Autumn Term Highlights 2022 Shireland Collegiate Academy Trust

Building developments are well underway to transform the former BT building in Providence Place, West Bromwich, into our brand new Shireland CBSO Academy, which will be opening its doors and welcoming its first cohort of Year 7 and Year 12 students in September 2023.

Shireland CBSO Academy is a collaboration between Shireland Collegiate Academy Trust and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and is the first school in Britain to be established in a unique partnership with an orchestra. It will develop and educate our future musicians while innovatively addressing the much-publicised decline in the position of creative arts in schools.

Students attending the Academy will receive a broad education covering the full national curriculum with an expectation that they will strive for academic and musical excellence. While being immersed in music at the Academy, students will build their understanding of the key transferrable skills and qualities that music helps to develop, such as sympathy, self-discipline and collaboration.

All students will have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument or have vocal lessons, with opportunities to take part in choirs and orchestral ensembles. Shireland CBSO provides students and the wider community an amazing and unique opportunity to pursue their musical talents and interests, offering a pathway for a specialist musical education and career.

Visit our website to find out more about the Academy and how to apply: www.shirelandcbso.org.uk

First Steps Nursery now has a new build! After a long period of planning and hard work, First Steps looks forward to welcoming new and existing families to experience our brand-new nursery and its up-to-date facilities.

The nursery boasts natural-coloured, spacious open-plan rooms with modern internal and external design which makes the most of natural lighting and surrounding to support children’s learning and development and provide a calm, relaxed learning environment, with up-to-date facilities including a multipurpose arts, crafts and sensory room.

First Steps Nursery offers both term-time and full-time spaces for children with funding available for 15 and 30-hour places. In close collaboration with Shireland Technology Primary School, First Steps Nursery will be sharing state of the art resources and teaching facilities, with the curriculum following the E3L – Excite, Explore, Excel – framework. Incorporating play-based learning and children’s interests with teaching that offers unique learning experiences, encouraging children’s skills, confidence and love of lifelong learning while also offering a smooth transition from early years to primary school.

As part of Shireland Collegiate Academy Trust, the nursery also offers more prospective collaboration opportunities with outside agencies and training providers, including speech and language graduates, to support and ensure the high-quality of professional training for future services, including the support of professional training for staff. We ensure that children who attend First Steps Nursery receive the highest quality care and education provision.

The Holyhead chicks have finally arrived after having hatched from their eggs and after a very exciting first few days of meeting all of our children, they are settling really well at Holyhead Primary! We had a wonderful array of name suggestions for our chicks from the pupils and we are finally pleased to introduce Violet, Eggatha and Vera.

This term, our Year 6 group took a trip to The West Midlands Police Museum for an exciting day of forensic fun and exploration of how policing has changed and developed throughout living history. Pupils were very engaged in the visit and took part in a range of activities with much enthusiasm.

Year 5 also visited The Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry, where they had the opportunity to apply their skills and knowledge and become artists for the day! The children produced some amazing pieces of artworks which now take pride of place in The Hive to create our very own Art Gallery.

Our forest school has officially reopened at Lightwoods Primary Academy! Children at Lightwoods really enjoy learning experiences that go beyond the classroom and love exploring around our forest area, where they can hunt for bugs and learn about their different environments. They have even made the worms a special meal using the mud kitchen for their dinner.

But the fun and learning does not stop there, as we have many plans in store to develop our forest school area, making it the very best that it can be for our children and to enhance their learning experiences. From decorative items and wooden tables and chairs to chimes and a few umbrellas for rainy days. We are always welcoming donations from families and send huge thanks to parents who have already donated and for their support of our forest school.

We celebrated Black History Month during October at STP, in which Mr Donaldson led our Black History Month Launch Assembly and introduced this important event to the children, explaining why we dedicate this month every year to learning about it.

He then introduced the children to several inspirational black people from history, where we also discussed why they are so significant. Our assembly then finished with a sing and dance along to some popular music from famous musicians.

We had a great time celebrating Black History Month, which also included a special music assembly and Carnival Lunch. We also held African Dance Workshops, where children learned about African royalty as well as traditional African dance moves! The end of the month culminated in a Key Stage 2 pupil led assembly where the children presented their learning on influential people of colour.

