Athena School took part in the youth mock election that took place a week before the UK general election 2024. The project has been an exciting opportunity to support children and young people to have their say and share their views on the issues they care about.

Our Generation. Our Vote. is a political literacy education programme culminating in a mass-scale election specifically for young people under 18. It took place across England and Wales in the lead up to the 2024 UK General Election.

Click here for the video results

Who voted?

Young people voted across primary and secondary schools and youth groups in England and Wales. One priority for Our Generation. Our Vote. was to involve young people who are underrepresented in politics.

• 62.85% had not received education on politics before this project
• 39.67% were young people of colour or from an ethnic minority background
• 34.55% were eligible for free school meals
• 25.17% had additional learning or special educational needs
• 5.49% had experienced care

Issues affecting young people’s votes

As part of Our Generation. Our Vote. young people were encouraged to think about the issues that would affect their voting choices.

• Education (21.57%)
• Health (18.30%)
• Climate and Environment (17.85%)
• Cost of Living (16.05%)
• Safety (12.46%)
• Immigration and Refugees (7.68%)
• Other(s) (6.08%)

Votes for the East Midlands:

• Labour Party - 32.87%
• Green party - 29.07%
• Liberal Democrats - 13.42%
• Conservative Party - 9.36%
• Reform UK - 9.36%

Think Sharp Mural

Our school was approached by Sleaford Police station, asking us if we could produce a mural to promote Knife awareness week.

Our year 10s & 11s, attended a discussion about knife crime and their views were very important as it served the basis of the designs they produced.

We talked about words associated with the topic and began to convert those words into designs. Once we had several different designs, we then photocopied them onto clear film to be projected onto the boards. The pupils then drew the designs onto the boards, ready to be painted.

The pupils used their own choosing time to come to the Art room and paint the mural until it was completed.

RSPB Gold Award Winners:

This year in KS3 we all achieved a gold award in the summer term. We completed tasks from 18 units. 9 of those units were experiencing nature and 9 of the units were helping nature. This allowed us to see how we can help the environment and how wildlife effects the way we live. Experience nature Some of the things we took part in were...

Bird watching while on a trip to Doddington hall.

Looked at insects under a microscope.

Minibeast hunt then looked at them under a magnifying glass.

Looking at different habitats including woodland and pond at Doddington hall.

Looked at natural items under the microscope including feathers, leaves and flowers.

Flower dissection.

Using quadrants to look for different plant species within the school fields.

Write poems and diary entries rom trips to Doddington hall and Hartsholme.

Helping nature Some of the things we took part in were... Made a compost heap.

Made leaflets and posters or an endangered species.

Made fat balls for the birds and hung them outside.

Made bird boxes, hedgehog homes, bee houses.

Planted wild grass seeds.

Lincoln now has a community Grocery:

Community grocery Lincoln

There is an annual membership of £5.00 per year. It is £4.00 a shop and you can do up to 5 shops a week.

It is to be open Mon-Fri 9.30 am to 4.30 pm and is at

Beaumont Manor

Lincoln

LN1 1UL

They have a Facebook page – Community Grocery Lincoln and can be contacted via their page linked above..

What Parents and Carers Need to Know about Fortnite Chapter 4

Like Super Mario Bros, Sonic the Hedgehog and Pokémon before it, Fortnite is one of those video games that’s carved out a place in more mainstream pop culture, beyond consoles and computers. You’ll almost inevitably have seen Fortnite-branded merchandise, from clothing to backpacks to action figures – while the developers, Epic, are reportedly exploring film and TV options. This welter of spin-off products and media projects suggests (not inaccurately) that Fortnite’s fan-base tends toward the younger end of the age spectrum. This, as our #WakeUpWednesday guide points out, entails parents and carers keeping a watchful eye open for hazards including phishing scams, expensive in-game purchases and inappropriate language over Fortnite’s audio chat.

As of January this year, Fortnite was registering as the second most-played video game by pre-teens in the US, ahead of Minecraft and closely behind Roblox. Consider also that one in five (22%) Fortnite fans devotes a minimum of 10 hours per week to the game, and that 77% of Fortnite players have made at least one in-game purchase.

Clearly, habitual repeated Fortnite marathons and the likelihood of spending actual money on that ‘must-have’ new weapon or outfit are among the most frequent risks for young gamers. As this week’s #WakeUpWednesday guide outlines, however, those aren’t the only potential hazards in Fortnite that that trusted adults need to be mindful of.

Science Fair

Throughout the term Key Stage 3 pupils have been learning about forces, within the last three weeks of lessons they have been planning their own investigations based around a particular topic.

Pupils have worked extremely hard with this and have had lots of fun in the process of testing out there inventions.

When it came to the Science Fair there was nothing but enthusiasm from our students demonstrating the knowledge that they had gained to explain their experiments to both parents and carers, along with physics students from our school as well as the University of Lincoln.

Pupils also had the chance to have a go at an pendulum experiment that we did not have in school, which was great fun too.

We would like to thank the effort made by everybody to make this event a success, it was just a lovely afternoon.

Leaping to the Call.

Science fair experiment leads to a surprising outcome. On the success and immense interest in his ‘Moon Shoes’, one of our Year 7 students has taken it on them selves to use this interest to start a collection for the British Heart Foundation. Charging 50p a viewing/demonstration; so far, the student has managed to collect over £11 and the total is still climbing.

We are incredibly proud of his ingenuity and creativity, not to mention his altruism.

Truly inspiring.

"Local employer Lincolnshire Co-op is to run a month of careers-related activity at Athena School in Lincoln, with help from the LEP’s own Careers Hub.

Activities throughout January will focus on Lincolnshire Co-op and its different areas of activity. Talks and enterprise sessions will showcase the different opportunities for careers and skills development at the society, and all students at the school will take part."

Click here to find out more about the Lincolnshire Co-op's visit to Athena School!