The great outdoors, cooking and so much sport...

Listen

Year 7 Cooking

Year 7 have been superb in the cooking rooms making some delicious American-style pancakes as part of their “Breakfast on the hop” topic to start the year.

Fun Friday

This week it was the turn of our Year 9s to be in The Platform for Fun Friday Karaoke!

Tubers

There was another fantastic session at Tubers as the students dived into the world of camera training.  They looked at the different cameras available to content creators and got hands-on taking some pictures and recording video clips. There was also a bit of time for some gaming and VR!

DofE Silver – Dartmoor navigation training, Saturday 8th October 2022

 

In beautiful autumnal sunshine ten of our Duke of Edinburgh Award Silver group undertook some navigation on South Dartmoor, above South Brent. The route was ideal training for the group as it covered navigation of lanes, footpaths and bridleways, and open moorland, which the groups will encounter on their qualifying expedition in a week’s time. Two groups of five set out from South Brent, one accompanied by Mr Whelan and one by Mr Adams, to fine tune their navigation skills. Mr Whelan’s group took the anti-clockwise direction on the route whilst Mr Adams’ group were going clockwise. Both groups navigated the route competently, practicing walking on a bearing on the moor, and micro-navigation and map work in the lanes.

Mr Adams’ group when walking on a bearing did have a bit of a close encounter with an angry maternal cow and her calf, and were glad to get away from them and reach Spurrells Cross for lunch! Each of the students took navigation responsibilities at various points of the day. Their teamwork was superb, working together on various navigation decisions over the 12km route. Thanks to Mr Whelan and Mr Adams for their support on the day and well done to the following students: Oakley Hayes, Bogdan Pamfile, Charlie Fox, Max Beer, William Reed, Phoebe Lown, Oriana McCaul, Penny Richards, Will Harrison, and Kole Gjikolaj

RAF Cadets

Our cadets enjoyed another successful camp at Chickerell Camp. The RAF cadets were offered places on several courses provided by Devon and Somerset Wing Air Training Corps.

Cadets from Torquay Academy RAF section took part in the following courses:

Junior NCO Course attended by LCpl’s Francis Breslan and Corbyn Gardner.
This course offers newly appointed Cadet JNCOs a range of training and
assessment in basic leadership and management skills. Both stepped up to the challenge and made a huge impression on the instructors.

The students were put through their paces in Drill, Dress regulations & Uniform Upkeep, the role of a JNCO, discipline, communication and leadership skills.

Senior NCO Course – Sgt Josh Furze was thrown in at the deep end of the training and successfully completed the Senior NCO course, which is intended to take the training provided on the JNCO course, refresh that knowledge gained and build on it further. Subjects covered on the course were roles of the SNCO, communication, drill, management theory, problem solving, morale and teamwork.

The Method of Instruction Course Cadets qualify the cadet to Instruct other Cadets. LCpl Cody Furze and Cdt Zach Jones embraced the course and delivered some amazing results. With some fine tuning and teaching back at Torquay Academy, we look forward to presenting the yellow MOI lanyard subject to passing an instructional assessment.

Weapon L98A2 Cadet Rifle – Cpl Dimitar Dinev managed to pass the L98a2 Cadet Rifle weapon handling test. Two full days of learning about the cadet rifle system. A skill-based learning course that requires 100% concentration. Cpl Dinev is the first cadet to have completed the WHT within the continent and looks forward to a range session shooting the rifle.

Intermediate Leadership Course attended by Cdt’s Robin Pightling and James Lovell. The purpose of the Intermediate Leadership Course is to deliver a high standard of leadership training as a follow-on from the Blue Leadership Course delivered by Squadrons. The Intermediate Leadership Course is aimed at cadets with a desire and ability to develop leadership skills and challenge themselves personally.

It was an amazing and busy training weekend but finished with results far beyond expected. The hard work put in by the cadets ensured they are on the next step to providing support and training within the Torquay Academy section.

All this could not be achieved without the support of the Devon and Somerset Wing Air Training Corps.

    

House Update

We are currently well under way with our first Year 7 house competition – the Battle of the Brains.  Teams of four from each house compete against each other in a general knowledge quiz. There was great excitement when the event was announced in assembly and much friendly rivalry ensued when the draw was made in front of all Year 7 students. House captains then needed to select four team members from each tutor group to represent their house; they were inundated with offers from students who wanted to play their part.

