Year 8 Trip - Pupil Voice

During this half term, we asked Year 8 where they would like to go on a trip in the summer term. The students have overwhelmingly voted for Drayton Manor, and the planning for this is well underway! This trip will take place in Summer 2, and it was great to see how many students voted. There has been a lot of positive talk in the year group and I hope the students are looking forward to this. I will be sharing all the details during the course of the summer term.

College Assemblies and Attendance Challenge

When students returned from half term, we were straight into College Assemblies and of course another iteration of our College Attendance Challenge. As one of the College Leaders, I always enjoy these assemblies immensely, and it is wonderful to see just how closely the Park students know each other and feel like a team, despite being in different year groups. On this occasion, it was Binswood who claimed the title of Attendance Champions, with Park a close second! Congratulations to all the students involved, we know how hard everyone is working to attend school every day.

World Book Day

On Thursday 5 March, Year 8 had a normal day of lessons, though they may have been taught by a pirate or a knight instead of their regular teacher! The staff were out in force to celebrate World Book Day and show how dedicated we are to reading in an effort to instil in the students a lifelong love of reading. This was capped off by a quiz in tutor time, marking a really enjoyable day, and a great way to raise the profile of reading and literacy.

Red Nose Day

We celebrated Red Nose Day: along with a cake sale, it was wonderful to see how many Year 8s showed their support by wearing a red accessory. We will share the amounts raised by each College to the school next half term, and it is always a pleasure to support such a worthy cause.

Tutor Time Curriculum

Along with all of the events detailed above, we have managed to get even more into our Tutor Time Curriculum. Students have been making posters for an International Schools project, as well as learning about Crime and Culture during PSHE. This half term has seen our Year 8 World of Work event and careers sessions during tutor time. Mrs Barley-Morey and Mrs O’Donnell invited in a guest speaker to talk to all of Year 8 about their potential future pathways. This event referred to Apprenticeships, T levels, A levels and encouraged the students to consider pathways into industry. We know how valuable it is for students to know their options for after school and it is a great privilege to have had such expert advice given to the year group!

In the next half term, form tutors will continue to deliver PSHE on Crime and Gang Culture. These sessions will focus on knife crime, grooming and substance misuse. We have a really strong team of form tutors who are able to deal with these topics sensitively and professionally. Tutors will also be helping their forms complete Self Reflection Reviews. I hope that you and your child were happy with their progress and attainment in their Data 2 reports – tutors will use this data to help the students to set sensible, achievable targets for the remainder of the academic year.

Rewards and Celebration

We know how hard students work across the school. They display our CORE values of Commitment, Opportunity, Respect and Excellence each and every day. Staff are always keen to reward students for everything they do so well, and those students have justifiably been celebrated! We closed the half term with a whole school celebration event with fresh cupcakes for the students with the highest reward points and went on to celebrate their successes and many others in our year group Celebration Assembly.

I had the opportunity to hand out certificates and even Amazon vouchers to a great number of Year 8, and the whole year group should feel proud of what they have accomplished this term. I am delighted to share the highest earners of reward points for this whole Spring Term, as well as those students who have made the most progress against their target bands, and those chosen by their Form Tutors for their Outstanding Contribution to their group.

Students with the Highest Number of Reward Points

Top Two Students in Each College for Reward Points

Top two Year 8 students for Achievement in each college:

Outstanding Students in each Tutor Group

Online Safety Newsletter

A reminder our website contains a variety of online safety information within the Safeguarding tab, we added the March Online Safety Newsletter which contains information mobile phones, VPNs and social media algorithms– it is linked here also March Online Safety Newsletter

Talking Teens Programme here at NLS

Our Family Support Team are supporting Warwickshire Families First in a Talking Teens Workshop being run here at NLS which may be of interest.

Starting on Tuesday 14 April, the programme will run weekly, each Tuesday from 1 to 3.00pm for four weeks and is at no cost.

Topics that the workshops will cover include:

• Help gain confidence and insights in understanding why teenagers behave as they do
• Learn how teenage brains develop
• Explore positive parenting strategies to help behaviours
• Explore different ways to communicate and connect with teenagers
• The importance of parents in teenage years

To book a place please scan the QR code on the flyer on our website Talking Teens Flyer on NLS Website or you can email  ehparenttrainers@warwickshire.gov.uk.

Thank you, as always, for your support of the school and of course your children. I look forward to welcoming Year 8 back into the summer term.

Mr Piper 
Assistant Headteacher – Year 8 Lead