This week 22 of our year 10 and 11 students spent an evening at the University of Birmingham (@unibirmingham) for the Faraday Institutes (@FaradayInst) evening on “An electric future”. We enjoyed a lecture on battery science by Dr Driscoll (@EHDriscoll) including dramatic demonstrations and even a cameo with two of our students volunteering to show how a battery charges and discharges using Jenga.

The boys then enjoyed a variety of stalls from Universities including The University of Birmingham, Warwick, Cambridge, Edinburgh and Swansea. Companies also included Discover Materials, WMG, UKBIC. Students were able to experience driving a (simulation of) a Formula 1 car, build their own batteries, learn about recycling batteries and how properties of materials can be manipulated with hands on activities.

We are incredibly proud of these students Self-Motivation at this event as they were active participants in the lecture both volunteering to help with demonstrations and answered lots of questions with well thought out Valuable Contributions. Well done to all students who took part in this event and a huge thank you to the organisers for this fantastic opportunity.

Year 9 have started a brand new unit this year that allows the boys to use different technology to compose music, arrange music or copy music. Each lesson the boys are using different techniques required to write music. They have been copying up different songs on to the software, each time getting progressively more difficult.

The software we are using is called Musescore and is free to download on any computer. It is a great way to compose and to improve on staff notation (note lengths, names and notes on the stave).

The boys were copying up Take on Me by A-Ha this week using two violins and a cello sound. See below work from T.Clarke (9A1) and N.Shaw (9A).

We would like to thank J. Choi, E. Hevey and S. Scott in Year 9 for their contributions to the Matrix Academy Trust video to celebrate the European Day of Languages 2023. All three boys prepared and delivered a speech about themselves in fluent French. These videos have formed part of a presentation to be delivered to staff and students in all of our schools.

Throughout Europe, 700 million Europeans are represented in the Council of Europe’s 46-member states and all are encouraged to discover more languages at any age, as part of or alongside their studies. This stems from the Council of Europe’s conviction that linguistic diversity is a tool for achieving greater intercultural understanding and a key element in the rich cultural heritage of our continent. Therefore, the Council of Europe, in Strasbourg, promotes plurilingualism in the whole of Europe.

At the Council of Europe’s initiative, the European Day of Languages has been celebrated every year since 2001 on 26 September – together with the European Commission

The Tigers programme was created this year within Turves Green as an intervention to support pupils who may struggle around school with behaviour or any social or emotional needs. The support put into place involves working alongside pupils in order to break down barriers to learning and to help pupils achieve their full potential.  This is through 1 to 1 mentoring sessions as well as working with small groups of pupils to deliver an alternative programme of support through the TIGERS curriculum.

The pupils involved within the Tigers Programme have recently engaged in different forms of Physical activity during their sessions. The sessions have consisted of working together in the Gym to help create bonds between the boys’ and to understand the importance of being part of a team. There have also been some fitness sessions including boxing in aim to increase self-discipline both inside and outside of school.

The programme also ventures into different interventions away from Physical Activity. More recently the pupils on the Tigers Programme have been given a project by the ‘Eco-Club’ which will see the boys helping out in the garden area of the school so the Eco-Club can begin their venture.

Finally, the boys’ will be enjoying cooking sessions once a week as part of their alternative curriculum which will see them working together to create dishes to build on their teamwork skills which is vital within and outside of school!

Year 7 have made a fantastic start to the year in maths. Across the whole year group students have made excellent progress in their first topic on sequences and have all now started on understanding algebraic notation and will cover equality and equivalence before the end of the year. 

In maths at KS3 we look at one topic for 2-3 weeks and have an end of topic test at the end of each to assess where how students have done. I am incredibly pleased to say that at the end of this topic we have had 5 students who have achieved full marks on their tests. A massive congratulations and well done to E.Griffiths 7B1, L. Ellis 7B1, A. Dale 7B1, C. Jones 7B1 and E. Lowe 7T1 

Keep up the fantastic work! 

Pupils in year 10 GCSE Art are investigating the work of British Fine artist Tony Bevan who creates large scale paintings of industrial structures. The pupils have used paper collage, paint and charcoal to explore the qualities of line and have created work inspired by Tony Bevan.

This week science club have been developing out microscope skills. We have learned the names of different parts of the microscope and how to focus on a sample. We tested out these skills on some pre-prepared slides including kidney, spinal chord and blood wells. We then prepared our own red onion samples by peeling off very thin layers of onion using tweezers and mounting them on slides, we even stained the colourless samples with iodine solution! The images we managed to focus on were amazing we could see fantastic clear blocks of cells and in some cases, we could see the nucleus of cells!  

This week in Warhammer Alliance the new students got to building their very first Space Marines. After watching a video on how to use the clippers and hobby tools correctly and safely, their hobby dreams started to come to life.

Each student will receive two models as part of the Warhammer Alliance, the first a Space Marine, a genetically modified superhuman in highly advanced armour. Next week students will get to paint their models following the designs they made in the first week.

Veteran students of the club had a showcase of all the models they had bought and painted over the summer holidays. We had a big display of fantastic miniatures painted by C. Fogarty 8T1, S. Scott 9A1 and O. Warrilow 8T1.

K. Lees (11T2) and N. Gossage (11T2) exemplify the concept of being self-motivated to achieve. Their journeys serve as inspiring examples of individuals who have harnessed their inner drive to reach remarkable heights in their respective fields. Through their relentless pursuit of excellence, dedication to self-improvement, and commitment to making a positive impact, both have not only achieved personal success but have also become role models for others aspiring to harness the power of self-motivation on their own journeys to achievement. These boys consistently produce the highest quality work and it is testament to their efforts that they should be recognised and celebrated.

A huge thank you to T. Shafiq, S.Scott (both pictured with Madame Liguori), J.Choi and C, Griffiths in year 9. The boys helped the MFL Faculty to run a French café on Open Evening this year. Parents and prospective pupils received a mini lesson on ordering French from Madame Liguori and were then greeted by the boys who took their food orders. A huge thank you to the parents and prospective pupils who joined in the fun and ordered food in French from our menu. We had a fantastic evening and look forward to seeing you in the future!