Head Teacher's Message

Welcome to the first summer edition of the Parent Bulletin. I do hope you find it an interesting read - so many wonderful stories of wider curricular activities and information about what has been covered by students in class. This bulletin, when read from Year 7-11, highlights the rich journey our students take whilst heading towards their terminal assessments.

Our Year 7 dominance in both the boys and girls District Football Cup Finals, Year 8’s work on Binary Number System in Computer Science, Year 9’s completing a Surreal Identity Project with self-portraits in Art, Year 10’s developing knowledge on world economies and international trade in Business Studies and Year 11’s creating wonderful America’s themed food dishes for their final practical assessments.

Every student will take a slightly different path through NLS all however arriving in a position where they are as equipped as possible to be successful at the end of Year 11 or 13. Our GCSE, A Level and BTEC examinations are well underway, students are well prepared and early feedback has been positive. I have no doubt there will be many happy, smiling faces at our Summer Results events.

Please can I draw your attention to the key information at the end of bulletin; calendar, attendance matters and the Warwickshire Summer Holiday Activities and Food programme for eligible families.

Students in Binswood College lead the way, hoping to retain their title in our College completion of 2023. Best of luck to all students as we head into the final term where the most points of the year are awarded.

Have a great half term.

Mike Lowdell
Head Teacher

Well done to Binswood College who have been awarded the most Reward points this term 

With one term to go the total number of points for each College for the year so far is:
Binswood  - 65,378
Blackdown  - 60,819
Croft - 59,314
Manor - 62,675
Park - 58,298

Binswood lead the way at the moment but the term coming up provides a number of opportunities for students to win even more Reward points alongside the curriculum with wider and extra curricular opportunities and key events such as sports day. Lets see if Binswood can retain the cup they won last year or if one of the other Colleges can.      

Year 9 – Students have now completed the  ‘Spotting an Opportunity’ topic. They have particularly enjoyed carrying out market research and learning about different types of ownership. This half term they will focus on creating a business plan based on Street food. 

Continuing to make detailed revision notes on each topic studied in lessons and make full use of the Workbook (Pearsons Edexcel GSCE) is important with weekly revision as part of the LBTC. Students can access the workbook in class and on the school portal, it provides plenty of opportunities to complete questions and practice application. 

We also recommend that all students take every opportunity to watch Business news and read BBC business articles to develop their analytical skills.

Year 10 – Students have enjoyed the challenge of understanding the economy and international trade. Continuing to make detailed revision notes on each topic is imperative and especially as part of their preparation for summer exams.  Revision should be completed on a weekly basis as part of the LBTC.  Students can access the workbook (Pearsons Edexcel GSCE) in class and on the school portal, it provides plenty of opportunities to complete questions and practice application.  After school intervention is available for students to access support in developing their analytical skills, all students are welcome to attend these sessions.

Year 12 – Our Year 12 students are demonstrating their entrepreneurial skills by creating a business plan as part of theme 1.5 Enterprise.

Year 12 are also working towards their progression exams. Paper 1 will cover Theme 1 Marketing and people and Paper 2 will cover Theme 2 Managing business activities. Students should be consolidating all revision notes on both themes and developing their balanced chains of arguments. All topic PowerPoints, exam questions and gap tasks are available on the portal.  If students need any support with either exam technique, revision methods or they have questions over content there are sessions available after school on Tuesday and Friday P4.

Year 11 & Year 13 – Good luck to our Year 11s and 13s, final push. We are so proud of you!

Year 7 - HTML
Students have been learning how to create a simple webpage using html including body, tags and head.  Students have also been learning about the importance of CSS when formatting webpages. 

Year 8 – Binary Number System
Students have been recapping their understanding of data and binary, how to decode denary to binary and how to add binary numbers from Year 7. This has been extended to understanding how to convert binary to letters using ASCII and how computers covert binary to images and sound.

All of our GCSE students have continued to develop their programming skills using a high level language (Python).
In addition to this: 

Year 9 – GCSE Computer Science
Our Year 9 students have been looking at networking including LAN’s WAN’s, Client Server & Peer to Peer, the Internet, Networking Hardware, Topologies, Wireless Networks, Protocols and Packet Switching.

