The Smallpeice​ Trust have been appointed as educational providers for the new HS2 train line. STEM days provide our students with opportunities to enhance their learning and aptitude for problem solving, creativity, design and engineering. 35 of our more able students were selected to work with the team from the Smallpeice trust to design solutions for problems facing the new high speed rail line. During the day students took part in real life engineering challenges, which linked to the wider world of design and engineering. This also provided understanding of future career and education opportunities.

During the day students designed some chairs for the new trains as part of the passenger experience challenge. They designed and made some moving walkways and lifts including structures for one of the new stations. In addition to this, students took on the Network Challenge where they had to manoeuvre a high speed model train through a variety of station scenarios.

Our students were a credit to the school and produced some very imaginative solutions to the problems that HS2 faces. Prizes were awarded by Mrs Hughes at the end of the day for the best chair, best moving walkways solution and the Network Challenge winners.

St Edmund’s would like to introduce a car pooling scheme for parents/students. We are hoping to match up families who live in close proximity so they may be able join together and share journeys.

If any parent would like to register please contact Mrs Thomas in the Finance Office on 01902 558888 or ethomas@stedmunds.org

We would like to take the opportunity to remind parents that the turning circle may be used to drop students off at the beginning of the school day. However we would ask that cars do not come on to the Compton Park site at the end of the day to allow the students and buses safe passage through the site.

As part of World Book Day, there is a free event taking place today called ‘Teen Fest.’

The online event will take place from 6-8pm and will give students the opportunity to talk to their favourite Author online!

For more details of time schedules go to http://www.wbdteenfest.com/

It’s great to see so many of our students reading books around school today, demonstrating that a book can be read anywhere you go.

Year thirteen pupils studying BTEC Sport attended ‘The Towers Outdoor Education Centre’ from 23rd to 27th February. A great week was had by all pupils, teachers and instructors, with memories that will last a very long time. The trip was arranged as part of their studies, where they are required to demonstrate advanced skills in two outdoor and adventurous activities.

The week commenced in fitting style with wind and rain, coupled with mountaineering, being the order of the day. It was hard work due to the adverse weather conditions and made map wading, walking on a bearing, and group work that much harder – however, the group pulled together! It was the following day when the fear really set in during an abseiling session; but then again, a thirty metre decline down a rock face will possibly do that to anyone! The rock climbing assessment was complete by the afternoon at Plas-y-Brenin, The National Mountain Centre.

The weather conditions had not improved when climbing Cnicht on the Wednesday. Students managed to reach the summit of the mountain, or at least that’s what the instructor said as they could not see more than ten metres in front of them. The snowball fight on the way up was pretty tiring too! The pupils completed their assessments in mountaineering, and thanks to their good navigation skills, they made it back down again!

Gorge walking, map reading and a session on the via-ferrata completed the week of assessments. The instructors, Gareth and Lorenza from Towers, commented on how the desired criteria had been achieved by all pupils, and thought that they had been a pleasure to spend time with. They particularly liked how the group had developed socially throughout the week, and had made use of their expertise to help them complete their assignments.

Last week our Chaplain, Mgr. Mark Crisp, successfully completed the ‘Coventry Half Marathon.’ This was in aid of raising funds in order to send twenty young adults from the Archdiocese of Birmingham to carry out mission work with children in Brazil this summer. The project is called: ‘Petropolis ,The Return.’ This really is a worthy cause. Well done to Father Mark! If anyone would like to donate to the charity, please contact St Edmund’s Lay Chaplain Deb Ferris on dferris@stedmunds.org

This term, students have been taking part in the Tenner Tycoon Challenge, a competition run by the charity, Young Enterprise.

The competition is simple – the children are given a ten pound note, which they then have to return at the end of March, but until then, their mission is to make as much money as possible. Any profit made will be given to charity.

The children are eligible to buy and sell anything (within the law), and there are no real constraints on what they are able to do.

As a reward for all their hard training over the long winter months, the year seven football team were given the chance to play against the year eights. An ‘end to end’ game saw the year eight team win 6-4, the score being much closer during the early stages of the match. It wasn’t until the end of the game when the extra year’s experience and strength paid off for the winners. The teams were:

Year 7 – Zak Abbas, Sebastian and Tomasaz Bajor, Courntey Haughton, Sam Wilson, Amar Pallan, Jamie MArsland, Shae Hegarty, Sam Munger, Haider Ali, Rahul Bhalay, Rohitt Dhaliwal, Ant Tandoh and Callum Walton.

Year 8 – Zehn Iqbal, James Connors, Aiden Sherwin, Dan Jepson, Cameron Owen, Harun Rahahala, Harry Smith, Bobby Dunn, Jason Randhawa and Devonte Clayton.

Keep training … football matches against other schools are coming up soon!

Mr Selvey wants to say a big well done to them all for working so hard.

A group of year 11 students were given the chance to attend the AQA GCSE ‘Poetry Live!’ event in the magnificent surroundings of Birmingham Symphony Hall, on Friday 6th February. The event hosted several poets featured in this year’s GCSE Literature Anthology, as well as helpful hints and tips from the chief examiner.

There were performances and Q and A sessions with poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, Simon Armitage, Imtiaz Dharker and Gillian Clarke, but the clear favourite amongst the students was John Agard, who closed the event with a series of mesmerising readings.

As part of the A2 History syllabus, the department organised a trip to Krakow in Poland for year 13 students. Having written a piece of coursework based on anti-Semitism in Europe during World War Two, the trip was designed to complement their understanding on this topic. During the trip, we visited Auschwitz and Birkenau, two sites of extreme significance when studying the Holocaust. Thereafter, we visited Kazimesh, the Jewish quarter of Krakow which proved to be an emotional and moving day.

Whilst there, we were also given the opportunity to eat at Klezmer Hois, a traditional Jewish restaurant; this was a fantastic way to end the day, being able to enjoy and celebrate Jewish culture in an area where Hitler and the Nazis attempted to destroy it!

The final day of our visit was spent visiting memorials of the victims of the Holocaust, as well as walking around the part of Krakow that was used as the Jewish Ghetto. Students were taken to Oscar Schindler’s factory and were able to visit a Synagogue that has remained intact despite Nazi attempts to annihilate Judaism in Poland. Overall the trip was a huge success and has allowed year 13 students the opportunity to experience the history they are learning about in the classroom, first hand.