In early June, we were excited to celebrate some fabulous success for Lincoln Castle Academy at the County Schools Athletics Championship. 1st places for Ellarose Whitworth (1500m) and Sophie Hockney (Shot Putt) and close 2nds for Katie Smalley in the 200m & long jump. Across the board, the athletics team were a credit to both themselves and the school badge they proudly wear. We applaud their performances.
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!
It’s cold, wet, icy and foggy therefore it must be Cross Country season. We unfortunately couldn’t attend the qualifying round for this year’s Cross Country Championships but our PE dept were given the opportunity to nominate students to put forward for the District round; luckily our talented students didn’t have to miss out. After nominating Ellarose Whitworth for Junior Girls and Archie Wentworth for Under 13 they were able to attend and compete as part of the Lincoln and Gainsborough schools team. The students ran distances of 2,800m and 3,500m for the cross country at Burghley House on Saturday 15th January. The week’s running up to the event saw both students putting in extra training and amazing effort during PE lessons to be the best and most prepared they could be. Ellarose trained during her lunch hour with Miss Dooley also. Brilliant commitment from both!
Ellarose and Archie went into the event with such a positive attitude and the will to win which was so inspiring for other students and our PE department. Archie competed first at 10am in the worst fog and very poor visibility but he smashed it and came second out of 70 students racing. Ellarose raced at 11:10am so had better visibility but now the course was muddy and slippery. She demonstrated to be a motivated and determined athlete leading the race from the very beginning and finishing in 1st position. Absolutely fantastic!
The aim was for both students to finish in the top 14 to qualify for the next round in Suffolk but by finishing in the top 6 means they automatically qualify for the Nationals which are held in Kent. This shows how resilient, determined and dedicated they are to their running, making their parents and our school very proud indeed. Well done to them both and see you in Kent!
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.
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!
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.