The YR10 Boys moved their attention to a cup match on Tuesday after two wins in the league last week. We travelled to Division 1 high flyers Wolverhampton Grammar School. 

On a fantastic pitch, with excellent surroundings the lads were really excited to give it their all and perform at their optimum. 

Theydefinitely started the game at this level and worked a lot harder than their opponents with some fantastic patterns of play. One of these resulted in us scoring the first goal of the game where assist King Rodrique slid the ball through the WGS defence to the on rushing Alieu who scored great strength and speed to make his way beyond the defenders and cooly slot it round the on-rushing goalkeeper and into the bottom corner. Alieu has now scored 3 in 3 games and Rodrique has assisted every single goal of our season so far! An outstanding effort from both players. 

The lads really had to work even harder since we scored as WGS were moving the ball around really well and trying to break our defence down but we stood tall and would not let them past. We got to half time 1-0 up which we definitely deserved. The lads started the second half just as they started the first and they had two fantastic chances both off Rodrique’s corners to double their lead but unfortunately couldn’t quite take advantage and moments later this came to haunt us. The WGS centre midfielder scored a screamer from 20 yards out which Courtney had no chance and then minutes later theyplayed some fantastic football to cut through our defence for the very first time all game and took their chance to get their noses in front. 

Smestow lads then huffed and puffed to try and get themselves back into the game but couldn’t quite find the final cutting edges and WGS saw the game out really well. Unfortunately that is our cup run come to an end at the first time of asking but the lads can be proud of their valiant effort against a team who were two divisions above themselves! Special mention to Hedon who was recognised by not only Mr Webb but also the WGS teacher for his outstanding commanding performance at centre back, earning him the player of the match! Mr Webb compares him to a Rolls Royce when he is in that mood! 

Well done lads, fantastic effort! 

🎃 October Half Term Fun! 🎲

Looking for things to do this half term? Check out these two events from Reflexions!

🎲 Game & Chill – Wednesday 28th October, 10:30am–4pm at Wolverhampton Art Gallery.

🍂 Spooky Steps Wellbeing Walk – Thursday 29th October, 12–1pm at Bantock Park. Halloween costumes welcome!

📧 To register or find out more, email bchft.reflexions@nhs.net

The YR10 Boys football team started their football season this week and have won both games! It was great to see the lads in competitive action  and they really relished in it. We started the week with a game against Colton Hills who haven’t been defeated in 2 years of school football, the lads were really excited and you could tell with the start that they made in the game. We were pressing as a team and working collectively to hunt the ball down and then play their free flowing football. This paid off quite early in the game where Rodrique played the ball over the top to the pacey Shayden who finished fantastically well over the on rushing keeper to get us 1 up. 

The pressure continued and it was Rodrique once again the supplier who this time played in the other winger Alieu, who finished calm and composed to double our lead. 

The third came in the second half where it was player of the match Rodrique again, driving through their defence beating 5 players before squaring the ball to Dhiraj who put the ball into an empty net. 

Smestow then went on to see the game out with no problems to start their league campaign with a convincing and professional performance. 

Attention then turned to Thursday where St Matthias were the opponents this time and with Smestow missing a few key players they knew they had to work even harder to continue the positive performances. The game started scrappy and the first half was not really full with action, all of the highlights started in the second half. There was 10 minutes left in the game where assist king Rodrique drove through the middle again before playing a pin point pass over the top of their defence for Alieu to run onto and finish with the outside of his boot into the bottom corner to spark wild celebrations in the far corner with players and spectators. These celebrations were soon silenced as St Matthias hit back straight from the kick off and with minutes to go it looked like the game was going to finish in a draw. Smestow lads had other ideas, Muslim dispossessed his opponent in the midfield and played it to Rodrique who played a defence splitting pass through to Craig who ran on to the ball and unleashed a rocket into the far corner and get his 1^st goal of the season at a perfect time. It meant Rodrique had assisted every single goal of ours this week which is an outstanding feat in its own but player of the match for this one had to be the match winner Craig! 

It has been a fantastic week for the lads and a real positive start to their league campaign. We now look forward to playing in the cup next week against Wolverhampton Grammar School. 

