Year 10 & 11 pupils enjoyed a visit from Onatti Theatre, a French theatre company who perform interactive and engaging shows. The pupils thoroughly enjoyed the story of attempted insurance fraud by a pair of French thieves and many of our pupils took on starring roles in the production as characters Madame Burger (Callum H, Year 11),  Hugo (Jacob H, Year 11) and – central to the plot – the doorbell (various Year 10 pupils)! Pupils (and Mr Woodall) rose to the challenge of understanding the entirely French production. Très bien, les gars!

Our trip to Leicester was out of this world! Arriving in style, we were greeted with a fantastic show of our solar system in the Sir Patrick Moore planetarium which immersed us in a journey through our solar system (though I have to admit it left me feeling a little dizzy whizzing through the planets). Once we regained our centre of gravity we split into 2 teams to tackle both the tower - where the pupils marvelled at how technology has changed over the years – and the ground team who looked through the different principles that underpin our very universe. After meeting back at the home planet and having a spot of lunch we then switch sides so every pupil had a chance to explore the entire centre and engage in all the amazing displays. A quick trip back (and a few choruses of Sweet Caroline later) and we were home. The pupils behaved admirably and really enjoyed the day.

On Friday 7th February the F1 in School Teams competed at the West Midlands Regional Final at Aston University. The boys competed amazingly well and recorded the 2nd, 4th and 5th fastest car times out of 21 teams. They were shortlisted for 3 awards, including "best sponsorship" and "fastest reaction time". They had to present to industry professionals and give team talks to volunteers about their journey, although very nervous, they all performed amazingly and got several commendations from judges. Unfortunately, we didn't walk away with any trophies, but we will be having our own awards ceremony in school.

We are going to meet again after the half term and hopefully start preparing for the step-up into "Development" class.

This week, we have additional awards for pupils who have exemplified TURVES Values in the community. Our reading rewards vending machine continues to be a focal point of our celebrations on a Friday lunchtime. Pupils from all year groups are considered and selected for a range of approaches to demonstrating our TURVES Values., contributions in the community and extra-curricular efforts.  

Year 7: A Hall: A polite and respectful pupil who consistently demonstrates what it means to be a TGBS pupil.  

Year 11: H White: Using his first aid skills to help a member of the community this week.  

Y10 N Shaw exemplifies Turves Values and making excellent progress in GCSEs. 

Our commitment to driving up literacy standards at TGBS continues with a keen focus on developing oracy for all staff and pupils this year. As part of an ongoing programme to promote confidence in a range spoken arenas, all pupils will have the opportunity to take part in an externally run workshop this academic year. Our second workshop took place this week for some of our Year and 9 pupils. The esteemed oracy specialists ‘Talk the Talk’ took the boys through a series of activities exploring their confidence in communicating aloud, friendship groups, adapting to new situations and new opportunities. All the boys took part in individual, paired and group discussions and presentations. The pupils felt they were more confident in talking aloud, sharing ideas and trying new things in their evaluations at the end of the day. The trainers were full of praise for our boys and are keen to come back to work with our older pupils.

11E1 have continued to show their application of key skills for English Literature in their latest Friday morning assessment. The pupils were asked to compare the poem Remains by Simon Armitage with one other of their choice from the Power and Conflict poems. Many made a significant improvement from their attempt in their mocks in October which is great to see. Pupils looked at the feedback they were given and tried to improve their work by focusing on a personalised task - this is the green pen work which you can see in the pictures. The class will continue to complete their assessment tasks on Friday morning between now and half term to help them further develop their skills for English Literature.

The work in the picture is from: B. Abaker, C. Bosely K. Fisher, K. Foster, J. Hartnell, C. Hatch, A. Smith, M. Weston in Year 11.