Events
News
Big Win for Castille in the Priory Academy Chess Tournament 2019
Ten students competed in the academy chess tournament this year, from years 7 to 9. They played a game each lunchtime for a whole week, thereby earning points to determine the overall winners. Coincidentally, both the winner and the two students who tied in second place are in Castille and between them have won the house 50 points! The students who tied in third place were in Avalon and Alexandria and won 10 house points each, leaving Sempringham the only house to miss out.
Some excellent games of chess were played during a most enjoyable week and Mrs Hopkinson joined us to congratulate the winners. Well done to everyone who participated.
If you enjoy playing chess, come along to Chess Club in the library (3.05 – 4pm Thursdays) and you will be welcome to enter next year’s tournament.
Year 9s take part in SPARK! Engineering Festival 2019
On Friday 3rd May, eleven Year 9s received the opportunity to visit Lincoln Cathedral for the SPARK! Festival which aimed to encourage young people to pursue STEM careers. Throughout the day, we participated in workshops and activities on behalf of Siemens, University of Lincoln and other organisations that introduced us to the concepts and application of engineering from the past, present and in the future. For example, we were challenged to program robots to follow certain routes, were taught the principles of flight and the reasoning behind the Magnus effect as well as participating in many more intriguing topics and activities. Being able to talk with specialists in their field has allowed us to consider the importance of engineering in the world and the surplus of interesting opportunities and solutions it offers. The day ended with a successful attempt to build a version of Tower Bridge out of K’nex which would be able to support a model car by using the concepts of a cable-stayed bridge we had learnt about during the day. Overall, it was an extremely engaging and inspiring experience that we all thoroughly enjoyed, making it the ideal way to end the week.
Witch trials and gothic horror!
On Thursday 25th April, horror author William Hussey visited The Priory Academy LSST and gave students an insight into the roots of horror writing and the gothic tradition, as well as leading some creative writing workshops.
He staged a mock witch trial with Year 8 in which he played the part of the historical witch finder Matthew Hopkins and some students played the ignorant accusers and the unfortunate accused individual. We learned that in the 17th century the person suspected of practising witchcraft would have undergone horrible tests, and whether they confessed or not were equally unlikely to survive the process. When the audience was invited to vote on the victim’s guilt or innocence, we were asked to put ourselves in the place of superstitious 17th century country folk so most people condemned him. The few who found him innocent were told by the witch finder that they, and their families, would now be under investigation. You really couldn’t win with these witch trials!
Year 10 were treated to a fascinating talk on gothic literature and how novels like ‘The Castle of Otranto’, ‘Frankenstein’, ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ and ‘Dracula’ chimed with readers’ fear and uncertainty about new ideas and scientific discoveries, particularly Darwin’s theory of evolution, and new social and health problems caused by the industrial revolution. At the end of the talk, some brave volunteers came up on stage and put on silly wigs and disguises to play the parts of Count Dracula and Van Helsing in a quiz to test how well people had been listening.
Author visits always give us something to think about, inspire some creative writing and hopefully will send some students to the Library in search of some of these gothic novels to borrow!
Praise and congratulations from Department of Education
The Rt Honourable Nick Gibb, MP and Minister of State for School Standards has recently written to all at The Priory Academy LSST to congratulate them on the success of students achieving a commendable set of results in both Ebacc and MFL subjects. Both provide " a sound basis for a variety of careers beyond the age of 16 and can also enrich pupils' studies, giving them a broad general knowledge that will enable them to participate in and contribute to society"
Our commitment to MFL alone puts us in the top seven percent of all state funded mainstream schools.
Letter from the Rt Hon Nick Gibb, MP
Golf County Champions
On Monday 29th April a team of three from LSST travelled to South Kyme Golf Club to compete in the Lincolnshire Schools Golf Competition. The course was in wonderful condition and the weather looked set for good scoring. The competition was strong with 15 teams competing and over 50 individuals all attempting to be County Champion. After some strong scoring across the field and a long wait in the clubhouse afterwards whilst all the scores were tallied I am pleased to announce that in the individual competition:
Teigan finished as third placed female
Elliot finished as second placed male on countback
In the team competition The Priory Academy LSST finished in first place, claiming the title of County Champions and securing a place at the National Finals to be held at Woodhall Spa in July. Well done to Teigan, Elliot and Craig.
Easter Cake Cook-a-long Competition
Congratulations to all those who took part. As ever the standards of cooking and presentation were extremely high, thus making the job of picking the winners such a tough decision to make. All participants will receive house points for their house. Keep an eye out for the next cook-a-long competition coming soon. The Easter Cake cook-a-long results are as follows:
Student Cakes – Michael D Avalon
Student Cake Presentation – Imogen L Sempringham
Student background decoration – Jack D Alexandria
Special effort awards – Charlotte F Castille
Team Maths Challenge
On Monday 25th March the Priory Academy LSST hosted the regional final of the UKMT’s Team Maths Challenge in which a team of four LSST students competed against 24 other schools' teams from the Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire region. The Priory LSST team consisted of Matthew, Abigail, Athena and Alex taken from two year groups. All four members of the team worked extremely well together throughout each of the four rounds and were awarded with sixth place for their efforts.
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.