Students Plant Trees To Offset Carbon Footprint

18th February 2020Mrs D Curtis

The Eco-Club took another step towards achieving their Eco-School Green Flag Award. St Edmund’s were kindly donated 30 trees to plant on the premises to help offset the carbon footprint of one our pupils companies.

The day came when the trees arrived and the Eco-Club got into action! With the help of Mr Katumba, our green fingered hero, who showed us how to plant the trees successfully, with digging a suitably sized hole and how to use compost effectively so the roots have help growing when they wake up.

In very cold conditions our Eco-Club planted all 30 trees successfully and had a great deal of fun. We all agreed that it was amazing to be part of something that will hopefully be here in years to come. It has gone towards our Eco-Schools award objective of biodiversity, which brings us very close to completing the whole award!

Our members are, Abigail, Mario, Cilla, Kate, Sara, Billie-Jo and our Sixth Form Environmental Committee made up of Jessica, Carlo and Seren.

Loyola Programme Great Success

18th February 2020Mrs D Curtis

As part of this year’s Loyola programme, pupils from years 8, 9, 11 & 13 attended RAF Cosford for the first of two days of fierce competition to qualify for the national finals.

After a number of qualifying rounds, even pitting our two teams against each other, the year 9 team finished 2nd out of the 21 schools at the event and won two awards.

This is an excellent achievement in our first year taking part in this technically challenging competition and means they will now take part in the national finals at the end of March.

Great credit goes to Mr Morgan and the students for their hours of commitment after school to enhance and improve their design.

 

Students Aim To Create A Better Future

18th February 2020Mrs D Curtis

Students from various schools and institutions from across the city, recently gathered at the illustrious Wolverhampton Civic Hall.  For many the events of that evening would become a moment engraved in their memories for a lifetime.

A year 11 and a sixth former took on new roles, not only were they students from St Edmund’s Catholic Academy but they also became Youth Council Members. Two sixth formers returned and took on more prominent roles within the youth council, one went on to become a Wolverhampton representative for Youth Parliament while the other went on to become the Chair of Wolverhampton Youth Council.

Together these four students, and the rest of the Youth Council members, would go on to represent their school and help create a better Wolverhampton; a Wolverhampton where the future generations to come would listen intensively to the history of Wolverhampton and how it progressed to become a new city, a better city.

These students would go on to face many new adventures and in turn new opportunities would arise – let’s hope that, like the senior Youth Council members, the new members would also be able to find their voice!

 

By Janis Liora Tchiesso Nantchouang

Sixth Form Ernst & Young Workshop

18th February 2020Mrs D Curtis

Some of our sixth formers took up a fantastic opportunity to visit the prestigious Ernst & Young (E&Y) offices in Birmingham.

The students had the opportunity to take part in workshop and  networking with E&Y personnel and a tour of the offices. 

They took part in a very focused 4 hour workshop event within the Tech / Accountancy sector. During the event they took part in workshops led by leading professionals within the firm, students networked with E&Y staff and heard all about the work experience and degree apprenticeship opportunities with some possible fast tracks on offer! 

Brandy Sasa felt the workshops were fantastic. Brandy has already started the application process for the summer internships. The students were informed about the apprenticeship process and how EY supports university placements. Brandy had the opportunity to identify her own key strengths. “ It was a great day, I am so glad I went”. 

Harjan Sangha thought the trip to the E&Y offices was very scrupulous and interactive. He is in the process of applying for a one week work experience at the E&Y offices in Birmingham, and has also persuaded other scholars to also look at the opportunities presented to them. The students took the opportunity to gain presentation skills, and evaluate their strengths and get an idea of what kind of field of accountancy would best suited for them.The students were notified of all the amazing and punctilious opportunities that Ernst And Young offer to young people, to give them a jumpstart in the working world.

