This week our Year 9’s have been learning all about separation techniques including filtering and distillation. This technique allows us to extract water from sea water! Here you can see J. Jeremy of 9A2 collecting water that we had separated from sandy, salty water. First we filtered it using a filter paper and funnel to separate the sand from the salty water. Then we boiled it to change the state of the water from a liquid into a gas and then condense it to turn the gaseous water vapour into liquid water, leaving the salt behind in the round bottom flask.

Bear Grylls eat your heart out. Our pupils have all the skills they need for whatever life throws at them!

On Thursday 28^th September, we took 21 Year 11 pupils to the Future Makers Event at Millennium Point in Birmingham. This event is aimed at providing networking opportunities with Apprenticeship providers in the manufacturing and engineering sectors. Last year, a number of our pupils secured apprenticeships as a result of this event. As can be seen from the pictures, our Year 11 pupils this year were very keen to get involved with the different activities that the providers were showcasing.

Congratulations to Ashley in Year 11 on his excellent written piece which was completed under test conditions. Ashley used a range of complex language, including the subjunctive and a French idiom. Ashley has demonstrated our school value and is ‘self-motivated to achieve’. Well done, Ashley! Ashley has also been nominated as our Subject Star of the week for his efforts!

In the maths department we have had had nearly 100 hours’ worth of work completed on mathswatch this September. With 400 logins, and over 2000 questions attempted, so many pupils have started the year right, engaging with maths in their own time.  

Special mentions go out to some of our top pupils. K. Wincott 11T2, S. Ahmed 11B2 and L. Hutton 11T1, 3 year 11s who have showed they really share our Turves value of Self Motivated to Achieve. A fantastic start to their exam year, they have really put the time in spending 8 and a half hours’ worth of work between just them!  

A final mention to A. Andrews in 9B1 who has completed 58 questions as part of independent practice, which is the most in the school by a good margin. That’s in addition to the 27 homework questions he has completed!  

Key Stage Three students have been preparing and composing their first ‘key pieces’ of the year. Key Pieces test a student’s progress in their new topic and showcase their mastery of new skills.

This has been an important moment for Year Seven, of course, who have been learning how to meet the challenge of producing assessed work in English for the first time in Secondary school. Our Year Sevens have responded impressively to this landmark moment, working diligently across their first three weeks in their new school, responding positively to new learning and producing very creditable work in their key pieces.

For Years Eight and Nine, this has also been an important moment as they have been asked to produce key pieces on new topics and at a new level. Year 8, who have been learning how to structure a written speech in a classical style and how to write using persuasive and punchy language, have produced some fascinating pieces of written work in the style of a speech they have read in George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’. The focus for Year 9 has been on academic writing as they take their first steps in learning how to produce an essay to GCSE standard.

Some of the most sparkling and lively speeches written by Year 8 demonstrated a strong understanding of how a speech is written and a very promising command of vocabulary. Among those who performed especially well are Leo T-S., Aaron W., Logan C., Duarte DVDC. And Kamron H.

Congratulations we are awarding you the Online Safety Badge! This is a great achievement for your team and we hope you will all be very proud of your hard work.

You are being awarded the Anti-Bullying Ambassador Online Safety Badge because you have shown:

1. Your commitment to building students’ knowledge for managing their online safety by running a whole-school poster competition.
2. Your dedication to providing online safety information to your wider school community on your website and socials.
3. Your successful efforts to embed online safety education in PSHE lessons and throughout your school.
4. Your commitment to making your anti-bullying work visible around school on display screens.
5. Your creativity in linking online safety to your school values and presenting this to the whole school.

This week Year 8 pupils have embarked on a culinary journey that challenges their perceptions of convenience snacks. In this food and nutrition class, they are honing their culinary skills and gaining valuable insights into the world of food processing and flavour enhancement. Initially met with scepticism, the pupils soon discovered that there's more to snack foods than meets the eye.

Unmasking the Snack: A Surprising Revelation

At the outset, the Year 8 pupils harboured a common belief that "there is no such thing as a bad pot noodle." However, their culinary adventure began with a revelation that would forever change their perspective. They embarked on a journey to unravel the mysteries behind the creation of one of their favourite snacks, the humble pot noodle.

Delving into the Investigation

Their exploration began with a close examination of the pot noodle product. The pupils meticulously scrutinized the powdered flavourings that are a quintessential part of this instant meal. What they found left them astounded: there was no trace of real meat in these products. Instead, they contained chemical flavourings, revealing a stark contrast between perception and reality.

Crafting Their Own Creations

With newfound knowledge and an eagerness to experiment, the pupils eagerly moved on to the next phase of their culinary adventure. In the following lesson, they embarked on the exciting task of creating their own versions of pot noodles from scratch. This hands-on experience allowed them to understand the intricate process behind the convenience foods they had grown accustomed to.

Diverse Approaches to Tasting

As their creations took shape, the pupils had various ways of tasting their culinary experiments. Some chose to prepare their homemade pot noodles at home, adding hot water and savouring the results in the comfort of their own kitchens. Others opted to enjoy their creations right at school, relishing the satisfaction of crafting something delicious with their own hands. Regardless of the method, the pupils were pleased with their newfound skills and the delectable results they achieved.

Conclusion:

Year 8 pupils have embarked on a remarkable culinary journey, one that has exposed them to the inner workings of convenience snack foods. Through hands-on experience and a keen understanding of ingredients, they have demystified the creation of pot noodles and developed a newfound appreciation for the art of cooking. This educational experience not only equips them with essential culinary skills but also empowers them to make informed choices about the foods they consume. In the process, they have discovered that there's much more to food than what initially meets the eye, proving that in the world of cooking, knowledge is the key to culinary master

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