With the second round of Year 11 mock exams just round the corner, we understand that you may want further information and guidance on how best to support your child at such a crucial time in their studies. 

With this in mind, we would like to invite all parents/carers of Year 11 pupils to our ‘Help your Child Revise’ morning that will take place in school on Thursday, 8th February at 9:00am. If this time is unsuitable, I can also offer a meeting over TEAMs on the same date, at 4:00pm. Please click on the link below and complete the Microsoft form to indicate your preference: https://forms.office.com/e/4Wazw4hba7 

The aim of this session is to share top revision tips, and guidance to ensure your child is prepared for their mocks in February, the summer exam series and beyond. 

Do you have a special talent you wish to showcase at our next big live event. You will have the chance to perform on stage Infront of a live audience in Birmingham in a state-of-the-art theatre Millennium Point on Thursday 18^th April 2024. Whether it be singing, juggling, stand-up comedy or anything in between, we want to see all your wonderful talents. Unfortunately, we cannot accept Dance entries this year due to the size of the stage. 

How to enter:

• Have one of your performing arts teachers record your performance (or film it yourself and email to your teacher). 
• A snippet of your performance can be submitted, please do not worry about submitting a performance in its entirety. 
• Your teacher will be able to submit your performance video to the Matrix judging panel.
• Finalists will have the opportunity to perform at our next big trust event and some school events this year.
• Solo entries and group entries are welcome.
• Submit your entry by 4pm on Friday 23^rd February 2024.

Our chair of trustees Sir Mark Aspinall has been invited to have his photograph taken to be placed in the Victoria Law court in Birmingham. Sir Mark has over 20 years’ experience in Law across banking, financial, media, NHS, Government and FTSE corporate sector and is currently a Judge and a Governor of a local authority Primary School.

We would like to take this opportunity to see your very best photography work and give you the opportunity to have your work hung in the law court for years to come. See below details on how to get involved with our Matrix photography competition.

Submission Criteria. You can submit up to three portrait style images, each image can be of the same or a different subject. Your images should be saved in jpeg format. Images should not be altered or edited, we want to see your original photograph. Cropping is allowed. Images should be sent with your full name, form group, school name and a short write up to explain your style of image. Submit your images to photography@matrixacademytrust.co.uk

Submission Deadline: Sunday 18th February 2024. Speak to your media/creative arts teacher for help and guidance.

What is Portrait Photography? Portrait photography is best defined as a genre of photography that involves capturing the identity, personality, facial expression, soul, emotions, essence, and the overall inherent character of a subject within a photograph.

Prize. The winning submission will be chosen by Sir Mark Aspinall and Mrs Draycott. The winner will receive £150 and the opportunity to take the commissioned image in Victoria Law Court in Birmingham. The winners photograph of Sir Mark Aspinall will be proudly hung in the court. The oldest image currently hanging in the court currently is over 180 year olds. This is a chance to take a photograph that will be seen in court for many years to come.

Christmas Assembly – 21st December 2023

Staff and pupils were invited to a whole school assembly today, spreading festive cheer and celebrating a successful term.

Special guests included Father Christmas and Rudolph, Frosty the Snowman, a Christmas Elf, presents and crackers.

We all took part in Christmas games and performances, sing a longs and rewards were also given to pupils who have been nominated by form tutors and Heads of House.

We hope that everybody enjoyed the assembly as much as we did and wish you and your families and restful break.

Parents and Carers of Key Stage 3 pupils were invited into school this morning to share some festive cheer.  We had performances from the newly created musical theatre group, with an excerpt from “Elf the Musical” and also our Dance group who performed to “Step into Christmas”, followed by a Christmas carol sing along!

It was lovely to be able to invite parents and carers into school and share some of the work that our pupils have been doing.  Donations for the refreshments that were available to our guests totaled £107.91, and this will to be split across the 4 local charities that we are supporting this year:

Wings & Paws – Dawley House

Acorns Childrens Hospice – Graisely House

Compton Care – Holbeche House

The Haven – 6^th Form

Thank you to everybody who joined us and we look forward to seeing you again soon.

On 20^th December, staff and pupils at Smestow Academy were invited to wear their Christmas jumpers alongside their uniform to raise money for Save the Children.  

The Save the Children charity works tirelessly to support education facilities, and mental health support and safe spaces for young people.  They work towards a world where every child has a chance at the future and we are proud to have raised £164 for this very worthy cause.

On Tuesday 12th December, 50 students across the Matrix Schools met at Barr Beacon to find out more about their “Far From Home” Italian adventure as part of the Turing Scheme. The day consisted of meeting their staff, team building activities and learning more about where they are going. This of course would not have been complete without a “surviving Italy” language taster session from a native Italian, as well as tasting some authentic Italian dishes such as ‘Melanzane alla Parmigiana’ ‘Patate, Gorgonzola e Chorizo’ and a choice of ‘Antipasti’ to awaken their taste buds. The day was finished off by writing a Christmas card back to their pen pal in our partner school in Rome, we cannot wait to visit and meet them in person! 

The Library is well on its way to being organised, but sadly we have lots of books unaccounted for, therefore I would like to invite the entire school to join in a book amnesty. We are hoping many of the missing books are at home, therefore we would like to encourage as many pupils, parents and carers to return any books they may have to the school, either to the box by side of the desk in the library or school reception.

You can also donate books that are not from the library at all, but you no longer want at home, if they can’t be used in school, we can offer them out for pupils to keep or sell them to raise funds for new books or donate them to charity.

Our Annual Careers Fayre was the biggest and best yet!

All students from Year 7-13 amazed our array of exhibitors with their conduct.

Tracey Brace, an NHS sonographer stated “They are very polite and well-mannered but their questions are really insightful and articulate”.

Dr Thomas Prewitt-Wex, Outreach Manager from Oxford Brooks University added “I am amazed by their confidence and ambition, even the youngest pupils seem to have a really good grasp of Career paths and their options”

The students enjoyed a range of discussions and activities included targeted questioning, careers bingo and pathway proformas. In attendance were a range of local and larger Universities including Birmingham, Bath and Cardiff.

Other exhibitors allowed the students to access valuable information about the Local Labour markets including the mighty Wolves FC, Nationwide’s Local Branch Manager and Mrs Webb (Fun fact: Mr Webb’s Mum!) and also Lead Coach for Soccer 2000. The back-to-back interview questions were a great deal of fun!

Students were also able to access information on T Qualifications and Apprentice ships from OFSTED Outstanding and Globally ranked Company Incomm.

In addition to Colleges and Further Education providers students with more vocational plans were able to access local SEND training providers Juniper and Nova. The electricity test is always highly popular!

The Star of the Show was Millie Betteridge, a former Smestow Student who secured a fantastic Degree Apprenticeship with Eon. We could not be prouder!

Read our Careers Newsletter

Smestow Academy is hosting our first Culture Day today, with pupils in all year groups having been invited to participate in wearing traditional dress and taking part in cultural performances.  Mrs Lampitt, our Chef has also created a special culture day menu in the cafe.  

Culture Day was organised as a result of pupil voice, with our children wanting to celebrate how diverse we are as a school.  Did you know that we have children from 33 different countries?!?!  

Staff and pupils are demonstrating our mutual respect and tolerance of other faiths and beliefs, which is one of the fundamental British values, but our Smestow values also shine through with making a difference every day, equality and respect for all and providing a welcoming and caring environment.

Over 130 pupils have arrived to school today in cultural dress and performances will take place at lunchtime in the dining hall.  Take a look at the photos to see what a great day we are having!