As part of our careers programme in school, we are keen to support parents, carers and pupils with the choices that they have with regards to their next steps.  We have shared previously from Amazing Apprenticeships, but the December edition of the Choices magazine is now available, which showcases the celebrations that took place for the National Apprenticeship & Skills Awards 2024  There is a parent’s perspective on apprenticeships, information about assistive technology, the Gatsby Benchmarks and much more!

Choices Magazine – December

Over the past five weeks, 15 of our exceptional pupils have had the opportunity to collaborate with a professional dance company Linden Dance. This project was community-driven aimed at addressing loneliness in Wolverhampton. Linden Dance approached Smestow Academy following a highly successful previous workshop, where they were impressed by the work ethic and dedication of our pupils. Their request to return for this project is a testament to the commitment and skill consistently demonstrated by our pupils. 

The initiative comprised four workshops, during which pupils worked closely with Linden Dance to create choreographed dance pieces inspired by music and core memories shared by the residents of Charnwood Care Home prior to the performance. These personal stories formed the foundation for the dances, adding a profound and emotional depth to the pieces. 

Our pupils found great joy in performing these dance pieces for the residents, with many commenting on how rewarding it was to bring smiles to their faces and evoke cherished memories. One pupil remarked, “It was so lovely to make the residents smile and bring back happy memories, one resident had tears in their eyes.” 

It was truly a privilege to once again showcase the exceptional talent, commitment, and dedication of our pupils to the local community. I am immensely proud of their hard work and the high standard of performance they consistently uphold throughout this project. 

Big shoutout to our YR11 BTEC Sport students this week who have been tirelessly over this half term to complete their final PSA assessment before the preparation for the exam starts. Students have had to complete three different parts of coursework for Component 2 along with being assessed on their practical ability of a sport of their choice and then they have to coach a session in their chosen sport showing clear progress from each activity.

The students have produced some fantastic sessions over this week in the hope of some excellent results adding to their hard work from last year. When being assessed on their practical ability they have to show their skills in isolated practices and then how they perform in a competitive context to show these skills and how they can be effective to overcome opponents.

Well done to all of our students and lets hope that the hard work is all worth it come the summer.

60 year 8 pupils from 8X1 and 8X2 took part in a stem day hosted by small peice trust to encourage science, technology, engineering and maths.  The day involved pupils planning, designing and building prototypes of bridges and testing these to see whether they will withstand the weight. Once trialled and tested the pupils then designed the different types of bridges using available resources but had to take costing into consideration. Pupils had team roles such as; Project manager, finance manager, designer, structural engineer, community lead and marketing executive. Pupils demonstrated brilliant teamwork, leadership, problem solving, creativity and presentation skills, which are all skills that are needed in the workplace. 

Well done to all the pupils who took part and a big congratulations to the winning team ; J. Flora, I.Fanyi, I.Kumari, A.Saharan, E.Nkfunje

Thank you to Oliver and Rachel from @smallpeicetrust for delivering the excellent workshop and for giving pupils an insight into the world of science and engineering. 

Smestow looks forward to welcoming you back for another stem day!

 

#stem #engineering #futurescientists #smallpeicetrust @smallpeicetrust 

Three classes of year 5 pupils from Uplands Primary School have had the brilliant opportunity to come to Smestow academy to experience what it is like to be a forensic scientist investigating a crime that was committed.  All pupils were well engaged and demonstrated excellent investigative skills to conclude who had done the crime. 

Mrs Neish and Mrs Robertson were really impressed with the teamwork, practicals skills and scientific knowledge shown by the pupils.

A big well done to all pupils who showed impeccable behaviour throughout the forensic workshop and a big thank you to staff from Uplands Primary School for supporting.

If you are a local primary school and would like your pupils in year 5 to experience a hands-on forensic science workshop, please get in touch!

#successachievedtogether #futurescientists #STEM #⚛🔍🔬🔭

Last Friday we celebrated “Stars in our Schools”, a national initiative to celebrate all the amazing support staff that help schools to run smoothly.

Here at Smestow, we are incredibly lucky to have an amazing support team who deserve to be celebrated today for all their hard work.  Some of our support team are pupil facing and others work behind the scenes to ensure that we are able to make the wonderful progress that we are.  From our catering team to site staff, our House PAs to our LSAs, our pupil support team to our Lab technician and everybody in between, we thank you for upholding our Smestow values and making a difference everyday!

Friday 29th November saw Smestow Academy celebrate our second Culture Day. Culture Day originally came from a suggestion from our School Council and we are proud to celebrate our diversity in our school.

Over 130 pupils took part in Culture Day, which included musical and dance performances at lunchtime alongside a themed menu from our catering team too. Staff were welcome to take part and they even got involved in the dancing alongside pupils.

Culture Day is an event that our whole school looks forward to and it was wonderful to celebrate as a community.

Well done to everyone who took part, especially to those who performed.

#SmestowAcademy #SuccessAchievedTogether #EqualityandRespectforAll #WecomingandCaringEnvironment #ActiveCitizenship #CultureDay 

Our Year 7 and 8 Girls attended a dodgeball tournament with other schools in the city this week. They showed great determination to win 2 games and draw against some tough opposition after a couple of early losses. Our pupils showed great integrity and honesty by playing to the rules and being respectful to other schools. Please congratulate the following pupils if you see them: 

S Christie

I Kumari

S Al Anzi

Y Ali

S Banger

L Robinson

K Bowers

A Samuels

R Poole

Smestow Academy’s advent calendar of kindness is back for 2024!  As part of our demonstration of active citizenship in school, we have an advent calendar of kindness to promote our welcoming and caring environment.  Pupils are able to access the calendar on our TV screens and on posters around our school building.  It also gives a chance to explore our mental health top tips and connect with others.  Examples of our acts of kindness include: hold the door open for others, help to make dinner, send a nice text message to a family member and donate an item of tinned goods to a food bank.

We have boxes in school for pupils to make their donations of tinned goods if they are able and our personal development ambassadors will deliver these to The Well which is a foodbank in Wolverhampton that supports the whole city before we break for the holidays.

#SmestowAcademy #SuccessAchievedTogether #AdventCalendarofKindness #PersonalDevelopment #ActiveCitizenship #WelcomingandCaring #Connect #TheWellWolverhampton

Last week, Year 9 and 6^th Form pupils undertook basic first aid training and defibrillator use with Wayne from “I can save a life!”.

Wayne showed pupils how to perform basic CPR and discussed what scenarios we might find ourselves in when we have to use this life skills.

Our first aid training is a key part of our personal development programme and here at Smestow Academy, we are committed to ensuring that we equip our pupils with the knowledge to become well-rounded young people who can make outstanding contributions to British society – being able to save a life would definitely be one of those contributions!

Well done to everyone involved and a huge thank you to Wayne for battling the snow to get to us!

#SmestowAcademy #SuccessAchievedTogether #FirstAid #ICanSaveALife