Headteacher's Bulletin - Friday, June 21st 2024
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There have been a number of high-profile Personal Development events this week which have all been immensely valuable to the students involved. These have included our Year 9 entry into the Emergency Services County Challenge and our Year 7 Gender Equality Morning. Ms Child and Mrs Morgan- Scott have submitted their reports of these events which are listed below. We also have our Inter-House Debating Final later today between Washington and Manley with a full write up from Miss Bason coming in next week's Bulletin!
County Challenge
On Tuesday 18th June, a group of Year 9 students headed to the Police Headquarters for the Northamptonshire County Schools Challenge. This year's focus was tackling the issue of violence against women and girls, and the students went to present their business plan to the 'Dragons.'
Students gave up their free time to complete this challenge - planning, researching, rehearsing, and practising in front of other students and staff to ensure they were ready for the rigour and challenge of the competition.
On arrival, students enjoyed a range of experiences with all the emergency services represented. This included a tour of the control room, riot vans (with a chance to press emergency sirens and even arrest each other!), fire engines, and an ambulance with lifesaving first aid. The team were then taken to prepare for their presentation, which gave them the opportunity for a quick run through before the big delivery moment!
Ummur, Zakk, Patrick, Hubert, Henry, Alfie, Daniel, and Ethan were an amazing credit to the school – they remained calm, focused, and professional, and delivered an outstanding presentation, centred on a PSHE workbook that they had created. Thanks to Will, Fin, and Ollie for their support on the day, offering their peers encouragement and calming last minute nerves.
We were incredibly proud of the boys' performance, and they were celebrated for their professionalism, polish, and most importantly, passion. We will find out if we’ve made it through to the final soon – fingers crossed!
Gender Equality Morning
On Thursday morning, all pupils in Year 7 were off timetable to receive an educational morning on Gender Equality as part of their PSHE and PD education in school. The morning included an hour long presentation in the Theatre, followed by time in break-out rooms for discussion, discernment, and creative transformation.
Some of the explored content included: the principle of equality and feminism, girls in education, stereotypical thinking, women in STEM, women in business, and women in sport (including our very own Scarlett Humphrey!), and personal responses to these issues raised. It was an important, valuable, and thought provoking morning for all Year 7 pupils who responded with interest, grace, and respect.
All this was enabled by members of our Female Lead Society. 10 incredible members of the Society took part in the Y7 Gender morning - this included preparation of resources, independent subject research, collation of key information and ideas, delivery in the Theatre, and support in classrooms following the main presentation. Our huge thanks to Aimee, Jasmine, Caitlyn, Roxy, Suzanna, Eloise, Bethan, Alisha, Emily, and Annabel for their commitment, dedication, passion, and confidence in modelling such professionalism to younger pupils.
The school's Eco Committee received some brilliant news this week when they received notification that the school had been awarded the top Eco-Flag award of Distinction for its proactive and impactful work to support an eco-friendly environment. The feedback was glowing with praise - this snip of the report gives a flavour of how impressed the judges were:
Your Action Plan shows that your Eco-Committee have carefully considered how they can involve their entire school in their planned Eco-Schools’ activities to achieve maximum impact and raise awareness amongst their school community. We love the range of activities that you and your Eco-Committee planned for delivery. The fact that they cover both indoor (promoting meat-free and healthier meal options, reducing laminating and single-use plastics) and outdoor (refurbishment of wildlife area and bird feeders) activities is excellent.
Year 12 student, Logan Compston is an extraordinarily talented artist who already hit the headlines when her picture of HRH King Charles 111 was selected by the Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire to be sent to Buckingham Palace earlier this year. Logan has produced another stunning piece for the 'Chaos' competition run by the University for the Creative Arts and she has just found out that her artwork has been shortlisted and is eligible to win one of the prizes in the Year 11- 13 category. The incredible painting that she has created is about the chaos of dementia and aims to create more awareness about the disorder. Winners will be announced on July 5th and the exhibition will be displayed at the University for the Creative Arts in Canterbury from July 5th - 12th.
Many congratulations to the four NSB students who have been selected to compete for Northants in the English School's Track and Field Championships in Birmingham on 12th and 13th July.
They are:
Alice Bennett - Senior Girls 800m
Rhys Owen - Intermediate Boys Pole Vault
Michael Graham - Junior Boys Shot Putt
Nathan Lamb - Intermediate Boys 1500m
Many congratulations also to teachers Mrs Rodger and Miss Harvey who have been invited to sing with former NSB student, Billy Lockett at the Hyde Park concert in early July as his backing vocalists - an amazing opportunity to sing in front of a 60,000 strong audience.
Former student Will Donaldson has also hit some amazing heights with his music composition, with his achievements being recognised by the national media. Will had his recently constructed six-minute film score played by the world famous 'de Havilland Philharmonic Orchestra' during a concert dedicated to blockbuster film music. Here is a link to the BBC write up of his achievement:
Finally, there are still a few tickets left for the last night (tonight) of Northampton School's magical musical - Matilda. The show is absolutely brilliant and it is incredible to see how much progress the talented Year 7s of the new NSB Trust School have made in just one year.
Tickets for NSB's Musical, The Addams Family (July 12th / 13th ) as well as the Summer Music Concert (July 4th) and the NSB Ceilidh (June 28th) are on sale from the Box Office.
Richard Bernard
Headteacher
