At our recent Year 6 Open Evening event, hundreds of children entered a competition to win a brand new Amazon tablet, and today the winner came to King James to collect his prize from Mr Whitehead, our Headteacher.

This week we welcomed over 700 visitors to our annual Year 6 Open Evening where local families took part in guided tours and a range of fun activities.

Each year, our new Year 7 students are issued with a personal Chromebook to help them with their studies as they progress through the key stages. This ensures that students in all year groups benefit from access to a personal laptop.

Each year, during the summer holidays at King James, we organise a week of fun, free activities for Year 6 students who are registered to start our Academy in September. This year our Transition Summer School took on the important theme of 'Catching Up'.

King James I Academy recently brought World War II history to life in an intergenerational event involving senior citizens from the local community, primary school pupils from Crook Primary and students in Years 8-13 from the Academy.

In our Library, Year 5 Primary School pupils from Crook Primary have been taking part in the King James Book Awards, which is part of our Primary School Education Challenge Zone.

Over 80 of our new starters joined us at our Transition Summer School this year. Following two days in school, 61 students then enjoyed a free, three-day adventure holiday at Winmarleigh Hall Adventure Centre in Lancashire.

Guided by a team of Sixth Form Mentors, around 500 primary school pupils from 15 different schools in our local area have visited King James this week for our annual Year 5 Curriculum Week event.

In the coming weeks, pupils from four local primary schools will be participating in a literacy-based project called the "King James Book Awards'.

Last term, King James hosted the annual two-day Primary Shakespeare Festival as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company's Associate Schools Project. Here, Year 12 student Kyle Blood reports on the event.