Sweden, Italy, Peru

We are delighted to announce that, for the third year running, Matrix Academy Trust has had another successful Turing bid.

The Turing Scheme is the UK government’s programme to provide funding for international opportunities in education and training across the world. It supports Global Britain by providing an opportunity for UK organisations from the higher education, further education, vocational education and training and schools sectors to offer young people  life-changing experiences.

This year, pupils in Year 8 from across Matrix schools will be visiting Sweden. Year 10 will be exploring ancient history in Italy. Year 12 students will be travelling around the world to Peru.

We chose ‘Far From Home’ as the name of our 2023-24 Turing project because we are committed to promoting an international outlook with our pupils. For our young people to be successful, we need to do whatever we can to broaden their horizons - and one way of doing this is to take them ‘far from home’. We will be making sure the pupils who are selected to go on these visits will be those that will benefit most from them.

More information about these opportunities will be shared in September.

Read our report on last year’s Matrix visit to Japan here: https://matrixacademytrust.co.uk/japan/

Find out more about the Turing scheme here: https://www.turing-scheme.org.uk

The year 10 band are back in business after mock exams and careers week. They have been working hard to be performance ready in the upcoming musical where they will be rocking out in We Will Rock You. The band will be performing two very famous queen songs, “We will rock you and I want to break free”.

Come and hear them, on Wednesday the 19^th. Tickets are on sale now and can be bought on the door

The musical consists of four short segments from the following musicals ‘Dear Evan Hansen’, ‘We Will Rock You’, ‘Oliver!’ and ‘School of Rock’!

We were thrilled to host our Transition Evening on 11 July, followed by the Transition Day for our incoming Year 7 pupils. The Transition Evening proved to be a valuable occasion for families to meet the Headteacher, as well as the Senior Leadership Team, allowing them to gather essential information about the school and purchase their child's uniform in preparation for September.

The Transition Day provided our new Year 7 cohort with an immersive experience of their future school, enabling them to meet their peers, teachers, and other important staff members. The day was filled with engaging activities designed to help the pupils feel comfortable in their new environment. These activities encompassed Shortbread Making, Active Games, Creative Arts, Creative Writing, and a Mathematics Challenge.

We are pleased to share that every pupil conducted themselves impeccably throughout the day, setting an outstanding tone for their journey as pupils of Turves Green Boys' School. This is indeed a fantastic start to their educational adventure with us.

WELL DONE!

Year 10 GCSE Art Coursework

The Year 10 pupils have been honing their clay skills, and among them, Adam B. has crafted a remarkable ceramic piece inspired by the theme of 'Punk fashion.' His creation cleverly incorporates elements such as leather jackets and punk jewellery.

Congratulations to Year 10 for producing such impressive artwork! Your talent shines through in these amazing pieces.

Year 8 Art Work

This impressive artwork has been crafted by Year 8 pupils: Brian N, Lewis H, Alfie P, Alfie B, and James C. Their artistic endeavours involved painting landscapes, skilfully utilising various tints and shades to portray depth and perspective. Furthermore, they exhibited their creativity by employing the 'sgraffito' technique to produce striking silhouettes of landmarks.

Well done, Year 8!

Self Motivated to achieve in French

Congratulations to E. Foyle on his performance in the French assessment this month! He only recently joined Turves Green Boys’ School and his settled in well. He has demonstrated our Turves Values and his self-motivation to achieve certainly paid off in his assessment. He always gives 100% in lessons and is passionate about languages. He was rewarded with a 1kg bag of Skittles for all his hard work, motivation and enthusiasm.

Year 8 Cultures Poetry Competition

During the summer term, the English Department at Turves Green Boys’ school launched the year 8 poetry competition all about culture!

In their English lessons, pupils studied a range of poems all about cultural identity from poets such as Grace Nichols and John Agard. Pupils looked at how the poets expressed their views on culture and were encouraged to think about why culture is an important part of their identity.

Taking inspiration from these great poets, in our competition, pupils were asked to write their own poems about culture and we have been greatly impressed by all of our entrants!

All entrants will receive certificates and merits, and the winners will be announced next week so please keep an eye out!

Thank you to all the students below who entered our competition:

A. Imtiaz

A. Payne

A. Spencer

B. Nyong

C. Griffiths

C. Hatcher

G. Vann – Richards

H. Mackcracken

J. Choi

J. Jeremy

N. Shaw

O. Ames

S. Jones

S. O’Sullivan

S. Scott

T. Shafiq

Day 1

On Monday 3^rd July, our Year 10 pupils visited 3 different post-16 providers as part of their Careers Week. Pupils visited Solihull College and University College Birmingham to get a taste of what courses were on offer and what life is like there. We also took a group of 15 pupils to Make UK, an engineering and manufacturing based apprenticeship provider. Our pupils really enjoyed the day and represented the school impeccably being described as ‘a real credit to the school’ by one of the facilitators.

Day 2

On Tuesday 4th July, our Year 10 pupils visited Cadbury College and South and City College to experience what they to offer. Pupils experienced a taster of some of the different courses available and enjoyed touring the campus to see what life is like for students at the different colleges. Our pupils represented the school brilliantly and found the day informative and interesting.

