Head Teacher's Message

Dear Parents and Carers 

A quick fire five week term, packed full of learning and wider curriculum opportunities for many of our students. I am really pleased to see our Year 11 & 13 students working exceptionally hard, they are well placed going into their final period of study to achieve excellent outcomes and so positive next step destinations. Students in lower year groups continue to build on their learning each day - it’s the relentless effort in every lesson that ultimately enables students to be fully prepared come their terminal year. Current Year 11 students, preparing for life in our 6^th form have all been interviewed this term – well done to all. Feedback from numerous colleagues has been overwhelmingly positive, students conducted themselves excellently showing what rounded individuals they have become.

The learning journey in classrooms is our core business however, the bulletin consistently highlights the wider, wonderful, opportunities students grasp through their time at NLS. A special mention and congratulations to Archie, who after winning the Warwickshire Schools Cross Country event in January went on to compete at the National competition in March, ultimately securing a place to represent England – a fantastic effort Archie. Well done to all those completing their Duke of Edinburgh Award, especially given the expedition took place on our only day of heavy snowfall! 71 students are heading towards the Bronze and 41 the Silver award. We are planning, for the first time, to offer the Gold Award next year as so many students are now working at the required level.

North Leamington School has once again been accredited, by the British Council, the International Schools Award – please do read the full article. Thank you to all our International Student Leaders.

This term also had three interrupted days of study through Industrial Action - thank you again for your support and adapting to our required operating needs. We hope we made them as purposeful as possible. Our Year Leaders were very proud of the way students in their respective year groups made the most of their time in and out of school. Two more prospective days have been outlined dependent on ongoing discussions with Government. They are Thursday 27 April and Tuesday 2 May. Given the timing we will prioritise students in Year 11 & 13, they will not impact any scheduled examinations.

Last time we closed a term we wished those on the Ski trip a fun and safe journey, of which all had. This time it’s those heading on the Sports Tour to Spain, another wonderful opportunity of which I wish you all well.  For those deep in exam study, continue to work hard, you are in a great place and your efforts will be well rewarded come summer.

I wish all families a great Easter break, it’s not only a time of seasonal change but one of hope. Enjoy time together and I look forward to welcoming students back shortly for the Summer Term.

Many thanks

Mike Lowdell
Head Teacher  

Our students have enjoyed the second College fortnight of the year this term. Activities have involved some intercollege sport competitions alongside a College quiz.  Further details of the College Sport competitions, along with College days  for our Year 7 & 8 students can be found in the Year updates above. 

The Year 12 College Leaders also organised a really engaging quiz for all year groups to participate including a music round and a trivia teacher round! All year groups were able to participate in Colleges. Results as below:

1. Blackdown
2. Park
3. Croft
4. Binswood
5. Manor    

Reward points achieved this half term are below with Manor leading the way.

We are thrilled to announce that we have, again, been awarded the British Council’s prestigious International School Award in recognition of our work of bringing the world into the classroom.

The award ceremony took place last week in the Houses of Parliament & we were able to send our International Schools Coordinator, Mrs Harding, to represent North Leamington School.

You can read more about the International School Award in the news item above.

Year 13 students have successfully completed theme 1, 2 and 4 and will be focusing on their pre-release topic for paper 3 topic the car industry. Paper 3 research involves an in-depth analysis of current trends, markets, resource management, economic environment, competitive environment and global economy. Students have found the leadership and entrepreneurs in the car market a particularly interesting topic, especially Elon Musk’s competitive strategy.

Students are continuing to refine revision resources from all four themes and identify any gaps in knowledge.  We urge students to complete all chains of analysis and booklets to support this revision.

The workshop with a Lead Examiner from Edexcel Paul Clarke was intensive but the students really enjoyed it. Focusing on exam technique students spent the day examining how to build a contextualised response, developing effective lines of analysis, using business theories and models to hone and sharpen analysis, writing strong conclusions and strategies to help develop evaluation. They particularly enjoyed the challenge of the quantitative skills session; using calculations to support analysis and evaluation.

Year 12 students have made a great start to the year and have enjoyed learning participating in mock interviews for the Human Resource unit. To support their progress it is imperative that all students complete revision resources; using chains of argument, key terms and practice questions from the portal.  We encourage students to purchase a copy of the Business Revision Guide and text book.

