Nursery rhymes play an important role in early childhood development and education. As well as being fun they are excellent teaching tools. Nursery rhymes and children’s songs boost vocabulary and language development, they help children to develop literacy skills and help children to develop social, physical and emotional skills.
You can support the children by taking part at home and using the World Nursery Rhyme Week website here – https://www.worldnurseryrhymeweek.com/
Virtual learning has been taken to new heights this week with the Early Years team engaging in virtual phonics lessons. Children and parents loved joining in with Fred fingers for spelling and Fred talk for using sounds to read words correctly. It was great to see so many people joining in.
The children and parents were able to join teams for live lessons despite the children not being in school. It was a fantastic sight to see and everyone had lots of fun learning. Remember, if you need to get on teams for remote learning, please see the video on the school website to support you.
How to access teams – https://bloxwichacademy.co.uk/teams/
On Friday 13th November 2020, Bloxwich Academy (primary) will be supporting the Children in Need event. Children can come into school wearing their own clothes. You can wear spots, stripes, patterns – it is up to you! We are asking children to make a small donation to support the charity. The suggested donation is £1, but more or less will be put to good use by Pudsey Bear, I’m sure.
Throughout the day, we will be finding out about Children in Need and taking part in related activities. One of these activities will be taking part in Joe Wick’s PE livestream. If you are at home on Friday, you can still take part by going to the BBC website: https://www.bbcchildreninneed.co.uk/. For children at home, there will be activities uploaded on Microsoft Teams for you to enjoy. If you are having any issues with Microsoft Teams, there is a support video on the website to help: https://bloxwichacademy.co.uk/teams/
We’re looking forward to seeing the Children’s amazing work from both home and school.
Something really strange happened in year 2 last week. We were just starting our new writing topic ‘The Way Back Home by Oliver Jeffers’ when some of the children noticed smoke and flashing lights outside the classroom. We were so shocked, but we decided as a class to investigate what was going on. Then, we saw a bright, green alien pop up from out of nowhere. The alien looked like it was lost and started running around the field (it was even chasing Mrs Shepherd).
After the alien disappeared, we decided to go outside and see what was going on for ourselves. We were amazed to see an alien spaceship. We couldn’t get too close to the scene because it was taped off. Smoke was coming out of the tunnel, which was illuminated by flashing lights. It was so mysterious. There were 2 alien-looking robots guarding the crash site. In the distance, we could see a spaceship and test tubes next to the tree.
Year 1 arrived outside to help us solve the mystery. We decided it was best to write about what happened in our writing books – so we had some evidence. When we were finished writing, we went back outside to gather some more information. We couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw that the alien ship had vanished! We couldn’t see a single piece of evidence. Where did the alien go? Did it go back home? Did somebody take it? We will keep reading about the alien and we will post our findings soon on the website.
In Nursery this week, we have been exploring lots of Halloween themed activities. We have been reading Meg and Mog as a class and acted out the story. You can find the story on YouTube if you would like to read it with your child https://youtu.be/NFcXxjdoN4I
In our tuft spot, we have had lots of fun making potions and turning our friends into mice. We have been chanting ‘bubble, bubble, bubble’, like Meg (whilst mixing our ingredients together). In our creative area, we have been decorating pumpkins using different textures: tissue paper, feathers, paint and orange lentils. We have been having lots of fun singing and dancing to music on the interactive screen. The children have enjoyed dressing up as witches, wizards and bats. They then acted out their experiences.
The rotation of athletics in PE is in full swing, with pupils rotating around different athletic disciplines of throwing, jumping and running. Pupils have built key skills, techniques and knowledge of pacing within long-distance running as well as sprinting and relay techniques for track events. Shot Put, Javelin, Discus and High jump have all been delivered to classes and pupils are showing high levels of progression with techniques becoming more refined in all athletic areas. It’s been fantastic to see pupils link different components of fitness with various athletics events, and therefore showing the development of key knowledge within PE.
Special mention in PE goes out to Lewis who beat Mr Seager (Headteacher) on the multi-stage fitness test (bleep test) by achieving a level of 14.8. A fantastic effort!
Lewis stated ‘I had no real competition from the boss on this occasion’
This week, year 2 have been learning all about Geography. The children have been looking at maps and aerial photographs of the local area and identified key features. We have been learning about different map symbols and why they could help us when we look at a map. During this topic, the children have found it interesting to see a bird’s eye view of the local area. They were spotting local parks, shops and familiar roads.
