Term 1 Issue 5

University Academy Holbeach & University Academy Long Sutton Newsletter

This term, both academies mourned the loss of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 1926-2022

Term 1 Issue 5

University Academy Holbeach Newsletter

www.universityacademyholbeach.org.uk

A Message from Our Principal “As we enter our new term, I should like to congratulate our pupils on their efforts and progress so far. A new school year always brings with it the pleasure of welcoming new pupils to the school. I hope that our pupils in Year 7 and those who have joined us across Key Stages 3 and 4 find their time to be enriching and enjoyable. The new term has also seen pupils start on a new learning journey in our Sixth Form and I should like to wish all learners well as they undertake a new pathway. There are so many opportunities available to our pupils and it has been pleasing to see the new learners on our T Level courses. I would encourage each pupil to take advantage of the array of enrichment activities that are on offer at the school. These are an excellent way to meet new people, build confidence and to develop new skills. I should like to commend pupils on their contributions to our Open Evening and the Harvest Festival. There are numerous events planned for the year and I hope all pupils will involve themselves in the planned activities. I should like to extend my best wishes to the cast of ‘Elf’ as they plan for our Christmas production. Finally, I wish all of our learners a positive and productive year ahead”. Miss S Paige

Upcoming Events Shoebox Appeal – All tutor groups will be working together to donate Christmas gifts for the Rotary’s appeal. Year 11 Mock Exams – Thursday 24th November – Tuesday 13th December 2022 UAH Christmas Lunch – Wednesday 7th December UAH Production: Elf Jr – Thursday 8th December & Friday 9th December

DofE News Gold Expedition Congratulations to the Sixth Formers who have just completed their Gold Expedition for the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. This took place at the start of this term, and they hiked for 4 days in the Yorkshire Dales, covering approximately 15km each day. This has been an exceptionally challenging award for these students due to the setback from the pandemic as well as the heat wave which caused their original expedition to be postponed. Well done to these students!

UAH Open Evening The Open Evening at UAH was very successful, with a large number of prospective students being particularly interested in taking part in the Duke of Edinburgh award. UAH’s DofE team had a tent set up, alongside equipment that participants would need to carry on the expeditions. We also demonstrated how trangia stoves work!

Coming Up We will shortly be holding a Year 9 assembly to recruit students onto the Bronze Award. Following on from this assembly, there will be a letter sent home alongside an online form to register interest for the award.

We also had a presentation with everything in which parents and carers needed to know, which we ha projected onto the side of the school building! We look forward to welcoming new participants to the Bronze award once they have started at UAH.

Schneider Electric Visit Schneider Electric visited our first and second year apprentices to give them a talk and a product demonstration. Adrian Smith, the Electrical Sales Engineer, outlined Schneider Electric’s commitment to product development and promote the new design features of the new “Easy 9” Consumer Units. Thank you to Adrian for coming to speak with our learners.

Harvest Festival As a school set in the countryside, surrounded by fields, Harvest is an important time of year and UAH celebrated this year with a number of events. Year 7 students received a talk from a local farmer who taught them about how harvest works and how a farmer prepares and plans for this. This was organised via the NFU and was a thoroughly enjoyable talk. Year 7 students also had a special assembly which was attended by Rev. Luke Smith and Rev. Sherine Angus. Readers from Year 7 read poetry and reflections on Harvest and music was performed by Chamber Choir. Year 7 also took part in a Harvest Wheatsheaf competition. Each tutor group had to design a Harvest Wheatsheaf and then two pupils from each tutor group were elected to create the design out of bread, supported by staff in Food Technology. The results were extremely impressive with the final, winning design being created by Maddison and Chloe. The whole school community worked together to donate produce, which was delivered to Holbeach Community Larder, and they were very grateful for all the food we were able to deliver to them. A hotly contested photography competition, on the theme of Harvest was also open to all year groups, with the results to be announced shortly.

