The school has organised an enrichment day for students to have fun and experience a variety of new activities.The event takes place on Tuesday 17th July and Wednesday 18th July and both of those days are non-uniform days. Enrichment day will be taking place in school, but certain activities require students to go outside of school.

The school has organised Culture Days to give students from all years a chance to meet other students and to socialise.This event helps students to meet people with different religions, different races and people who speak other languages.

Altogether there will be 37 different activities to choose from, including Hogwarts themed games and quizzes, practicing spells, making your own wand and favourite potions; Marvelathon Pyjama Film Premier; Gaelic Football; Cartoon Drawing; Performing Arts Musical; Golfing at Bantock Park to name just a few.

On Wednesday 18th July there will be a few visitors coming to share their skills and talents.  Students will have three double periods in their year group, and take part in the each of the three sessions. Visitors include Hannah Lewis, a singer from London who specialises in what she confidently refers to as “proper pop”. Hannah Lewis will be singing in the Arena.  Also, there will be an African Drum Company who will be performing in the Sports Hall; they will bring some drums and work with students to perform a piece of music.

Mr Katumba said, “The person that is leading it is Mrs Curtis because without her nothing would really move,”.  He has also put in a great deal of hard work toward this. Every teacher will lead an activity of interest and Mr Katumba can’t wait. The activities that Mr Katumba will be leading are said to be a ”Top Secret”!

This year sees the end of an era for Principal Maggie Hughes, who has been in the teaching profession for 38 years.

On Friday the 31st of August, Mrs Hughes will retire from her role of Principal and pass on the role to Vice Principal, Mrs Hazeldine.

After securing her degree at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Mrs Hughes taught Mathematics at many different schools in the Walsall region. In 1989 she was appointed her first lead role as Head of KS4 at St Thomas More Catholic School, which would be the start of an era of leadership roles at alternating schools.

Maggie Hughes joined the St Edmund’s community in September of 2007 as Deputy Headteacher. As St Edmund’s underwent its transformation from a school to an academy, Mrs Hughes was appointed by the Directors as Principal after the retirement of former Principal, Deirdre Finucane. Mrs Hughes has taken the academy from strength to strength, and has achieved much in her time here, such as a ‘Good’ from the Ofsted inspection of March 2016, and the Ubi Caritas Award from Archbishop Longley in recognition of her role in leading all that is exceptional in Catholic education.

The academy is now over-subscribed with approximately 630 children applying for the 200 places available in Year 7 in September 2018 and has a thriving Sixth Form. Clearly, Mrs Hughes has helped to form the school into the distinguished Academy it is today. She will be sorely missed.

Oxford University was visited by ten Year 10 students on the 1st of May.  They visited colleges Wadham and Balliol, where students learnt about university life. Students Juan Dhir and Mia Mandare Singh both agreed that it should have been open to the whole year group rather than ten students as they believe it was a beneficial trip. Pupils were given 3 taster-lectures which the majority enjoyed as it gave them a feel towards what university is like. A recommendation was made to this trip should occur again for the whole year or that perhaps someone from Oxford University might visit St. Edmund’s for a workshop.

Over the course of the week, each year participated in a year group Sports Day and competed in a variety of sports including football, table-tennis, basketball and target games.

Sports Day is an annual event in which pupils at St Edmund’s participate to support their tutor group and to compete against each other.  Thanks to the assistance of the PE department and some sixth formers, each sports day was very successful.

We would also like to thank the children who took part and for all their hard work supporting their tutor group.

Josh (8JW) stated, “I’m really proud of my team as we came first place.”

Tanisha (8JG) claimed, “It was really fun even though we came last place.”

It was very pleasing to see all students work together as a team.

On Thursday 14th July, fourteen students in Year 8 were picked by the PE department to go to RAF Cosford to takepart in the RAF 100 games. Those chosen are considering taking GCSE PE next year.