Results Show St Edmund’s Sixth Form Is One Of The Best

18th February 2020Mrs D Curtis
St Edmund’s has been named a top sixth form for student progress in recent figures.  We are proud and delighted to be one of the top three performing sixth forms in Wolverhampton based on student progress in last summer’s A-level and Btec exams.
In the recently published Department of Education league tables, students who study post 16 at St Edmund’s are shown to make excellent progress across a whole range of academic and vocational subjects.
This position was reinforced by Ofsted who visited the school in November 2019 and classed sixth form provision at St Edmund’s as “excellent”.
St Edmund’s will also feature in the Express & Star on Thursday 27th February. Click here for more information.
Head of Sixth Form, Ms Toor, is always happy to show parents and students the St Ed’s
sixth form experience.  For more information please contact htoor@stedmunds.org

 

Hola From Spain

9th February 2020Mrs D Curtis

Students and staff, on the trip to Spain, arrived safely and are looking forward to an exciting week of fun and learning.

Lauren Shares Employability Skills

6th February 2020Mrs D Curtis
Lauren took time out from her busy schedule working as an Events and Comminitions Coordination at UK Screen Alliance in Soho London, to speak with year 12.
Lauren talked about soft skills, extra curricular activities that demonstrated leadership, communication and team working skills. The importance of employability skills and implications of social media in today’s society were also shared.

Lauren went onto explain that 1/3 of future jobs may not have been created and how trade skills are invaluable in the creative industries. She explained how to select university courses, rankings and Russell group universities.

F1 Challenge

6th February 2020Mrs D Curtis

Nine key stage 3 students entered the regional finals of the F1 In Schools Challenge. Prior to the event students split themselves into 2 teams and have been working after school to produce all necessary components to enter the competition. The teams have been building a small model formula 1 car that they had to race against various teams across the midlands.  The teams have had to consider size and weight constraints of the car, aerodynamics, manufacturing methods and team identity. Students started with sketches that developed into a plasticine model to get an idea of how their designs would look as 3d shapes. From here, they refined and developed their idea into a foam model. Once finalised students then made their car using traditional hand tools.  Students added to the aerodynamics of their vehicles by adding 3d printed wings to their vehicles. Once created students then branded their car with their team’s logos and colour schemes.

In addition to the car students were asked to provide a 5 page portfolio of their design journey as well as create a ‘pit display’ to promote their team and show of their team identity to the panel of judges.

The final part of the requirements of the competition was to prepare a 5 minute presentation to a panel of judges. The permeation had explain what they set out to achieve and how they got to the regional finals.

On Wednesday 15th January, both teams headed to the regional finals AT Make UK in Birmingham.  Both teams were a mixture of nervous and excitement.

During the day students had to set up their pit display to show off their designs and team identity.  Next came a discussion with the judges regarding the design journey their team had been on from initial concept sketches to the final vehicle.

The next part was the race. The cars were placed on a starting block and propelled down a 30 meter straight using co2 cartridges.   Our cars were the 4th and 9th fastest cars in our category.

The final part of the day was a verbal presentation to a panel of engineers. The presentation was to help the judges understand what they set out to achieve with this task.

At the end of the day came the awards ceremony, unfortunately neither team placed in the top 3 overall, however the wealth of knowledge and experience they achieved form their visit far outweighs any trophy and both teams will return to the competition next year stronger and faster than this year Already both teams are putting into plans their entries for next year’s competition. Bring on 2012 regional finals.

A special thank you to Mr Sohker, Mr White and Mrs Sehera for all of their support with the group and the trip.

St Edmund’s Got Talent Show – Wednesday 12 February

31st January 2020Mrs D Curtis
Our annual St Edmund’s Got Talent is on Wed 12th Feb 3:15pm start. Limited tickets are available from the Performing Arts Office or on the door at £3.
It is looking to be a fun filled afternoon again with a mixed range of talent from singers, orchestra, rock bands, comedians and much more!
For more information please contact Mr Bard 01902 558888.

Poems, Triangles & Snowflakes At Symphony Hall

21st January 2020Mrs D Curtis

Year 11 students visited Birmingham Symphony Hall to enjoy the GCSE Poetry Live event on Monday 20th January.

This informative and enjoyable event was well received by a packed Symphony Hall, who were treated to both chief examiner sessions along with a range of live performances from the cream of  modern British poets who feature on the GCSE syllabus.

As ever the highlight being John Agard’s much-anticipated electrifying performance that drew together, science, mathematics, history and identity.

“Who knew there could be a poem about equilateral triangles wanting to be a snowflake”, said Rajbir, a member of our group.