Well done Grace! The Year 10 team and PE Department would like to congratulate Grace Smith on her recent achievements in football. Grace was nominated by her team coach to trial for England Schools U15. She has been offered a unique experience of playing football with the best girls from schools around England, with the aim to represent her country. This will entail 3 rigorous trials, including set drills and competitive games. On 9th October, Grace attended her first trial at Telford FC and has now been selected for the second trial in Newcastle on 13th November. The final trial, if successful, will be at Lilleshall on 11th December. Should Grace make it through, she will then attend St George’s Park for a further training camp, and will be presented with her International shirt! Grace is only one of two girls who have been selected from Lincolnshire. To compliment this, Grace has also been selected to represent Lincolnshire U16s. Well done Grace and good luck in the coming months.

UAH Careers Fair & Careers Day In October, UAH pupils from Year 9 upwards and Year 11 UALS pupils were invited to attend the first Careers Fair held at UAH. This exciting event gave students the opportunity to explore further education options available at UAH, Boston College and the College of West Anglia. Pupils were able to learn about the diverse range of pathways available to them at the end of year 11 including, Apprenticeships, Vocational courses, T Levels, BTECs and A Levels. Representatives from Future Focus and local universities were on hand to help students consider the benefits of higher education, the courses available, entry requirements and what to include in a personal statement. We were very pleased to be able welcome a wide range of companies to our event, students were able to speak to employers about careers in Construction, Engineering, IT, Agriculture and Food, Accountancy, the Armed Forces, the NHS and many more. Sixth form students visited the fair as part of their careers event. As part of the careers day, representatives from the Department for Work and Pensions led a session focussing on gaining employment, writing CVs, interview skills and successful job applications. Speakers from Allison Homes, Duncan & Topliss, the NHS Talent Academy, Freshlinc, Winyard’s Engineering and ARK IT gave presentations about their companies, the job roles that exist and the opportunities that are available in their organisations. They were able to give guidance on how and where vacancies are advertised, what the application process involves and training/progression opportunities. Year 13 students who aspire to got to university focussed on UCAS applications and writing personal statements supported by our sixth form team. We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone that contributed to an extremely informative and successful day. If you would like to be part of future careers activities at UAH please send your details to [email protected]

Science at UAH Science club has returned for Year 7 students with the STEM discovery project, Witchcraft and Wizardry. We have turned water pink and back to clear again. We also made a mythical creature through combustion of sugar. A small step back from the theme and we looked at burning metal salts to create an array of colours as you would see in fireworks.

T-Level Sciences Our new science T-Levels have rolled out and it has been fabulous and the calibre of science practical’s have sparked the students’ interest. Beginning with Biology, the students have made their own slides of different cell types and analysed the under a microscope. They have investigated rate of diffusion against different surface areas of cubes. In Chemistry, the students have learnt how to calibrate different instruments used within a lab, a must have skill for the industry. Students have also investigated separation techniques using a Thin Layer Chromatography, producing some amazing colours as well as investigating the rates of reactions with different temperatures and again with a catalyst. Lastly, in Physics, students have been investigating resistance in a wire, made circuits, electromagnet induction and magnetic fields and how currents can affect that field. Even better is the students have been tasked with designing their own experiments for an intended end result. There is such a buzz in the air around science these days, as the students have been surprised at how enjoyable it can be! T-Level science is moving forward with such enthusiasm; the students are looking forward to what is coming their way.

Diwali Science This term, we have been celebrating Diwali and the celebration of light! What a better way to celebrate than with the science of light. We did not fail and we showed the Year 8 students how coloured fire was made, the science behind how colour is added to fire work displays! The Year 8 students began the how with flame tests of salts followed by a large teacher demonstration of burning salts.

The second half proved equally as exciting when the Year 8’s used playdough to create a circuit. Two types of dough were made, one conductive and the other an insulating dough. When a brightly coloured LED was added to the two conductive doughs, and connected to a battery, the light illuminated, if those two doughs touched a short circuit formed and the light switched off. To prevent a short circuit, the students used the insulating dough! There were a lot of designs made throughout the sessions.

F1 in Schools STEM challenge This year UAH are looking to join the “World’s most exciting STEM challenge” In a team or 3 -6 pupils can you turn : THIS

IN TO THIS

Cars will be raced down a tethered track in a heated competition! Put your Engineering, Physics and 3D printing to the test.

