This update is about Stars and Wishes!
Stars across the Noadswood constellation!
In the run up to the end of last term, I asked all our colleagues to give me a shout out to those every day ‘stars’ who make our Noadswood sky light up just by their consistent efforts, their stickability and their values as learners and as people. Lots of colleagues couldn’t wait to share the good news of focused, hard work and a cracking attitude in their lessons. I will share with you the stars from five colleagues this week, and then keep drip feeding this celebration of your children’s consistent efforts and successes each week.
Mrs Brown, in Art, nominated these people:
Charlotte, Sophie, Millie in Y11, Noah in Y9, Zach in Y8 and Hannah in Y7
Over in Maths, Mr Rhodes wanted to give a mention to the following people:
Isaac in yr11 for revising like mad, and Fatehah in yr11 - also working very hard in her revision.
Rachel. Toby, Grace, Rubyanne and Emilia in yr9 for lots of effort and getting on with it all in a focused way. Jimmy in Y9 also got a special mention for really great participation.
In Y10 for Mr Rhodes, it’s Megan, Kane and Annie for great effort.
Lacey and Sam in Y8 and Evan and Freya in Y7 are making superb efforts, too.
Mrs Groom in History wanted to share all this lovely news with me:
| Year 11 | Scarlett | Asking for Asia exam papers to practice more, as she has realised this as a weakness |
| Year 10 | Briannah Jasmine Connor | Taking work home in advance of a lesson they knew they would miss for Student Voice to they could stay on top of everything |
| Year 9 | Emilia Finlay Tom Jake Paula Henry | Working hard every lesson to meet their own personal targets and always trying to achieve their best |
| Year 8 | Poppie Iris Evan William Josiah Jamie Harrison Avayah Thomas | Working hard every lesson to meet their own personal targets and always trying to achieve their best |
| Year 7 | Roman Rebecca Millie Lucy Olivia Chloe Jeff Jack Gabe Milly | Some amazing questions and work always completed to a high standard |
As did Miss Rawlinson in History with these fantastic tributes to students for their efforts and their values:
In Year 7:
Ollie - for his genuine kindness to everyone, whether that's helping other in the classroom, being a friendly person to everyone he meets, or handing out the Geography books so my lesson can start even quicker.
Sophia - in Geography giving every task set a go, sharing fantastic knowledge of geography and produced a great piece of work on Fair Trade.
Mia and Scarlett - their enthusiasm for History and great contributions to discussions about Tudor Kings
Harley- for his genuine kindness to everyone in our History lesson, supporting those around him in the classroom.
Amelia - for her exception efforts in History to show great detailed ideas in her written work
Luca - for his enthusiasm in History and great contributions to discussions
In Year 8:
George, Mollie, Liam - for enthusiasm for History, using great prior knowledge to support new topics as they discover the development of power and democracy
In Year 9:
Emma , Amelia, Sophie- for enthusiasm for History and superb new knowledge of the Korean war used to support ideas in extended written work
In Year 10:
Joe, Ronaldo, Sophie, Orion, Maggie, Joe, Cale, Sophie- for superb effort to their end of unit exam in History, using new knowledge and ideas to consider significance, comparison and importance of Health and the People topics.
Alfie - for a great start to our new topic of Elizabeth I, linking ideas together and sharing in class discussions as we explore a new topic.
And finally in Year 11
Rosi- for developing her revision of knowledge with practice exam questions, using the advice to improve her work
She then went on to remind us of some super people outside of the History classroom who made things fly last half term:
The whole of the Year 11 Netball team for a great time playing a match on Friday for Comic Relief/Red Nose Day, and Head Boy, Dan and the core Prefect team involved in advertising the events, organising the cake sale, netball match and raising £187 + a decent chunk of Mufti Day money for Comic Relief. We genuinely had such a terrific day – I wish you could’ve seen it! 😊
Finally, Miss Rawlinson wrote about Georgia Everitt Sharpe and Phoebe Filmore in Y10 and I was very glad she did – Like her, I am very proud of them for leading our work on this year’s International Women’s Day, which included producing the resources for all tutors to deliver with the groups about some of the important issues and charities this annual event marks. They then work hard, with a host of other Year 10 supporters who baked and helped with selling cakes on the day for two charities chosen by the girls: Women’s Aid and Bloody Good Period. Over the break, I was pleased to tell Georgia and Phoebe that we raised £60 for each charity from literally a one breaktime bake sale, and we raised important issues as a result. The fact that this work was devised, led by and carried out by the students is all important to me.
