This term, Year 5 welcomed the Planetarium into our academy. This was an incredible experience and the children were so excited to have a long-awaited visitor in our school. We travelled into space (the Planetarium!) and gazed at the millions of stars that surround us. Lucy, our space guide, gave us a VIP tour of our solar system. She showed us what the planets look like, explained their atmosphere and distance from Earth. Lucy then showed us the phases of the moon using a model Earth and a torch! We learnt so much about how the Earth changes from night to day and different time zones around the world. Our children then discovered the dwarf planets and their locations in our solar system. We didn’t know there were 5; Ceres, Pluto, Makemake, Eris and Haumea.

The Planetarium then became the night sky and we became star gazers! Fascinating stories were shared about how the constellations came to be. The children were given tips on how to spot these magnificent constellations themselves: a few of our favourites being Orion the Hunter, Scorpius the Scorpion and Sagittarius the Archer. Many of our children were so inspired by this that they put their new skills into practice that very night and even sent in photographs on Twitter of Year 5 superstars stargazing!

The Planetarium was only the beginning for us: Year 5 then followed with a full space themed day. We researched each planet in depth, creating a knowledge organiser of facts! We then debated life on other planets and even created our own newly-discovered Planet X. Year 5 were so inspired by the day and the Planetarium was the perfect rocket jumpstart to our Spring topic!

Resilience and determination ensures success at the Anglian Schools Cross Country Championships

Huge congratulations to Archie W. and Ellarose W.  Both competed in the Anglian Schools Cross Country Championships which, to qualify for, is a real achievement in itself.  Just like the qualifying round, the weather was against the competitors.  It was really windy, muddy and the conditions would have been tough for the most hardened and experienced runner.   And yet, two very resilient and determined young people succeeded.

Archie finished 3rd out of the Lincolnshire boys and NATIONALLY finished 13th which is unbelievable.  This is an outstanding result for any student who only started his secondary school career a few months ago.  AMAZING!

Ellarose finished 3rd in the event and is now going on to compete NATIONALLY in Kent next month – WOW!  The community at Lincoln Castle Academy are beyond proud of Ellarose’s achievements, an unbelievable strength and will to win.  Good luck for the Nationals, The PE department will be there to support you!

Healing Primary have had a super few days taking part in the Great British Birdwatch, learning all about wild birds and how to look after them.  We found out that we’ve lost 38 million birds from UK skies in the last 50 years, and we wanted to find out what we can do to help the situation.

This week, lots of bird feeders have been made and children have had great fun in hanging them up all around our school site. It has been fabulous to see how excited the children have been at playtimes, watching various birds flock to the feeders. We even made some feeders to send home so that we could continue this in our own gardens!

We would like to say a huge thank you to Mr Francis for coming in to help us with this; we loved hearing all of  his bird-watching knowledge.

In year 6 this term at Ermine Primary Academy, the children are learning all about world war 2.  They are finding it really interesting and are very engaged in their learning, especially research about evacuees and in their literacy lessons based on Michael Morpurgo’s book Friend or Foe.  Linked to the text in literacy they went on a school trip. They visited Bomber command!

The pupils had a great day learning in a very hands-on way.  They looked at the artefacts, got dressed up in RAF uniforms and learnt all about bravery, sacrifice and remembrance.  Their visit really helped bring to life the events of that era.

The children looked at the exhibition, getting a chance to see real artefacts from the second World War.  They also saw an Anderson shelter and got to see how cramped it was inside. They also spent some time in the peace garden.

To further develop our praise culture and promote the ethos of ‘Success and Happiness for every child’, we have introduced our Tree of Success.  This is to enable the children to share their achievements made outside of school.

All children in the school have had their handprint added to the tree as they are all a part of the success.  Children are then invited to bring in anything from home that they want to share and celebrate their success in.  For example, swimming badges, football medals, learning to ride their bike etc.

The children’s author, Luke Temple visited the school on Tuesday 25^th January and shared his different books with KS1 and KS2.  The children were delighted to have a real author in school and were spellbound as Luke and some brave volunteers acted out extracts from his books. Later in the week, Luke came back to sign books for the children. So many of the children bought books and they are now reading and talking about the stories.

At Lincoln Castle Academy, we have been using Accelerated Reader and STAR assessments for the past four years to develop a reading culture across the school. Each year, we promote and develop challenges to support our students on their reading journey, encouraging students to enjoy their reading at school, and at home.

Over the past three years, we have earned recognition from Renaissance solutions for our commitment to raising reading standards through the use of Accelerated Reader. Firstly, we received a nomination and invite to an exclusive event at Canary Wharf in 2019 – coming runner up in the secondary school category, and highly commended in the project leader category. Following on from this success, Lincoln Castle Academy was invited to become a Renaissance Partnership School, which allowed us to develop ideas and collaborate with other schools to ensure our students received their very best ‘reading diet’.

As the pandemic struck, we adapted to remote education and ensured all of our students had the opportunity to have books delivered from the library to their homes, running topical competitions via Show My Homework, making Accelerated Reader ‘remote-ready’, and ending the academic year with reading-themed gifts and rewards for our top performers – delivered to their homes and enjoyed over Summer. Students responded well, including our virtual World Book Day celebrations.

In recognition of the resilience and versatility demonstrated by our students during this challenging period, the celebration of reading, and the continued use of Accelerated Reader, Lincoln Castle Academy was victorious at the 2021 Renaissance Awards – receiving first place in the ‘Celebration and Achievement’ category. This is a tremendous honour for our school.

Free books were handed out to encourage children’s love of reading in a special initiative adopted by Healing School.

Bookbuzz is a reading programme from BookTrust that helps schools inspire 11 to 13-year-olds.

Pupils choose a book from 17 titles – selected by a panel of experts for their suitability – to take home and keep.

Deputy Area Leader of English and Performing Arts Lindsay Codd thanked Tronox, a global company based on the Humber Bank, for its support in funding the programme.

“This reading scheme creates a wave of excitement among our Year 7 pupils,” she said.

“It ripples around the school from the minute the books are selected to the time they are handed out to read.

“We are grateful to Tronox for its wonderful support with the scheme.”

“Having access to books and reading regularly is such an important experience for children growing up, and the ability to read is a vital life skill,” she said.

“We know that unfortunately it’s not always a given that children have access to books at home, so by giving our support, we hope that we can do our bit to foster a love of reading by giving all children who come into Year 7 at Healing School a book of their own.”

On Friday 10th December, we were very proud when Year 3 took part in a local community nativity play at the Bishop King Christian Centre. The event was attended by ourselves and another local school and was organised by the local churches.

Our children had the main roles of Mary and Joseph, the Three Kings and the Inn keeper. They played their roles confidently, in front of a large gathering from the local community, in the church garden. We were even joined by real live farm animals, courtesy of Nunny’s farm.

Our children wrote prayers and read them aloud and Year 3 sang lots of carols beautifully.

We are a reading school! At EPA, we are busy developing our reading culture. Staff are creating beautiful reading areas in our classrooms and our picture book studies are now on display around our school.