Open to KS3 students at Entry Class! Enquire with Mr O’Donovan or Mrs Collo in the Science Centre Get designing !

The Clever Baggers In DT Graphics, we are working with a company called ‘The Clever Baggers’ to design some cultural tote bags. The Clever Baggers may post some of our Year 8 students work onto their website towards the end of the school year if it is successful, which would be fantastic! Miss Goodwin worked with The Clever Baggers over the summer holidays, and they have produced a design brief for our students to work towards. We look forward to working with The Clever Baggers and seeing the different designs Year 8 come up with for the tote bags!

History Department Steps Back in Time Visitors were transports back in time at UAH’s Open Evening this term. They were greeted by Mr Farthing as Henry VIII and Mrs Gorton as a Tudor lady in waiting. They had the chance to take selfies in the cardboard cut outs and see what it is like to look like a Tudor. Inside the room, visitors go the change to look at medieval medicine with Mr Tucker and Miss Langford. They had a card with symptoms on and had to find a medieval cure. People really enjoyed mixing up potions and always felt much better! Across the room, Mr Chase had created an archaeological dig where the visitors had to find clues to see what had been discovered. Mrs Moody chatted to students and formed a huge mind map on what students had studied in Year 6 so far. The activities proved very popular and many visitors commented on how much they enjoyed the activities and meeting Henry the VIII himself!

T-Levels at UAH Digital Support Services The T-Level Digital Support Services course has welcomed 13 students onto the course this term who have all had a very exciting first term learning about the components of physical computing systems and their applications along with types and applications of networks, hardware and software. Students have been unboxing and setting up their new computer systems and are also having the experience of installing operating systems and preparing the software needed to manage and maintain Small Office Home Office (SOHO) as well as large scale industrial networks. Students are proudly taking ownership of their equipment in the new state-of-the-art Commercial Networking Suite, working on CISCO Switches and Routers delivering solutions to networking infrastructure and security.

Health The T-Level Health course has welcome 4 learners who are looking incredibly smart in their nurse’s uniform to help set the medical scene. Students have been practicing carrying out vital observations; blood pressure, oxygen saturation using the machine and manually using their watches; pulse rate and breathing rates. The focus has been the technique but more importantly, the communication skills with the patient (in role plays). Students then evaluated their performance and used the reflective journal to record this as a means of recording their improvements as the course progresses. The practical role plays ride on the back of learning about cardiovascular systems and diagnostic techniques such as ECG’s so that they can read a trace, blood pressure so that they can refer to the chart as well as knowing about oxygen saturation and anaemia. The initial learning has been starting at the history of the NHS and why certain strategies have been introduced which improves public health such as vaccinations, education (5 portions and fruit & veg) and the progress that has been made during the years to reduce morbidity and mortality rates as well as quality of life.

Management & Administration The T-Level Management and Administration students have had a jam-packed term, with the arrival of new laptops for use in the business office suite. The students visited the Amazon fulfilment centre, taking part in a tour of the fulfilment centre looking at the functional areas, and how items pass through the distribution channel successfully. During their administration classes, the students have been learning about the methods of communicating with customers, clients, managers and peers. Students have been having fun competitively using software to increase their WPM, words per minute, typing continuously without errors. To simulate a real-life boardroom experience, Students have been delivering presentations, which is brought to life by the students wearing their business suits and smart office wear.

Sixth Form 2Fast2Soon To help support our Sixth Form students who will soon be learning to drive, students in Year 12 participated in a Road Safety workshop, organised by Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership, 2Fast2Soon. During the workshop, students experienced the impact of how factor can influence their driving and the effects this may have on their driving safety. The workshop took form of a courtroom where the students and the jury analysed re-enacted evidence from a real-life road traffic collision, to decide whether the driver of the collision was guilty or not of a driving offence.

Sixth Form – University Academy Holbeach

The students were able to experience and understand the importance of safe driving to help equip them to become better drivers when they are learning to drive. The workshop also covered all aspects of how dangerous driving can affect not just those involve, but families and friends and covered topics such as peer pressure when driving, drugs and alcohol influence and the use of mobile phones whilst driving. The students found this workshop an eye-opener into how easy it can be to become distracted when driving, along with information on current legislation about driving offences.

