We now have 84% of St Edmunds’ parents registered for Parent Pay which allows payments to be made online and over the phone for school meals and trips.

Letters containing log on details will be sent out this week to those remaining.  Please register your account  as soon as possible to allow payments to be made straight away.

Our Year 7 Basketball Team took part in the Junior National Basketball Association Competition on Friday 16 February at Highfields School.  A free kit was provided to each of our students by the organisers and St Edmund’s were drawn out as ‘The New York Knicks’.

Students Dainius Grigonis, Eimantas Simaitis, Kurt Capuno, Harold Wilcox, Gabio Pothen, Rawzweyl Magtibay, Christian Ohiaer Okorie and Roy Aneke all did a fantastic job representing the academy.

Mr Selvey, Head of Year 9 and Teacher of PE, said, “A DVD was also made on the day so watch this space”.

Well done to our Basketball Team.

On Thursday 1st March a number of pupils from St Edmunds Catholic Academy, along with 17 other schools in the diocese, travelled in snowy conditions to St Mary’s, College, Oscott in Sutton Coldfield to share a day ‘listening and learning’.  Also for the young people to voice their views on a variety of social contexts.

Pope Francis has dedicated the 15^th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops to the theme of young people, the Faith and Vocational Discernment. It will be held in Rome in October 2018.

“The theme represents an expression of the pastoral care for the young. The Church has decided to examine herself on how she can lead young people to recognise and accept the call to the fullness of life and love and to ask young people to help her identifying the most effect ways to announce the Good News today”

The event gave our young people the opportunity to speak and share their voice, by answering a variety of questions with the headings:

Who am I?

My views on the World

My Response to Struggles and Suffering.

Unfortunately, Archbishop Bernard was unable to join us but we were blessed by presence of the Vicar General Fr Tim Menzies and Jimmy Mitchell. Jimmy had travelled from America via Spain to be with us and share his thoughts and experiences of when he had seen and experienced the joy of the Lord in his life.

Our students loved the Chapel.

Jimmy and a team of young Leaders will be visiting our school to take the views of another 30 students on the 15^th March.

Anyone from the age of 16-29 are invited to ENGAGE AND SHARE THEIR VIEWS ON Saturday 24^th March 10am-4pm at Saint Mary’s College, Oscott, B73 5AA

Wolverhampton City Council are calling on creative youngsters to put on their creative hats to design a poster to encourage dog owners to clean up after their dogs. Ideas will help in their  ongoing campaign to clean up the city.

The winner will be chosen by the Mayor of Wolverhampton and win tickets to see David Walliams’ Awful Auntie live on stage at the Grand Theatre.

Entries need to be sent to the council’s communications team by 30 March. For more information please contact Danielle.Taylor@wolverhampton.gov.uk

St Edmund’s Catholic Academy is closed today (Friday 2nd March) due to adverse weather conditions.

School children from across the Wolverhampton area were given the chance to take part in their very own version of the bake-off, thanks to local baker Laura Nolan, owner of The Nuthouse Bakery.  The interschool “bake-off” event, intended to encourage young people to take an interest in baking, gave local schools the chance to put forward two students from Year 9, for a total of 10 contestants.

The contestants were given around two hours to bake and decorate an Easter themed cake, and were judged by a panel based not only on the look and taste of their finished cake but also on observations as they worked, watching to see how tidy they kept their cooking stations for example. Other schools participating included Aldersley High, Highfields, S. Peters, and South Wolverhampton & Bilston Academy.

All 10 contestants received a “goodie bag” of prizes thanks to a number of companies, including Cake Masters Magazine, CDA Products, Katie Sue Designs and Renshaw, as well as aprons courtesy of The Nuthouse Bakery who sponsored the event.

The winning contestant, was from S. Peter’s School. Lara Young came 4th, representing our school with James Edobor producing an excellent entry.

This is the third such event, and again the competition saw excellent participation and a very high standard of entry.

We really appreciated the knowledge shared by our sponsors and the time that was spent sourcing prizes and the provision of equipment and ingredients for the cupcake workshop.

What a fabulous afternoon!

Mrs. Bates – Teacher of Food Technology

Mrs. Sehera.- Technology Technician

This half term saw the official launch of the academy’s ‘CARE Award’, which aims to recognise students who make a special contribution to the wider life and ethos of the school.

The Award is modelled on the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme, and has progressively more challenging bronze, silver, gold and platinum versions that students will work through during Key Stages 3 and 4. Students are required to complete key tasks in four categories linked to the academy’s CARE values. The academy’s spiritual life, fundraising and extra-curricular activities are highlighted as key factors.

Mr Harris, who oversees the Award, commented ‘We have launched the Bronze version of the Award with Year 7 and also the Silver version with Year 8.  Many students have already completed work towards the Award and will continue to do so this month during our Lenten charity fundraising activities. The Award is not linked to academic ability or classroom merits or warnings, and is therefore open and accessible to everyone in the first instance. We encourage all students to work towards achieving the Award.”

It is anticipated that rewards for completing each stage of the Award will include: formal blazer badges, an honours board, an official Presentation Evening and subsidised educational trips. There are also longer term plans to roll the Award out across Bishop Cleary MAC’s primary schools.

We have two sessions available for use of our Sports Hall:

Tuesdays 7pm to 8pm

Fridays 6pm to 7pm

The cost per one hour session is £32. 

Back in November 2016 a group of year 8 students, involved in the St Edmund’s Debating Society, asked if it would be possible for St Edmund’s to be able to take part in the DebateMate Core Programme 2017/2018.

The aims of the programme are:

• to improve the speaking and listening attainment of students
• to enable them to develop soft skills such as leadership, teamwork and confidence
• to raise students’ aspirations and expectations through sustained contact with successful university students
• to engage young people with the world beyond the classroom, addressing issues that affect them, their communities and the wider world through an activity they enjoy

Students, Elizabeth Ochran-Dadzie and Naomi Ricci, were tasked with fundraising to support the cost of this event.  They worked closely with Mrs Knowles, PA to Principal, and donations were kindly received from:

Julien Kramer, Director of Education (at the time)

Braitch, Solicitors

Heathcotes Print and Design

St Edmund’s Academy Committee

Proceeds from the calendars produced by St Edmund’s in 2016 helped with the funding of this initiative.  The girls were full of enthusiasm to take part in the project, as were the other 30 students who signed up.  Thanks to financial support from St Edmund’s to make up the difference, St Edmund’s were able to sign up in July 2017 to take part in this initiative and are the only academy in the city to take part this year.

The programme commenced in September last year, under supervision of Mrs Evans, teacher of English, which will run for 14 weeks.

Our students are doing really well, winning 3 of the 4 debates at the first round of the Urban Debate League Competition on 29 January which took place at Shireland Collegiate Academy.  They will progress to round 2 on 5 March and there are further rounds to progress through if they get to this stage.

On 19 April our students will have the opportunity to compete in Birmingham to win a cup.  At the end of the programme our students will go on to run an active Debating Society based on what they have learnt.

We wish them good luck.