And finally for this letter, look at this bumper list from Mrs Woods in Geography:
Emily-Jade, Katherine, Matthew in Y11
Divine, Flo, Dylan, Daria, Jasmine, Ben, Emily, Eddie, Elliot, Emannuella, Amy, Bailey in Y7
Iris, Zach, Evan, Matthew, Lily, Finn, Charlotte, Jake, William, Mia and Niamh in Y8
Clemence, Daniel, Thomas, Phoebe in Y9
Two things: if you spot your child in this list (show them, ‘cos they’ll be sure who their teachers are, even if names escape you!) why not celebrate with them this weekend, and tell them we will be celebrating with them, too, this term.
Secondly, would you like to come into school to see some of these incredible young people in action? Talk to them about their work and what it’s like to be at Noadswood? It’s been a long time since we’ve been able to fling open our doors, so why not drop my PA, Berni, and me a line at headteacher@noadswood.hants.sch.uk and we’ll arrange a visit for you where you can be shown round by a couple of students, have a chat with me or one of the other members of our leadership team and meet some of the students mentioned here. We’d love to see you and you could have your questions answered and your wonderings confirmed or denied about real life Noadswood in 2022!
Wishes in the recent Parent and Carer Survey:
Thanks so much to all of you who were kind enough to complete the recent survey. We were pleased with the outcome, and we recognised our school, its many strengths and the things we’re working to improve on since we’ve been restoring everything post the worst of the disruption from the Pandemic. The students, our colleagues and the whole Noadswood community really are pulling together steadily and brilliantly well – come and see us, as per the above, if you’d like to see that first hand!
Over the next few letters, we are going to pick out the suggestions and concerns people raised, and how we will work together to address them.
Today, we’re looking at the following two questions where we received the lowest weighted scores:
Noadswood lets me know about how my child is doing (23% of respondents disagreed they feel secure about this) and Noadswood makes me aware of what my child is learning during the year (35% of respondents disagreed they felt aware of this information.)
We believe we need to make a concerted and long term push to make sure you are receiving the information you need in these two respects, regularly and ongoingly.
Firstly and for now, then: We are planning to hold two information evenings, one on school site and one at another venue in the community at which we will be discussing with you Noadswood’s Culture and Curriculum to help everyone feel better in the know about what your child is learning about and what our expectations are because we understand that after the period of disruption we’ve all had, some of you have rarely met us in person and heard first hand what is expected of your children. Mr Hewitt, Deputy Headteacher, and Mr Rowling, Assistant Headteacher, will be the key leads in these events, and I will be there, too, along with members of the team, to chat you afterwards. Dates to follow this term. We will also record these presentations and send links out over ePraise for everyone, and provide summaries on the website.
We have done a great deal of work on the building blocks of our curriculum, and how best to interweave the knowledge and skills the students need to learn from Years 7-9 in KS3 and then through KS4. But I met some terrific parents before the break and we discussed just how much information hadn’t landed with them owing to the fact we’ve been dependent on online info in the past couple of years – Now’s the time to overstate everything in terms of curriculum and assessment in straightforward presentations and summaries for you. We’re looking forward to it.
Mr Rowling has also led a discussion with our Team Leaders this week in direct response to the matter of letting you know about how your child is doing, discussing with everyone the importance of reaching out to you about both successes and at the point when things might begin just to be a bit rocky, rather than you feeling in the dark until the next assessment point. We will be providing you with a summary document, this half term, of the systems we have in place for this sort of contact for you to refer to and so you can contact the right people directly if you don’t feel you have the information you need.
More on these two important points as the events are firmed up and the summary documents are ready.
As an aside, three respondents stated they wouldn’t recommend Noadswood to another parent, and whilst we were thrilled everyone else would, I just want to throw you the most open-hearted invitation to contact us to talk if you were one of the three actively saying you would not.
I say that because it’s a long time for your child to be in a school you would not recommend and we want to do something about this feeling. We’re incredibly proud of our school and our efforts, but we also know we always have things to learn from your views and also, you may well find we’re working on the self-same things you’ve identified that bother you. Please contact your child’s year leader, or one of the leadership team or me to talk.
Looking forward to another great Noadswood week ahead after the long weekend – there are plenty of ways you can get in touch and become involved in both this letter and in our consultation about the possibility of Noadswood joining a Multi-Academy Trust also issued today via the website and ePraise LINK HERE and believe us, we really can’t wait to hear from you.
All our best, as ever, and into the future,
Kathryn Marshall and the Noadswood Leadership Team