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Walsall College Apprenticeships and T-Levels Assemblies

Our local Further Education College (Walsall College) recently held assemblies with pupils in years 7 to 10. The focus of these assemblies was to tell our pupils about some of the options that will be available to them at the end of their GCSE courses. This assembly informed us about the new T-Level qualifications that are being offered by colleges nationally in vocational education which also include a large work placement. The college visitors also explained to our pupils how apprenticeships worked and what types of jobs these can lead to in the future, as well as showing examples of the apprenticeship courses that the college offers. Pupils were shown case study videos from current students on both apprenticeship and T-Level courses to find out more about the courses and what they could expect. Walsall college will be back later in the year to attend our careers fair and will be able to talk to pupils on a on to one basis if they have any questions.

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Matrix Academy Trust Awards Evening 2023

Matrix’s first ever cross-trust pupil awards event, held at Millennium Point on 20th April, was a fantastic success.

Pupils were recognised for exemplifying our trust values of creativity, resilience, selflessness, enthusiasm and continuous improvement. There were also awards for exemplary members of our Cadet Forces.

With more than 7000 pupils across our trust schools, it was really difficult to choose the 46 award winners. Those who did receive the awards should feel deservedly proud of their achievement.

The awards-giving was punctuated with several fantastic performances, including DJs from Barr Beacon, a piano virtuoso from Year 4 of Bloxwich Academy and Etone’s ‘Mega Band’. Before the event, we had over an hour of performances from pupils across our trust schools, all of who had been selected to perform after a trust-wide talent competition, which had more than 100 entrants.

The evening started with a video relating the story of our trust up until the end of 2022. Our CEO Ms Draycott then spoke about the two newest schools, Smestow Academy and Wednesfield Academy, who joined the Matrix family this year.

 There was also a special video explaining ‘what a makes a Matrix pupil’, starring a teacher from each of our schools.

Here is what some of our parents and carers have said about the event:

“The awards ceremony was fantastic. It was great to see pupils getting their awards and the fantastic performances from across the Matrix Academy Trust schools.”

“It meant so much to see all the pupils being awarded for life skills rather than academic achievement. The head teachers giving a little speech about each pupil was a lovely touch and really personalised it.”

“Thank you for a wonderful evening.  It was very special to see everyone receiving their awards.”

“Thank you for a special evening celebrating the achievements of pupils.  We are especially proud of our daughter!”

“Tonight was simply amazing!” 

Ms Draycott and Director of School Improvement Mr Lowbridge-Ellis introduced each of the awards and our headteachers explained who they had chosen and why. Trustee Sir Mark Aspinall bestowed the awards on the worthy winners.

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National Careers Week 6-10th March

We took part in the National Careers Week recently in the academy, thinking about how we raise our aspirations and have more confidence in ourselves and our skills and how being better at doing this will lead to better opportunities in our future careers. Students in years 7-10 took part in assemblies, form time activities and a PSHE with this focus throughout the week. Staff also got involved by filling in posters to put on classroom and office doors telling students what other jobs they had done before working in our school and the skills they learned whilst doing them. Some of these included being a pizza maker, cabin crew and even a Christmas elf….

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World Book Day

World Book Day was truly a magical day at Bloxwich Academy! Members of staff enjoyed dressing up as their favourite fictional characters, including Mr Seager as Harry Potter! The student well and truly enjoyed seeing all these fictional characters brought to life by their teachers and the winner of the best dressed was Miss Woolery as Lumiere from Beauty and the Beast!

During World Book Day, the students contributed to a variety of form time activities such as KS3 creating their own colourful and inspirational quoted bookmarks (a shout out to Lacey- 7X1) for winning this competition, with KS4 also creating their own Book Review on a literature text they have studied or a book they reading for pleasure. Bloxwich Academy also ran a ‘Whole School Scavenger Book Hunt Challenge’ in our fantastic, well-resourced, new Library, this allowed KS3/KS4 students during break and lunch to work through prompts that matched the book in the library. The winner for the ‘Scavenger Book Hunt’ challenge was Umna Kazem (8T1) who won a Huge Easter Egg! Additionally, within English, students had a drop-down lesson, where they focused on World Book Day activities, their class teachers selected a vast range and amusing fictional extracts that would suit the class, students enjoyed a glimpse of unseen fictional texts that they were able to base strong predictions on. The students also participated in the game ‘Never have I ever’ which was related to texts they have read for pleasure, this allowed students to venture their next read. All form tutors across school also participated in ‘drop everything and read’, this allowed tutors to bring in and read a section of their favourite novel and discuss with students why they would recommend the text; this was a wonderful experience for students to listen to and aspire to read the same text. Beauty and the Beast Theme!

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Matrix Academy Trust Talent Competition

Do you have a special talent you wish to showcase at our next big live event.

You will have the chance to perform on stage in front of a live audience in Birmingham at Millennium Point in their state-of-the-art theatre on Thursday 20th April 2022.  Whether it be singing, dancing, juggling, stand-up comedy or anything and everything in between, we want to see all your wonderful talents.

How to enter:

  • Have one of your performing arts teachers record your performance (or film it yourself and email to your teacher). 
  • A snippet of your performance can be submitted, please do not worry about submitting a performance in its entirety. 
  • Your teacher will be able to submit your performance video to the Matrix judging panel.
  • Finalists will have the opportunity to perform at our next big trust event and some school events this year. 
  • Solo entries and group entries are welcome. 
  • Submit your entry by 4pm on Wednesday 15th March.  
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Once in a lifetime?

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/

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Bloxwich Academy Awards Evening

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)

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CCF - Promotions and Achievements

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.

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Safer Internet Day

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!

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CCF - New Year, New Training

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.

Contact Info

Secondary School
Leamore Lane
Bloxwich, Walsall
West Midlands
WS2 7NR

T: 01922 710 257
postbox@bloxwichacademy.co.uk

Secondary SENDCo – Mrs Bensley

Monday - Thursday: 8:00 am - 4:00 pm
Friday: 8:00 am - 3:30 pm

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