It’s official!
TGGS have again been ranked in the Top 10 of Secondary State Schools in the South West - stretching from Gloucester down to Lands End.
This is testament to the enduring brilliance of our staff, students and wider community!
FUNDRAISING FOR CHILDREN IN NEED
Our Year 11s organised, baked and ran a cake sale today in aid of Children in Need.
Head of Year 11, Ms Saunders, is seen here proudly showing off her buns decorated to match her T shirt. Well done Ms Saunders 😁
With around ten tables, brimming with cakes, it's no wonder the proceeds bucket is so full. Well done everyone! (£241.85 raised).
On top of the proceeds of the bake sale, we also raised a whopping £833.00 from the non-uniform donations.
So, in total, we raised £1,074,85 for Children in Need !!
Well done everyone 😁
CAREERS TALKS
14th November was a day for careers talks.
We had three STEM speakers from the Bio Science team at the University of Exeter, Professor Ivana Gudelji and her two technicians. The three spoke to year 11 and sixth formers about their different routes into their roles and the importance of Maths in Biological research in the spread of plant diseases. The year 10s then did a workshop about Maths in evolution by studying game theory to understand cooperation in organisms.
We also hosted Chloe Farrent, a local artist designing a mural for Exeter University based on Ivana's work. She met with budding artists to talk about her career path from a primary school teacher to an established artist. Then our sixth form artists did a workshop looking at the design of the mural, giving ideas and design that could be included!
IMPREZZA UPDATE
We were very kindly joined by Chris Hulme, Chair of Operation Imprezza, for two assemblies this week. Imprezza is a school in Kenya which we have supported through fundraising for over 20 years now.
Chris spoke to all students across all years about life at the school, what the latest TGGS fundraising had been used towards and the next initiative to fundraise for!
Imprezza, which has boarding students, would like to grow their own crops and keep their own animals but need to install a fence around the land to stop thieves from stealing everything.
Needless to say, the fundraising campaign is underway!
8 November 2024
A visit by Beyond Face Drama Group
Our Year 10 students were treated to a performance by visiting drama group Beyond Face yesterday, who performed 'Sitting in the Grey'.
Sitting in the Grey is a story about the disconnect between adults and young people; about power and a desire for change; it explores how necessary it is to take action and not be a bystander and is designed to engage students in important conversations about identity, communication, racism, climate change, and friendship.
Well, it did all of those and more! Students were engaged throughout and highly entertained by the artist in the stripy top vocalising social media feed with scrolling sound effects - brilliant! 😂
Thank you so much to Beyond Face for a fantastic performance!
8 November 2024
INVALUABLE HEALTHCARE MULTI-MINI INTERVIEW PRACTISE...
Our year 13 prospective healthcare students (including veterinary) were given the opportunity to take part in multi-mini interview practice yesterday, which is common for healthcare interviewing and used by lots of universities.
Staff were very kindly joined by Dr David Gay, to assist in the process of speed interviewing, to assist students in being able to function rapidly in a high pressure environment.
Students worked their way through a carousel of stands including 'recent developments in own field', 'calculations', 'giving bad news', 'ethical debate', 'role play' and 'giving directions and taking instructions' (blind lego making!) Sarah Forster was interviewing the prospective dentists (we have 6 this year!)
Thank you to Alastair Endersby for organising, Dr Gay and staff for giving our students this invaluable experience.
7 November 2024
ANNIE!!
Here's a snippet of the incredible TGGS production of Annie, shown before October half term. It was a show-stopping performance!
Challenge Day - Autumn Term
Yesterday's Challenge Day was fun for all with trips out to Plymouth, We the Curious in Bristol and Morwellham Quay, with other year groups in school having self defense lessons, careers talks and pumpkin carving!
Year 9s enjoyed hands on fun at We the Curious in Bristol - interactive Science fun. Here they are enjoying the flight, bubble exhibits, and trying to make themselves invisible!
Meanwhile. we're sure Plymouth could hear the screams of year 8s at Morwellham Quay, especially when it came to the mine train and sleeping dummy in the miner's cottage (pictured here), which did look very lifelike TBH !!
24 October 2024
Space Weather Physics talk!
