Academy News

Over the course of Term 6, we have welcomed selected groups of students and families from each House into the Academy Hall for our Celebration of Success evenings. The evening is an opportunity to recognise our students for their achievements and hard work throughout the year, as well as to honour our House Value champions for this academic year.

We asked our staff what they love about these evenings:

Mr Hildrew, Headteacher of Churchill Academy & Sixth Form:

It has been a great pleasure to award certificates to students across all five houses at our Celebration of Success events.

The awards celebrate students who have demonstrated excellent attitudes to learning, effort, behaviour and conduct, or who exemplify the Academy's values of kindness, curiosity and determination. Tutors also nominate the much-desired "tutee of the year" from their tutor groups!

Finally, the events are an opportunity to officially welcome the new House Captains to each house. Many congratulations to all the students nominated for an award! 

Mrs Taylor, Head of Lancaster House:

The Lancaster Celebration of Success was a lovely opportunity to come together and celebrate the achievements of students in Lancaster. It was a pleasure to stand on stage, look out at the positive faces and share pride in the students’ success.

These awards enabled us to acknowledge the less public achievements that occur day in and day out at the Academy. My favourite part is hearing all the reasons the tutors give for their tutees of the year, with special credit to Mr Thomas for reading part of his in a foreign language.

Well done to all students who were invited to the evening - you are all stars! 

Lancaster House Value Champions:

Kindness: Charlotte
Determination: Paige
Curiosity: Joey

Mrs Crocker, Acting Head of Stuart House:

It has been a pleasure to serve as the Acting Head of House this term, a significant part of which included attending the Celebration of Success evening, where we had the opportunity to celebrate many of the incredible achievements of our students. 

Well done to everybody who received an award, we have a great set of students in Stuart house and all your hard work and effort does not go unnoticed. 

Stuart House Value Champions:

Kindness: Niya
Determination: George
Curiosity: Isla

Mrs Blackburn, Head of Tudor House:

The Tudor Celebration of Success was an inspirational evening for us all. It brought joy to see the Tudor families come together to celebrate the achievements of our students.

We always enjoy giving out these awards, as it recognises the hard work and effort our students pour into their studies each year. It fills me with pride to be the Head of such a wonderful house.

Well done to all our Tudor students – you’re all fantastic!

Tudor House Value Champions:

Kindness: Mason
Determination: Emily-Grace
Curiosity: Sophia 

Mr Redman, Head of Windsor House:

Tuesday Evening saw over 60 Windsor students and their families gather for the annual Celebration of Success. All the students in attendance had been nominated by their teachers for their positive engagement, progress and tremendous attitude throughout the academic year. 

In addition to recognising their academic achievements, we were also celebrating the qualities that these students display consistently throughout the year - ones that will stand them in good stead throughout their lives. 

Celebrating the many successes of these Windsor students was an uplifting and fitting way to round off the year. Congratulations to all of the award winners! 

Windsor House Value Champions:

Kindness: Harry
Determination: Leo
Curiosity: Evalyn

Mr Slater, Head of Hanover House: 

We had a fantastic time celebrating the achievements of Hanover students at our celebration of success on Wednesday. A raucous crowd whooped and cheered every student onto the stage to collect their awards, much to the embarrassment of some students!

It was undoubtedly a brilliant way to end the term and the students involved should be very proud of their accomplishments this year. 

Hanover House Value Champions:

Kindness: Lewis
Determination: Lilly
Curiosity: Alfie

The English High Attainers Awards Ceremony was held this week to celebrate some of the amazing extra-curricular English challenges completed by students from Years 8, 9 and 10.

The challenges put in front of them ranged from 'teaching an activity to a class' to 'sitting in on an A-Level lesson' and from researching your favourite author, to spotting grammatical errors on restaurant menus!

One of the most popular challenges was 'Do your GCSE English early for fun' and a large number of Year 8s and 9s proved they had sufficient ability to pass the exam 2 or 3 years ahead of time!

Huge congratulations goes out to all those involved in the scheme, especially Hanna and Ella who both earned Gold award certificates this year!

Here at the Academy, we are proud to be part of the Fish Heroes Programme, an inspiring initiative that ensures every child has the opportunity to prepare, cook and enjoy fish before leaving school. The programme promotes both essential cookery skills and healthy eating habits.

This week, we were delighted to welcome Simon Gray, a representative of the Fish Heroes Programme, who delivered three engaging lessons to our Year 9 students. These students have chosen to study GCSE Food & Nutrition starting this September, and Simon's sessions offered them a fantastic head start.

Throughout the lessons, students learned about various types of fish, sustainable fishing practices, and key preparation, cooking, and presentation techniques. Their enthusiasm and focus were matched by the high-quality ingredients provided for the sessions.

We were incredibly fortunate to receive a generous donation of fresh fish from The Fishmongers' Company. Their support helped create an exciting and hands-on learning experience that the students will not forget. 

