March 2020

Welcome to our spring edition of the Norham News. Each term, we will send out information and updates about the great work that is being done at Norham to give our pupils the best education possible.

Firstly, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our absolutely fantastic parents and carers, our amazing pupils, and my dedicated staff for coming together in these unprecedented times to deal with the challenges that face our community as the coronavirus pandemic continues to develop across the world. Our pupils are curious about what coronavirus means for us as a school community, as I am sure you are too. As a school, we have prepared extensively for the upcoming school closure and we will continue to make sure that you are kept up to date with the latest information.

In these challenging times, it is important to celebrate the amazing things that are continuing to happen this year at Norham. One of our huge successes this year has been attendance. We have had several year groups record 100% attendance which is a phenomenal achievement. Schools across the country face challenges regarding attendance, with many having reported figures of around 70% in recent days. Our average attendance over the last week has been firmly over 90%. This means our pupils are continuing to access a quality education and receive the best support and guidance possible. I hope this trend will continue into the future!

What have we been up to this term?

In our previous newsletter, we stressed the importance of curriculum development as our school moves forward. We know that our pupils deserve an excellent education at Norham, and our curriculum should be designed to enable that fantastic experience. I am pleased to say that this term has been heavily focused on curriculum design, with Curriculum Leaders from all subjects coming together to plan an ambitious, personalised and engaging curriculum for all our pupils. We are ensuring that pupils make rapid progress from their arrival in Year 7 so that they can get the very best outcomes at the end of Year 11, as well as developing the skills they need to take their place in the modern world. Our new curriculum is shaping up to be absolutely first class, and we will be posting updates about our developments on the school’s website in the summer term. Watch this space!

Our school council has also been busy this term, working across Norham to improve the experiences our pupils have even further. They have been instrumental in our recent Charity and Kindness week, which was a phenomenal success. They have been working with Wendy and the kitchen team to improve pupil experience at lunchtimes, and have been working with another local secondary school to show just effective a school council can be.

We continue to be blown away by the ambition these pupils have for themselves and their school; I am pleased to enclose a newsletter written by them about some of the work they have been doing.

News in Brief Here are just a few of the great things that have been going on in the school this term: •

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Pupils have been working with the charity called Children North East on a project to ‘poverty proof’ our school. This has involved looking at ways the school can change its current practices to support children who may be facing financial challenges at home. We have received a pleasing report from the charity and are already well underway with acting on their feedback.

LGBTQ History Month – we held a series of events to celebrate this important month in the school calendar, culminating in a ‘Rainbow Day’ to acknowledge the amazing diversity of our school and local community.

Shakespeare School’s Broadcast – pupils in Years 9 and 10 watch a live stream of Shakespeare’s Macbeth as part of their GCSE studies.

Christopher Eccleston (Doctor Who) played the tragic hero and pupils enjoyed watching a group of truly skilled actors bring this classic tragedy to life for them.

A number of our Year 11 pupils attended a maths inspiration event in Newcastle, hearing from mathematicians and engineers about the power of maths.

Ten of our Year 9 pupils visited Teesside University for the launch of Go4SET – a project designed to develop skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Our CRB pupils have been visiting local businesses to learn about independent travel and living. They have also visited Newcastle College to explore their facilities and to look at Post-16 options.

Pupils in Year 7 and Year 8 visited the Knife Angel statue in Newcastle earlier in the term to reflect on the effects of violent crime on our communities.

We hosted a Business Breakfast meeting for over 25 local businesses. From this, I am pleased to report that they are supporting the school in developing an extensive and inspiring careers education strand. Part of this includes offering pupils in Year 10 a valuable work experience placement – this is long overdue.

• National Pie Week! Wendy and her fantastic kitchen team served a fantastic range of sweet and savoury pies during the week. Pupils loved them so much they are now more regular part of our lunch offer.

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Pupils in Years 7, 8 and 9 have done exceptionally well in their recent rugby features, playing at Kingston Park and Rockcliff RFC under the coaching of professionals from the Rugby Football Union.

Staff and pupils enjoyed World Book Day at the beginning of March. Many staff dressed as famous literary characters, including Sherlock Holmes, Mary Poppins, and the Fantastic Mr Fox. Pupils also took part in a range of activities during registration and their English lessons to celebrate the contribution that reading makes to our lives.

What’s still to come at Norham in 2020?

Whilst the coronavirus pandemic continues to create a climate of uncertainty around whether schools will remain open or not, we have not stopped planning for the months and years ahead. We have ambitious plans for the school over the next few months, including some of the following key investments: A new Drama Studio Wireless WiFi Systems

New PCs and equipment IT for home study

New Common Rooms

New Fitness Studio & Gym

More books in the LRC

New sound, lighting and seating in the hall

Improved Reception facilities

Huge investment in Literacy

As you can see, we are investing in the future of Norham to ensure all our pupils get an education that would rival any other school in the country. Our pupils deserve the best experience of school and we are determined to provide that.

Much of the exciting work we are doing is posted on our school’s digital platforms: • www.norhamhigh.com • www.facebook.com/norhamhighschool • www.twitter.com/norhamhigh Please like and share our pages, and it is the easiest way to contact the Head Teacher @Norham Head.

We welcome all of our parents and carers to visit the school at any time. You are welcome to sit and have a tea or coffee in our reception area, request a meeting with a senior leader, or even with me. You are a key part of our community and I look forward to working with even more of you in the coming months and years ahead.

T. Conway

Student Council

‘Twas the Night Before Christmas at Norham…

During the Christmas season, Drama club was formed to create a production for the end of term assembly during December. It was a Norham rendition of the poem “The Night before Christmas”, where characters were replaced and given lines to represent Norham High School; it was still well made however, as the audience gained quite a few chuckles throughout the different parts of the play.

There were not just people acting on stage on the play, there were quite a few in backstage production and there were a few narrators to guide the play along throughout the assembly. In the same assembly, other people were also able to shine by showing their musical talents such as Keyboard, Guitar and Singing. The drama club are continuing to work on other productions and are excited to be given a new drama studio for their rehearsals.

Arron McNab, Year 10 Charity & Kindness Week Earlier this term we launched a Charity and Kindness Week to support local charities and show appreciation for the services they provide in the local community. These included the Phoenix Detached Youth Project and Meadow Well Connected. Our Pupil Leadership Team planned this week according to what pupils would be enticed into enjoying. During the week, we held a number of special events to raise money: hotdog and ice pop sales, a student and staff bake off, Norham’s Got Talent and the brilliant ‘Sponge the Head Teacher’. This particular event was set on the final day of the school week and was the most popular activity as many pupils donated masses of money to sponge teachers on the school yard. In the end, we raised almost £600!

Callum Atkinson, Year 10 CPR Training Earlier this year, we were lucky enough to have been chosen as the launch school for the PGCPR App. This app was created in memory of Paul Gardner, a former pupil at Norham, who died of a heart attack in 2018. Paul’s step dad visited the school to speak about the importance of knowing CPR so that we can help keep people alive should they get into difficulties. Pupils from across the school got the chance to learn how to use the app, how to deliver CPR, and what else they should do in an emergency. I found the session to be really useful and the app is very straightforward to use. A news reporter from ITV came to the school to talk to me and some other pupils about the day to help spread the message further.

Bradley Bell, Year 11