Year 7 are currently working on religious stories about creation. In their lesson this week they were asked to create a story board explaining the main six days of the Christian Creation story. This is an example from Jensen Mahoney. Well done, Jensen.

At Turves Green Boys’ School, we prioritise the wellbeing of our pupils, with a strong emphasis on supporting their emotional and mental health. This week, we had the privilege of hosting a representative from Kooth who conducted assemblies for all our pupils, placing special emphasis on addressing and managing examination stress for our Key Stage 4 pupils.

Kooth serves as a valuable resource dedicated to supporting young people. Functioning as an online platform, it offers a secure and confidential space for young people to access mental health and wellbeing support. Through Kooth, individuals can connect with a team of qualified counsellors who are available to engage in conversations about their concerns and challenges. Whether facing stress, anxiety, or other emotional issues, Kooth is specifically designed as a supportive environment where young people can express themselves openly. Additionally, the platform provides informative articles and forums covering various mental health topics, fostering a community that promotes understanding and connection.

Kooth strives to empower young individuals by offering accessible and timely mental health support.

Kooth

On Friday 26^th January the Year 10 Drama Btec group were very lucky to have the opportunity to work with Karen Benjamin a Senior Lecturer in Drama at Gloucester University.

She worked with them on devising scenes. This involves a collaborative process where pupils use their creativity to develop original content based on a theme or text. When working with Year 10 pupils on "Blood Brothers," encouraging them to devise scenes allows them to interpret the play and express their perspectives. This process not only hones their creative thinking but also nurtures their ability to work in a team. The workshop was not only and excellent opportunity for the boys to work on their drama skills but they were also able to ask questions to a professional performer about how to access the Performing Arts world as a professional Actor.

This week we have launched our brand new reading rewards vending machine. Our book vending machine is stocked with a mixture of our ‘16 by 16’ reading challenge and books chosen by our Warhammer and Alliance clubs. Our aim is to promote reading for pleasure for all pupils in all years. This week’s winners chose ‘Shoe Dog’, the biography of the founder of Nike, ‘Touching the Void’, a real-life story of danger and discovery and most popular of all ‘The Philosopher’s Stone’!

Pupils will have an opportunity via their reading ambassadors to select texts to go in the ending machine as prizes

Pupils can be awarded tokens for achieving success across the school. This week’s winning choices were for:

Most improved attitude in Year 11 C Z Wilson

Supporting Indoor Athletics Year 10 A Moulton

Promotion of the Allies Club Y9

Excellence in PE: R Brown

Winning 3 events in Indoor Athletic Y7 Leyton Timmins

Highest Score in Accelerated Reading for their year group: Y7 Praise O Y8 D Conceicaao Y9 S Scott

½ million, 1 million word reader: Y8 D Conceicaao

Most Accelerated tests taken: Y7 K Deady Y8 L Jaison Y9 M Osman

Turves Green Boys’ School played host to the local indoor athletics competition on the 25^th January 2024. Year 7 and 8 teams from a number of schools came together to compete in both track and field events. In a thrilling display of athleticism, our Year 8 students emerged victorious, showcasing their prowess and team spirit!

The Year 8 team dominated various events, including sprints, relays, and field events, securing the top spot in the overall standings. Their exemplary teamwork and individual achievements stood out, earning them well-deserved praise from both teachers and competitors alike.

While Year 8 celebrated their triumph, the Year 7 team put up a valiant effort, narrowly missing out on the top spot. Despite facing stiff competition, the younger students demonstrated remarkable skill and determination. Their performance hinted at a promising future in later competitions.

The Indoor Athletics Competition served as a platform for young talents to showcase their abilities and foster a sense of sportsmanship among the students. Both Year 7 and Year 8 athletes received applause for their sportsmanship, resilience, and commitment to excellence.

Such skills were also shown by our Year 10 leaders who gave up their time to run the event. After some training by the lead organiser, they took the reins and orchestrated a wonderful competition.

The Year 8 team now look forward to the next round where they will face off against schools from across the whole West Midlands region.

This week in science, year 9 pupils have been learning all about space and our solar system. Today, as part of their revision lesson for their upcoming end of module test, the pupils were trying to understand just how huge the distance is between us and Neptune and why this would cause a delay in communications if we were sending messages to each other.

Following a very successful academic year in 22/23 gaining our online safety badge, 1 of 5 prestigious awards for Princess Diana Award. We are proud to share our success with our anti-bullying ambassadors so far this academic year. Recently we participated in a focus group. The staff at the Princess Diana Anti-Bullying Award were really impressed with our journey since starting the award in the academic year of 22/23 and since then embedding anti-bullying core values within our school values. Following this meeting, the Diana award are going to be writing an article for their website based on their findings from within the focus group. They hope to complete this early February and will be shared on both our school website and the Princess Diana Award website.

Furthermore, this week 20 of our pupils took part in the, Diana Award Anti-Racism Ambassador Training. They successfully completed the training and we have now 1 of 5 actions complete in order to gain our second badge ‘wellbeing badge’.  

This week year 9 have had the opportunity to start an investigation into air pollutants in and around Turves Green Boy’s School. Our visitors introduced the topic of air pollution and we talked about sources of air pollution that affect us from the burning of fossil fuels – particularly diesel - to sandstorms in the Sahara and Volcanos in Iceland. Some particles such as soot are a tenth of the width of a human hair!

 We then heard about their research into how it affects us and why we should be worried. Some small particles from the air can get past our bodies natural defences and get into our lungs and even our bloodstream. We even heard how vapour from “Vapes” are being shown to decrease the amount our lungs can expand.

Students then made their own small particle traps using clipboards and petroleum jelly. They thought about which areas around school they would like to test and our walls are currently adorned with particle traps. Researchers will come back in February to help us to analyse the data we collect using mini microscopes.

Many thanks to Mr Neil Todd, Dr Dan Jones, Dr Natalie Poulter, Dr Eleyna Slater and Katie Spencer from the University of Birmingham for sharing their time and expertise with us. Also, thanks to our fantastic students who shared their ideas and predictions during the sessions.

On Wednesday 24^th January, we welcomed Alex Simpkin from the Birmingham Newman University outreach team to talk to our Y11s. The assembly focused on routes into higher education, as well as an insight into what higher education is like looking at courses, societies and the social aspect of university. Our pupils also gained important information about student finance and the UCAS application process for university.

On Thursday 25^th January, we welcomed Lucy Richardson from Cadbury College to support some of our Y11s with their college applications. During form time, our pupils were able to discuss college courses and complete applications with the support of Lucy and Mr Tehan. Over the coming weeks, pupils will continue to receive support with apprenticeship applications from providers such as BMW, Collins Aerospace and Samuel Taylor ltd. As well as our ongoing work with the National Apprenticeships team.