NSB's Personal Development Awards Evening is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the character and personal achievements of our students.  Personal Development is integral to every aspect of school life, in and out of the classroom, and the students who received awards at the ceremony are the epitome of the young adults at NSB - they continually strive to be the best they can be, to make a difference and to create positive change whilst ensuring their drive connects with, and benefits, others within school and the wider community. The awards ranged from House and extra-curricular engagement and impact, PSHE, community awards, Careers/entrepreneurial, wellbeing/resilience, social action, ethos, charity and environmental. All 3 major House awards; The Expressive Arts Competition, Sports Day and the overall House Cup were won by Chipsey and Mr Bradbury was there to receive the trophies with his House Leaders.

During the evening we had the pleasure of hearing the winner of the 2024 'Find Your Voice' competition, Matteo Iaciofano, who performed his extremely thought provoking and well executed speech and who was then awarded The Morcea Walker Cup, and we also had the privilege of listening to our 2023 winner of XX Factor, Angelina Nyoni, with her exceptional rendition of a song from the musical Hamilton; a performance that mesmerised the entire audience and which could have been straight off the stage in The West End or Broadway. 

The two final awards are shrouded in secret and only announced on the night; The Junior Personal Development Student of the Year was awarded to Michal Wojcik and the Senior Personal Development Award of the Year to Mihir Kandi, both exemplary students, who will no doubt continue to grab every opportunity to make their mark and strive for a better future for all.

Thank you to everyone involved including the sponsors of our Careers Awards Hut3 and Yusen Logistics and especially to our guest speaker, Andre Arissol, who spoke with such eloquence, inspiring the whole audience from young to...not so young, with his poignant story of how he achieved success through dedication and discipline within basketball and how he now gives back to the community to ensure that young people get the right opportunities to set them on the right path.  He was the perfect speaker who, as one parent commented, embodies the traits that we hope to see in all our students at NSB.

 

There are exciting times ahead for our leading Music students. Director of Trust Music, Mr Druker reports:

The NSB Big Band have a busy few weeks with some key performances coming up. 

Last night they performed at the county wide Jazz Cafe (held at NSG) where they performed wonderfully well. Slightly biased but some stand out performers - Luis Ali on Tenor Sax, Tom Wood on trombone, Nathaniel Doy on guitar and Louis Druker on drums. 

On April 13th we will be performing in the NCBF National Finals held at the Royal Northern College of Music. This will be the band's 9th appearance in 10 years (COVID stopped one performance - although we were invited prior to the pandemic breakout). 

 

Y9 student Logan Sothcott is undertaking some herculean tasks to raise money for ten year old Ezra - the son of his school rugby coach - to support Ezra's cancer treatment. Logan's mum has sent this summary in of Logan's wonderful efforts so far! Logan's 60 mile run challenge on May 23rd will launch from NSB with all of his classmates cheering him on from the start!

Just Giving Fundraising Page

At the start of the year Logan organised a 24-hour cycle event at ONs for the year 9 NSB rugby A team, all planned and co-ordinated by himself, raising over £3000. Completing this spurred Logan on to continue with gruelling challenges, the next one of which is planned for 23rd May, this consists of running from Billing Road to Nottingham Children’s Hospital over a period of 4 days, running 15 miles a day, fundraising for this is already near to £800. Logan also reached out to the Northampton Chronicle off his own back to share the story and raise awareness, please see the article below!

Northampton Chronicle Article

 

Miss Shah has inspired many of our students to cultivate a love of history outside of the classroom as well as in it and she has sent in this report:

This term, the lower school History Society have been completing independent projects to participate in the Historical Association's Young Historian Award. To participate, pupils undertake their own research into an element of history they are interested in and complete a write up of their findings. This term saw the following pupils complete and submit their projects;

• Aaron Staples (Year 9) completed a project on how far the War on Terror was beneficial for the USA

•  Isaac Granby (Year 9) completed a project on the most significant turning point in LGBTQ+ history

• Joe Underwood (Year 7) completed a project upon which cause of WWI was the most significant

We will hear back about the results in the summer and wish all the boys the best of luck in the competition!

 

Mrs Barlow has launched the Term 4 Trust Reading Newsletter this week with further details below:

The Easter holidays is the perfect time for students to enjoy some reading for pleasure, or, as this term’s reading newsletter focuses on, listening for pleasure. Following the recent announcement of the Carnegie Prize shortlist, we are excited to share our recommendations of some of this year’s best books, many of which align perfectly with our Personal Development curriculum at NSB. As previously advertised, we have also launched termly reading lists, designed to encourage reading beyond the curriculum. If there is a particular area of study your child has enjoyed this term, or if you are looking for some reading inspiration, please refer to Term 4’s list. Please find both this term’s edition of “Beyond the Pages”, the Trust’s reading newsletter, and our wider reading lists here. We are please to advise the World Book Day sale raised £100 for the charity. Many of the books were kindly donated by parents.

 

We enjoyed some amazing success in the recent National Indoor Junior Rowing Championships. Mr Burton reports:

On Saturday 15th March we hosted the inaugural Trust rowing competition, which also double up as the NJIRC (National Junior Indoor Rowing Championships) as it was a virtual race this year.

