Students from four Matrix schools visited Tokyo to learn about Japanese culture – and themselves

As a travel destination, Japan remains impossibly out of reach in many people’s minds, despite us here – in the UK – being surrounded by Japanese culture. You can find sushi in your local supermarket; you can watch anime on Netflix; you can find t-shirts featuring famous prints by the artist Hokusai in high street clothing stores like New Look and Primark. Many of the most well known international brands are Japanese in origin: Sony, Toyota, Panasonic, Casio, Honda, Mitsubishi, Nintendo.

And yet, only around 300,000 people from the UK visit Japan each year. This may sound like a lot, but compare this with the 4,300,000 annual UK visitors to Spain.

Whenever we asked teenagers across our schools which country they have most wanted to visit, most had picked Japan. When we asked them why, they listed some of their favourite cultural artefacts: books, films, games. Some cited Japanese history; a fascination with samurai or geisha. But when pushed to think about their answers (as teachers, we never just settle for the first thing that comes to mind!) some of our young people have also talked about imagining it to feel different to what they are used to.

Read more: https://matrixacademytrust.co.uk/japan/

Our Awards Evening is always one of the most special occasions of the academic year, and this year was certainly no different. It is a wonderful evening where we get to celebrate and acknowledge pupils who have really embodied our school motto of ‘being the best they can be’. Teachers often find it extremely different deciding on the winners of the various awards, however sometimes there is a pupil who has been s impressive that they will be selected without hesitation!

As always, Mr. Kirkham and Mr. Evers proved that they can give Ant and Dec a run for their money as award show hosts. However, be sure to read the welcoming speech by two of our Year 11 pupils in the English section of this newsletter – a truly inspirational piece of writing. Many thanks to all the performers for making the evening so enjoyable, and a huge well done to all the award winners for making their families and teachers extremely proud!

Sports Leader Award

KS3  – C Plooij, J Lockett

KS4 – M Oginni, I Duckhouse

KS5 – B Johnson

House Champion Award

Brindley:  P Howley

Telford:  S Kelly

Stephenson:  H Garbett

Watt: G Boahene

Special Contribution to the Academy

P Hampton

Special Award for Head Boy and Girl Prefects

C Aigbiremolen

A Christian

 Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award

R Ampofo

Combined Cadet Force Recognition Award

Lance Corporal C Herpers

Overall Excellence Award

K Sia

(One of the few pupils in the country to achieve straight grade 9s in his GCSEs last year)

Last Wednesday saw the promotion of two new Corporals and three new Lance Corporals. Applications were taken from multiple cadets and everyone, who applied, made great candidates. This made it hard for the staff to choose. Unfortunately we only had limited spaces and had to make that hard choice. A massive

Congratulations to the following:

CPL C. Herpers

CPL R. Buttery

LCPL J. Kilgallon

LCPL Z. Essex

LCPL E. W

We must also congratulate:

– FS H. Gittins on achieving his Instructor Cadet Status after many months of training. This allows him to instruct cadets in certain subject areas.

– CDT R. Damoc for his commitment and dedication towards completing his first class cadet studies.

Safer Internet Day is held every February in over 170 different countries. The goal of Safer Internet Day is to call on people across the world to work together to make the internet a safer and better place for all, but especially for young people. In the UK, the UK Safer Internet Centre run a campaign especially for the day which aims to start a national conversation about using technology safely and positively. 

Last year over half of children and young people in the UK heard about the campaign, but it also involves and influences government, charities, police forces and tech companies including social media and gaming platforms. 

This Safer Internet Day asks everyone to make space for conversations about life online, especially with young people.  

That’s why this year, the theme for Safer Internet Day is: 

Want to talk about it? Making space for conversations about life online 

To help raise further awareness of the importance of keeping safe online, pupils in all year groups have written their own pledges about how they will keep safe online.    

So, this Safer Internet Day we are challenging everyone to talk about it. 

Talk to your friends. Talk to the adults you know and trust. 

Most importantly, tell them if something is worrying you. It’s never too late to share an online problem and get help and support that can make things better. 

Happy Safer Internet Day everyone!

It’s full steam ahead for us with some fieldcraft lessons building up to this years fieldcraft summer exercise!

We have also seen some of our cadets undertake Leadership training and assessment. We teach them the theory of leadership and watch them implement it into realistic initiative exercises. We produce future leaders in all industries!

A great start to the year and much more to come.