A team of seven students and two members of staff from Hans Price Academy took part in a fiercely contested race at the national Greenpower E-Car race day at Castle Combe. The aim of the race was to do as many laps in 90mins as possible on two 12V batteries.

The club started pre pandemic by the previous Head of Design & Technology so post pandemic the club was restarted by Iain Milford (Exams Officer) and Alex Young (Science Teacher)

Meeting weekly the club built the car bought by our sponsor National Grid from Greenpower Education Trust which is a UK based charity which gets young people enthusiastic about science and engineering by challenging them to design, build and race an electric car.

The age-appropriate Kit Cars can be built in school, college or elsewhere and raced at motorsport venues at Greenpower organised events. Alternatively, older participants can design and build their own car to our regulations. The Greenpower challenge uses the excitement of motorsport to inspire young people to excel in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM).

Finely tuned pit stops allowed all students in the race team to drive for at least 30 mins completing 5 laps of the circuit each. The car the students built was simple, but it was fast, enabling the drivers to be able to overtake a lot of other cars in some of the most exciting manoeuvres of the race. In the end their car managed to travel almost 80 miles around the Castle Combe track which gave them an admiral top 40 finish out of nearly 80 teams.

Iain and Alex said: “It was a lot of hard work but a great day out, hopefully we have inspired our students to get into engineering and motorsport, next time out we are hoping for a top 20 finish.”

Staff and students at Weston’s Hans Price Academy (HPA) dressed in yellow to raise awareness of a charity which helps young people look after their mental health.

Hello Yellow is an event staged on World Mental Health Day, and is organised by Young Minds, the UK’s leading charity fighting for children and young people’s mental health.

The charity is working to create a world where no young person feels alone with their mental health, and all young people get the mental health support they need, when they need it, no matter what.

The team at Hans Price embraced the event by inviting staff and students to dress up and have fun with a yellow photo booth set up for the day to support the cause. They also had the opportunity to engage with the serious meaning behind the event, and encouraged and start having conversations about mental health.

Hans Price staff have also been focusing on support students’ mental health during Learning Family activities, while students also attended a themed assembly.

Special Educational Needs Coordinator Kerry Mullinder organised the Hans Price event. She said: “The staff at Hans Price are passionate about raising awareness for mental health and have a number of provisions and interventions to support their students.

Staff, students, and Friends of King’s Oak Academy took on a monumental week of gruelling physical challenges to raise money towards a long-desired school minibus

The King’s Oak Academy Active Challenge week saw staff and students take to an exercise bike to complete the equivalent of the 837-mile Land’s End to John O’Groats route, before hitting a rowing machine to complete the 220-mile length of the River Severn. They also used a treadmill to cover the 71 miles they would have to travel to visit all sister schools within the Cabot Learning Federation.

By hitting the 1,250-mile total, the King’s Oak team raised an amazing £1,890 – nearly double their original £1,000 target.

After school on Friday, the Friends of King’s Oak held the Active Challenge Finale in the school canteen and offered students the chance to take part in more fundraising activities. They included hook a duck, topple a teacher and lucky dip, while there was also a tuck shop that served hot and cold drinks and much more.

In total, £3,905 was raised from the whole day of fundraising at the Kingswood school.

This has now been added to other fundraising efforts – and support from local businesses, including Pam James Consultancy which donated £1,000 – to enable the school to order a new minibus.

Katherine Ogden, Principal of King’s Oak Academy, said: “Following the pandemic, we have been working hard to ensure that our children are able get out and go on trips or participate in wider enrichment activities. This is because we know these opportunities are crucial to deepening the learning experiences and help to create lifelong memories for children as they progress through their time in education.

“The Active Challenge fundraising event was a remarkable team effort from the Friends of King’s Oak (PTA), our children and staff who worked together to accrue some impressive distances on the treadmill, rowing machines and bicycle whilst also raising money to help us order a new minibus so we can continue to organise these important enrichment activities for our children in 2024.

“Thank you very much to everyone who has supported us throughout our fundraising efforts. It has been heartwarming to see how well our school, parents and residents work together to support the children in our community.”

