Community and Christmas Initiatives:

We feel that community is important throughout the year but perhaps especially in this festive period and students have generously taken the opportunity to be involved in a number of initiatives focused on supporting others:

• Christmas Cards for Care Homes: over 250 of these have been sent to residents within the local community – they are personalised to the care home residents and very well-received.  For example, one student wrote a beautiful message to “Enid” empathising with the many memories the latter likely had and celebrating the Christmas spirit with her. As part of our Enrichment offer, around 20 students go out in to one local Care Home on a Wednesday but this initiative extends beyond in to other care homes to spread the Christmas and goodwill wealth
• Christmas Hampers: dovetailing with the Main School, Year 12 and Year 13 tutor groups collected foodstuffs to support those in need and made a great effort in ensuring those in the local community felt thought of and cared for
• Christmas Jumper Day: we are delighted that, in association with the Main School, we have supported in collecting a grand total of £.xxx

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Beyond Christmas, we were very happy to be involved in the Odd Socks campaign to raise awareness of Anti-Bullying.

Elsewhere, in another community event, anyone who attended the recent Winter Concert will know what terrific talent was on display It was really great to see the Sixth Form so represented with performances showcasing a real range of talents. Clea literally lifted me out of my seat with the power of her Disney-inspired vocals while Emily astounded as previously as both a solo artist and as the lead for the joint Year 12-13 band. Well done all for a truly entertaining and impressive evening!

 

Data 1 and Academic Support

As you will be aware, Data 1 is now complete. All students are undertaking reflective learning processes in Tutor Time – whether on target or not, students are identifying areas and action plans for improvement. We do also recognise achievements and ensure celebration and recognition is part of the process. Those students who are not on target will be supported via the Sixth Form Team as well as subject areas in order to bring them on-track for success.

Please recall from other communications that we strongly urge students to undertake 6 hours of private study per subject outside of lessons. This can include but is not limited to:

• homework completion
• re-visiting notes and, crucially, doing something with them – such as editing, condensing or making them visual
• reading around the subject – the term “super-curricular” refers to a process of reading for a love of a subject and beyond the confines of the specific syllabus
• accessing the Digital Learning Hub (DLH) and accessing material there
• planning and/or writing past paper responses and requesting teacher feedback – or self/peer assessing using the marking criteria (much of which is online or in the DLH)

 

Academic Support also extends to those who may have additional support needs and so it was terrific that the I.E.N. (Individual Education Needs) Department offered a recent series of workshops in a market place setting.

Covering a range of areas to help post-16 and post-18 life skills and awareness of support mechanisms, this was well attended from Sixth Form and Main School students alike.

UCAS Submissions and Early Entry Successes

We are delighted that around three-quarters of students have submitted applications to UCAS now. There is a range of course choices and organisations targeted, rightly reflecting the varied interests of our cohort.  If your son or daughter is yet to submit, please do actively encourage them to do so as soon as possible as the hard, external deadline fast approaches in January.

We were very grateful that so many parents and others in the local community offered their services to those targeting Oxbridge, Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Science – those areas where there is an earlier, October deadline for applications. In a series of Mock Interview processes, students experienced things like the type of questioning that can be expected in the upcoming season of formal interviewing. Local doctors, for example, gave up valuable time to ‘put students through their paces’ and the quality of response from our students was terrific – it’s so great to see the future of the medical profession beginning to blossom here at NLS.

From the Early Entry submissions (for those ‘high demand’ subjects and organisations alluded to above), we have a number of students who have secured Oxbridge interviews and others who have begun the first successful steps on the route to a career in one of the medicines – great news! Hopefully, they will follow in the footsteps of last year’s Oliver and Luke and secure places at these high demand organisations.

Ultimately, we are a comprehensive school and an inclusive Sixth Form and will do all we can to support all students in securing their preferred next step destinations

Student Leadership, College Events, Rewards

Some of you may have been at the Sixth Form Open Evening on November 6^th. We were so proud of how our Senior Student Leaders represented the school and the Sixth Form. We are also delighted to have appointed a number of Y12 students to the College Leader posts – which are key roles in the student leadership organisation and which can form a stepping stone to the even more senior posts available in Y13.

