Smestow Academy are celebrating Christmas Jumper Day on Wednesday 18^th December 2024.  Staff and pupils are invited to wear their Christmas jumper alongside their uniform for a £1 donation in support of Save the Children.

Save the Children is a non-government organisation which was founded in the UK in 1919.  Their goal is to improve the lives of children worldwide.  We are choosing to support Christmas Jumper Day as the charity aligns with our Smestow Values of success achieved together, make a difference every day, equality and respect for all and strive to be our best.  Our fundraising is another example of the active citizenship that we are promoting in school.

Parents and Carers of pupils in years 7, 8 and 9 are invited to join us in school on Wednesday 18^th December for a morning of refreshments and festivities.  Our creative arts department have created some superb work to showcase and we will have a sing-a-long of some christmas favourites to celebrate the forthcoming holiday.  

There is no charge for this event, however, we do ask for donations to our house charities as part of our active citizenship in school.

Please respond to the invite on we-duc or return the reply slip on the letter to reception by Monday 16^th December to confirm how many guests will be joining us.

Here at Smestow Academy, we are very fortunate to be supported by our local mental health support team, Reflexions.  This can be through 1-to-1 sessions for individualised support, group sessions looking at exam stress management or parent support at progress evenings.

Reflexions are holding an open discussion with the National Team whose role it is to inform the Government about Mental Health provision in schools.  It is your opportunity to have your voice heard and put your experiences forward to the team.  

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