This week, 7Y1 have begun their work on a crucial part of their written responses in English: the thesis statement. After consolidating the definition of a thesis statement, 7Y1 observed how their teacher constructed a thesis statement, making note of the key steps needed.

After this, pupils moved into independent practice, using the steps that they had identified in the teacher’s response. This resulted in some thoughtful ideas about how Jerome is presented in our current novel of study, Ghost Boys, by Jewell Parker Rhodes.

Pupils demonstrated resilience, determination and showed a clear understanding of how Parker Rhodes characterises Jerome in the novel.

A huge congratulations to all of our Year 8 pupils for the excellent effort, creativity, and maturity they have shown in their recent speech writing lessons.

During this term, pupils have demonstrated an impressive ability to engage their audience, express their opinions confidently, and use persuasive language techniques effectively. From thought-provoking arguments to passionate appeals, Year 8 have risen to the challenge and produced speeches that showcase both their growing writing skills and their ability to try and convince their peers to join their club/hobby that they do externally or within school.

Particularly pleasing has been the way students have experimented with rhetorical questions, emotive language, repetition, and direct address to strengthen their arguments. Many pupils have also shown resilience by revising and improving their work, carefully considering feedback to make their speeches even more impactful.

The quality of work produced across 8X/En2 has been fantastic, and pupils should be proud of the progress they have made. Their enthusiasm, imagination, and willingness to challenge themselves have made this a highly successful unit of work.

Speech writing is a powerful way to develop confidence, communication, and leadership skills, all of the class has demonstrated all of these qualities brilliantly, especially: George, Alfie, William, and Carl. We look forward to seeing these skills continue to develop throughout the year.

Well done, Year 8! Keep striving for excellence and continuing to make your voices heard.

On Tuesday the Year 7 boys travelled to Coleshill School for their first football fixture as a Turves pupil. The boys were excited and full of energy, which was shown throughout the game. The squad was unfortunate to have lost 6-0 against a very strong Coleshill team. With the team not playing any games together previously to compete was a win in itself 

On Monday the Year 9's travelled to Barr Beacon for the second round of the Matrix school games fixtures, having beaten Dame Elizabeth Cadbury already the boys were looking to continue in this form. The team managed to improve on their previous victory winning 38-6 in an emphatic victory!  Special mention to Azim and James for their fantastic performances along with Rei Mai playing his first game and contributing really well. 

A group of Year 8 pupils visited Keble College, Oxford University on 14 October 2026. They had a presentation on the importance of education, value and benefits of higher education and then had the opportunity to have a tour. Student ambassadors answered questions about their pathway to Oxford University and what student life is like?

Year 8 were very engaged, asked lots of questions and enjoyed the visit.

Our Year 7 basketball team put in a brilliant performance against Barr Beacon today, showing a huge improvement from their first match a few weeks ago.

The boys demonstrated some fantastic team qualities throughout, with their teamwork, communication, resilience and determination really standing out. They worked hard for one another, encouraged each other and showed a great attitude from start to finish.

Despite narrowly losing 16–12, the boys should be extremely proud of their efforts and the progress they have made in such a short space of time.

A really positive performance with plenty to build on moving forward!

Warhammer alliance has set off with a bang over the last few weeks. With 20 new Year 7's joining and all the returning veterans from last year it’s been a fantastic first couple of sessions.

Kicking off with open evening, Caleb, Dennis, Louis and Dexter stayed back to show off their incredible Warhammer collections to our prospective Year 6's. They shared their passion for Warhammer with demo games, showing painting and building and talking through the range of Warhammer books.

Speaking of Warhammer Books, thanks to some generously donated books we now have a Warhammer Library in B10. Any pupil is free to come and talk to Miss Soden, look through the books and take them home to read.

Warhammer Alliance itself has moved to B10, with 30 pupils now part of the club all the new joiners have received and built their first 2 Warhammer models.  A Space Marine Intercessors and Ork boy.  A few have also started to painting after first creating their own Space Marine chapter, the unique colours and logo of the different groups of Space Marines. Warhammer Alliance is always open to all. So, if you want to join the best hobby in the world come and speak to Miss Soden in B10

Our reading rewards vending machine continues to be a focal point of our weekly celebrations on a Friday lunchtime.  Pupils from all year groups are considered and selected for a range of approaches to demonstrating our TURVES Values, representing the school and attendance at extra-curricular clubs.

19/10/2026

Winners this week include:

Year 8: Archie, Oscar and Alex – Space poetry competition winners

Year 10:  Noah – Pupil of the week

Year 11: Charles, Taylor, Jack and Roman – new Prefects 

12/10/2026

Winners this week include:

Year 7: Moses – starting off positive and adopting TURVES values very quickly

Year 8: Jack – getting it right lots of positives

Year 9: Hayden – always uplifting, polite and respectful to all

Year 10:  Adam – extremely positive week. Starting to show real maturity.

Year 11: Rahan – demonstrating TURVES values 

06/10/2026

Winners this week include:

Year 7: Robiel - for his determination to be self-motivate to achieve and get as many positives as possible!   

Year 8: George - for his determination to do well in all of his subjects – self motivated to achieve.  

Year 9: Connor - for his persistence to uphold turves values and get positives within lessons  

Year 10:  Ubayd for an amazing start to the academic year many positive comments from staff and 25 positives this week!  

Year 11: Kameron - for a positive start to the academic year from excellence in his studies and help as a prefect within school activities.   

22/09/2026

Winners this week include:

Year 7: Asa – for an amazing start being resilient and having several positive comments from his class teachers

Year 8: Zayn – excellent start back and Turves values

Year 9: Caleb – mature start to Year 9

Year 10: Layton – for his excellent start to the academic year, 30+ positives with zero negatives

Year 11: Godlee – superb start to Year 11 and contribution to school sports

In English, 9X2 have been working exceptionally hard while studying Malorie Blackman’s Noughts and Crosses. The novel gives the boys the opportunity to explore a dystopian world where racism and discrimination are presented from a different perspective, encouraging them to think deeply about important issues such as equality, prejudice and power.

It has been fantastic to see so many of the boys developing greater confidence in their writing. With the support of sentence starters, they are beginning to write well-structured analytical paragraphs, selecting evidence from the novel and explaining their ideas in greater detail. As their confidence grows, many are becoming more independent in developing their analysis and explaining the writer’s intentions.

We are very proud of the effort and enthusiasm the boys have shown so far and look forward to seeing their writing continue to develop.

The University of Birmingham is host again to some amazing free lectures in cooperation with the Institute of Physics. Cian and Patrick attended a lot of these in the last academic year and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Whether you’re interested in light, neutrons or quark-qluon plasma, there’s a lecture to pique the interest. Please see the attached advertisement and if you are able to attend, please do send your Head of House an overview of your experience and we would be more than happy to put it on the school website so those who can’t attend can join in the Self Motivated fun!