Year 10 – GCSE Computer Science
Students are now ready to move onto answering exam style programming questions to demonstrate their understanding of python programming.  On the theory side of things students have been investigating the main features of programming IDE’s.  Students are now ready to revisit topics taught in Year 9 and move onto more in depth exam style questions.

Year 11 – GCSE Computer Science
Students have now completed both of their computer science exams and all that is left to say is that it has been an absolute please teaching them. Good luck on results day and hopefully we will see many back in September for A Level Computer Science! 

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 have been covering theory on exchanging data, which includes sub-topics such as Networking, Client/Server Side Processing and Page Rank algorithm plus moving into number systems and learning about Sign & Magnitude, Two’s Compliment, Fixed Point binary, Floating Point binary and Normalisation of binary numbers. Students are also starting to learn more advanced Boolean Logic techniques.   

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 of their choice, these have now been sent to the exam board for moderation and will count for up to 20% of their overall grade. Students are now into personalised learning content in order to close any gaps in knowledge on weaker areas whilst also consolidating their strengths in preparation for their upcoming exams. 

Extra Support – GCSE and A Level

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. Each student has their own personal login and can access the platform on any device through a web browser.

Computing Club 
The club has growing numbers and currently has members from Years 7 to 9. We have recently started developing 2D games using the Microsoft Make Code platform and we now have a selection of Meowbit handheld consoles (pictured below) in order for students to download their games and demonstrate their success to others. 

Iona Year 7 & Harry Year 9 have created a game and put onto the Meowbit handheld device.

We have also purchased two Xbox consoles for students to use and will be using these to run competitions in the last half term and beyond into next year. Initial ideas for competitions (but not limited to) include Tetris, Rocket league and FIFA … watch this space.

CISCO Certificates 
We are still continuing to offer CISCO certification and came to the end of the ‘Introduction to JavaScript’ course just before Easter in which 2 students successfully completed the course (Jamie and Monty) … well done both … not an easy one to achieve this time around.

Our next certificate ‘Get Connected’ is now live and advertised on the latest news section of the school website or clicking this link https://www.netacad.com/portal/web/self-enroll/m/course-1989369.  These courses are an invaluable addition to references, College and University applications plus apprenticeships.

Our wonderful Year 11s endured 4 hours of non-stop cooking to support their final Food Preparation and Nutrition Practical Assessment as part of their GCSE.  Students have been working on this assessment for the past 6 months and they were able to showcase a wide range of skills.  Most students chose the theme of ‘The Americas’ and others opted for the task of producing a range of calcium rich foods.  A few students chose the more tricky theme of cooking a plant based diet for a teenager but my goodness our students rose to the challenge. 

Here are a few of the products that were made and both Mrs Ross and Miss Collins would like to congratulate the students in their success and thank their parents for supporting them with the planning of this day

Year 7 and 8 DT classes

Classes have now rotated from either Food Prep to Product design or vice versa.  Students have hopefully been able to show you all at home some of the lovely items they have made in the workshop or in the food room.  Thank you again to parents/carers  for supporting us by providing ingredients for the food lessons.

If any of you have spare containers, such as empty sweet containers or ice cream tubs, we would greatly appreciate having these to support students who may at times forget to bring the correct container for their food.

KS3 Enrichment Activity Opportunity 
We are looking to offer Year 7 and Year 8 an opportunity to join us after school for a 6 week food workshop where they can develop their skills beyond the lessons that we currently offer at KS3.  Students will need to sign up – more details to follow next term -  and a small group will be able to come and cook some more complex dishes.  Students will need to be prepared to bring ingredients for the session and a container and those not selected from the first round will be rolled over to the Autumn term.

Year 9 DT

Our Year 9 classes have enjoyed lots of experience of being in the workshop making bookends and using our 2D Design to add a more professional and personal touch to the finished product. 

Year 9 Food
The class have really started to become more confident and skilled making some lovely products over the past few months.  We have a real British classic coming up of Battenberg cake.  Students have really improved their basic practical skills through the vast range of dishes we have already made such as pizza, risotto with homemade bread, profiteroles and many more complex dishes.  Students have also been expanding their knowledge of nutrition and looking at individuals with special dietary needs. 