Revise Edexcel AS/A level Business Revision Guide & Workbook

Intervention sessions - a reminder of the addition support is available for Year 12 & Year 13 students  which take place after school with the Friday session each Friday P4.
Tuesday -   Mrs Sandhar/Mrs Fear
Wednesday - Mrs Sandhar
Thursday -   Mrs Spademan
Friday -  Mrs Fear

Year 11 students have successfully completed their GCSE Mocks and a whole paper class assessment.  This has given students the opportunity address gaps in revision and identify topics they need to revisit.  It is imperative students attend Business intervention every Tuesday to bridge these gaps and access support on exam technique.  We aim to complete Topic 2.5 Making human resource decisions in the next few weeks. Students do need to continue to update their revision resources for all topics covered in lessons. 

Year 10 students are enjoying learning about Topic 2.1 Growing the business.  This includes looking at how business grow, globalisation and ethical issues.  We will be revisiting topics learnt in year 9 to ensure understanding of content and revision is in place. Students will complete Paper 1 at the end of the year, this is based on Theme 1 content.  It is imperative that all students complete revision and practice questions from the workbook to check understanding. There is a variety of resources on the school Portal students can access to enhance their understanding and progress.

 Year 9 students have made a great start to Business and have enjoyed learning about the role of market research in businesses.  They have had the opportunity to compile business questionnaires, carry out the research and then analyse the data to make informed business decisions.  It is imperative that all students complete revision and practice questions from the workbook to check understanding.  We recommend student purchase a copy of the Business Revision Guide. 

Should you require support in purchasing any of the recommended books please do contact your child’s teacher.      

Year 7 - Binary
Students have been developing their numeracy skills by gaining an understanding of data and binary.  Students understand how to decode denary to binary and converting binary to letters using the ASCII character set.

Year 8 – Women in Computing
To coincide with International Women’s Day (March 8) and British Science Week (March 10-19) students have been introduced to some key contributions of women to Computer Science and carried out research into famous women in computing including their background and contribution to the field of Computer Science

Our GCSE students have continued to develop their programming skills using a high level language (Python)

Year 9 – GCSE Computer Science
In addition to developing their programming skills our Year 9 students have been looking at representation of characters, images and sound using binary.  They have investigated different compression techniques and why these may be useful given different scenarios. 

Year 10 – GCSE Computer Science
Students have also been looking at how to construct robust programs and testing strategies.  Students are finding out about Boolean logic using logic gates and trace tables.

Year 11 – GCSE Computer Science
Students have also been looking at how to construct algorithms from the same problems in order to prepare themselves for the summer examinations.  Students are now moving into personalised learning content in order to close any gaps in knowledge on weaker areas whilst also consolidating their strengths. 

Year 12 – A Level Computer Science
Students have continued to develop their programming skills using a high level languages (Python, SQL, HTML, CSS and JavaScript). They are covering theory on exchanging data which includes sub-topics such as Compression, Relational Databases, Networking, Client/Server Side Processing and Page Rank algorithm.  

Year 13 – A Level Computer Science
Students have been continuing to develop their programming skills using a high level language of their choice to develop a solution to a computational problem. They are also now moving into personalised learning content in order to close any gaps in knowledge on weaker areas whilst also consolidating their strengths in preparation for the summer exams. 

For all our GCSE & A Level students there is a continued promotion of using the Smart Revise platform to develop and enhance student’s ability to recall information and facts plus improve their use of literacy and keywords around the subject. Your support by encouraging your child to engage with this at home on a regular basis is much appreciated.

Computing Club
The club has growing numbers and currently has members from Years 7 to 9 and we have recently started developing games using the Microsoft make Code platform. The aim is to purchase a range of handheld consoles such as Meowbit, BrainPad Arcade, Kitronik Arcade, etc. in order for students to download the games and demonstrate their success to others.

CISCO Certificates
We are still continuing to offer CISCO certification and are currently coming to the end of the ‘Introduction to JavaScript’ course.  We have had 7 students successfully complete the IoT course and gain their certificate plus 7 students completed the first course (last year) Intro to Cyber Security.  Please keep an eye on the latest news section of the school website after Easter for the next course launch.  These courses are an invaluable addition to references, College and University applications plus apprenticeships.

On March 20 Year 12 Geographers travelled to Sheffield to investigate the regeneration of the Park Hill housing estate.

The estate was a Brutalist, concrete icon, and the largest listed building in Europe. After going through decline in the 1980s it was then bought by Urban Splash a regeneration company.

