About my Blog: My Principal’s Blog continues to highlight the range and diversity of experiences and achievements of our students and I am always proud to share their hard work. I update the blog every Friday, which can be viewed on the school website, but for now, here are some of the highlights from this half term:

New Community Officer

Pictured: PCSO Martin Rushworth & PC Gus Honeywill I am delighted to welcome PC Gus Honeywill who is our new Community Officer, having handed over from PC Dan Gouldthorpe (Hele & Pendennis). He will be visiting us regularly each week in future and is looking forward to working with the Academy and engaging positively with the students. PC Honeywill is an ex pupil when the Academy was known as Torquay Community College. He will also be working with us on the Summer School dates during the holidays. I am very much looking forward to working with PC Honeywill at Torquay Academy.

Year 10 Dance Leaders Lead at Mayfield

Pictured: Year 10 Dance Leaders

Our Year 10 dance leaders went to Mayfield to run some sessions with their pupils as part of their creative week. The girls were absolutely brilliant, a real credit to the Academy in terms of enthusiasm and attitude and loved working with their youngsters, although it was a little daunting at first. They also learnt a valuable lesson that any teacher faces: to be prepared to change your plan at a moment’s notice and to always have a Plan B up your sleeve! They coped admirably with this. Mayfield staff thanked the girls immensely for their hard work and commented on how fantastic they all were. Most of them were sad to leave and can’t wait to go again. Well done girls, a great job!

Year 12/13 BTEC Sport Students Welcome James Lyon

Pictured: James Lyon

James Lyon, an amputee and parent of Year 8 student Cerys Lyon, visited the Sixth Form Sport students. James gave the students a wonderfully insightful presentation regarding his life as an amputee and all the sporting achievements he has conquered, including his charity work and his role at Torquay United coaching youngsters with disabilities. Not only was he inspirational, it certainly made all the students think about what can be achieved in sport, regardless of disability.

Year 10 Rounders

Pictured: Year 10 Rounders Team

The Year 10 Girls Rounders team travelled to Stover school to compete in the South Devon Rounders competition. The girls came up against some strong competition but continued to play with an enthusiastic and competitive approach. As the afternoon progressed, so did the girls’ confidence and ability with some excellent individual performances from Eleanor Nixon, Eloise Jackson and Olivia Price all scoring some fantastic rounders. Amy Taylor kept control of the game at bowler and Sydnie Keel made a great catch at back stop. Well done to all involved - it was a great afternoon.

Readathon

Pictured: Year 7 students taking part in a Readathon

Year 7 pupils have been taking part in a readathon to help raise money for a number of children's charities. Reading for pleasure is a huge part of life at the Academy and, as well as reading each morning with the rest of KS3, these pupils have set themselves a challenge to read a number of books over the course of the week. It is fantastic to see the pupils making this effort and helping to raise money for such a worthy cause.

Year 10 Geography Trip Year 10 geographers went to Dartmoor to collect information for their controlled assessment. The assessment involved collecting data about the positive and negative effects of tourism on Dartmoor. Students visited Haytor Rocks and Widecombe in the Moor. The results from both locations will be compared and analysed to determine what the effects of tourism are on Dartmoor. The controlled assessment makes up 25% of the final GCSE grade.

Year 6 Primary Visit A group of 30 Year 6 students from Primary Schools across Torquay spent the day in our school. The students had been highlighted as being anxious about the transition from their Primary schools to our much larger secondary school. The students were supported by selected Year 7 buddies and members of our excellent Teaching Assistant Team. The day was organised by Mrs Jukes, Assistant SENDCo who arranged a variety of experiences for the students including Science, Literacy, Expectations and Team Building exercises. Feedback on the day included:

"All the adults are really nice" "Really nice teachers and friendly students"

"I was worried then my Buddy made me more confident"

"Fun Science and really nice staff" "I made some new friends, I was worried but now I'm

not" "The library is absolutely huge with a lot of books.

You can read millions of books, it’s amazing" "You have awesome experiments in science"

Mrs Jukes said it was a really enjoyable day for all involved.

