Carnival Week 2025 was another unforgettable celebration of community, culture and enrichment at Stanground Academy. This year saw nearly the whole school take part in external trips across the UK and well over 1,000 students engaging in a wide range of enrichment activities on site. The week brought our whole academy community together, showcasing the spirit, diversity and enthusiasm that make Stanground Academy so special.

Diversity & Culture Day

We launched Carnival Week 2025 with our third annual Diversity & Culture Day, a vibrant celebration of the rich cultural heritage represented within our academy. Pupils were invited to wear clothing that reflected their culture, identity or heritage, and they embraced the opportunity with pride and creativity.

Carnival Day

Carnival Day once again brought festival energy to the academy grounds. The inflatable zone returned with crowd favourite bouncy castles and drop slides, alongside a Vintage and Nature Zone featuring classic vehicles, games and a petting zoo.

Students enjoyed a variety of musical and dance performances from their peers, as well as an intense and highly competitive inter form competition. And, of course, no Carnival Day would be complete without the real carnival parade – complete with music, colour and celebration.

    

 

External Trips & Enrichment Activities

On the Tuesday and Wednesday of Carnival Week, over 700 students in Years 7–10 and Year 12 enjoyed external trips to more than 10 different locations around the UK. Destinations included Alton Towers, Rutland Aqua Park, paintballing, Glo Golf, Creams dessert café, London Zoo, London Dungeon & Eye, the London open-top bus tour, Skegness, and more!

Students not attending trips had the opportunity to immerse themselves in a broad enrichment programme at the academy. Activities included STEM challenges, Creative Arts workshops, model making, active challenges, Murder Mystery, and a cinema experience – ensuring every pupil enjoyed a rich and memorable experience.

   

 

Sports Day

We rounded off Carnival Week 2025 with our annual whole school Sports Day. In the morning, tutor groups worked together in a rotation of team-building activities and physical challenges, demonstrating excellent teamwork and resilience. The afternoon saw the return of our traditional track events, with students competing within their year groups to claim the title of overall top tutor group. The energy, sportsmanship and support on display perfectly reflected our ASPIRE values.

   

Carnival Week 2024 involved over 700 students on external trips, over 1000 students taking part in enrichment activities and celebrating our academies diversity and culture.

Diversity & Culture Day

We kicked off Carnival Week 2024 with a vibrant celebration of our Academy's diverse community with our second ever Culture Day. Pupils were invited to come into school dressed in something which represented their culture or heritage and, as the photos show, they truly understood the brief.

These amazing outfits were wonderfully captured in the tutor group photographs taken by the professional photography company Tempest. We are privileged to have pupils with cultural connections to over 40 different countries and the Academy was decorated with flags and bunting from many of these nations. During the day, pupils were able to join in discussions with their tutor group about their home and heritage and created 'Tutor Group Identity' displays to celebrate their diversity. Pupils were also able to share their thoughts and how they see the world through a creative writing and speaking activity called 'The World Through My Eyes'. The staff panel were absolutely blown away by the high quality of writing and the poignant sentiments displayed in many of these poems and pieces of prose.

Finally, the highlight of the day for many pupils was getting to experience the Culture Day Showcase in which many pupils walked the runway in cultural dress and shared dance performances from countries including India, Nigeria, Poland, Jamaica and Nepal. We are so proud of the way in which Stanground Academy pupils embraced the day and look forward to many more opportunities to highlight and celebrate difference and diversity.

   

Carnival Day

Carnival Day included a giant inflatable zone with bouncy castles and drop slides, a Vintage and Nature zone showcasing vintage vehicles, games and a petting zoo. There were performances by our students showcasing a variety of music and dance, plus a highly competitive interactive inter-form competition.

      

External Trips & Enrichment activities

The Tuesday and Wednesday of Carnival Week included over 700 students in year 7-10 going on external trips to over 10 different locations around the UK. These included, Thorpe Park, Paintball, Rutland Aqua park, Posh stadium tour, Glo golf, Creams desserts, London Zoo, London Dungeon & Eye, London open-top bus tour, Hunstanton and a Theatre Show.

Students were given the opportunity to pick their choice of trip and if they were not on a trip, they were in the academy experiencing a wide range of enrichment activities including: STEM, Murder Mystery, Creative workshops, Active, Model-making and cinema experience.

       

Sports Day

To finish off Carnival Week, we had our annual whole school sports day. Students spent the morning rotating around a variety of challenge and team-based activities in their tutor groups. The afternoon saw traditional track events where students competed in their tutors groups within year groups to crown the best overall tutor group.