Our students were given a guided talk by a representative from Urban Splash and were able to see inside two of the new flats, they asked very interesting, insightful questions.

tudents then collected Geographical data around the site in order to support their investigation into how successful the regeneration project has been.

An interesting, fun day was had all by all.

Year 11 students did a fantastic job of preparing of their final exam unit, Health & Wellbeing, back in January. This exam looked at the factors affecting development and the designing of health and well-being plan and potential obstacles when completing this plan. 

The exam results will be released on April 5 and students will receive these results in their Health and Social Care lessons the first week back after Easter.  There will be an opportunity to re-sit on Friday 19 May 13:00-15:00pm for those who would like to improve their grade which will be reviewed in context of their coursework grades for Component 1 & 2 which students have completed and contribute to 60% of the course. 

Year 10 have been doing a fantastic job of completing their Component 1: Human Lifespan Development. Component 1 makes up 30% of their overall GCSE grade in Health and Social Care. This Pearson Set Assignment which comprises  4 tasks and takes a minimum of 6 hours to complete.

Each week Year 7 students are set a Numeracy Challenge. This is a fun numeracy problem that students need to solve using their numeracy skills. Entries are sent to numeracy@northleamington.co.uk and a WINNER is chosen each week. The winner receives a £10 AMAZON VOUCHER!

A huge congratulations to the following Year 7 students for being Numeracy Winner of the week:

We would like to involve our Year 8 students in this Numeracy Challenge so they can be in for a chance to win a £10 Amazon voucher also. Please encourage your child(ren) to enter this competition to be in with a chance to win!

If any student would like more information please see either Mr Rae, Miss C Jones or their Maths teacher.

Year 9 pupils are starting their Sci-Fi Film Marketing project. It’s a big step up from their last project and will require them to take EIGHT photos outside of school with improvised props and costumes. They will also learn how to use Photoshop to create planets, nebulas and galaxies!.

Year 10 have made a start on their actual GCSE coursework, which is worth 30% of the Media GCSE. The final deadline for this is July 14^th 2023 – this academic year!! We will provide parents with interim deadlines soon so that you can support your children with this demanding, but very rewarding, part of the course.

Year 11 we have marked the coursework for this year group. There are lots of examples of fantastic work. We are giving pupils one FINAL opportunity to make improvements. Some of you will have been contacted already about interventions that will be running on Thursdays – starting in P5 and lasting until 4:15. The dates of the interventions are: the 23^rd and 30^th of March and the 20^th and 27^th of April. All Media pupils should now be in revision mode and will be sent revision resources regularly.

Year 12 have submitted their recreation of a Daily Mirror front page. 

Year 13 coursework has been marked.  Students have until 21 April  to make improvements and then we will be showcasing the work; we look forward to being able to share their work  with you. After completing their Component 2 Mock exam it is now revision mode!

The MFL Department has been working since September with Brookhurst Primary School and has delivered German lessons to Year 4, 5 and 6 classes.

The pupils have thoroughly enjoyed these sessions and have made amazing progress with the language as well as learning about German culture and many festivals.

We hope to visit other feeder primary schools in the summer term and look forward to our future Year 7s continuing with German. Bis bald.

The Language Gym – new resource

We have purchased a new, engaging resource which will help students with their listening and reading skills by playing a variety of games such as virtual  Boxing, Rock Climbing and having a Gym Workout.

This can be used independently at home to learn vocabulary or improve their grammatical skills.  We will also be using it to set homework regularly.

Students have logged onto this in lessons and set their own passwords 

We have had very positive feedback from all Year groups.

With the MFL speaking exams (worth 25% of the final grade) taking place after Easter it is important that the students are preparing for this exam weekly. They choose one theme and will also have to answer questions on a second unknown theme.

The best way to revise is:

1. Speak aloud at home

2. Work with a partner testing and correcting pronunciation. 

3. Test themselves on answering spontaneous questions.

4. Record themselves and listen back for errors and positives.

The Music department are incredibly proud of the school Wind Band, who were invited to perform at the ‘Village Voices concert - Music from Stage and Screen' on Saturday 25th at All Saints’ Church, Warwick. This was a fabulous opportunity for the students to play in another setting and show off their skills to their parents, other performing groups and a large audience.

The Wind Band is a regular feature at the school’s annual Christmas and Summer concerts, so this concert was a fabulous opportunity for them to gain experience performing outside of the school setting.

