Our Year 12 debating teams enjoyed extraordinary success this week at the Youth Parliament Regional Finals held in Birmingham. Ms Morrison reports:

On Monday, Ms Morrison took two teams of 16 rather bleary-eyed Year 12 students on the high speed (!) 7.11am train to Birmingham University to take part in the regional Youth Parliament.  It was an intense affair from the onset; the two teams took part in a series of 8 very formal debates over the course of 7 and a half hours. The topics discussed were extremely diverse in nature: the role of artificial intelligence in our society; the impact of colonialism; economic development in farming; the rise in needle spiking; the increase in drug abuse and suicide rates; the issue of asylum to fears about toxic masculinity. It was not a light-hearted experience but one which tested the students’ capacity to engage with the topic matter and to further the discussion. It was exciting, exhilarating and absolutely terrifying, and I was just a passive bystander, so goodness knows how the students were feeling. 

With just half an hour for lunch, there was no time to really recuperate. At 4.15pm, the debates finished and the results were shared- one of our teams won and were through to the national finals.  This result does not reflect the hard work from every single one of our students.  Each and every one of them made strong and valid contributions and were so immersed in the experience. Proud does not cover how I felt as we made it back to Northampton on that chilly Monday evening.  They were absolutely phenomenal, and I look forward to letting you know how they fare in July at the four-day national event which takes place in Liverpool.

The names of the students who took part from Year 12 and who performed so brilliantly for the school are as follows:

 

The History department has been supremely well defended this week as it has been flooded with entries for the annual Year 7 'Design the best defensive Castle' competition. Miss Imison reports:

"I am thrilled to announce that the results of the Year 7 Castle Competition are now in! Our budding historians have been working ever so hard to design (and in many cases build!) a castle that they think would withstand an attack during the Middle Ages. They must be historically accurate and there must be clear thought about why they have chosen certain features. This year we have been simply inundated with entries and the quality has been exceptional. I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who took part. House points have been awarded for every entry. Mr Bernard has had the difficult decision of deciding a winner:

1st place = Jack Jackson - Manley

2nd place = Jason Tsoi - Brightwell

3rd place is Mataeusz Lawson - Chipsey

 

NSB students dominated the recent senior age groups of the County Chess Championships. Year 13 student and entrant Oliver Murphy reports:

From left to right the students competing in the U16 or U18 bracket of the NSCA County Chess Championships are Bailey Northern, Isaac Levett, Mihir Sharma, Nirvan Ghosh, Oliver Murphy, and Harry Nash. Mihir played fantastically well to win the Under 16s and Dragos Opinca (not pictured) also did brilliantly to come runner up in that competition. There were other stellar performances in the U18s - Bailey achieved 2nd, and Harry got 3rd competing for the first time over the board. Nirvan and Oliver came in with a highly commendable 4th and 5th place respectively.

Oliver has also been hitting the headlines for his maths prowess. He recently competed in the Global Maths Olympiad which attracts 1000s of entries from across the world. Oliver was awarded the title of International Maths Challenge Elitist (High Performer) after scoring above the 85^th percentile in a highly challenging paper.

 

The school is hugely grateful to Vip (Video Inn Production Ltd) who have sponsored the new kit for our U18 Girls Rugby team who have been performing so brilliantly this season. On Wednesday the girls travelled down to Somerset to play in the Millfield School Rugby V11s Championships. Coach, Mr Baker reports:

The players were fantastic - played 5 won 3, with the highlight being a win over Millfield School- the two games they lost, were the first two of the day and both could easily have gone either way. We ran our own Player of the Day, which the girls voted for Mia Matthews!

Vs - Bishop Wordworth A Loss 17 - 5

Vs - King Edwards Bath Loss 10 - 5 (knocked the ball on, on the try line last play of the game under the posts)

Vs - Ivybridge win 5 - 15

Vs - Millfield win 17 - 27

Vs - Bishop Wordsworth B Win 5 - 32

The girls had a wonderful experience and are super excited for the next opportunity. We really do have an exceptional squad, brimming with rugby talent!

 

Ben Aldridge has been lighting up the Northants Table Tennis circuit for many years and last week he completed an amazing run of victories in the County Table Tennis Championships. Mr Bradbury reports:

Yesterday saw Ben win the Northamptonshire Table Tennis Association U19 County Championship. This is a great achievement, but what makes it even more spectacular is the fact that Ben has now won this every year of being here at NSB. He won the U13 championship in Year 7 and 8, the U16 championship in years 9, 10 and 11 and now the U19 championship in both Year 12 and 13. 

Each one of these years has seen tight opposition and Ben having to dig deep in the final match to clinch victory, so please don't think that these accolades have come easily. 

He is firmly committed to his sport and deserves all the praise he gets for this great achievement. 

 

 

 

On the racquet sport front, many congratulations to Joeseph Underwood who has edged into the top ten squash rankings for his age group in Great Britain following a fantastic string of victories at the English Junior Open for U13s, including 3 wins over top 8 ranked players. 

 

 

 

Many congratulations to the U16 rugby team who have joined the U15s by making the National Cup Semi-Final after triumphing 21-7 in a good battle with Samuel Whitbread Academy. The U14 football team also progressed to the last 8 of their National Cup after a dramatic match against Haberdashers Boys School, Watford. NSB dominated possession but went a goal down late in the game before forcing home a last-minute equaliser in full time. NSB then thought they had won it with the last kick of extra time but fell foul of a flag from the linesman. NSB missed their first penalty before scoring the next 4, Haberdasher's scored their first 4 and had the fifth penalty to win the game, but Luke Stroman pulled off a magnificent save before NSB edged through after the first set of sudden death kicks. Not a good game to watch for a Headteacher's blood pressure!

 

The latest Trust 'Reading' newsletter has been produced by Mrs Barlow and can be accessed through this link - Trust Reading Newsletter. Linked to reading, on Wednesday 30th April,

NSB will welcome award-winning children’s author Dan Freedman to the school. Dan’s books are incredibly popular in the NSB library, and we are sure that the boys in Years 7 and 8 will enjoy the opportunity to hear the author talk about his career as a writer, the inspiration for his books and his many meetings with Premier League footballers past and present! There will be an opportunity for students to have their books signed at lunch time in the library. Details of how to purchase Dan’s books, at a specially discounted rate, will be emailed via AIM.

 

I hope everyone connected to the school has a fabulous break, including those going on the NSB ski trip to Austria, and we look forward to the students returning on Monday, February 24th.

 

Richard Bernard
Headteacher