This week the children at Hartsholme Academy were lucky to attend an amazing virtual workshop with author Sarah Ann Juckes.

Sarah Ann Jukes has both won and been shortlisted for various writing prizes, such as the Mslexia Children’s Novel Competition and the Bath Novel Awards – she is currently Waterstones’ writer of the month.

We were introduced to her new novel ‘The Night Animals’, where a little girl named Nora welcomes into her life a range of ghostly night animals who help her deal with the difficult moments that may arise in her day.

We also recieved some fantastic tips on how to become an author and about the process of writing a novel.

“With hard work, anything is possible.”

A valuable piece of advice from Sarah.

The children at Hartsholme Academy thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and have become even more inspired to write their own stories – some children have now shared their aspirations to become published authors in the future.

At the start of the Spring Term, Mr Cannon took fifty very excited pupils to the Young Voices concert at Sheffield Arena to perform alongside five thousand other children.
The Hartsholme Choir had spent months rehearsing ten fantastic songs from Niles Rodgers Dance Party to some traditional folk songs, including one very tricky Welsh number! Every member of the choir did an absolutely amazing job at learning the lyrics and the dance routines and performed them with fantastic energy and gusto. On the day of the performance, the children had to attend a rehearsal at the arena before performing infront of their parents in the evening. All of the pupils absolutely loved showcasing their talents alongside some professional musicians and singers, including Heather Small, who recorded her famous song ‘Proud’ with the children as a charity single so look out for that in the future!
A huge thank you to all the members of staff involved in the preparation and the performance itself.

For the second year running, Hartsholme Academy chose to to unite and fight against cancer! Our youngsters are the generation that cold see ground-breaking treatments and cures for cancer in their lifetime, and could become the lifesavers of tomorrow! It was a fantastic day once again, in which the children thoroughly enjoyed themselves, and all of them finished their race for life and received a medal! As a school, we raised a fantastic £523 towards cancer research, and each and every one that took part should be extremely proud of themselves!

Year 6 had the opportunity to spend three days at Kingswood Dearne Valley. We have a fantastic time and many of us were able to overcome our fears and achieve so many goals in the process. Some of the activities involved jumping from a tall building and whizzing down a zip wire, climbing up Jacob’s ladder, building and raft, jumping in and swimming in a lake. It was a pleasure to watch the children have such a fantastic time – and the weather was a bonus too!