The News & Star's School of the Week continues with Solway School in Silloth

A LONG time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…. a space age visitor – Kylo Ren – came to Earth.

It perhaps wasn’t too long ago when the Star Wars character did pay an unexpected visit to Solway School, in Silloth, to host its Creative Day.

Year six pupils from four partner primary schools - Holme St Cuthbert at Mawbray, Holm Cultram Abbey in Abbeytown, neighbouring Silloth Primary School, and Allonby - were invited along to get involved with a range of Star Wars-themed activities.

In drama, they dressed as Jedi, Darth Vader, and Princess Leia to act out scenes ending in freeze frames, showing the emotion and outcome of their own story.

Stories were written for the characters and planned as cartoon pages.

Elsewhere students attempted Manga-style comic drawings in art.

In PE, there was the opportunity to save the Death Star from defeat.

The giant Death Star was fired at with tennis balls and teams had to either make a hit or defend.

One of the most exciting parts of the day saw the pupils take part in an active role play story.

Classrooms became spaceships with spooky lights and sound effects. Pupils acted out various scenarios in character.

Kylo Ren turned out to be English teacher Josh Ratcliffe in disguise - so any lightsabers provided were not used in anger, and nobody ended up on the dark side.

The Creative Day allowed children from smaller primary schools to get a taste of what life at secondary school is like.

It comes as the deadline for applications for year seven places looms. Applications for places starting next September must be submitted to Cumbria County Council by October 31.

Solway Community School is a small, thriving and successful school with 123 pupils currently on roll.

Find out more about its sporting successes here

Solway School's recent open evening welcomed prospective pupils currently in years five and six of primary school and their families.

Visiting children watched a trampolining display before having a go themselves. Other activities included story-writing workshops, karaoke and science experiments. Year seven and eight students prepared canapes.

The school is also offering new opportunities to ex-students like Lucy Penrice.

The Creative Day comes following an interesting journey for everyone at Solway School, Silloth and Beacon Hill Community School, Aspatria over the last 18 months.

Working together makes both schools stronger in all sorts of ways – better curriculum offer, greater choice of GCSE subjects, more extra curricular opportunities, staff working across both schools, and not least students learning how to coexist.

In September, following full consultation, the schools decided to move to a formal federation arrangement.

This does not mean the schools are merging. They remain separate entities; they just agree to work closely together, in the classroom and out. And crucially, retaining the benefits of small schools where every student is known personally to staff and class sizes remain optimal for learning.

Under the Cumbria Futures Federation a single governing body has become accountable for setting the strategic direction for both schools whilst each one retains its individual identity – that’s important to serve the different communities the schools are at the heart of.

Across both schools the federation actively promotes inclusion, diversity and equality and provides a properly equipped environment where students feel welcomed, encouraged, challenged and, most importantly, want to learn and succeed.

The newly-formed federation leadership team and governing body have both vision and ambition for each school. The executive headteacher is inspiring improvements, raising aspiration and expectations and ensuring new initiatives are implemented across both schools.

The strengthened position of both schools has been evidenced this year by the substantial improvements seen in the 2018 GCSE results, Progress 8 scores and every Year 11 student attaining the qualifications they need to move on to their chosen next step.

* If your school wants to take part in School of the Week, email news.carlisle@cnmedia.co.uk