Students were very fortunate today to have a lunchtime talk from Dr Edmund Henley of the Met office, on space weather physics!
The most recognisable and visible space weather effect is, of course. the auroras (Northern and Southern Lights)!
Students learnt about the causes and different types of space weather, including solar flares and radio blackouts (where, during a solar flare, the ionosphere absorbs rather than reflects signals resulting in disrupted communication systems)... you learn something new every day!!
It was a thoroughly fascinating talk - thank you so much Dr Henley 
8 October 2024
Languages Week 2024
Languages Week at TGGS, based around European Day of Languages which is celebrated across all of Europe every 26th September, was a buzzing week of flag making, treasure hunting, quizzing AND a very highly contested Duolingo competition!!! (there was a separate staff one too 
)
The leaderboard changed daily and Henrietta Carpenter in Year 8 eventually came out on top. As her prize, Henrietta got to choose a book in the language of her choice, so went away with a book of Spanish short stories and some chocolate to enjoy whilst reading!
Our Hockey teams are on fire!!
Following the recent Hockey successes of Years 7 and 9, our Year 10s competed in the Devon Round of the U16 Hockey National Schools competition and came 2nd (1 point behind 1st place!!), meaning they have qualified for the Regional Rounds next month!! An
absolutely amazing achievement against some very tough opposition. 
This is a first for TGGS in many, many, MANY years; we are so very proud of our team! Good luck to them at regionals 
4th October 2024
Charles Courtenay, 19th Earl of Devon talks History and Politics!
On 20th September we welcomed Charles Courtenay, 19th Earl of Devon, to TGGS who very generously gave up his time to talk to our A Level History students, our A Level Politics students and any other students interested in politics!
The Earl gave a very detailed account of his fascinating ancestry (with links to Henry VIIII) and how the Title was not a straightforward line of succession by any means !! He then gave a talk on how the Earldom has always been linked to politics in more ways than one..
A very engaging and interesting talk; thank you so much Mr Courtenay.
Sports Day 2024
There was a friendly, competitive vibe at Sports Day yesterday.
Everybody got into the spirit and decorated themselves in house colours, as it is as much about the decoration as it is about the events!
The final event of the day was the staff relay which is all for students' amusement of course and not competitive at all... 😂
Endless events, banners, face/body paint and fancy dress outfits later, Sports Day was eventually won by Jackson House; well done Jacksonites 🏆
A model to beat all models !!
Here is the winner of the Year 9 Geography competition - to produce a model showing the layers and plant adaptations of a rainforest.
A massive well done to Isla Wilson - the time taken, detail and effort is all too obvious!! Absolutely amazing 🤩
Swimming Success!
Our Year 9 student, Aela Farquharson, continued her swimming success at the weekend when she represented TGGS at the English Schools' National Summer Championships in London.
She had a fantastic weekend with some great PB's resulting in her winning 3 gold medals and 1 silver medal (that's a bit of weight around her neck)
:
Gold 
:
-200m Butterfly
-400m Freestyle
-200m Freestyle
Silver 
:
-200m Individual Medley
In addition, Aela has also qualified for English Nationals in the 200m Butterfly which will be held in Sheffield later in the summer. This means that she is ranked as one of the quickest girls in the country for this particular event (in her age group).
That is an absolutely Outstanding achievement - well done Aela on your continued success and for all the hours of dedicated training. 
Where next...? Los Angeles 2028???
RNLI 200 Year Art Challenge 
Back in early Spring, Torbay RNLI’s Lifeboat Crew challenged 200 students aged 8 - 16 years, from 13 local schools to paint a collage of the station’s Severn Class All-weather Lifeboat moored up in Brixham Harbour - 20 of our year 8 students were involved.
For the '200 Year Art Challenge', to mark the RNLI's 200th year anniversary, students were assigned a random 10cmx10cm section of a large photo (200 pieces in total) and asked to paint what they saw in their given section.
The result is an incredibly imaginative, colourful and stunning collage, which now resides proudly outside the RNLI King’s Quay building, Brixham. Our own Mr Smedley seen here, giving a sense of scale of the piece!
Well done to everybody involved in this project - the idea and results are simply amazing, and a great reflection of the hard work and creativity of all the schools and students involved. 🤩
Sporting successes!!
