Events
News
Y9 Awe inspiring end to the season!
Tonight the Year 9 netball team played their final match of the season. The team were in high spirits wanting to put into practice some of the tactics they have been working on since their visit to the national finals. They had two main process goals to achieve: 1. To ensure they started the match at a high intensity, so as not to concede the first goal and 2. To play a holding ball after a turn over.
The girls achieved both goals. They played excellent netball, making fantastic interceptions at the defensive end. Jessica, Keira, Annie and Emma ensured that the Lincoln players were hardly ever allowed a shot and together they regained possession at almost every opportunity. Our attacking players; Emilia, Amelia, Gracie and Poppy played inspiring netball. Their attacking, fast paced drives towards the ball ensured that the ball moved quickly from the centre pass or turnover, into the attacking circle. Poppy and Gracie finished the job putting 17 goals in the net over the opposition.
The Lincoln league rules asks teachers to stop games once a 15 goal difference has been achieved. Therefore the final score was LSST 17- Lincoln 2 after just 12 out of 36 minutes play. A truly awe inspiring performance.
A great finish to an even greater season.
Young Enterprise Awards 2019
On Wednesday 27th March our Year 12 Young Enterprise team took themselves, their product, ‘Tidy Tools’ and their trade stand to Bishop Grosseteste University for the County Final of the competition in the hope of being in with a chance to represent Lincolnshire at the next round, the Regional Finals.
The Priory Academy LSST faced competition from 2 teams from Caistor Grammar, 2 teams from Lincoln Minster and one team from Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School. During the evening, the team were involved in building their trade stands, briefings, a technical run through, an interview with the judges from BGU, The Nottingham Building Society, and RU Group and giving their presentation to an auditorium of the competition, their teachers, business advisors, guests and of course the judges.
There were nine awards on offer on the evening and their hard work and efforts led to them winning the Creativity and Innovation Award and Best Company 2019 Runners-Up Award. Sadly not first, but a close second.
The whole team performed really well and the judges made a point of searching the team out after the event to commend them and had some really praising words to share.
LSST hosts Lincolnshire Schools' Oxbridge Conference
On Friday 22nd March, the Academy hosted our annual Lincolnshire Schools’ Oxbridge Conference. Over 550 Year 11 and Year 12 students and staff attended from twenty four schools from around the county.
The Year 11 presentations focused on being an Oxbridge undergraduate, information about studying either STEM subjects or Humanities/Arts and advice on how to prepare for an application.
Year 12 students had a separate programme and could choose from a dozen workshops available during each of the four each sessions throughout the day. Some were repeated to ensure students could attend all those they wanted. Sessions included advice about making a competitive application and preparing for the interview, alongside advice about applying for specific subjects. Staff and current undergraduates from Oxford and Cambridge Universities presented numerous sessions as did many of our current Year 13 who have just been through the application process.
We were pleased to welcome back many alumni who are currently studying at either Oxford or Cambridge Universities. They are always willing to return and support an event they themselves attended in the past. It is lovely to see them and hear of their progress. We are also very grateful to the many staff from Cambridge and Oxford Universities who travel across the country to take part in the conference each year.
The photo shows the popular ‘The interview and how to survive one’ session – and current offer holders.
Epic International Women's Day
We had the privilege of being invited to an International Women’s Day event at the Epic Centre on 8th of March on behalf of BAE Systems. We heard many women talking about their journey through life. A very inspirational woman spoke about her journey from being a hairdresser to becoming an entrepreneur and starting her own make up brand. We listened while another spoke about her life struggles following her husband’s stroke and their life together dealing with all of the challenges she faced afterwards in order to get where she is now. Both these inspirational women, and many more, spoke at this event, all showing how strong, brave and independent women are. Two of the women came from the RAF and told us how as women engineers they are treated the same as the men with no particular difficulties during their work lives due to their gender.
Into The Woods - our spectacular musical!
On the 13th and 14th February, the cast of ‘Into the Woods’ finally performed following months of hard work and anticipation. Fortunately, the show exceeded all expectations on both nights, with Mrs Hopkinson comparing the Thursday night show to a West End performance!
The set design, hand-painted by Sixth Formers and members of the Art Department, helped to bring the story to life, alongside vibrant costumes from Sheffield Crucible Theatre and props from the LAODS. Hair and makeup looked professional too, including that of the Woodland Sprites whose hair was adorned with blue and green hairspray and leaves. Thanks must also be awarded to the lighting and backstage crews, who were crucial in running the show behind the scenes. The live music also demonstrated students’ exceptional musical talents and, led by Mr Billinger, as pianist and conductor, really impressive.
The quality of drama and singing in this year’s production was second to none, with Cameron T and Lily H portraying the Baker and the Baker’s Wife outstandingly. Congratulations to everyone who starred in this year’s production including Will B, Alyssa B, Catherine B, Erin S and more. This year’s cast were eager to take on the challenge of topping previous academy shows such as ‘Oliver’ and ‘West Side Story’.
The audience much appreciated the show and agreed that it was worth much more than the £5 which the tickets cost! Needless to say, without the tireless work of Mrs Palmer, Mr Craven and Mr Billinger, who organise the academy shows each year, these productions wouldn’t be possible. Congratulations to everyone involved- the cast really outdid themselves once again and we’re looking forward to seeing next year’s musical performance unfold.
