Author: chrishildrew

Welcome back – September 2024

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Welcome back to a new academic year at Churchill! It has been great to see our staff and students as they have returned this week. Our new Year 7 and 12 students have settled really well, and our returning students have come back with a really positive attitude. It’s been a really calm start to the term – long may it continue!

Looking back over the summer, we have much to celebrate and be proud of. Our site team, IT network team, cleaners and a range of contractors have been hard at work upgrading and developing the Academy’s infrastructure.

The Sports Hall has been completely repainted and refurbished, including the changing rooms; our coach loop has been resurfaced; new site security features have been enabled; and every room in the Academy has been cleaned, refreshed, and prepared for the new term. Lots of work has also gone on behind the scenes in IT, improving WiFi, refreshing our systems, and making sure we are ready to go with the best possible hardware and software for our students.

We also celebrated some excellent exam results over the summer, with A-level and GCSE students reaping the rewards of their hard work and dedication with proud smiles – as you can see below. You can read more about the results days on the website: GCSE results and Sixth Form results.

As I write this blog, the summer holiday is already vanishing in the rear-view mirror as we are up and running for the new academic year. Over the next few weeks we have our parent information evenings for each year group as follows:

  • Monday 9th September – Year 11
  • Tuesday 10th September – Year 8
  • Monday 16th September – Year 10
  • Tuesday 17th September – Year 9
  • Wednesday 18th September – Year 12
  • Monday 23rd September – Year 7
  • Tuesday 24th September – Year 13

The evenings will take place in the Academy Hall at 6:00pm. We also have our Presentation Evening next week, and we are looking forward to our Open Evening for future students on Wednesday 25th September. It’s going to be a busy term!

And the winner is…

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Sports Day 2024

What a way to end the term! The sun shone on our postponed Sports Day on Thursday, with records tumbling and house pride in full effect. Three school records fell:

  • Isaac Roper took the Year 7 boys’ high jump record with a height of 1m50cm
  • Gabriel Kordys took the Year 9 boys’ 100m record in a time of 11.51, beating a record which had stood since 1999 (11.74, set by B Handy, also of Stuart House)
  • Olive Leaney took the Year 9 girls’ 800m record

The full list is below:

To accompany the record-breaking, it was HANOVER HOUSE who triumphed, retaining the Tug of War Trophy and lifting the Sports Day Cup for the first time since 2010!

It was a close-run thing though, with 2023 winners Lancaster pushing all the way, and Tudor making a late surge in the afternoon events. The final results were as follows:

You can read the Sports Day newspaper, written and compiled by our student journalism team, online here, and below you can see some photos from a brilliant day:

The House Cup 2024

On the last day of term, we awarded the other inter-house trophies. The results were:

Head of House Challenge Cup: for inter-house competitions (2023 holders: Windsor House)

  • 5th: Stuart House
  • 4th: Tudor House
  • 3rd: Hanover House
  • 2nd: Windsor House
  • 1st: Lancaster House

Academics Cup: for house points, attendance, academic competitions (2023 holders: Tudor House)

  • 5th: Hanover House
  • 4th: Windsor House
  • 3rd: Stuart House
  • 2nd: Lancaster House
  • 1st: Tudor House

The House Cup: overall trophy combining everything (2023 holders: Lancaster House)

  • 5th (214 points): Windsor House
  • 4th (240 points):Stuart House
  • 3rd (290 points): Hanover House
  • 2nd (308 points): Lancaster House
  • 1st (318 points): Tudor House

Congratulations to all the students for their tremendous efforts.

Have a great summer!

Activities Week 2024

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What a week! We’ve had a series of great activities going on, from residential trips to day visits to in-school activities. The activities on offer are educational and enjoyable and can provide new challenges and opportunities for your child to develop the skills gained during their time at Churchill Academy & Sixth Form. We encourage students to try something new for the first time and hope they will discover an interest that they will want to continue in their own time. Students can develop their skills in teamwork, listening, problem solving, leadership, creativity and innovation, as well as trying something completely new and pushing themselves out of their comfort zone.

Staff work really hard for months – even years! – in advance to get everything organised so our students have a fantastic, safe and educational experience, and we are rewarded by the amazing behaviour, engagement and enjoyment of our students.

So, from A to Z (the Azores to the Zoo Project), here are some highlights from Activities Week 2024!

Celebrating Success

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Welcome drinks awaiting the Year 11 class of 2024

This week I have really enjoyed celebrating the successes of our students. This included a fabulous Year 11 Ball on Friday evening, with our students in their finery really letting their hair down after a long and tiring exam season!

It continued into the new week with two of our five houses’ Celebration of Success events, handing out certificates to students who have been nominated by their teachers for their exceptional attitude to learning, effort, or their embodiment of the Academy’s vision and values. Celebrating these successes is a great way to round off the end of the academic year.

