Headteacher's Bulletin - Friday, May 17th 2024
![](/_site/data/images/news/3854/main-RBE 1).jpg)
It's been an immensely busy week at the school, not least with the GCSE and A Level exams in full swing. To date, the Year 11 and 13 students have been exceptional in their effort and attitude which bodes well for the August results.
There has been a huge amount of wonderful Duke of Edinburgh activities and achievements over the past three weeks to celebrate as Mrs O'Neill (Duke of Edinburgh organiser) outlines in her report below:
For the past twenty years I have had the pleasure of overseeing and being part of the very successful Duke of Edinburgh programme at NSB. As the award has evolved, many NSB students from Year 9 to 13 have taken part. The benefits of achieving a Duke of Edinburgh Award at any level are endless. The programme advocates that achieving an award will give students skills, confidence and an edge over others when they apply for college, university or a job. Beyond their academic achievements, universities want to see evidence of so called ‘soft skills’ that students have developed through extra-curricular activities, such as communication, commitment, leadership and teamwork. The Duke of Edinburgh Award is a fantastic way to demonstrate and evidence these skills in practice.
What is incredible as a leader, is seeing the students realise their potential in order to gain the required levels of achievement. The highlight, however, is achieving the prestigious Gold Award; so, it was a wonderful occasion last week when two of our Year 13 students, Chole Walding and Seva Kaur attended the Buckingham Palace Garden Party to receive their Gold Award from the Duke of Edinburgh. Also attending was Mason Fisher who left the school last year and I was pleasantly surprised to receive a message from former student Tom Tinant, who was in attendance, six years since leaving NSB!
![](/_site/data/files/images/2023-images/5FE3C42FB19A77DD5DEF1CE7AB261B81.jpg)
![](/_site/data/files/images/2023-images/187974C01FBE6B1EFDD19481E9752083.jpg)
The Duke of Edinburgh expedition section is just one part of the award that needs to be completed. The Duke of Edingburgh team have been busy with practice and assessed expeditions in the past couple of weeks. April 24th – 27th was the Gold practice in the Brecon Beacons in which 28 Year 12 students battled the cold and windy conditions. Last weekend could not have been more different in terms of the climate, 45 Year 9 students completed their Bronze assessed expedition in the warm sunshine. All students coped well with the challenge of an expedition and were a credit to the school. A special mention to Daniel Tilston who walked all day Saturday and camped overnight, he then left early Sunday morning to play a rugby match for Saints. When he had finished his match, he rejoined his team to complete the expedition!
We really enjoy hearing of the success of our former students, and Jamie Dunk, who left just under two years ago, is a fantastic example of an inspirational NSB alumni. We were delighted to be informed by Mrs Morrison (Jamie's mum) that he had been recently selected for the full Scotland Cricket team to open the batting at Lords against the MCC. Jamie's career is rapidly scaling the heights following a hugely successful recent U19 World Cup for Scotland and he is now knocking on the door of the professional County Cricket circuit.
Well done to the U13 Water Polo Team who battled hard in the National Final of their age group at NSB on Thursday. Although they did not lift the Cup, they will have greatly benefitted from the experience of playing at this level of competition. On the theme of National Finals, we are looking forward immensely to four National Football Final ties at the Hawthornes next week with all the games being live streamed with commentary. The very best of luck to the Year 7B team and the Year 8 Elite, A and B Teams who have been prepared extremely well by their coaches.
Finally, a reminder to Year 12 Parents / Carers that next Thursday (May 23rd) we are hosting the 'NSB Future Apprentice Evening'. The event is designed to help ensure that our Year 12 students are fully informed of the wide range of options available to them Post 18, with the apprenticeship route becoming ever more popular for school leavers across the country. Only last year, some of our Year 13 leavers secured hugely exciting apprenticeships with well established companies such as the BBC / Morgan Stanley and the Dyson Institute.
Our Careers Adviser, Mrs Howard reports:
In order to facilitate informed choices for their Post 18 options, we are holding our first ' Future Apprentice Evening' to complement the recent University and Oxbridge Evenings we held here at NSB for our Year 12 students. The evening will consist of a presentation explaining what apprenticeships are, a Q&A panel of NSB alumni that are currently completing apprenticeships, a Q&A Panel with employers to share why apprenticeships are important to them, followed by an opportunity for students to talk to a range of companies. We hope as many Year 12s as possible attend to raise their awareness of apprenticeships and to enable them to make informed decisions about which pathway or pathways are the best choice to meet their career aspirations.
Please see the apprenticeships flyer below for further information.
Wishing you a wonderful weekend.
Richard Bernard
Headteacher