There are a wave of UK Maths competitions for gifted young mathematicians in January and February. Miss Crooke, who oversees and supports our entries, has provided an update:

This week one of our Year 13 students, Edward Rushmore, took part in the UKMT British Mathematical Olympiad Round 2.  This is an incredibly high-level Maths challenge with only ~100 students in the UK invited to take part.  Edward made us incredibly proud in Round 1 of the Olympiad, achieving the highest score out of all students in the East Midlands and we eagerly await his results from Round 2.

Next week, fifty students across Years 9-11 will sit the UKMT Intermediate Maths challenge on Wednesday 28th January, best of luck to all taking part!

Many congratulations to NSB rowing sensations, Xander Tilley from Year 7 and Jack Jackson-Parish from Year 9, who have respectively smashed UK records this week at school. Xander set the fastest time in the UK this season for his age group in the 2000m - his time of 9 minutes dead also places him a mightily impressive 4th in the world over this distance. Jack's time over 1000m makes him the current fastest 13 year old in the world over this distance, which is a simply incredible achievement!!!

 

There have been some impressive wins in National Cups this week, including the U13 water polo team who topped their league in Round 1 of their competition, the U15B football team who beat a very strong Thomas Telford side away from home, the U14B football team who comprehensively defeated South Bromsgrove High School and our Cross-Country runners who took the County Round by storm last weekend - as Mr Taplin reports:

On Saturday 19 NSB students ran in the Northants County Schools Cross Country Championships. The conditions were absolutely awful which made the performances all the more impressive. You will notice that we had a podium finish in every race  which is a great achievement and special congratulations to Year 7 student Rex for becoming County Champion. The top 12 in each race also qualify for the Anglian Trophy on 31st January. which is a stepping stone to The ESAA English Schools Championships. Qualifying students for the Anglian Trophy are as follows:

 

The very best of luck to our Girls Netball Team who play in the Regional Final at Oundle on Sunday as the top qualifying team from Northamptonshire and as one of only two state Comprehensive Schools who have made it to this lofty stage. We are also looking forward to two big National Cup rugby games next week - the U15s play what promises to be a block-buster of a Quarter-Final against Sedbergh School at home on Wednesday afternoon (2.15pm kick off) and the U14s travel to Richard Hale School in confident form on Thursday for their last 16 tie.

A reminder that tickets are available for the Jazz@The Cripps evening this Sunday and for the eagerly anticipated Key Stage 3 production of Robin Hood next Thursday and Friday.

Richard Bernard

Headteacher