TA Taskmaster, Champion House and the most popular names
TA Taskmaster
During the final lesson before going down to our end of year assembly we introduced our new TA Taskmaster! Members of our senior leadership team took part in four competitions:
- Sticky Note Challenge – Cover your body with as many post it notes as possible whilst blindfolded with a school tie in 90 seconds
- Doughnut Challenge – Eat two doughnuts as quickly as possible whilst hanging on a string. You can only use your mouth.
- The skittle toss – In pairs, you have 60 seconds to throw as many Skittles into each others’ mouths. You must be 2m apart.
- TA Grand Prix – 1 lap of the ground floor on the sweeping machine
There was lots of fun in each of the tutor rooms as they watch videos and ate chocolate! You can see the TA Grand Prix video below:
Without question, the worst performance in all of the tasks was by Mr Chadwick and Dr Hocking in the Skittle toss. They scored a rather pathetic 3, Mr Gale and myself managed 18 and Mr Thatcher and Mr Jones got 19. Mr Chadwick was so upset with this score, he asked if he and Dr Hocking could do it again in the final assembly. The chance for them to humiliate themselves again in front of the whole school was too great an opportunity for me to turn down. They didn’t disappoint me, they managed to only get three again despite me giving them marshmallows to make the task even easier. You can watch them below.
Students had to guess the winners of each of the competitions. Each form group then had a winner.
To end the TA Taskmaster competition, the winner from each form group had to answer a question in the whole school assembly. It was based on the names of our 1,487 students. I shared the most popular names in the school; you can see these below – Charlie and Emily are the most popular boys and girls names at the moment.
The question I asked the form group was: how many of you have a unique name in the school? Why don’t you have a guess? The answer is beneath the top names boys and girls names below.
Top 10 Student Names
Boys Names:
| 1 | Charlie x 22 |
| 2 | Oliver x 21 |
| 3 | Harry x 17 |
| 4 | Jack x 15 |
| =5 | Alfie x 13 |
| =5 | George x 13 |
| =5 | James x 13 |
| =5 | Joshua x 13 |
| =5 | Oscar x 13 |
| =5 | Riley x13 |
Girls Names:
| 1 | Emily x 21 |
| 2 | Olivia x 15 |
| 3 | Lily x 13 |
| =4 | Ellie x 10 |
| =4 | Poppy x 10 |
| =4 | Summer x 10 |
| =7 | Ava x 8 |
| =7 | Bella x 8 |
| =7 | Chloe x 8 |
| =7 | Daisy x 8 |
| =7 | Erin x 8 |
| =7 | Grace x 8 |
| =7 | Mia x 8 |
| =7 | Sophie x 8 |
Answer: There are 485 students in the school with unique names.
Champion House
In the final assembly, the House Trophies were awarded to the Heads of Houses to great cheering and a few boos! Congratulations to Pengelly as they lifted the overall House Champions. Mr Chadwick was delighted to lift the trophy.
Here are 7P celebrating with the trophy.
Darwin House visit Animals in Distress
Last week students from Darwin House had the pleasure of visiting Animals in Distress in Ipplepen to see how the money they had raised in a number of events was being put to good use. Animals in Distress was chosen as the Darwin charity – at the request of the Student Voice Committee – for the outstanding service it performs in rescuing and caring for local animals in need. Over the past year, students here at Torquay Academy have raised over £430 pounds to assist with the charity’s much-valued work.
Students Ellie Farthing, Tegan Ross, Riley Calland, Hamish Herring, Sonny Bond, Pheonix Furse and Hayden Halsey were treated to a behind the scenes tour of facilities – viewing the rabbit and guinea pig pens in addition to the cat and kitten block. All students had the chance of asking questions and discovering more about how funds were used. The real highlights of the afternoon were the opportunities of meeting and fussing the animals themselves including a group of kittens and Cleo – a blind Cocker Spaniel puppy.
All students enjoyed playing with the animals immensely and came away with a real desire to do as more valuable fundraising for the charity.
Students Raise Funds for Occombe Farm Community Garden
Students from Kitson house have raised enough funds to enable Occombe Farm to replace the covering of a polytunnel in their community garden and were recently able to visit the fruits of their labour.
Occombe Farm is part of Torbay Coast & Countryside Trust, who is Kitson house’s nominated charity. This is particularly appropriate as William Kitson, whom the house is named after, was known as ‘the maker of Torquay ’ and responsible for the design of many of its green spaces.
The refurbished polytunnel at Occombe Farm means that vegetables can be grown in a controlled environment and used in the Farm’s café as well as part of a ‘Field to Fork’ project promoting locally sourced produce. In addition, the polytunnel provides an educational space for other local schools including Mayfield and Combe Pafford who visit Occombe on a weekly basis to learn about environmental issues.
