Christmas concert, TA's got talent and Taskmasters

A Sparkling Christmas Concert: A Night to Remember!

This week, TA came alive with the magic of Christmas! Our annual Christmas Concert was a resounding success, with a full-capacity audience filling the The Platform to the rafters. Over 157 talented performers, representing every year group, took to the stage, showcasing their dedication and incredible talent.

Stepping into the The Platform was like entering a winter wonderland. 10,000 twinkling fairy lights, and a backdrop that wouldn't be out of place in a professional venue. The atmosphere was electric with anticipation as parents, staff, and former students gathered to celebrate the season and support our young performers.

The concert itself was a whirlwind of musical delights. From the stunning opening of Carol of The Bells performed by the Academy Choir to the huge finale that included all 157 performers, each act brought something unique to the stage.

Here are just a few highlights from the night:

The stunningly beautiful "Golden Hour" performed by Henry McManus, Oliver Phillips and Oliver Lucas
The breathtaking piano solo by Oliver Lucas
The spellbinding magic show by Lewis Dewar
Impressive performances from our Junior & Senior Music Academies
Outstanding performances from our Y9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 Music Performance students.

But truly, every single act was a testament to the hard work and dedication of our truely inspirational students – from the sound and lighting to the audience participation, it all came together to create a truly magical evening.

The Christmas Concert is always one of the highlights of the year for the TA community. It's a time for families to come together, celebrate the festive season, and witness the incredible talent that flourishes within our school walls. Thank you to everyone who made this year's Christmas Concert such a success. It was a night to remember, and a perfect way to kick off the festive season!

Photos are already available to download and I look forward to sharing the professional video with you in the New Year.

You can view all of our photographs in our Facebook album. The video will be available in the new year.

TA's got talent

The final of TA's Got Talent took place during our end of term assembly. We were treated to the following amazing performances:

Year 7 - Jude Brodie

Year 8 - Farah Davidson

Year 9 - Louise Porter

Year 10 - Joshua Ward, Edward Evers and Anna Pearn

Sixth Form - AJ Sims, Amelia Washbrook and Mia Denby

Choosing a winner was a difficult task for our 2024 Student leadership Team. Eventually, Farah was crowned as our 2024 TA's Got Talent winner. Many congratulations, Farah!

Thank you to Penny, Kole, Josh, Phoebe and Evie who organised the whole event.

House Competition 2024

During assembly I announced the winners of the individual house competitions as well as the overall house champions for 2024. The Christie Cobras regained the crown as overall house champions and Mr Jones collected the trophy of behalf of his house.

Overall House Winner - Christie

Effort Winner - Christie

House Points Winner - Darwin

Attendance Winner - Christie and Darwin

Sport Winner - Christie

TA Taskmaster

On Friday morning our students took part in the TA Taskmaster quiz. They watched our Senior Leadership Team take part in 5 activities. They had to guess the winners and win points for the following events: Wrap the snowman, Christmas tree toss, Elf on the shelf race, Blow me down and Reindeer relay.

The most popular task was the Reindeer Race. They had to choose who would win between the Christmas horse, Christmas bunny, Christmas teddy, Christmas dinosaur and Christmas dog. It was a nail-biting race around the school, and the winners were Mr Jones and Mr Chadwick in the Christmas horse!

Each tutor group had a winner who qualified to take part in the final quiz during the end of term assembly. In the final assembly I explained to students about the birthday paradox which states that if you have 23 people in a room the probability that it is more than likely that two of those people with share a birthday.

I then explained to the students that out of the 1460 of them, 12 of them shared a birthday, 20th November. The next popular birthday in the school was 8th June, which was shared by 10 students. 9 students all share 13th March, 4th April, 29th May and 19th August. There are 4 students who have their birthdays today (20th December), 3 celebrate their birthday on Christmas Day and 6 on New Year's Day.

In Years 7 and 9, 7 out of 8 of the tutor groups have at least one pair of birthdays and in Year 8, 6 out of 8 of the tutor groups have at least one pair of birthdays. From Year 10 upwards the tutor groups get smaller, in Year 10, 6 out of 11 of the tutor groups have at least one pair of birthdays and in Year 11, 4 out of 15 of the tutor groups have at least one pair of birthdays.

