The top performing Year 11 pupils were treated to an afternoon of bowling, arcade machines and games of pool at Hollywood Bowl on Wednesday 3 December.  This was a rewards trip to recognise the hard work, commitment and dedication towards their studies, both inside and outside of the classroom. The boys thoroughly enjoyed their afternoon out competing with their peers to be crowned as the '2025 Bowling Champion'.  A highlight was seeing the determination of the boys trying to beat the 2p machine in the arcade, something that the boys are desperate to do again in the not-so-distant future! 

16 of our GCSE French pupils in Year 10 joined Wednesfield Academy (another school within Matrix Academy Trust) for a visit to the Christmas markets in Lille and St Omer in northern France. 

Pupils travelled by coach to the residential centre and immediately started a game of football, enjoying some running around after a long day on the ferry and in the coach, before dinner and an early(ish) night. 

Mr Brennan woke us all up very early on Saturday, ready for our day out in St Omer. The boys completed a town trail, visited the Notre Dame de Saint Omer cathedral, before visiting the local and Christmas markets in St Omer. Here, some pupils treated themselves to a delicious pizza lunch or chicken and chips at the market instead of their packed baguettes. After this, we went to a chocolaterie, a local business which makes chocolates by hand. We learnt how they make chocolates and how they create their Christmas hollow snowmen and reindeer, before quality assuring the taste of some of the goods. Our tour guide was very impressed with the quality of French from our pupils and made them practice their verbs throughout! After dinner in our accommodation, pupils made their own crêpes before enjoying the games room onsite (no football in the rain!). 

On Sunday, we ventured into Lille and visited the shopping centre in the morning, before enjoying the museum of illusions. Pupils really enjoyed the illusions, especially a tunnel that felt like you were upside down and ‘dangling’ off balconies. After a quick lunch stop at McDonalds, we went into the Christmas market and pupils used their French skills to make their purchases. Our evening activity was snail and cheese tasting (not together) – with many of our boys being brave enough to sample the snails… but decided they were not fans of the blue cheese on offer. 

Our journey back was smooth until we hit London and then traffic on the M40 / M42, but the boys returned home full of stories to share back at school on Tuesday. 

🎄✨ Join the Family Wellbeing Team for Festive Parent Coffee Mornings! ✨🎄

We’re excited to share that the Family Wellbeing Team from Northfield Community Partnership will be hosting two special Christmas Coffee Mornings—and all our parents and carers are warmly invited! ☕🥧

Enjoy some relaxed festive fun with Christmas crafts and activities, a cosy drink, and a mince pie. It’s a lovely opportunity to unwind, meet other parents, and get into the holiday spirit.
Children are more than welcome to join in! 👶🎨

📅 DATES & VENUES

🗓️ Tuesday 16th December
⏰ 9:30am – 11:30am
📍 Northfield Library (77 Church Rd, B31 2LB)

🗓️ Wednesday 17th December
⏰ 9:30am – 11:30am
📍 Frankley Library (Balaam Wood Academy, New Street, B45 0EU)

❄️ These will be the final drop-in sessions of the year. Regular sessions will start again the week of 6th January 2026. ❄️

For any questions, you can contact the team directly:
📞 07859 779506
📧 familywellbeing@northfieldcommunity.org

At the recently inaugurated Debating Club, we’ve been developing our oracy and articulation skills by discussing and debating a range of issues.  Sessions have spanned from heated debates on the best type of crisp (including the ‘are Pringles legally crisps?’ rabbit hole) to what financial decisions we would make to improve our city and area.  Dexter, Hamzeh and Oliver (Year 7) particularly shone in recent sessions, with their impassioned and well-articulated arguments on why Birmingham City Council should invest more in technology, healthcare and policing, respectively.

If you want to join us, come along to B15 on Thursdays at 3.05pm to get involved and have your opinions heard!

Turves Green Boys' School has been awarded Foundation level of the British Council’s prestigious International School Award in recognition of its work to bring the world into the classroom.