This term, Key Stage 1 took part in an amazing outdoor workshop with artist James Brunt, where the children demonstrated their amazing teamwork skills to create some amazing pieces of natural installation artworks. The children also created special artworks to commemorate Remembrance Day, where they also took a trip to the memorial gardens using the immersive room and participated in the national two-minute silence. We were very proud of our students.

As part of National Literacy Week, Tameside’s library had an official relaunch, which included the addition of a range of lovely new books for our children to read. We also had a very special virtual visit from none other than the one and only Sir Lenny Henry, who spoke to the children about the power of reading and how wonderful it is. He was even kind enough to sign some books for us! We also have our parent lending library which is open in the main reception area and is free for all parents to use.

What a wonderful start to the year we have had at Wallbrook!

Our children started the term by exercising their democratic rights as part of Democracy Week, where they voted for their Pupil Leadership Team. To celebrate the children’s achievement, local MP Pat McFadden visited Wallbrook especially to meet our newly appointed team, where they discussed many things with Pat and were inspired as they begin their leadership and pupil voice journeys.

The children have also been busy organising events such as our Christmas Jumper Day and Children in Need Bake Sale, where they raised an amazing total of £350! We are extremely proud of our children and very grateful to their families and their generosity.

We have also had many exciting successes as part of our E3L curriculum, including time travelling back to the Victorian Age, a visit to The Black Country History Museum, investigating artefacts from the Stone Age and celebrating some wonderful artworks produced by the older children in their very own Art Gallery Showcase, which was shared with families.

Another area of curriculum success has been in reading, where many of our children have showcased a real love and engagement with books, where pupils have been awarded prizes and gifts as well as being invited to Wallbrook’s Cosy Reading at Christmas event.

School has not long resumed and already we have been seeing an amazing range of success and achievements among our students here at Shireland! Our Sports department has seen a very successful term, where our Under 14’s basketball team did our school proud as they played against Twycross in the Dynamic National League and came out winning the game with a score of 24-8, making an amazing start in the Nationals!Although our Shireland A Team just missed out on a top 2 finish to progress at the Under 16’s Basketball Tournament, Shireland Team B topped the group to win the finals with an impressive 5-0 win. Coming out on top against twelve other schools from Sandwell in the 3v3!

Shireland’s Year 10 Under 15’s team have also seen winning success in the 3v3 tournament, where they came out winning all six games to take the gold! Our Under 16’s ladies netball team finished in silver medal position in the Sandwell Tournament.

Congratulations to all of our teams who represented us so well and for their continuous dedication to training.

We also celebrate our Year 12 Further Maths students for their brilliant performance in the UK Senior Maths Challenge. Well done to Abdullahi, Yousuf, Ali and Michail who ranked in the top 11% in the country and have been invited to enter the next round of the competition.

Shireland Collegiate Academy is also delighted to announce that this year the Academy will be working towards achieving the Optimus SEND inclusion Award. The award framework helps schools deliver high-quality education for pupils with SEND, ensuring compliance with the SEND Code of Practice and focuses on removing barriers to learning through early identification, inclusive teaching and leadership.

As part of their Focus Days, students from our Year 10 group visited Birmingham City Centre to explore the different sectors available in the city! They had the opportunity to explore the labour market and find more information about which industries currently offered the most job potential in the local areas. Our Year 7s and 9s also explored the German Market, where they had the opportunity to experience traditions from other countries while also trying some of the food and drink on offer as part of their Key Stage 3 course.

We also had some marvellous performances from our Dance, Drama and Music groups this term including a Carol Service at Christ Church, where all money raised went towards repairs for the church and productions of ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Tinsel and Tiaras’. We also held a fantastic family Christmas craft evening filled with a range of fun activities, raffles, food and drink followed by some festive carols. A wonderful evening was had by all while raising money for charity.

We are also proud to announce that Thorns Collegiate Academy is now a Music Mark School, which is committed to ensuring the provision and accessibility of high-quality musical education for all our students, with the vision to enrich and inspire their learning.

