As we come to the end of another half term, we’re incredibly proud of our students—especially in how they continue to conduct themselves during the exam period. Their focus, resilience, and maturity have been a credit to the academy.

Equally impressive have been those students not sitting exams this year. They have shown such courtesy and support to their peers, creating an atmosphere of encouragement and community that has been wonderful to witness.

This week, you may have seen highlights from our Crown Masterclass, a fantastic session delivered by an external company focused on afro hair care, the history behind specific styles, and cultural significance. What made the session especially powerful was the way students from all backgrounds took part, embracing the learning and the spirit of inclusivity. Staff created beautiful goody bags filled with helpful products, and the whole event stood as a true testament to the sense of belonging we continue to foster across our academy.

As we approach the final stretch of the academic year, I’d like to remind all our students and families to take care over the break. While many will be busy revising—which is fantastic and exactly what’s needed—it’s also important to find time for rest, fresh air, and wellbeing. Wishing you all a restful and recharging break with your families.

We look forward to welcoming everyone back soon for the final chapter of the year!

Caring for Your Crown Workshop

This week, we had an incredible session at our “Caring for Your Crown” workshop that took place in the library! Our guest hair stylist shared invaluable tips and techniques on how to care for afro hair, including proper maintenance, styling techniques and the importance of using the right products at the right time. The students were engaged and excited as they learned about the unique needs of their hair. Session three covered all hair types, including European and Asian too.

The highlight of the day was the practical session. Students got hands-on experience with hair dolls, practicing various styling techniques on different hair textures. It was amazing to see their creativity and enthusiasm shine through!

Some amazing feedback from those in attendance with a 100% of students saying they would recommend this workshop to others. A big thank you to our guest stylist for their expertise and to all the students for their participation.

Miss Orton & Miss Gordon.

As part of a project about High Performance Learning I am undertaking this year, I asked a group of students in year 10 to give their views about the following things:

Discuss a situation where they may not have done as well in an assessment as they would have hoped but how the HPL ethos that failure in an assessment is merely a snapshot in time not an indicator of capability helped them to move on from this assessment and actually in the end helped them make more progress

Discuss how although language learning is not the easiest skill, they have embraced the challenge of language learning and that their use of ACPs and VAAs has helped them always strive for optimum performance which has resulted in them being entered for the higher tier in their year 10 finals exams.

How the ACPs and VAAs have helped improve their level of engagement in all of their lessons any why have these competencies helped them perform highly in their subjects.

The students involved were: Sidal Akgul 10M, Amelia Hoque 10M, Mahima Rahman 10P, Tahrema Afroz Amrein 10S and Inaya Azraa Khan 10S. They all gave their views confidently and showed off how much the HPL ethos in the academy has benefitted their learning journey here so far.

Listen to the Podcast here.

Absence disrupts the education of the individual pupil and the whole class. Are you aware those children who do not attend regularly:

• do not achieve well in exams
• find it difficult to maintain friendships
• are more likely to become involved in crime
• miss out on opportunities in further education and the world of work?

Please be advised that term-time holidays are very unlikely to be approved. If families ignore this the absence will be unauthorised and you will be at risk of receiving a £160 Fixed Penalty Notice per parent on your return.

Last term, 36 parents have received Penalty Notices for taking students on unauthorised leave in term time.

Please note that, Birmingham City Council strongly discourages pupil leave of absence during term time. The expectation is that such leave would only be authorised in the most exceptional circumstance.

Please ensure that leave is taken in the school holidays only.

Frequent absence can add up to a considerable amount of lost learning and can seriously disadvantage your child in adult life.

• 5 minutes late every day means around 3 ½ days of education are missed
• a score of 90% in a test would be a good result but 90% attendance means that a child
• will have missed around 100 lessons over a school year.

The majority of our students are on time to school every day. Thank you for your ongoing support in ensuring that your daughter attends school on time every day. Lesson 1 begins promptly at 8:45am, which means that your daughter needs to be in her seat waiting for the register to be taken by 08:40am.

Students who are late, without a valid reason, will sit in a 30 minute after school detention on the same day.

The only method for reporting your child’s absence is now through the Arbor Parent Portal App.

Using the Arbor Parent Portal App is quick and easy, and it is now our preferred way for parents to communicate absence reasons to the school.

For step-by-step instructions on how to report an absence, please visit our online guide.

Benefits of the Arbor Parent Portal App:

• Update student/parent details
• Top up dinner money
• Sign up for trips and clubs
• Check your child’s attendance
• Access school reports
• and now reporting absences

Additionally, our new school app, KEVI Handsworth Wood Girls (via Reach More
Parents), will be our primary platform for sharing school-related updates and information.

Please note that the absence reporting feature will no longer be available on other
platforms, and we will no longer monitor absences reported via Studybugs, even if you still have access to it.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Welcome to all of our new and existing students. Thank you to all who continue to support your daughter attending school every day and arriving on time. We have seen a dramatic improvement in morning punctuality, and attendance overall is way above the National average for Secondary schools. In fact, at the end of the Spring Term 2024 we were recognised as being in the top 25% of all FFT secondary schools for secondary attendance.

