Noadswood Termly Newsletter Feburary 2025

The second highlight I want to mention is our Trust Board meeting last night – I am thankful to the parents and local community members on our Board who provide us with hours of their time, challenge and support throughout the year. Trustees – or Governors as you may be more used to calling them – provide a vital role in any school or Trust in holding us to account, in taking seriously monitoring our priorities, our objectives, our budget and our provision for your children. Maybe you would like to join the Board? They are friendly, experienced and committed to the cause. If you would like a chat with me and our Chair, Alison, about their work and what you could offer, drop us a mail at headteacher@noadswood.hants.sch.uk

An interest in our school and availability for some meetings here at school or on Teams is all you need.

Finally, I have gone a few weeks without mentioning them, so it’s a big shout out to my choir! Happy half term, one and all! As ever, the practices we have had this half term have lifted my heart. We are including a song of gratitude and thankfulness in the language spoken in Rwanda, amongst our usual hits! We are preparing for our fundraiser at the end of March for the school our group will visit as part of the Rwanda excursion in the summer, as well as for our school concert. What a great bunch of enthusiastic, eclectic singers they are! They do you and themselves proud.

Finally, our usual reminder: please remember we have Skool Kit and supermarket vouchers available to help support families. These are not means tested and are for any families who may benefit from them, so please just reach out to your child's Year Leaders.

Whatever you and your children are doing over the break, we wish everyone a very good week. If you need us during the break, please use info@noadswood.hants.sch.uk marking your mail URGENT.

And on this Valentine’s Day, I’m thanking everyone for connection, commitment, honesty, stickability and fun – key components of love in anyone’s language.

Best wishes,

Kathryn Marshall and the Noadswood leadership Team

REDWOOD

It has been lovely start to the Spring term here at Redwood.

Firstly, the students have been busy in the kitchen, and they will be in outdoor sessions preparing for upcoming campfire cooking in the upcoming half term. The students have been making hot dog kebabs, sausage and bean casseroles, puff pastry desserts and lots of snacks! They have also been spending time planning and preparing the garden getting it ready for our much-anticipated forest school space!

In Life Skills, the students have been planning upcoming trips into the local community. They have planned their transport and activities, deciding on where to stop for lunch! We have also recently secured an allotment that will be being shared alongside Flexible Learning. The students are excited to start growing fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs to use within their cooking in the following months.

The KS4 students have continued visiting different colleges such as Totton, Brockenhurst and Sparsholt; preparing them for their post 16 provision. Some students have also continued to visit Crazy Creatures, working towards AQA awards. During this half term, they have been looking at exotic animals such as lizards, snakes and stick insects. They are excited to start looking at birds next half term!

In Art, we have been creating gargoyle sculptures. The students spent time researching and designing their gargoyles and have turned these into 3D, clay models. The students are excited for these to dry and to be fired in the kiln ready for painting. In the meantime, they have started looking at ink printing and have been enjoying creating a display of positive and negative prints using a variety of colours and techniques.

The students have settled well into the new year and have continued to show resilience and independence. We are very proud of them and their progress over the following weeks and are looking forward to seeing what the rest of the term brings!

Fundraising

Rwanda Evening of Food and Entertainment

Thursday 27th March from 6-8pm

Want to see our team attempt an authentic Rwandan dance routine? And hear Miss Marshall’s choir sing some Rwandan songs (amongst their usual array of bangin’ hits!) Then come along to this event!

This summer, 13 excited and intrepid students will be venturing to the heart of Africa with three staff. Why are we going? This trip links with a longstanding St Andrews partnership with Maranyundo parish in Rwanda. Our Noadswood community links have enabled us to put together a 10-day cultural visit to experience Rwanda’s rich heritage, natural environment and local communities. This is an opportunity for young people to step out of their comfort zone, learn teambuilding and leadership skills, experience a totally different culture, and learn more about the history, geography and environmental diversity of this fascinating country.

We will be holding a special fundraising event for the partnership school which we will be visiting during the trip. With a strong commitment to sport here, we would love to support the parish link school with sports and school equipment that is much needed and would be enjoyed by many.

There’s nothing like a challenge to bring a team together; to raise money, build our team and, most of all, entertain you, so we are putting together a unique evening of entertainment. This will include food, music, dancing and more.

Tickets will be on sale after the half term holiday and will be £10.50 for adults and £6.50 for children. Please come along and support our students as they step forward into this new adventure.

Student Voice

We are currently raising funds for some more outdoor shelters so that students can go outside and get some fresh air, whilst being able to stay dry when it is raining. Money raised from all of the Wear Something Different days are going towards this new project. Surveys have been completed with students, and this is what they would like to see more of.