The highly-respected Royal Navy and Royal Marines outreach team visited King’s Oak Academy recently to work with pupils and students on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) activities.

This week-long project saw 350 students from the Kingswood school’s Years 6, 7 and 8 spending time with the Navy and Marines, who sent four different personnel each day.

Students were given numerous tasks throughout the week that included building telecoms structures out of giant Lego and designing, creating and launching rockets made out of classroom materials.

Pupils also had the chance for a Q&A session with the team, where they also heard about the important humanitarian work the Navy and Marines carry out across the world.

Chris Nathan, Head of Year Seven and organiser of the visit, said: “It has been brilliant seeing our students complete such a wide range of STEM challenges and explore potential career pathways for the future. I would like to thank the Royal Navy and Royal Marines for taking the time to visit us here at King’s Oak Academy.”

Fireworks and a dance parade were among the highlights of a packed day of celebrations to mark the 10^th anniversary of Wallscourt Farm Academy (WFA).

More than 400 students from the present and past joined a packed day of celebrations at the Bristol school to commemorate the landmark.

The day began with a cake baking competition, in which pupils had to design and make cakes that celebrated the academy’s 10^th anniversary. The competition was fierce, and the judges had the very difficult decision to judge the winners. Later that day the cakes were sold to raise funds for the Friends of Wallscourt Family, who will invest the money back into the academy.

In the afternoon, all pupils staged a parade for families which included a dance routine and live samba drumming. Pupils created a magical sight for spectators by dressing in their house colours and wearing eye-catching headdresses.

The day ended with the main event, with academy staff and students being joined by families and the local community for an action-packed celebration. The event included a helter skelter slide, bungee trampolines, food, face paints, and henna painting. A memorable and remarkable day of festivities was rounded off by a spectacular firework display.

Charlotte Black, Principal of Wallscourt Farm Academy, said: “It has been a truly wonderful day of celebrations.

“Our learners and teaching teams have been busily preparing for the parade over the last few weeks. They wanted to showcase everything that makes WFA great: rights and responsibilities, 21^st century learning skills, future leaders and one learning community.

“The parents and learners have been buzzing about the day. The parade and the fireworks were our absolute highlights, but of course our learners stole the show.  Here’s to another 10 years!”

Extra pupil capacity has been added to specialist school The Sky Academy in Taunton after a £4.9million expansion was formally opened.

Invited guests from Somerset Council, academy staff and governors, and representatives of the school’s parent trust Cabot Learning Federation attended a cake-cutting ceremony to unveil the extension this week.

The state-of-the-art building includes six new classrooms, breakout rooms, a science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) room, kitchenettes, and an activity space.

This expansion has enabled The Sky Academy to take pupils from years 5 and 6 and help increase their chance of long-term success beyond education.

Work on the project – funded by Somerset Council and carried out by Willmott Dixon – has taken two years and has been carefully planned to have the maximum positive impact on pupils’ learning.

This is important for The Sky Academy, which is a specialist school for boys with social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs and speech, language and communication needs (SLCN).

It is currently the only school offering this specialism within the local area – as a result, its pupils attend from a wide catchment area.

The project also saw contractor Willmott Dixon work with students to teach them construction skills like bricklaying. Students took to the task so well, Wilmott Dixon later offered one of the Sky Academy students an apprenticeship at another local site, the Digital Innovation Centre in Taunton.

Speaking at the opening of the new block, The Sky Academy’s Headteacher Bex Jones told guests the expansion reflects a commitment by all parties to ensuring the right specialist provision is available for children with SEND within the communities that they live.

Bex Jones, Headteacher at Sky Academy, said: “We are very proud to be at the heart of Somerset’s SEND improvement strategy for young people with SEMH needs. This new facility has further enabled us to provide the aspirational challenge, nurture and education that Sky has become known for – championing the success and life chances of all children.

“We look forward to the next stage of this collaborative journey, alongside other schools within the Cabot Learning Federation Somerset hub.”

Councillor Tessa Munt, Executive Lead Member for Children and Families, said “At Somerset Council, we are committed to providing equal learning opportunities to all young people. It is fantastic to see this important project completed, ensuring even more children in Somerset can benefit from a specialist learning environment close to home.”