• Reminder

    New school day (from September 2017)

    Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday – finish at 3:00 pm 
    Wednesday – finish at 3:30 pm 
    Friday – finish at 2:40 pm 


  • Oliver!

    On the 12th and 13th July the annual Yardleys' production of Oliver! opened with great success. Following months of hard work by staff and pupils the show was a roaring success with the cast giving stellar performances throughout. Well done to all the pupils for dazzling the audience with songs such as "Consider Yourself" and "Who will buy..." and the fantastic depiction of the characters from this Charles Dicken's classic. We are very proud of you all!


  • Yardleys Rocks Birmingham 

    On Friday 14th July, three pupils in Year 7 represented Yardleys School at the first ever Times Tables Rockstars Rock Wrangle to be held in Birmingham. 

    St Edmund Campion School in Erdington hosted the regional competition, which saw almost 100 pupils from across the Midlands square off in three rounds of heated times tables action to reach the final. Our pupils were spectacular in qualifying, achieving the highest average score from any school in the region which meant that all three reached the quarter finals! At the knock-out stage, competition was fierce but one pupil, Rikesh Patel, harnessed the chants and cheers of a raucous audience to reach the final where he answered a staggering 332 times tables in just three minutes to gain second place – only 8 correct answers behind the winner. All three pupils had a great day and were a credit to the school and to themselves, demonstrating how with hard work and practice everyone can get faster and better at maths.               

    The Birmingham Wrangle was one of many taking place across the UK and the Leeds version of the event was even featured on BBC News! 


  • Softball Result

    The Year 9 softball team competed in the Birmingham School Summer Games held at the University of Birmingham on Thursday 13th July. Captained by Usman Firouz, the team finished a respectable 4th place out of 7 teams. The year 9 students performed superbly and represented Yardleys School impeccably.


  • Living Eggs at Yardleys

    This month KS3 pupils were excited to get to experience chicks hatching during the Living Eggs Hatching Programme. We received 10 chicken eggs which had been incubated for 21 days and we had to wait 2 days for the eggs to hatch. This year we had 5 girls (brown) and 3 boys (yellow). During their lesson time, many pupils got the opportunity to learn about life cycles, animal care and husbandry and debate the ethics of how poultry are raised in the UK (free range vs caged). The chicks had many more visitors at lunch times and after school during their fortnight at Yardleys!


  • On Tuesday 11th July, 12 of our "Yardleys Edge" pupils went to Manor High School in Leicester to receive their Apprentice level awards, alongside 4 other schools from around the country. The Celebration event was an opportunity to hear from the keynote speaker, British Paralympian Clare Griffiths, who talked to the pupils about her journey into wheelchair basketball and the determination and resilience she had to demonstrate in order to compete in 4 Olympic games! The pupils were rewarded for their success in the PiXL Edge Program. The program consisted of them completing 10  tasks in the five key attributes: Leadership, Organisation, Resilience, Initiative and Communication. All 12 of the pupils completed these tasks with style, efficiency and enthusiasm and it has been a pleasure to read about some of the things they have achieved. 

    We also achieved further success in Shuaib Ahmed, Ikhlaas Mohammed and Umme-Rooman Sajad who won National recognition awards for their achievement in the areas of "Them and Us", "Leadership" and "Communication" respectively. All three pupils were awarded with certificates and vouchers for their exceptional effort this year in the Edge, at a National level.

    We are immensely proud of the work they have undertaken this year and this is the start of something bigger for Yardleys Edge in 2017-18. Well done to all of the pupils!


  • Duke of Edinburgh Expedition

    The 6th to the 8th of July saw two big events for Yardleys pupils. This was the Duke of Edinburgh qualifying expedition weekend. 

    Thursday 6th July, 3.10 pm: Yardleys first ever silver group left on after school for an evening of hiking, tent pitching and cookery in a field. The weather was wonderful and the silver group were high in spirits. Navigation was excellent and their planned activity time went very well indeed.  