Mr Watters
They have been using Google Earth to locate their own houses and they have found it interesting to see parks, ponds and other areas around them they wouldn’t normally see from looking on the street. Year 2 also looked at a plan of the school and were able to identify where each of the classes are on the map.
This week, we have started learning about addition and subtraction in maths. We have been using our knowledge of place value to answer some tricky problems. We have also been using counters and different materials to help us count forwards and backwards.In writing this term, we are learning about poetry. We have been looking at different poems about the sea and have started to create some of our own. Last week, we created actions for the poems and made it into a performance. We will be creating our own poems next week, which will go on display outside our classrooms. The children can’t wait to write their own poems!
Mrs Watkins
We are excited to launch our brand new Careers Guidance Pupil Hub.
Pupils need to be prepared for the evolving working world and so, at the heart of our Careers Programme, is a focus on building up essential lifelong employability skills.
Visit our new website to access a wealth of careers guidance, designed to support both pupils and parents.
With our brand new resources, you can…
www.matrixacademytrust.co.uk/careers
Prefects are a crucial aspect of the culture in Bloxwich Academy. Over the years the role has grown and has become well established in the school. This year, although the process has been delayed due to Covid-19, we have still followed the strict and professional application method for the pupils to become Prefects. Before lockdown, Year 10 pupils had to write a formal application letter to show their interest in becoming a Prefect. Over the lockdown period, we held the training session online, a first for Bloxwich Academy, and the pupils were put through their paces to understand the integral role required from each of them. Following the training, and the return to school, the pupils were given their ties and began their role within the school.
We would like to congratulate: L Bowyer, J Moseley, J Slater, H Rashidzada, L Dowen, M Erinayo, L Harris, E Instone, A Price, K Sears, M Spellman and R Scott.
The pupils have been responsible for being a role model and showing the younger pupils how to act around the Academy. More recently, the pupils nominated themselves for the role of a Senior Prefect. As part of the selection process, pupils were required to write a formal email and be interviewed by Miss Williamson, Head of House and Mr Chamberlain, Deputy Headteacher. The pupils showed their professionalism throughout and all interviewed and presented themselves to a high standard. The formal application, Prefect vote and the interview feedback were triangulated and the senior team was selected. Congratulations to S Nelson, M Rogan and K Swarnasingam for becoming Deputy Senior Prefects. A special mention and congratulations to G Hawkins, Head Girl and B Johnson, Head Boy.
As Covid-19 is still affecting our lives, it has not stopped the Bloxwich Academy Cadets from taking part in the CCF Programme. The Cadets paraded, over the summer holiday, once a week to refresh their training as the lockdown limited them from what they could participate in. The CCF staff from the school generously gave up their holiday time to make the training happen. Bloxwich Academy were the only school in the area to parade straight out of lockdown and probably the only school in the UK to do this. This just shows the dedication of the staff and Cadets as all involved get a lot out of the CCF programme.
So far this academic year the CCF programme has started with a major recruitment drive across all year groups in the school with 32 pupils choosing to attend the CCF programme. This now brings the total amount of Cadets at the school to 52. This is Bloxwich Academy’s largest intake and it is only the start of our third year. The Cadets are now starting to run the unit themselves with Cadets delivering lessons to the new Cadets. This is a big achievement as this is only the start of year 3 and the Cadets lost time due to lockdown.
One of the Contingent Commanders favourite jobs is to promote Cadets in recognition of their hard work and dedication. Cadet R has been promoted to Lance Corporal and now takes the second in command position in his flight. Lance Corporal H has been promoted to full Corporal again in recognition of her hard work and dedication to the CCF programme and takes the position of Flight Section Commander. Promotion is open to all Cadets as long as they meet the promotion criteria.
The contingent has won a grant off the Combined Cadet Force Association (CCFA) to help fund projects planned later in the year. With the first project being to purchase rock-climbing equipment as Bloxwich Academy have some budding mountaineers.
Secondary School
Leamore Lane
Bloxwich, Walsall
West Midlands
WS2 7NR
T: 01922 710 257
postbox@bloxwichacademy.co.uk
Secondary SENDCo – Miss M Rock
Monday - Thursday: 8:00 am - 4:00 pm
Friday: 8:00 am - 3:30 pm
