Ercall Wood Academy

On Thursday 27th June, The Shropshire Golf Centre hosted our Year 11’s Leavers Prom. A wonderful night was had as students dressed to impress and celebrate their time together at Ercall Wood Academy!

Macey, in 7 Adstone, has created a fantastic poster advertising her services as a witchfinder! She has included all of the historical NICe detail that she, and the rest of Year 7, have been learning about regarding how people used to hunt witches.

Of course, we know that this was really a social problem rather than the invasion of Satan!

Our year 10 Dancers have had a very busy week performing at The Black Country Dance Festival and also HLC’S Dance Fest at Shrewsbury Theatre. It has been amazing to watch them perform in two professional venue. They performed so professionally and were such a credit to our school. Well done year 10!

On Wednesday 26th June, it was Ercall Wood Academy’s turn to host the annual Learning Community Trust Head-to-Head. The event included football, basketball, rugby and netball with teams from Burton Borough, HLC, Charlton and TPS all competing.

It was an incredible day with all students and staff from the various schools playing their part in a competitive day of games.

Special mentions to the Year 9/10 Girls Football Team who became Trust champions after winning every game they played! Other stand-out performers were the Year 7/8 Boys Football Team who finished joint-first but agonisingly lost out by a single goal!

Year 7 students have been busy preparing for the end of year assessments. Daniel has been using Educake to complete revision tasks and has improved his score to 81%!

Meanwhile, Raahil achieved 100% on his end of topic test on atoms, elements and compounds.

Well done, boys!

This weekend, the 2024 Duke of Edinburgh group successfully completed the expedition section of their Bronze Award in Church Stretton.

Students were tasked with planning and navigating a route, setting up their tents and preparing a hot meal using the stove.

The students demonstrated great teamwork, resilience and spirit. Well done, all!

A group of year 9 Art students took part in an afternoon of Glass Fusing with visiting artists Jemma and Steve from The Arty Space, Bridgnorth. David and Amanda, (Chairman and Vice Chairman) from The Arts Society, Wrekin joined us as they have generously facilitated our workshop.

Students built upon their nature-based Art project, to create a glass tile each, by fusing frit and pieces of glass to form their design. The individual pieces have gone back to the studio to be fired, to complete the glass fusion process.

On Wednesday 19th June, a selection of Key Stage 3 students attended the Big Bang Science Fair at the NEC Arena in Birmingham. The event had an array of companies promoting their STEM work giving students the opportunity to observe, touch and try a range of activities. Students were also able to discuss potential career opportunities in the world of Science.

Ercall Wood Academy is now a successful member of the Children’s Book Project and on their Map! This means book donations can be made thick and fast.

Please use the QR code to donate books for our upcoming school library!

Year 10 Art and Photography students visited Shrewsbury College to watch their 1st and 2nd year students’ Fashion Show & to see the end of year exhibitions across the Arts specialisms.

Thank you to the college for facilitating our trip to broaden KS4 horizons and opportunities.

Year 10 are currently studying the topic of Geometry. In particular, students have been applying their knowledge of arcs and sectors, extending their understanding of volume of 3D shapes to irregular prisms and using what they had learned on angles on parallel lines to be able to apply those skills to bearings.

This term, Year 9 Students have been studying the topic of ‘Dystopia’. The main text for our study has been George Orwell’s seminal novel ‘Animal Farm’.

Below, you can see an excellent analysis of Orwell’s exploration of violence within the text. Students are now studying an array of extracts from modern dystopian novels and poems.

On Saturday 8th June, a team of Year 9 and 10 students competed in the National Handball competition in Nottingham, having qualified as County and Regional champions.

The team played brilliantly and represented the academy impeccably, reaching the final only to lose a thrilling encounter to reigning national champions, West Bridgford School (12-7).

It’s a huge achievement for the boys, especially those who had never played the game prior to the county round of the competition.

The Year 8 Netball team, along with Year 11 Sports Prefects Ella and Daisy, went on a trip to Worcester University to watch the Severn Stars Netball Team beat the Saracens Mavericks to go into the play-offs. The girls got VIP seats and a number of them met and got autographs from the players!

At the end of last term our KS3 dancers attended Walsall Academy’s Celebration of Dance event and were absolutely amazing!

Their professional attitude, teamwork and outstanding performance made us very proud. It was lovely to take part in such an inclusive event and see many different schools perform their pieces. Everyone was so supportive, and it was such a lovely event to be part of!