    Friday 7th July, 7am: Yardleys Bronze group journeyed from school to their start location of their bronze qualifying weekend where they met up with the well rested silver group. All groups got themselves kitted up and ready for their day. After 7 hours of hiking, getting lost, rerouting and some superb navigating skills, all of the groups had made it to camp. Displaying some superb teamwork in their groups and across the whole cohort, they had their camp erected and were ready to cook up some delicious food. Some meals were even nice enough for staff to test. After all pots and equipment had been washed and cleaned by the group (that's right folks, they can ALL wash up and are actually very good at it) it was time for some down time and a chance for the groups to unwind and relax after a long day.

    Saturday 8th July, 6.30am: All groups were up and about preparing for their day.  After everyone had eaten breakfast, all tents dismantled and packed away and all bags repacked, they were off. Each group had roughly 10 miles of hiking through the countryside ahead of them. Pupils orientated themselves, aligned their maps and compass and were away. As mid afternoon approached, all groups had emerged at the finish line. Fatigued, aching, sore feet and shoulders and almost no sweets or food left between them but all with a sense of accomplishment and pride. They had done it, 2 days (3 for the silver group) of hiking through the countryside covering between 18 and 26 miles of hills, woodland, streams and bridleways and they had passed their qualifying expedition. 

    It was a quiet drive back to school with many pupils taking the opportunity to relax and some managing to fit in a snooze. During this time it gave me the opportunity to reflect upon how amazing Yardleys pupils can be. When given the opportunity to demonstrate their independence and resilience, they rise to the challenge. Their behavior was outstanding throughout the weekend and they were an absolute credit to the school. As a very proud member of staff, I look forward to the next bronze and silver awards.

    Completing their bronze expedition was:

    Adil Ahmed, Hashim Amin, Mohammed Ismail Mahroof, Ahmed Karpous, Shazeb Khan, Hussain Mubashir, Ethan Fitzpatrick, Juwairiyyah Hussain, Mohammed Gohari, Ahmreen Shazad, Ayesha Taj, Ibraheem Sarwar, Mohammed Ismail, Mohammed Adam Aflaq, Sabia Bi, Assed Allah Elenby, Salahuddin Sarwar, Ruby Rainbow, Iqra Rahman

    Completing their Silver Expedition was:

    Mya Bridgewater, Stacey Ali, Ruweyda Osman, Aaqib Usman, Ahmad Ijaz


  • Urban Change in Birmingham

    On Thursday 28th July Year 10 Geographers went into the centre of Birmingham to investigate the Big City Plan, looking at one small piece of the £2.5billion regeneration plan. Students looked at the southern side of Fazely Street where the older industrial remnants of Birmingham’s history are slowly fading away, and the huge building site to the north around Millennium Point and also the new glad and steel educational facilities and offices. They then turned their gaze on the middle section, the vast derelict wasteland around Curzon Street where the new HS2 station will be built. Over the coming weeks pupils will be trying to decide “is all this change a good thing? Does Birmingham need HS2?” 


  • Yardleys ‘rockstars’ get the VIP treatment

    On Wednesday 28th June, pupils in Year 7 and 8 were treated to an early lunch and a private, “VIP entry only” concert performed by the Yardleys Staff Rock Band. 

    The event, which was held during the UK-wide Times Tables Rockstars “Red Carpet Week”, was a reward for those KS3 pupils at Yardleys School who contributed most to an online competition and for those who have made the most progress in their times tables over the year. 

    This event was just a small thank you to our “VIP rockstars” for their efforts but all of our pupils have contributed in some way to the success of Times Tables Rockstars at Yardleys, with over 3.5million times tables being answered correctly since the programme launched in September. The effect on numeracy and fluency in multiplying and dividing has been massive. 

    Next in the Times Tables Rockstars calendar is the Birmingham “Rock Wrangle” competition at St Edmund Campion Catholic School in July. This will involve a team of three Year 7 pupils competing against pupils from schools around Birmingham for the chance to take a helicopter ride over the city. 