I even managed to squeeze in the final of this year’s Spelling Bee, with some terrific spelling on display. This year I fell down on the spelling of “serrefine” (a small forceps for clamping a blood vessel, apparently) but fortunately I was still able to tie the staff competition!

Next week we look forward to Activities Week, with all the excitement that brings! Then we have the final week of term where we celebrate the final three houses, award the Sports Day trophy (weather permitting…) and finalise the House Cup for award on the last day of term. I can’t wait!

Transition 2024

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The music festival under the canopy has kept us entertained this week – including a guest spot from the staff band!

It has been a week of transitions at the Academy. We welcomed current Year 6 students – next year’s Year 7 – for their induction day on Tuesday and their drama day on Wednesday. The new cohort really impressed staff and students alike with their kindness, curiosity and determination as they overcame any lingering nerves to settle in well to the Academy. The threw themselves into their lessons and activities with real enthusiasm and certainly made a great first impression!

The drama day was also really impressive. Our Year 10 student leaders did a terrific job of guiding our newest students through their activities as they developed their skills and completed their devising task, leading to some really impressive performances.

On the same day, we also welcomed new staff into Churchill for their induction. We have some fantastic colleagues joining us in September, and I’m delighted to confirm that all teaching vacancies have filled with fully qualified, expert teachers who will be a great asset to the school and to our students. Many of them were able to stay on and meet the parents of next year’s Year 7s at our parent information evening the same night – despite the warm evening, we had a fabulous turn-out and really lovely feedback from families.

Finally, on Thursday, we welcomed next year’s Year 12 students for their induction. Now in their well-deserved post-exam relaxation season, it was a helpful reminder for our new Sixth Form students of the expectations and preparation required for a positive start to A-levels in September. Needless to say, they were an impressive bunch!

Meanwhile, our current students were excelling themselves with three days of summer music in the festival under the canopy, Duke of Edinburgh teams out on their expeditions, and Strictly Dance Fever wowing the crowds on Thursday evening. Our future staff and students have so many great opportunities to look forward to! And after this week of transitions, I feel like I have a really good understanding of the students and staff who will be joining us in September, enriching and strengthening our Academy even further.

Summer solstice

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Today (20th June) is the summer solstice. The summer solstice is the day with the longest period of daylight and shortest night of the year, when the Sun is at its highest position in the sky. From this date until the winter solstice (on 21st December), days will shorten and nights will lengthen, before the cycle begins again. It is a day of transition, when we move from one phase to another.

The date also marks a transition in the school year. The final public exam took place this week, on 19th June, marking the end of the exam season for another year. Next week, we welcome our new Year 7 and 12 students for their induction days at the Academy, as we look forward to the new cohorts of students joining us. We are already planning ahead for September, moving the Academy forward with our developments and improvements.

Before that, we plan to make the most of our long summer days. We have Sports Day, Activities Week, our work experience week, Duke of Edinburgh expeditions, and our celebrations of success to look forward to before we get to the end of this term. We can’t wait!

General Election 2024 – education matters

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You will all be aware, I am sure, that the Prime Minister has called a general election which will take place on 4th July 2024. Here in school, we will be helping students to engage with the issues at stake, including running a mock election to give all students the opportunity to cast a vote. Canvassing for all the major political parties will be managed by our A-level politics students, giving them a great opportunity to put their learning into practice.

In this blog, however, I am writing to all those eligible to vote in the “real” election on July 4th – all those who are registered voters. We recognise that we serve a rich and diverse community which will encompass the full range of political views, and you will all have issues which matter to you that will influence your vote.

I would ask all voters – no matter your political persuasion – to consider education issues as part of your decision-making. Please ask your local candidates how their parties will support schools with the key challenges facing our sector at the moment: insufficient funding for schools, a fractured and under-resourced system for students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), an overstretched system to support child and adolescent mental health (CAMHS), and a national teacher recruitment and retention crisis. If you meet your candidates, please ask them: 

  • The nation’s children should be provided with a broad curriculum, great support and enriching activities. Is your party willing to fund schools properly so our children have the same opportunities as previous generations?
  • What evidence is there that the education policies in your manifesto will make a positive difference to all children, especially those experiencing disadvantage?
  • What will your party do to ensure that children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities are properly supported in their education and care? 
  • What will your party do to ensure that mental health services for young people are properly funded and able to cope with demand?
  • The current government has consistently missed the targets for teacher recruitment over recent years. What are you going to do to ensure your party will hit the teacher recruitment targets in the future?

I have also been involved with the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) who have designed a manifesto to promote education issues to all political parties under the banner #EducationMatters. You can read the manifesto here.

Finally, it is worth remembering that we are fortunate to live in a democracy where every citizen has the right to help choose representatives to govern us in parliament. I would urge every member of our school community who is eligible to exercise their democratic right and responsibility to vote on July 4th.