The performers in the Wind Band range from year 8 to year 11, and from grade 8 to working towards grade 1, and commit their time every week to make music together in a variety of styles and genres.

Year 10 Tesco Careers Trip in Partnership with the Prince’s Trust

On Tuesday 28 March our Year 10 Prince’s Trust students participated in a careers experience day at Tesco in Warwick. Our pupils experienced a number of different workshops during the day designed to boost career aspirations, whilst showcasing the range of careers available within the Tesco Family.

Our day started with a trip to the bakery for a hands-on experience with Dave, the baker, as the group spent time producing white bread rolls as sold in huge quantities within Tesco stores.

Next our pupils were put through their paces with a stop at the check-outs as they took it in turns to scan a wide variety of items through the tills.

Following the tills was a walk over to the garage to see how that area of the business operates, before heading back to the training room for a well-deserved sandwich and crisps lunch provided by our hosts.

Our visit concluded with a Q&A session with three store colleagues as NLS pupils found out more about the qualifications, skills, and qualities Tesco look for in their employees.

Gavin the store manager also popped in to say hello and was able to answer a few budding questions from our pupils. Before heading back to school there was time for a brief tour of the cash room, warehouse, and click & collect.

Our pupils were a credit to themselves and the school, and we are more than welcome back in the future.  We are grateful to all at Tesco Warwick for their time and enthusiasm in providing this opportunity to our students

We are pleased to announce the Psychologists of the Month for February were Matthew C and Maddy W (Year 13) and Eloisa AH and Alice L (Year 12).  They  received an R3, a book linked to psychology of their choice and their name on the all-important ‘Psychologist of the Month’ celebratory board!

Additionally, we want to acknowledge Ciara C (a previous psychologist of the month) who recently submitted an essay to the Northeastern University London essay writing competition. Ciara's essay was recognised as being in the 12% of applicants , with over 4500 entries in total . Her essay  ‘How could psychology explain atrocious acts towards humans, such as during war times?’  was detailed and incredibly insightful, and a true representation of just how awesome a psychologist Ciara is in the making!

One of the paragraphs can be read below:

There are a lot of historical events which remind us of some of the most despicable and vicious atrocities that have ever happened. Examples of these are the Holocaust (1941) and the My Lai Massacre (1968). The My Lai Massacre took place during the Vietnam War in which an estimated five hundred unarmed civilians were murdered, innocent people tortured and humiliated, and women and children being gang raped and killed. William Calley Jr is a former American army officer, and now war criminal, who played a significant role in this atrocity; like many others, he claimed he was “only following orders” from those higher in command to him. A similar figure to William Calley would be Adolf Eichmann (a member of the SS who also played a key role in the Holocaust) who claimed the defence that he had a compulsion to obey orders. A study into obedience, such as this, was conducted by Milgram (1963) where the participant was required to administer shocks to a confederate, increasing the voltage each time by 15V. The results showed that when the authority figure was replaced by another person who appeared ordinary the obedience dropped by 45%, furthermore, when the dissenters who refused to obey the authority figure were placed with the real participant the obedience level dropped by 55%. These results can be used to explain the unconditional obedience that William Calley had towards those authoritative figures above him in the hierarchy and that of Eichmann to Hitler, this is known as the legitimacy of authority. Due to there being a hierarchy, those lower down (William Calley and Eichmann) are more likely to follow those above them (Hitler and higher commanding officers) either out of respect and admirability or even fear. Crimes in war are committed with group approval, William Calley commanded my Lai Massacre soldiers to burn down villages in which they followed through with the orders. By using the results from Milgram’s Obedience study, it can be assumed that it is easier to obey unjust orders when others are also taking part as it distributes the guilt between everyone. Therefore, Milgram’s Obedience study can be used to explain obedience which can be linked to reasons why humans can conduct awful atrocities however, it does not serve as a valid defence.

Year 7 students have examining  theories around the origins of the universe in RE. Some students have been very creative with their Home learning and have produced some excellent (and delicious!) project work on this. Well done Year 7!

On Thursday 30 March, Year 13 Sociology students enjoyed an online seminar from Keith Trobe, a senior examiner with the exam board for the past 35 years and principal examiner for many of those.  He is also a contributing author to the textbook our student’s use (and a really great guy)!  The students listened to Keith discuss top tips to approaching questions, which will further complement how they are currently applying their knowledge  to questions we are tackling in lessons.

