We are very proud that Fleur Kennedy, a current student at St Edmund’s Catholic Academy, will be representing team GB in the inaugural European Games, a multi sport event with 6,000 athletes taking part.

The 16-year-old starlet will be following in a proud tradition because her family have been making waves in the sport of water polo for years – with both brother Roger, 21, and 28-year-old sister Elizabeth having already represented GB.

The free scoring centre forward from Newbridge Crescent, Tettenhall, who flew out at the weekend to Azerbaijan where she will make her debut, said: “It is fantastic news and I cannot wait to pull on my GB tracksuit.”

We wish Fleur the best of luck!

Photography is courtesy of The Express & Star

Dan Freedman, best selling author of the Jamie Johnson series, will be coming into school next week on:

• Thursday 11^th June
• In the Library 1:10-2pm
• There will be books priced at £5.99 and £6.99
• Remember to bring your money

Don’t miss out on this great opportunity!

Today we say goodbye to a longstanding and  excellent teacher; Mr Stuart Playford. If I was looking for an outstanding example of growing your own, Mr Playford is it.

He started as a member of our IT support team, graduated and qualified to teach, and is a dedicated Assistant Principal. He has had many roles in his fourteen years at St Edmund’s and was particularly influential in the planning and construction of our new academy building. Mr Playford is a valued and hardworking  member of our community, who always has the interests of the students foremost in his thinking.

He is going from St Edmund’s to Headship. I hope his new school realise how lucky they are and look after him.

On behalf of us all, I wish Mr Playford every success leading his school. We are going to miss him very much.

Maggie Hughes

Principal

You may remember that a number of our enthusiastic Sixth Form students braved the cold weather and took part in the ‘Sleep Easy’ campaign back in March this year when they slept in a cardboard box overnight. Their aim was to raise money to help in changing the lives of young homeless people in the Black Country.

We are proud to announce that a fantastic total of £1,014 was raised for the YMCA funds and would like to thank all students and staff who participated in some way. Beverley Momenabadi, YMCA Participation Co-ordinator said:

“YMCA Black Country Group really can’t express their gratitude enough to St Edmund’s for participating in this year’s sleep easy.

“The money they raised will go towards helping the lives of homeless young people across the Black Country.”

Twenty pupils from St Edmund have competed in the City Gymnastics Championships at Highfields School. They were all a credit to the school and performed exceptionally well in a large field of competitors.

In the beginner section, Bethany Walters really impressed the judges with her floor routine and gained 3rd place.  She then went on to achieve 3rd place overall in the city. Well done, Bethany!

Marianne Peralta also competed very well and came a very respectable 7th place overall. Other beginners were: Themis Bokini, Joshua Dodd-Matthews, Grace Hewitt, Isobel Rafferty and Seren Young.

In the novice section, Erin O’Hara performed   exceptionally well on both disciplines. She gained 3rd place for floor and vault, and 2nd overall in the city. A super first competition! This result  together with  Christina Clifton, Morgan Lavender, Daneille Lim and Rebecca Butler, placed the team into 1st position –  gaining the Gold Medal – City Champions!

Other novice performers were: Amelie Harris, Zuzanna Laskowska and Chiara Montana.

Well done to all performers and good luck to the team who will represent Wolverhampton in the Black Country School Games on 18th June.

Special thanks go to Mrs Swindells for organising the competition and for all her hard work in helping to prepare these pupils for their competition.

St. Edmunds 4-0 Smestow

After two years of losing in the final, our Year 9 Soccer team made it third time lucky by beating Smestow 4-0 last week at Old Wulfrunians FC. This victory meant that the team have remained undefeated for the whole season – winning the cup and league double!

Goals scored by Lewis Hughes, Bartosz Walczak, Finn Mullen and Osiris Jackson but it was a tremendous team performance with Smestow having very few chances.

Both teams started nervously which was understandable but an excellent move between Levi Bernard and Rio Dodd ended with Lewis Hughes lobbing the ball calmly into the goal to make the score 1-0. This settled St. Edmunds and just before half-time Bartosz Walczak doubled the lead from an Osiris Jackson corner.

Smestow had a good spell just after half-time but sweeper Kyrun Chahal kept things tight at the back and after the substitutes were introduced, St. Edmunds finished strongly. Finn Mullen scored with his first touch and Osiris Jackson rounded off the scoring with a nice finish from a fine Jenson Griffiths pass.

All the boys deserve a mention after an excellent season, well done to;

Alex Thompson                       Rio Dodd

Jayden Rai                               Levi Bernard

Kyrun Chahal                          Bartosz Walczak

John Soloman                         Jack Porter

Niall Collis                               Jenson Griffiths

Finn Mullen                             Osiris Jackson

Lewis Hughes                         Nico Peonio

Nnamdi Muoneke

Earlier this week, St. Edmund’s hosted the Wolverhampton Primary Schools Tri-Golf competition.

Two teams from Claregate and one from Warstones attended the competition. The Year 10 Physical Education leaders aided with the running of the event and they were; Courtney Abbott, Ellie McGrath, Sinead Cullen-Barrett, Andy Caron, Robert Marczewski, Simran Glaxin, Eloisa De Gracia and Rene Sangha.

Without them the competition would not have took place and Mr Selvey would like to say a huge thank you to them all! The pupils from the primary schools participated in four golf games that tested their putting ability to the maximum, with points for accuracy and control. The results were very close with Warstones finishing on 349 points and Claregate finishing on 369 points.

Year 7 are creating their own computer games using Kodu (which you can install for free on your computer at home). They are developing their computational thinking by adding procedures to objects which they command. Kodu is proving to be a popular programming tool in lessons and is engaging all learners. We may have future employees of EA or Nintendo in our classrooms!

Well done to everyone in Year 9 who has either passed their BTEC Level 1 Jamie Oliver Award, or who has recently passed the practical part of the award. Mrs Bates, Food Technology Teacher, has really enjoyed seeing the food that everyone has produced and commented: “It has been really difficult to choose from the fabulous photographs!”

Below is also a photograph showing the sunflower seedlings just before they were planted in the raised beds, outside of the food room. We are looking forward to seeing them grow.