A-Level Results Day We are extremely proud of the results in which our Sixth Form students received in the summer and students achieved some fantastic results, including our first student to attend University of Oxford. Miss Paige made the following comment on our students’ successes: “University Academy Holbeach students have excelled in a record year for results in A-Level and Technical and Vocational qualifications which saw a 100% pass rate and an increase in the number of A* grades awarded to students. We would like to commend each and every one of our students on their achievements. They will know how hard they have worked and the challenges that they have overcome. This has been a stressful period with them experiencing national examinations for the first time. We are delighted for all of them and are pleased that they will be able to pursue their ambitions”. Some of our students who were overwhelmed by their grades are Ben Harcourt-Sharpe, Mikey Baxter, Matthew Mayer, Pawel Nieweglowski and Natasha Hanson. Ben will fulfil his ambition to attend Oxford University where he will study History, having achieved grades at A* and A. He is our first student to pass the Oxbridge entry requirements and he will be an inspiration to other pupils, past and present. I know that he and his family are very proud of his success and we should like to congratulate him on his achievements. Having both achieved three grades at A* Mikey will pursue studies in History and Politics at Durham University and Matthew will undertake Biochemistry at Bath. Pawel will study Aerospace Engineering after achieving four A-Levels at grades A* and A. Natasha will study Business and Management at the University of Lincoln having gained 3 grades at Distinction*. These are fantastic results and all students should feel very proud.”

University Academy Long Sutton

www.uals.org.uk

A Message from Our Principal “Following the success of the Year 11 Prom in the summer term, our induction days and a positive results day for our outgoing Year 11 pupils, I am pleased to offer a warm welcome to our new Year 7 cohort and all returning pupils. It has been a busy half term, but UALS is proud to be able to share recent successes in the form of our inaugural Sports Day at Princess Royal Sports Arena athletics track in Boston, our Science Fieldwork trips to Hunstanton, our Macmillan Coffee Morning and recently our Open Evening that saw a record attendance, with 219 families visiting the Academy. We shall be communicating future events in the coming weeks in relation to Christmas Jumper Day, our OAP Christmas Dinner, Children in Need and our ongoing support of the British Heart Foundation. Following the parent survey, distributed prior to the summer holiday, we are keen to take on board the views of parents and carers. Recently, we held our SEND Coffee Morning, with a focus on autism. A second morning is scheduled for November that will specialise in dyslexia. Likewise, I trust you are all in receipt of the half termly calendar that was shared at the start of the term. Of course, we have the exciting news that UALS is part of the School Rebuilding Programme. The project is now at the feasibility stage, I look forward to sharing more information with you via the Academy website as and when we are in a position to do so. In the meantime, the new and improved teaching learning environments in Science, Art and DT Food are areas of the school that staff and pupils are taking great pride in, with these building projects set for completion by the end of November. I would like to take this opportunity to thank parents and carers for their support as we strive to continue to raise standards at UALS. External visitors to the school are frequently remarking how calm, politely mannered and well behaved our pupils are at UALS. We wish all the very best for our school community for the remainder of the year. Mr L Davé

Upcoming Events Week Commencing Monday 21st November – Years 7-10 Progress Tests Week Commencing Monday 28th November (for 2 weeks) – Year 11 Mocks Thursday 1st December – Year 10 Parents’ Evening Wednesday 7th December – OAP Christmas Lunch Friday 9th December – Christmas Jumper Day Wednesday 14th December – Pupil Christmas Lunch Thursday 15th December – LAC Trip @ Play2Today, Guyhirn Friday 16th December – End of Term