The questions for the Taskmaster final:

1. How many students had a unique birthday? (Answer: 30)

2. How many days in the year, if any, do students not have a birthday on? (Answer: 8)

The winner of the grand hamper was Austin White.

Christmas lunch

Our kitchen team did an incredible job to cook over 1,000 lunches for our students and staff on Wednesday. I always enjoy serving up the lunches!

It was a lovely event and left us feeling very festive.

christmas jumper day - food bank

This year once again we ask Staff and Students to bring in donations for the food bank for our Christmas Jumper Day and as you can see from the photos everyone was very generous! Thank you to all who have supported this amazing cause!

Maths with Mr Henwood

This week 10T6 have been working on expanding and simplifying brackets. We started with single brackets using area models to help with expanding, before moving on to two separate single brackets which required expanding (again with area models) before collecting the like terms to simplify our answers. Once this was mastered, we moved onto expanding double brackets to get our quadratic expressions. Again for this, we used our area models to show our expansion, before completing our simplification. All students have worked super hard this week.

The photos attached show examples of the fantastic work completed by Lola Benney.

Abigail and Isla-Mae perform at the theatre

Abigail Harkin, Year 7 and Isla-Mae Gale, Year 7 both took part in a dance performance on Saturday evening at the Princess theatre.
They both performed in various group performances which involved tap, musical theatre and dance gymnastics. They both regularly attend Torbay School of Dance and have been working towards various grades throughout the year then dances are showcased at the end of year performance.

Dr Hocking - A level Biology (Y12)

The final section of the Proteins topic is looking at how you can identify amino acids using chromatography. The procedure requires a really delicate approach so you can add a large volume of the amino acid mixture in as small an area as possible. Once the spots have dried the chromatography paper is put into a jar with a small volume of solvent in the bottom. The solvent moves through the paper, taking the amino acids different distances up the paper. In the following lesson the students developed the spots and then measured them. They calculated Rf values for each spot and used this to identify the amino acids that were in the original mixture.

Review of Year 9 GCSE Art & Design Lesson: Initial Paper Designs for Clay Shoes

In this recent Year 9 GCSE Art & Design lesson, Mrs Lynch's students were tasked with creating initial paper designs that will later be translated into sculpted clay shoes later in the term. This lesson marked an exciting and creative step in their journey toward developing 3D clay artworks, allowing them to explore a variety of artistic influences while beginning to conceptualise their designs.

Each student has chosen a different artist to inspire their work, including iconic figures like Vincent Van Gogh, Hokusai, Georgia O'Keeffe, Tim Burton, and Frank Stella. This diversity of influences allowed students to approach their designs with a rich range of patterns, colour palettes, and stylistic elements. From Van Gogh's swirling brushstrokes and O'Keeffe’s fluid, organic forms to Hokusai's bold, graphic waves and Burton’s whimsical, dark flair, students are truly immersing themselves in the world of their chosen artists.

Overall, this lesson successfully introduced students to the process of visualising and planning their sculptures while encouraging them to engage deeply with artistic influences and explore their own creative ideas. The next steps—translating these vibrant designs into 3D clay forms—are sure to lead to some truly unique and inspiring pieces. I’m looking forward to seeing how these designs evolve and come to life in the coming weeks!

year 8 homework stars of the term

Catherine Ramesh-Mani - Over 26 000 SPARX Reader XP Points, Lily Langler - Over 19 000 SPARX Maths XP Points, Charlotte Townsend - Over 49 000 Tassomai Points, Jess Stoyle - Always being amazing at all online homework.