Year 7 Athletics

Pictured: Year 7 Athletic Squad

The Year 7 athletic squad competed at Torre Valley North against 7 other schools. They produced some outstanding performances, highlighted by Krisjanis Rumnieks and Courtney Sunderland: Krisjanis won the javelin against 13 opponents. Courtney continued her winning streak with a

victory in the 100m. Tanesha Powell deserves a special mention for determination in the 1000m. Despite losing control of her breathing during the first 500m, she refused to give up even though she was in considerable pain. She finished the race supported by her team mates. Superb effort Tanesha!

Year 3 & 4 Athletics Festival

Pictured: Primary Athletics Festival

Torquay Academy as part of the MATCHES partnership hosted the Year 3/4 Athletics Festival. With 90 students from Torre and Warberry attending the morning was a great success. All of the students took part in various activities including running, jumping and throwing events. As always the Year 9 Sports Leaders were exemplary role models to the younger students and ran their events effectively.

Year 9 Rounders Tournament at Trinity School

Pictured: Year 9 Rounders Team

Year 9 girls travelled to Trinity School to compete in the South Devon schools rounders tournament. The girls made a fantastic start beating Coombeshead and narrowly missing out on a draw to Trinity. However, they came up against some strong competition in their

remaining games with some very closely fought matches. Well done to all the girls involved.

3rd Year Criminology Student Visit

Pictured: Criminology Student Visits TA

We were visited by Chris who is a 3rd year Criminology and Justice Studies student at Plymouth University. He has been shadowing Martin Rushworth our PCSO in partnership with Devon and Cornwall Police. Martin volunteered to show Chris the ropes and show him how his role works within the school. Chris left with a wider knowledge of how the police and legal system work within schools and with students. Good luck to Chris with the rest of his studies.

D&T Students creating useful bags

Pictured: Bags designed by Year 9 students

Year 9 students have been working hard in Design and Technology to produce a bag for life. They have been exploring sustainability and the environment whilst learning to cut complex stencils and use screen printing techniques.

Students will go on to develop their skills, extending the complexity of their images and printing in two or three colours to produce high quality products. Well done to all!

Rounders Tournament

Pictured: Year 7 Rounders Team

The Year 7 Torquay Academy rounders team travelled to Stover School to play in a rounders tournament. They played a total of 8 matches during the day and although they only won one of their games, they performed really well as a team in some tough matches. The first game was against Teignmouth Community College where Paige Williams exhibited some fantastic consistent bowling. The match against Paignton Academy & Sports College was much closer, losing to them by only one rounder. The fifth game saw the team record their only win of the day beating Coombeshead College 8 rounders to 6. The whole team thoroughly enjoyed the day and worked hard throughout all matches. Congratulations to Anna Duffen for being awarded Player of the Tournament for her excellent fielding. Well done!

Taunton Dance Festival

Pictured: Jess Tarrant & Beth Rook

Jess Tarrant and Beth Rook took part in the Taunton Festival of the Arts. The festival was a 3 day event which allowed both girls the opportunity to compete in various dances covering a wide range of genres. Both girls danced superbly and were awarded various positions for their phenomenal performances. Jess competed in the Character dance, where she was awarded Silver in the group for her Edward Scissor hands performance. She also came 4th in her Lyrical dance and her Modern dance. Beth also competed in the Character Dance where she was awarded a Bronze medal for her black swan performance and came 4th in her Song and Dance performance. Beth's stand out performances were her lyrical and her modern dances where she performed with style and energy and was awarded gold medals in both. The girls also went on to win a bronze medal for their modern duet.

Girls’ Cricket County Finals

Pictured: Girls’ Cricket Team

There was an exciting U13s Cricket County Final for our girls. Tiverton, South Dartmoor and TA all got through to a very close County final. Lead valiantly by Poppy Bell, the girls bowled well and some great hitting made the games very close, but unfortunately TA just missed out on becoming Devon Champs by a few runs. The most exciting part is all the girls who are in Year 7 can play in the same U13s tournament next year which bodes well for more success in the future. Well done girls!