Year 7 Pupils Off to a Great Start Our Year 7 pupils have settled into life at UALS exceptionally throughout the last term. Mr Ratcliffe, our Year 7 Learning Coordinator comments: “September welcomed a new cohort of Year 7 pupils, who I am happy to say that they have really hit the ground running. In this first term, myself and the Year 7 team have received endless reports from teachers on the successes of groups and individuals who have produced excellent work in lessons and have shown themselves in a fantastic light around the Academy. In the short time in which these pupils have been at UALS, they have amassed over 3000 achievement points, which is fantastic in such an early stage in the academic year. As well as all of the hard work within lessons, pupils have also assisted in the maintenance of the Academy, with volunteers keeping the yard tidy after lunch times, we have pupils signing up for the upcoming school performance of Annie and a high number of pupils involved in the different extra-curricular clubs around the Academy. As well as this, following on from the success of last year’s Underbank Activity Centre camping trip, we are offering the opportunity for Year 7 pupils to embark on a 4 day Paris experience, with excursions to the Eiffel Tower, Louvre Museum and Stade de France. I want to take this chance to congratulate our Year 7 pupils on their excellent efforts so far in what can be a challenging time. The move from Primary to Secondary school is never easy, but these young people have shown what can happen with the correct attitude and behaviours. Well done to all. Mr Ratcliffe Year 7 Learning Coordinator

Year 10 & Year 11 Maths Revision Guides Year 10 and 11 pupils can now purchase Maths Revision Guides for £5. Payments can be made via Pay360.

UALS

HOMEWORK CLUB

DROP INTO IT4 EVERY MONDAY FROM 3:20PM TO 4:30PM FOR HELP AND SUPPORT WITH YOUR HOMEWORK.

Careers Lead: Mr S Gilman [email protected] Careers Adviser and Work Experience Coordinator: Mrs J Gilman [email protected] It has been a busy term for Careers, as well as welcoming the pupils back into school, it has been a busy time starting to prepare them for some of the key decisions that they will need to make this academic year. As a careers team, we work with all pupils from Year 7 and continue to work with pupils after they have left UALS. We enjoy finding out what our pupils have gone on to achieve and we are currently developing our school alumni, please see the information below of how to join. Mrs Gilman is always at hand if pupils have any career related questions, but she is always available for parents and carers whether it be by telephone, email or in person. If you would like to speak to Mrs Gilman, please initially email her on the email above.

Year 11

Apprenticeships & NCS

Mrs Gilman began the academic year with a talk to all Year 11 pupils about their post-16 options. Booklets were handed to the pupils to take home and this was followed up by a virtual presentation for parents and carers. If you did not receive a booklet or was unable to attend the virtual talk please find these on the careers section on our website at

Apprenticeships are becoming more and more popular for those looking for a more practical route after Year 11 and beyond. In order for parents/carers to understand apprenticeships, the Careers Team organised a virtual talk back in September. If you were unable to attend, please see the link below for the Parents/Carers Apprenticeship Guide.

https://www.uals.org.uk/docs/careers/Options_Bookle t_Year_10_UALS_FINAL_2022.pdf and https://www.uals.org.uk/docs/careers/Year_11_Option s_Presentation.pdf

https://amazingapprenticeships.com/resource/parents -and-carers-pack-october-21/

In order for pupils to make the best informed choice for them, Mrs Gilman highly recommends that pupils attend open events at local 6th Forms and Colleges, if parents and carers have not received a list of open days, please email Mrs Gilman and she will send you a copy. Year 11 have also participated in a range of assemblies which have been fronted by UAH about T Levels, College of West Anglia and The National Farmers Union, who sent two of their Ambassadors to talk about farming.

Mrs Gilman has started one to one appointments with Year 11 pupils this term, where pupils receive impartial careers guidance and they will be emailed an action plan which summaries their appointment with specific tasks for pupils to complete. The National Citizen Service has also been in school since September to deliver sessions to Year 11 with topics including Knowing Yourself, Consent, Unconscious Bias and Volunteering. This will be followed up after half term with employability sessions and will include De-Mystifying Money which will help pupils to understand mortgages, loans etc.

Careers Events Since September Tuesday 8th November 2022 – UAH Taster Morning

Year 10 This is an important year for our Year 10 pupils, as they are not just starting out on their GCSE qualifications, but they may start to think about their future careers. This is why we offer work experience for this year group. In September, Mrs Gilman spoke to our Year 10s about work experience and what this involves. Leaflets were sent home to details the process and Mrs Gilman also sent some data collection forms for parents/carers to complete. If you have not received one of these, please email Mrs Gilman and she can send one to you.

