Allies Club: Understanding Bullying and Spreading Kindness

In an effort to continue to promote a safe and inclusive school environment, the Allies Club dedicated this week to deepening our understanding of bullying and exploring ways to combat it. During our insightful session, we delved into the core definition of bullying, uncovering its various forms and effects. This helped us to highlight the importance of fostering empathy and kindness within our school community. Through our collaborative discussions we emphasised the importance of a safe space within the club and the recognising the impact that bullying can have on mental health and academic performance.

To end the session on a positive note, we engaged in an interactive activity where the pupils crafted ‘kindness tokens’ as small reminders to spread compassion and understanding throughout our school community. The act of making these tokens not only reinforced the significance of kindness but to remember to be respectful to all, reiterating our commitment to the Turves Values and to create a supportive environment for all pupils. Please see the photos of the messages we wanted to share.

Year 11s this week have begun their final preparations for their maths mock exams starting next week. Each student will sit a full set of GCSE style papers under the same conditions they will sit them at the end of the year.

To support them with their revision all students have received a Complete Revision and Practise book and Exam Practise Workbook that cover every part of the exam specification. The two books work alongside each other so students can practise a topic in their workbook by answering past exam paper questions, using the revision book to help them if they get stuck as every topic is mirrored between the two books. Also in the books are full exam papers which students can use for revision in their own time.

In school we are supplementing the year 11s curriculum this week with revision sessions targeting the 4 broad areas of maths; Algebra, Shape and Space, Number Ratio and Proportion and Data Handling. Also in the run up to the exams, each class has taken part in two Lead Lesson delivered by Mrs Love and Mrs Hambrook to give them key revision techniques and exam routines to make the most out of the time they are given in the exam hall.

This week in Warhammer Alliance we had our first painting competition. Each student was given 1 week to finish painting any model ready to present at the club. They were formed into two categories; veterans who have been playing Warhammer in school for over a year and recruits who is anyone who has joined this year and are looking at painting their first models.

Each entry was judged by guest judges Mr Till, Miss Harrison, Mr Brabbin, Mr Woodall and Miss Brooker. In the recruits category first place went to P. Curnew in 7B1 who painted a fantastic Cronomancer for his Necron army. In the veterans category, first place was taken by an amazing Primaris Captain painted by S.Scott in 9A1. Each student then got to take a lucky draw pick from a selection of mystery models provided by Warhammer Birmingham.

Our runners up were J. Allabush 7A1 and W.Bates 8T1 who won a voucher and along with all the competitors will get fast passes to use at lunch time.

Congratulations to all our winners! We will have more painting competitions in the future, but painting is just one part of the Warhammer hobby. Students now will be encouraged to build up their armies and then start learning to play the game in preparations for a gaming tournament closer towards Christmas where again, mystery models will be up for grabs.

Well done to the 15 pupils who took part in the very first rugby training at Five Ways Rugby and Cricket Club. It was great to see how keen the pupils were and how the poor weather didn’t deter them from having a great time and learning some basic rugby skills including passing along the line, tackling and some touch rugby games. Thanks should also go to the rugby club for providing such great facilities for our students to learn at. 

Congratulations to B Mallett in 8x1 for his excellent homework in French this week. B Mallett completed a piece on his town, including what there is to visit and what you can do here in Birmingham. The piece was well-structured with excellent use of grammar and vocabulary. A special mention goes to all pupils in 8X1 who performed some fantastic role plays in French last Thursday. They created their own dialogues based on inviting others out and making excuses not to go. The boys then performed them in front of the class. Well done, 8X1!

This week, we have delivered a series of ‘Lead Lessons’ to support our Y11 pupils with preparation for their upcoming mock exams. Mrs Bacciochi and Mrs Love, supported by the English and Maths teams respectively, have been delivering lessons to multiple classes in the main hall to focus on developing subject specific exam skills. The pupils have been exemplary in their focus and attitude, and feel more confident ahead of their mock exams as a result. These sessions will also be taking place in Maths and English lessons on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday next week.

Last week we were extremely lucky to welcome Ms N’Diaye to Turves Green Boys’ School. Ms N’Diaye is a French assistant and is here as part of the British Council language assistant programme. Ms N’Diaye has already been supporting boys in lessons and will be instrumental in helping our KS4 pupils improve their speaking and listening. She is a native French speaker and has come here from Senegal! Welcome, Ms N’Diaye!

The topic the Year 9 are studying identifies mature themes but allows scope for pupils to think, evaluate and analyse the impact of Joyriding. Pupils have developed an understanding of the implications surrounding Peer pressure and Joyriding, they have been able to evaluate how things could be different by modelling positive and negative outcomes. This week pupils have shown an excellent level of confidence to be able to perform and respond with feedback in front of their peers.  

This week in Warhammer Alliance most students continued to paint their new Space Marines. With each student finalising the designs of their chapter and colour scheme they have watched tutorial videos on painting and got hands on painting tutorials last week from Miss Soden. Next week we will have a show case of all the painted Space Marines so far and choose a favourite, the owner of which will win a model prize of their own.

The veterans of the club are starting back gaming and they started with a big one! Nearly 100 miniatures built and painted by C-A. Carter-Glover 8A1, P. Curnew 7B1 and O. Warrilow clashed in a battle of epic proportions.

With models painted and ready for battle, next week new pupils in the club will get to experience their first games. With tutorial of a simplified version of Warhammer 40,000 they will learn of the main 3 phases of the game; Movement, Shooting and Close Combat.

We are delighted to launch our themed menus for 2023/24 off the back of our very successful new menu for the academic year. 

These special days are an opportunity to celebrate events, festivals and cultures from around the world across all of the Matrix Academy Trust schools. Not only will these provide pupils with a wide range of food experiences but will also compliment our Personal Development curriculum and Theme of the Week.

Watch this space for more updates on our menus and the wonderful food that we will be offering as part of these events.