UPDATE:

SCHOOL OPEN TO YEARS 11 and 13 ONLY

Whilst significant areas of school remain closed, we are able to open to Years 11 and 13 to allow exams to take place on site and prep sessions to run in support of exams this afternoon and tomorrow.

School will re-open to students in Years 11 and 13 at 11.10am this morning.  All students are expected to attend as if they do not have exams, they will have prep sessions that it is imperative that they take part in.

Thank you for your support this morning.

Please do continue to monitor WeDuc and socials for further updates.

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Due to a major water leak overnight and having to close parts of the school, Smestow Academy will be closed today.

Provision is still available for Year 11 and Year 13 exams due to take place today, so those sitting GCSE French (Listening & Reading), A-Level Psychology and GCSE Religious Studies are still expected in school.

There will be a contingency plan in place for exams from tomorrow onwards if we are not able to remedy this issue quickly.

We are hoping to issue a notice for Year 11 and Year 13 students to come in later today for prep sessions once we know the extent of issue.

Please can we ask parents and carers to keep an eye on the WeDuc messaging service and our socials for updates.

They have been introduced to a range of techniques inspired by Frantic Assembly, focusing on how movement can communicate emotion and narrative. This week, pupils worked on creating chair duets to represent themes of friendship.

Year 8 have shown fantastic creativity and collaboration, making great progress in this area and devising some truly impressive chair duets that reflect strong emotional connections and storytelling through movement.

This term, Year 8 pupils are focusing on the concept of trust as a foundation for their practical work in dance. Developing trust is essential as they begin to explore Swansong by Christopher Bruce—a professional repertoire piece that powerfully explores relationships through contact work and lifts.

Through a series of carefully structured tasks, including counter balances and trust falls, pupils have made impressive progress in building and demonstrating trust with their peers. This focus not only supports their physical development and safety but also enhances their understanding of interpersonal dynamics within performance.

The auditorium at Millennium Point was once again filled with excitement and pride as the third annual Matrix Pupil Awards Ceremony took place. Now a firmly established tradition, the event recognised outstanding academic achievements across all our schools while celebrating the unique talents and character of each of our pupils.

The evening was opened by CEO Lynsey Draycott, with Headteachers from across the trust taking to the stage to present awards to their proud pupils. Among the honours were five standout titles: Most Creative, Most Resilient, Most Selfless, Continuous Improver, and Most Enthusiastic — each highlighting the remarkable qualities shown by pupils throughout the year.

The ceremony also featured captivating performances from pupils who triumphed in our trust-wide talent competition. Their musical skills added an unforgettable touch to the evening and demonstrated the breadth of talent within our schools.

Special recognition was also given to pupils involved in our Combined Cadet Force and those who successfully completed their Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, celebrating their commitment, resilience, and leadership beyond the classroom.

The awards were presented by our Chair of Trustees, Sir Mark Aspinall. A big thank you to our special guest Beth who gave some very inspiring words.

A heartfelt thank you and congratulations to all of our award winners, performers, dedicated staff, trustees, parents and carers who made the evening such a success. A highlight video will be posted shortly.

9X1, 9X2 and 9X3 classes sat their Unit 8 assessments last week on ‘Home and dream home’. The groups have really demonstrated our Smestow Value of ‘Strive to improve to be your best’. Here are some examples of their essays written under exam conditions. Pupils had to show their knowledge of the present tense, the imperfect tense and the conditional tense. Congratulations to the class for their excellent revision materials which were produced for homework. The knowledge and skills needed in this unit will be needed later on in Year 10 when we begin the unit on ‘My Neighbourhood’.

This afternoon, we are grateful to have received this fantastic donation of hundreds of books from the Rotary Club of the City of Wolverhampton's Books4Home scheme.

Mike and Lynn Hardacre delivered books to our school Librarian Mrs Birtwistle.  Some of the books will go on our library shelves but most will be given away to pupils and to keep them reading over the summer.

Thank you to Rotary Club of the City of Wolverhampton for this wonderful donation.

#SmestowAcademy #SuccessAchievedTogether #books4home #rotaryclubofwolverhampton #smestowacademylibrary #loveofreading

There are lots of opportunities with the Kings Trust, including free courses to support young people between 16-30 years old to build their confidence, find a job or start their own business. Take a look at their newsletter to find out more information about upcoming courses or becoming a mentor.

#SmestowAcademy #SuccessAchievedTogether #KingsTrust #Careers

This week, we have celebrated Mental Health Awareness Week with "time to talk" at lunchtime and mindful colouring being led by Ms Buparai and Miss Mahli who are part of our mental health team in school.  Our assemblies will take place with Mr Dyke next week where we will find out more about the theme this year which is "community".  As a community, if we follow our mental health top tips to promote positive wellbeing, we can support each other to improve our mental health.

Our top tips are:

• Be active
• Connect
• Give
• Keep learning
• Take notice

#SmestowAcademy #SuccessAchievedTogether #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek #MentalHealthMatters

Smestow Academy are proud to work alongside Reflexions who are our Mental Health Support Team in Wolverhampton.  They have invited students from Smestow Academy to take part in their creative event which is happening during half-term at the Merry Hill shopping centre.  Take a look at the flyer and sign-up to take part!

#SmestowAcademy #SuccessAchievedTogether #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek #MentalHealthMatters

Smestow Academy are proud to work alongside Reflexions, the Mental Health Support Team in Wolverhampton.  Mental Health Awareness Week is taking place this week and Reflexions have invited parents and carers of our school to attend a series of webinars to support their child.  These are taking place on MS Teams over the half-term break.  If you are interested, please email the Reflexions team to register.

#SmestowAcademy #SuccessAchievedTogether #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek #MentalHealthMatters