Personal Development Week - overview - Mrs Greenaway

At NSB we see personal growth as an important aspect of education and PD Week gives us an opportunity to focus on key skills and to supplement the weekly PSHE lessons so that there is more opportunity for critical thinking, using discussion and debate, and in-depth project work.

The aim is to provide preventative education which keeps all students safe and ensures that they grow into respectful, responsible and active citizens, prepared for the wider world and who can make informed decisions.  The core values of respect for all by all, kindness and tolerance are key to creating a positive community at NSB and further afield.  

It has been a pleasure to see the students immersing themselves in the activities and building their emotional intelligence, resilience and self-awareness. So many of the activities require the students to challenge themselves, to work as a team and demonstrate shared values.

There has been some amazing work being undertaken in Y7 with displays created from Y7 British Values and anti-bullying workshops plus the work undertaken in Modern Foreign Languages and Study Skills has been heartwarming. They have been so receptive to all the equalities work and full of energy in House and Career Events.

The Year 8s remaining in school have had an exciting programme of DT, History, Careers Visits as well as visiting Stanwick Lakes and Sywell Country Park. There was catapult making and the subsequent competition was a memorable event with Y8, Year 12 student helpers and staff all out for the win!

There has been a real buzz around the Y9 Arts using the starting point of a Dr Martin Luther King Junior quote, “We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.” Students have created thought provoking exhibitions and performances working collaboratively, overcoming challenges and connecting with the subject matter through Art, Dance, Drama, Music and Photography. They even managed to get involved in a new Pen Pal project launched by Miss Harvey.

Helen Kennedy, Director of PSHE reported that there was a fantastic atmosphere in all classroom sessions she attended; Y11 in particular were engaging really positively with their work on Active Citizenship and they came up with some really thoughtful questions for the Citizenship panel. The panel was the best one yet; organised by Miss Kennedy, chaired wonderfully by Mr Pateman with guests Andre Arrissol, Morcea Walker MBE, Dan Bradley-Brophy and Guy Kitson. There was also an excellent talk from the Hope Centre in relation to Homelessness and the students also looked at Media Literacy, crime and equalities

The students were also able to convey their voice through student surveys and to top it off all the House activities and team building across the week for all year groups has been exceptional – the students are always so keen to do their House proud.

The Y13s have undertaken invaluable curriculum intervention sessions as well as dedicated Post 18 related preparation activities including for Medic / Oxbridge interviews. 

All in all a very diverse and busy week which benefitted the students greatly. A huge thank you to all the staff, guests and students that took part.

 

Careers and Work Experience - Miss Rickaby

The Careers Team have been extremely busy this PD week facilitating all manner of guest speakers and workshops for students in Y7,8,9,10,11.

Year 7 -  had the challenge of breaking out of their Careers themed 'Escape Room' on Tuesday afternoon and the competition to see who could break out first was fierce! 

Year 8 - students who didn't go on the Residential enjoyed a STEM Careers trip to local company Festo Engineering and feedback from staff and students alike was extremely positive. 

Year 9 and 11 - had Employability and Entrepreneurship workshops with Bright Futures on Wednesday and represented themselves spectacularly; Bright Futures have been coming to NSB for 10 years and said the students this year were the best yet! 

Year 11 - heard about their potential next steps after the end of GCSEs with talks from Moulton College and University of Northampton. 

Friday morning we hosted our Annual Apprenticeship Fair with exhibitors highlighting apprenticeship routes across various sectors: public services, armed forces, law, engineering, NHS, accountancy, construction, retail. The 1911 Hall was buzzing with explorative and insightful questions from students across Y9-11. 

Year 10 - have been busy this week undertaking their work experience; we have had fantastic feedback from employers and have some exemplars of business projects students have been working on shared with us, the quality of work is unparallelled. 

Highlights from work experience include: working in France, working with the Police, working in Aerospace Technology, working with the Courts of Justice, working in logistics with Yusen who hosted our students on an incredibly bespoke work experience package, working with Premiership Sports Teams and in natural sciences with the Sea Watch Foundation. Students have explored engineering, charity work, automotive, physiotherapy, estate agency, technology and careers in the green sector. A stand out achievement for one Y10 student was having a marketing campaign published by the host employer! Very impressive indeed!

 

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Conference - Mrs Topping Shaw

The Northampton DEI (Diversity, equity, and inclusion) Conference, was an opportunity for local schools to share their work in supporting marginalised groups within their own communities within schools. Ten Y13 students from NSB attended the Conference held at NSG, joining a number of county-wide schools and colleges, to share their progress in DEI.

It was fantastic to see many students mingling together from the start of the day, with so many conversations being started and expanded across the morning. Our representatives: Sheli Patel, Norah John, Darrell Harrison, Josh Obi, Will Hunters, Dyrell Myers-Nettey, Jessica Phillipsz, Max Ibeawuchi, Amrah Abdulrazak and Humairah Rahman, contributed to the feedback portion of the conference, with Sheli and Josh, presenting the NSB ‘state of the nation’ update of the School’s DEI events and activities. Their contribution was warmly received by the audience, and complimented the talks from other schools, as they shared NSB’s firm and forward-looking commitment to supporting groups who are sometimes forgotten or marginalised. It was great to receive compliments on their behalf for their commitment to future conferences and events across the county.

We fully intend to take back ideas shared at the conference and build some of them into our DEI programme. In particular, talks on marketing and DEI, and health disparity got us thinking about other avenues we can explore in the future.

In other news, the school rugby teams last weekend enjoyed a fantastic sweep of success at prestigious tournaments. The U18s were unbeaten throughout their 6 games in the State Schools National Festival, the U15s finished up as Runners Up to St. Michael's College, (Dublin) in the St. Joesph's National Festival  and the U16s won the Millfield School U16s Invitational, topping an incredibly high calibre group of teams including: Millfield School, Clifton College and Terenure College (Dublin). Special congratulations to Fin Shields who was named player of the tournament at St Joseph's and also to James Civil in Y12 who has been called up (a year young) for the 'U18 Lions Sevens Team' in the Global Youth Sevens against the National Teams of Australia / New Zealand / USA / Japan and various others  in New Zealand in December - the event is being screened on Sky Sports.

Congratulations also to Hugh Shields Y12 (Fly Half) who is attending his second England U18 training camp this week - a particularly impressive achievement as Hugh is a year young for this age group.

 

 

When we return from the break we will be holding a week of Remembrance Assemblies for the Lower School before the main Sixth Form Remembrance Assembly on Remembrance Day itself (Monday, 11^th November). The school will be selling metallic Remembrance Poppy badges as per our annual tradition, in memory of the 194 former students and staff who lost their lives in the two World Wars. The badges cost £3 and are available for students to purchase via Reception / Student Services. The badges can also be paid for in advance via Parent Pay. All proceeds go to the Royal British Legion.  

 

Term 1 Reports have been published for Year 11 and 13 students this week - available for parents / carers to access via AIM. 

 

We hope all students and families have an enjoyable break and we look forward to welcoming the students back to school on Monday, November 4^th . 

 

 

 

 

Richard Bernard

Headteacher