Year 10 DT
Classes are right in the middle of making a wonderful bird box.  They have been using finger joints, housing joints and a mitred finger joint to complete these products.  Students will be starting the research section of their NEA for their final GCSE after the May half term.

Year 10 Food
Our Year 10 classes have really been stretched recently making sacher torte, an Austrian chocolate cake and butter chicken with homemade naan bread. We will be having a lot of fun and showcasing our skills in the next few lessons making more free choice dishes so students can really work on planning for their own recipe choice. 

A Level Geography - Year 12 enjoyed listening to a visiting speaker from the Leamington Society who came to  talk to us about the role of community groups in placemaking. It was an excellent session where the students learnt a lot about the role of the Leamington Society how they work to protect the character of Leamington Spa and try to encourage economic growth.

Year 11 students have been preparing well for their paper three exam where half of it is based on a topical issue sent to us by the exam board. This year it was about the Cayman Islands and whether a new port should be built to accommodate huge cruise ships. Year 11 have engaged really well  in these lessons and have formed some excellent opinions on the matter; we wish them all the best in their upcoming exams.

Geography book review competition

We had lots of excellent entries to the Geography Book review competition. Well done to everyone who entered – it sounds like there was a fantastic variety of books read and enjoyed by our students.  A huge congratulation to:

The winner for KS5 – Madeline W and runner up Alice L

The winner for KS4 – Samuel N and runner up Roman B

The winner for KS3 – Annabel D L P W and runner up Daniel M

Special mention should also go to Daniel Z, Alex M, Kyle C and Keegan B for excellent entries.

Year 10 Health & Social Care

Year 10 have started Component 2: Health and Social Care services and Values.  This component consists of 5 tasks which will be completed up until October where they will complete 5 written tasks over a period of 6 hours.  This will make up the second 30% of the course.  Students are coming to the end of the first task where they have explored different health and social care settings, including primary, secondary and tertiary and different illnesses that might require the services.

We are always looking for guest speakers to come and speak with the students about their roles in health and social care settings.  If you know of anyone who would be able to spare 20 minutes to come into the school to discuss their job role in the sector please email me at choward@northleamington.co.uk.  We want to continue to expose the students alongside their curriculum to how the knowledge they learn can be applied in the real world!

Year 12 Health & Social Care

A huge well done to the Year 12 Health and Social Care students who sat the Unit 1 Exam Paper on May 15. Your hard work and efforts put in over the last few months are sure to pay off! On top of this, Unit 10 course work is almost complete where students have been exploring most recently how social inequalities, demographic change, and patterns and trends affect Health and Social Care delivery.

Year 7 have been looking at the Crusades as we seek to give a historical context to Jerusalem and the wider region, which continues to be a contested part of the world. This should also provide a historical explanation for Islamic fundamentalism which remains a problem amongst some groups.

Year 8 have begun to study the industrial period, 1750-1900. Our aim is to view the period as one of social and political reform; we begin with Britain’s involvement in the slave trade but also the role Britain played in its abolition.

Year 9 continue with their GCSE studies and the topics in Paper 1. We will soon conclude the History of Medicine Through Time and then look at medicine in the historical environment with medical provision in the trenches of World War I.

Year 10 will soon conclude Paper 2 topics with the end of the Cold War. Students have been given a revision focus to aid with their revision, which is available on Go4Schools.

It was a proud moment to see Year 11 off for their GCSE in History. Revision had been positive and focused in class, which was no doubt enhanced by the work students have completed at home. Good luck to them all!

Year 12 it was great to see so many students and their parents at the Year 12 subject evening. Thank you for making the time to come and meet with us and for reinforcing those key messages. Year 12 are close to finishing the work on Paper 2, as they begin focusing on Ronald Reagan’s government, and the interpretations question on Thatcherism for Paper 1.  Students have also chosen their area of focus for their coursework.

It has been a privilege to have taught the Year 13 History students over the past two years. They have worked hard throughout and faced the challenges of completing coursework and revision with fortitude. It is important they maintain their focus in the build-up to the final exams. They should be clear about the key knowledge they need to take into each of the exams and ensure clarity regarding the demands of each question type. Both Year 12 and Year 13 teachers are available in school or by email should additional support or direction be needed. Good luck!
 

