Last term, eight St Edmund’s gymnasts travelled up to Fenton Manor Sports Complex to compete in the West Midlands Floor & Vault Competition.

This year there were 10 teams that entered the competition and the standard of gymnastics was very high.

Joshua Dodd-Matthews competed first in the U14 section and he did not let his nerves phase him at all as he pulled out two amazing performances on the floor and vault. This was his first West Midlands competition and he was fabulous; a coach from another school even commented on how well he had performed.

St Edmund’s team competed on the floor first and they did so with style, precision and lots of extension. Rebecca Butler scored the highest on the floor with 14.15 out of 16.0.

In the vault section all St Edmund’s gymnasts nailed their landings and again scored well, Lisa Spratt scoring 14.9 and Christina Clifton 14.7.  Amber-Leigh Nicholls performed in the individual section and did exceptionally well too.

We were very proud of everyone and to find out that we came 4^th out of 10 teams was very pleasing.

We would like to thank all the gymnasts for their hard work both during the competition and during their many late night training sessions.  It has all paid off!

For Years 7, 8 & 9 there is a Reading Challenge competition. Collect stickers for every time you borrow a book and there will be prizes for the winners!

There will be a FREE Careers Event on Saturday 27 February 2016, (tomorrow)) at the NEC Birmingham. We encourage all Years 10,11 & 12 students to attend as it will be a great opportunity to meet some of the UK’s leading employers & Universities helping to map out your future!

On Monday afternoon, to mark the year of the monkey – the Catering team at St Edmund’s Catholic Academy held a Chinese themed lunch for pupils and students, in aid of celebrating Chinese New Year.

On the menu was, egg fried rice, vegetarian stir fry, Thai fish green curry and of course the traditional sweet and sour chicken.

Bunting depicting the Chinese flag was draped across the dining hall and everyone really got into the spirit of celebrating the Chinese culture.

Wendy Hall, Catering Team Leader said:

“Last year we gave students a taste of the Caribbean to celebrate Black History Month and this year we wanted to give students an authentic taste of Asia. We really embrace different cultures here at St Edmund’s and we want students to try all different kinds of foods from around the world.”

The Way Youth Zone is a newly opened £6 million facility built for young people in Wolverhampton on School Street.

The Way Youth Zone has 20 action-packed activities every evening, 7 days a week for all young people, regardless of ability or disability. The Way has a high spec music room with a

recording studio, a 3G pitch (the same type of pitch the England Football team train on),enterprise media suite, climbing wall, four court sports hall, cafe, dance studio, gym, cooking area, recreation area and loads more.

The Way has split young people into two clubs; Junior Club for young people between the ages of 8-12 years or Senior Club for young people 13-19 years. Basically, Junior Club is usually 4-9pm on Tuesday & Thursday and 10-2pm on Saturday. Senior Club is usually 4-10pm on Monday, Wednesday, Friday & Saturday and 4-9pm on Sunday.

It costs a young person just £5 for an annual membership and then 50p every time they visit. A young person can do as much or as little as they want when they visit.

Find out more and sign up go to:

www.thewayyouthzone.org.

There are also on social media:

www.twitter.com/thewayyouthzone

www.facebook.com/thewayyouthzone

All photographs are copyright of David Hamilton – Express & Star.

Year 9 pupils have had the privilege of being taught by Mr Numbervator this term, as he visited us to share his passion for Maths.

Mr Numbervator is a remarkable character utterly dedicated to getting the essential skills and concepts of Maths across to the younger generation in an imaginative, action packed, challenging fun way which extends children’s thinking.

He also writes and presents maths programmes on BBC 1 and Teachers TV. All of the pupils thoroughly enjoyed it and it was refreshing to explore new ways of teaching maths.

Kyle Hand, 9HM said: “I have learnt many things from Mr Numbervator, but the thing that got me was the ordering of numbers into the correct order and turning them into decimals. I would recommend him to other pupils because I had a really good time and lots of other pupils can learn a lot from him – heads up on the info, it really helped me and will probably help me in my GCSE work.”

On Friday 29th January, St Edmund’s Catholic Academy performed in the Georgian Room at Wolverhampton Art Gallery.

Their lunchtime concert was a big success and showcased excellent performances from Jenny Aston (violin), Lysia Bayley (clarinet), Jessica Bradley (tenor saxophone), Isobel Casey (flute), James Hever (tuba) and Tracie-Ann Price (alto saxophone).

They played a wide range of classical and jazz style pieces which was very well received by staff, media and the public.

Mr Bard, Curriculum Leader of Performing Arts said: “Following this success, In the next few months we will most definitely be arranging more concerts to showcase the excellent talent which the Academy has to offer.”

You may remember that a number of our enthusiastic Sixth Form students braved the cold weather last year and took part in the ‘Sleep Easy’ campaign, where they slept in a cardboard box overnight. Their aim was to raise money to help in changing the lives of young homeless people in the Black Country.

Well this year they are doing it again but hope to raise even more funds!

On Wednesday 20th January, Beverley and her colleague from the YMCA came into school to do a talk to our Year 12 & 13 students to encourage them to take part in the campaign.

They spoke of how the YMCA makes such a huge difference to young homeless people’s lives and how being homeless can happen to absolutely anyone.

She also told students that Theo Johnson, who is a young upcoming actor from Birmingham will be coming along to St Edmund’s on the night to join in with the community spirit!

Theo has starred in a number of programmes including; Channel 4 Raised by Wolves, BBC Doctors, Crimewatch and has also had a music career.
So if you are in Years 12 or 13 and would like to get involved then speak to Tyrell Bajoma or Christina Montana in the Sixth Form.

St Edmund’s Sleep Easy will be taking place on 11th March
6am-6pm in the Academy courtyard.
Come and join us!

On Friday the 22nd January St Edmund’s Catholic Academy was delighted to receive a visit from Archbishop Bernard Longley.

We are the first school in Wolverhampton to celebrate Mass with Archbishop Longley within the ‘Year of the Mercy’. He spoke of many things during his Homily and reminded those present that in life there are many doors that lead to opportunities, one being the door to the Academy Chapel, which would always be open for them.

Archbishop Bernard Longley commented: “I want to thank everyone involved for making this Mass a very special one. The choir sang splendidly and were very uplifting.”

After the Mass 34 students, 1 class representative from every tutor group, together with some visitors, made their way to our new Chapel where Archbishop Longley blessed the Chapel and the students.

After the blessing of the Chapel, Archbishop Longley kindly had his photographs taken with some of the students, a few of the students took ‘selfie’s’ and he also signed some of the students’ Mass booklets.

He then had lunch with Principal, Mrs Hughes and guests in the boardroom.

Lay Chaplain, Deb Ferris of St Edmund’s said: “It was a great day, emotional and enjoyed by all the community. We feel very blessed, our Academy is now complete.”

You can read Archbishop Bernard Longley’s Letter of thanks by clicking the link ‘Letter of thanks’ below.

Letter of thanks