CLUBS AND SOCIETIES There are over 100 extra-curricular activities for students to take part in. A wide range of clubs and societies is maintained to cater for our pupils’ lively needs .Current clubs include Aerobics, Art, Badminton, Basketball, Book club, Christmas Cake club, Computer Club, Cricket, Drama, 'Outdoor and Adventurous Activities' (which includes, canoeing, mountain biking, snowboarding, skiing and rock climbing), First Aid, Fitness training, Football, Gymnastics, Hockey, Keyboarding, Magazine Editorial Committee, Netball, Reading club, Rugby, Sailing, Shorthand, Spell test, Table Tennis, Theatre Club, Trampolining and Volleyball. There is also a school bank.

Annual trips are organised to a wide range of venues including leisure parks, theatres, ten pin bowling and dry skiing.

MUSIC AND DRAMA Expert tuition is available for pupils who wish to continue playing their favourite instrument and beginners are accepted in woodwind, strings, brass, percussion and singing.
Musical groups include :-

Orchestra, Choir, Brass band, Steel Pan Group, Contemporary Music Group, Samba Band and Handbell groups. Dedicated practice is rewarded by performances at the well supported concerts.

The Brass band has performed recently at venues as diverse as Sandwell College Campus, The Adrian Boult Hall (Birmingham Conservatoire), Wolverhampton University and Birmingham Council Houses. The Brass Band has recently completed a recording of their latest CD.

Professional theatre groups visit the school to present mime, drama and dance productions. There are regular stage productions. Recent shows include Oh, what a Lovely War in 2002 and Fame in 2004. This last production was a great experience for all concerned and plans are already underway for next years show.

Key Stage 3 Drama Club is run and all pupils in Years 7 – 9 can attend. We are currently working with a professional artist to write our own play to be performed next year.

Each year pupils from Wood Green High School collaborate with pupils from our partner primary schools to produce the highly acclaimed Wednesbury Music Festival.

SPORT AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION

We run a comprehensive programme of Sports and Physical Activities. We have done this so successfully that, this year, we earned the ‘SPORTSMARK GOLD’ Award. This is the top award that can be gained, in this country, that recognises the quality of a PE Programme.

We have earned this award through the hard work and dedication of an extremely talented group of staff and coaches AND, just as importantly, through the continued efforts of pupils to strive for success.

Athletics and Gymnastics

Every pupil in the school takes both of these activities, regularly, as part of their PE programme. Each of them has a huge effect on the functional development of our pupils in terms of speed, strength, stamina and flexibility. They also develop a pupil’s understanding of the capabilities of their own bodies.

Athletics

All pupils have the opportunity to take part in athletics as an additional activity both at lunch time and after school. We are very privileged to have so many able athletes, two of the current school membership have reached national standard, one of them is rated third fastest in this country at 200m. We have several more who perform at regional level. Our standards are high because we have very high expectations of our pupils. We don’t expect miracles but we do ask them to be the best that they can.

Last year our athletes came second in the Sandwell Schools Senior Championships, FIRST in both the Junior Championships and Road Relays. We won the Sandwell 12 a side athletics League. In February the school became Sandwell Indoor Athletics Champions. Last season 10 of our pupils represented Sandwell at the West Midlands Schools Championships and one pupil raced at the English Schools Competition.

We have very close links with Tipton Harriers Club and, currently, about 30 of our pupils attend their training sessions, weekly.

Gymnastics

We are really keen for all of our pupils to find out what they can do with their bodies in skilled performances. Pupils develop their abilities to learn skilled movement alone, with a partner and then in larger groups, either on the floor or on a variety of different pieces of apparatus. Every child has the opportunity to participate in this sport and develop their capabilities to their own limit. Gymnastics is one of the most popular activities in our programme.

We have one gymnasium that is dedicated to gymnastics and dance. It has a 12 metre sprung floor upon which our pupils love to ‘bounce’ as they develop their skills (we know of only one other school in the West Midlands that has a sprung floor but they do not use it in lesson times)

As with the athletes we have some wonderful performers at the school. Each February they ‘show off’ what they can do at our annual ‘Gym and Dance’ Show which plays to packed audiences over consecutive nights. Pupils can supplement what they learn in lessons by attending any of the gym clubs that are run during the week.

