On Friday 21^st June, Smestow Academy embarked on their first Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Expedition as a Matrix Academy School. 27 Year 10 & Year 11 students left school at 10 o clock to travel to Cannock Chase where they were to be pushed out of their comfort zone and achieve something outstanding.

The weather did not disappoint with soaring temperatures making it even more demanding for the students on their 11 mile walk through the chase on Friday. Mr Webb, Miss Cox and Mr Heywood were on hand at each checkpoint to aid the students with water and snacks to keep their motivation and energy levels high. The students were split into their 4 teams on Friday morning which they stayed with for the walk that day and on the Saturday morning, they showed fantastic teamwork and resilience to get through each stage of the walk using their map and navigation skills. The whole group met for lunch halfway through the walk where everyone re-energised and there was lots of motivational speeches by individuals to keep their group motivated and willing to complete the second half of the walk with the finish (campsite) in sight. Special mention to Nathan YR11 here who was put with a group of YR10s but received massive applause and gratitude from them as he led his group round the walk and kept spirits high in his group when it got tough. They were first back on the Saturday which they were very pleased with as I know all students were treating this like a competition even though that wasn’t the main aim of the expedition.

After lunch, the students carried on their pursuit towards campsite where everyone arrived at around 19:00 and it was camp erecting time. With the training that has been complete at school prior to the expedition, the students completed this with great speed and teamwork … probably because they were so hungry and they knew that was the next bit.

The cooking started and there was an array of pasta, rice and noodles being cooked up by the whole group but a big shoutout has to go to Riley YR11 who brought 30 chicken marinated chicken breasts with him to feed the whole group and then also started frying some dough to make flatbread. An absolute fantastic effort from Riley who got a big congratulations from our colleague at BarrBeacon who said that was the best meal she had saw across her 10 years of DofE.

Cooking was complete and it was then time for the students to wash up their cutlery and dishes to have more of a chilled night at campsite before toasting some marshmallows on the campfire whilst sharing some highlights of the day – the views of Cannock chase, Ruby falling in the stream on the walk or groups having to double back on themselves throughout the navigation.

With the night drawing in and students exhausted from the exertion and heat of the day it was time to call it a night where the some students were about to experience their first outdoor sleeping night. This meant that many did not lie in like they would at home and were awake at the crack of dawn getting themselves sorted and tents down. This was all complete at 7:30am and it was over to Riley again to improve the mood in the camp by making everyone a hot chocolate to kick start their day.

8:30 came and it was time for the second walk of the expedition and the final straight to completing the Bronze expedition. The students were not walking as far Saturday morning and with the thought of an ice cream at go ape as the end goal, motivation was high and the students did excellently well.

Through learning from their mistakes on the Friday, the students were able to read the map and navigate themselves through the route even better on the Saturday with all teams completing their walk in under 5 hours which was a fantastic achievement. The students passed through a number of checkpoints again disembarking back through Cannock chase where lots of the public were walking or cycling and a special congratulations came from a member of public to Mr Webb who stated that our students were very polite when they came across them on the chase, and we should be very proud.

The students were brilliant for the whole of the weekend and definitely deserved their ice creams at the end. A fantastic achievement by all completing the Bronze DofE Expedition and something that will look fantastic on their CVs for future endeavours. We hope to see these students going on to complete their silver and gold awards.

On Thursday 13^th and Friday 14^th June pupils had the opportunity to audition their best talents for our upcoming talent show on Saturday 13^th July which will be part of the 60^th Celebrations summer festival. All pupils who auditioned were fantastic, Miss Field and Miss Harvey were so proud of the 'welcoming and caring environment' that all pupils contributed towards during the audition process to ensure everyone felt supported. On Wednesday 19^th June we shared the wonderful news to pupils that their auditions were successful and will be performing in our Talent Show. All pupils were delighted with the result, we are so excited to share our wonderful talent here at Smestow Academy on Saturday 13^th July! 

On Saturday 15^th June selected pupils who regularly attend Dance or Musical Theatre Club were given the opportunity to perform at Kidical Mass Wolverhampton, which took place at East Park, representing schools from the City at the event which campaigns for safer streets to cycle on aligning with our Smestow Value of 'Equality and Respect for All.'

The Smestow girls performed as part of a celebration at the end of the main cycling event. Not only did they demonstrate commitment to the Performing Arts, by giving up their time on a Saturday to attend the performance, but they were extremely resilient and adaptable to the change in performance space and the wet conditions the ground was in, the girls took everything that was thrown their way in their stride exemplifying our Smestow Values or 'Success Achieved Together.'' 

Congratulations to:

M Kaseke 7G1

S Banger 7D2

O Akesuyi 7D2 

H Harris 7D2

Z Sumner 8D1

B Harper 9H2.