During their visit the students were able to learn about the benefits of a polytunnel and had the opportunity to sow the first seeds that would grow there. All students had a very positive experience summarised by Faye Cassidy: “It was a great experience and I loved learning about the different uses of polytunnels.”
Year 7 Lego Club
Some of our Year 7 Lego Club members have completed two very impressive models this week. Luke Sandeman, Riley Page and Chase Morgan have finished the very tricky model of Groot from the Avengers. Seren Panther-Glinn, Poppy Evely, Isla Herbert and Casie Howell have finally completed the magnificent Tiger model – they faced many challenges along the way but persevered!
Year 9 Art
Mrs Lithgow’s Year 9 group have been developing their presentation and technical skills for artist pages on Vincent Van Gogh and working hard to complete and refine some amazing sketchbook pages.
Maths with Mr Lawrence
Year 11’s in Mr Lawrence’s class have been using mini-whiteboards to recap how to solve quadratic equations by factorising.
Year 10 PE
This week, a number of students in Year 10 have been playing Squash in their PE lesson. Each week throughout the term, they will get the opportunity to go across to Torquay Squash club and learn more about the sport and play against each other. It is really important that students experience as many different sports and activities and they definitely seemed to enjoy this one!
English with Dr Jones
In Dr Jones’ Year 9 English class, students have been learning how to analyse quotations from writers, exploring the different techniques they use and their effect on the reader. In this week’s lesson, the students put all they have been learning into practice for a yellow sticker assessment, analysing the writer’s use of language in an extract from a novel about World War 1. The students worked incredibly hard on the assessment and came up with some very perceptive interpretations.
House News
Our most recent Year 7 inter-house competition, which took place during the last week of the Christmas term was ‘The Basketball Challenge’. The event involved tutors selecting six boys and six girls from their tutor-groups to take a shot through a basketball hoop.
As with every house event held, plenty of students were prepared to represent their house and every group was convinced that their group would emerge victorious.
The competition was on a knock out basis, with winners succeeding to the semis and ultimately the final -which took place on Friday 15 December.
There were some nail-biting heats with shots going to sudden death, as some of the teams were so evenly matched. As always, those students who participated showed courage and determination. Perhaps one of the qualities which impresses me the most in our house events, is the sense of sportsperson ship our students possess. Although there were some very disappointed teams, captains were always able to shake hands, offering congratulations or commiserations.
The final was between Kitson and Fawcett and stakes were very high. All members of the tutor group, house captains and heads of house were present. Fawcett presented an impressive win of 5-2 much to the delight of Mr Gale and all Fawcett members. This is the first Fawcett victory in a house-competition and, for the first time, out house cup displays yellow ribbons.
Miss Risk – Head of Houses.
Sugar Skull Mono-printing
Mrs Lithgow’s Year 7 classes have been mono-printing their Day of the Dead sugar skull designs and using tissue paper to create a chine collé effect on their work. We rolled ink directly onto our tables to do this and some students successfully took ‘ghost’ prints from their mono-printing plate which shows their print in negative.
English with Miss Jones
11T9 brought excellent focus, as always, to their first weekly English essay of the term this week. Their thesis was focused on the ways in which Dickens presents ideas about poverty in ‘A Christmas Carol’. Miss Jones cannot wait to read them!
