We are delighted to announce St Edmund’s Catholic Academy was selected to take part in the Wolverhampton Community Commonwealth Baton Relay today to celebrate the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
A group of students, who have shown excellent commitment to PE and sport, were chosen to be the Baton Relay Team.
The team made a guard of honour as the baton was received from The Kings School then gathered in the Peace Garden to watch the baton be blessed by Monsignor Mark Crisp.
Following the baton being taken on a tour of the academy students departed St Edmund’s to hand the baton to Christchurch Infant & Nursery School, Tettenhall.
Congratulations to the Baton Relay Team:
Amelia Beet, Lysia Bayley, Kayliah Henry, Tori Chambers Brown, Megan Grove, Simran Sohi, Ellie Clews, Autumn Marchant, Kylah Johnson, Arthur Stuttard, Jonah Byrne, Frankie Lewis-Black, Mahdi Asaney, Rocco Di Gianvittorio, Tino Makombe, George Darling, Jack Barrowman, Niket Kumar, Chukwudi Ojeli Ezike and Mercedes Baczynska
Thank you to Mrs Cartlidge (Curriculum Leader PE) and Mr Taylor (Teacher of PE) for organising this wonderful historic event.
Mental Health Awareness Week is the UK’s national week to raise awareness of mental health and mental health problems.
The international Mental Health Awareness Week colour is green. This means that students had the opportunity to wear a green ribbon or clothing in support of the event. By wearing the colour green, they are showing others that you care about mental health awareness.
The sixth formers wore green to promote good mental health across the school.Â
It is important to raise awareness of mental health, to ensure that all students advocate mental health awareness.
For more information how we can tackle loneliness together click the link:
https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/campaigns/mental-health-awareness-week
Photo: Katie Smith and Keesha Sumon-RangerÂ
The Duke of Edinburgh day walk was a great success!
Students spent Saturday 7th May walking around the Kinver area following a route they had pre planned. While walking students were learning how to use a map and a compass and navigate accurately.
After 25000 steps, 16km distance covered and 6 hours of walking, all 41 students finished their day.
Next stop is the qualifying expeditions!
For more information about Duke of Edinburgh Award please check out the website: https://www.dofe.org/do/awardachievement/
The Magistrates’ Mock Trial Competition gives KS3 students the opportunity to act out court cases in competition with students from other schools. Having spent the last few months tirelessly preparing their cases, our group of Year 8 students took on roles as lawyers, witnesses, legal advisors, ushers, magistrates and court reporters – each of these roles challenging in their own way.
Although a little nervous when the competition began, our students rose to the challenge wonderfully and both our Prosecution and Defence teams won their cases in their respective trials. The teams were truly victorious and received wonderful comments from both the professional judges and the organisers of the event.
Well done to all the students involved!
Arsenijs Aleksejevs
Natalia Atwal
Isha Bawal
Sophie Handley
Roshan Hayre
Oghogho Izedonmwen Irabor
Felicity Jukes Higgott
Natalie Kyei
Holly Portlock
EA – Y9
EN – Y8
Our Sixth Form is thriving. Many students have secured some amazing opportunites and achieved wonderful grades. Check out the presentation to find out more:
We were delighted to welcome former student, Basit Kakroo, back to St Edmund’s this week. He shared his pathway to becoming a doctor at New Cross Hospital with aspiring medics in years 10, 11 & 12.Â
Basit explained his role, describing his daily routine and the demands of the job. He also went on to give advice on how to prepare for the UCAT medical exams. Basit even found time to catch up with his teachers, including Miss Moore who was his form tutor.
Ashpriya (Year 12): “I found it really insightful to hear the perspectives of a former student. In particular, it was useful making a connection with someone local who can aid me with work experience and the interview process.”
Photo: Dr Kakroo and aspiring medics in Year 10, Year 11 and Year 12
This Easter holiday I went back to my ethnic country Albania and decided it was the perfect time to give back to the community. I spoke to my local bishop to offer my time with the church. I was baptised at “Katedralja Nënë Terezja” and worked at the charity home where I was able to work with two Italian nuns who guided me in helping two boys with cerebral palsy.
Throughout the four days I volunteered there, the two nuns, who didn’t know much Albanian themselves, taught me how to support and care for Nikola (left) and Fabian (right), which did take me far out of my comfort zone as I have never experienced caring for people with different-abilities before. I was able to grasp a different outlook on life through the two boys and how they live their day to day lives, by helping them with tasks such as building a picture board for their room and playing with bubbles to help their hand to eye coordination. One aspect that stood out to me was how neither of them was able to communicate through speech, however, we were able to communicate through non-verbal communications such as certain movements and oculesics, which did make me think of how humans can present what they feel in so many different ways that aren’t just speech.
I also helped out with an older group of people with down syndrome and autism by completing a colouring book with them. It was inspiring to talk to them and how they have been able to overcome their challenges even without access to advanced technology. I was very proud of the work the church has done as I could see how grateful the group of people were to have been given the resources and life skills to take them into the world and that the church has been able to build a strong inclusive community life in the county.
I believe that we should, as students aspiring to follow the CARE values of the school, reach out and contribute our time to help our local community (charities, homes for the elderly and others), as the knowledge and experience gained are unique compared to any other work experience and, in a world where everyone wants to be heard, all they want to do is listen.
Gjovani Cinari
Year 12
On the 7th of April, a group of Year 12 students were given the incredible opportunity to gain insight into what pharmacy is all about at the University of Wolverhampton. It was a day packed with an array of different experiences: from gaining a taste of the university’s unique approach to teaching, to conducting chemical experiments using their excellent laboratory facilities. It was a day of valuable insight and excitement.
We were introduced to pharmacology and pharmaceutical sciences as well as pharmacy and learned to differentiate between each type of course and the vital roles they play within the pharmaceutical industry. Using our newly acquired knowledge, we used their learning system- which focuses primarily on independence and team work- to test our retainment and recall abilities. This allowed us to develop our communication, teamwork and decision making skills and also obtain a flavour for the working environment at university.
In the afternoon, we had the opportunity to visit the laboratories to use their specialised equipment to carry out a range of experiments. The objective was to uncover which mystery drug we were given a sample of. This allowed us to gain first hand insight into working within this atmosphere. The activity helped to improve our organisational skills and abilities to work with complex machinery, but also our ability to come to sensible conclusions.
This was a truly fantastic experience! We would collectively like to give a warm thank you to Dr Mark Hewitt, Dr Stephen Anderson, Dr Waseem Kaialy and Dr Matthew Palframan for leading this fantastic discovery day!Â
Ashpriya Basi and Merciya Selvamahan (Year 12)
Photo left to right: Arabella Caligdong, Wadha Shahid, Sophia Roldan, Martina Szpojankowska, Brientony Jeyarajan, Shadi Hamadamin, Ashpriya Basi, Merciya Selvamahan
Twelve Year 9 girls had the chance of taking part in a Girls Active event at Aldersley Stadium during the last week of term.
The Girls Active programme helps schools understand what motivates girls to take part, enabling teachers to work with girls through consultation and leadership to make the necessary changes to their PE, sport and physical activity provision to engage all girls in ways that appeal to them.
The girls embraced all of the activities that ranged from Dunk it to Hip Hop!
Well done girls and thank you to Mrs Ridley for taking them, it is much appreciated.