At the time of writing, three heats have been held. In Heat 1 Darwin knocked out Harrison, in Heat 2 Christie came from behind to beat Fawcett and in Heat 3 Pengelly were victorious over Nearne. This just leaves Brunel to play Kitson in the last of the heat stages. Most of the games were very closely fought with students showing real enthusiasm when they obtained a correct answer, however the greatest satisfaction was derived from when the winning teams were able to strip their opponent’s house -colours from the house cup. Next week I will be in a position to report the results of the semi-finals.

Pengelly House Awards

Hospitality and Catering

Year 8 have been cooking Black Bean Burritos – Edward Evers, Oliver Cocker, Nya Bettridge, Nancy Brown and Layla Broadway

One our Year 8s were the first class in TA ever to make Sushi – Hamish Herring, Sam Bowden and Rufus Scrase

Health and Social Care

Level 3 HSC continue to evaluate local provision for individuals with learning disabilities, which culminated this week with our final visit to a purpose-built cafe in Newton Abbot, which was funded and created by volunteers and currently has 25 disabled workers employed. The pupils really enjoyed spending time questioning the volunteers and also the workers regarding the benefits it has brought.

Geography with Miss Fannon

In Geography this week the Year 10 students have been evaluating different coastal management techniques to protect the coast from erosion. Below, Roberta is assessing the effectiveness of using beach nourishment as an example of Soft Engineering. This is all in preparation for our Coastal Geography Fieldtrip in the Spring Term.

The Year 7 Geographers in Miss Fannon’s class have been putting their skills to the test using Torquay OS Maps to plan a journey using four figure and six figure grid references. Here, Sienna and Sonny are using the techniques that they have been taught in the classroom to plan their route from school to home.

The Year 8 Geographers in Miss Fannon’s class are really getting stuck in to their Tectonics Unit that they are currently studying. They have learnt about the different types of plate movements; examples of real-life earthquakes and this week completed an extended writing task about the reasons why people chose to live in tectonically active areas. Here below, Ethan and Mihai are completing their write up using the evidence that they have collected over the last few lessons.

Year 11 Golf

We are always looking for ways to further extend opportunities for our students and have enjoyed putting on the first of a series of golf lessons for groups of students in Year 11. After a few lessons practising on the field, we will look to take them out to a local course during their PE lesson.

Team Bath Success!

Team TA are proud to announce that our very own Year 11 Netball Academy captain, Mia Denby, has been offered a place in U17 Team Bath ADC. Congratulations Mia, a well-deserved achievement!

Year 7 Football

Our year 7s put on a masterclass performance on Thursday to progress into the next round of the national cup. Some of the football played on the day was a pleasure to watch. This exciting group continues to show great teamwork and individual brilliance and fully deserved the win. Our goals coming from –

Keane O’Neil : ⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️
Jamie Tully: ⚽️⚽️
Sonny Hutchings: ⚽️
Stanley Austin: ⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️
Max Murphy: ⚽️
Lee Stevens: ⚽️
Harry Lee: ⚽️

Year 9 Football

The year 9s had their first game of the season on Monday against Uffculme in the schools’ national cup. It was great to see the team back together with a few additions this season keeping the competition high within the squad. They started their season really well with strong individual and team performance. The result on the day was a 5-1 win with our goals coming from Charlie Green x3, Albie Baker and Dylan Breslan to take us into the next round.

Year 7 Netball

On Wednesday, the Year 7 Netball team played in their second central venue league tournament at the hub in Paignton. They had three games and narrowly missed out on a win against Teignmouth, which was a fantastic game to watch.

They have been working on coming forward to receive the ball in training, and this was clear to see on Wednesday. There were some amazing interceptions and many fewer goals conceded. These girls are just getting better and better!

Well done to the girls that played and the girls who attend training every week! Coaches player of the day went to Poppy Bettridge. Well done, Poppy.

Year 9 Netball

The Year 9 Netball Academy played against Brixham College on Monday at home. Our full academy squad of 16 players were selected for the game which allowed the girls to work collectively and put into practice what they had been focusing on in training as a whole squad. A 39-6 win shows how hard they have been working and Miss Lewis looks forward to seeing what these girls can do when they play in the next round of the Sisters in Sport League. They finished the day with a squad match between themselves.

Year 11 Netball

Year 11 TA Netball Academy have topped off a busy week of netball success, coming 3rd in their local pool in the U16 National Schools tournament. They played against four other schools, beating Teign School, Stover School and Brixham School and overall coming runners up in their pool.

The girls then progressed to the play-offs, coming up against a strong Newton Abbot side who they unfortunately lost to 12-6 which meant that they would not progress to the next national round. However, TA finished strongly, beating Churston Grammar School 7-5 to take the 3rd place title. Congratulations to our player of the tournament, Ellie Denby, who put on a strong shooting performance which evidently contributed to several of Team TA’s wins throughout the day.

