On Wednesday over 30 students from the Warhammer Alliance visited the home of Warhammer in Nottingham, Warhammer World, where all Warhammer models are designed and made.

Whilst there students got to visit the exhibit hall which displays the professionally painted miniatures used on the websites and box art as well as the huge dioramas. This included the largest Warhammer diorama in the world called the Battle for Angelus Prime where students searched to find a hidden assassin for a chance to win their own to take home. Unfortunately, even with a close called by J. Jeremy 9A2, the assassin remained hidden.

We stopped for lunch in Bugmans bar. A fantasy themed dwarven bar with helmet, shields and weapons on the wall, as well as a decapitated orc head. The rest of our day was spent in the gaming hall where students received free starter models from the staff at Warhammer World that they could build, paint and then take home with them.

Students also got to visit the Warhammer shop and purchase models to take home and build at Warhammer Alliance through the rest of the year. With it also being Warhammer Worlds Store anniversary, many students were also able to get some free pins and coins along with their purchases. Students had a fantastic time and took part in a mini photography competition whilst there too. The results of which will be announced at Warhammer Alliance next week.

Today we welcomed Dr Eve Griffiths and Antonia Thomas from Outreach, who delivered training to Matrix staff on understanding the effects ACES and trauma can have on our pupils' mental health, behaviour and understanding, as well as how we can facilitate restorative conversations in school.  We learnt innovative new ways to support our pupils in building and maintaining positive, healthy relationships, resolving difficulties and repairing harm when there has been conflict. Thank you Outreach!

Local author, entrepreneur and leadership coach joined us at Turves Green Boy’s School on Thursday 7^th March to promote reading for World Book Day. Errol, from a challenging background in inner city Birmingham, gave a series of talks for all pupils over the course of the day.

The talks reflected on his struggle to escape a life of gangs through reading and remaining focused. His key messages of taking responsibility for your actions and being courageous resonated with the boys. His powerful manner of sharing his experiences allowed the boys to think about their current and future actions.

We chose Errol Lawson, as an entrepreneur, to coincide with our wider work during Careers Week.

As well as giving talks about his books, a few selected pupils were chosen to take part in one of his workshops based on his book ‘teenpreneur’. Pupils heard a little about how Lawson set up his initial business before having a go at pitching themselves. The boys were nervous to begin with, however, each one found the courage to stand up and speak in public. Errol gave the boys the confidence to promote themselves positively and think about their futures.

Look out for more from our World Book Day celebrations.

A huge congratulations our staff who attended the annual Matrix Academy Trust long service celebration meal last Friday. They joined colleagues from across the trust at the wonderful BANK.  Racking up over 700 years’ service collectively across the trust.  Another huge thank you to you all for your continued dedication to our community. 

Thanks to another generous donation of saplings from #WoodlandTrust, our pupils have been working towards their #EcoSchools award by planting more hedging to encourage more biodiversity into our outside space.

The first crops have also been planted! Peas and carrots which the pupils have germinated have grown beautiful little leaves and are safe and snug in their new home with plenty of rich soil to encourage them to grow. We can’t wait for some tasty results!

Also, the pupils have decided that they do not have enough time to keep up with all the gardening and organising so have decided to dedicate some of their break time once a week to either building our greenhouse or working out in the garden (depending on the weather).

We have also submitted out application to the Royal Horticultural Society to try and secure funding so we can purchase tools and equipment to support us in our efforts to improve our sustainability and encourage more wildlife around our beautiful grounds!

Keep an eye on news next week about the Big Plastic Count 2024!

Our reading reward vending machine has been celebrating pupil success in full force this week. Reading is a priority at TGBS and our books are carefully selected to suit all.

This week saw awards for:

Y7 T Lancaster for improving his reading ages on recent accelerated reader tests and scoring 100% on his quizzes.

Y8 E Foyle for being the first to read a fabulous 3 of our 16 recommended reads by the time you’re 16

Y9 S Abdi Hersi for most Class Charts points since Christmas

Y10 C Greening for excellent effort and attainment in BTEC Sport practical and coursework

Y11 S Ahmed for superb revision and mature approach to his final mock examinations.

Pupils are selected by staff and Heads of House for a variety of positive contributions and upholding our TURVES Values, underpinned by British Values.

I would like to express a huge thank you to all of the parents who came to join me for another SEND coffee morning in February. We discussed the many opportunities the pupils are given within our Department and how we, as a school, work hard to ensure we offer those reasonable adjustments which prove vital to ensure each pupil in our care is encouraged to reach their full potential, both socially and academically within school and in preparation for adulthood.

Thank you all for your continued support, Mrs Green.

Year 8 pupils are currently studying the fantastic play ‘Blood Brothers’ by Willy Russell as part of their modern drama study in English. During lessons, pupils have had the opportunity to perform key scenes from the play and many of them have impressed us with their remarkable Liverpudlian accents!

Pupils have been going above and beyond in their drama study, demonstrating their self-motivation to learn and their understanding towards others when exploring the trials and tribulations of Mickey and Edward, two key characters in the play. These are two of our key Turves Values, so keep it up Year 8! 

In the next two weeks, pupils will complete their study of the play and we look forward to some more dramatic performances from pupils as the play reaches its tragic conclusion.

Thank you and well done, Year 8!

This week science club were carrying out experiments around pressure. Dr Patchett demonstrated how to crush a can without touching it using the pressure created by steam – steam takes up 1,600 times the volume of water!

We then used our new knowledge about pressure to figure out how to suck a boiled egg into a conical flask using boiling water. Have a look at the pictures and see if you can figure out how we did it.

Next week we will be carrying out experiments to celebrate British Science Week based on this years theme of “time”.

This week a Y7 science class has been helping staff from the University of Birmingham develop new resources for their Discover Materials in the Midlands Project. The Discover Materials team visited us and talked to us about why materials science is important, materials science, we have learned, is the science of the “stuff” everything is made of, from sports equipment to buildings and our mobile phones. We learned about how some of the raw materials for our phones are mined and some of these resources are quickly depleting.

Our students also shared their ideas on what their favourite materials are and what industries we have in the Midlands that we would like to celebrate. Suggestions included Network Rail, Cadburys, Aston Martin and the jewellery industry as well as traditional and non traditional materials such as wood and amethyst gold .

Our visitors very kindly stayed to science club after school and showed us some “clip on” microscopes that we used with school ipads to capture these images. Can you tell which is a school tie, a sugar cube or a piece of paper?

Our students really impressed our visitors with their enthusiasm and detailed questions. Many thanks to Dr Chris Hamlett, Clarissa Stickland and Kate Stokes for sharing their expertise and enthusiasm for Materials Science. We look forward to their return visit where we will test out the activities they are going to develop based on our ideas and questions!