Academy News

Our Dance Star this week approaches every Dance lesson with a big smile and endless enthusiasm. 

Scarlett’s positive outlook ensures every task is completed to the best of her ability. She has shown a huge improvement in her dance skills this year. Keep up the good work! 

Lancaster student, Elsie, delivered an outstanding performance at the Somerset Swimming County Championships, held over three weekends in January and February. 

Competing in nine events across freestyle, backstroke, and individual medley, she achieved personal bests in the majority of her races, showcasing her dedication and talent.

Notably, Elsie shaved an impressive 13 seconds off her 400m freestyle time, improving from 6:03.70 to 5:50.60, and cut 8.67 seconds from her 200m freestyle, finishing in 2:42.12. 

Her hard work paid off with three medal wins—silver in the 100m freestyle, and bronze in both the 200m freestyle and 200m backstroke. She also secured a regional qualifying consideration time in the 50m freestyle with an impressive 32.62.

Elsie trains with the performance squad at Backwell Swimming Club, where her commitment to training and competition continues to impress. Her achievements at the championships are a testament to her dedication and potential in the sport. Congratulations, Elsie!

In the final week of term, our sports students were as busy as ever with football, cricket and basketball matches. Here's how they got on: 

Year 7 triumph in their basketball game against St Katherines 

Our Year 7 Basketball team visited St Katherines this week, playing a fantastic basketball game, leaving them with a 34-23 victory.  It has been great to see their progress so far this year and we can’t wait to see what they achieve! 

Year 9 Indoor Cricket Team qualify for the County Cup final

Our Under 13’s indoor cricket team travelled to Backwell School this week for two games as part of the playoff round of the Somerset County Cup.  

The team faced the Blue School in the first game, scoring 69 runs to their 37 runs, which secured us a place in the County Cup final in March. 

We then faced a strong Backwell School, sadly coming up short of that win. However, we still managed to secure second place in the North Somerset bracket of the cup. 

Well done and we look forward to watching you play in the final! 

Year 10’s victory over Wadham School secures them a place in the football quarter-finals

The Year 10 football team faced Wadham School for their third cup fixture. Starting strong, the boys were up 3-0 at the end of the first half, with goals from Archie, George and Gabriel. The victory was sealed in the second half with a second goal from Archie! 

All the boys performed well, qualifying the team for the quarter-finals in Term 4. Player of the match was awarded to Cody for his captain's performance in the midfield. Amazing job!

Year 11 Basketball v St Katherines

In a thrilling end of term Basketball game, Year 11 faced off with St Katherine’s School.  It was a hard fought game, with both teams scoring early on, holding the game at 1-1 until the final 7 seconds where St Katherine’s managed to score the winning basket off a rebound.  

It was a fantastic game to watch and the Academy team should be proud!

In January, 95 of our highest-attaining mathematicians in Years 9, 10 and 11 participated in the Intermediate Maths Challenge, a national problem-solving competition that aims to stretch students' thinking. 

We’re pleased to announce that 76 students achieved a bronze, silver or gold certificate this year. Nine students also qualified for the next round of the competition, which is taking place in March - a huge achievement for our young mathematicians. 

Well done to all the students who took part this year. The certificates were awarded to the following students: 

Gold certificates

Joe Armfelt, Abi Belcher, Doug Cornick, Charlie Costigan, Jack Crocker, Ross Curnow, Edward, Ben Fellows, Jacob Field, Ben Haigh, Harrison Hunt, Isaac Joyce, Maciej Lewko, Reuben Orr, Keziah Sharkey and Dan Tinker

Silver certificates

Charlie Axtell, Reuben Ballentine. Poppy Belcher, Haydn Blower, Molly Blundell, Rosie Clifton, Jason Corke, Bella Crothers, Emma Fox, Wendy Granger, Carys Hiscox, Alex Hopes, Thomas Hunt, Ewan Hussey, Xavier Keirle, Matt Kirwan, Lauren Knight, Megan, Anton, Louie Mitchell-Miles, Joe Moore, Tom Morris, Aidan O'Rahilly, Tomos Parsons, Xavier, Ben Rushton, Noah Shoesmith, Amy Simms, Zak Slater, Jacob Slough, David Stetco, Ella Weeks and Samuel Winterton

Bronze certificates

Henry Babajee, Quinn Balch, Holly Clifton, Elliot Collins, Harry Emler, Isabelle Gilbert-Avison, Kate Hancock, Sam Heath, Olivia Isgrove, Daniel Kanaan, Gabriel Kordys, Phoebe Lee, Yana Markova, Ben Marks, Ellis Neilson-Pritchard, Bronwen Newport, James Price, Lilly Puddy, Edy, Lucia Reid, Otis Robinson, Jenna Roper, Nate Slough, Sidney Stanley-Whiteley, Billy Sullivan, Liam Warburton and Ethan Wrightson

Two Academy students, Lewis and Lara, recently competed in the World Kickboxing Organisation (WKO) English Kickboxing Championships, which attracted over 500 UK and international competitors.

Both participated in two different disciplines: Continuous Sparring and Points Sparring. In their respective age categories, Lara achieved a Bronze medal for her continuous and a Silver in points, whilst Lewis fought exceptionally hard to gain Silver in both disciplines.

Lewis and Lara put their heart and souls into preparation for this event, training for up to eight hours a week with Bristol Martial Arts Academy. They are both members of BMAA's invite-only leadership squad, and their tournament team is hand-picked from that leadership squad.

Their performances in this competition have qualified both students for the WKO World Championships this summer, in both categories. 

This is an absolutely incredible achievement and the Academy could not be more proud. Well done Lewis and Lara, we are rooting for your World Championships!

You can watch a video on their championship weekend here 

Ava has been selected as our Dance Star of the Week in recognition of the fantastic start she has made at the Academy. 

Ava has really impressed the Dance department with her high level of technical ability and fantastic work ethic. Ava shows a great deal of promise for the future and we are confident she will be a valued member of the Dance team for years to come.

Well done Ava!