Solihull Moors Football Club played host on Wednesday 20^th November 2024 to E.ON Next’s Kids In Motorsport day in partnership with E.ON Next Veloce Racing. 71 lucky primary-age schoolchildren from the Solihull area, were treated to an eye-opening array of activities centred around the world of energy, racing and football, all tied together by an exciting motorsport theme.

To see the video from the day, please vitis our YouTube channel here

After a warm welcome by SKY Kids FYI’s, Scarlett Archer and motorsport presenter, Amber Jones, the children all aged between 9 and 11-years-old and from Tudor Grange, Smiths Wood, and the Heights Primary Schools, headed out onto the Solihull Moors Football Club to be put through their paces with an invigorating warm up by Head Coach, Andy Whing.

Exhilarated and raring to go, the children then went back inside the SMFC clubhouse to take part in seven ‘skill stations’ which were all staffed by motorsport and STEM experts in their individual fields. These included:

• Sim Racing: The Year 5 and 6’s were given the chance to go head to head in Formula 1 races in full size racing simulators. The team from E.ON Next Veloce Racing were on hand to give guidance and help improve lap times. After this, they got to take on a full-size Batak machine which professional racing drivers use to test and enhance their reaction time.
• Experienced paramedic, Gerry Windett explained the crucial responsibilities of the medical team over a race weekend and then gave the children lessons in essential first aid including wound dressing and life-saving CPR.
• Next came media and presentation skills with Sky Kids FYI’s Scarlett Archer and motorsport presenter Amber Jones. These were focused on building confidence with public speaking as well as explaining the media’s role within the sports industry.
• Focusing on the more technical side of motorsport, the children went onto build, code and race LEGO model cars with specialist STEM experts Enovation Consulting. This was then followed by a graphic design challenge where the children designed their own E.ON Next Veloce Racing race car livery. The winning design will now be framed and signed by Veloce Driver, Kevin Hansen before being sent back to the lucky winner.

And that’s not all.. to add a further thrill to an already action-packed day, Solihull Moors Football Club’s 1st Team players Jamey Osborne (captain) and teammate Conor Wilkinson also dropped in to sign autographs for the delighted schoolchildren and staff. Conor and Jamey also held a Q&A to share with their eager audience, what it takes to be a high-performance athlete, and shared hints and tips about diet and exercise.

Miss Shields said: “It’s a huge privilege for the children to come to an event like this today to get them outside their normal learning environment. Showing the children how many roles are available in motorsport is huge for them as well as seeing how energy and sustainability play a role in the industry. They’ll be able to take a lot of these learnings home with them to use in everyday life.”  

Millie Betteridge, Future Leaders Degree Apprentice at E.ON, added: “It’s amazing to be part of an event aiming to inspire young people, celebrating STEM subjects and showing students how we can use them in jobs each day. At E.ON we are prioritising supporting young people’s development through events such as these, alongside our New Energy Academy programme which will focus on teaching students the importance of STEM subjects and the opportunities for young people and our communities in the UK taking a leading role in the energy transition.”

To find out more about the partnership between E.ON and E.ON Next Veloce Racing, visit eonenergy.com/eon-x-veloce.

Our overall attendance this week was 95.6%

Last night, the houses of Smith's Wood were green with envy as Hulk house took centre stage for their very own Deal or No Deal competition. The crowd was electric as Lilly-Rose made it to the hot seat for a chance to win 1000 house points!

Despite a rather rocky start, some fantastic teamwork and brilliant advice helped Hulk house bring home a grand total of 100 house points!

Well done to Lilly-Rose and the rest of Hulk house!

For more pictures  from the night, please see our gallery.

Each week, during our Friday Achievement assembly, we celebrate our ‘Pupils of the Week’ from each year group. Pupils are recognised for this weekly award for a variety of reasons and are nominated by their class teacher. They may have excelled in a particular subject through the week; may have shown one, or more, of the school values in abundance, or they may have impressed their teacher, or other staff members with a huge amount of effort. Whatever they are nominated for, they are recognised in the whole school achievement assembly, receive a certificate to take home and get to wear one of our prestigious black and gold t-shirts. 
During the assembly, we also celebrate children who have 100% attendance for the week and have been in school every day on time. A lucky dip, of all children who are eligible takes place, and one pupil walks away with £5 to spend on whatever they want, Standards and presentation of a child’s book, chosen at random, are also reviewed and celebrated with the school and the child, whose book has been chosen, has the chance to win a dip out of the basket of goodies, as long as they have used their best handwriting every day, completed their feed forward marking and taken care in the presentation of their date and learning objective. We are extremely proud of all of the efforts of our pupils and the Friday Achievement assembly recognises this pride. 

Our weekly winners this week are:

Riley - 1RW

Feranmi - 1JC

Martha - 2HS

Olivia - 2SG

Lana - 3MC

Amelia - 3NW

Alannah - 4BB

Toby - 4HA

Kaley - 5LH

Elijah - 5KG

Ricardo - 6ES

Millie - 6LB

Kacie - 6ST

Book Look Winner - Maizie - 5LH

Attendance Hero - T'Varni - 6ST

Last night, responsibility for the Spider house fell upon the shoulders of year 5's T’Zyah. Playing for a grand total of 1000 house points, T’Zyah rallied the members of Spider house behind him to compete in the 1st round of the Deal or no Deal House Competition. After a rocky start, great teamwork and fantastic advice spurred on Spider house and renewed their resolve to beat the banker. Spider House's determination shone through as they battled the odds, winning them the first victory in the competition with a staggering 170 house points!

For more pictures, please see our gallery.

Last week, our best sailors took centre stage at the North Solihull rowing championships. For one evening only, this prestigious regatta became home to North Solihull’s finest mariners. After months of hard work and gruelling training, our magnificent athletes put everything on the line in pursuit of silverware! For the 2nd competition in a row, personal bests were blown to smithereens across the board. In true sporting fashion, sadly, heartbreak was not far away as our courageous girls’ team fell narrowly (2M) short of a bronze medal. We are immensely proud of their performance and dedication. Our boys' team utilised superhuman levels of endurance to produce a master-class in technical and powerful rowing, securing them a well-deserved gold medal and will go on to represent the entire borough at the school games in 2025.

We are immensely proud of all our teams who represented our school with such distinction.