Cory Raising Awareness on Armed Forces Day

Pictured: Cory Allen with his father

Cory Allen in Year 7 (7SNA) helped raise awareness on Armed Forces Day on Babbacombe Downs for a charity that the whole family have used whilst his dad has been deployed in Afghanistan. Cory’s mum very kindly sent in this information: “Following a very successful and continuous busy day we managed to raise awareness for the charity ‘My daddy is a Soldier Adventures’ but also an impressive £405.00. Cory took charge of the "guess the name of the bear" and "how many sweets" as well as dog tag and wristband sales. He worked all day with us and we are all excited to be returning to the AFD event again next year. Please follow My Daddy is a Soldier on twitter and Facebook.” To find out more information about this worthy charity please visit their website:

www.mydaddyisasoldieradventures.org

Year 11 Prom

Pictured: Students at the Leavers’ Prom

The Year 11 Prom was held at the Livermead Cliff Hotel. The weather was great and students were able to make the most of the outside area for photos. The evening consisted of a dinner and disco. It was a lovely evening and a great way for the Year 11 students to end their time at Torquay Academy, we wish them all the best for the future.

Lexia Success

Pictured: Successful students

A huge congratulations to the students who have completed the Lexia reading programme. Lexia is a part of our extensive literacy intervention and in order to complete the final level students must complete a number of challenging tasks on Latin and Anglo-Saxon vocabulary. We have seen the average reading age of pupils in KS3 skyrocket this year and this is testament to the fantastic work that the students and the literacy team have put in since September.

Year 11 Leavers Assembly

Pictured: Year 11 Leavers’ Assembly

An assembly was held for the 2015 leavers with students coming back into school for the final time to be part of this. Miss Risk, Mrs Powell and Mr Pugh handed out awards and certificates to students and a video made by staff was shown to an appreciative audience. We wish our students all the very best for their future and look forward to welcoming the vast majority back into our 6th Form.

Year 5 Activities Days For two weeks in June we welcomed our local Year 5 pupils into our school. Pupils have visited us from; St Margarets, St Marychurch, Ellacombe, Sherwell Valley, Cockington, Torre, Babbacombe, Ilsham, Barton, Warberry, Watcombe, Homelands, Priory and Shiphay. Pupils and staff have participated in a bespoke activity programme based on fun and learning, with all having an amazing time. These days have been once again a huge success and are invaluable in supporting the transition process between primary and secondary.

Police Commander Visits School

Pictured: PCSO Martin Rushworth, Superintendent

Glen Mayhew & PC Gus Honeywill, the local Community Constable for Hele & Pendennis

Superintendent Glen Mayhew, the Torbay & South Devon Policing Commander, visited the Academy to meet with staff, students and myself. Mr Mayhew was very impressed with the appearance and running of the Academy and commented on how polite the students were.

Year 6 Transition Day Welcoming a new year group of students is always one of the highlights of the year. It was a great pleasure so see so many excited faces when our new Year 7s joined us for Transition Day. They had a wonderful day getting to know their new classmates and having time to become more familiar with the school.

Year 13 Leavers’ Celebration It was with a mixture of joy and sadness that we said goodbye to our first cohort of Year 13 students. We had an assembly at 2pm and that was followed by an evening of Tenpin bowling and a meal at Jingles restaurant. Throughout the whole day and indeed the last two years, the students were a credit to themselves and the Academy. There has been a real

shift in focus with them over the last year and the talk in the common room is now more about University and Gap years than it is about football. Although the subject of us winning the Devon Cup does occasionally come up! All that remains to be said to those leaving is all the very best for the future.

6th Form Hairdressing Competition

Pictured: Sixth Form Hairdressing Students

As part of their Level 1 and 2 hairdressing qualification our Sixth Form girls took part in their annual competition. The standard of entry from all of the girls was very high but as with all competitions there has to be one winner. In the level 1 category Abbie Moody won with an original creation. In the level 2 category this year’s winner was Alanna Darke. All of the girls should be congratulated on the very high standard of their entries and should be looking forward to next year’s competition, although there will be stiff competition from the new students taking hairdressing as their sixth form option.

PSHEe Drop Down Day

Pictured: Activities from PSHEe Drop Down Day

We had our final PSHEe day for this academic year, organised by Miss Martin. The Year 7 and 8 students