Meet our SENDCo- Mr Jeffs

I joined Smestow in September 2025 as SENDCo and Teacher of Science. I really enjoy being part of a school community where I can support pupils both in and outside of the classroom. As a Science teacher, I love helping pupils develop their curiosity about the world around them. While as SENDCo, I am passionate about making sure every pupil feels supported, included and able to achieve their full potential. One of the things I enjoy most about my role is getting to know pupils as individuals and helping them to overcome barriers to learning. I love seeing pupils grow in confidence and celebrating their successes, both big and small.

Outside of school, I enjoy spending time with my friends and family. I also enjoy going to the gym and going for walks.

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Meet our Teacher of Textiles & Food Technology - Mrs Preece

I joined Smestow in September 2023, as a Teacher of Textiles and Food – both subjects that hadn’t been taught at Smestow for several years.  Since then, I have had the joy of developing both curriculum areas and seeing pupils achieve and thrive in both practical subjects – learning skills they can take forward into their adult lives and also extend their creativity.  Before becoming a teacher, I had worked in the costume industry for many years, and I love seeing my passion for fashion and costume create a spark of interest in our pupils; this is especially visible in my weekly fashion club, where students can come and practice their sewing skills and chat over the latest catwalk shows and celebrity fashion.

Outside of school, I spend lots of my free time on creative projects – from making huge cakes for family gatherings to designing crazy headpieces to wear to weddings!  This summer, I plan to start writing and illustrating my own children’s book based on the life of my dog.

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Meet our Tigers Lead - Mr Holmes

I joined Smestow in September 2023 after leaving the school as a pupil at the end of Year 13 six years ago. The thing I enjoy most about working at smestow is being able to see long standing traditions such as fancy dress for children in need still embedded into the culture of the school. I teach PE where I am able to pass on my enthusiasm for sport to our pupils. I am also the pastoral intervention lead where I run our “Tigers” intervention program a which enables our pupils to reach their full potential and contribute to the positive culture that we have at smestow. 

Outside of school, I coach my main sport of cheerleading. As an athlete, I was fortunate enough to attend the world championships on three separate occasions performing at both club and national level. 

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Meet Miss Field - our newly appointed Head of Creative Arts!

Since joining Smestow in September 2023, I have had the privilege of establishing the Performing Arts department at this wonderful school. I teach Dance and Drama across Key Stages 3 and 4 and am proud to serve as Heasd of Creative Arts, overseeing the four creative disciplines of Dance, Drama, Music and Art.

I am deeply passionate about nurturing pupils’ creativity and inspiring a lifelong appreciation for the arts. It is incredibly rewarding to work within such a supportive and welcoming school community, where creativity is encouraged and pupils are given the opportunity to express themselves and grow in confidence.

Outside of school, I enjoy staying active through dance, Pilates and the gym. 

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Meet our Assistant Head of House - Mr Sidhu

I joined Smestow Academy in September 2020 as a trainee teacher on my PGCE placement and have been proud to remain as a full-time member of staff ever since. I teach Mathematics across Key Stages 3 and 4 and also support our pastoral provision as Assistant Head of House, working closely with Heads of House and the attendance team to promote positive behaviour, attendance, and punctuality. 

Smestow is a fantastic school with brilliant pupils and a supportive, dedicated staff team that I am proud to be part of. I am passionate about helping pupils believe in their potential and feel confident about their future, whatever path they choose. 

As a young Panjabi male teacher, I am proud to be a visible role model and strongly believe that representation matters - every pupil deserves to feel seen, supported, and inspired.

Outside of school, I enjoy spending time with family and friends, and unwinding with films, games and podcasts.

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Meet our Head of 6th form and Assistant Head of Sixth form - Mrs Bryant and Mr Davies! 

Name: Mrs Bryant

Role: Assistant Head (Exams, Data, Assessment & Careers) and Head of Sixth Form

I joined Smestow in April 2024 and have loved being part of such a dedicated and vibrant school community. Alongside my leadership role, I teach A Level Biology as well as Science across Key Stages 3 and 4. I’ve been teaching for nine years and supporting students both academically and pastorally continues to be the most rewarding part of my career. I am incredibly excited to keep watching the Sixth Form grow and to help our students achieve their aspirations.