D-Day: 80th Anniversary

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Today is the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, which took place on 6th June 1944. D-Day was a pivotal Allied invasion during World War Two, marking the start of the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi occupation. Over 150,000 troops from the United States, Britain, Canada, and other nations landed on five beaches in Normandy, France, facing intense German resistance.

D-Day was the first day of Operation Neptune, a naval assault on the Normandy beaches,
and was part of the larger Operation Overlord – the largest sea and airborne invasion in history. Operation Overlord involved extensive planning, deception tactics (the Germans were misled into thinking the Allies would attack further east, near Calais), and airborne assaults. Despite heavy casualties, D-Day was a crucial success, leading to the eventual defeat of Nazi Germany.

Map of the D-Day landings

Alongside the naval assault, paratroopers landed behind the enemy lines to seize key roads and bridges to support the operation. In total, the operation included 11,000 aircraft as well as thousands of ships.

Into the jaws of death: allied troops landing on Omaha Beach on 6th June 1944

By the end of the day on 6th June 1944, the Allies had landed 156,000 troops ashore, but historians estimate that around 2,500 Allied troops had been killed.

Lieutenant James William Rollo Hildrew

I have a personal connection to D-Day, as my grandfather, James (Jim) Hildrew supported D-Day as part of the Royal Navy. He was involved in Operation Pluto, which stood for “pipe line under the ocean,” an operation to build submarine oil pipelines under the English Channel to support Operation Overlord. These pipelines supplied fuel from the south coast of England to the tanks, trucks and transports landed in France – an incredible engineering operation.

Every year I remember his contribution to the war effort and the freedom we now enjoy. He – amongst the thousands of others involved on the beaches, in the air, at sea and behind the scenes – helped to turn the tide of the war and bring an end to hostilities. When peace was eventually declared, my grandfather returned to his job as a teacher and, ultimately, headteacher – a family tradition I am proud to uphold.

The Class of 2024

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We have now said “farewell” to the Year 13 and Year 11 classes of 2024. Both groups are now on study leave, working hard on revision and preparation for their exams – which are already well underway.

Both year groups have been through the upheaval of the pandemic during their time at Churchill, and both have come through into wonderful groups of young people. They have shown kindness, curiosity and determination aplenty – and we are really proud of them all!

The Year 13 class of 2024
The Year 11 class of 2024

The five houses

Year 11 last day 2024

Real audiences

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This week I’ve been proud to see two great examples of our students’ work finding real audiences and connecting with our communities in different ways.

Celebrating Ukrainian Art

Firstly, our students’ art work is on display in an Art Show in Weston-Super-Mare: ‘Ukraine Art Fusion – Artwork celebrating the Artwork of Maria Prymachenko’.

This free collaborative exhibition showcases work from Churchill Academy and Sixth Form alongside a range of other participating schools is being held at the Tropicana in Weston-Super-Mare from 15th-19th May 2024, 10am – 5pm and it is open to the public.

The UK Refugee Resettlement Team invited all schools across North Somerset to participate in an exciting project studying the beautiful artwork of Maria Prymachenko (1909 – 1997), the national artist of Ukraine.

She was a self-taught artist who produced brightly coloured artwork in a folk art style known as Naïve Art, based around themes in nature such as flowers, trees and a range of animals. She explored a wide range of art techniques such as painting, textiles and ceramics. Pablo Picasso visited an exhibition of her work in Paris and said, “I bow down before the artistic miracle of this brilliant Ukrainian.” The Saatchi Gallery in London held an exhibition of her amazing work last year. Maria’s artwork brings happiness, joy and a sense of hope.

At Churchill we have combined students’ work together to make larger art pieces as there was a limit to how many artworks could be submitted. We asked students to make an art work of a flower, leaves or bird in paint, drawing or collage. These separate artworks were then cut out and collaged together on brightly painted boards. We have used birds and flowers that can be seen on the Churchill Academy & Sixth Form campus or in the surrounding areas, and the colours used on the boards represent the Academy’s five houses. We felt these colours linked well to those used by Prymachenko and also helped to tie in our Academy to the project. We hope to display the artworks in a prominent place in the Academy after the art show, along with the students’ artwork we couldn’t fit onto the collages submitted. You can view our collages below – but this is no substitute for heading to the Tropicana to see them for real!

Podcasting about the risks of social media usage

Secondly, our Year 9 students recently completed an interactive media workshop with the North Somerset Violence Reduction Partnership and Collaborate Digital around the risks to young people of their social media usage. Our students made some great podcasts at the time, and one of them has been selected as a finalist to go to the public vote!

The online public vote begins on Friday 17th May. The winning school will be the one with the most votes a week later and will receive a trophy in recognition of their efforts. Please support our students by voting for their entry in the competition at the Collaborate Digital website!

We are all so proud of our students for expressing themselves so confidently and creatively, in both projects – and connecting with our communities in doing so. Well done to all of those involved!