This Week in the Academy - 22nd May 2026 | King Edward VI Handsworth Wood Girls' Academy

Welcome to the academies weekly newsletter, rounding up the events of the past week and keeping you informed of coming events and information to support you and your daughter in school and beyond.

This week we have:

Thank You for a Wonderful Half-Term
HPL Top Tips – Being Enquiring
What Parents and Educators Need to Know about Minecraft

We hope you enjoy reading this weeks news!

Thank You for a Wonderful Half-Term

As we come to the end of another busy and rewarding half-term, we would like to take a moment to say a heartfelt thank you to all our parents and carers for your continued support. Your encouragement at home and partnership with us at school make a real difference to the children’s learning and wellbeing.

We are incredibly proud of everything the students have achieved this term, and it has been wonderful to see their enthusiasm, resilience and progress across all areas of school life.

We are already looking ahead to next term, which promises to be full of exciting opportunities, including reward trips, sports days and many other enjoyable events for the students to take part in.

In the meantime, we hope you all enjoy a well-deserved half-term break. Make the most of the sunshine, spend time together, and we look forward to welcoming everyone back refreshed and ready for another fantastic term.

Thank you once again for your ongoing support.

HPL Top Tips - Being Enquiring

✓ Model being enquiring yourself, ask a lot of questions.

✓ Encourage your child to ask questions.

✓ Encourage your child’s curiosity. Consider asking your child to become an ‘expert’ in a specific thing and tell you all about it. It may be something they are already interested in or something new. This encourages them to be independent in their research – perhaps they could present it to you.

✓ Encourage interests that model total concentration e.g., making friendship bracelets, doing a quiz, or playing chess. How about choosing a new interest to you and your child/ren. Something that you are both interested in but don’t know a great deal about. Complete a joint project and finish it with a related event e.g., finding out more about film making and having a movie night.

What Parents and Educators Need to Know about Minecraft

Minecraft remains hugely popular with young players, offering creative freedom and social interaction. This guide explores how features like public servers, in-game chat and multiplayer modes can introduce risks, including contact with strangers, exposure to inappropriate behaviour and privacy concerns linked to independent server hosting.

It also highlights issues such as griefing, in-game spending and potentially addictive gameplay loops. With clear, actionable advice, the guide helps parents and educators set boundaries, choose safer settings and support children in enjoying Minecraft responsibly while staying protected online.