Values & Ethos

We believe that every child who joins TA has the ability to go onto university.

When students arrive at the school they realise they are taking their first steps to university, an apprenticeship or a career. There is a shared moral imperative and vision that everyone succeeds. This is the central purpose of the Academy and we want our boys and girls to have limitless aspirations.

The school’s ethos is based upon mutual trust, where everyone’s opinions and values are heard and respected; staff and students feel trusted, but they understand they have responsibilities as well as rights. Students at Torquay Academy are happy and safe.

No-one gets away with not working, not behaving, not co-operating, not trying or not attending. Avoidance and disengagement are seen in the same light as disruptive behaviour: something to be resolved.   The school never loses faith in the ability to overcome a problem or issue.

You will get a feel of the school’s ethos by the way kindness, generosity and forgiveness are manifest, for example, looking after the garden and animals, charity work, how kindness and generosity are celebrated, mentoring schemes, student councils, parental engagement, work with local businesses, summer schools, how teachers and support staff speak to students in a kind but firm way.