Under the leadership of Jimmy and Amelia (our Senior Student Leaders or ‘Head Boy’ and ‘Head Girl’ in the traditional sense) they continue to successfully and drive enhancements and reflect Student Voice here at NLS. Their own voices were a highlight of the speeches given to packed audiences – it never ceases  to amaze just how confident and articulate our brilliant students are!

 

Elsewhere, student leadership and community-mindedness was very much in evidence where a terrific end-of-term even in aid of The Salvation Army took place.

With a choice on offer (see below), our entire SF cohort spent the Wednesday afternoon engaged in some great activities – it was win:win (ask them about Covey!) with the charity and student community both benefitting

A number of College assemblies have taken place to re-assert the College affiliation which students have had since either Y7 or (if New to NLS) since Y12. These assemblies were a great reminder that we look out not only beyond our individual tutor groups but also in to the wider school as part of a whole community. Linked to this, our Termly Rewards Event saw those students with the most rewards invited to a Celebration Event on December 15 – and, again, it was great to see such a great post-16 representation from your children as they were recognised for securing some of the very highest allocations of rewards.

Remembrance

It was wonderful to see our Remembrance event so well-supported by Sixth Form students – in both formal capacities with their cadet force affiliations but also more generally as respectful attendees.

 

It is really heartening to see so many of our students involved in volunteer services.

Tutor Time and P.S.H.E Curriculums

In terms of the Tutor Time curriculum, and linked to the above, recent coverage in Y13 has been on Christmas Community initiatives interspersed with attention to UCAS and other applications. Beyond that, it has also covered reflection processes on the Data 1 outcomes. Meanwhile, there has been a sharp focus in Y12 on Work Experience launching – as well as all the Christmas Community and other initiatives their Y13 counterparts have taken part in.

There has also been a Tutor Time competition for the Best Noticeboard Designs – with Mrs Sandhar (Y12 – 12-1) winning for her group’s imaginative efforts.

 

All of this has been supplemented with our ongoing assembly programme which has foregrounded the notion of High Challenge, Deep Support. The P.S.H.E programme has complemented all of this with its attention to Relationships (Y13) and Living in the Wider World (Y12).

Student Rewards

For efforts in tutor time, across lessons and in school in general, students are accruing many rewards points in Sixth Form – which is great to see. With their college affiliation noted, here are the Top 10 in each year:

Well done to these Top Ten students but to all of those who are so committed to their studies and to school life here at NLS.

On 15 December we had our Winter Rewards Event. The top 30 students in each year group were rewarded with a festive treat during that Monday afternoon! Every point counted and Mr Piper (lead for Rewards) wrote to all relevant parents to share the celebration of success. We reiterate here that congratulations!

Year 12

Name	College
Teagan S	Manor
Daisy G	Manor
Toby V	Manor
Sofia Y	Binswood
Meredith C	Croft
Josh L	Blackdown
Huw  W	Binswood
Isabella R	Binswood
Dan C	Manor
Naomi M	Binswood

Year 13

Name	College
Ben F	Manor
Annabelle W	Blackdown
Anveet R	Binswood
Keiza A	Blackdown
Asher G	Park
Charlotte P	Croft
Molly B	Park
Catherine N	Park
Isla B	Manor
Sophia F	Croft

Upcoming Events and Calendar

• UCAS Deadline – while the internal deadline has passed, it is vital Year 13 planning to submit have done so by 18:00 on January 14th, as this is the external deadline UCAS impose
• Work Experience – Year 12 need to have completed their applications and the forms by the end of March
• Mocks – for both Year 12 and Year 13 begin February 2 and the window is for two weeks

If you have any queries at any point, please do make contact via the usual communication sources.

On behalf of myself, the Sixth Form Team and the school, have a terrific winter break

S A Taylor
Senior Assistant-Head-teacher (inc. Head of Sixth Form)