60 of our Year 7 students recently  sat the Junior Maths Challenge, an annual nationwide competition which involves answering challenging maths questions in 1 hour.

We are delighted to share our students achieved 2 Gold awards, 11 Silver awards and 19 Bronze awards.

Well done to all our students that took part!

Our Gold award students, Ellie PA and Wilbur P have been invited to take part in the Junior Kangaroo which will take place on June 14th. This is a follow-on round to the Junior Maths Challenge and is a multiple-choice Challenge consisting of 25 problems to completed again in 1 Hour.

We wish them all the best!

Year 8  students have been learning about French culture across the world. Lessons have involved discussions around the impact of the French language around the globe and Francophone countries. We looked in more detail at Senegal and French Polynesia. Students have particularly enjoyed researching Tahiti and seeing how accurately it is portrayed in the Disney film, Moana.

As part of their research, students created a tourist leaflet to encourage more visitors to the islands.

During German lessons, students have been learning more about the history of Germany, the differences between life in East and West Germany, as well as the creative methods used to escape the Berlin Wall.  Year 8 will shortly be  watching a film, Balloon. This will allow them to develop a deeper understanding of how lives changed during the Russian occupation of East Germany and Berlin.

During this half term our curriculum studies have included:

Year 7: Keyboard Skills

By working collaboratively students have been developing their practical music-making skills and encouraged to develop their understanding of written music and challenged to practise, rehearse and perform increasingly demanding pieces. Resources are provided to offer students of all musical ability the opportunity to access the curriculum, make progress and develop their musical understanding along with their keyboard skills.

Year 8: History of Pop

This unit of work focuses on music appreciation and explores popular music from the 1950s onwards. Students have been provided with listening tasks to broaden their appreciation of musical styles and genres from the past and recognise their relevance along with their influence on popular music today. Alongside the listening tasks students are challenged to perform popular pieces of music and continue developing their practical, music-making skills.

Year 9: Ensemble Skills

By collaborating in ensembles students have able to practise, rehearse and perform music in preparation for upcoming school and music events. They have been encouraged to think independently and develop their practical and ensemble skills to ensure they are prepared for the challenges and expectations of the BTEC music course. Learning concentrates on students developing their communication and instrumental skills within a group.

Year 10: BTEC Music Level 2: Component 1 and 2

Students have recently and successfully completed Component 1 and 2 of their course. During these components, students have learned about a range of musical styles and have been tasked with performing, reproducing and composing pieces to demonstrate their practical/instrumental/music-making skills. Alongside their practical work students have produced written analysis and reviews to demonstrate their historical, contextual and theoretical knowledge.  

Year 11: BTEC Music Level 2: Unit 7

Students are completing their final unit of work this term. Unit 7 is focussed on students developing and demonstrating their music sequencing skills using music software to explore, compose and realise their creative ideas. They have produced music to reflect a chosen film genre and provided written analysis/reviews to record their progress and demonstrate their knowledge.

Year 12: BTEC Music Level 3: Unit 39 and 17 

Students in Year 12 are developing their knowledge of the music industry and exploring how the different areas are interrelated. Students have been studying job roles, venues, contracts, marketing and business plans with a view to building a comprehensive understanding of how the industry operates and the potential career opportunities. Students also use their time to continually develop their performance skills and broaden their musical repertoire.

Year 13: BTEC Music Level 3

Year 13 have been completing their final unit of work. Alongside music-making, students were encouraged to research a ‘Specialist Subject’ and provide a proposal for an investigative project. This unit is bespoke to each student and can provide a valuable opportunity to prepare for further or higher education.
Year 13 have produced a wide variety of high-quality work over the duration of the course and performed in many memorable, musical events. We wish them all the very best for the future.

At the start of the Easter holidays, 42 Year 10 students enjoyed the NLS sports tour to Malaga, Spain. It was a fantastic and valuable experience for all that took part.  You can read more about the sports tour in the News section above in this Bulletin  

We were delighted to start this term with the successes of our Year 7 Boys and U13 Girls Football teams winning their respective District Cup Finals.

