCSE Drama

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Congratulations to the GCSE Drama students for their Celebration Evening performances and their Component 2 examination. The work varied in style with some sensitive and thought-provoking work to well-timed, comedic performances. All students behaved with professional conduct and real team ethos – a credit to the group and themselves.

Team TA Sports Roundup

It is always nice to hear of the successes of our students on the sporting front outside of their school commitments. This week I am able to report on the success of 3 of our girls who have all done very well in their chosen sports. All 3 girls are also members of the Team TA Sports Academy and have attended every Academy session that has taken place. Clearly committed, clearly determined and clearly have very much potential, well done, girls.

Elizabeth Cameron Year 7, Emma Harrison Year 8 and Georgia Davies Year 9

Elizabeth recently competed in Bath for The British Gymnastics Regional Tumbling finals level 5 women’s 10-12 age group. She had to come Gold or Silver and get a score over 70 points with her three tumbles combined and then had to do a compulsory set on Range and Conditioning (including V ups and splits) to go through to represent the South West in The National team finals held in Birmingham. She gained Silver with 73.25 points enabling her to go through to represent the South West for her level and age group. An excellent achievement and good luck in the Nationals. Emma and Georgia recently represented Devon in the National Indoor Athletics Championships. Emma had the honour of being Captain for the Under 13 team and Georgia represented the Under 15 team. Both teams finished a very creditable 6th place overall.

Elizabeth Cameron (1)Georgia Davies (1)

Emma Harrison (3)

 

Cycling

On Wednesday, Torquay Academy held the finals of the Year 7 and 8 house cycling competition at the Velodrome, Newport, Wales.

All finalist qualified at Haldon forest earlier in the year where time trials where held.   4 boys and 4 girls from each year qualified from their respective houses.The Velodrome session consisted of 1 hour’s training followed by a 500m track speed competition.  All students significantly developed their skills to negotiate the track with some producing some outstanding times in competition. Well done to all who qualified. Next week sees the year 9 and 10 cycling finals, also at the Velodrome.

Year 7 boys
Gold- Angus Graham, Fawcett
Silver- Issac Astbury, Nearne
Bronze- Oliver Laker, Brunel

Year 7 girls
Gold- Elizabeth Cameron, Brunel
Silver- Mya Green, Christie
Bronze- Darcie Baker, Kitson

Year 8 boys
Gold- Ben Arscott, Pengelly
Silver- Michael Brooker, Darwin
Bronze- Alfie Sams, Christie

Year 8 girls
Gold- Keira Connolly, Fawcett
Silver-Olisi O’Malley, Nearne
Bronze-Isabelle Pollard, Brunel

Year 8 Velodrome Winners (1)Year 8 Girls Velodrome Winners (1)

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Under 14 Girls Futsal

Futsal Under 14 Girls (1)

This week saw the girls under 14 futsal team compete in the Devon finals against tough opposition. They had qualified for the event by previously winning the Torbay and district competition.
First up they took on a talented Ivybridge team, narrowly falling to a 1-0 defeat, but this would prove to be the only disappointment of the day.
Despite missing the influential Ocean Latto through injury and losing Keanna Cann to a sprained ankle midway through the day they went undefeated through the rest of the competition finishing second only behind their early conquerors from Ivybridge. A special mention is deserved by Siana Goddard who was drafted in as a late replacement went on to be our top scorer.
Next week the same group will compete in the Devon 7 a-side finals at the Devon FA HQ; good luck girls!

 

Students of the Week

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Students of the week this week with me are :  Harry Mabbutt – Yr 9, Georgia Harvey – Yr 11, Emma Capellini – Yr 12, Max Gamble – Yr 7, Beth Rainbow – Yr 13, Tanesha Powell – Yr 10, Kyle Hickman – Yr 8

 

Principal Certificates

20.04.2018-BRONZE

Bronze : Dan Baker, Krisjanis Rumnieks, Sonny Prior, Bailey Denyer, Harvey Lee, Cassie Seal, Tyler Silvester

 

20.04.2018-SILVER

Silver : Poppy Rogers, Paige Godwin, Lily Rogers, Jamie Watson, Sean Brown

 

20.04.2018-GOLD

Gold : Emily Wilson

 

The sun has arrived at last!

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After posting so many snowy scenes of late, it has been lovely to enjoy some warm weather finally!  It is on days like this our students are able to really take advantage of our beautiful grounds.  Let’s hope it stays this way…!

 

PE After School Activities

PE Department Clubs Summer 2018

The PE Department Summer after school activities poster has been sent to every parent and student at the school as well as being placed on notice boards around the school and included in this blog. Can I please urge you to consider attending these clubs. They are, as usual, free of charge, there are no restrictions on numbers and your experience and ability will not be a factor in you joining in. The benefits of an active healthy lifestyle are well documented and there is no better introduction to a sport than through your PE Department.

Building update

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Over the Easter holidays things have really moved on.  With all of the steels in place that outline how the building will look, the concrete floors have all been lowered in place.  The next big milestone will be when they start on the roof next month.