Day 3

On Wednesday 5th July, our pupils visited the University of Worcester and Newman University as part of their Higher Education element of Careers Week. The aim of the visit was to see what university life is like and to look at some of the courses on offer. The university representatives addressed some of the myths around higher education

and how to access courses and funding. Pupils also enjoyed a tour of the campus including the Students’ Union, library and different areas of the university. Pupils demonstrated our values: Respect for All and Understanding towards Others. Well done to everyone who took part.

Day 4

Thursday 6^th July was our ‘Experience of the Workplace’ day where pupils had the chance to hear from professionals from a range of different careers about life in their workplace. Our visitors included: radiographers from the NHS, the Civil Service, Collins Aerospace, Kier Construction and The Apprenticeship Centre. Our pupils enjoyed learning about different aspects of life in the workplace as well as the different career pathways on offer. Pupils particularly enjoyed getting ‘hands-on’ with some of the tools that Kier had on display!

Day 5

Friday 7^th July was our final day of an enjoyable and informative Careers Week. We invited a number of different employers into school to conduct mock interviews with all of our Year 10 pupils. Although many were nervous beforehand, our pupils gave a great account of themselves and found the experience very useful. Our visitors were very complimentary of the pupils and this was a great way to round off an excellent week!

We are delighted to announce and celebrate the exceptional achievements of three of our year 10 pupils in the recent exams. Each of them has attained an outstanding grade 7 or higher in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. Congratulations to J. Boyle from 10A1, O. Flannagan from 10A2, and T. Devaney from 10B1 for their remarkable success.

Furthermore, we would like to acknowledge the commendable accomplishments of D. Bridges from 10A2 and H. Cleeton from 10B1, who have excelled by securing a grade 7 or higher in two out of the three sciences.

We extend our heartfelt congratulations to all these exceptional young people for their remarkable dedication and achievements.

Well done, lads!

We will be holding both open evenings and open mornings this year to give all prospective Year 7 parents and pupils the chance to come and visit us. These events will give you a little insight into what it means to be a pupil at Turves Green Boys' School and give you the chance to ask any questions you may have.

Open Evening will take place on Tuesday 19th September 2023 – 4:30pm – 7:30pm

Open Mornings will take place from Monday 25th September 2023 - Thursday 28th September 2023 between 9:15am - 10:15am.

Why Drama Matters

Acting is not just about learning your lines, but "reading between the lines".

This week we have been exploring some of the carers opportunities available to pupils in Performing Arts as well as the various pathways you can take to get there.

Pupils looked at roles and carriers linked to Drama. These consisted of Actor, Production Stage Manager, Comedian, Drama Therapist and Lightning Technician

Pupils really enjoyed listening to Aedan’s Story.

Aedan Duckworth is an actor and model known for playing Oliver in Hollyoaks. Pupils learnt that Aedan works at Lime Productions in Liverpool where he films with the rest of the cast and a director. He told us about what he does and how the subjects he studied at school help him in his job.

Pupils discussed what skills they would need to become an actor. 7B1 suggested the following. As well as enthusiasm, confidence and acting ability, you will also need:

-English language and literature skills to help you to read and interpret scripts

-Stamina and flexibility

-Resilience and a positive outlook.

7B1 were able to link these to our Turves Values:

-Understanding towards others

-Valuable contribution

-And self motivated to achieve.

On Monday 3^rd July 50 Year 10 pupils took part in a visit to Solihull College and University Centre. The pupils were given a tour of the campus, with information on the types of course available before completing taster sessions in different subjects. In the Business taster lesson, our pupils learnt about the different types of apps and how to create them based on customer need. The groups worked together with staff to create ideas on target market, advertising and homepages. Our pupils demonstrated our values well, showing respect for all and self-motivation to achieve.

After lunch in the campus canteen, pupils then moved on to other sessions which included the animal care suite. Here pupils learned about reptiles, amphibians and mammals. They were given a tour of the area then spent time outside with the many animals who live at the Blossomfield Campus. The staff and pupils would like to thank everyone at Solihull College and University Centre for making our visit so interesting and informative.

This week in Warhammer alliance our new starter set boxes had arrived, 6 brand new boxes, 3 for Warhammer 40K and 3 for Warhammer Age of Sigmar. We opened up the Warhammer 40K starter boxes and started building the Space Marines and Necrons inside ready to paint at the start of the next year.

These starter boxes will give the pupils a set of ‘club models’ that they will all be responsible for building, painting and maintaining so that we can continue to use them for games over the next academic year and beyond. We are hoping to get all the models built before the end of term and when we return after Summer they will be painting them.

When painting the models, the pupils are going to have a step by step guide into how to paint 3 different unique chapters/ colour schemes. The blue Ultramarines, red Blood Angels and green Salamanders. By focusing on these 3 colours schemes the pupils will learn more specific painting techniques such as shading and highlighting to bring out the detail of the models.

There are plenty of models still to build, so if you want to come and help us stop by B7 on a Wednesday after school, or come and see Mr Soden and you can help out.