On Wednesday 19 April the Year 7 Boy’s Football Team were crowed District Cup Champions in an extremely hard fought encounter with Stratford School. The goals were scored by Alfie C and Leo P in a 2-0 victory.

Our U13 Girls Football Team were crowed District Cup Champions on Thursday 27 April. Against a tough Stratford opposition the girls won 3-2, with the 3 goals from Pauline, and the teamwork sportsmanship and resilience they all showed was brilliant!

This is a fantastic result for both our teams and we are very proud of them all; a huge congratulations to all students involved throughout the year.

During lessons this term students have been enjoying variety of summer sports including rounders, tennis and cricket in lessons and athletics and softball during extra curricular clubs.

Details of the PE Extra Curricular clubs available are below and there are opportunities to represent NLS with upcoming fixtures in athletics, tennis and rounders.

Success at  Town Championship Athletics Competition

We are delighted to share the success of our Year 9 and year 10 athletes who represented NLS in the Town Championship Athletics event at Edmondscote on Wednesday afternoon.

Competing in a variety events against all the local schools our Year 10 Girls and Boys Inter teams both came first! 

To add to our successful afternoon a number of our students, detailed below, in our Year 9 (Junior) and Year 10 (Inter)  teams have also qualified to compete in the County Championships which will take place on Saturday 10^th June.
We wish them all the best of luck!

Information regarding the County Championship Event  will be sent out shortly to these qualifying students.

We would like to congratulate all of the students who competed at this event; we are very proud of the sportsmanship and determination they all showed throughout the competition.

It was great to see so many students and their parents at the Year 12 Subject Evening. Thank you for making the time to come and meet with us and for reinforcing those key messages. Year 12 are close to completing the content for Paper 1 and Paper 2, with Feminism the focus after half-term.

This term the students have been looking at the efficacy of different voting systems as they try to judge whether first past the post or a form of proportional representation would be a more representative system for UK general elections. We have also examined the relationship between the different elements of the UK government, such as the judiciary and the legislature and how they function within the UK constitution. Debates for both have been lively and insightful, demonstrating the positive work students have put into A level Politics.

To continue being successful in A level Politics, it is important students follow political debate through the media. They are sent regular articles to read and have been given a number of free podcasts they can listen to that provide interesting political debate. 

The Prince's Trust is a charity organisation founded in 1976 by King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) to help vulnerable young people get their lives on track. It runs a range of training programmes, providing practical and financial support to build young people's confidence and motivation. The Prince's Trust is one of the most successful funding organisations in the UK and is the UK's leading youth charity.

At NLS, we utilise the schemes of learning and opportunities that the Prince's Trust offers to enable some of our most vulnerable pupils to achieve. Recently, this involved students from Year 10 going to The Prince’s Trust head office in Birmingham to take part in a ‘Bridging the App’ day where students looked at the development of apps from initiation to production (including coding) stages using the expertise of Apple staff and Apple technology. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day with all students benefitting from it greatly. Below are some photos of our fantastic students during the day enjoying warm up, planning and implementation stages of their apps.

Our Year Lead updates above include information of what students have covered during PSHE sessions in tutor time, further information is summarised below:

Students in Year 7 have been exploring issues around peer influence and peer pressure. It has been lovely to see everyone so engaged in discussions. Students have produced some excellent role plays on the impact this can have on individuals and strategies for dealing with this. I think we have some budding actors and actresses in our midst!

Year 8 have been developing their digital literacy skills and have focused on strategies for staying safe on line. We have had some interesting and insightful contributions from students on this important area of their lives.

Year 9 have been focusing on the factors necessary for developing healthy romantic relationships and warning signs to look out for when a relationship is becoming unhealthy and potentially abusive.

Year 10 have begun examining and discussing  issues relating to extremism and radicalisation. This will continue next half term.

Year 11 as part of the relationships unit Year 11 have explored the potential challenges of being a young parent and issues of fertility.

Year 12 have been looking at making safe choices including safety in relation to travel and being a young driver

Year 13 have been looking at Politics here and abroad. It has been lovely to see Year 13 engaged in discussions and debates throughout the year during PSHE sessions. We will miss them and wish them well in their exams and beyond.