  • Jess Phillips MP Visit

    Jess Phillips our local MP visited the school to see some of our Year 10 students receive tutoring in English from our partners ‘Action Tutoring’. She also met a group of Year 7 students who wrote:

    ‘We were very honoured and pleased to meet our local MP, Jess Phillips. We explained to Ms Phillips about Yardleys Edge and this particular leadership task of meeting our MP.

    In the meeting we talked about the issues in the local community and what we could do to improve things. We found her very helpful and said she was happy to help us and the school with any activities we planned in the future. We thanked her for visiting our school and we also gave her a present to congratulate her on being re-elected.’ 

    Ms Phillips was very complimentary about the tutoring programme, the school and our amazing students. She wrote ‘So bowled over with my congratulations present from the amazing, bright, funny Year 7 pupils at Yardleys School.’


  • Oliver!

    As a new term is upon us we, would like to thank the wonderful cast of Oliver who have shown their dedication week on week by attending rehearsals after school and during their lunch times. With 5 weeks to go before curtain up, we feel that the preparations for the show are going well and there are many people behind the scenes who are striving to make this show a success. We want to thank those staff at Yardleys who are supporting us and the staff who have offered us their help and support on the days of the production. Furthermore, we would like to thank the parents of our fantastic cast who have and will always continue to support us through this creative journey.


  • The Brilliant Club

    The University of Nottingham played host to Yardleys students on Saturday who graduated from The Brilliant Club. The year 10 students were celebrating their hard work in creating a University style assignment on the topic of 'Can we freeze a human?' There were some outstanding submissions - well done to all involved. 


  • Yardleys Staff Football

    The Yardleys staff football team made history on Friday when they became the winners of the prestigious Birmingham Collegiate Staff Tournament.

    Accomplished performances from Mr Jandu, Mr Ziebeck, Mr Smith, Mr Armstead, Mr Webb, Mr Johnson's son and Mr Naeem ensured that Yardleys ran out victorious, winning all of their fixtures and securing the coveted staff tournament trophy.




  • Duke of Edinburgh

    Year 9 and 10 students set off on their Duke of Edinburgh practice expedition this Friday after months of after school sessions planning their routes and gaining camp craft skills. Students will do two days of walking and will have to carry all their clothes, food and tents. Their map reading skills will be put to the test on Saturday were they will not have any help navigating from staff to find the finishing point.


  • UKMT Junior Maths Challenge

    In April pupils from Year 7 and 8 were entered into the UK Mathematics Trust Junior Maths Challenge. After sixty minutes of challenging questions pitting Yardleys’ best mathematicians against those from around the UK, 23 of our pupils earned medals. We are really proud of their performance and delighted that one pupil – Mohammed Dean from Year 8 – achieved a Gold medal and has now qualified for the Junior Kangeroo Competition in June. 


  • Collegiate Cup Final Report

    Yardleys and Small Heath met for the Collegiate Cup Final last week. The match, held at Moseley School didn’t start well for Yardleys as the defensive line parted to allow Small Heath the easiest of goals. 1-0 swiftly became 2-0 as Small Heath asserted dominance over the fragile Yardleys defense. T'Reece Brade and Ibraheem Sarwar scored to briefly provide some optimism with scores leveled a 2 – 2. However it was too little, too late as Small Heath ran out deserved 3-2 victors and subsequently lifted the Collegiate Cup.


