Head Teacher's Message 

Our Year 8 Art students have enjoyed looking at the work of American Artist  Kimmy Cantrell and the topic of African Masks. Working from their designs students created their own  card and clay masks.  Students have really enjoyed this experience and there are some fantastic outcomes. Well done Year 8.

Year 9 have been busy creating fantasy boxes this half term. They have constructed in card, sculpted in clay, painted and drawn surreal creatures.
It's been a brilliant experience and I would like to say well done to all of our students!

Year 12 

What a fantastic half term. Students have been refining and mastering a wide range of materials since January and the artwork they have produced is Amazing. These are just a few pieces that will shortly be on display in school hall from March. I look forward to seeing how Year 12 develop further. 

CISCO – Introduction to JavaScript

Following the success last year, the Computer Science Department has launched its next CISCO Networking Academy course - Introduction to JavaScript: The Language of the Web for all students in in KS4 or KS5 .

Students use web-based and mobile applications every day when watching an embedded video on your news app, using the search box on Amazon, or refreshing their Instagram feed. What is powering these applications?

Students can learn how interactive web and mobile apps are created with JavaScript  and learn to program their own! JavaScript is a text-based programming language and this course is a great place for them to start learning programming. No prior knowledge required.

You don’t have to be a Computer Science student to sign up to the CISCO courses, students just have to be interested in the topic area, want to try something new and able to work independently (approx. 20 hours of self-study) and work to deadlines (31^st March 2023).

If your child is in KS4 or KS5 and would like to start, or continue working, on their CISCO Networking career then use the following enrolment link: https://www.netacad.com/portal/web/self-enroll/m/course-1719294

Silicon Spa -Video Games Exhibition in Leamington Spa

Date: Now until 8 May 2023
Location: Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum
Time: Tuesday to Friday 10am - 4pm  (Gallery closed on Mondays)

Leamington is the centre of one of the oldest and largest clusters of video games companies in the UK, making a significant impact on the global stage and employing 2500 people who work  in all kinds of roles, from concept art to coding, and sound design to community engagement.

This exhibition traces the history of the gaming industry in Leamington and the surrounding area and gives a glimpse into the working lives of games developers.     

Visitors of all ages can try their hand at designing a video game.

In addition to the exhibition there is a programme of events including talks, tours and family activities.                  

KS3 Update

In Year 7 students have been studying ‘A Monster Calls’ a superb book by Patrick Ness. They have recently been using the novel to begin to write analytically about Conor’s emotions and how we as a reader interpret these. They will continue to study ‘A Monster Calls’ as we move into Spring 2 but will turn their attention to writing their own creative and descriptive writing.

Year 8 have been studying their first Shakespeare play here at NLS with ‘The Tempest’. To kick start this, students took part in a workshop which introduced them to the setting, characters and themes of the play. The students thoroughly enjoyed this and it ignited their enthusiasm for one of Shakespeare’s most magical and wondrous plays. As we move into Spring 2, our Year 8 students will be studying Dystopian fiction and recreating their own Dystopian worlds.

KS4 Update

Year 9 students breached the gap the between KS3 and Ks4 by looking at, what is normally a GCSE text, Shakespeare’s play, ‘Romeo and Juliet’.  Students were tasked with writing analytically on this text, exploring how Shakespeare uses language to portray such ideas as power, violence and conflict. Year 9 students will next half-term be continuing their study of this most famous of plays, but turning their hands to writing creatively.   

In Year 10, pupils have studied English Language paper 1. The paper is divided in to two sections with section A requiring students to analyse writers’ use of language and structure as well as using evaluative skills to explore how a writer conveys an idea to the reader. Section B is the writing component of paper 1 and requires students to write a description or narrative based on a picture as a stimulus.

Year 11 this half-term worked on their GCSE English Language paper 2 and sat a mock exam in this in the last week of term.  The next half-term will see them having bespoke in class intervention based on the mocks they have taken this year in both language and literature.  English revision for Year 11 students takes place EVERY TUESDAY in H015 and H016. Students should be attending as many sessions of these as they can in order to prepare fully for their final GCSE English exams in the summer. For further information, please contact cwilliams@northleamington.co.uk or swright@northleamington.co.uk   

KS5 Update

Our A Level students have settled and have begun their respective courses wonderfully well and are already adapting to the demands and rigour of Level 3 study. 

Our Year 13s this term year have undertaken more mock exams and have a real taste of what their final exams will be like in the summer. There were some fantastic responses and many lessons learned for where the EBIs are for the summer. Students will be looking to complete their NEAs in the coming weeks and there will be intervention sessions to help with these after the half-term break.

If any parents or students wish to know more about our A Level options or require any further information, please email jbarrett@northleamington.co.uk.

