Events Coming Up
31st March Year 7 & 11 Year groups photos
1st April Hamilton Trip
2nd April Careers Day
3rd April 18:00 Spring Concert (FREE)
3rd April Wear something different day
5th – 21st April Easter Holidays
22nd April Inset Day
Message from the Leadership Team
Dear Noadswood families,
In the penultimate week of this school term, we wanted just to start this newsletter by drawing your attention to some arrangements and events in the next few weeks:
Tuesday 1st April - We are taking 85 students to see Hamilton at the Mayflower Theatre. We have been planning this trip for a while and are so excited to be taking such a large group to the theatre. They will have been given the information about this last week.
Wednesday 2nd April - We will be holding our annual Careers Day. Students in years 7-10 will come off timetable for the day to participate in various activities that explore career pathways linking to different subject areas. We are very much looking forward to welcoming some guest speakers who will also be joining us to speak to students about their professions. A group of 30 Year 10 students will be spending the day at Brockenhurst College to see the campus and take part in taster lessons as well as some careers tasks.
Thursday 3rd April – This will be our ‘Wear Something Different Day’. We ask for a voluntary contribution of £1.00 for those students wishing to take part (Thank you to those families who have already contributed for the year). For those families that like to ‘pay as you go’ this is now live on Arbor. Students can opt not to take part, wear school appropriate non-school uniform or their normal uniform with ‘something different’- a hat, jumper etc. If your child is timetabled to have PE on this day, they MUST bring in their PE kit.
Thursday 3rd April is also our amazing Spring Concert in the school hall. Doors will be open at 5:30pm and the concert will start at 6pm. We are so lucky to have such incredible talent, and the concert this year is going to show some of our students at their absolute best - again. There is not a charge to come, and you are welcome to join us to celebrate all things music at Noadswood.
Friday 4th April - This is a normal school day with no early closure as we head into the Easter break. We will do our normal celebratory formal end of term assemblies and look forward to celebrating your children's achievements!
Tuesday 22nd April - This is an INSET day, and so the school is closed to all students.
Wednesday 23rd April - School is open to all students after the Easter break.
Subject teachers would like to thank so many Year 9 families for joining them online for the Subject Consultation evening on Wednesday. If you missed an appointment with your child's teacher or have any questions, please do reach out via ClassCharts, or use the email addresses at our Contact page on the website:
We would like to thank Orchard year 3 for joining us for our annual ‘Roman Day’, as well as give a tremendous thanks to Miss Guppy and Mrs McNab for their brilliant workshops. We felt very privileged indeed that some of our students were treated to a workshop from the History Squad exploring the impact of the Romans on our lives today. A special shout to our year 10 helpers who were just sensational:
Roman B, Alex L, Nika C, Chloe B, Lacey K, Billie C
Rwanda Evening of Food and Entertainment
Thank you to all those families who came along and supported the fundraising efforts of the 13 students who will be travelling to Rwanda in June, and their tireless leader, Dr Shaw. Mr Pike and I are so excited for the trip with this incredible bunch of young people. My thanks to Mrs Wyse, School Business Manager, for all the time and skill she put in to organising this event with Dr Shaw and me, after I came up with the idea – brought to life beautifully – and to Caroline McKell and our school catering team for the food that was very well received.
The evening was a huge success because of the enthusiasm of all the families who attended, enjoying the entertainment, the food, the treats, and the bingo and treasure hunt, too!
My choir made me so proud once again, singing a beautiful Rwandan song and the Beatles’ Let it Be, the Bingo with a twist was great (a Rwandan fact was shared with us after every number was called out!) and I absolutely loved the Y10 group performing a Rwandan dance at the end with Dr Shaw. Not to mention parents and carers joining in afterwards!
It was our school and our wider community at their absolute best – the warmest of atmospheres together in every way. I am also grateful for the partnership with St Andrews Church, who have done a lot to help us to begin to forge a connection with the school and parish in Rwanda, as we used to have in Sefoloko in our pre-pandemic days.
We have raised a total of £669 so far, which is a terrific effort. A BIG shout out to Hythe and Dibden football club for the donation of a football kit, new footballs, cones and a training ladder that the team can take with them on our visit.
Author Visit
Exciting news!
As part of our Careers Day on Wednesday 2nd April we will be welcoming author Ele Fountain into school to talk to our Year 7's and run some workshops.
Year 7's may remember that over the summer they were given a copy of Ele's book 'Lost', to read and write a book report on. Now is their chance to meet the lovely lady herself!
Student Achievement
Our congratulations to Lily who took her county grade 3 gymnastics exam in early March 2025. This involved her showing her skills in 5 areas of gymnastics (floor, beam, vault and range and conditioning). She did brilliantly and achieved a merit. She exhibits the same qualities at school as she does at gymnastics. Lily is a student who works hard to achieve her best and listens to advice and incorporates this into her work to improve it – who can ask for more than that? We salute the commitment it takes to do this, Lily.
Wishing everyone a good weekend, taking best care of each other.
Best wishes,
Kathryn Marshall and the Leadership Team
Mothers day message
Some of our Year 7s have contributed messages for this addition of the Southampton Daily Echo. Look out for your message in the Daily Echo. And our thanks to all Mums, Step-Mums, carers and anyone else stepping up to be a ‘Mum’ figure in our students’ lives. You’re all seen and valued for all you do.
Enrichment
Exhibition, 4th April to 1st June 2025, God’s House Tower, Southampton.
From Dorset to Sussex, under the busy pavements and natural spaces of Britain’s South Coast, is a near unbroken sequence of rocks that span 200 million years of Earth’s history. Hidden in Stone is an exhibition about shifting continents, changing climates, and evolutionary radiation.
Did you know that 160 million years ago the South Coast was under water and terrifying sea monsters, ichthyosaurs and pliosaurs, hunted in the ocean as ammonites jetted through the water?
Or, that 125 million years ago forest fires ripped through the landscape as dinosaurs roamed across the scene. Again, the land gave way to the sea, and the chalk was deposited preserving sea urchins as flint, before the end of the dinosaurs and the rise of mammals in a warm tropical land of crocodiles and prehistoric hippos.
Then, in the last few hundreds of thousands to tens of thousands of years, across cycles of ice and snow, we see the emergence of a new type of animal settling in our shores, and prehistory, gives away to history, and humans become part of the tale.
Join us as Hidden in Stone explores Jurassic Seas, where Dinosaurs Roam, Chalk Seas, Tropical Hampshire and Frozen Britain, with several ‘stops’ along the way, using fossils, artwork and sculpture to show the rich heritage of fossils, literally beneath your feet as you wander across the South Coast, from Kimmeridge in Dorset to Hastings in Sussex.
Here is the link for further information: https://godshousetower.org.uk/eventer/exhibition-hidden-in-stone/edate/2025-04-04/
Bebras Coding Competition
The year 10 Computer Science students are working hard to hone their coding skills for a coding competition. It is in a week's time. They are joined by some Year 7 students who attend a coding club and are learning Python.
Awesome Alumni
I am an outdoor adventure instructor. I teach kids on school trips activities like kayaking, rock climbing, archery, and many more. I have worked in 7 different countries and achieved great things like teaching a group of blind students how to canoe. Noadswood helped me prepare for this because although I had a lot of struggles as a teenager, the teachers and mainly the pupil support unit helped me to the very end. They supported me and cared for me and made me realise that I wanted to work with young adults and provide a safe, caring environment like they did for me.