Under 18 National Cup

On Tuesday we travelled to Budmouth School in Weymouth for the first round of the U18 cup. We fielded a very young team with 8 year 11s to give them experience of U18 football as we are focusing on our player pathways into our 6th form programme and this was a fantastic opportunity to see a few more step up to the challenge. On the day Budmouth advanced to the next round but our lads showed that they are capable of stepping into U18 football when called upon.

Under 14 Girls Football

Well done to our girls’ U14 team, who progressed through another round of the national cup with a 4-2 win over Spires. The girls played exceptionally well and soared into a 3-0 first-half lead thanks to a hat-trick from Leela Cartwright. Spires hit back with a couple of well-worked goals before captain Lana Northcott sealed the victory.

Squad: Lydia Bevan, Eve Cameron, Willow Kendall, Bella Giffard, Lizzie Blackmore, Leela Cartwright, Chloe Hollis, Amara Phillips, Millie Sneap, Lana Northcott, Ava Shobbrook, Ivy Hodgson-Hunt and Amy Harrison

1st Team win away to Cardiff and Vale

Wednesday we travelled to Cardiff to play our league match in the U19 College competition. We had our strongest squad available this week so we were confident in putting on a good performance and hopefully getting the win. The boys didn’t disappoint and did exactly what we expected of them, the teamwork and energy they showed were just what we were after and set us up to show our quality when it counted.
We came away with a fully deserved 2-1 win against a very strong Cardiff team, both our goals coming from Tor Swann⚽️⚽️ Next week we host Exeter College – on our brand-new pitch

Under 14 Rugby

U14 rugby: The year 9 rugby team travelled to Forches Cross for a 10-a-side rugby tournament this week. With little rugby experience under their belt due to covid restrictions the boys were keen to get off to a good start. They swept aside all in their group with some free-flowing rugby only losing two games all day. Some outstanding contributions across the team with great tries scored throughout the day. An exceptional defensive display mixed with a brilliant attack saw the boys romp home in their final game, winning by 7 tries to 0! A great day out, and well done to all involved. On to the next one.

Squad: Bastian Johns-Kouadio, Harrison Hogg, Noah Butler, Dan Eales, Charlie Green, Oliver Jones, Seth Margetts, Charlie Porter, Tom Thorner, Anthony Hewitt, Josh Sandeman, Austin Howell, Josh Rogers

         

Congratulations Hannah!

Hannah claimed 8th female, 29th overall finisher in the Run Bournemouth Junior 5k on Saturday. In perfect racing conditions, she ran a great personal best in 22.55.

Students of the Week

Year 7 – Matthew Campan and Lilly-Rose Garbett

Year 9 – Austin Howell and Nelly Siuchninska

Year 10 – Marcus Jenkins and Roberta Bankes-Fay

Year 11 – Nadia Wisnik and Joe Oborn

Sixth Form – Ben Arscott and Poppy Rogers

House Stars of the Week

Year 7

Brunel – Bali Mudge

Christie – Noah Margetts

Darwin – Logan Watt

Fawcett – Michael Wybd

Harrison – Trent Blackmore

Kitson – Scarlett Hill

Nearne – Alfie Braye

Pengelly – Katie Peryer

Year 8

Christie – Maks Adach

Darwin – Kacper Piwowar

Fawcett – Alana Livermore

Harrison – Eunan Campbell

Kitson – Jade Cook

Nearne – Analais Biggs

Year 9

Brunel – Bastian Johns-Kouadio

Christie – Lydia Bevan

Darwin – Charlie Green

Fawcett – Simon Drost

Kitson – Daytona Vickers

Nearne – Rayan Nafim

Pengelly – Emily Owen

Homework Stars of the Week

Year 7

Brunel – Melissa Page

Christie – Ava Wilson

Fawcett – Autumn Wagstaffe

Harrison – Lee Stevens

Kitson – Tyler Evans

Pengelly – Emily Cooper

Year 8

Christie – Scarlett Huxtable

Darwin – Summer Holmes

Fawcett – Lottie Roberts

Harrison – Mihai Marin

Kitson – Ethan Lynch

Nearne – Layla Broadway

Year 9

Christie – Ema Kestell

Darwin – Jaden Morris

Fawcett – Daniel Billingham

Kitson – Amber Dicken

Nearne – Bartosz Mitula

Pengelly – Scott Knight

Sparx Leaderboards

Tassomai Leaderboards