Headteacher's Bulletin - Friday, October 4th 2024
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With Great Britain on the verge of qualifying for the America's Cup for the first time since 1964, I'm delighted to report that NSB have also had outstanding nautical student success to celebrate. Last weekend, William Caple Year 11 took part in the National Sea Cadet Sailing and Windsurfing Competition in Southport. This competition sees young people from around the United Kingdom compete in different sailing and windsurfing categories to find out who is the best in the country. William competed in the 4.8m windsurfing class, where he excelled, finishing overall fourth in the UK. Sailing conditions were variable over the two racing days and William fought hard to place 2nd and 3rd in two of the 6 races that made up the national competition - William can be seen here on the right edging ahead of an opponent.
The school is very proud of its track record in Indoor Rowing with NSB students securing a veritable trove of gold medals at recent British Championships. Our team are deep into their preparation for forthcoming national events and during training this week Year 12 student Cade Sivil broke the British Ski Erg record for 500m, which was verified initially by NSB Coach Andy Graham and has now been ratified by the National Governing Body . This is a fantastic achievement and Cade has still got the best part of 9 months to break the record further before his 17th birthday.
Many congratulations to the four Year 13 Music Students - Thomas Wood, Charlie Taylor, Elizabeth Groves and Jessica Philipsz who have qualified for the Nigel Cobb and Shirley Grant Fellowship Awards Fellowship Finals at the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church next Tuesday. This is a prestigious annual NMPAT (Northamptonshire Music & Performing Arts Trust) competition for the county's leading musicians. Please see the advertised schedule for what is always a hugely enjoyable and impressive event below:
Yesterday, saw our inaugural NSB Trust cohort begin our first NSB Trust-wide leadership programme. Staff from both Northampton School for Boys and Northampton School joined at NSB to begin the 15-month Curriculum Leadership Programme intended to inspire and develop our future staff leaders of schools. The course has been driven by those staff wanting to develop their expertise and experience in curriculum design, especially in a secondary context, and the fundamental belief that all leaders are ‘curriculum leaders’ who are responsible for shaping the direction of our whole school curriculum culture.
Matt Rodger (Assistant Headteacher) who is leading the course, commented on how impressive the cohort was in their first session and praised their enthusiasm and passion to get involved in thoughtful ‘curriculum conversations’ – reflecting on their own educational philosophy and what their subject means to students.
The first session focused on ‘Designing a Curriculum Vision’ with opportunities for staff to explore the principles behind both an effective whole school, and a subject-specific, curriculum vision. As we look ahead to the next session in December, staff are preparing to present their 30-second ‘elevator pitch’ on their subject vision to the rest of the group. We look forward to supporting their ongoing leadership journey.
Congratulations to the U12A,U13A,U14B and U15A football teams who all progressed this week in the National Cup with varying degrees of comfort. Next week we have a blockbuster of an U18 National Cup rugby fixture to look forward to with the NSB First XV taking on a strong Stowe School in the round of 32. The game is at home, with a kick off of 3.45pm on the First XV pitch - a large home support will be welcome.
A reminder to Parents and Carers, Northamptonshire School Aged Immunisations Service will be in school, offering the Flu vaccination and nasal spray to students in Years 7-11 on Thursday 10th October. The deadline for consent is 9am on 7th October should you wish your child to receive the vaccination. Further details can be found here.
Please also find the links below to the parent calendar on the school website and the sports calendar.
Richard Bernard
Headteacher
