Woodlands Academy:

Year 4 and 5 have been looking at the process of mummification in our history lessons. As part of this process, Ancient Egyptians would dry out the body with natron. In our science lesson we investigated how we could do this using our own “natron” which was salt and baking powder. The children (fully equipped with aprons) took out the organs (seeds and juice) from the dead body (tomato) and then covered it with “natron”. Next the children predicted what would happen to the tomato. Some children thought it would change colour, others thought it would shrivel up. We also have a control tomato with no natron to compare our results. We now just have to wait 2-3 weeks to see the results.

On a cold and wet Autumnal evening, LCA Year Seven football team put in a strong display away to NK, winning 4-0. The team passed the ball precisely, made good runs which challenged the opposition and defended determinedly to keep a clean sheet. It was particularly pleasing seeing the team enjoying each other’s company (before, during and after the match) and showing respect to the opposition and officials throughout. These qualities will not only help them improve as footballers, but also as people. The next game is against a strong Lincoln Christ Hospital team who will provide a good challenge.

The numbers to Year 7 football training (Wednesday evening 3-4pm) have been particularly pleasing with over 20-year 7’s regularly attending. We will try to ensure all year 7 students attending the sessions are included in competitive football in some format this year. Well done to those who have been attending these sessions, fantastic progression has been made already. These sessions will continue throughout the winter months.

Lastly, thank you to North Kesteven Academy for hosting us and also playing the game in great spirit!

Several pupils in Year 7 and 8 represented Healing School by taking part in the UKMT this year. The UKMT is a Maths challenge that pupils across the whole country can take part in, with questions that range from simple to very challenging. Our pupils did brilliantly and received some excellent scores, with some of them receiving bronze, silver or even gold certificates. This means they were in the top 40% of all students that took part across the whole country! Poppy Schofield in Year 8 did so well that she managed to get through to a follow on round – we cannot wait to see how she gets on and will give you an update when we have it. We are very proud of all of the pupils that took part.

Bronze Certificate Winners
Year 7: Ali Ahmadi Aaliyah Azaka Chloe Bevan Ginny Borum William Hadfield Millie Major Kamil Staniszewski
Year 8: Oscar Banks Harry Barber Olufowobi Maya Cass Alex Jucha Liberty Miall Naomi Pannell Darcey Porritt Will Smith Caleb Steadman Callum Williams

Silver Certificate Winners
Year 7: Mohammad Ahmadi Lucy Bulbeck Theo Turner
Year 8: Liam Busby Jorja Emmerson Blake Woods

Gold Certificate Winner and through to follow on round
Year 8: Poppy Schofield

At the end of last year, North East Lincolnshire council organised a competition for local pupils to design a recycling message to go on the side of a new fleet of bin lorries. Year 8 pupil, Maisie Verity had her work chosen for the project and in July, she received a framed print of her work, plus a mini replica model of a bin lorry sporting her design.

Maisie said “It was a complete surprise to find out the council wanted to use my work for their new lorries. I have seen some of the new designs on the lorries, but haven’t spotted mine on the streets yet, so it is nice to receive the mini replica.”

Maisie Verity with her Art teacher, Mrs Elliott, who saw the competition advertised and invited pupils to take part.

Over the last 5 years, Healing school has submitted 15 teams to the TeenTech awards, however, only one previous team has ever made it through to the final… until this year!

The team made up of Year 7 girls, Ellie -Mai Rayworth, Millie Major and Isobel Downing came up with an innovating concept for the Fashion and Technology category. The team presented their business proposal called ‘Slide-ya- Soles’. The idea being that people are able to slide off the soles of their shoes and replace it with another sole such as a trainer, a high heel or even an ice skate!

The girls began developing their concept back in October and continued to work on the project in their own time over the lockdown period. Unfortunately, the girls were unable to travel to London to deliver their pitch in person this year, but took part in a virtual delivery of their idea, competing against many other pupils from across the country.

Ultimately, the team didn’t win, but they did receive an award for ‘Exceptional teamwork during difficult times.’

The Healing school ‘Slide-ya-Soles’ Year 7 TeenTech team: Ellie-Mai Rayworth, Millie Major and Isobel Downing.

We are pleased to announce the return of our LCA Imp this week! Our spectacular painted Imp will soon be in full view for all staff, students and visitors to see. We know you will be IMPressed when you pass through reception!

In March 2020, we embarked upon the exciting Lincoln Imp Educational Trail project, together with the support of The Education Business Partnership and we took delivery of our naked Imp. At that time, we had to put our Imp into hibernation for a while until the organisers re launched the trail this year.

However, we steamed ahead and together with designs from excellent remote learning in March 2020, we too relaunched our Lincoln Imp Design competition in September 2020 on return into school-based learning.

Mrs Innes was thrilled to receive so many IMPressive designs from students in Year 7 all the way through to our 6th Form. It was clear students had really considered the design elements we wanted incorporated into the final design. Our beautiful school uniform played a big part in many of the most successful designs entered. Some students focused on the mission statement and school rules as inspiration, including decorative text and the statements – Learn, Care Achieve, Be respectful, Be safe, Be prepared and Be studious. Our entries from Year 8 students had a clear link to their curriculum learning in Art lessons and used the angular shaped nature of Cubism as a starting point for their designs. In fact, there were so many excellent designs entries it was difficult for Mrs Innes and our Senior Leadership Team to choose one final Imp design. Therefore, in line with our school ethos of working together as a community we felt it fitting that one final design was created from a collaboration of student ideas.