We had 19 students trial at the South Devon Area Athletics Trials recently and 9 of those students have qualified for the Devon rounds in June (apologies for Mrs Greaves' photobomb!!).
Secondly, the picture below and right is from the Area Softball Cricket Tournament. Our A team won and have qualified for the Devon round at Exeter University in June!
Our batter of the day was Zara Joseph, Bowler of the Day was Nahla Hussain and Fielder of the Day was Frankie Lee.
Well done everyone!!
Ten Tors
Well, what a weekend it was for the Ten Tors teams but unfortunately it was far too hot.
Our four 35 teams made it across the finish line, with only one fallout.
Our 45 mile team were picked up at an incredibly busy Postbridge medical centre at midnight Saturday night, where medical teams were stretched coping with the number of participants who were suffering from heat exhaustion.
Our 55 mile team made it to Nodden Gate (within touching distance of the finish, having already walked at least 48 miles but were told they couldn't continue as they wouldn't meet the cut off. Unfortunately they had been held back for 1 and a half hours that day, whilst a teammate was airlifted off, or they might well have crossed the finish line.
All teams did tremendously well, under the incredibly difficult conditions and all definitely deserve a medal !!
Eloise Zaleski in Year 7 wins Spark nationwide Poetry Competition!!
Back in March, some of our students entered the Spark Poetry Competition run by the book award team, which is a national poetry competition. Students write a poem inspired by either reading one of the books for the year’s Spark! Book Awards, or simply through using the cover or title for inspiration.
We are absolutely delighted to announce that Eloise Zaleski in year 7 has been judged as the winner, out of all of the nationwide entries !!!
Eloise will now been invited to record her poem for the winners' ceremony on 5th July.
Such an amazing achievement, well done Eloise! 🤩🥳👏
Year 13 Dartington Leavers 'Do'
In time honoured tradition, we celebrated the end of our current Year 13’s journey with TGGS at Dartington Hall. The atmosphere was highly charged with emotions as staff and students said their heartfelt goodbyes.
Students were joined by family and friends for an inspirational evening of music, memories, and exciting plans for next steps. All performances and speeches were exceptional, and the evening drew to a close with all students taking to the stage to sing the school song for one final time.
Anthony Mangnall, MP gives inspirational talk
We were very kindly joined by Anthony Mangnall, MP for Totnes today, who came in to speak to any students interested in politics.
He arrived to a packed, engaged audience and invariably they ran out of time but students were given an insight into his daily life as an MP, his experiences which help him to carry out his duties, he passed on some useful advice to any students looking for a career in politics and took a Q & A session.
Thank you Anthony for your time and for this invaluable insight given to our students!
What a busy week and World Book Day pics!
It's been a busy week @ TGGS this week - year 10 exams, bikeability, Student Council meeting, Radiographer lunchtime talk for Medsoc, World Book Day and student values awards (and it's not even the end of the week yet).
Sarah has been busy mentoring year 11 students for weeks, planning and wearing her World Book Day clues today (she was Matilda - the book) and also continuing her rewards today for student collaboration, with no less than 18 students enjoying their hot chocolate and cookie break.
What a fantastic World Book day it's been; we have seen some incredible student and staff costumes - minions, Sherlock Holmes, The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Ms Bloomfield), Room on the Broom (Mrs Stacey), the Mad Hatter, Cruella de Vil (Dr Sweet), Lyra Belacqua from his Dark Materials, a group of pencils and an Oompa Loompa!!
Brilliant effort everyone!!
Year 8 Hockey success!
Our first Hockey CVL of 2024 was a success!
Our teams played 3 games, won 2 and drew 1.
They all played incredibly well as a team and scored a total of 8 goals. Bria was voted player of the match for all 3 games!
Well done all!
Torquay students hunt for the Higgs boson at CERN
Students from TGGS have been inspired by a visit to CERN, home of the Large Hadron Collider.
During the visit on 8th December 2023, the students discovered how CERN is helping to answer some of the most fundamental questions; how did the Universe begin? What are the basic building blocks of matter?