Rewards in English

We LOVE recognising how amazing our students are in English and our young people may have noticed our Brag Board on the English corridor. Every half-term, the Class Act (class) with the most Reward Points will be awarded a prize (get your child to ask their teacher for more details). See the image below for how things currently stand. With the last two weeks’ points still to be added it is all to play for – get earning those points!

Year 9
Year 9 pupils have completed their planning for the Action Film marketing project. The next stage is taking photos for their DVD front and back cover and students have been asked to improvise costumes and props which is something  friends and family may be able to help with?

Year 10
Have had their Sci-Fi Film project work marked. We will be creating a classroom display with this and once we have permissions will share the fantastic work in the next bulletin. Year 10 have now moved onto Component 3 Mock Project – Magazines. It’s a final opportunity for pupils to develop their production and software skills before they start the actual coursework in March. The production lessons will be a great opportunity to develop skills and good habits for the real coursework.

Year 11
Pupils have submitted their final Component 3 coursework, which is worth 30% of the Media Studies GCSE, and it is in the process of being marked! Once marked, if there is an opportunity to make any final improvements we will support this with setting up interventions. Interventions have proven successful in the past when needed so any encouragement to attend is appreciated.  

Year 12
Year 12 Media students have submitted their recreation of a Daily Mirror front page. Thank you to all those parents and students who agreed to play the role of Boris Johnston. I hope you were not too traumatised by the experience.

Year 13
Our Year 13 students have submitted their Component 3 coursework. They have worked really hard and produced work that is creative and engaging. Again, once marked, we would like to be able to share their fantastic work with you in future Bulletins.

Year 10 and 11 Further Maths

We are delighted to be offering the Further Maths course for a number of Years 10 and 11 students which is aimed to bridge the transition from GCSE to A level Maths. We have had a large number of Year 10s and 11s who have joined the course which runs every Thursday after school.
A huge well done to all the students for their commitment to this course and to Mr Fotheringham and Ms Taylor for running this great opportunity for our students.  

Top Rewards Earnt in Maths so far
A HUGE congratulations to the following students who have been awarded the most reward points in Maths since September:

Year 7 – Heidi C
Year 8 – Amber B
Year 9 – Andrew N
Year 10  - Evelyn E
Year 11 – Joshua S

15 lucky Year 11 winners of a Maths GCSE pack
Congratulations to the 15 Year 11 students who won a Maths Revision pack to help prepare them for their examinations. All students were put into a prize draw and as a department we randomly selected 15 lucky winners who won the following:

• Revision Guide
• Scientific Calculator
• Highlighters
• Revision Cards
• Exams Pencil case including pencil, ruler, compass, protractor and a rubber.

Maths Club
Is your child in Years 7 and 8?
Does your child enjoy solving problems? 
Would your child be interested in taking part in A Maths Challenge?
We have a Maths Club that runs on a Tuesday after school for Years 7 and 8.  

If your child would like to join, or find out more, direct them to talk to Mrs Knee or their Maths teacher for more information.  Students have in the past loved this activity and it helps prepare them for deeper thinking of maths.

Triple Science Trip to the Science Museum

In January our Year 10 Triple Scientists had a fantastic day exploring the Science Museum in London. This was an enriching opportunity for our young people  allowing them to build on their cultural capital and engage with various exhibitions that link to curriculum topics that they will study next year.

Students expressed particularly enjoying the Making the Modern World exhibition, in which they discovered how iconic items have evolved and shaped our society today, and the Injecting Hope: The race for a COVID-19 vaccine exhibition, from which students could see how a period of their own lives has been a pivotal point in scientific history!

Our A Level Psychology students have continued to be busy since the start of the Spring term.

Our Year 13 students have been working hard studying exciting topics including Forensic Psychology and Schizophrenia, along with revising content from Year 12. This may be a reason why they start asking you questions about your personality attempting to work out if you’re an ‘extraverted-neurotic’, to further fuel their inquisitive nature.

Our Year 12’s have continued with their brilliant start to their A level getting the basics in with ‘Research Methods’ and studying some classic Psychology through ‘Memory’ and ‘Social Influence’.
Students have also worked on an International Schools project producing  presentations, in groups, on how to tackle ‘Seasonal Affective Disorder’. They came up with some great strategies including interacting with a furry friend, connecting with friends and family and eating chocolate to trigger natural serotonin and oxytocin.

A huge congratulations to Ciara C, Grace HS, Phoebe M and Ruby P for winning our ‘Psychologist of the Month’ awards for January! All students were very deserving of the award through their commitment and passion clearly shown in their classwork and home learning – congratulations!

Year 13 students are coming to an end of their studies in Unit 2 – Working in Health and Social Care -  and this term have been exploring the organisations that regulate the services and professions in health and social care.  This has included the mechanisms that exist to keep service users safe and protect those that work in the profession such as nurses, doctors and other allied health professionals.

We have had some insightful discussions around this in light of the recent strikes with regard to keeping service users safe, free from harm and treated with dignity.