The winning students that contributed to our LCA Imp final design were:

• Mina Hendley
• Patrycja Skowronska
• Beth Chester
• Sharn Hayward
• James Mank

So after several months on tour, our Imp returns from the summer long event held in Lincoln City where 50 Educational Imps have been on display in different indoor venues alongside the outdoor large sculpture Lincoln Imp Trail. Visitors from around Lincolnshire and beyond have enjoyed following the trail, including our staff and students during the summer. It really has been fun hunting down our LCA Imp.

Our Facebook posts have been alive with information throughout the year on the progress of the Imp design competition, the progress of the painting of our Imp by our winning students and of our community enjoying our Imp on the trail.

We acknowledge The Nationwide Building Society in Lincoln for taking great care of our LCA Imp during the summer and thank the manager, Debra Canwell for her support and kind words, ‘we love the Imp, and we are delighted to work with you’.

Thank you to everyone that took the time to create their own Imp Design entry for the competition. It really has been an IMPeccable year for the Art & Design department to be part of such an exciting project!

Mrs Zoe Innes – Head of Art and Design

Lincoln Castle Academy, would like to congratulate Jasmine Ottewell (Year 9) for receiving a place within the Lincolnshire Schools FA U14 Girls Team.

Jasmine is a very energetic, bright, polite and very talented young lady. She takes part and represents our school in a number of sports with great success. With her main focus being football, she was nominated to attend trials for Lincolnshire Schools FA. Across the county they had over 120 nominations for girls within Jasmine’s age group. This is such a fantastic thing for girls’ football in the county and really shows just how quickly the sport is growing, as there hasn’t even been an U14 squad in recent years. After attending three separate trials, and succeeding at every one, Jasmine has secured herself a space on the squad. Amazing.

Mr Jones (HOY) “a huge well done to Jasmine for grabbing this opportunity with both hands. It is such a delight to see her succeeding and representing both herself and the LCA community in such a positive way. She deserves this as she has worked very hard, it is great to see that hard work does pay dividends”

Across the coming year Jasmine will compete in the ESFA Midland Counties League competing against teams such as Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Midlands and Worcestershire. Miss Dooley is hoping to go and watch some of these fixtures as well.

At William Barcroft Junior School we have been exploring the opportunities that open up to us when we work hard as mathematicians in school.  Each year group have learnt about a famous mathematician from our fantastic entrance display.  Year 3 pupils have explored the life of Ava Lovelace and her achievements, Year 4 pupils have learnt about Rosalind Franklin whilst years 5 and 6 investigated the lives of Stephen Hawking and Alan Turing.  Children have been amazed at what can be achieved through being great at maths! Activities in school have included researching and creating a factfile,  playing ‘tell me more’  and writing a letter in role to the Prime Minister.

We also have our very own William Barcrcoft example on our display.  Mr Dawes was taught maths by Mrs Sargent as a pupil and is now our new year 3 teacher! He loved maths at school and went on to study it at university.  Our children have been excitedly talking about their aspirations and what careers they might like to do linked to maths.

We are so pleased with how well the ‘renovation’ of the reception classes has gone.  They have been redecorated including new flooring and a fully repainted.  There has also been loads of new resources, big and small purchased; including a new role play, easels, craft areas, sand and water trays.  The children have loved exploring their new environment and using all the new learning resources; especially the new bricks in the construction area and reading stories in the reading cosy cave.

Disruption to their education caused by coronavirus failed to stop Healing School pupils recording outstanding GCSE results.

Teacher-assessed grades saw 62% record a strong basic pass in Maths and English while 85% achieved a standard basic pass in both.

94.7% of Year 11s recorded a standard level 4 pass in English, with 84.7% achieve the strong grade 5 or above.

In Maths, 86.2% reached level 4 with 64.6% achieving grade 5 or higher.

Strong passes were recorded in two sciences by 64% of pupils.

The school’s Attainment 8 figure, the highest in North East Lincolnshire when performance tables were last produced in 2019, increased further this year to 55.8 while its English Baccalaureate average points score rose to 4.97.

Principal Mrs Dewland congratulated all Year 11s on their achievements.

“I’m incredibly proud of this year group,” said Mrs Dewland.

“They have shown great resilience to overcome the challenges they have faced over the past 18 months.

“I’m confident that their teacher-assessed grades reflect robust portfolios of evidence, which were moderated and scrutinised. Students’ dedication and effort during this challenging time were also exemplary.

“It is important that these pupils are not seen as the ‘Coronavirus generation’. Each are talented individuals who can achieve great things.

“We congratulate them on their achievements and wish them all the very best in their future careers.

“I would like to thank parents and carers for the support given to their child, particularly around remote learning. The partnership between home and school has never been so important.

“I would also like to give a special mention to my staff team. It, too, has faced tremendous challenges but has adapted admirably to ensure each pupil has had the best possible education.”