The International School Award celebrates the achievements of schools that do exceptional work in international education. Fostering an international dimension in the curriculum is at the heart of the British Council’s work with schools, so that young people gain the cultural understanding and skills they need for life and work in today’s world.

During this academic year (2025-26), we are very excited to now be working towards the Intermediate level of the International School Award whereby we have made the initial steps to form a partnership with a school in Germany as part of the British Council's UK-German connection. We look forward to updating you on our progress towards this!

The International School Award encourages and supports schools to develop:

· An international ethos embedded throughout the school

· A whole school approach to international work

· Collaborative curriculum-based work with a number of partner schools

· Year-round international activity

· Involvement of the wider community

Year 8 boys' got their season underway when they travelled across to Christ Church Secondary School for a league tournament against three other schools.

In their first match against Bournville, the boys eased to a 4-0 win with goals from Julian, Callum, Charlie and Oliver.

Their second game against Christ Church proved to be a tougher test. With early goals from Oliver and Callum, Christ Church pegged the boys back to make it 2-2 before Charlie sealed the win with a well worked team goal to make it 3-2.

The final game came against Archbishop Ilsley which was a tight affair.  With the match going deep into injury time, Charlie went through on goal and made no mistake with a fine finish to secure a hard fought 1-0 win to leave the boys top of the league with 3 wins out of 3 games!

A special mention must also go to Jack who gave up his evening to referee all of the games - a fantastic young referee who all of the schools were very grateful for.

Our reading rewards vending machine continues to be a focal point of our weekly celebrations on a Friday lunchtime in the new year. 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.

24/11/2025

Winners this week include:

Year 7: Ace - hard worker/consistent effort across all subjects.  

Year 8: Jack -made a serious improvement this week and deserves the nomination.

Year 9: Kaiden - has impressed in science this term with his thoughtful questions.  He clearly takes in information and really tries to think about it and connect with his prior knowledge then asks follow up questions, from Dr Patchett.

Year 10: Zack – a mature, polite, hard-working pupil who has shown an excellent approach to his GCSE studies. 

Year 11: Archie - helping a pupil out of a dangerous situation and showing great compassion.

14/11/2025

Winners this week include:

Year 7- Codi – a polite and respectful pupil who works hard in all lessons. Has returned to school following an operation and has not let this stop him.

Year 8: Oscar – valuable contributions to the class as well as involvement extra-curricular activities like the Warhammer painting and music.

Year 9: Suber - a quiet, hardworking pupil who keeps his head down and demonstrates all things TURVES

Year 10: Ahmed – for living and breathing the TURVES values every day

Year 11: Noah - a self-motivated, respectful, hardworking pupil who continuously shows an outstanding approach to his GCSE studies.

20/10/2025

Winners this week include:

Year 7: Jayden - for his hard work and his wonderful enthusiasm towards school.  

Year 8: Charlie - shout out from Dr Patchett: “He showed great enthusiasm for every single workshop.  He wowed me in the first when he very quickly told the mentors that he thinks electrons behave like particles and waves, during a session on coding he showed a huge enthusiasm.  He owns a Raspberry PI at home where he does coding himself and he worked hard to calculate the probability of getting two questions in a row right in the maths session, including volunteering to be a gameshow contestant in front of the group and another school.  He showed great enthusiasm and model behaviour the whole time and it was great to get to hear more of his ideas and interests, especially in STEM.”

Year 9: George - a hardworking, focused and hardworking pupil who shows outstanding effort in ALL of his lessons.  

Year 10: Justin - has shown a real mature approach to the start of GCSE studies.

Year 11: Harry - showing a determined and focus approach to his mock exams.  

10/10/2025

Winners this week include:

Year 7: George - has had an excellent start to TGBS, demonstrating many of our values each day and working hard in all of his subjects.

Year 8: Ollie - a polite, respectful pupil who demonstrates our Turves values in all that he does.  

Year 9: Abdullah - a polite, hardworking pupil who puts in 100% effort into everything.

Year 10: Jamie – a quiet but hardworking young man who has started year 10 off outstandingly.  

