On Thursday 2^nd February, The Happy Puzzle Company visited Smestow Academy. Students from years 7 and 9 took part in workshops that focused on problem solving and team building skills. In groups of 6, pupils took part in a series of fun challenges. Challenge 1 proved the most fun for staff as pupils tried to balance penguins on a wobbly iceberg. Students had to work carefully and strategically to ensure that the penguins didn’t fall off. If a member of staff spotted a fallen penguin, we were given permission to knock the penguins off and students had to start again! 

The pupils worked on a variety of problems including tangrams and jigsaw puzzles. Pupils had to communicate with each and collaborate to succeed. The pupils showed their reasoning skills as well as their resilience as the problems got increasingly more challenging. 

The pupils had a lot of fun engaging in maths away from the classroom and enjoyed working together as teams.  

For the first time at Smestow Academy, Year 7 students had the opportunity to take part in Young Voice 2023 at Resorts World in Birmingham along with over 6000 other students across schools in the West Midlands. The students worked hard learning songs and dance moves for the concert, and what a fantastic job they did! They had the experience of performing with a live band, professional singers and musicians including: 

-Heather Small 

-The Beatbox Collective

-Anna Phoebe

Urban Strides also taught them some brilliant dance moves and even got the parent and carers involved. 

The student's behaviour was excellent throughout the day and represented the school well. Thank you to all the parents and carers that came along to the performance and supported the children learning the songs, the students for their hard work even when they were tired after rehearsing all afternoon in Birmingham, and to the staff that help support me on the day. 

Well done to all that took part in the day. 

Yesterday, the Sportshall Athletics competitions got underway and it was the turn of year 10 first of all. These 5 boys showed excellent commitment to the school to compete at the highest level possible in a range of events

The boys all completed two field events each, where a shoutout goes to M.Lefter for his shot putt attempt. Moving onto the field event - a big congratulations to N.Malcolm & C.Davies who ran the 2-lap race and 4-lap race, respectively showing great resilience and effort to power through and achieve a fantastic time in their heat

These boys were a credit to the school for the way they conducted themselves