I thought I would take some time to talk about our house system, what this means and how it relates to form groups.

At WBCA we will have five houses, these are:

• Telford – Purple
• Chance – Blue
• Kenrick – Yellow
• Brindley – Red
• Florence – Green

All of these houses reflect important businesses or people from history around the Sandwell area. We will put out more information about these as the year progresses and students will come to understand some of the area’s local history through them. We will profile some information about each house over the coming months.

Each form will have a mix of all the houses, usually five or six students from each house, these are in effect ready-made teams in each form. Students will have opportunities to come together with the rest of their houses on a regular basis to do joint projects, compete, raise money for charity and show the strength of their house throughout the year. Houses act as second families for the students and give them a sense of identity in the Academy.

Students will be issued a form for example; 7a, 7b, 7c etc. They will also know their house, and this will determine the colour of tie that they wear.

Why have we chosen these? As well as reflecting the area’s heritage they are the same houses as at our sister school, Shireland Collegiate Academy. We expect to have a number of events, competitions and opportunities throughout the year that we will do in conjunction with Shireland and students will be able to partner up with students in the same house.

As time progresses and more schools are added to the Trust, we may be looking to operate a unified structure across all of the schools, consulting all students and families, but that is for the future. We are excited to let you know which house you will be in, to host our first house meetings and to see our first house projects and competitions in September.