The group were given a timetable with sports that they participated in throughout the day. For example, drown-racing, martial arts and tug of war. This helped advance the students’ life skills as well as give them an opportunity to see an insight into a job in the RAF.

The staff explained how their jobs worked and gave students the perspective as if they were performing the sport in reality. The men who were in charge of the firetruck explained the important necessities which can help them lead people to safety and perform the mission that they are given.

With the detail of information that each instructor explained, this will benefit the safety and the knowledge of each sport as the students take their experience back to school.  Moreover, most of the students said that they enjoyed the drown-racing, tug-of-war and the shooting practice the most out of the activities.

Overall, the students enjoyed the day and the opportunity to try out new sports.

 

 

 

 

Starting on June 11th, 41 pupils from Year s7,8 and 9 departed for North Wales to spend five days at Towers, the outdoor education centre. All pupils experienced a number of activities such as gorge walking, orienteering, kayaking, canoeing, rock climbing, mountain walking, abseiling and zip-wiring. Everyone had an amazing time and many were able to go out of their comfort zone.

Thanks to the assistance of Miss Buckle (PE Teacher) and to Mr Harris (Head of Year) everything went splendidly well.

Everybody who went experienced a lot more than expected and students were able to learn more about themselves. Many even tried activities that they were unsure about doing and were surprised that they were capable of handling the situation without any trouble.

It was nice to also see many students socialising with people that they normally don’t talk to and to see many people enjoying going outdoors no matter what the weather.

Amelia said, “I would recommend anyone to go to Towers Outdoor Recreation Centre as it’s a good experience and there are many activities to try out.”

After undergoing a lot of challenges and after facing many unforgettable moments, it was sad to say a farewell to Towers as it was a great experience for students at St. Edmund’s.

 

https://www.thetowers.org.uk/

 

 

 

On July 12th, the Academy have been participating in a Personal Development Day. Students have been learning about things such as rights and responsibilities, how to handle bills and many more life skills.

After listening to what people said about PD Day, it seems as if many people have learnt more about adulthood.

There were quite a few positives about PD Day. Navin and Amran (8KJ) commented, “i think PD day is good because we can learn more about how to handle ourselves.”

Gjovani and Sharefa (8RC) said, “PD Day helps us to socialise more with people in our tutor and whatever we learnt about will most likely help us in the future.”

Stefano (8KJ) and Aarabhi (8JG) also said, “We think that PD day will be better if the lessons were a lot shorter and there was less writing and more physical entertainment.”

Congratulations to St Edmund’s Gymnastics Team yet again after the swooping a Silver medal in the Black Country Games in Walsall recently.  We have certainly had a fantastic year and it is through the hard work of our gymnasts that we have been so successful. The five gymnasts had a set floor routine to perform which tested strength, balance and agility, and two vaults over a high box. As always they stepped up to the occasion and all performed superbly. Performers were: Christina Clifton, Corrin Smith, Lysia Bayley, Josh Dodd-Matthews and Maja Ura. Well done!

 

The Final Fling is a concert performed by the gymnasts, musicians and the Performing Arts group. It is named the Final Fling because it is the last performance of the year that everyone has been working hard towards.

This year the theme was The Greatest Showman. The performance took place on the 10th July at 6:00pm. The show was organised to showcase student talents and, because it is so close to the end of the year, it feels like a big celebration of everything that has been achieved.

Mr Garrity said, “The students will gain many skills from performing, like team work. Your confidence will also have an incredible boost from performing and you can use that confidence in the future.”

Miss Buzzing said, “I really enjoyed it; it was my first and last Final Fling. I thought everybody did really well and it was nice to see some people who had only just started playing instruments performing on stage. There was a great sense of community.”

The teachers feel the Final Fling is really beneficial because of everything that it teaches about performance. Some of the students said that they would like to perform in the next Final Fling because it was interesting and they enjoyed watching the many different acts. Students from Year 7 right through to Sixth Form participated in the event.

The evening was a great success and everyone left feeling happy.