Events Coming Up
MARCH
26th Year 9 Progress Event
27th Rwanda evening of Food and Entertainment – Tickets still available
27 & 28th Year 11 Art Exam
31st Year 7 & 11 Photos
APRIL
1st Hamilton Trip
3rd Spring Concert (Free)
4th Wear Something Different Day
Message from the Leadership Team
Dear Noadswood families,
We would like to start this week’s letter by congratulating our students studying Food and our Food Team. Over the last few weeks, Food students in year 11 have been sitting their practical exams. A lot of effort and practice has gone into these dishes and students have been incredibly focused on ensuring they are displaying as many skills as possible. Year 10 students have been preparing to start their mock NEAs. They will sit practical mock trials next week for their dishes. We would like to thank all families and staff involved for their support of our students; we very much hope you enjoyed the opportunity to taste test some of their efforts. Colleagues are always so impressed with how professional the outcomes are.
Next, I would like to thank everyone involved in our phenomenal Gym and Dance show. Every year we are completely blown away by the talent and commitment of our students and staff. We know how fortunate we are to have such an incredible team to lead, develop and nurture gym and dance at Noadswood, not to mention the teamwork, the leadership skills and the confidence to perform, even on days when we may not be ‘feeling it’. I was bursting with pride on Wednesday evening and I know last night was incredible, too.
We cannot thank Mrs Smith, Mrs Martin and the team enough. We would like to thank every family involved, too. We know that behind every committed dancer and gymnast are the chauffeurs', the cheerleaders, the supporters; without your help, it would not all be possible.
A huge congratulations to our mighty maths team for the success of our annual ‘Mathematical Pi Bake Off’ led so brilliantly every year by Mr Rhodes. We were once more delighted at the entries the students put so much heart and soul into, and it was a hard task (!) to sample all these delicious cakes and determine winners.
First Place- James F
Second Place- Ava B
Third Place- Holly W
Fourth Place- Rosie-May
Fifth Place- Lottie C
It was good to see some year 11 families who came along to an in-person event to discuss their child's progress in subjects that they might find tricky or to assist in these crucial times when every little step forward could translate into an easier exam series for you and the students alike. We would like to thank everyone involved in this event. If you have any specific concerns regarding how your child is getting on, please do reach out to their class teacher or year team, or send an email to info@noadswood.hants.sch.uk and I will make sure concerns go to the right place - we are all here to help.
Active Travel Ambassadors programme
Our seven Year 8 students, who are part of this fantastic group, represented Noadswood in the Southampton Chambers, at the Civic Centre, on Friday last week. They had to pitch their ideas on how to get students to travel to school more sustainably by walking and cycling. They came away from the event having met Para-Olympian Aaron Phipps and with £200 in prize money. This will be spent on prizes for students to enter in our Walk to School week in May and our Cycle to School week in June. Both events will be in conjunction with Orchard Infants and Junior school.
More information on both events will be shared with students after the Easter break.
Well done to Josh K, Ned M, Willow J, Ethne B, Poppy B, Lola M and Miya K. A tremendous thank you to Mrs Wyse for all of her work to support our wonderful students.
Pride in the Waterside – Prep4Best Mentoring
On Tuesday morning we were delighted to host a group of year 9 pupils from Applemore College who, along with a number of year 9 Noadswood students, took part in the first Prep4Best Mentoring session. This was the latest activity in the ongoing collaborative project around ambition and aspirations: Pride in the Waterside and was a fantastic opportunity for students to meet and engage with their peers from the other school.
The training session was centred around Kit Messenger’s theory and model for how our brains work. The aim, to help students understand how their brains work informing how they react to situations so that they can learn how to prepare themselves to perform at their best in school and life. It was fantastic to see the students engaged in the discussion and tasks as one team. We look forward to taking the Noadswood year 9 students to Applemore this coming Monday to take part in the second session which will be focused on skills and techniques involved in becoming a good mentor. I am especially grateful to Miss Skinner and Miss Stanley, and the other colleagues who drive this initiative, as well as Mrs Williams and all our friends at Applemore.
As you know, I love hearing about all the fantastic activites so many families and young people are involved with outside of school, and this week, I want to pass my warmest congratulations to Beau for her truly super achievement at Crufts! She came Second showing her Grandma’s beautiful Kobi, in only her second show. Bravo, Beau and Kobi. We are proud of you here.
Finally, and with apologies to end on a sad note, we are aware of an incident that took place in the community last night (Thursday) involving two of our students, with a group of friends all around it, that had to be intervened into and about which was reported to us this morning thanks to our colleagues at the ACSO team at Hythe. I know that nearly all of our families are not involved with any of this at all, but I mention it for two reasons:
We are thankful for the work the ACSOs do to help safeguard our community and to liaise with all local schools in this prompt manner, assisting our own safeguarding; it is no use pretending such incidents haven’t happened when they have. We are so proud of this school, but we are equally aware of when trouble blows up and of young people making bad choices at times, so we want to pull together so that nothing further happens,
If your child(ren) were on the scene, we can only suggest that they are kept home safe or at a place where you or another trusted adult is present, this weekend so that emotions can begin to subside, rather than anyone thinking perpetuating something like this can ever be for the win.
If you know anything that can help us safeguard everyone from this matter, or you hear of further difficulties across the weekend please can you contact your child(ren)’s year leader team before Monday dawns?
You can use Class Charts for this or you can email them, finding their email addresses at the Contact page on our website:
https://www.noadswood.hants.sch.uk/contact-us
As I know so many of you do, it would also be a good idea to check your children’s phones regularly – not because of this incident – but are we getting across who is saying what to who online and the content all our young people are seeing?
All the secondary schools on the Waterside and into the wider New Forest have or are currently reviewing their mobile phone on site policies, given the scale of national interest in protecting childhood and young adulthood (and even middle-aged adulthood for people like me!) from the constant pressures and pings of phones. There is more to follow from us on this in the course of the summer term, but we know that checking our young people’s phones regularly and talking to them as openly as we can about what’s on there is without doubt a help.
Last week, I had an incredibly brilliant call with a parent on Saturday evening, who had done just that, pinged us a mail and made sure all was safe. I am thankful for all of that partnership and understand it’s tough indeed to stay across phone content and issues.
I wish everyone the peaceful, safe, fun weekend you all need and deserve.
Best wishes,
Kathryn Marshall and the Noadswood Leadership Team
Visit from our German Partner School
On Monday this week we enjoyed another visit from our partner school in Germany. We always look forward to their visit as it is such a lovely day for all involved. This year was no exception. It was great to see our pupils and the German pupils interacting and finding out about one another. Thank you to Mrs Sullivan for organising the visit and to her and Mrs Edmondson for managing the event so well through the day, not to mention our Germanists for engaging so well and making everyone so welcome.
Awesome Alumni
This week, ex-Noadswood student, Tom Weeks, came in to speak to some year 9 and year 10 students about his job as a paramedic. He talked about all the different roles that are involved and explained pathways to becoming a paramedic. It was a great opportunity for students who are interested in a careers in medicine to have the chance to ask questions and have discussions about their future career pathways. It is also brilliant to hear about Noadswood alumni’s successes as well as welcoming them back into the school. A huge thank you to Tom for coming in and sharing his experiences!