This half term has been extremely eventful for our Year 8 cohort. It has been lovely to see so many Year 8s role modelling our CORE values to our new Year 7 students. Therefore, it is no surprise that a plethora of reward points have been alloacted for demonstrating ‘acts of kindness’. I have been lucky enough to observe these behaviours each and every day. Over 70 Year 8 ambassadors helped guided and lead perspective parents and children around our school during Open Evening this half term. This takes confidence, commitment and charsima which they all have in bountiful amounts. I hope that they continue to seize all opportunities and continue to have these aspirations and passion to succeed here at NLS.

Tutor Curriculum
Our Year 8 students have had their first Learning Conversation for this academic year. Talking to students about goal setting begins with asking them how they define it. The challenge, for some students, is seeing the need or developing the desire to set goals that relate to their learning and achievement at school. Tutors start getting students to think about this process by referencing goals that they have set outside of school. As a parent or carer of a Year 8 student I am sure you have identified how your child may be motivated to save money for a specific purchase or to convince you to buy them a certain piece of sporting equipment or new clothes? Such goals motivate the persuasive conversations that students have with you on a regular basis. Students can then easily see that connection. Tutors will be able to identify whether the actions they have taken to achieve their academic and pastoral goals next term.

A significant number of Year 8 students come to schools on their bicycles. Therefore, I thought it was important to highlight safety precautions that need to be taken on their journey to and from school. The students spent a couple of sessions of the tutor curriculum creating a campaign to make students consider the steps necessary to keep themselves and other safe. It has been insightful to observe Year 8 students respond so maturely when conversing on such topics.

Notice Board Competition

All Tutor Groups were given the opportunity to design a notice board containing all the relevant information that they may need to include to be able to access the curriculum as well as trying to make it personable and attractive. The creativity and imagination used to design these notice boards was inspiring which, in turn, made it really difficult to choose a winner. There was much deliberation between the Marketing Leaders, Miss Jephcote and myself. However it was decided that there were two notice boards worthy of winning. This year’s winners were BD01 and MR02.                     

 

Open Evening
I want to say a huge THANK YOU to all of those parents and carers that gave permission for their child to support the school during Open Evening. The Year 8 Student Leaders were incredible ambassadors, providing parents and carers with tours of our school. So many parents and carers commented how knowledgeable, confident and passionate they were about their school and their learning!

Year 8 Student Cabinet
We have a strong emphasis on student leadership at North Leamington School. Year 8 have been given the opportunity to become NLS Ambassadors or International Leaders. Leadership gives students the opportunity to develop autonomy and the ability to work both in groups and independently. Year 8s also contribute to student voice. Student voice activities allow students to see the positive impact of their actions. As such, we have Council Representatives and a team called the School Cabinet. I am pleased to announce that Freya Preece and Ethan Langham will continue in their role as Cabinet Representatives.

Rewards
I am so pleased that the typical pattern of reward point allocation has been turned upside down this year with Year 8s leading the race. We are the year group with the highest reward points by a significant amount. We are approximately 2000 points ahead of the next year group. This is a commendable achievement and demonstrates the positive work ethic and attitude in and out of lesson time. Year 8s were challenged to achieve this goal at the beginning of year and boy have they flourished. A massive well done to 8BW02, 8BW01 and 8BD01 who are the top Year 8 Tutor Groups. We are really proud of our top students; Nimitt Kumard, Evie Poole, Felicity Richards, Isabelle Spedding, Amber Birak, Enrico Salazar and Zac Lidderth. It is extremely satisfying to be a leader of a Year Group in which a plethora of students are suportive, honest, display integrity, never give up and are enthusiastic. Characteristics that will allow them to be life long learners.

Macmillan Coffee Morning
On Friday 14^th October, NLS held our annual Macmillan Coffee Morning.  A significant number of Year 8 students supported and spent time at home baking in order to contribute to a fantastic cause. I also have to recognise those Year 8 students that purchased one of the delicious cakes on offer. In total NLS raised £403.36. Thank you so much for your support with this.

CEIAG Morrisby Quiz Y8
Just to let you know that after half term, during the week commencing 31.10.22, all Year 8 students will be completing the Morrisby Quiz in their IT lessons. The Morrisby Quiz is designed to support students will enable students to:

• Identify their work styles and environment preferences.
• Identify the qualifications they will need to undertake a range of careers they are interested in that are suggested by the questionnaire.
• Use information gained to inform their GCSE options

Students will create an account during the lesson and as they will be able look at a few different careers during the lesson we would like to encourage parents and carers to support their child in accessing their Morrisby account at home. They will be able to access their account throughout the remainder of their time at NLS.
Here is the link to the sign in page: https://newapp.morrisby.com/login
The code to access their account is MC436G8K

Message to Parents and Carers
I just want to take this opportunity to thank you all for your support this academic half term. I hope that you feel your child has been given the guidance and support to achieve but, more importantly, to enjoy school life. I look forward to catching up with you all at the various school events next term. Have a fantastic break.

Kind regards,
Mr Royle