We're thrilled to share that Access Creative College is running a brand-new Summer Camp this August – and it's a fantastic chance for our students to explore their passion for the creative industries!

📅 Dates: 4th – 6th August 2025
📍 Location: Access Creative College, Heath Mill Lane, Digbeth

Designed specifically for KS4 students, these engaging three-day camps offer hands-on experiences in one of the following areas:

🎵 Music – Write and record your own song
🎮 Games – Design and develop your very own video game
🎥 Media – Create your own short film

Each camp is led by industry professionals and gives students the chance to build real creative skills, meet like-minded peers, and take home a certificate of completion. There will also be a showcase of their amazing work at the end of the camp!

👉 Spaces are limited, so we encourage students to book early using the link below:
🔗 Access Creative Camps 2025 – Book Here

We are very proud to announce that Smestow Academy has been awarded Gold for the School Games Mark in the 24/25 academic school year. This is down to the array of sports that we have on offer to all of our pupils here at the academy and the fantastic engagement that we have.

Students uphold the Smestow values by striving to improve to be their best through sport and have that perseverance and resilience to keep going. A brilliant achievement by everyone at Smestow Academy

We are looking forward to welcoming our Year 6 pupils today for the start of their induction programme to Smestow Academy. Here you can see our Prefects receiving a briefing at the start of the day, in the same way we may have in the world of work.

Being a Prefect at Smestow in an incredibly prestigious role within our pupil leadership offer and we are proud of all our pupils who are supporting with induction over the next three days.

This morning, we were honoured to host Mayor Cllr Craig Collingswood to Smestow Academy. The Mayor was keen to see hard work that is being undertaken at our School, the improvements to our site and also celebrate the achievements in the Year 8 Careers workshops being delivered by Channel 4.

The Mayor met with Mr Chamberlain and then toured the school grounds, going into lessons and also our Year 10 mock exam for Art. The Mayor was very pleased to see the progress that we are making and looks forward to celebrating the achievements of our staff and pupils in the future.

On July 8^th selected pupils from all secondary schools in the Trust will be participating in a languages event with Futbol Lingo. Futbol Lingo is an organisation which helps players to develop their language skills and was developed by Pierce Kiembi, a former player and UEFA coach. Pupils will have their chance to hear about opportunities for using languages in sport and will take part in practical activities too. Here’s hoping that Smestow Academy brings home the trophy next week! Pierce has already run this event at Barr Beacon and Turves Green Boys’ School and we are excited to be a part of this again this year! 

Tickets for the first Key Stage 3 Disco to be held at Smestow Academy are now on sale from the school shop.  This event is taking place on Tuesday 8th July and money is being raised for our Trust Charity; Birmingham Children's Hospital with all proceeds being donated.  There will be other events taking place throughout the evening too!  Tickets are £3 and are only available at the school shop before school and during registration.

Our personal development curriculum this half term focuses on rights, responsibilities British values. Year 7 are learning about our political system and year 8 are looking at law, crime and our society.

This morning, we were honoured to host our local MP, Warinder Juss.

Warinder spoke with pupils in Year 8 and Year 9 who have an interest in careers in Law and Politics - our pupils asked some very insightful questions including:

• What job is the hardest? Working in law or working in politics?
• Did your family support you in following your dreams?
• Which job have you enjoyed the most?

Warinder was then kind enough to spend some time talking to all of our Year 7 and Year 8 pupils about the political system in our country and what it is like to be an MP for the party that is in power at the moment. Our youngest pupils were keen to ask lots of questions such as:

• Have you passed a law in parliament?
• Have you had to show resilience in your role and how did you do this?
• How often do you see Sir Kier Starmer?

We are really grateful to Warinder for his time this morning and for his support to our personal development curriculum in our school.

Pupils from Smestow Academy recently went on an inspiring trip to Millenium point in Birmingham, immersing themselves in a day dedicated to celebrating STEM. The visit provided a unique opportunity for pupils to experience the exciting world of STEM firsthand, sparking their curiosity and engagement. 

Pupils witnessed captivating demonstrations in the wizard school of stem workshop, visited BCU, where students gained valuable insight into the realm of engineering, computer science and cyber security. Pupils loved the VR headset experience which allowed an immersive experience that showcased the cutting-edge technology used in today's industries. 

Well done to all pupils who demonstrated remarkable engagement and enthusiasm. Their active participation in the workshops and keen interest in the demonstrations highlighted the success of the trip in inspiring the next generation of Scientists and engineers. 

Congratulations to all of the Year 10 pupils who sat their French writing exam last week. We were extremely impressed with the complexity of their language and the effort that had gone into their revision. They really demonstrated our Smestow value of ‘Strive to improve and be your best. Our pupils were also able to explain the importance of mental wellbeing as well as physical health. 

Below are some of the exam essays from J. Pal, R. Finlayson-Palmer and A.Kumar. An impressive end of year writing exam. Bravo! 

Our young scientists rolled up their sleeves and got stuck into geology, geography, food technology and science by building a deliciously accurate model of the Earth’s layers — using Maltesers, melted chocolate, marshmallows, and Rice Krispies! 

Here’s how we turned sweet treats into scientific understanding:

• Maltesers represented the solid inner core, dense and compact.
• Marshmallows stood in for the soft, squishy mantle, showing its semi-solid texture.
• A layer of Rice Krispies and melted chocolate formed the crunchy crust — the thin outer shell we all live on!

This hands-on, edible experiment not only made learning about Earth's internal structure fun and memorable, but it also highlighted the power of cross-curricular learning — blending science, geography, and food tech in a way that truly stuck (and tasted amazing!).

Huge congratulations to our creative educators across year 7 to year 10: T. Blundell, S. Singh, P. Naatey, L. Morton, E. Salami, and A. Kulakuzh — science has never been so sweet!