Headteacher's Bulletin - Friday, September 5th 2025
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It's been an impressive back to school start by the students and all year groups have settled well. The two new Year 7 and 12 cohorts have been particularly encouraging with the way in which they have embraced the NSB ethos. It has also been pleasing to see so many students already engaged with our extensive extracurricular programme, with a number of sports and expressive arts groups already starting practices / rehearsals.
The school celebrated exceptional GCSE and A level results in the summer with grades in both sets of public examinations well above the national average. Links to the press releases can be found here with highlights including a grade average per GCSE entry well over a whole grade higher than the national average and 67% of all A Levels graded A*-B, which is over 10% above the national average.
Even though it was the summer break, several students enjoyed some remarkable international sporting success over the holiday. Many congratulations to the following students:
Hugh Shields - England U18 Rugby
Jack Lewis - England U18 Rugby
Aiden Reid - England U18 Rugby
Ciaran Morrow - Republic of Ireland U16 football
George Miyako - Great Britain Youth Flag Football
Mario Vasconcellos-Blanch - England U17 Swimming 100m Fly National Champion and silver / bronze in the 100m Free and 50m Fly respectively
Mario Vasconcellos-Blanch
Cian Morrow
Hugh, Jack and Aiden
One of the highlights of the summer was undoubtedly the wonderful U18 NSB rugby tour of South Africa where the team played brilliantly against some of the top South African schools to earn some memorable wins. NSB has built up incredibly strong links with Township School, Mwbwenekie Primary and has always sought to offer what we can to enhance their educational provision. This heart warming video highlights the hugely positive relationship between the two schools.
Four Year 13 students - Isaac Levett, Natsumi Ao, Chloe Alcazar and Mahlatji Manthata spent a significant part of their Year 12 preparing for and participating in the Cambridge University Biology Challenge. Schools from all over England competed against each other, responding to searching monthly questions with creative submissions including essays, posters and videos. The thought-provoking topics were: Does behaviour fossilise? Pick an aspect of Christmas/winter and discuss it from a biological perspective. Why do we dream, and what might animals dream of? Using an example, discuss how biology can explain a ‘mysterious thing’. The results came in over the summer holidays and the NSB team finished a brilliant 11th out of the 914 schools who entered - a huge well done to all four students for finishing in the top 2% in the country!
The school always enjoys hearing about the success of former students and alumni Billy Baker (2012-17) has forged a great career as a professional musician. Billy is shortly launching his upcoming solo piano Extended Play (EP) Piano Reflections (to be released on September 12th ), and his single - Levitation (was released on Friday, 29 August Listen here - Levitation). Billy's music has been professionally described as 'evocatively sublime, highly skilled and eloquent' and the associated press release for the EP / single can be found here.
Traditionally our Year 13 Leavers put on a show before they begin their University / Apprenticeship places. This year is no exception and a multi-talented cast will be performing Aladdin at the Cripps Theatre on Sunday, September 14th at 7pm. It is always a richly entertaining night, with tickets now on sale !!!!
Richard Bernard
Headteacher