It has been a busy half term at WBCA, with many exciting projects and events taking place. One of which being preparations for our Theatre School’s production of ‘A Christmas Carol’, where students have been devising their retelling of this classic tale since September, using extracts from the book and main plot points to direct their production. It has truly been a collaborative project between WBCA and the Birmingham Hippodrome, where our Learning Artist, Mr Ward, has been helping us make an excellent start to this piece of drama. A huge well done to all our students, who have showed excellent performances.

Over the last 12 months we have also been developing our Academy’s world class manufacturing systems. Our Design Technology department has reached yet another milestone as our long-awaited industrial 3D printers have been installed, adding the final elements to our CnC rapid prototyping room! These are the same specification machines which are used in universities for research and in the medial, aviation and automotive industries. But more importantly, this also gives our students access to the very best of cutting-edge industrial technologies. With huge thanks to the Art Department, we are also on the final stages of our outstanding projects from last term, where our aim is to construct a working arcade machine for our new GCSE Digital Technology students to upload and test their programs and coding.

SBU was very proud to see student Grace, 17, give a talk at the NHS Fundamentals of Care event. Grace, who is currently studying Applied Science and Health and Social Care, is also a sessional worker for Sandwell Parents for Disabled Children outside of her academic studies, where she supports events for children with a range of disabilities. Grace is a young carer for her younger brother and strongly believes in advocating for young people with both physical, mental and learning disabilities to ensure that they have the same access and rights to health and social care.

On 22nd September, Grace was invited to attend the Fundamentals of Care event held at The Hawthorns, which is hosted and attended by over 300 NHS professionals. During this event, Grace spoke publicly about her family and the commitment she has to improving the quality of care that young people have as well as raising awareness of the role that young carers can play. She firmly believes that schools need to do more to support young carers as they navigate new challenges in their studies and family lives.

Following this event, Grace will now become a Sandwell NHS Youth Forum Member.

“I am really excited to be working alongside the NHS to become an advocate for young people and young carers in the area” says Grace, “I have already arranged to have a guided tour of the midwifery unit at Sandwell & West Birmingham Hospital and my next steps will be to apply to become a Sandwell NHS Youth Forum Ambassador. I am also grateful to the Shireland Collegiate Academy Trust, specifically Shireland Biomedical UTC, for giving me the opportunity to study here as well as taking the time to recognise me as a young carer and supporting me on my journey to becoming a midwife.”

At First Steps, our Babies and Toddlers group have been creating their own playdough hedgehogs using a collection of sticks, leaves and other natural materials. They have also been using lollipop sticks to create their own stickmen inspired by the popular children’s story ‘Stick Man’ and walking around school to see if they could find the real Stick Man himself. They have also been experimenting with mark making using turnips to create fabulous art pieces inspired by ‘The Enormous Turnip’ storybook and explored a wide variety of smells using their senses including cinnamon, apple and vanilla. Our Babies and Toddlers have also enjoyed their small world farm, where they have been exploring and finding out about different animals and what sounds they make.

Our Pre-School group have been looking at scarecrows this term and have been creating their own using straw, old cloths and cardboard cut-outs, which the children also contributed to making themselves. We have also been exploring animal homes and natural environments, where we also discussed hibernation during group time discussions.

Our role play room has been turned into a harvest patch, which our children have collected and explored using their senses of smell, taste and texture. We have even been emptying pumpkin seeds and filling bottles to create our very own musical instruments. We have also been on a very exciting bear hunt journey around school, where we have been exploring puddles, mud and even using propositional language with obstacles!

“We can’t go over it. We can’t go under it. Oh no! We’ve got to go through it!”

At Tinywoods, the children have been proudly practising for their Christmas concert, which they performed especially for their parents at the end of term! They have been amazing, and we are so proud of our stars. During term, we have also been discovering fun facts about knights, princesses and dragons, where we even dressed up for the day and took part in a range of activities including looking for hidden treasure and making sparkly crowns.

We also say goodbye to Mrs Farnell this term and wish her well and all the very best in her retirement. Mrs Farnell has been with Tinywoods for many years and will be sorely missed. Rather than a leavers collection, she has requested that we collect items for the local foodbank which she took on her last day. Thank you so much to everyone for their contributions.