16^th November 2023

Anti-bullying week is taking place week beginning 13^th November 2023.  We are raising awareness of this though house assemblies led by Ms Davey (Head of Dawley House) and our Anti-Bullying Ambassadors.  To show our support, staff and pupils are invited to wear odd socks on 16^th November, a symbol to all to celebrate how unique we all are!

There is no cost to pupils taking part in this event and we would encourage as many of you to get involved in upholding our smestow values of making a difference everyday and providing a welcoming and caring environment.

Following the success of the “restart a heart” campaign and raising awareness in school, we are pleased to share that we have had a new defibrillator installed in school.

The device is in a locked box by Mr Murphy’s office. Hopefully, we will never need to use it, but we are lucky to be able to have the resource in school to help save a life should somebody be in danger.

Today, all Year 9 pupils have completed a course in First Aid, led by the Air Ambulance.  

As part of the statutory Health requirements and our personal development curriculum, all pupils should be taught first aid in secondary schools which will cover dealing with common injuries, how to administer CPR and the purpose of defibrillators. 

The feedback from the day was really positive with our pupils now developing their confidence in supporting those who may be in a medical need in a safe way.

Well done to all involved and a huge thank you to the Air Ambulance for delivering our training.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and on 23rd October, our School Health Nurse Barbara Tandi came into school to raise awareness and signpost our pupils to more information.

1 in 7 women in the UK will develop breast cancer in their lifetime.  Symptoms can include a lump, but this isn’t the only form of breast cancer.  It is caused by a combination of our genes, environment and our lifestyles.

It is important for everyone to be aware and to encourage each other to go to the GP if there are changes that are new and or unusual.

As part of Barbara’s stand, she was also giving out badges to raise awareness in the community  – here are some of our Year 11s proudly wearing theirs!

Find out more information at https://breastcancernow.org/ 

Wednesday 18^th Ocotber is Anti-Slavery Day.  We have discussed this in asemblies this week led by Mr Murphy and rasies awaareness of the need to stand together to stop modern slavery.

We have also shared some signs that are more and less obvious.

Here at Smestow Academy, we are a “telling school” and we encourage all our pupils to report anything that is worrying them, about themselves or about somebody else.

We can all play our part in helping others to escape modern slavery.

Monday 16^th October is “Restart a Heart” day – a day to raise awareness about the importance of early CPR and defibrillation.  More than 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests happen every year in the UK and sadly, less than 1 in 10 people survive.   

This important day is now in its 10^th year and is more important that ever, especially for the people of Wolverhampton, where 29,000 people are living with heart disease in the city and where it is recorded that heart and circulatory disease causes 65 deaths every month.

Our pupils have taken part in an assembly this week, led by Mr Murphy, that signposted what to do in the event of an emergency.

Year 9 pupils will also be taking part in First Aid training delivered by the Air Ambulance team next week – watch this space for more information!!!

As part of our Personal Development curriculum, today pupils in years 8 and 9 had the opportunity to watch a brilliant performance by Saltmine Theatre Company on the dangers of gang violence and knife crime. Following the session, students were then part of a workshop with the actors to discuss the main messages of the performance and to ask questions about the characters. We were really impressed with how engaged the students were with both watching the performance and taking part in the workshop today.

Work is well underway on the £100000 swimming pool and changing room refurbishment. With current progress we are still hopeful of reopening for January 2024.

At Smestow Academy, we value all members of our school community. We are proud to recognise National TA and National Teacher Day in our school.  Pupils have been busy writing thank you cards to staff as part of this event. We had an overwhelming response from our pupils, who were really grateful to be given the opportunity to say thank-you. All staff were presented with a handwritten card, with personal thank-you cards inside. We celebrated with a staff breakfast to show our gratitude to the hardworking and professional staff at Smestow Academy who make such a difference to the lives of our pupils every single day.