Fundraising and Community Team Update
FACT (Fundraising and Community Team) has made an excellent start to fundraising this year. In module 1, the students collected 50 shoeboxes which were delivered to people in need within Eastern Europe. This helped contribute to the largest number of shoeboxes ever sent by Link to Hope. An amazing achievement. Students also got to vote for our international and local/national charity to support this year. Aquaboxes and The Teenage Cancer Trust were the winners of a very close contest.
Module 2 was a busy module with LSST students voting for a charity to support the fact that it was 100 years since women gained the right to vote. Lincolnshire Rape Crisis was the charity that received the most votes and students raised money though a sponsored silence and a ‘Pick a Pankhurst’ game. In total £460 was raised for the charity. Children in Need was another successful event with a non uniform day, bake sale and pin badges being sold raising an incredible £1800 for the charity. There was an incredible amount of donations from LSST students to the local foodbank with 953 items being received and helping to make a difference at Christmas in the local community. Christmas jumper day was another popular event with £859 being raised for the charity supporting the incredible work they do. The first of many events to support the Teenage Cancer Trust was a raffle at the senior prizegiving which raised £134.
Module 3 was yet another busy module with events to support the Teenage Cancer Trust with a bake sale, ‘Hearts for Hannah’, Curry and Quiz evening and Valentine's Day roses all raising money. So far over £700 has been raised with more money still coming in. Masterclass café has been very popular with both students and staff. FACT have served cakes and refreshments each week and have raised over £410. The profits will be split between Aquaboxes and The Teenage Cancer Trust.
Module 4 has seen excellent teamwork which has raised over £2300 raised for Comic Relief to support the international and national work they do. As we head towards the end of the module, FACT are approving proposals for a range of charities before starting fundraising for Aquaboxes.
National Badminton Championships
Today we travelled to Nottingham University to play in the East Midlands round of the KS3 Girls National Schools Badminton Championships. The girls have qualified previously as County Champions and were one step away from representing The Priory Academy LSST at the Nationals. The first matches were against Ecclesbourne and after the first game we felt confident with a win from Alicia 21-13. The girls worked incredibly hard and the first match finished 2 games Ecclesbourne and 3 games The Priory Academy LSST. Whoop whoop, a great start!
We went onto play Iveshead, who qualified for Nationals last year and finished fifth so the games were going to be tough. All teams had lost 5-0 so far so we set a target at winning at least one game. Well done ladies. Final score four games Iveshead and one game The Priory Academy LSST. Our final match was against Oundle and at two games all the last game was set to be tense. After an incredible, well fought singles game from Shakira, the final score was 20-21 to Ecclesbourne.
Well done girls. Third place in the KS3 Girls National Schools Badminton Championships – East Midlands Round. You were close to second and missed out only by a few points but you fought hard!!!
Please congratulate the students on their success.
The National Schools' Netball Final
On Friday night the Under 14 netball squad travelled to Stevenage for the evening accompanied by Mrs Porter, Mrs Bentley, Mrs Swaby and Miss Boothright (external coach and ex-student) in preparation for their early start ready for The National Schools Netball Finals. This is a competition for which The Priory Academy LSST has not qualified in the past 20 years and we were one of three state schools taking part out of the fifty six schools at the competition, so as you can imagine it is an incredible achievement to get to this level of netball and we were so excited to be there! The girls from both Year 8 and 9 were extremely proud and very excited to play at Stanborough High School on the Saturday. They are a group of incredibly talented netball players and could not wait to get on the netball court and play. We took part in 8 games, 7 minutes each way so a total of 112 minutes of netball which is a huge amount of top class netball to keep up. The day was filled with highs of enjoyment, passion, teamwork and resilience throughout but unfortunately umpiring decisions, the weather (gale force winds) and several injuries ensured our final place in the competition.
Final position 18th school in the Nation – just amazing!!!!
A huge well done to all the girls who represented the Academy. We are incredibly proud of the determination and resilience of these girls on the day and look forward to a successful return to this competition in future years….we will be back!!!
Y8s visit Cambridge Botanical Gardens and the Scott Polar Institute
On the 6th and 7th February, Year 8 students got the chance to visit Cambridge Botanical Gardens and the Scott Polar Institute. In the Botanical Gardens the students got the chance to explore biomes including the desert and tropical wetlands. In the tropical rainforest biome, we looked at adaptations that we had studied in Geography including epiphytes, red pigments and drip tips. The students then enjoyed a walk around the gardens, seeing some historical trees including the tallest tree in the park called General Sherman! The students then got to explore some artefacts from Scott's journey to Antarctica and took part in a decision making exercise. There was even a real polar bear skin! The students worked excellently in teams to see how they could have changed Scott's journey and the outcome of his journey.
Geography Trip to Norfolk
On the 27th February the Year 12 Geography students headed to Norfolk. The sun was out as we pulled up at Sheringham Park, where we learnt about environmental management and fieldwork techniques including soil sampling. The students also got to enjoy a walk round the park taking in the views of the coastline. That evening the students learnt how to write a methodology and carry out Spearman's rank. The following day was spent on the coastline, visiting Sheringham, Cley and West Runton to enable us to measure a shingle, sandy, managed and unmanaged beach. The students learnt fieldwork skills such as beach profiles, power's roundness scale and field sketches. In the evening, students learnt how to present data and worked out the correlation between sediment size and distance inland at Cley. On Friday, the students visited Norwich looking at regeneration and social inequality. Again the students learnt fieldwork skills including questionnaires and transects. The students also got the chance to use both primary and secondary data. The students are now applying what they have learnt in Norfolk back in class and getting ready to write an independent investigation.