Please take some time to view the letters pertaining to Attendance and Punctuality at King Edward’s VI Handsworth Wood Girls’ Academy that were sent to you by email in September 2024. If you didn’t get the email, then we have attached the letters here too.

• 27th June 2025 – End of Year Reward Trip (KS4)
• 2nd – 4th July 2025 – France Trip (SELECTED STUDENTS)
• 8th July 2025 -End of Year Reward Trip (KS3)
• 10th July 2025 – End of Year Reward Trip (KS5)

Summer Term 2025

• Term Starts: Monday 28 April 2025
• Half-term: Monday 26 May 2025 to Friday 30 May 2025
• Term ends: Monday 21 July 2025

Remaining INSET Days

• Monday 21 July 2025

• 17th June 25 – The Big Bang Fair NEC (Year 7 students – limited spaces)
• 24th-25th June 25 – Duke of Edinburgh Cannock Chase (Selected Students)
• 27th June 25 End of Year Reward Trip (KS4)
• 2nd-4th July 25 France Trip (Selected Students)
• 8th July 25 End of Year Reward Trip (KS3)
• 10th July 25 End of Year Reward Trip (KS5)

Bookings are live on Arbor.

Spaces are limited, and it’s first come, first served, so be ready to book your spot!

• Year 7, 8, 9 trip will be Tuesday 8th July 2025
• Year 10 & 11 trip will be Friday 27th June 2025
• Year 12 & 13 trip will be Thursday 10th July 2025

Trip Locations

• Drayton Manor – £15
• Gravity Jump – lunch included in price  – £15
• Cinema & Bowling – lunch included in price – £15
• Arts/Crafts and Sports Camp at School – FREE

Students with platinum status are eligible to go on the trip free of charge this will be reflected on Arbor

DISCLAIMER – TRIPS MAY VARY DEPENDENT ON YEAR GROUPS

We are thrilled to announce that HWGA has achieved the prestigious Wellbeing Award! This incredible achievement highlights our commitment to ensuring that the wellbeing of both staff and students remains at the heart of everything we do.

We want to remind families that we offer a range of in-house support for students, so if you feel your child needs someone to talk to, please don’t hesitate to reach out—we are here to help.

Additionally, families should know that period products are provided free of charge at the academy. We are dedicated to ensuring our girls feel seen, valued, and confident, with no shame in asking for what they need.

We are proud of the way our students support one another, and we celebrate the
uniqueness and superpowers each girl brings to our school community.

Thank you for being part of this journey with us!

We know how challenging it can be to balance all the demands parents and carers have to cope with. That’s why NSPCC have put together some tips to help. All children need boundaries and discipline, and this guide helps you develop what works for you and your child.

If your family is in need of any support for any of the following issues –

• money advice,
• special educational needs,
• disability,
• food,
• housing,
• parenting groups,
• relationships,
• sexual health & family planning,
• under 5’s support,
• bereavement,
• mental health,
• leisure activities,
• physical health
• & much more.

Please see download the family action leaflet here.

Who is eligible

To be eligible you must:

• be a Birmingham resident
• experience financial hardship, particularly with covering costs linked to food and energy
• not have received a £200 grant payment in the last 12 months

Returning applicants

Each household is only eligible to receive one £200 grant payment in a 12 month period.

For example, if you received a £200 payment on 31 May 2023, you cannot make another application until 1 June 2024.

Any enquiry received before your eligibility date will be rejected.

How to apply

Please be advised that the Hardship Grant Community Fund scheme is currently closed for new enquiries whilst the team work through the waiting list.

If you have submitted a successful enquiry since the current scheme reopened earlier this year, you are on the waiting list and will be contacted within the next eight weeks to complete your full application.

Please note that the enquiries will open for Round 7 later this year. If you are not currently on the waiting list, or it has now been 12 months since your household last received a grant payment, you will be able to submit a new enquiry once enquiries resume in June 2025.

Our Healthy Lifestyle Checklist:

• Exercise – 60 minutes a day
• Hydration – Drink 2 litres of water a day
• Nutrition – Eat a balanced Diet
• Sleep – 8-10 hours a night

Understanding the Fight-Flight-Freeze Response in Children

Our fight-flight-freeze response is deeply connected to how our brain functions. Here’s a breakdown of the key brain areas involved:

• Prefrontal Cortex: This is the thinking and reasoning part of the brain. It helps us decide what to do and evaluate situations logically.
• Hippocampus: This area helps regulate memory and emotions. It plays a role in linking our emotional responses to specific events.
• Amygdala: This is the brain’s alarm system. It activates the fight or flight response and stores memories of emotional events.

How Stress Affects Young Children

When young children are exposed to overwhelming stress or frightening experiences, it can significantly impact their developing brains—especially the areas involved in emotions and learning.

• • The amygdala detects threats and triggers fear responses.
  • The hippocampus connects these fear responses to the context in which the threat occurred.
    These two areas also influence the release of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline.
  • Early exposure to high levels of stress can disrupt the balance of these brain systems, making it harder for children to regulate emotions and learn effectively.