  • Year 8 Cricket Report

    On the 10th May Yardleys Year 8 boys travelled to KESH for their first cricket league fixture of the 2017 season. Captain Fazeline Nijamudeen opted to bowl first and shortly after the game started Sami Khan bowled and caught their opening batsman. This was followed by two wickets being taken from the accurate bowling of Hussnain Ali then Raja Maqbool spun the ball back in and clipping the off stump of the stunned batsman. Shahid Sams-Ur-Rahman took the catch of the day out on the boundary off Zain Hadi's bowling. Excellent fielding from Harris Khan and Rohail Khan meant that KESH's score was limited to 129. Ali Mahmood and Juniad Arshad were Yardleys greatest partnership in bat but unfortunately they were unable to chase down the 130 needed to win. Well done to all the students, particularly Junaid Nazaem as this was his first game playing wicket keeper and made great progress as the innings went on.


  • Year 10 Football

    Yardleys’ Year 10 football team recently made it to the finals of the Collegiate Cup Competition. They played KESH and advanced after a penalty shootout decided the outcome, having shared 8 goals in an entertaining 4-4 encounter at Yardleys School.

    Stand-out performer Treece Ellis Brade was on hand to score two goals for the team. Naumaan Saleem also played a vital part in the win, saving a vital penalty which allowed Abdi Samad to slot home the winning penalty. They will now advance to the final where they will meet Small Heath at a neutral venue.


  • Nutritionist visit

    Thanks to Chartwells, our catering contractor, for the visit on 5th April by Claire Hedderman, nutritionist. During break and lunchtime students crowded round her stall in the atrium, being surprised, and in many cases horrified to learn how much sugar was contained in popular brands of bottled drinks. The fat content of various takeaway food items was demonstrated through a range of rather gruesome looking test tubes. Ms Hedderman also participated in PE and Food lessons, offering expert advice on the importance of a healthy diet to a range of students in Year 9 and 10.


  • Yardleys School Council

    The Yardleys School Council, comprising of two Year Captains from each year group, met with Mr Evans and Mr Buckley this week. The School Council received feedback on the significant progress made since the last School Council meeting on the topics they previously discussed and proposed; in addition, they went on  to discuss this terms agenda items, focussing on possible ways of working to improve our broader school community. As ever, our students put forward and discussed some excellent ideas, many of which will be taken away and worked on by staff and students.  

    Thank you to all that took part in a very productive School Council meeting.

  • Loudmouth Theatre

    On 20th March Loudmouth Theatre came to Yardleys School to work with our Year 8 students on the important topic of safe relationships. Our students watched a one hour theatre performance and then had the opportunity to ‘hot seat’ the characters, asking a range of pertinent questions to further develop their understanding of these themes. In addition to this, all students in Year 8 also took part in a half-hour breakout session that allowed them to further explore the subjects of consent and control and power in relationships.

  • Globe Theatre Visit

    On the 8th March 2017 30 Drama GCSE pupils along with Ms Clarke, Ms O'Donovan and Mr Lawrence went to The Globe Theatre Blackfriars, London to see The Taming of the Shrew. This was part of the ‘Playing Shakespeare’ initiative led by Deutsche Bank whose aim is to provide all secondary schools in the UK a chance to see a performance of a Shakespeare production at The Globe. It was a fantastic production, which engaged and enthralled everybody with its nod to the modern and also the old in equal measures. The students thoroughly enjoyed it.

  • 'Breakfast Crew' Fundraising for Charity

    For many years, at the end of every Christmas and Summer terms, the staff have been treated to a breakfast and in return are invited to donate to a children’s charity. The breakfast is provided and cooked by the ‘Breakfast Crew’, a small group of staff who give their food, time and culinary skills freely. The crew has been organised and led by Mr Cook and Mrs Mitchell. Over the years our very generous staff have enjoyed their breakfasts and donated well over two thousand pounds to different local children’s charities.

    Recent breakfasts have raised money for the Teenage Cancer Trust at the Birmingham Children’s Hospital, in part to remember a Yardleys pupil who was cared for by the team on the teenage cancer ward, but who sadly passed away after a brave fight against her cancer. We were very pleased to hand over £150 pounds worth of drawing pens, pencils and colouring books to occupy the children on the ward along with a cheque for £450 to enable the hospital staff to buy further activities and pay for counselling for the children undergoing treatment.