Events Coming Up
18/19th Art Exam
20th Build a Book day with visiting Year 5 pupils
21st Dance Written Exam
Message from the Leadership Team
Dear Noadswood families,
We’d like to start by extending our best wishes to everyone within the Noadswood community who has been unwell with the wealth of bugs doing the rounds. This has impacted Noadswood staff too and we thank all students and staff who have engaged brilliantly with changes to their normal routine. As you’ll read below, we’ve had another fabulous week with your children!
‘Roming’ around with Orchard year 3
We had a fantastic day welcoming Year 3 students from Orchard to a special day designed to enrich their current historical topic. They spent time with our Noadswood friend, Richard from the History Squad, made ink with Miss Guppy in Science and baked biscuits inspired by a Roman recipe with Mrs Western! Our Noadswood Year 7 helpers, Autumn, Corben, Arthur, Bella, Alice and Lana, were just brilliant. We welcomed different Noadswood classes to enjoy the History Squad sessions throughout the day and they especially loved their period 5 Tudor session.
The Noadswood Robotics Team reached the Semi-finals of the First Tech Challenge Robotics Competition
Since September, the Robotics Club have been developing their skills in mechanics and coding through designing and building a robot to compete in this year’s First Tech Challenge competition.
On Saturday 9th March, Emma C, Emma D, Grace, Giulia, Rafael, Isaac and William took their robot to the qualifying tournament held at Bournemouth School for Girls.
The robot went through a series of inspections to ensure it met the strict rules of the competition! Luckily, their robot swiftly passed both inspections.
In the morning, the pupils were allowed to test their robot on the game field for the first time. During this testing process, part of the robot broke, causing a slight panic to say the least! There was some fast thinking from the team to resolve this and after lots of trial and error, the robot was fixed and better than ever with just minutes to spare before the competition started.
The team competed in five qualifying matches and surpassed even their own expectations for their first year of competition, finishing 8th overall and securing a place in the semi-finals.
The team are now looking forward to progressing their skills and embarking on next year’s challenge. With our Year 11 members moving onto college, we will be looking for new pupils from Year 8 – 11 to join the team from September 2024, so keep an eye out for announcements in the next school year.
We are so thankful to Dr Fairless and Mr Moody for taking the students and nurturing their passions and talent for this work!
World Book Day 2024
We celebrated World Book Day in style again this year with many members of staff dressing as their favourite characters for the annual Character Hunt. The hunt saw all tutor groups trying to match the character to a staff member, in order to win a prize. Last year we had a few famous dalmatians in costume, and it seems Cruella caught wind, as she arrived promptly on Thursday morning to find them! We also welcomed the Queen and Knave of Hearts from Alice’s Wonderland, Mary Poppins, Gandalf, and the Wizard of Oz’s Dorothy decided Noadswood is a better place than home and brought her cowardly lion along for the ride.
Unfortunately, lots of students had mistakenly opted for plaits and rushed to change their hairstyles as Ms. Trunchbull roamed the halls trying to decide who would be next in the chokey!
All jokes aside, it was a fantastic day and I’d like to thank all those who dressed up and students who took part. Well done to 7K1, 9D2 and 11D2 for returning their competition sheet the quickest.
Easter Concert – March 13th 2024
Noadswood’s singers and musicians were out in talented force, taking the roof off with their brilliant performances at our concert. Such an array of talent, from classical piano, through to rock bands, from brass ensemble to our two choirs raising the rafters, not to mention solos and duets aplenty – just incredible talent, ably supported by our student technical crew.
Mr. Watkins, Mrs Rees and Miss Marshall had THE best time, as did the packed audience of parents, carers, other family members, students and staff – we are such a super talented school! The Music Department is thriving, and we can’t wait now to get cracking on our school production of ‘Matilda’!
German School Visit – March 11th 2024
Our thanks to Mrs Sullivan, Mrs Goodacre and all the Noadswood students who extended a warm welcome to our visitors from our partner school in Germany for the day. The visitors always describe their day with us as a highlight of their visit to the UK and this time was no exception.
We presented them with a little hedgehog to take back with them, proudly wearing a Prefects and Head Students badge, made in the style of a Hogwarts student – this is because they pay tribute to Noadswood’s House System as the inspiration for their own.
We’re proud indeed of Team MFL setting up this visit, our French Immersion trip to Le Touquet and our virtual Spanish Exchange – there's something for everyone in the enrichment of language learning this year.
Financial assistance
In last week's newsletter, we wrote about a financial grant we have been given. This is not means tested- anyone within the Noadswood family can apply for this. We will be distributing Tesco, Asda and Skool Kit vouchers to help support families before the Easter holidays.
If your family would benefit from this, please complete the form following the link below, by Monday 18th March. Please don’t feel worried about whether you should apply or if there are families who may need this more than you- this is a confidential form and designed to help any families who may benefit from some extra help this year.
Year 11 GCSE Support
It was lovely seeing some of our Year 11 students and their families join us for an invitational additional support event with Mr. Wooster. Support plans for the students were discussed and already several students have been bringing in the fruits of their labour to show staff. We are really proud of everyone in our community, especially those who seek and act on advice when they need it. Well done to all at this pressured time for stepping up on the work once again. We will be providing further valuable revision and exam resources to all of our Year 11 students. Please watch this space.
For now, best wishes,
Kathryn Marshall and the Noadswood Leadership Team
Safeguarding and signposting
We wanted to remind you of all the various pastoral support that is available should you have any worries or concerns. We really do want you to reach out to us should there be anything at all, no matter how big or small.
A good place to start is with your tutor or your Year Leader Team. We can then discuss with you whatever it is that is causing you concern and look to see what additional support we can pop in place. This might be something like a weekly check-in with a safe and trusted adult. Sometimes though, you might feel that you need something a little more specialised.
We have a huge array of support available:
Our ELSA team: Mrs Harwood, Mrs Beales, Mrs Talbot and Mrs Merrifield.
Our School Counsellor: Miss Blanco
Our Go Fish Mentoring team: Kerry and Dylan
Our Mental Health Lead: Mrs Lavetiviti
We also continue to work alongside our Mental Health Support Team who come into school to work 1:1 with students.
We know that finding the courage to speak up when you’re struggling can be really difficult so don’t forget you can also use ClassCharts to get in touch with us and drop us a message.
Gym & Dance Show
To finish the half term, we will be hosting our annual Gym and Dance Show on Tuesday 26th and Wednesday 27th March. This event will showcase just over 100 pupil’s own choreography, BTEC Dance work, Gym and Dance Club, our Sports Acrobatics routines and Dance Live! Tickets are still available to purchase on Arbor if you would like to come and watch!
Pi Day
Yesterday, we had an array of delightful cakes submitted for the Great Mathematical Pi Bake Off. Among them were a Pi-napple Upside Down cake and a creatively themed Porky Pi chocolate cake adorned with adorable pig decorations! A heartfelt thank you to everyone who participated by showcasing their baking skills. Stay tuned for the announcement of the winners, coming soon!