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.

Year 2 were race day ready at Silverstone museum on Wednesday. We all had an amazing time – from learning the history of racing and drivers, to trying on race suits, learning information, handling pieces of car, to walking around the exhibition and on a real life race track! Finally finishing with an immersive cinema experience, where we were actually driving cars and racing each other. In the words of our children, “It’s been the best day ever!”

For more pictures from the day, please race over to 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:

Ruben-Blake - 1RW

Aria - 1JC

Amelia - 2HS

Amelia - 2SG

Presley - 3MC

Lucas - 3NW

Adam - 4BB

Aazil - 4HA

Lacey - 5LH

Edward - 5KG

Olly - 6ES

Hazel - 6LB

Jaelen - 6ST

Book Look Winner - Cairo-Thierry - 3MC

Attendance Hero - Zack - 5LH

As we enter into the festive period, please see a summary of key dates for pupils at Smith's Wood Primary Academy.  Individual letters will follow regarding each event that will provide more information. However, we wanted to share the dates in advance with you so that you are aware and can make any relevant plans.

Thursday 28^th November - Winterland Christmas Discos (Rec & KS1 - 3.20pm-4.20pm.  KS2 - 4.30pm - 5.30pm)

Thursday 5^th December  - Reception Nativity performances (9.15am & 2.15pm)

Tuesday 10^th December - Christmas Dinner and Christmas Jumper day

Wednesday 11^th December - Nursery Nativity performance (10.50am)

Thursday 12^th December - Year 1 & 2 Carol Concert performances (9.15am & 2.30pm)

Tuesday 17^th December - Year 3 & 4 Carol Concert performances (9.15am & 2.30pm)

Thursday 19th December  - Year 5 & 6 Carol Concert performances (9.15am & 2.30pm)

Friday 20^th December - End of term party

Someone better tell Max Verstappen to watch out, Year 6 are gaining!

Yesterday, our very own Year 6 future speedsters were treated to a day of fun activities for the 'Kids in Motorsports' day at Solihull Moors FC.

The children had the unique opportunity to learn vital resuscitation skills from the Extreme E/FIA race doctor, gaining hands-on life experience.

Never one to shy away from a camera, our year 6s honed their media skills under the guidance of a professional TV presenter, practising how to interview and present confidently.

Expert tutoring and thrilling races were on display in the racing simulators, with many of our youngest racers posting lap times  that would make George Russell proud!

Next, it was on to our sustainability talk where children were able to put their immense knowledge of climate action in practice identifying eco-friendly ways that everyone can help the planet!

Lewis Hamilton himself couldn't have predicted the super-human display our children put on during the Batak challenge, showing some excellent teamwork. Our students were able to top the leaderboard and prove their reaction speed is second to none!

Year 6 had a fantastic day and they thoroughly enjoyed honing their skills! A big thank you to E.ON and Veloce for hosting this event!

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

Year 5 and 6 were in for a treat last week when they were visited by Team GB boxer Elise Glynn and her Dad/Coach. They had the chance to hear about Elise’s journey as a boxer, as well as look at some of her winning belts and medals. Next it was time for the children to put on the gloves and head guards and take to the ring where they shone! What a great opportunity for Smith’s Wood pupils. 

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