Year 7 - Eva Thompson and Riley House

Year 8 - Alexa McCarthy and Charlie O'Connor

Year 9 - Euan Miller and Honor Dawson

Year 9 progress in devon cup

On Tuesday TA met ISCA in round 2 of the Devon Cup. TA went into the game as favourites. TA dominated the game from start to finish with ISCA putting a very resilient and organised display. However, TA came out on top at the golf in class eventually, with TA winning 2-0 with an own goal and a 25-yard strike from Keane O'Neil.

governor's silver certificate

year 7

Kayden Harper

principal's SILVER certificates

year 7

Mimi Skelly, Jack Lennox-Statham, Myles Bonnici, Cody Butler, Willow-Mae Calland, Chloe Eales, Zafirah Faryal, Oliver Finley-Squires, Arthur Gaughan, Brooke Harding, Emilia Hedgecock, Maddie Mack, Luna Mearns, Freja Mobbs, Harry Monro, Jack Parker, Archie Payne-Stanbury, Mollianne Potter, Laila Stuttaford, Eva Thompson, Zenna Venter, Lexi Walker, Amelia Woodland, Kayleb Yeo and Henry Nash

year 8

James Costello, Summer Reed, Immy Shaw and Charlotte Townsend

principal's bronze certificates

year 7

Archie Kershaw, Ruben Tidball, Amelia Palla, Henry Cooper, Macie Gay, Nouh Haridi, Bailey Jones, Cian McHugh, Josiah Addai, Calvin Downer, Rhia Holding, Lydia Shetliffe, Freddie Thatcher, Zenna Venter, Peyton Wilkin, Sienna Hunter, Jack O'Connor, Freja Mobbs, Henry Nash, George Davies, Brooke Harding, Maddox Findlay-Peers, Isla-Mae Gale, Lottie Hutcheson, Corah Luscombe, Jack Parker, Arthur Gaughan, Nora Gordon, Kaiden Ilhan, Ameila Woodland, Oliver Finley-Squires, Alex Nicholson, Gracie Ritson, Charlie Berry, Liv Andrews, Ella Batten, Millie Beamish, Mason Beardsley, Skye Beesley, Braxton Biggs, Myah Bishop, Zofia Bocianowska, Freddy Bonner, Max Bovey, Megan Bushell-Sneap, Jacob Caldwell, Bailey Clements, Joel Cotton, Josie Cotton, Charlie Courtier, Colby Craig, Brooke Dennett, Fynlay Dever, Georgina Elliott, Mia Fellows, Lottie Forrester, Darcy Gibbings, Jessica Green, Louie Gribbin, Oscar Hall, Connor Hampton-Brown, Macy Hickman, Jacob Hicks, Elliott Holmes-Inch, Sophia Houghton, Archie Hudson, Jack Jackson, Jake Jolly, Evan Jones, Maja Kokoszka, Mia Kost, Lilly-May Lee, Oliver Luscombe, Oscar Manley, Joe Matthews, Samuel McDonald, Dylan McDonald, Joe McDonough, Georgina Morton, Lexi Nicholson, Jude Nwachukwu, Caelan O'Gorman, Tallulah Owen, Beni Paplogo, Libby Pell, Riley Piercy, Tehya Quennell, Ruby Ross, Teddy Shobbrook, Heath Slater-Saunt, Bella Stevenson, Sara Szewczuk, Beau-Angel Talbot, Poppy Tankielun, Paisley Taylor, Lincoln Trapp, Ella Uven, Leo Watson, Willow Waugh, Grace Donnelly, Rocco D'Alessandro and Dee Davies

year 8

Charlotte Townsend, Summer Reed, Tiffany Eastley, James Costello, Immy Shaw, Heidi Milner, Max Kapusta, Bailey Taylor, Seren Panther-Glinn, Jack Robinson, Aaliyah Akpo, Poppy Anderson, Toryn Bond, Harlow Bown, Kobi Burness-Moakes, Gabi Cobain, Shae Craig, Tyler Davis, Oliver Forsdyke, Elizabeth Francis, George Garbett, Poppy Haslett, Jesse Isemede, Tyler Jackson, Riley Johnson, Edith Mackenzie, Alfie Mackin, Esme Poole, Lily-Jo Prior, Frances Roberts, Luke Sandeman, Lilly Shaw, Oktawian Siennicki, Viktoria Simunkova, Jessica Stoyle, Olivier Szyszka, Bonnie Talbot, Casie Howell, Madison Wood, Kaitlin Towell and Madeline Woodger.