Work Experience will take place between Monday 22nd May – Friday 26th May 2023. We do expect our pupils to find their own placements as we find that this is much more meaningful to the pupils. Mrs Gilman will need to be notified of placement details as soon as possible and ideally, prior to the Easter holidays as placements have to be checked by our health and safety company. If pupils need support with their placements, please speak to Mrs Gilman.

Careers Events Since September Thursday 3rd November – Social Media Assembly with the Department of Work and Pensions Tuesday 8th November – Super Learning Day Wednesday 9th November – NHS Careers Day at University of Lincoln Thursday 17th November – Improving for Chance of Getting the Department of Work and Pensions

Year 9 As far as choices go, this is an important year for our Year 9 pupils. Mrs Gilman fronted an assembly last week which, as well as an introduction to the Careers Team in school, also encouraged the pupils to start to think about their option choices. There are some excellent websites out there for parents, carers and pupils to start to think about how to choose their GCSE options, but for a starting point, it may be an idea to look at The LincHigher Future Focus website https://www.thefuturefocus.co.uk/students/options-at-14-level-1-2/your-options/

Careers Events Since September Wednesday 2nd November – Social Media Assembly with the Department of Work and Pensions Tuesday 8th November – Super Learning Day

Year 8

Year 7

For Year 8 pupils, this is an important year to start to find out about their skills and qualities and how these are going to help them with their future careers.

Welcome to our new Year 7 pupils, parents and carers. At UALS, the focus on careers starts when you join us in Year 7.

Mrs Gilman spoke to the pupils about this during their assembly back in September and she also asked the pupils to complete a questionnaire about their skills and possible future career. During the course of next term, we will continue this theme as Mrs Gilman has arranged for the Department of Work and Pensions to come in and present an assembly to Year 8, with a focus on looking at skills.

Careers Events Since September Tuesday 8th November – Super Learning Day Tuesday 29th November – Skills Assembly from the Department of Work and Pensions

We have a dedicated section on the careers website which is for pupils, parents and carers which hosts a range of information, including the Academy Careers Policy Statement and Careers Programme. If you would like to view this, please see the link below https://www.uals.org.uk/Careers/ If parents/carers are able to come in to talk to our pupils about their career or can offer a workshop for our pupils, please email [email protected]

Careers Events Since September Tuesday 8th November – Super Learning Day

We introduced the Careers Team to our new pupils during September and this assembly involved finding out about the activities which take place over the 5 years that they are with us at UALS. Please see some photographs below on some of the trips and activities which your child could be involved in.

Future First If you’re a former pupil of UALS, we want to hear from you! Your experiences since leaving school could help to motivate and inspire our current pupils to feel more confident in making decisions about their future. We would love you to join our Alumni Network and stay connected with the school. We have partnered with the national education charity, Future First, who specialise in helping schools like ours to stay connected with their former pupils. You can choose how and when you help – perhaps you can act as a career and education role model, provide work experience, become a mentor in person or online, or help with donations, fundraising or even apply to become a governor. It doesn’t matter when you left us, whether you’re in further education or employment, whether you live nearby or have moved away, there are still ways in which you can help. In order to sign up, just follow this link and fill in the online form – we promise it will only take a couple of minutes. https://networks.futurefirst.org.uk/register

UALS PE Department UALS Sports Day This term, we held our postponed Sports Day at Princess Royal Sports Arena in Boston. Nearly 250 pupils attended and were representing their forms in this prestigious event. The day started off with a chill in the air, but soon warmed up with the level of competition. Pupils competed in track events, including, hurdles, 100m, 200m, 300m, 400m, 800m, 1500m and relay. Field events were also held, including the high jump, long jump, triple jump, shot putt, discus and javelin. There were some impressive individual results but equally, there was a great team and school spirit. We look forward to seeing even more pupils enjoy this event in July 2023.

Form Results First Place Year 8: 8SM Year 9: 9AJW Year 10: 10JB Year 11: 11SA

Football Fixtures Last term has seen the Year 10 Football Squad play Bourne Academy and The Deepings School. Bourne Academy was the first away game of the 22/23 academic year for the Year 10 team. The game was end to end with some promising play from UALS pupils. A calm and collected finish from Kai in the first half but the second half ended in defeat for UALS losing 6-1. The match against The Deepings School saw UALS start strongly within the opening minute at home with Kai slotting the ball home to send UALS 1-0 up. UALS fought hard to get the 1-0 score line, but unfortunately The Deepings School soon broke down the defence and equalised and then ran away to a 9-1 victory. There are many positives to take away from both of these matches, and all members of the squad played exceptionally and are an asset to UALS.