Eggceptional efforts in Year 12!

Year 12 Psychology have embraced parenthood with open arms. In recent lessons, Psychology students have welcomed to the world their beautiful egg babies: Gregg, Sherry, Pickle, Poached, Strawberry, R’egg’ie, Hayden, Aleggxandra and Jonjo Shellvey (to name a few!).

Over the next week they will be keeping a diary recording their baby as it develops through different stages of attachment in line with key concepts and theories that we have learnt over this half term. I have no doubt, with the knowledge they have gained from their ‘attachment’ topic, that their babies will thrive and go on to be well-rounded, healthy adults.

We look forwarded to reading their diaries!

Psychologists of the month
Thomas H and Nancy F in Year 12, and Anna O and are our 'Psychologists of the Month'. The students have worked exceptionally in lessons, showing a real dedication to Psychology, along with revising for their upcoming summer exams. These students received a Psychology related book, an R3 and their name on the prestigious Psychologist of the Month Board! Well done!

Year 13:
We are incredibly proud of our lovely group of Year 13 RE students and we wish them the best of luck as they approach their final exams. We will be available to support students during their timetabled lessons right up until the final Ethics paper. We are also offering after school sessions if students require them. Please encourage them to make contact with us if they need anything.

Year 12:
Students almost half way through the course content now in Philosophy, Ethics and Christianity. It is really important that students are reviewing their notes outside of the lesson and are creating revision resources for each topic as this is the best way to secure knowledge and prepare for assessments.

Year 10:
We couldn’t be more proud of our Year 10 students who have been working exceptionally hard in lessons, and at home, revising for their final GCSE RE exams. We will continue to support them as they prepare for Paper 2 (Christianity) and Paper 3 (Islam). We would encourage all students to attend the after school and half term revision sessions as we revisit key topics.

Year 9:
Year 9 students have been working on Paper 3 (Islam). They have been focusing on key beliefs and teachings and how they impact the lives of religious believers. We have been very impressed by the thoughtful discussions students have engaged in on the afterlife, freewill and predestination. Please encourage your children to complete the revision tasks set on Go4schools so that they are fully prepared for end of unit assessments.

Year 8:
Year 8 students have been studying Judaism this half term. They have particularly enjoyed recreating the Passover meal in lessons through tasting the different elements and discussing the meaning behind this.

Year 7:
Year 7 students have been exploring the foundations of Christianity. We have had some very interesting discussions on miracles and it has been lovely hearing the students talk about their personal experiences of ‘miracles.’ As we begin to look at the impact of parables, we are looking forward to seeing our classes write and perform a modern day parable.

STEM Events

Slice of Science Day at University of Warwick  

On Wednesday 3^rd May, twenty of our Year 9 female-identifying students attended the Slice of Science Day at the University of Warwick. The students attended four different interactive workshops in various STEM fields, including Physics, Psychology, Computer Science, and Engineering, before a final talk, in which students heard Warwick students and alumni discuss the various different pathways they took to study at university.

Students particularly enjoyed the computer-aided design task in the engineering workshop, as they were able to embroider their final designs onto a piece of fabric, as well as walking around the campus and experiencing what it would be like to study at university.

On Tuesday 2^nd May, Year 9 Scientists enjoyed a fantastic STEM day ran by Smallpeice Trust where students had the opportunity to design an app that would support users in a crisis. This involved students considering the different layers to the app, in terms of both aesthetics and user experience, as well as the transitions between the different screens and features. Students completed mini-challenges and logic puzzles in order to ‘unlock’ different features that they could then incorporate into their design, as well as writing and filming a short advertisement to aid in marketing their app. The day ended with the groups presenting their ideas, and advertisements, to the rest of the groups before the judges selected their winners.
Huge congratulations to Noah, Sophie, Sophie, Sebastian, Andrea, and Isaac for their impressive design and outstanding advertisement!

It was such a sad day to say goodbye to our lovely Year 13 Sociology students on Leavers Day, they have been working their socks off over the last few months to their final exams. 

Our Sprint Finish Revision schedule for Year 13 students is a final great opportunity for students to re-visit all knowledge and skills requirements for each of the papers in one sitting.  Knowledge will be re-visited in context of the questions that could be asked for each topic.  We look at the hot contenders for questions in the 2023 exam papers and the days act as a  good refresher for each paper. 

