Pupils are uploading their work to the folders and class teachers are giving instant feedback/marking during their online catch up and feedback sessions.

Live lessons are being delivered for all the core subjects, PE and some foundation subjects. During these sessions the pupils are interactively involved answering questions by using the hands up icon to tell the teacher that they have an answer, as seen here in a Year 4 reading session.

On Friday 11th December, Bloxwich Academy held our annual Christmas jumper day. Dozens of Rudolphs, copious amounts of elves and several Santas walked through the school gates that morning. Mr Kirkham even donned a fantastic Star Wars jumper!

We managed to raise an incredible £300.40! On top of this, we even had an extra special guest feature. The original singer and composer of ‘I wish it could be Christmas Everyday’ – Roy Wood (formerly of The Move, ELO and Wizzard) – sent a special message to the year 6 students. You can see this in the Christmas video below.

Usually, we would invite parents into the school for our Christmas concert but with current the situation, this was not possible. However, all the children made a fantastic effort to sing the carols in their bubbles. It’s safe to say that the Christmas spirit was well and truly in the school on that day. All the children were fantastic with their singing and made Bloxwich Academy proud!

A huge thank you to all our parents who donated food for ‘Walsall North Food Bank’. We had an amazing response, and the food bank was extremely grateful for all your donations for their families who may need a little help this Christmas. 

The food bank has been in contact to say thank you for the generous donation. They said:

“Dear Bloxwich Academy, 

We would like to thank you very much for your extremely generous Christmas donations to Walsall North Foodbank, weighing-in at a whopping 127.35kg. This year, our volunteer helpers have been busier than ever, and have had to adapt procedures to respond to the developing changes brought on by the pandemic.  

On behalf of our steering group and the rest of our team of volunteers, we would like to express our gratitude to everyone who has helped in any way to support the Foodbank. We would like to say, once again, a big thank you for the part that you have played in helping us to make this foodbank project sustainable. “

This term, we introduced a new reward system into the school: good to be green. Each week, the children earn an afternoon GTBG slot on a Friday. So far this term, we’ve had decoration making, chalk planet drawings, treasure hunts and many more fantastic activities. The children love taking part in the Good to be green activities on a Friday.

In December, we had our first good to be green end of term activity. Each class had the option to choose from one of many activities: archery, fencing, footgolf and disc golf. The children were all excited to take part in these events and had a great time doing so. 

We are very grateful to families for all the support we have received this term regarding our staggered start and end times.

Please note the end times for Friday 18^th December, the last day of autumn term:

This academic year has seen many changes; as a result, PE and extra-curricular activities look a little different. As a school, we are currently participating in the Virtual School Games; October saw the start of the Black Country Virtual Skipping Competition. This was a virtual skipping competition against local primary schools over a two-week period, which then lead to competing against primary schools across the Black Country. The skipping competition created a lot of excitement and the children really enjoyed participating with their friends. There were some great performances across KS2.  

Ruby (Year 3) achieved 40 skips in 30 seconds 

Daniel and Emily (Year 4) achieved 55 skips. 

Blake (Year 5) achieved 69 skips. 

Harley and Riley (Year 6) both achieved 56 skips.  

It was great to hear children were practising at home and working hard to improve the number of skips they could complete in 30 seconds. It is also lovely to see skipping has become a popular activity which children are enjoying at break and lunchtime. Keep on skipping Bloxwich!

We love reading at Bloxwich Academy so we were over-the-moon when we found out we would have the chance to have a virtual author visit! It was surreal to hear the actual author, of a book we love, read it out to us live!

Year 1 & 2 listened to Humza Arshad, the author of ‘Little Badman’, read his story out loud. He even brought along his illustrator to teach us how to draw some of the illustrations from the book. The children did a fantastic job of recreating the artwork.

We all enjoyed the author visits, and we can’t wait to read the books in class.

In our writing lessons in year 6 this term, the children have been focused and have improved massively since the beginning of the year. This is evident in the work that they ended up producing around the circulatory system. The children learned all about the roles the heart, lungs and the different blood vessels have in transporting blood around our bodies.

They presented this difficult subject in an engaging way after completing their independent writing where they were then able to be more creative. The work they created was outstanding and the year 6 teachers were incredibly proud of what they produced. The children put their all into this work and the results show this. Mr Seager saw some of their writing pieces and he was blown away by the quality of their work. Amazing work year 6! 

On Thursday 17^th December, children will be invited to have a traditional Christmas dinner during lunchtime. The options available will be as follows:

• Roast turkey or pork (Gluten free)
• Pigs in blankets, sage and onion stuffing and gravy (Contains celery, milk and cereals containing gluten)

Or

• Mushroom and onion wellington (Vegetarian. Contains eggs, cereals containing gluten and sulphur dioxide)

All served with seasonal vegetables, roast potatoes and mash

Angel sparkle cake (Contains eggs, milk and cereals containing gluten)

To ensure the school kitchen is able to meet demand, orders will be taken during registration on Wednesday 2nd December.

If your child does not usually have school dinners and you would like them on this occasion to join in, please ensure your child is aware that they will need to order with their class teacher as above. Children from Reception through to Year 2, and those eligible for Free School Meals will not have to pay. For those children not eligible, please ensure that their Wisepay account is credited with £2.00 in advance.

Children with identified allergies will be given an alternative dessert. Please be aware, if an order is not placed on Wednesday 2^nd December, your child will need to bring a packed lunch.

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/