On Tuesday, November 12th, Director of PSHE, Helen Kennedy, attended the Young Enterprise National Conference in London. Part of her role at this conference was to be a member of an expert panel of educators and businesses which fielded a Q&A session for attendees on work readiness skills, financial education and how to use both to increase young people’s social mobility. Questions discussed included; How does the current curriculum prepare young people for the world of work? How should education balance academic skills with transferable skills? How can we build relationships between schools and businesses to create a more holistic approach to skill development? 

In addition, NSB received the Centre of Excellence Award for Financial Education. This award is held by only 120 school nationwide which demonstrates the dedication of NSB’s whole school approach to this crucial area of education, explicitly through the Financial Wellbeing strand of PSHE and implicitly in other subjects such as Maths, Geography and History as well as through extracurricular events such as Charity Week.

Feedback from Young Enterprise said: “Your award submission demonstrates that NSB are providing practical, effective and sustainable financial education for the young people at your school meeting the required award criteria. We would like to acknowledge your contribution as the school’s financial champion, as well as your wider staff team, for the high quality of financial education which has been implemented across the school. Your coherent programme of financial education is a fantastic foundation for all of your young people and a credit to all of the staff involved.” 

 

In a recent bulletin I mentioned the wonderful musical achievements of Auguste Yi Cheng Yoong Y11 who recently played a prime role in entertaining the Duke of Gloucester at the Frontier Centre (Home - Rock UK). Auguste was leading the County String Sinfonia, conducted by NMPAT member of staff Richard Smith. Music teacher, Mrs Coles reports that Auguste did a fantastic job, and was a wonderful ambassador for both NMPAT and NSB.

 

Many congratulations to Finn Davenport Y7 who recently won The U16 Kart School Championship and the Motorsport UK Novice Championship despite being so young for the age group. Finn is working hard towards getting his full Motorsport UK Karting Licence with his eye firmly focussed on securing a front grid place in the 2025 Whilton Mill Kart Club Championship as a precursor to going for glory in the British Championship in 2026.

We have some fantastic hockey players in the school and we were delighted to hear that Y12 student, Hattie Kendrick has recently been selected for the England Hockey Talent Academy programme for the 2024-2025 cycle. This will be her third consecutive year being part of the programme which sees her train and compete with the Under 18s Talent Academy squad based at Oxford Hawks Hockey Club.  This England Hockey pathway culminates in a festival at the end of the season competing against all 24 Talent Academies from across the UK and it provides a direct route for England Hockey age group and senior squad selection.

In addition to this, Hattie has also been selected to part of the Diploma in Sporting Excellence programme, which is governed by Sport England, and delivered to performance athletes selected by England Hockey in partnership with Loughborough University.  

Hattie has also demonstrated that she is extremely multi-talented having also been selected to be part of the Northamptonshire Women’s County Tennis squad who will be competing this weekend in the LTA National Winter County Cup competition. This follows many years of Hattie competing for Northamptonshire in age group squads before successfully transitioning to the Senior County squad.

 

In the rich world of NSB Sport, NSB Water Polo has had a tremendously successful season to date. Mr Lane reports:

 

Well done to the U14 rugby team and the First X1, U13B, U16A and U13A football teams who all progressed through in their National Cup ties this week with the latter surviving a nail biting game against NS with a winning goal in the last seconds to secure a 3-2 win after being hauled back to 2-2 with a minute to go.

The First XV also secured an outstanding 27-5 win against traditional rivals Warwick School on Friday night under the NSB lights on the same day that the U18 National Cup Quarter Final Draw was made, pitting the two schools against each other yet again in a big cup tie. The match will be played at Warwick School, week beginning December 2^nd - date and time of kick off tbc. Before that huge game, the NSB team face off against Whitgift School this evening in what is an effective Semi-Final of The Schools Championship - the Second XV kick off at 5pm and the First XV at 6.30pm. The U15s are also scheduled to have their Regional Final (Round of 16), National Cup Tie at home to Ipswich School next week - date and time to be confirmed.

Huge congratulations to all of the students in the NSB Big Band who achieved the highest award of Platinum in the National Concert Band Regional Finals (held in the Cripps Theatre last Sunday) which qualifies them into the National Finals in April. NSB were the only school in Northamptonshire to achieve this prestigious award and many of the students also performed brilliantly in the NMPAT groups within the same competition.

 

Richard Bernard

Headteacher