Well done KS3 Dancers, and thank you for representing Ercall Wood Academy Dance.

During Week, our students had the opportunity to take part in a range of mindfulness activities at break and lunchtime and to drop in to our Nurture Room at the end of the day to ask for help, advice and guidance.

It was great to see so many students engaging positively with this range of activities and taking some time for their own well-being.

As part of the ‘Make Your Move’ campaign for Mental Health Awareness Week, Ercall Wood Academy travelled 1269 miles – the same distance it would take to get from the Academy to Rome! In PE lessons our winners were Yr.9 who reached 258 miles, followed by Yr.8 in 2nd with 253 miles and Yr.7 in 3rd with 238 miles.

The tutor group that walked the furthest was 9B who walked a total of 23 miles during their morning walk on Thursday.

Thank you to everyone for their support last week in this challenge; students were really positive and they enjoyed walking and talking to take care of their mental well-being.

79 of our Yr.8 students went on a residential trip to Arthog last week. They took part in activities such as rock and hill climbing, abseiling, canoeing and gorge walking. Throughout the challenging tests, students showed great teamwork by encouraging and supporting each other.

Back at the centre, students were also given responsibility for keeping their dorms clean and tidy as well as helping to prepare for meal-times. Students have continued to build strong relationships with friends and formed new friendships. Well done Yr.8, we are proud of you!

We will be hosting a range of activities this week to support the ‘Make Your Move’ campaign for Mental Health Awareness Week!

Our students will have the opportunity to get involved with:

- Mindfulness activities at break and lunchtime led by Mrs Pool, our Family Liaison Officer
- Drop-in sessions after school in our Nurture Room 3-4pm
- Accumulate laps of our school track to see how far around the world we can get

At Ercall Wood Academy we’re proud to support the Mental Health Foundation this Mental Health Awareness Week – 13 to 19 May. This year’s theme is movement: moving more for our mental health. Get involved by finding and sharing your moments for movement this Mental Health Awareness Week.

Find out more: mentalhealth.org.uk/mhaw

Year 11 had their last assembly this week in which they were reminded of their amazing journey through Ercall Wood Academy so far.

Students were given a goody bag filled with good luck messages from staff as well as revision aids, flashcards and highlighter pens to give them one final push as they enter GCSE exam season.

Good luck, Year 11, we believe in you!

Our Yr.9 Charity Day will take place on Tuesday 21st May to raise money for Cancer Research and Hope House! We cannot wait to see how much money our Yr.9 students can raise for these wonderful charities.

In this week’s assembly, we are exploring how our senses link us with our world and what happens if we have sensory diversity.

We’ll also look at effects and causes of visual and hearing impairment. Raising awareness ahead of the National Deaf Awareness Week (6th to the 12th of May) by looking at supportive methods of communication including some finger signing.

Year 11 OCR students are currently revising hard for their R184 Contemporary Issues in Sport exam.

Students have currently covered a variety of topic areas including: factors impacting the participation in sport, how sport promotes values, the implications of hosting major sporting events, the role of national governing bodies, and finally the use of technology in sport.

Ercall Wood Academy are extremely proud to share Harrison’s (Y9) first published book ‘Our Natural World’. Harrison has worked on the book passionately, which enables readers to understand the natural world around them, as well as discussing serious issues such as coral bleaching, agricultural deforestation, illegal poaching and global warming.

Harrison’s books is available to purchase on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3Uuk1RU

Well done, Harrison!

What a turn out for Options Evening!

We were delighted to see so many of our families at Options Evening, supporting their young people on the next stage of their journey up Aspiration Mountain 🏔️

We cannot wait to see how well our students go on to do in their chosen subjects 🧑‍🎓👨‍🎓

Our Yr.10 GCSE Art students visited The New Art Gallery, Walsall to see ‘The World That Belongs to Us’ exhibition and take part in a practical, artist-led workshop. Thank you to Arts Connect who facilitated our trip!

Students saw first-hand the work of Chila Kumari Singh Burman, whom since the mid-1980s has been exploring the experiences and aesthetics of Asian femininity in her paintings, installations, photography, and film. In her more recent works, this theme has taken on a new power and vibrancy.

Burman’s work is informed by popular culture, Bollywood, fashion, found objects, femininity and self-portraiture.

After visiting the exhibition, students are now developing their own personal responses, drawing upon their own lived experiences, heritage, thoughts and feelings surrounding their identity.

KS4 students Harry and Charlotte have been working on some exam style questions and produced some amazing work in Ethics!