Today we had a fantastic “last day” with our Year 11 Class of 2025. This was particularly important for a group of young people who saw the end of their primary school education disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and joined Churchill Academy & Sixth Form in a world of lateral flow testing, bubbles and isolation protocols. They have come through with flying colours and we did our best to give them a proper send-off!
The sun shone, and – once the small matter of an English Language GCSE exam was out of the way – shirts were signed, photos were taken, and smiles were plastered across faces. I gave my traditional leavers’ assembly with its combination of memories, laughs, awards and – hopefully – a few words of wisdom.
The class of 2025 is full of wonderful students – it’s been a privilege to be part of their journey.
This week we said “farewell” to the Year 13 class of 2025. This wonderful group of students has made a huge contribution to the Academy throughout their time with us. They navigated the pandemic in the early years of their secondary education, but weathered that storm to come through strong into their post-16 phase. Their work in impact groups will leave a lasting legacy at Churchill. We will miss them! We wish the Year 13 class of 2025 well in their exams and beyond.
What a night! Following on from the stunning performance of our dancers at Dance Live! with their Let Her Speak piece, Team Performing Arts hit the stage again with the annual celebration of musical theatre that is M Stars!
Expertly hosted by Max, Betty and Madison, the sold-out evening showcased dance, singing and acting; solo, duets, trios and groups; songs from stage, screen and stadium; and students from Year 7 to 13. As a big musicals fan myself, M Stars really hit the spot, including songs from Hamilton, Wicked, Matilda, Grease, Mary Poppins, Tick Tick Boom, Tangled and Frozen amongst many more.
We welcomed back Churchill performing arts alumni Lorin and Tia as our expert guest judges, who awarded the prizes. It really was an impossible choice, such was the array of talent on show – but choose they did! The deserving winners were:
Superstar Winners: Anna and Mia
Dance Star: Leah, Mati and Flo
Rising Star & Audience Award Winners: Billy, Joe and Joey
Acting Star: Will
Group Star: The Year 7 Dance Club
Singing Star: Maisie
Music Star: YUNC (The Band)
Thank you to all the performers for a great evening of entertainment!
And, if you haven’t had a chance to see the Dance Live! extravaganza, feast your eyes on this:
Merry Christmas! We’ve been enjoying our final week of 2024, with a very popular Christmas Dinner on Thursday lunchtime. The last day of term began – as always – with the senior leadership team cooking breakfast for our hardworking staff to say “thank you” for their efforts over the year just gone. The Site Team helped get students into the Christmas spirit by converting their van into a tinsel-festooned mobile disco unit, ensuring that everyone was feeling suitably festive!
After lesson 1, the main school began their festive activities including a house assembly, tutor group activities and challenges, and the all-important Headteacher’s Quiz. Many congratulations to this year’s winners: joint winners SSOM and SHA in the tutor group competition meant that Stuart House triumphed in the inter-house competition!
The Sixth Form, meanwhile, excelled in their fancy dress efforts. They enjoyed a carol service, a photo booth, and the Sixth Form revue which featured some great performances this year!
Please enjoy the photos below, which give you a flavour of Christmas at Churchill 2024.
I wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. See you in 2025!
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.
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!
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!
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 2024The Year 11 class of 2024
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!
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!
We’ve had a great last day of term at Churchill, celebrating Christmas and seeing out 2023 in style. The Sixth Form led the way with their fancy dress parade, carol service and revue, whilst the main school had their carol services at local churches as well as enjoying a range of house and tutor activities – including the Headteacher’s Christmas Quiz! Many congratulations to this year’s champions STUART HOUSE, and the winning tutor group, SLH.
Enjoy some photos from today below – and check out our newsletter for more.
The Headteacher's Blog 