With mock examinations completed, answering past paper questions continues and we wish them luck over the next few months.

Year 11 Health and Social Care students sat their exam on Monday 30th January, worth 40% of their overall grade.  Students have been working exceptionally hard in preparing for this exam where they were provided a case study to explore the factors that impacted their development. 

They have also been working on designing health and wellbeing improvement plans and evaluating how well the case studies would be able to achieve this by reviewing the obstacles they may face.  Results for this exam will be available on the 5th of April.  Well done Year 11 for the big push following the Christmas break.

On 25 & 26 January, 58 Year 12 and 13 students attended a lecture and Q&A session with Head Teacher, Mr Lowdell, exploring educational funding. The aim of the session was to understand how much funding school has, where it comes from and how it is spent.

This links to the Educational Policy topic students cover as part of the A Level in which a range of current and historical policies are examined and the impact of government policies are analysed.

The impact of these policies on social class, ethnicity, gender as well as opportunities, standards and equality are examined.

In the past, students can find the topic a little dry (!) and also complicated, since it includes some political knowledge and an ever changing political landscape!

Students found Mr Lowdell’s session interesting, particular in relation to the funding of the school and understanding issues we have discussed. Being able to apply the issues to our own context certainly brought the topic to life and gave the students an opportunity to ask pertinent questions related to the concepts we have covered in class.

We have had some very interesting class discussions since involving wider issues such as tax and public sector funding – students have impressively shown their cultural capital and interest in the wider world – what goes on ‘behind the curtain.’

International Leaders lead assemblies raising awareness about Fairtrade.

Our superb International Leaders created and delivered an excellent assembly to all of Year 7 and are planning to deliver it again to Year 8 in March. They were raising awareness about being a Fair Active school and why Fairtrade is so important.

They taught the students about the importance of Fairtrade chocolate and bananas and there was even some taste testing involved!

The students really enjoyed learning about Fairtrade and why being an ethical consumer is so important.

Spring Term has seen new clubs added to our Extra Curricular offering, a change to some of the sports clubs with the season change and our established clubs continuing to thrive.

All clubs have seen good attendance and activities really enjoyed by the students.  As detailed earlier in the Bulletin our Eco Club  have successfully won funding from Warkwickshire Alliance to develop  eco-friendly features in the school grounds.  They are waiting for more information and will share in the next Bulletin their plans. They have also been  out in the school grounds collecting resources for eco-friendly displays in Geography classrooms.  Once finished we will share these displays with you. Club members have been showing new members of staff  the sustainability features of the school.    

One of our newer clubs is Creative Writing. Members have been creating and drafting their own pieces of prose/poetry, entering national competitions and engaging in workshop activities around the themes of the future, war, equality, power and poverty. They have been exploring ideas that are close to their own hearts in our most recent competition, the Power of Poetry, where students wrote informative, insightful poems about topics that are important to them as 11-13 year olds in our ever-changing society and it has been lovely to see and explore the important voices of the youths of today.

Here are some pieces to share with you:

The Darkest Case by Edward 

“I am here today to bring to you the darkest case, 
The victims of this case are many, 
And although all know of the murderer, 
This case has never been brought up. 
 Jury, I bring to your attention to, 
The wicked, 
The cruel, 
The merciless... 
War”

Climate Change by Isla 

“Think about the animals, 
One day wild and free and the very next, 
Held in captivity by people like you and me.
We can help stop this terrible cycle, 
And save the planet, 
If only you would just try,  
So please, don’t let
This beautiful planet, 
This remarkable planet, 
This incredible planet, 
Die.”

Our Wonderful World by Max 

My wonderful world, oh! How beautiful you are,
From cascading waterfalls to meandering rivers
And unique wildlife to picturesque scenery,
How special you are to all you house
Oh, I love my wonderful world!

Pride Club is thriving  with around 25 members who meet every Wednesday break time in a welcoming like-minded environment.

The club is led by our Assistant Senior Diversity and Equality Leaders and the group have been discussing what ‘equality and diversity’ means and how it goes beyond just the LGBTQ+ community. They are working on a display board that encompasses this. We hope to share the display board in a future bulletin.

A reminder that there are a number of Music Clubs available including Rock Band, Wind Band, Pop Choir, Fiddle Band and the most recent the Steel Band. All are very popular and new members always welcome to join. It is an opportunity for students to have fun, learn a new skill and for some, to continue their musical journey.  Students are also preparing now for the Summer concert.

There are also a wide range of PE Clubs and you can read the Club updates in the PE Updates in this Bulletin. 

Parking & Car Park 

Our car park can get very busy at peak times in the morning and afternoons.  There have been instances where students have been dropped off at the front car park entrance, with cars turning in this area and driving out again.  This can lead to blocking the entrance and is dangerous.

We would really appreciate your consideration in this matter in order to help keep our students safe and traffic flowing as much as possible.