Please encourage students to attend the remaining sessions if they feel a session could be of use, and if its possible with other exams they have during this time along with their own revision plans. 

Year 12 
It was lovely to meet so many of our student’s parents and carers at the Subject Evening recently.  Thank you for making the time to come and meet with us and for reinforcing those key messages.  Year 12 are now moving onto the Year 13 content with Miss Howard.  Here the students look at 10 topics within the course which will be embedded as final questions into paper 1 & 3.  Students are required to look at the methods that are used to research society and the theories that explain how society works in an orderly fashion (most of the time).  With progression exams impending it is imperative that Paper 1: Education & Research Methods & Paper 2: Families & Households is firmly on the students’ radar. 

All students are completing updates to their revision materials for each of these topics and students have access to a past exam questions booklet for each paper where they are able to explore the trends in questions asked.  These are also on the school portal if they require an additional copy.  Students must ensure they revisit the ‘knowledge’ for each paper by referring to the revision materials as this equates to 44% of the marks.  They must also keep rehearsing the skills demands for each question which has been a key focus throughout the year to ensure that the knowledge is applied correctly and this equates to 56% of the marks.    

Year 9 have been looking at international destinations including Florida, Miami and Mumbai as well as our Beautiful British coastlines, mountainous areas and cities.
They have also worked on an ‘eco tourism’ project and designed a ‘health and wellness’ resort in Mumbai, keeping the theme of sustainability. They are now moving onto an ‘End of Year’ project where they are producing a presentation on a destination of their choice for a customer type of their choice. This will allow them to really showcase their skills within travel and tourism and prepare them for the rigour of itinerary writing in Year 10.

Year 10 recently finished their first component assignment. This entailed studying the travel and tourism industry, specifically the types of organisations, how they work together and how they use technology. The students were incredibly dedicated in their approach to the exam conditions required to complete the assignment. We have now moved onto the world of ‘Market Research’ looking at different sources of research. This will prepare them to move onto our next assignment, which will require them to put into practise their Year 9 skills on itinerary writing for ‘trend setting’ holidays. Such trends include the fascinating new ‘Railway Cruises’ in line with the recently opened rail routes through Europe where passengers can take a beautiful trip on the luxury ‘La Dolce Vita’ train. Their next assignment window is in October-November and we are ready for the challenge!

Additionally, we will be looking at holidays and wellness, as according to recent research, 93% of customers asked state their wellness improves significantly after a break, no matter how long the break is for!

The Duke of Edinburgh Scheme offers students the opportunity to stretch their own and explore the realms outside of their normal comfort zones by taking part in The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme. Participants on the scheme, select and set objectives in each of the following areas (over varying time frames depending on the level of award):

Volunteering: undertaking service to individuals or the community.

Physical: improving in an area of sport, dance or fitness activities.

Skills: developing practical and social skills and personal interests.

Expedition: planning, training for, and completion of an adventurous journey in the UK or abroad.

Our students in Year 9 have been working towards their Bronze level award and have been preparing for their qualifying expedition (30^th June – 1^st July) to complete the award at this level.

Our Silver DofEers have been working towards their practice expedition (8^th – 10^th June) and then their qualifying expedition (14^th – 16^th July).

Their preparation for the expeditions has required them to learn how to set up their tents, learn basic first aid skills, learn how and what to pack on their expedition, learn how to cook on a trangia and what foods they will need take in order to be sufficiently fuelled. These after-school sessions have been great fun as well as key learning experiences and students have progressed superbly well towards their goals for the expedition.

Please see below for photos from our afterschool sessions:

A reminder of the series of training events in preparation for the Bronze and Silver expeditions

Extra Curricular

Computing Club 
The club has growing numbers and currently has members from Years 7 to 9. We have recently started developing 2D games using the Microsoft Make Code platform and we now have a selection of Meowbit handheld consoles in order for students to download their games and demonstrate their success to others. 

We have also purchased two Xbox consoles for students to use and will be using these to run competitions in the last half term and beyond into next year. Initial ideas for competitions (but not limited to) include Tetris, Rocket league and FIFA … watch this space.