Fun fact: I’m a huge dog lover and share my home with two giant Newfoundland's and one very cheeky Labrador!

Name: Mr Davies

Role: Science Teacher and Assistant Head of Sixth Form 

I joined Smestow in September 2016 as a PE teacher and began teaching Science in 2017. I have loved how Smestow Academy has grown into a positive and successful community where pupils are well mannered and make good progress. I teach A Level Biology as well as Triple Biology to KS4 and Science to KS3 pupils. My additional responsibility in school is Assistant Head of Sixth Form where I support students in making the right choices in their next steps as well as ensure they make progress in Level 3 studies.

In my Spare Time I enjoy:  Watching football (I am a big football fan), listening to music and going on long walks with my family

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This week, pupils have attended assemblies on World Mental Health Day which takes place annually on 10^th October.  Some of our Wellbeing Ambassadors have been brave enough to lead these assemblies with Ms Heilbronn to talk about the 5 top tips for promoting positive mental health and what these can look like for us.  We've also have a mental health marketplace at lunchtimes, where pupils have been able to speak with members of our Mental Health team about any worries that they may have.  Well done to our Ambassadors for demonstrating confidence in public speaking this week - we are very proud of you!  

This week we launched The Secret Bookshop as a rewards scheme for great reading and competition prizes!

This morning Mrs Birtwistle and Mr Dangerfield presented the writers of the best stories entered into our Short Story Writing Competition, Sienna, Clara, Ireoluwa, Amber and Etta and Summer Challenge winner Ianis, with their vouchers and they became the first pupils in school to open The Secret Bookshop and choose their prizes.

The winners of the short story writing competition will be announced in school next week, but all the stories entered were fantastic, showing what wonderful imaginations our pupils have!

Each week the pupil top of the leaderboard for their Sparx Homework will receive a token for a goody from the prize shelf of The Secret Bookshop, and each Month the pupil with the most SRP points will receive a voucher for a brand new book from The Secret Bookshop.

#SmestowAcademyLibrary #TheSecretBookshop

What an incredible achievement for our pupils at the Matrix Spelling Bee, held at Aston Villa Stadium! 

We are absolutely delighted to celebrate our pupils who took 1st place 🥇 and 2nd place 🥈 in the competition! Their hard work, determination and fantastic spelling skills truly paid off.

A huge congratulations to our brilliant spellers Paul 9D1 and Lyra 9G1  — what an amazing accomplishment! 🎉👏

We are so proud of you! 

Smestow Academy is a proud member of Matrix Academy Trust and we are proud to launch our applications for the Turing Scheme visits for 2027!

Matrix bid for funding from the Turing Scheme which offers young people the opportunity to visit other countries, learn new cultures and experience different ways of life.  Visits are fully funded for pupils in receipt of pupil premium funding - we even pay for your passport if you don't have one!

Where are we off to this year?

Year 8 are going to Spain in January

Year 9 are going to Poland in May

Year 10 are going to Japan in February

Year 12 are going to China in April

Applications are now open! Please write your letter of application (no longer than one side of A4) and submit to Ms Heilbronn no later than Monday 5^th October.  Good Luck!

A fantastic first netball fixture for our Year 7 and Year 8 teams! Both teams showed great enthusiasm, determination and, most importantly, excellent sportsmanship throughout the whole game, they never dropped their heads.

Although the results didn’t go their way, the players never gave up. They encouraged one another, celebrated each other’s successes and showed wonderful team spirit from start to finish. They represented the school brilliantly and should be incredibly proud of themselves.

Our Year 9 and Year 10 students had the opportunity to attend the Heath Town Construction Careers Trade Day, hosted by United Infrastructure.

Students took part in a range of hands-on activities, gaining practical experience and learning more about the many different careers available within the construction industry. They also had the chance to speak with industry professionals and find out more about future training, work experience and apprenticeship opportunities.

It was a really valuable experience, helping students to develop their understanding of the world of work and consider the different pathways that may be available to them in the future.