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Welcome to our new website!

We hope you like our new website.  It was time for a new site that we could easily update regularly for current students and parents as well as future and past ones.  Our new site is also easily accessible on mobile devices.

1st Round National Cup Success

The newly formed 6th Form Football Academy started their season this week with a national cup game against Teignmouth Community College who are linked with Exeter City. The squad has been training hard in the run up to the season including sessions during the summer holidays which saw them getting fit and running in many of Torquay’s favourable tourist locations. For the game the squad has to be reduced from 25 to 16 with all the boys keen to play a part in the first game of what promises to be a very exciting season.

TA started the game well with high tempo possession football dominating the early exchanges. Unfortunately TA were unable to make this count and went in at half-time 0-0. The second half started in much the same way as the first with TA dominating, though this time we took our chances. We were given a lead early in the second half when captain, Owen Stockton, latched onto a ball that Teignmouth failed to clear from a corner and poked the ball home into the roof of the net. From this point on it was one way traffic and we dominated – eventually running out 7-0 winners!  The other goals were scored by Stockton again, Nathan Hebbes, Javan Wright, Louis Roberts, Alex Constantiou and Morgan Harford. A truly great performance and one that will hopefully set the standard for the season.

Fairfields: our new learning support area

We have established a new learning support area that we have called Fairfields.  It has been set up to build upon the great support we have been giving students in different areas of the school.

Mrs Jukes, our Assistant SENDCo, told me “it is wonderful having one central hub where we are able to support all of our students.  It also provides a space where we can offer lunchtime clubs each day.  We are also based in a most inspirational space which the students love being in; it really does help their learning”.

Exciting Science lessons

One of the greatest pleasures I have is walking around the school being able to popping in and out of lessons and seeing the exciting learning taking place.  This week I enjoyed spending time in Miss King’s Year 9 Science class.  After a fascinating discussion about wavelengths, microwaves, photons and many other things I can’t remember, Miss King demonstrated how microwaves impact upon a number of different objects in a microwave oven.  As you can see the results were quite smoky!!

Outstanding Result for Music

Ashley passes Grade 5 Musical Theatre exam with distinction!  Year 10 student, Ashley Stott has achieved an outstanding result for his Grade 5 Musical Theatre exam. For Ashley’s exam, he had to learn 3 songs, one before 1920, one after 1920 and one after 1970. He had to learn the history of each play and song, it’s genre, the actors that originally sung them, the history of music hall and operetta and about the writers and producers of the songs. He then had to sing and act each one for the examiner. He also had to learn about specific breathing techniques and musical theory. Not only did he achieve a pass with distinction he also achieved the highest mark of the day. The grade is awarded to him by the London College of Music and is also worth QCF level 2 credits. Many congratulations and well done Ashley !!

Stars of the Week

I was delighted to be able to meet our Stars of the Week this morning.  One student from each year group has been selected and awarded with a certificate.  There are a wide variety of reasons why students have been chosen, but the majority of those I met this morning had received their awards for their very positive approaches to their academic studies.Pictured alongside myself and members of the pastoral team are Jack Rendle, Nicole Ruby, Leah Black, Amy Mealing, Ryan Cole, Hannah Mabbut, Kofi Essiful-Ball and Jack Munford.

Sixth Form Induction Evening

It was a joy to welcome so many parents of our Year 12 students to our Sixth Form Information evening on Thursday. We gathered in the new Sixth Form Common Room and Mrs Thomas describes the vision TA has for our new members of the Sixth Form. Based on the premise that their Futures are made HERE ,the key message was Stretch, Support and Preparation for the Future. Parents were encouraged to support their sons and daughters in a variety of practical ways and asked to keep school informed about any changes in circumstances at home and share to any worries or concerns they may have. The following dates offer opportunities for Parents to come in to speak to staff about Sixth Form issues.The Sixth Form team and many of our Sixth Form subject teachers were on hand to answer questions and chat about Post 16 Curriculum matters over refreshments.

Dates for Parents diaries;

Thurs 1st October 4 – 6pm Drop in with Mrs Thomas and Mr Harries
Thurs 19th November –Sixth Form Parents evening
Thurs 17th December 4 – 6pm Drop in with Mrs Thomas and Mr Harries

Resident Singing Duo

It has been a busy weekend for our resident singing duo Inbound (Cameron Knowles and Luke Lewis) who performed their first professional gig on Saturday At the beautiful Lupton House in Brixham. Following that the boys travelled to Bristol on Sunday to audition for the national singing competition Open Mic. Previous winners of this event include Luke Friend and Birdie! Following their two minute audition in front of music executives they then had a tense hour’s wait to see if they progressed to the regional finals. The great news is that they made it through and will now compete in front of an audience and judges on Sunday 11th October, again in Bristol. Fingers crossed for the boys, we’ll keep you posted how they get on!

AJ Tehrani Scores to give Year 9’s a winning start

A great start to the Year 9 Rugby team. Wearing our newly designed kit by Louie McKinley-Smith and Ollie Cawood, the boys looked great and were raring to get the season underway.

A fantastic team performance with great runs from Brandon Hewins, Rhyan James-Symonds and Bradley Stewart, as well as a captain’s performance from 2 try scorer James McDowall kept Aspires on the back foot. The backs showed some excellent pace, no less so than AJ Tehrani, who scored two superb trys and Rylee Williams who came on to score a try to make the victory margin 5 trys to 1.

The second game against Paignton College was a closer affair where both sides countered each other out for most of the game with excellent tackles from Cole Harford and Luke Owens. Unfortunately Paignton broke through and scored 3 trys to win the Triangular tournament overall.

The boys will be looking to get revenge at the Forches Cross Tournament on Wednesday (23rd September).

Well done to all involved.

Stand Against Violence

Following the “Stand Against Violence” (SAV) and Devon & Cornwall Police presentation day earlier this year, a selection of student from each year group completed their training.

SAV have three main focus points:
To promote good citizenship among young people.
To demonstrate the consequences of violence.
To equip young people with the skills they need to handle potentially violent situations.

This week saw the presentation of SAV badges to all the Academy SAV Ambassadors by the Principal Mr Steve Margetts with local Neighbourhood Beat Manager for Hele and Pendennis PC Gus Honeywill.

The Ambassadors have already signposted potential or actual incidents to staff since January which have been dealt with before they had to time to escalate, this will continue throughout the year. This is another area where the academy is leading the way in safeguarding & supporting our boys and girls.

After spending the day with our students, Stand Against Violence tweeted “Great day at@TorquayAcademy training their new violence prevention ambassadors! Good luck guys you will be ace and see you all again soon”.

Devon and Cornwall Police have been so impressed with our students and how ‘Stand Against Violence’ works in schools that they are looking to promote the initiative throughout all secondary schools in Devon and Cornwall.