Eco Club
Following the successful funding bid our Eco Club  won earlier this year from Warkwickshire Alliance they have  ordered wildflower seeds and equipment to help with future projects, e.g. rakes, trowels, compost, canes, etc.  Once these arrive and the project starts we look forward to sharing the results.

Cheerleading Club
This term our newest club - Into Cheerleading - launched. Available for all year groups it has seen a growth in numbers each week.
The club includes an introduction to basic cheerleading positions, learning lifts and acrobatic moves along with dance elements.
It has been great to see students attend and try something new and have a go at something different. 

Art Club
This fantastic Coronation piece has been created by students during Art Club which runs each Wednesday after school.  

A reminder below of the Extra Curricular opportunities available and more detailed information can be found on the website extra-curricular-activities

Last week we had the first meeting of our brand new Fair Trade Group.

Fourteen students attended and they had lots of fantastic ideas about how to raise money and awareness for Fair Trade. We have started to plan lots of exciting events with the first one taking place next half term.

The students have decided on a cake making competition with prizes for the most Fair Trade ingredients and prizes for the best design to promote Fair Trade. The students will then sell the cakes to raise money for Fair Trade.

This group and subsequent events will help with our application to be come a FairActive School, which we hope to achieve next year. 

LEAVE OF ABSENCE DURING TERM TIME

UPDATED INFORMATION FOR PARENTS

The Supreme Court clarified has clarified the law on unauthorised leave, including holidays, during term time (Platt v Isle of Wright 2017). The Supreme Court has made clear that attending school ‘regularly’ means that the children must attend school on every day that they are required to do so. As such, the parents of any child who is absent from school without authorisation for any length of time are likely to be considered as committing an offence under s444 of the Education Act 1996.

The regulations regarding Leave of Absence (The Education (Pupil Regulations) (England) Regulations 2006 as amended by Education (Pupil Regulations) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2013.) advise:

• Head teachers shall not grant any Leave of Absence during term time unless they consider there are exceptional circumstances relating to the application.

If the leave is granted, Head teachers are able to determine the number of school days a child can be absent for.

It is for the Head teacher to decide what is ‘exceptional’ and it is at their discretion if the circumstances warrant the leave to be granted. When making an application for Leave of Absence in advance parents are advised to give sufficient information and time to allow the Head teacher the opportunity to consider all the exceptional circumstances and to notify parents of their decision. It is advised that if the resident parent has not received notification or a response regarding the leave of absence application, it is their responsibility to ascertain if the leave is authorised prior to the start of the leave.

The school can only consider Leave of Absence requests which are made by the ‘resident’ parent ie the parent with whom the child normally resides.

Where applications for leave of absence are made in advance and refused, the child will be required to be in school on the dates set out in the application. If the child is absent during that period, it will be recorded as an unauthorised absence, which may result in legal action being taken against the parent(s), by way of a Fixed Penalty Notice.

Where a leave of absence is requested, but additional days taken either prior to or after the request may be considered as part of the leave of absence and could result in a Fixed Penalty Notice being issued to the parent(s).

Each application for a leave of absence will be considered on a case-by-case basis and on its own merits.

Leave of Absences which are not made in advance cannot be authorised in line with legislation.  This will result in the absence being recorded as ‘unauthorised’.  This may result in legal action against the parent, by way of a Fixed Penalty Notice.  All matters of unauthorised absence relating to a Leave of Absence will be referred to the Warwickshire Attendance Service, part of Warwickshire County Council.

It is important to note, Fixed Penalty Notices are issued to each parent of each absent child, (for example 2 children and 2 parents, means each parent will receive 2 invoices in the amount of £120 each, totalling £240 for both children, this is reduced to £60 per child if paid within 21 days).

Where a Fixed Penalty Notice is not paid within the required timeframe as set out on the notice, the matter will be referred to Warwickshire County Council’s Legal Services to consider instigating criminal proceedings under S444 Education Act 1996.

Fixed Penalty Notices are issued in accordance with Warwickshire County Council’s Code of Conduct for Penalty Notices.

Your child’s progress academically as well as socially is our shared priority