UALS PE Department Netball News On Thursday 29th September, the Year 11 Netball team competed in a tournament at Spalding High School against other schools across South Holland, Lincolnshire. They improved throughout the tournament and played some brilliant Netball. Well done to Alysha, Chloe, Ceira, Phoebe, Poppy-May, Evie, Courtney, Aimee and Lola. Our next fixture for Year 11 is on Wednesday 16th November against Spalding Academy. On Monday 10th October, the Year 10 Netball team in a fixture against Spalding Academy. There were some brilliant efforts from all pupils including some new players. The score finished 10-5 to Spalding Academy, however, there was a significant improvement in the UALS team since they last played. Our next fixture is on Wednesday 2nd November against UAH. Well done to all. Miss Frost & Mrs Green

Cross Country On Friday 14th October, UALS participated in the South Lincolnshire Schools X-Country Championship. All pupils who participated in the event performed well and we had some amazing results. Notable results were Jake and Lewis who finished 31st and 54th respectively in the Inter Boys race. Libby and Louise finished 26th and 16th in the Inter Girls race, meaning that Louise now qualifies for the County X-Country championships later in the season. Well done to all who participated, keep aiming high! Mr Smith & Miss Frost

PE Clubs – Term 2

Open to all Year 7, 8 and 9 pupils

UALS Library News This term has been extremely busy in the UALS Library as we have welcomed many new faces into the school community. Our new Year 7 pupils have settled into library life really well and for many, it is a refugee from the hustle and bustle of the school corridors. In English this term, Year 7 to 9 have completed their Star Reading Assessments and are now accessing weekly independent reading sessions in the Library. Well-being Wednesday is extremely popular with mindfulness and word games taking place. We have now appointed our new Pupil Librarians: Jessica, Ayla, Roxanne, Emmy and Will are now all trained and have been helpful in supporting Mrs Hill during social times. After completing a successful year as Pupil Librarians, Ben, Holly and Bea have proven themselves to be valuable assets to the Library and are now Library Ambassadors. Congratulations to Matilda, who won our Summer Reading Competition with an outstanding 16 detailed book reviews and is now also a Library Ambassador. Well done Matilda!

On Friday 30th September, UALS pupils and staff supported the annual Macmillan Coffee Morning. Pupils were able to purchase cakes, cookies and hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows from the Food Pod at break and lunch time for 50p per item. We made an amazing £242.00 which will be donated directly to Macmillan Cancer Support. Thank you to all parents, carers, pupils and staff for donating to such a great cause.

SEND Coffee Morning The SEND Team were delighted to hold our first Coffee Morning for parents and carers of pupils. On Tuesday 20th September, we had the pleasure of introducing Will Munton from the Working Together Team who delivered an insight into Autism and ways of supporting pupils from both a school and home perspective. It was lovely to see parents and carers share their experiences and their ways of supporting their children. The coffee morning acts as a forum for parents and carers where they can chat together. We are looking at our next Coffee Morning, which is on Monday 21st November 2022. This will be delivered by Helen Lane from the Specialist Teaching Team and the focus will be on Dyslexia. We really hope that as many of you as possible will join us for this. Mrs Harrison – SENCO Mrs Fendley – SEND Administrator Miss Morley – SEND Support Officer Mrs Wilkins – SEND Support Officer

Year 11 Science Trip to Hunstanton Year 11 pupils visited Hunstanton at the end of September to complete a core practical for their Biology paper. They completed transects on the sand dunes and on the beach to investigate the abundance of different species in different environments. They used a range of equipment to measure abiotic data, including temperature probes, moisture and pH meters. They also had an opportunity to look in the rocks pools and they found several crabs and other organisms. Although it was quite cold, the pupils appeared to enjoy the day and finished the day off with a picnic.