Student voice have had Tony Lane, the regional manager of Caterlink who supplies the food for our students, come to visit them. He listened to all of our feedback from the students and have already started to make changes. We asked for more cold food options, so two new open refrigerators have been installed to hold more baguettes and drinks. They have also introduced different Meal Deal options for £3.20. These will change daily.

We asked – They listened

Bikeability Level 2 and 3 Courses available

Bikeability will fully fund any course that a student takes part in, as long as they have not completed it before at another school. You must pass your level 2 course before you can take the Level 3 course. There are spaces for Level 2 and 3 courses on Tuesday 27th and Friday 30th May from 9am-12pm or 12.30pm-3.30pm. If you have not already booked on and would like your child to take part in one of these courses, please click here.

If either of these dates are not suitable to you, Bikeability will be coming back on Tuesday 29th July and Wednesday 27th August. If these dates would be better for you, please still complete the form above, and then email Marina Wyse on mwyse@noadswood.hants.sch.uk letting her know a preferred date and time. We are hoping to run these courses on an annual basis going forward.

Business Studies KS4 Students ‘Save the Date’.

More details to follow after half term, but Miss Munro will be holding a Support Your Child with Business Studies session on Wednesday 5th March 5.30pm-6.00 pm. If you are unable to attend this, we will make resources available after the event.

Subject News

MFL

Year 11 mock exams:

Students have been participating in review meetings with their teacher to talk about the preparation they did for the mock listening, reading, and writing papers. We have then discussed together how they are going to build on this to prepare for their GCSE exams.

At the moment, we are getting ready for the mock speaking exams, which will take place on the 27th of February for Spanish and French and the 5th of March for German.

German school visit:

We are very much looking forward to welcoming staff and students from our German partner school in March. It is always lovely to see everyone and creates a real buzz around school with our students interacting with the German students.

Geography

On Thursday 6th February, we had a fantastic opportunity to take 30 year 10 students to Fawley Oil Refinery. The day started with an introduction from 3 members of the EXXON team, who spoke about their career paths and their role at the refinery. We then boarded a coach which took us on a site tour - we couldn't believe how big the site is and just how many pipes there are! Students also had the opportunity to take part in some interactive workshops such as using VR headsets, purifying water, and talking to some apprentices who have just started their careers at Fawley. I would like to thank the staff at Fawley for organising such a brilliant event and to our students for their excellent behaviour throughout the day.

Miss Skinner, Mrs Conti, and Mrs Way

History

Opportunity for years 8 & 9

We are advertising the cultural trip to Krakow next year for our current year 8 & 9s. They have the opportunity to visit places from history books...

Recently, over 40 Year 10 GCSE Historians attended 'The Doctor's Show' at Berry Theatre Hedge End produced by School History Scene.

The Doctor's Show is a lively and engaging play that explores the history of medicine in Britain - from the Middle Ages to modern times.

Following each part of the play, students took part in an interactive workshop designed to strengthen their GCSE knowledge. They also took on the role of examiners; marking sample answers and gaining valuable insight into improving their own exam performance.

It was a fantastic experience for all involved and Noadswood have loved attending this annual event for the last 10 years.

The History Department are excited to launch the Y11 trip to Fort Nelson on Wednesday 1st October. It will be open to current Y10 history students. This will be a fantastic opportunity for GCSE historians to enrich their experience of the curriculum and to develop their understanding of WW1.

Students will take part in a WW1 study day which will include an immersive recruitment session, led by a recruitment Sergeant, during which students will discover how men were persuaded to join the army. They will also examine British and German equipment including shells, machine guns and grenades. They will find out about the horrors of the trenches through the injuries and illnesses that soldiers would have faced, and then discover the medical advancements being made during the First World War and how these were used in the chain of evacuation. This part of the day is linked closely to the Medicine in Britain site study, The British sector on the Western Front, 1914 – 1918: Injuries, treatment and the trenches and will support students to consolidate their understanding of this part of the GCSE course.

There are 60 places available for the trip and the cost of the trip is £19. More details can be found on Arbor. If you would like your child to attend, please sign up on Arbor by Monday 3rd March.

ART

The Art department has been a vibrant hub of activity this half term. Students have been exploring news topics and techniques.

Year 7 and 8 have been exploring colour theory, in particular the colour wheel and complementary colours. Please do take a look at the amazing control of paint students have shown in their work.

Year 9 have just finished making their gargoyle and grotesques heads. They are ready to be fired in the kiln. They have worked very hard transforming their ideas into clay sculptures. Well done year 9!

Year 10 continue to develop and work hard on their BTEC and GCSE art coursework. GCSE fine art have been producing some lovely fluid art landscapes. GCSE photography have been working on portraiture. BTEC Students are just finishing up their clay tiles and slab pots using their theme on travel for their controlled assessment.

