Huge congratulations to Year 13 students, Briony Bernhardt Cooper, Abigail Davie, Patricia Dinu, and Mini Liu, who placed an amazing 5^th nationally in the prestigious Cambridge University Biology Challenge out of 941 teams! The girls attended the awards event last weekend where they received a trophy for winning a Round -  "Most Original Entry" . The girls have sent in this report:

Our Year 13 Team enjoyed remarkable success in this year's Cambridge Biology Challenge, hosted by Homerton College, Cambridge. Throughout the competition, teams have to debate and respond to four challenging biological questions across the year; demonstrating outstanding scientific curiosity, teamwork and critical thinking.

Our students achieved national recognition, with one NSB team, made up of Briony Bernhardt-Cooper, Abigail Davie, Patricia Dinu, and Mini Liu, finishing an incredible 5th place out of 942 teams nationwide. They were also awarded a plaque for the Most Original Submission in the first round of the competition for their ‘game of life’ board game entry in response to the question ‘can new life be created?’.

Pati Dinu who was part of the 5th placed team described the experience of attending the award ceremony at Homerton over the weekend:

‘We had the opportunity to participate at Cambridge Bio Challenge  and visit Homerton College in  Cambridge for the final round and  awarding ceremony .

We were extremely proud to represent NSB at such a prestigious event, where we received a plaque for our school for the most original submission in the first round, and certificates for placing 5th nationally out of 941 other teams. Throughout the year, we were given four questions to research and answer, such as "Can new life be created?" and "Why is maths a gift for biologists?"; overall, debating these topics challenged us whilst simultaneously bringing our team closer and forming new friendships.

The event at the Homerton College has been meticulously planned by staff and volunteer students, offering us a various range of exciting activities : during the morning, we took part in their carefully crafted "escape room", which challenged us to think outside the box to solve their interview-style logic puzzles, ranging from mathematics, biology and chemistry riddles - an experience which we are very grateful for as it exposed us to a new format of learning and information processing. After campus tours, we attended a lecture delivered by their academic leadership team, prompting us to reignite our childish curiosity through the debate of which came first - the chicken or the egg?  

We had an amazing time at Homerton College and wanted to thank everyone for their support, from the staff at NSB who let us know about this opportunity to the volunteers who helped the day run smoothly!’

Mr Goswell (Deputy Director of Sixth Form & Biology teacher) said ‘this opportunity not only challenges them academically but also helped build new friendships and strengthen their teamwork. Congratulations to all the students involved for representing NSB with such distinction. Their achievement is a testament to their hard work, enthusiasm and passion for biology, and we look forward to seeing what they accomplish next as they think about their next steps post-18’.

Other students competing in the challenge across all four rounds and placing nationally: Holly Morris, Olivia Spencer, Taryn Payne, Holly Hunter, Rowan White, Nadiia Virchenko, Victor Titovitch, Amelia Chui, Emma Osabutey, Adaobi Obinna, Mishca Cooray and Charlotte Spinner.

This year’s challenge will be launched for our new Year 12 students later this term.

 

Another Year 13 student - Alice Berrill performed brilliantly at the recent U20 European Water Polo Championships representing Great Britain. The British squad finished 8^th out of 20 European countries - the highest placing for our national side in many years.  Alice excelled and her performance as one of the top goal scorers in the game against a world-class Greece outfit leaves her full of confidence going into the GB Senior Team Trials this weekend. 

The NSB Golf squad has never been stronger, with amazing strength in depth across all three Key Stages. Two of the younger students - Harry Odell Year 8 and Oliver Golby Year 9 were recently part of a 6 man under 14 Northamptonshire side who won the Midland County Golf Championship for the first time.  The team topped a leaderboard of twelve counties with Harry shooting an amazing lowest gross score of just 2 over par off the competition tees to also win the individual event. This Northamptonshire victory was always on the cards with both boys showing tremendous form going into the tournament  - Harry recently won the Northamptonshire County Golf Club's Junior and Oliver the Fairway Legends Major Open in the preceding weeks.

 

The Sixth Form Production of 'Frozen' takes place on Sunday evening at the Cripps. It promises to be a night of fantastic singing, music and entertainment and a final swan song for our super talented Year 13 leavers before they move on to University/Apprenticeships. Details are below - it would be great to see our departing students royally off with a packed Theatre! 

 

 

The new Year 7 cohort are already fully enveloped in the crucial foundation skill of reading - Trust Director of Reading - Mrs Barlow reports:

Across the NSB Trust, we are committed to ensuring students have access to high-quality, engaging books, to help unlock their full potential inside and outside the classroom. This approach begins on transition day, when all students are invited to select a book of their choice. Students were excited to receive their chosen books when they arrived in Year 7 and there has already been plenty of reading taking place during Personal Development. This year, the selection followed the theme of "Go All In", the focus of the National Year of Reading. Across the year, students will also be able to select reading options from a wealth of books in the schools' libraries, which are constantly growing and refreshing their selections. We hope the book gifts secure a positive attitude to reading, which will be encouraged throughout the students' school life. 

 

The First XV have a joint Daily Mail Cup / Schools' Championship Game tonight against Ipswich School tonight at The Casuals RFC - 7.30pm kickoff after the Second XV start proceedings at 6pm. The new Year 7s will have their first ever run out tomorrow alongside games for the U16s, U14s and U13s- best of luck to all taking part.

 

 

 

Finally, we are super proud of Northampton School's first full Ofsted Report which came out yesterday with 'Strong' gradings and glowing comments across the board. The full report can be read here:

Northampton School - Open - Find an Inspection Report - Ofsted

 

Richard Bernard MBE

Headteacher