A warm welcome to the Summer Term – I can’t wait to see everyone in the morning!
Here’s just a few new term shout outs, to get everyone in the best possible mood for returning to school, and a bit of immersion in successes from last term to remind you and us all just how often we smash it in so many ways. It’s not an exhaustive digest and there will be more to follow as the wheels of the term get moving! But it gives you a flavour.
But first… Covid
Let’s get this said briefly first, before you dive in to the good stuff – a reminder of the guidance since April 1st is below – any questions or anything to report to us that is Covid/suspected Covid related, it’s still health@noadswood.hants.sch.uk
Symptoms of a Respiratory Infection
People with symptoms of a respiratory infection (including COVID-19) and a higher temperature or who feel unwell should try and stay at home and avoid contact with other people until they feel well enough to resume normal activities and they no longer have a high temperature.
Confirmed Positive COVID-19 via LFT or PCR*
Anyone with a positive COVID-19 test result will be advised to try and stay at home and avoid contact with other people for five days, which is when they are most infectious. For children and young people aged 18 and under, the advice will be three days.
*Free universal testing will only be available to select groups (e.g. patients in hospital / people eligible for community COVID-19 treatments / people living in or working in some high-risk settings). This does not include school settings and no school settings will any longer be provided with test kits.
Drop Everything and Read
"At the moment that we persuade a child, any child, to cross that threshold, that magic threshold into a library, we change their lives forever, for the better. It’s an enormous force for good."
Barrack Obama.
We’d like to congratulate all of year 7 and 8 who have been dropping everything and reading for the last 2 months. Their next DEAR session will be on Tuesday 26th April p4. We have welcomed our new Learning Resource Centre Manager, Mrs Eldridge, just before Easter and so if your child(ren)/you are stuck on what to read, pop in and see her.
We’re looking forward to sharing further literacy/reading developments across all year groups, if you have ideas or would like to contribute to this please do email erollett@noadswood.hants.school.uk
Activities Week – Summer 2022
We’re excited to be able to relaunch Activities week. The pastoral team are currently making plans for a variety of activities for each year group including both on and off-site activities. More info to follow from Mrs Loveday in the next couple of weeks.
Flexible Learning Provision (formerly known as Alternative Provision)
We’re delighted that we’re also now able to relaunch our flexible learning provision this term. Mrs Penny and Miss Gates have been working hard ready for the new term and we know our students will benefit from this in a variety of ways.
Student Leadership
Last term was one of incredible student leadership from our current Head Boy, Head Girl and Deputies. Their impact on school life included:
- Taking a lead in our new student/colleague diversity team (examining curriculum, language and visibility of images/displays around a truly inclusive culture),
- Organising Red Nose Day,
- Preparing resources for our Kinda Week,
- Making changes to our uniform policy and
- Playing a lead part in our EcoGroup activities.
Our prefects also did an excellent job supporting us with duties around the school site – on some of those rainy days, busy inside, I don’t think they’ll truly realise how much of a support they were.
It’s now a super exciting time for our year 10 students as the deadline for student leadership and prefect teams is approaching. The current team are keen to help with the coaching, with the job descriptions for Head Boy/Girl and Deputies, House Captains and Prefects and to help the new team build on the excellent work and genuine leadership of our school alongside me and the senior team that they have been centrally part of.
Mrs Smoker and Miss Ebblewhite are also in the throes of launching a brand new junior prefect initiative - keep your eyes peeled for more details on that one.
Summer Camp 2022
We’re delighted to be in the early stages of planning our Summer Camp 2022 for current year 6 students, as we did last year. Noadswood students are integral to the success of this - if your child(ren)/you would like to be a helper there is going to be a get together at break time to M23 on Friday 29th April to find out more.
Uniform
Mr Rowling, Assistant Headteacher, and we all would be hugely grateful for your continued support with respect to piercings – we made important progress last half term on this in making things safe in all parts of our curriculum, in line with the uniform policy we’ve always had:
Jewellery
No jewellery other than a pair of small stud earrings in the lower lobe of the ear. Hoop earrings, ‘drop’ earrings, necklaces and bracelets are not permitted for health and safety reasons. Where a student has a piercing not in line with the school policy, they will be expected to remove it or wear a small clear plastic retainer. A wristwatch or medical alert can be worn. No other piercings are permitted.
This term, we want to make a similar push on appropriate footwear for school – when we dress professionally and smartly, it helps to set a professional, proud tone.
More to follow, but we want everyone to remember: this isn’t a new policy, just a renewed, restored focus on the expectations we’ve always had, and that many hundreds of our students stick to all the time.
If you need any support with the purchasing of uniform, please contact finance@noadswood.hants.sch.uk and the team will liaise with Mrs Loveday to support you.