He also shared some great knowledge on the questions that have historically scored the lowest and knowledge of the skills to apply to these questions to secure the top mark band.  We all enjoyed having the ‘insider knowledge’ from Keith and have no doubt in the final few weeks this will support our students in making the difference. 

A reminder of our Revision schedule is below - these will continue to run every Monday, to support our students in the last few weeks, with Miss Holland or Miss Howard (with the exception of bank holidays when the two sessions will be moved to Thursdays).

Our Sprint Finish schedule is below for Year 13 students.  This is a great opportunity for students to re-visit all knowledge and skills requirements for each of the papers in one sitting.  We look at the hot contenders for questions in the 2023 exam papers and the sessions act as a great refresher for each paper.  Please encourage your child to attend on these days. 

As Year  12 come to the end of their studies on Paper 1: Education with Research Methods and the first half of Paper 2: Families & Households they have been developing their knowledge on the different sociological trends in Education and the Family and the explanations surrounding these trends. 

Moving forward we would like students to really focus on the skills requirements for each question.  It is not just the knowledge they need to know for the exam (for Sociology it is 45 topics) but the skills requirements for each question.  Students are set a weekly question (s) to support these skills developments. 

All of the past exam questions categorised per paper and topic are on the school portal and this work will be signpost weekly on Go 4 Schools. 

In previous years we have seen that those students who grasp the skills requirement for each question (along with good revision on the knowledge) go onto achieve the higher grades in Sociology.  A drive on the skills through home work we are confident will see students achieving fantastic outcomes. 

The IEN faculty have launched the Outdoor Classroom. It’s main aim is to aid wider development and build on skills such as resilience, team building, problem solving, decision making, creativity, imagination, collaboration, communication and empathy. Student are selected following suggestions from the Year Leads, Tutors and the IEN team.

Our two groups at the moment have been taking part in:

Starting to clear the poly-tunnel as there is lots of overgrown plants & weeds

Stone Paintings – to decorate the outdoor space

The Duke of Edinburgh Award is popular Extra Curricular opportunity with 71 students currently working their Bronze Award and 41 on their Silver.

This term both groups have completed their navigation training in preparation for the practice expedition element in June nad the final in July.  

Our Silver DofE  pupils headed for a day’s navigation training around Elmey Castle near Evesham where in 4  groups they were challenged with multiple footpaths  and many hills to climb. The experience will stand them in good stead ahead of their practice expedition to the Derbyshire Dales in June before their qualifying expedition in July. Many of the pupils involved had already accomplished their Bronze DofE in Year 9 however, with the challenging terrain, skills honed the previous year were really put to the test. In spite of the very wet conditions underfoot, the rain held off and a highly enjoyable day was had by all.

Our Bronze DofE group had their navigation training trip the week before with very different conditions. 

Starting out in cold and snowy conditions, our brave students completed 5 hours of navigation training locally in the Leek Wootton area. Despite the highly challenging conditions they  were brilliant, learning a fantastic range of navigation skills which will support them  with their qualifying expedition at the end of June and in hopefully much warmer weather.

Astronomy Club is another popular Extra Curricular opportunity. It has been an exciting term where students have focused their creative thoughts on rocket design. The aim was to build water rockets using kits and in doing so, modifying and evaluating designs to ensure they achieve greater heights.  The record height achieved was approximately twice the height of the three storey Science building!

In the coming weeks, students will be designing their own rockets from scratch with extra boosters for even greater heights! They will be planning how to provide pressure for each of the parts as well as designing and building a launch platform.

We are delighted to share our canteen has achieved a 5 rating following recent inspection.

Below are our revised menus for the Summer Term  we will also continue with our theme weeks, with the next one 'A Taste Of Asia'  on April 27. 

Recent reported events in Leamington Spa has raised the concerns about young people and the exposure to knife crime. This will be a concern to many parents of children and young people when they go out into the community of being exposed to others that may carry such items.

Warwickshire Police has Operation Sceptre which encourages all people to inform relevant authorities if they are aware of anyone carrying such weapons. The enclosed poster gives a link to the Warwickshire Police webpage about this operation with advice and guidance on what to do.

Whether it directly impacts you and your family or perhaps someone you know, the information found on the Cost Living document below is useful to show what may be available to people struggling in the current economic climate.