Principal’s Bronze Certificates
Year 7 – Hayden Coatesworth, Luke Sandeman, Catherine Ramesh Mani, Sonny Wildy, Matilda Thorner, Harley Smith, Izzie Mildren, Isla Coish, Lori Close, Chase Morgan, Oliver Szyszka, Madison Wood, Myah Sellick, Ellie-Mae Burton, Esmie Riggs, James Costello, Louie Skinner, Poppy Haslett, Lacey-May Loffel, Heidi Milner, Frances Roberts, Mason Maxwell, Phoebe Acton, Bonnie Stacey, Summer Reed, Jacob Wakefield, Tyler Jackson, Samuel Kuc, Isla Bryant, Oliver Forsdyke, Edith Mackenzie, Logan Payne, Gracjan Rutkowski, Jenson Tandy, Freddie Wallis, Jorgie-Jayne Barnett, Farah Davidson, Jessica Stoyle, Leonard Toribio, Freddy Novis, Charlie Berry, Annalise Little, Sophia Blake, Jenson Tandy, Gracjan Rutkowski, Logan Payne, Edith Mackenzie, Oliver Forsdyke, Isla Bryant, Samuel Kuc, Tyler Jackson, Edward Huxtable, George Garbett, Rosco Biagott, Kobi Burness-Moakes, Mila Cairney, Jacob Wakefield and Bonnie Stacey
Year 8 – Brodi Docherty, Annie Aldous, Vaughn Heavens, Naomi Szyszka, Tyler Evans, Archie Somerset, Tristan Ellis, Dylan Tripp, Jessie Mountstevens, Elliott Baines, Molly Peters, Scarlett Hill, Summer Pallant, Max Warner, Lucie Bowers and Sophia Peryer
Principal’s Silver Certificates
Year 7 – Jack Parton, Tiffany Eastley, Calum Carpenter, Isla May and Bobby O’Regan
Year 8 – Brodi Docherty, Annie Aldous, Vaughan Heavens and Jessie Mountstevens
Principal’s Gold Certificates
Year 8 – Brodi Docherty
Students of the Week
tYear 7 – Kumar Hopton and Florence Botten
Year 8 – Mollie Longthorpe and Gustaw Adamczak
Year 10 – Ollie Coleman and Aliyah Smith
Mia Denby’s England call up
It is with great pride that we can announce Mia Denby, our Sixth Form Netball Academy captain, has been selected into the U19 England Colleges Netball team. This is a fantastic achievement and we are all so proud of her! Mia will attend several training sessions across the U.K throughout the year and play against Welsh, Irish and Scottish National College teams. Well done Mia!
Farrah’s joins England’s Football Lionesses Talent Pathway
A huge congratulations to Farrah Ambrose-Paradise in Year 9 who has been selected into the England Football Lionesses Talent Pathway. Farrah is 1 of 5 young female athletes from the South West who has been scouted and selected into the system where she will now be monitored up to the age of 16. Well done Farrah!
House Students of the Week
Year 7
Christie – Aaliyah Akpo
Darwin – Gabi Cobain
Fawcett – JJ Howell
Harrison – Poppi Jones
Kitson – Alexa McCarthy
Nearne – Lilly Shaw
Pengelly – Alfie Mackin
Year 8
Brunel – Chloe Holton
Christie – Francis Downer
Darwin – Kaelum Bowness
Fawcett – Isabella-Rose Pomerville
Kitson – Heidi Bowers
Nearne – Saket Raj
Year 9
Brunel – Bailey Heaward
Christie – Maks Adach
Darwin – Tegan Ross
Fawcett – Adam Sadlik
Kitson – Thomas Ross
Nearne – Kacper Drygiel
Homework Students of the Week
Year 7
Christie – Darcy Dainton
Darwin – Mila Cairney
Fawcett – Marcus Findlay-Peers
Harrison – Lily Ellis
Kitson – Corey Davies
Nearne – Frances Roberts
Pengelly – Morley Villiers
Year 8
Christie – Lewis Allington
Darwin – Maisie Darke
Fawcett – Autumn Wagstaffe
Kitson – Max Warner
Nearne – Tanya Neil
Year 9
Brunel – Nya Bettridge
Christie – Maddie Kenyon
Darwin – Jason Mewett
Fawcett – Connie Kinghorn
Kitson – Chloe Burton
Nearne – Phoenix Quetelle
University Offers this week
| David Robinson | Bristol, UWE | Automotive Engineering |
| Sonny Houlahan | Bath Spa University | Business, Management & economics |
| Beth Jones | Bath Spa University | Fashion marketing and management |
| Beth Jones | Arts University Plymouth | Fashion media & marketing |
| Jack Skedgell | Wrexham University | Football Coaching & Performance Specialist |
| Jack Howlett | Bath Spa Univeristy | Sports Media Production |
| Ellie Holloway | University of Plymouth | Nursing (Child Health) |
| Thomas Johnson | Bath Spa Univeristy | Politics, Philosophy and Economics |
| Marcus Griffiths | Bath Spa University | Biomedical Science |
| Marcus Griffiths | University of Nottingham | Cancer Sciences |
| Victoria Bulwicka | Bath Spa University | Media Communications |
| Victoria Bulwicka | Bournemouth University | Communication & media |
| Victoria Bulwicka | University of Plymouth | Creative Media |
| Lila Nyari | King’s College | English |
| Lizzie Cameron | University of Exeter | Exercise & Sport Sciences |
| Riley Potter | University of Bristol | Electrical and electronic engineering |
| Tom Johnson | University of Reading | Philosophy, Politics and Economics |
| Lizzie Cameron | Loughborough University | Sport & Exercise Sciences |
| Erin Colclough | University of Surrey | Criminology |
| Angus Graham | University of Southampton | Mechanical Engineering |