Year 11 GCSE Fine Art, Photography and Textile Design have made an exciting start to their exam prep work. Students have really started to show not only their technical skill but also the growth of each student is evident in their ideas and work. The Art department look forward to seeing their creativity flourish and artwork develop. Don’t forget that catch up sessions run every Tuesday for all KS4 students. This helps students to complete and keep up to date with coursework.

A big congratulations to Izzy, in year 10, for her design being selected by Furzey Gardens which will form part of their Jurassic trail, alongside other local artists! Well done, Izzy, we cannot wait to see your design brought to life!

Jurassic at Furzey will on this summer. Please do take a look on their website for more information and dates. https://www.furzey-gardens.org/jurassic-furzey/

Notice - Art club will be moving to every Thursday from now on in T22. 3PM-4PM.

On behalf of the Art department -well done to all students on their efforts and artwork this half term.

English

Year 7 have been studying poetry this half term. Here is an example of some excellent poems that some students in Mrs. White's class wrote - well done!

Year 8 have been exploring a range of ballads whilst Year 9 have been studying World Poetry.

Year 10 have focussed on studying the GCSE Power and Conflict poetry collection and they have also worked hard revising The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde which is the set 19th Century text for GCSE Literature. Alongside their Literature studies, year 10 students have also been developing their understanding of the Language papers.

Well done to Year 11 who completed both Language papers and Literature Paper 2 in their mocks. Keep up the hard work, continue attending after school revision and learn those Mr. Bruff songs!

Finally, a group of year 11 students attended a trip to the Mayflower Theatre to watch a production of An Inspector Calls. It was a fantastic trip, and we hope that students found the performance beneficial in developing their knowledge of the play.

Maths

Save the date! The Great Mathematical Pi Bake Off.

On the 17th March, the Maths department will be celebrating International Pi Day. Bake a cake or pie to take part in the competition. More details to follow later in March.

Media Studies

Year 10 and Year 11 Media Studies students have been studying sitcoms this half term. It's been really interesting to have so many discussions about stereotypes and representations in the media. Calling all Media Studies students and any Year 9 students who might be considering it as an option next year - watching a Sitcom counts as revision!

Well done to Year 11 students who completed their Media Studies mock exam in January! We will be doing a second mock in class over the next few weeks and putting all the Component 2 hard work into practice.

Computer Science

Computer Science students are working hard to gain all the necessary skills required to get good grades in their GCSEs. Revision sessions have started again.

A student has been working on a practical computing project, with a volunteer, to assemble a buggy that a microbit computer can control through the use of sensors. She has used block coding to do this (an example of block coding from make code website is shown in the other picture). The student was able to talk me through what she did, and she learnt a lot. Great work!

DT

We're excited to share the delicious details of our recent student food trip to Brockenhurst College. Our budding chefs had a fantastic time learning the art of bread-making from the college's expert culinary instructors.

Highlights of the Trip:

Hands-on experience: Students got to knead bread dough, shape and add a collection of finishing touches before baking.

Variety of bread shapes taught: Classic bread rolls, the rams head, flat rolls and butterflies.

Delicious results: The aroma of freshly baked bread filled the college kitchen.

Pastry tarts: Students made delicious white chocolate and raspberry tarts and practiced a range of presentation techniques - perfect inspiration for the handful of year 11 students that are sitting their final food exam in a few weeks.

Facilities: The trip also included a tour of the college's kitchens and in house restaurant. Students had a chance to work with college students on the Hospitality program and chat to the chefs about all the college has to offer. It is a particularly hands on experience with real industry chefs and fabulous worldly trips.

Thank You:

We'd like to thank Brockenhurst College for hosting us and for providing such a memorable experience for our students. We're also grateful to Mr Willoughby for driving the minibus on his day off.

DANCE LIVE 2025

On Tuesday 28th February, we took as a team of 6 staff and 49 students to participate in the Dance Live 2025 event at the Portsmouth Guildhall. The event takes place all over the country and schools come together to showcase their work and get the chance to meet other students and see others' work as part of an evening performance.

Each entry has to complete a seven-minute piece of choreography which must be accompanied by a seven-minute video which is played as a backdrop and helps to tell the story of their piece. This year, our piece focused on the impact of artificial intelligence and how it influenced people’s self- concept through childhood, the teenage years and finally the influence it could have on our future careers.

Noadswood achieved two awards on the night. We were given a creative achievement for our LED video, and we got the award for the best technical piece. More importantly, the students we took had an amazing experience. Their performance, enthusiasm and conduct throughout the daytime rehearsals and during the evening show was exemplary. The staff team were very proud of them!