year 9

George Evans, Brodi Docherty, Tyler Evans and Harry McCarthy

House stars of the week

Year 7

Brunel - Cole Washington

Christie - Laila Stuttaford

Darwin - Ruby Ross

Fawcett - Taylor Chipchase

Harrison - Kiera Chivers

Kitson - Nicholas Robinson

Nearne - George Davies

Year 8

Brunel - Bonnie Talbot

Christie - Aaliyah Akpo

Fawcett - Ellie Palmer

Harrison - Seren Stephenson

Kitson - Flo Evans

Pengelly - Kumar Hopton

Year 9

Brunel - Lilly Drake

Christie - Thomas Cox

Darwin - Finlay Clark

Fawcett - Talia Street

Harrison - Sophia Shetliffe

Kitson - Sanije Hoxha

Nearne - Zach Venter

Homework Stars of the Week

Year 7

Brunel - Beau-Angel Talbot

Christie - Grace Donnelly

Darwin - Alex Oleksy

Fawcett - Lilly-May Lee

Harrison - Kai Parton

Kitson - Chloe Bastow

Nearne - Teddy Shobbrook

Year 8

Brunel - Charlie O'Connor

Christie - Edward Huxtable

Fawcett - Mia Piewiszko

Harrison - Ted Lithgow

Kitson - Oscar Deegan

Pengelly - Ben Walters

Year 9

Brunel - Louise Porter

Christie - Chloe-Mae Jones

Darwin - Logan Watt

Fawcett - Phoenix Reeman

Harrison - Ollie Wright

Kitson - Naomi Szyszka

Nearne - Ava-Rae Mills

university offers this week

Lown	Phoebe	University of Southampton	Biomedical Sciences
Sams	Ava	Bath Spa University	Media Communications
Phillips	Emily	University of Brighton	English Literature
Mitchell	Robyn Henrietta	University of Reading	Construction Management
Lown	Phoebe	Cardiff University	Biomedical Sciences
Phillips	Emily	Bath Spa University	English Literature and Media Communications
Bond	Lilly-May	Cardiff Metropolitan University	Early years education & professional practise
Bond	Lilly-May	Cardiff Metropolitan University	Education, psychology & Special educational needs
Thompson	Joshua	Southampton Solent University	Sport and Exercise Science
Taylor	Elsie	Cardiff University	Accounting & Finance
Cornforth	Klara	University of Exeter	Biomedical Sciences
Reed	William	University of Gloucestershire	Cyber Security
Washbrook	Amelia	University of Birmingham	Law
Heron	Evie	University of Exeter	English
Carr	Lauren	University of Essex	Genetics
Mitchell	Robyn	University of Reading	Real Estate Development and Planning
Piper	Melissa	University of Brighton	Photography
Astley-Rubin	Shelby	Bath Spa University	English Literature
Taylor	Elsie	Bournemouth University	Accounting & Finance
Taylor	Elsie	University of Brighton	Accounting & Finance
Reed	William	Cardiff Metropolitan University	Computer Security
Gibson-Roche	Hayden	Cardiff Metropolitan University	Business & Management
Piper	Melissa	Arts University Plymouth	Commercial Photography
Whatley	Jeb	Swansea University	Mechanical Engineering with a year in industry
Fox	Charlie	University of Plymouth	Civil Engineering
Taylor	Elsie	University of Bristol	Accounting & Finance
Cornforth	Klara	University of Essex	Biomedical Sciences
Gibson-Roche	Hayden	University of Portsmouth	Business & Management
Pamfile	Bogdan	University of Bath	Physics w Astrophysics w prof placement, research placement, study abroad
Heron	Evie	University of Winchester	English Literature
Copping	Joel	University of Bristol	Geography
Copping	Joel	University of Plymouth	Geography
Copping	Joel	University of Plymouth	Geography with International Relations
Copping	Joel	University of Plymouth	Geography with Ocean Science
Page Dove	Anya	Cardiff University	Psychology
Fox	Charlie	Bristol, UWE	Civil Engineering
Gibson-Roche	Hayden	Bath Spa University	Business & Management
Kinghorn	Evan	University of Southampton	Biology & Marine Biology
Pound	Erin	Cardiff Metropolitan University	Sport Media
Hollie	Hand	Bath Spa University	Creative Writing
Hollie	Hand	Cardiff University	English Literature with creative writing