Earth Day - Friday 29/04/2022
On Friday 29th April we will be marking Earth Day at Noadswood – we’re hoping for lots of participation from everyone, with lots of little changes for the day taking place in order to raise awareness of the current environmental issues and challenges facing us all. The Eco Club have put together details in a document outlining what we’ll be doing, which can be accessed here:
https://www.noadswood.hants.sch.uk/sites/default/files/media-files/2022-04/Earth%20Day%202022.pdf
If you can, on Friday 29/04/2022 walk / cycle to school; use a refillable bottle; avoid single use plastics; be responsible with your litter; and enjoy many lessons with an environmental theme and on the day.
You are also encouraged to wear something of an earthy colour (greens / blues / browns) or wear something old – this can be a single item or full MUFTI with these colours / old clothes. If you wish to take part with the wearing of earth colours then please donate £1, via Scopay, with all money raised helping Noadswood purchase recycling bins for the site so we can do our very best for a sustainable future.
Some shining star moments from last term:
- Incredible performances from everyone in the Gym and Dance Show, following some equally incredible success from various Noadswood students in a whole host of regional and national competitions. The whole event made me genuinely pretty emotional – the joy and teamwork were just tangibly brilliant, and the talent and commitment equally so. How fantastic it was to be together again – I had parked just how much I have missed events like this.
- Great competition triumphs for two teams of Noadswood students:
1. A team of 5 year 8 students attended the Soroptimist STEAM Challenge Finals at Bournemouth University. Our students came first in the Year 8 category with their emergency nutrition bar 'Hazard Healthy'. Their brief was to design anything at all that could help the world's poorest people. They worked hard to narrow down this broad brief and develop their final idea. They tested the bars for strength (so they don't crumble during transportation) and taste and calculated the energy content.
Their work was inspired by the struggle faced by people in Haiti struck by earthquakes, however, they also expanded their presentation to include the situation in Ukraine. The group were praised for their lateral thinking, good teamwork and strong leadership, as well as their creativity and enthusiasm for their work.
Well done to Mia, Laylah, Evie, Niamh and Mollie, and huge thanks to Dr Shaw for her time, expertise and commitment - our STEAM champions!
2. A team of Year 7 and 8 students also took part in a competition called Net Zero, organised by the Solent Local Enterprise Partnership. We were one of 18 schools taking part across a 2-day event, that challenged the students to create a product that would tackle a local environmental issue.
They won both the local heat and the overall competition! More to follow as we go on to publicise their ideas further and share with you the uses that will be made of their prizes.
But in the meantime, a huge well done to Freddie, Molly, Kenzie-Leigh, Oli, Jess Harvey, Emily, Emily Sophia, Summer, Callum and mega thanks to Miss McNab for her top work, energy and leadership of this project – our Net Zero champs!
This scratches the surface of the successes and superstars at Noadswood that I encounter every day – more will be coming your way next week celebrating a host of different kinds of stars, ones that shine in small, important everyday ways, but which make the school a great place to be.
Farewells and Hellos!
I want to publicly thank English teacher, Mrs Watkins, for superb work covering one term of Miss Walker’s Maternity Leave – she was a true superstar – and then I want to warmly welcome back Mrs Eldridge to Team English, following her Maternity Leave. Lovely stuff all round!
We’re also welcoming Mrs Lavetiviti to the pastoral team, who will be supporting the administrative demands for the team as well as being someone else to whom the team and students can turn during the week.
It’ll be equally good to welcome Miss Bottell to the PE Department, as we wish Mrs Ayrton well on her Maternity Leave. What a fantastic term to join a PE Department, as the weather improves and we build towards the athletics season and Sports Day down the line!
Not hellos, as these two have been part of the Noadswood family for a long time, but a welcome to them into new roles:
As mentioned above, Mrs Penny joins Miss Gates and the pastoral team in our Flexible Learning Provision, whilst Mrs Williams steps up the work she has already been integrally involved within our PD provision to take a lead LSA role there. We wish them both every success in these new roles – I feel lucky indeed to work with colleagues like them who are keen to develop and extend their skills in new ways. They’re both going to be knock out, I am sure.
We hope your chil(dren)/you will enjoy the first week of the new term – if you need us, please drop someone an ePraise message, maybe your child’s tutor or year leader, or one of the Leadership Team or myself at headteacher@noadswood.hants.sch.uk if you have a worry or a question on your mind.
I will be writing next about superstars, as I say, but also to consult you about Noadswood becoming part of different sorts of educational partnerships and about the questions you raised in the recent survey some of you were good enough to complete – we want to make sure we pick up on every point raised and where you don’t think we’re informing you well enough yet, as well as share the things you think are ticking along well.
All our best and thanks for your continued support,
Kathryn Marshall and the Noadswood Leadership Team