were treated to a theatre production by the Soloman Company and then students reinforced their knowledge of drugs and alcohol with sessions in class. The day for the Year 9 students was based on ‘Living in the Wider World’. We had Proud2be and a group of adults with a range of disabilities to look at diversity and difference. In addition to this, issues surrounding ‘Keeping safe’ were addressed by the Fire Service, Linx (mental and emotional health) and Checkpoint (drug and alcohol awareness). PCSO Rushworth with Inspector Costin and PC Honeywill reinforced the issues surrounding sexting. This was co-presented with 'VirtuallyS@fe'. http://www.torbayvirtuallysafe.co.uk/ The Year 10 students’ day was focussed on ‘healthy relationships’. We looked at ways to identify whether a relationship was healthy or abusive, safe sex and the consequences of a teenage pregnancy. Hatty Keane performed to all Year groups across the day as part of the ‘Inspire the Kids Tour’ which involved some of her music. Her manager also talked about how he was born in a poor part of London and through sheer hard work he now owns one of the fastest growing music companies in the UK. Kath Williamson of the Fire Service said “the students were great in terms of their behaviour and attitude and a credit to the school”. Thank you to Miss Martin for arranging this important and very informative day.

Sixth Form Impact Day 30th June 2015

Pictured: Students in Sixth Form

Sixth Form students enjoyed a varied programme of activities based upon investigating into the issues behind the headline stories in the news. They started by spending quality time with their tutors exploring current topics in the news. This led to several intense and stimulating debates. After a session with singer Hatty Keane and her promoter, Michael, finding out about careers in the Music and Media business, students were challenged

to research the issues behind a selection of controversial newspaper articles. Their task was to present the moral, social, cultural background behind the article to their peers and promote discussion amongst the group. The students embraced the challenge and by Period 4 we were all gathered for healthy discussion (and heated debate!). The final session was teambuilding and communication activities. The Egg Drop proved particularly challenging and demonstrated the resourcefulness of our students. “We found the day very informative and interesting as we were able to research events that are taking place around the world. This allowed us to develop our understanding of current affairs. Our team activity session enabled us to work together and have fun, such as the Egg Drop challenge and Human Knot.” Paige, Freya and Shannon.

Summer Extravaganza

Pictured: Artwork and performances

Students, parents and staff had a visual and musical feast of artwork, sculptures, photography, model making and music at our Summer Extravaganza. The music was played on the school bandstand and had everyone clapping and joining in. The exhibits in the school atrium showed what an incredibly talented group of students we have. I would like to thank Mr Brinson, Mr Mathew, Mr Haring, Mrs Lynch and the students for their hard work and the wonderful show of work and performances.

Alpacas in The Bay

Pictured: Our school alpacas

A small team of artists have been working on our KS4 alpaca, these include Sammie Dodsworth, Megan Graham, Angel Harper and Ryan Wheeler. Their alpaca is based on a 'Steampunk' theme and is part machine, part animal. Their alpaca is called 'Sir Hugo of Torbayus Acadamus' The KS3 alpaca has been designed and worked on by a large group of Year 8 students who have worked in intricate detail, exploring 'Zentangle' patterns and designs. The KS3 alpaca is called 'Kawaii' which in Japanese means ‘cute’. Well done to both teams for producing such original, exciting and brilliant completed alpacas. The two alpacas will feature in a big spread in the Herald Express on the ‘Torbay Schools Alpaca Trail'.

Year 7 Assembly

Pictured: Year 7 students

Mr Jones capped off the end of Year 7 with a celebration assembly, to acknowledge all of their wonderful achievements. Oliver Cartwright-Lomax performed a brilliant version of 'See You Again' before all of the students were congratulated for the various successes; from the sports arena to the classroom. Prizes, certificates, trophies and medals awarded to students for the ‘Top 10 Praise point achievers’ who set consistently high standards of work, and demonstrated outstanding effort across all areas of the curriculum, and ‘Star of the Week’ raffle winners - each tutor has

nominated a group member each academic week, and they were all entered into the draw. Winners were Rosin Payne, Natasha Gregory and Charlie Runciman.

Culture and Beliefs – Mock Election

Pictured: Students during the Mock Election

Mr Powell's Year 8s have been busy over the past few weeks creating their own mock political parties. Pupils were asked to form a party and come up with a party identity and manifesto to show what they would do to improve learning at TA. This amounted in a mock leaders debate and final election. Congratulations to the Rainbow Leprechauns on winning the majority vote.

Health & Social Care Cake Sale

Pictured: Students selling cakes

A big thank you to staff and students who have raised money for Cancer Research in our coffee and cake morning. It was a wonderful way to end a very busy term, catch up and enjoy some homemade treats. Well done to the Health and Social Care students who worked hard baking and selling to raise money for a very worthy charity.