Scientific breakthroughs such as the discovery of the Higgs boson require experimental machines on the large scale, and the students gained an appreciation of the technical and engineering challenges that the multinational experimental collaborations at CERN face.
Mr J Castillo, head of Physics at TGGS, said, ‘I would recommend the visit to anyone having an interest on physics in general. It was a very interesting and informative tour which links very well with our Physics teaching at A level. Our students were able to visit not only the control room site at CERN and the ALICE detector site but also the new exhibits buildings with interactive scientific demonstrations to gain a much better understanding of what happens in this cornerstone of modern science. In fact, as a result of this visit some of our students dream about the possibility to work at CERN in the future’.
The UK has been a member of CERN since the organisation was founded in 1954. Membership allows British researchers to take a wide variety of roles that contribute to CERN’s on-going success; from recently qualified technicians and university undergraduates gaining their first taste of working in an international environment to PhD students analysing experimental data and experienced engineers and physicists leading projects or representing their experimental collaborations. The TGGS students’ visit was led by a member of the CERN community who talked from personal experience about their contribution to CERN’s research programme.
STFC’s Executive Chair, Professor Mark Thomson, said “The scale of the science and technology at CERN is awe-inspiring. There is no doubt that seeing it at first hand, and meeting the people who work on the experiments, can influence young people’s future education and career choices.”
TGGS students organise another successful Charity Week!
We've enjoyed another hugely successful TGGS Charity Week this autumn term! As usual, each of our five Houses had one lunchtime to raise as much money as possible for their elected charity!
Each House impressed us with their energy, enthusiasm, creativity, entrepreneurship, and collaborative skills as they came together to sell cookies and cupcakes, handmade accessories, Christmas decorations, bookmarks, edible treats, and hand blended smoothies! They also enjoyed games such as 'sponge the teacher' and 'guess the name of the teddy'!
Here are the results of our fundraising:
Beal raised £305.95 for Cancer Research
Cross raised £330.12 for War Child UK
Jackson raised £336.21 for Save the Children
Robertson raised £383.57 for British Red Cross
Wilkinson raised £341.92 for Mind
That’s a grand total of £1, 697.77 raised by our TGGS students, all through their own initiative and hard work, to be donated to their chosen charities! Well done everyone! You should be proud of your achievements!
Outstanding Ofsted result! 
Torquay Girls’ Grammar School students, staff and Trustees are celebrating after being graded ‘Outstanding’ in the recent Ofsted Inspection in November, lasting two days.
The news comes hard on the heels of the school being ranked 2nd in Devon and 6th in the South West by the Sunday Times Parent Power Schools Guide 2023.
The school achieved ‘Outstanding’ across the five main elements of the inspection – quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management and Sixth Form provision.
This places Torquay Girls’ Grammar currently as the only secondary school to have an Outstanding judgement in the whole of Torbay, Teignbridge. South Hams, Plymouth, West Devon and beyond, up to Exeter.
Not previously inspected since the old Ofsted framework in 2011, the report from an inspection in November 2023, summarises that "Pupils fulfil their potential at this school. In each subject, ambitious content is carefully selected for pupils to learn". The report also states that "The school continually strives for excellence" and "The school takes a deliberate approach to pupils' moral development and character. Opportunities for pupils to lead and volunteer are exceptional." Important recognition was also given to "At all levels, leaders are driven to provide the highest possible standards, including for disadvantaged pupils . The trust board is committed to widening access to the aspirational culture that the school provides".
Commenting on the school’s work with children with special educational needs, the inspectors commented "The needs of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are rapidly identified. The curriculum is adapted to meet pupils’ needs from the outset. Therefore pupils with SEND learn successfully."
The full report can be be read here.
In order for the quality of education judgement to be outstanding, the school must meet all of the good criteria securely and consistently and it must also meet the additional outstanding criteria:
Quality of Education
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The school’s curriculum intent and implementation are embedded securely and consistently across the school. It is evident from what teachers do that they have a firm and common understanding of the school’s curriculum intent and what it means for their practice. Across all parts of the school, series of lessons contribute well to delivering the curriculum intent.
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The work given enables pupils, over time and across the school, to consistently achieve the aims of the curriculum, which is coherently planned and sequenced towards cumulatively sufficient knowledge and skills for future learning and employment.