The girls performed two contemporary dances, dazzling the audience with their lifts, tricks and partner work with the scenery of the trees behind them adding to the spectacle. Most of the girls who performed had never danced before it was introduced to the curriculum in September, so to be able to participate in a public performance shows just how much hard work they have put in both inside and outside of lessons they are truly 'Making a Difference Every Day.' The performance finished with a beautiful solo choreographed by Z Sumner 8D1, a seasoned dancer who is now demonstrating her choreography skills using what she has learned this year in lessons and being inspired to incorporate new movements she had learned from routines we have explored in clubs throughout the year. 

The Creative Arts Department are unbelievably proud of the progress these pupils have made and can't wait to provide even more performance opportunities for our pupils. 

In preparation for the 80^th anniversary of D Day on Thursday 6^th June, year 9 have taken part in a live interactive session from the National Archives and hosted by historian Dan Snow. During this session, students were lead through some activities by Mrs Pinches to help them recall previously taught knowledge from their Second World War unit and then handed over to Dan Snow who spoke to the students about the importance of commemorating D Day and the sacrifices made by allied soldiers during this campaign.

D Day is widely considered to be the turning point of World War Two, with the Allied forces successfully invading the beaches of northern France and gaining a foothold in Europe, it was the largest naval, air and land operation in history. D-Day was an international effort and included soldiers from Great Britain, France, USA, Canada and many more. On Thursday the whole school will have the opportunity to commemorate the 80^th anniversary of D Day with a special Personal Development session scheduled in the morning.

On 21^st May, Year 8 & 9 girls took part in their first rounders fixture at home against Wednesfield Academy Year 9 students. The game was made up of two, ten minute innings. Smestow won the toss and chose to field first. The team quickly adapted to new fielding formations having not played together before. The connections between back stop and 2^nd post were particularly fantastic, with accurate throws and safe catches which resulted in Wednesfield often being stuck at 1^st post, unable to score. Brilliant decisions were made by deep fielders, making the hard choice whether to throw to 2^nd or 4^th post. We covered ground well and understood the batters capabilities to change our positioning appropriately. When batting we made some good hits and ran excellently to 2^nd post, quickly adding up half rounders. 

The first innings ended an exciting draw 5 ½ - 5 ½ .

During the second innings fielding was still strong. The batters were slightly more inconsistent but there was a lot more power in the shots, leading to multiple rounders scored. The running also put a lot of pressure on 2^nd post and missed catches by Wednesfield meant we kept adding ½ rounders to the scoreboard. Most impressively the students positioned themselves towards the edge of the box tactically which meant they also scored additional half rounders from no balls at the body. 

The second innings ended a close 7 - 6 ½ to Smestow! The final result was 12 - 12 ½ to Smestow Academy.

Well done to the following students for representing our school and winning their first rounders fixture:

A L Steadman

T-J Smallwood

K Wunganai

Y Gaillard

H Stanley

E-M Fox

F Heath 

F Zirta-Gimbien

Batter of the match – A L Steadman

Fielder of the match – K Wungunai

This week at Smestow we have been celebrating ‘Mental Health Awareness Week’. Ensuring our pupils are aware of how to look after their mental health and wellbeing is one of our key priorities here at school! As one of our Mental Health top tips is to ‘Be Active’ down in the performing arts department we have completed a ‘Be active at break’ challenge. This involved a variety of activities such as stretching, body combat, just dance and yoga. The pupils involved have all thoroughly enjoyed taking part in the activities this week, demonstrating our Smestow values ‘Making a difference everyday’ and ‘Striving to improve and be your best’.

Well done to all involved!

We are excited to launch a new pupil leadership opportunity in school!  Our PD Ambassadors will champion all of the exciting events that are taking place in our school to help us develop into young people who make outstanding contributions to modern British society.

If you are interested, make sure to let your Form Tutor know - the deadline for this is Friday 24^th May 2024.

The week after half term brings the Scholastic Book Fair to school.  The Library will be open to all pupils to visit the book fair from Tuesday 4th June until Friday 7th June, before school, break time and after school.

 Scholastic will be providing a fantastic selection of classic and newly released books at discounted prices for pupils to purchase and keep. And every book you purchase helps raise funds for the school library.

 We have 5 £5 vouchers to give away to spend at the book fair, all pupils that complete an Accelerated Reader Quiz or submit a book review to the library will be entered into a draw to win a voucher, the more quizzes you take or reviews you submit, the more chancres you get to win a voucher!

 Pop into the library to find out more.

We are very proud of M Harris Year 7 who won the trust wide Pi Day competition. Pi day is the 14^th March (3.14) and is celebrated worldwide to make maths more fun and relatable. This year Matrix Academy Trust asked it’s pupils to “bring pi to life”. M Harris created a beautiful poster based around the popular you tube video helping pupils memorise the digits of pi. She was awarded a £30 voucher for being the best entry across the whole trust!

Our year 10 and 11 Duke of Edinburgh students have began their preparation for the expedition coming up in June, working towards their bronze award. We will be venturing into the wilds of Cannock Chase for a walking and camping expedition, and have been working on map skills, cooking and putting up tents in preparation. A great spirit of teamwork and togetherness was demonstrated and we look forward to a successful bronze expedition.