Please find a range of helpful medical factsheets put together by the School’s First Aid Medical Lead.

If you would like to see these factsheets in an alternative language, please get in touch.

This week we introduce Empathetic – a behaviour.

Read more here

We use the High Performance Learning philosophy and framework in our school. This means that we believe that all the students can be high performers, and we teach with these expectations in mind.

Using the research-based High Performance Learning approach helps us to systematically build the cognitive competencies that lead a young person to thrive in school and in later life.

We embed the HPL philosophy throughout our school. We never tell our students they cannot achieve; it is just they are not doing it yet but with practice and persevere it will happen.

You can support your child with developing the High Performance Learning skills at home.

There are 30 skills which are broken down into the two categories of Advanced Cognitive Performance Characteristics (ACPs) and Values, Attitudes and Attributes (VAAs). These help students how to think, and how to behave.

HWGA will be sharing a some HPL key competencies (VAAS & ACPs) strategies with you weekly.

Using the HPL framework at home will help you to enhance your child’s academic
achievement and personal development.

Home Challenge:

• Quiz your child on the ACPs and VAAs. How may of each can they remember?
• Ask them to quiz you? Can you beat your child?
• Select 3 VAAs and ACPs at random. Can your child tell you what they mean?

Not there yet? Repeat the challenge – can you both beat your previous attempt?

✓ Read over your child’s home study to check that their spelling and grammar is accurate.

✓ When cooking with your child, check that they are following the correct methods to achieve the best outcome.

✓ Complete regular spelling test to see how many they can get right.  Repeat this, can they achieve more correct answers than before?

✓ Practice a skill in sport such as a shooting practice in netball.  Are they using the correct techniques to be successful with getting the ball in the net consistently?

✓ Support with developing neater handwriting by checking they hold their pen correctly.

✓ Check that they are using the correct mathematical formulas to work out the correct answer to a maths question or equation.

QUESTIONS:

• Do you have a concern that a student is being physically, sexually or emotionally abused or neglected?
• Has a child/young person made a disclosure to you?
• Are you concerned that a student could be living in a private fostering arrangement?

REMEMBER:

• Please do not ask the student leading questions
• You must report concerns relating to FGM,CSE, FM, HBV and Prevent
• Do not ask children to remove items of clothing and do not ask them to write anything down or sign anything you have written
• Allegations against staff MUST be referred directly to the Headteacher (or to the Chair of Governors if about the Head)

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

The Safeguarding Team will gather all of the information, link with multiple agencies and the decision will be made whether a referral to Children’s Services or an Early Help Assessment (or other action) needs to be made. Any information the Safeguarding Team are able to share with you will be shared. If you have any questions or a ‘gut feeling’, then please do not hesitate to seek advice and support from the Safeguarding Team.

What Parents & Educators Need to Know about: Violent Content Online

Around 70% of teenagers say they’ve seen real-life violence on social media in the past year. Violent content online isn’t just something young people are occasionally stumbling across – in many cases, it’s becoming a routine part of their digital world 📱. From fights 🥊 and stabbings 🗡️ to toxic ideologies ☣️, disturbing videos are often just a click away on social media or group chats.

This week’s #WakeUpWednesday guide highlights the unseen risks this poses to children’s mental health 🧠, sense of safety 🛡️, and social behaviours. With insights from a leading expert 👩‍🏫, it offers practical ways for parents and educators to respond with empathy 💞 and support 🤝 – not punishment or panic 🚫.

• All students must wear jumpers.
• Skirts if worn should be black and pleated.
• Hoodies are not permitted in school.
• The school uniform consists of a jumper, a white revere blouse, and a black skirt or trousers.

Students are not permitted to wear trainers unless medically required to do so School shoes should be below the ankle.

Boots should only be worn in severe weather (snow).

Jackets/coats should be plain and Hoodies should not be worn in school.

• No nail polish/ false nails
• Make-up if worn should be natural looking
• False eyelashes are not permitted in schoo
• Pins are not allowed to be used for headscarves. Please use a safer style fastening to secure headscarves.

Jewellery:

• One stud in each ear
• One small nose stud – not a ring
• No rings,
• No bracelets – unless for religious purposes
• No necklaces.

We collect preloved but good quality uniform throughout the year. If you would like to donate preloved items, please bring them to the School reception.

if you would like to receive preloved items for your child, please contact the pastoral team at pastoralteam@hwga.org.uk

We are now using the Free School Meals Eligibility Checking Service in School. If you think that your child may be entitled to Free School Meals, please complete a ‘New Application’ on the following link: https://www.cloudforedu.org.uk/ofsm/birmingham

Just registering your child for Free School Meals means that the School gets extra funding – register now to make sure we don’t miss out!

Get notifications on your phone by using the King Edward VI Handsworth Wood Girls App available in your phones app store to download today.

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Visiting our website, you will find the news feed on the homepage with quick links to our most up to date news and information.