On Friday 15 March 2024, the nation celebrated Comic Relief 2024 (AKA Red Nose Day), and we at NLS joined in on the fun and showed our support. On this great day, two events were organised by our Student Charity Leaders, comprising of a cake sale and “Splash the Teacher”.

The cake sale was supported by students bringing in their own home-made or store-bought cakes to sell at break time. It didn’t take long for crowds to gather around the treat-filled tables and within minutes the cakes were sold out!

An even bigger crowd of enthusiastic and excited students formed around the “Splash the Teacher” activity. Brave volunteering staff members faced water-soaked sponges from students who had donated money to Comic Relief for the privilege of getting them wet! They (and some staff) queued up to throw sponges at their favourite teachers, with many hitting their mark. Laughter followed each sponge thrown and the event concluded with our teachers looking rather wet, but just as cheerful as the students.

These two events raised £235 for Comic Relief, helping to support local communities through providing meals, clothing and toiletries to those in need. 

We are delighted to share that this year’s hamper appeal was a great success and the school once again helped make a difference to a range of people in our community at Christmas-time. Tutor groups each had their own hampers and generously filled them with Christmas items. As a group, each tutor discussed ideas and decided who they would like to receive their hamper.

The hampers were collated by the students, carefully wrapped and delivered to local care homes, the homeless shelter, food banks and elderly neighbours. It was lovely to see how much the hampers were appreciated.

We are delighted to share that we are now in our 20th year supporting this fantastic charity. This event saw staff perform in front of over 320 students, covering famous artists including Noel Gallagher, Back Street 'Gals', Pink, Shakira and Elsa from Frozen. They were judged by a small team of experts, from our Senior Student & Assistant Senior Student Leadership Team, based on their performance, stage presence, costumes and crowd interaction.  Winners were announced for Best Group, Best Solo performance and Best Costume.

‘I want to see talent’ announced Judge Shingai, at the start of North Leamington’s X Factor show in aid of Children in Need, and he was not left disappointed.

Mr Rae opened the November show in front of the ‘loudest crowd ever’ (as verified by our presenters Mr Foxon and Mrs Barley-Morey) with his version of Oasis’ ‘Wonderwall’ to a raucous reception. Impressively, he was also the only one to play his own music. Next up was a crowd-favourite duet from Mr Royle and Miss Howard, performing Shakira’s ‘Hips Don’t Lie’ accompanied by a host of props, including the Croft snake mascot! The acts continued to roll at the same extraordinary rate of quality and enthusiasm. Mrs Hill gave a spell-binding performance as Elsa from Frozen, in her wedding dress, whilst Ms Norman impressed as P!NK. Our Sixth Form judges were full of acclaim, and occasionally constructive criticism, for the staff stars, with stage presence and crowd noise catching their eye the most. There was no stronger contender in these departments than Ms Elliot with her rendition of ‘Shake it Off’ by Taylor Swift.

However, there could only be one winner. After much deliberation, the judges awarded the prestigious award to the talented trio of Miss Clifford, Miss Sears and Miss Reed, or the Backstreet Gals as they were known as on the night. With the phenomenal amount of money raised of almost £900 for Children in Need, the audience won’t be the only young people who will have benefitted from the event.

To raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support a team of Year 9 Student Charity Leaders held a very successful cake sale on 13 October. In preparation for the event, the team visited each tutor group, raising awareness of the event and inspiring people to bring in cakes to be sold at break. To create a bit of friendly competition and raise as much money as possible, the five colleges were challenged with raising the most money on the day. In addition, Sixth Form students wore green clothing and contributed £1 each.

The cakes came in thick and fast, many of which students took the time and effort to bake themselves.  By the time break came, we had an impressive array ready to be sold. Five tables representing each college were lined with a wide range of mouth-watering goodies waiting to be sold. The tables were quickly flooded with watchful eyes gazing at the tempting sweet treats. Students were spoilt for choice. Sales soared, trays emptied and it was a sell out! Not a crumb left! The winning college Binswood, who raised £94.80. In close second place was Park with £93.40 and the overall amount raised for the Macmillan fundraiser was £429.18. 

On 29 September it was wonderful to see the whole school community come together to take part in a very worthwhile Cancer Research event: Race for Life. In the week leading up to the event, tutor time sessions were used to educate students about cancer and how it can be treated. Hearing about personal experiences shared by staff, students were able to appreciate the importance of donating and the positive impact they can have in the fight against cancer.

The event itself saw students from Years 7 - 13 walk or run 1 mile laps around the perimeter of our two fields, aiming to complete as many circuits as possible in an hour. Encouraged by members of staff cheering them on or running with them, students wore a variety of pink items such as headbands, socks and tutus. Some painted their faces pink in support of the charity. It was impressive to see the great effort made by students and their positive attitude during the event.

Students were encouraged to donate a minimum of £1 and to gather additional sponsorship based on the number of laps completed: some managed over 5 laps! There were some extremely generous donations from students and staff, which resulted in us smashing our fundraising target of £1000. In total we raised a staggering £2038 for Cancer Research. A special mention to students Alice and Evelyn, who raised £200 between them, as well as Daisy for contributing £80 to this cause. What a fantastic team effort and result!

During the month of March, the whole school came together to show their support for Ukraine. Students and staff brought in hundreds of items to help the people of Ukraine. Items such as non-perishable food, essential toiletries and games were packaged up and sent to help make a difference to families suffering in Ukraine and Poland.

Alongside this, Sixth Form students came together to make the Ukrainian flag in their support for Ukraine and coordinated donations to the DEC (Disasters Emergency Committee - Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal). Almost £500 was raised. The students also requested to do a minute silence for those who have lost their life in the conflict and to reflect.

Further donations were collated in support of a neighbour of one of our students who welcomed two sisters and their three young children (a boy aged 9, and girls 6 years and 14 months) from Ukraine.