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Pupils’ work across the curriculum is consistently of a high quality.
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Pupils consistently achieve highly, particularly the most disadvantaged. Pupils with SEND achieve exceptionally well.
Behaviour and Attitudes
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Pupils behave with consistently high levels of respect for others. They play a highly positive role in creating a school environment in which commonalities are identified and celebrated, difference is valued and nurtured, and bullying, harassment and violence are never tolerated.
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Pupils consistently have highly positive attitudes and commitment to their education. They are highly motivated and persistent in the face of difficulties. Pupils make a highly positive, tangible contribution to the life of the school and/or the wider community. Pupils actively support the well-being of other pupils.
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Pupils behave consistently well, demonstrating high levels of self-control and consistently positive attitudes to their education. If pupils struggle with this, the school takes intelligent, fair and highly effective action to support them to succeed in their education.
Personal Development
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The school consistently promotes the extensive personal development of pupils. The school goes beyond the expected, so that pupils have access to a wide, rich set of experiences. Opportunities for pupils to develop their talents and interests are of exceptional quality.
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There is strong take-up by pupils of the opportunities provided by the school. Disadvantaged pupils( including those with SEND), consistently benefit from this excellent work.
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The school provides these rich experiences in a coherently planned way, in the curriculum and through extra-curricular activities, and they considerably strengthen the school’s offer.
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The way the school goes about developing pupils’ character is exemplary and is worthy of being shared with others.
Leadership and Management
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Leaders ensure that teachers receive focused and highly effective professional development. Teachers’ subject, pedagogical and pedagogical content knowledge consistently build and develop over time. This consistently translates into improvements in the teaching of the curriculum.
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Leaders ensure that highly effective and meaningful engagement takes place with staff at all levels and that issues are identified. When issues are identified, in particular about workload, they are consistently dealt with appropriately and quickly.
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Staff consistently report high levels of support for well-being issues.
Sixth Form Provision
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The work that sixth-form students do over time embodies consistently demanding curriculum goals. It matches the aims of the curriculum in being coherently planned and sequenced towards building sufficient knowledge and skills for future learning and destinations.
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The impact of the taught curriculum is strong. Students acquire and develop high-quality skills and produce work of a consistently high standard.
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Sixth-form students demonstrate consistently highly positive attitudes and commitment to their education. They have consistently high levels of respect for others.
- The sixth form consistently and extensively promotes learners’ personal development. The sixth form goes beyond the expected, so that learners have access to a wide, rich set of experiences that teach learners why it is important to contribute actively to society. This is achieved through activities that strengthen considerably the sixth form’s offer.
TGGS 2nd in Devon and 6th in South West for academic results!!
Torquay Girls’ Grammar School students, staff and Trustees are celebrating after being ranked 2nd in Devon and 6th in the South West for academic results by The Sunday Times, in the ‘Top Secondary State School’ category, which has been published today.
In addition, we are placed 101 nationally!
Ten Tors training commences!
It was the first Ten Tors training walk of the season on Saturday, for our 35, 45 and 55 mile teams..
What a beautiful, frosty, cold morning it was too, up at Fernworthy Reservoir, where it resembled a winter wonderland!
Here's our 55 mile team in training..
The results speak for themselves!!
This year's Progress 8 values have recently been published in the Government’s Inspection Data Summary Report (IDSR) and are cause for celebration! Progress 8 is a way of measuring the progress that students make across 8 subjects, including English and Maths, from the end of Year 6 to when students sit their GCSEs at the end of Year 11. 
The higher the score, the more progress they have made compared to students who were at a similar level in Year 6. The national average is 0. Our Progress 8 value is 0.5 which means that our Year 11 students achieved, on average, half a grade higher, with our prior middle attainers (at Year 6) alone gaining over 1.15 grades higher than the national average. Other progress scores which were also significantly above the national average included the Humanities (0.9), Languages (0.7) and Sciences (0.7).
These fantastic results continue into our Sixth Form where our A Level results average point score, across all measures, of 41 is significantly higher than the national average of 34.
Well done to all the students and staff whose hard work is clearly reflected in these outstanding results.