The individual results are as follows:

NSB

Year 9 - 4 minute race. Max Roper, Gold and National Champion with 1200m.

Year 10 - 5 minute race. Michael Graham, Bronze with 1517m.
Year 13 - Will Hunter joined the small list of NSB rowers to complete 2000m under 7 minutes with 6:58.7, achieving 10th.

2000m Relays.
Year 8 Boys. Jacob Adiamah, Ayron Cory, Jesse Sivil and Daniel James. Silver medal with 7:08.5.

Year 10 Boys. Michael Graham, Max Roper (Yr 9), Jay Evans and Ben Chown. Gold and National Champions with 5:45.2.

Year 13 Boys. Will Hunter, Cade Sivil, George Tonga’uiha and Alfie Robinson. Silver with 5:46.5.

NS

Year 7 - Jasmine Howe, Gold and National Champion (531m in 2 mins)

Year 8 mixed relay - Jasmine Howe, Amy Graham, Hugo Bains, Alexander Masterson - Gold and National Champions (7mins 28 = 2000m) 

NSB Trust head-to-head results went the way of NSB with them taking both the Yr7 and 8 relay competitions. Coach Andy thought it was going to be 1 each but NSB edged it on the day.

A great morning of highly competitive rowing and huge congratulations to all the medalists - a special mention to Max Roper who is undefeated over 3 years in all of the National Indoor Rowing competitions he has participated in!

 

We are immensely proud of how far the NSB Water Polo programme has come over a relatively short period of time and our teams have enjoyed a huge amount of recent successes. Mr Lane reports:

March has been a busy time for the NSB water polo teams with the cumulation of their league and cup campaigns.  Firstly, our U16 team achieved a 4th place in the London Schools League final at Queen Elizabeth Barnet. Drawing with Haberdasher's 3-3 and then losing to both Trinity and Dulwich College. 5 of the boys were then called to play for the U19's a week later in the final of the older age groups against Bedford Modern, City of London and Trinity again, this time 3rd place was secured.

Our U18 Team also qualified for the pinnacle of the school water polo calendar, the English School Swimming Association Championship U18 Cup Final at Haberdasher's.

In the Final, drawing 3-3 with the hosts and in the same group as Trinity (3-5) left us playing a very strong Manchester Grammar as we had a better goal difference than Haberdashers.

The heartache of having our third goal disallowed due to the shot clock not being reset gave the opposition an element of momentum at 2-1. Eventually we lost 3-4, but the NSB players were really pushing the immensely strong opposition to find their best performances.  Our last game for Bronze place against Whitgift allowed some of the younger players from Y9 and Y10 to replace the older boys as they had by this time played 3 games of 14 minutes - a lot of sprinting in the pool!  The whole team substitution didn't damage our performance, and we showed greater depth and development than other schools. Identifying 3 confident penalty takers and a miss from Whitgift gave us the shield for 3rd place. (6-5 win)

 Results

5/03 U16 Schools League Final 4th Place @ Queen Elizabeth Barnet

3-3 Haberdashers

2-4 Trinity, Croydon

2-5 Dulwich College

12/03 U19 Schools League Final 3rd Place @ Trinity Pool

5-0 Bedford Modern

1-6 City of London

4-5 Trinity, Croydon

21/03 U18 ESSA National Championship Final 3rd Place @ Haberdashers

3-3 Haberdashers

3-5 Trinity, Croydon (eventual second place)

3-4 Manchester Grammar (eventual winners)

6-5 Whitgift on penalties

A very solid performance in achieving top 4 positions in all competitions and playing some of the best players and schools in the country.

Please see the photo below of the U18 ESSA team and the Y13s leaving this year.

 

The netball team had a nail-biting friendly against Wellingborough School at home on Thursday evening. The NSB girls took an early lead, which Wellingborough threatened to pull back in the third quarter. Scoring a whopping 13 goals in the fourth quarter, NSB were able to hold on to their advantage and edge the game 31-29. Following last week's win against Sponne, the team finishes the 24/25 season undefeated since October! Next season we will be part of a new County School League which will increase the quality of game playing opportunities even further for the NSB squad. It's wonderful to see how brilliantly the Girls' Netball and Rugby programmes are flourishing at the school.

 

In other big sporting cup ties, many congratulations to the U18B Football Team, the U13B Team and the U14A Team who are all through to the National Final of their respective competitions. The U18B team had to overcome the strong favourites for the competition - Thomas Telford School away from home in the Semifinals and played with huge heart to edge a win 4-3.  The U14As were firmly in control throughout their 3-0 Semi- Final win against a strong footballing school in Shenfield High from Essex and the U13Bs won comfortably up in Newcastle.  Well done also to the U14B side who fought valiantly but were just edged out by 2-1 in Liverpool in their Semi-Final this week. The finals will be played in May at Stoke City (U18S) and West Brom (U13s / U14s) - dates and times tbc.

 

A reminder to all parents / carers that the Term 4 reports for students in all year groups were released on Wednesday of this week - they can be located through  AIM. 

 

I hope everyone connected with the school has a fantastic Easter break and we look forward to seeing the students safely back on Wednesday, April 23rd (a reminder that Tuesday, 22nd is a Teacher Training Day).

 

Richard Bernard
Headteacher