This week year 9 have completed their study of The Crucible with the task of figuring out which of their English teachers is a secret witch. They’ve used daily clues to narrow it down and today it was revealed! They’ve learnt all about false accusation, hysteria and that they should not believe everything they hear. 

Let’s hope they don’t insist that Miss Cook is given the same punishment as john Proctor…

Throughout October we have celebrated Black History Month. Elements of Black history appear in curriculums and topics throughout the year in subject areas at Bloxwich Academy, particularly in Humanities, Art and English. However, we further celebrated this month with a focus on learning activities in and outside of the classroom for all subject areas, including a special canteen menu of traditional dishes such as jollof rice, spiced sweet potato, jerk chicken and fried dumplings. Pupils received an assembly to mark the event, as well as a PSHE session on key female figures for the theme of ‘Saluting our Sisters’. Pupils explored key female figures in History, and explored the current movers and shakers today, with pupils voting for their favourite role model linked to Bloxwich values. The majority vote went to rapper Little Simz for her promotion of female equality. Her powerful acceptance speech outlining that she is “living proof that if you work hard at something, no matter where you come from, your background, your race, you can be something extraordinary” really resonated with pupils. 

Celebrating ‘Being the best you can be’!! On the 14^th of November Tianna Friend ran in the West Midlands cross country trials at Himley Hall.  The event included athletes across the West Midlands schools to compete from year 7 to 11.  Tiana ran in the Junior girls race set over a 2.3 km course with hills and mud.  She finished a fantastic 5^th in 12 minutes 16 seconds securing selection to compete for West Midland’s Schools in November. Well done Tiana!

Tiana will join other talented athletes in The Dave Sunderland Schools Inter counties event which means she will compete against the best athletes from  Cheshire, Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Herefordshire, Surrey, Shropshire, Merseyside and Cumbria.  A fantastic achievement to represent her school, Walsall and West Midlands.

Friday Bistro! Today we have celebrated Black History Month in the Bistro with a delicious menu of jerk chicken, jollof rice, spiced sweet potato, cabbage, corn bread and fried dumplings. 😋 Thank you ladies for the delicious menu, lots of filled tummies 

Some fantastic Science experiments taking place this week! Year 7 have been learning about the heart and observed a heart dissection linked to how living things are organised. Year 10 investigated the nutrients in a McDonalds Egg McMuffin, an engaging element to their science GCSE work.

To support Year 11 pupils with their revision for the upcoming mock exams they have had weekly revision workshops. In these morning sessions pupils have been taught the most effective strategies for revising. The booklet below shows these strategies and includes QR codes to online videos of how best to do this.

Strategies for Revision Booklet

A Fantastic performance last week for year 7 provided by StreetWise – Education in Performance!

Pupils learnt valuable lessons linked to their current PSHE topic thread ‘Health and Safety’ centred around road safety. The team gave a high energy performance with an incredibly interactive Q+A session post show.

Small groups of pupils across different year groups have been given a great opportunity to meet with Walsall Street Teams to learn about the dangers of child exploitation and county lines, where children and vulnerable adults can be coerced into illegal activities. A further 45-minute first aid training session with St John’s Ambulance around knife wounds and catastrophic bleeding was also provided centred on immediate response first aid. Pupils were incredibly mature and engaged in the workshop session with real intent. Thank you Street Teams and St John’s.  

Since the start of this term, our pastoral teams have now completed almost 200 home visits to support pupils and families with absence from school, in most cases resulting in improved attendance. It is important to us that all children feel safe and supported when attending school and we are keen to work with you to ensure that your child feels this way when attending school.

Unfortunately, the local authority have so far this term issued fixed penalty notices totalling almost £2,000 for avoidable school absence. We would also remind parents and carers that we do not authorise any term time holidays and would ask you to familiarise yourself with the school holiday attendance & punctuality leaflet for parents and carers available via our website.

Please email attendance@bloxwichacademy.co.uk if there is anything we can do to support you or your child. This email address is not monitored each morning so please do not use it to report absence.

We are delighted to launch our themed menus for 2023/24 off the back of our very successful new menu for the academic year. 

These special days are an opportunity to celebrate events, festivals and cultures from around the world across all of the Matrix Academy Trust schools. Not only will these provide pupils with a wide range of food experiences but will also compliment our Personal Development curriculum and Theme of the Week.

Watch this space for more updates on our menus and the wonderful food that we will be offering as part of these events.