Currently, we have the men’s national champion for tumbling at under 15 level. We have three girls in the national top ten for tumbling. Several performers are regional champions at Sports Acrobatics.

The school plays host to West Bromwich Gym Club who meet in our Gym on five occasions during the week. Currently, about 15 of our pupils attend this club on a regular basis.

Trampolining

Part of our Gymnastics provision, all pupils take this activity as part of their programme because of the way it develops both their spatial awareness and self-confidence. It is particularly useful for those pupils who have some early difficulties with coordination. We have four trampolines in one of our gymnasia and they are heavily used.

Pupils may develop their trampoline skills in one of several extra curricular clubs held during the week. Also, we have a thriving Trampolining Club which meets on three evenings per week. We have had huge success in this activity over the years and at present we are Midland Champions in boys under 15 and under 19 level and girls Champions at under 15, under 17 and under 19 level. We are also under 13 and under 19 National Champions.

We are really fortunate to have a team of top quality coaches who run our programmes in both gymnastics and trampolining.

Table Tennis

When we became a Sports College in 1998 we introduced Table Tennis to the PE programme for the first time. It has become one of our most successful activities. Each pupil will undertake this activity at least twice in their school career and, like the activities above, can develop their skills and understanding further in the extra curricular programme that we run. The school possesses 14 top quality tables which are housed in two of our indoor spaces giving our youngsters plenty of chances to practise and improve. Table Tennis is played in our Sports Hall from 3.30 – 10.00 p.m. on two nights per week.

The school is affiliated to the West Midlands Schools TTA and play regularly in regional team and individual competitions. Last year our pupils came fourth in the regional team competition BUT this year actually won the competition. We currently have boys under 19 West Midland Schools Champion. In local leagues we have over 20 youngsters from 11-18 playing (and winning!) in local open age leagues.

Soccer

One of our most popular sports every pupil plays this game. It is played at every level from inter form right through to sixth form level. We have very successful school teams and are currently league champions in three age groups. Our under 12 side reached the final of the West Midlands Schools competition.

At under 12 five a side we have the best record in the whole country at the National Championships. We have reached the national finals five times in the eleven years of the competition. We have been national champions once.

We have very good links with the West Bromwich Albion Community Programme and our pupils regularly participate in activities, training sessions and competitions that are jointly run by Albion and ourselves.

Pupils are able to join the coaching ladder by taking awards such as the junior team leader’s award.

Netball

We run three teams at under 12, under 14 and under 16 levels. Our girls play regularly in the local leagues U14's are current league champions . Our main difficulty lies in height for most of our players, though skilful and agile, are not tall. If you have a daughter who is very tall please encourage her to join one of our netball teams to help the ‘littl’ uns’ out.

Dance

This is an integral part of the PE programme and is undertaken by both boys and girls. Pupils who wish to study it further can take it at GCSE level.

We run extra curricular dance clubs each day and we are assisted by seven dance coaches who make an outstanding contribution to our work. Most dance styles are catered for and pupils develop work for performances at local schools, community centres and other venues throughout the West Midlands. We make a large contribution to the Sandwell Dance Festival as well running our own Gym and Dance show.

Other Activities

We undertake many other activities and sports as well as those listed above. Rugby is really popular and we are fortunate to have two outstanding coaches on our staff to run this. Equally, we have a badminton enthusiast who is, also, an outstanding coach who attracts hordes of pupils to his twice weekly clubs. We run very popular activities in basketball, hockey and rounders. Pupils have many opportunities to maintain and develop their fitness levels in our fitness centre.

Other opportunities ; Leadership

As well participating our young people thrive on responsibility and many of them take leadership awards such as the Junior and Community Sports Leaders Awards. These develop pupil understanding of things like Communication and Organisation Skills and hone their abilities to lead groups of others in coaching activities, health and fitness activities, umpiring and refereeing.

These pupils help us to run the extra curricular programme because they organise several of our events. Beyond this many of them go into local primary schools and run activities for them. To take one example, on one day in July, last year, 92 year 10 pupils were in four local primaries assisting with the running of their annual sports days.