Year 11: Charlie - for his excellent start to the year and determination shown across all subjects. Charlie has really shown he is ready to work hard to get the grades he deserves

03/10/2025

Winners this week include:

Year 7:  T Mitchell – understated and determined.  He will smash his work and is being nominated by multiple members of staff.  Keep it up!  

Year 8: G Deeley – a polite and respectful young man that has made a really positive start to year 8.

Year 9: J Sibanda - a quiet, polite, hardworking pupil who has settled in tremendously since starting TGBS.  

Year 10: Y Khan – excellent start for this young man who came from a different house and has been a great addition to the Austin roster.  

Year 11: A Kilburn has turned it around after a shaky start to Year 11, well done!

26/09/2025:

Winners this week include:

Year 7: A Slotta – polite, respectful, hardworking. He has made a real positive start at TGBS.

Year 8: L Brown –  a hardworking, considerate, and respectful young man who exemplifies our values on a daily basis.  

Year 9: M Jinks - for an excellent performance in the Matthew show.  

Year 10: T Fox- his efforts do not go unseen in the classroom, there has been many good things said about his work ethic particularly in English  

Year 11: O Perret – an excellent performance playing Miss Trunchbull in Matthew show.

12/09/2025:

Winners this week include:

Year 9: D Hawkins – great start to September

Year 10: L Taggart – fantastic approach to KS4 & GCSEs.  

Year 11: A Burton: Approaching year 11 with a great mindset. A polite, respectful, hardworking young man.  

05/09/2025

Winners this week include: 

Year 7: Alfred L - Amazing start to TGBS, showing many of our Turves values each day. 

Year 8: Archie M: Has started year 8 with an excellent approach, one that I would expect nothing less than. Always a polite and respectful young man who lives our values. 

Year 9: Lamar L Has come back to school a new person. Polite, mature and focused. Has had an outstanding first week back. 

Year 10: Doubra P great start to KS4 

Year 11: Noah T mature start to Year 11 

On Monday 17 November 2025, Year 9 had the opportunity to visit Bletchley Park, the home of codebreaking during WW2. It was at this site that Alan Turing and the other 9000 members of staff broke the enigma code which helped the allies win the war, including planing the D-Day assault.

Over the last week Year 9 have learnt about the history of computers in their computer science lesson, the significance of what they did at Bletchley Park in their history lessons and also got the chance to break some of their own codes in their maths lessons.

With all that prepared knowledge they were ready for a guided tour around the park as well as a chance to explore in our school groups.  We got to visit the main Manor House, see a replica of the Bombe (one of the first mechanical computers) and visit the huts where the majority of the staff worked.  This included hut 8 which had Alan Turing’s office in it with his tea mug still chained to his radiator.

There was also an interactive session delivered by the staff at Bletchley Park following the most up to date information from GCHQ (Government Communication Headquarters) on how to stay safe online and protect their private information.  Using passwords and biometrics pupils got the chance to see how facial recognition software works and experience how computer science villains can steal information from public WiFi.

It was a fantastic day out, a little cold, and was a perfect opportunity for pupils to experience an often-uncelebrated bit of British history.  It also allowed pupils to see the importance of the female and Polish code breakers in that story.

Our Year 8’s have currently been learning about the digestive system and how our bodies process the foods we consume.  In order to contextualise this amazing feat of chemical and mechanical wizardry, the Year 8’s took a journey through the digestive system by simulating different key parts.  We used fruit juices to represent the different enzymes and digestive juices, tights for the small intestine and small bags for the stomach where their hands provided the mechanical digestion of churning and mushing the food.  We had a splendid time making faeces, even if our faces didn’t always show it!

We’ve had a brilliant start to Cut Your Carbon 2025 with many pupils sharing their successes and difficulties with the challenges. There is still time for everyone to get involved in reducing your carbon footprint through the month of November. Simply pop along to C1 to pick up a challenge sheet and give it a go! You don’t have to complete every challenge, but if we can all do 1 or more of these tasks through the month of November we can all have a positive impact on the environment. Each house will have it’s participants entered into a prize draw for some eco-inspired goodies so now is the time to start counting!