A huge thank you goes to Simon Gray, The Fishmongers' Company, and everyone involved in the Fish Heroes Programme for their generosity and knowledge. You've helped spark a passion for cooking that will benefit our students for years to come.

Our students have produced some truly outstanding pieces of art this term, so much so, it was impossible to choose just one for Artwork of the Term! 

Thomas (Year 7) impressed us with his Fauvism-inspired landscape, using bold colours and expressive mark-making in oil pastels.

Talia (Year 9) created a beautiful textile piece inspired by fallen leaves and nature, combining printing techniques with delicate hand embroidery.

Monty (Year 9) wowed us with his observational portrait drawings, showcasing excellent use of line and tone in pencil.

We’re incredibly proud of the creativity and talent on display—well done to all our young artists!

Teresa has worked really hard in Dance this year, representing the Academy at the North Somerset Dance Festival and the Strictly Dance Fever competition. 

Teresa continues to impress us with her development of skills, leadership and dedication to dance. Well done Teresa!

Sports Day 2025 was a record-breaking afternoon, with over 10 school records broken and 37 house records! 

The sun shone throughout the entire day, and our students were treated to motivating tunes from Mr Spencer and Mrs Bones, creating the perfect atmosphere to keep the energy high.  

The events kicked off with the highly anticipated lug of war battles and field events, consisting of javelin, shot putt, long jump, high jump and wellie wanging. With impressive results across the board, it was great to see the determination and hard work every student poured into the events. 

The afternoon featured our track events, including the 100m, 300m, 400m, 800m, and 1500m races, as well as the grand relay finale. Every race was down to the wire as our students put on a show of skill all afternoon. 

Throughout the day, our wonderful Sixth Form students provided much needed ice creams and drinks to us all, raising money for their 2026 Year 13 Ball.  

We also saw teachers cooling off in a "Teacher Soak" where students were able to pay 50p to throw a sopping sponge at the teacher of the hour, all in the name of charity! We had different teachers throughout the day, including Mr Hildrew, who drew quite the crowd. It was a definite highlight, resulting in a whopping £272.72 for charity! 

As the afternoon drew to a close, the scores were closer than ever, leaving the relay to be the deciding factor of the 2025 Sports Day winners.  

Ultimately, it was Lancaster who triumphed, taking home the coveted trophy in recognition of their outstanding relay performance! 

Lastly, but certainly not least, the tug of war scores were totalled and Hanover kept their streak going, taking home the tug of war trophy for another year!

Check out all the record breakers below.
 

Record:	Student Name:	Event:	Time/Distance:
School	Isobel	300m	47.47 Seconds
Lancaster	Mathilda	300m	48.31 secs
Stuart	Ffion	300m	49.88 secs
School Record	Solene	200m	29.28 secs
Windsor	Emma	200m	29.85 secs
School Record	Harry	200m	24.28 secs
School Record	Anabelle	300m	48.60 secs
Lancaster	Joey	300m	45.39 secs
Tudor	Eva	300m	48.25 secs
Lancaster	Sienna	300m	50.20 secs
Lancaster	Noah	300m	40.39 secs
Lancaster	Amy	100m	13.59 secs
Lancaster	Laura	100m	13.40 secs
Stuart	Ffion	100m	12.95 secs
Hanover	Gabriella	100m	12.73 secs
Lancaster	Harry	100m	11.69 secs
Windsor	Joshua	100m	11.38 secs
Lancaster	Laura	High Jump	1.44 metres
Lancaster	Harry	Hurdles	12.54 secs
School Record	Joshua	Hurdles	11.61 secs
Stuart	Sid	Hurdles	13.07 secs
School Record	Isaac	High Jump	1.58 metres
Tudor	Jacob	High Jump	1.54 metres
Lancaster	Amy	Javelin	21.24 metres
School Record	George	Shot Putt	11.13 metres
Hanover	Hattie	Long Jump	3.80 metres
Windsor	Max	Javelin	19.90 metres
Lancaster	Barnaby	Javelin	23.70 metres
Lancaster	James	Javelin	34.95 metres
Stuart	Isaac	Hurdles	12.21 secs
Lancaster	Josh	Hurdles	13.40 secs
Windsor	Matilda	Hurdles	13.29 secs
Tudor	Ewan	800m	2 mins 17 secs
Lancaster	Olive	800m	2 mins 45 secs
Lancaster	Riley	Javelin	32.50 metres
Hanover	Gabriella	Long Jump	4.37 metres
Stuart	Ayanda	Long Jump	4.06 metres
School Record	Noah	Long Jump	5.64 metres
Windsor	Joshua	Long Jump	5.52 metres
School Record	Olive	800m	2 mins 50 secs
Lancaster	Laura	800m	2 mins 55 secs
Tudor	Katie	800m	3 mins 0 secs
School Record	Oliver	1500m	4 mins 41 secs
Lancaster	Anabelle	1500m	5 mins 39 secs