A team of Year 9 students proudly represented NSB at the Northampton Schools County Challenge event held earlier this week at the County Police Headquarters. The boys had prepared assiduously to put together a highly polished and varied presentation on the perils of vaping, including a hard hitting drama exert. Staff leader of the group, Ms Childs reports:

On Tuesday 19 June, a group of Year 9 pupils headed to the Police Headquarters to compete in the Northamptonshire County Schools Challenge. This year's focus was tackling the issue of vaping use among young people, and the students went to present their business plan to the 'Dragons.'

Pupils gave up their free time to complete this challenge, planning, researching, rehearsing, and practising to ensure they were ready for the rigour and challenge of the competition. Shailen, Flynn, Anill, Jotham, Hussain, Leo, Peter, and Sam did us and the school proud, remaining calm, focused, and professional throughout, delivering an outstanding presentation centred on a drama piece. Thanks to Matei and Dylan for their support on the day offering their peers encouragement and calming last minute nerves. 

After the presentation had finished, the students enjoyed a range of experiences with all the emergency services represented, including a tour of the control room, fire engine, and a police transport van with the opportunity to wear full police tactical gear including handcuffs, much to the enjoyment of all involved.  

We were incredibly proud of the boys' performance, and they were celebrated for their professionalism, creativity, and confidence throughout the day. We will find out if we’ve made it through to the final soon – fingers crossed!

Mr Taplin and his staff team have consistently produced impressively strong NSB Athletics Teams, and this year is proving to be no exception. Mr Taplin reports on the latest round of meets that the students have been competing in!

Last Saturday we had 23 athletes competing in the County Championships at Corby. We had 5 County Champions and 6 others finishing on the podium. Those who finished in the top 2 will compete for Northants at the Mason trophy in Stoke this weekend.:

Junior Boys (Y8 and 9)

Alex Kampta - 1^st in the 800m

Freddie Love - 2^nd in the 800m

Alfie Goodman - 2^nd in the 100m and 3^rd in the Long Jump

Intermediate Boys (Y10 and 11)

Reuben Walters - 1^st in the 100m Hurdles

Freddie Harris - 1^st in the 800m

Joshua Pinney - 1^st in the 1500m

Mikey Graham - 1^st in the Shot

Harry Bradley Brophy - 2^nd (huge new personal best of 1.80m) in the High Jump 

Dan Tilston - 2^nd in the Javelin

Will Bryan - 3^rd in the Shot

One of the great highlights was Ted Hinton returning to competition in the 200m for the first time since his injury at the Track and Field Cup Final in 2023.

Mikey Graham (shot) and Freddie Harris (800m) will be travelling with the Northamptonshire team to the English School's Track and Field Cup Final in Birmingham in July.

On Wednesday, we took two teams to the ESAA Track and Field Cup Regional Final in Nuneaton.

Performance highlights of the Junior Boys (Y7 and 8 in this competition) Team included Alex Kampta who scored 41 points in total, which is an outstanding score and Ali Shah who totalled 39 points. The team score was 343 which was much better than the last competition so improvements all round.

Below is the result card from the Intermediate Boys (Y9 and 10). You will notice that they came first and therefore qualified for the National Final in Chelmsford on 5^th July. This is a jump of over 30 points from the last round which shows the potential in the team. Mikey Graham scored 39 points in one event which is one of the highest in the country for his age group (surpassed by himself in the last round with a score of 40!). Harry BB scored 46 points in both of his events which is another outstanding performance. Fin Shields was in his first major athletics event and scored 44 points!

 

Well done also to the following boys who placed in the Minor Boys Town Championships on Wednesday:

Minor Boys Town Champiosnhips

Kyjah Adams - 1^st in the Shot

Ethan Kontah - 3^rd in the Long Jump

There's been some great performances on the cricket field this week with the Year 9s recording two victories in the Fred Trueman State School Cup. Result of the season to date though goes to the Year 8 team who recorded a magnificent win by one wicket away against a very talented Winchester House Prep School side who were previously unbeaten throughout this season (and last) and were also playing in their last ever cricket game for their school. It was a nail-biting contest with NSB Captain, Will Bernard leading from the front with two wickets, twenty runs and a lightening fast slip catch to dismiss their top

batsman and the rest of the NSB team following suit with impressive contributions from 1 to 11. The match was finished off quite brilliantly by one of NSB's opening bowlers, Andrew McGourty who showed immense courage in coming out to bat as last man in, under intense pressure from the opposition in the field who needed the last wicket to tie, to strike the winning run with a glorious lofted drive tantalisingly over Mid Off's reach triggering NSB celebrations from beyond the boundary and Coach Bradbury to unleash one of his famous ear to ear grins which hasn't left his countenance all week! Staying on the cricket theme, our Year 7s are currently battling it out in the Semi-Finals of the County Cup against Oundle School over at the ONs and next Friday we are greatly looking forward to our prestigious annual fixture against the MCC.

 

Richard Bernard
Headteacher