Newsletter

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you all back to Nottingham Free School and briefly reflect on the start of the autumn term of a new academic year; in the inaugural issue of what will be a half-termly electronic newsletter.

I am delighted to see such a positive start to the year, and I have been particularly impressed with the standard of our students’ uniform. The pride that they take in maintaining a professional appearance is a testament to the purposeful nature of the character and ethos of our student community. 

We are also incredibly proud of the strong outcomes achieved by our GCSE and A’ Level students over the summer; especially given the challenging circumstances faced through the pandemic, and the disruptions that all of our students have confronted over the last few years.

For the past two weeks we have been holding a number of open events for prospective students, and we have had a great response from the community. It has been truly wonderful to see so many parents and young people back in our building; something which we look forward to continuing as we return to face-to-face parents’ evenings and other on-site events.

As a mother to two school-aged children myself, I appreciate the value of active parental engagement in a child’s learning journey. With this in mind, we will shortly be communicating details of a number of opportunities over the coming weeks for parents and carers to meet with me and other members of the senior leadership team in person.

I feel very fortunate to have been welcomed so warmly into such a kind and vibrant community, and I would like to thank you all, your children, and the staff team at Nottingham Free School for the extremely important roles that each and every one of you play.

I wish everyone a very happy and successful term.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Jo Simpson

Starting in Autumn Term 2

Here are the statutory topics being taught next half term to facilitate and support any conversations at home.

Year 7 - Puberty and healthy relationships including good communication and identifying reliable internet sources.

Year 8 - Healthy relationships- including different romantic relationships, family relationships and friendships.

Year 9 - Self esteem and body image. E-safety focusing on grooming, online sexual harassment, and gambling within gaming. FGM (Female Genital Mutilation), HBV (Honour Based Violence) and forced marriage.

Year 10 - will be studying Christian beliefs and teachings as part of the Philosophy and Ethics statutory curriculum.

Year 11 -  Healthy relationships with a focus on fertility issues, the menopause, options for young parents. Revisit radicalisation and extremism. Further work on internet safety.

Year 11 students should be currently exploring post-16 courses. Most further education open days are in October and November.

Careers information websites  

• Unifrog.  A reminder to all parents that we have a subscription to Unifrog, a careers platform which gives a wealth of information.  Students in years 8-13 log on using their school email accounts.  Year 7s will be able to access Unifrog shortly.
• The careers pages on our website also offer several useful links.  

Year 10 - Work experience dates are Tuesday 23rd, Wednesday 24th, Thursday 25th May.  Students are currently writing letters of application.  Ideally, placements should be arranged by January. 

Parent Voice - please fill in the form on the below link if:

• you would like to offer a short careers talk
• you have a specific request related to your child's career needs (eg a need for more information or support)
• you would like to have your say about our careers programme

https://forms.office.com/r/MxVhQGPgqv

Careers Summary

Wednesday 21st September saw the celebration evening for all Nottingham Free School students that completed their Duke of Edinburgh Bronze and Silver Awards last academic year. It was brilliant to be able to share their wonderful achievements with parents, carers and some younger siblings that were also brought along — willingly or otherwise. Given that the qualifying expeditions took place in the summer term, it’s easy when looking back to see the award purely as a recognition of that single, albeit impressive accomplishment. However, the celebration evening gave us valuable time to remind students, as well as those celebrating with them, of the outstanding dedication that they’d demonstrated all year round whilst completing their volunteering, physical and skills sections.

We were also able to share amazing stories about our students’ personal development whilst away on the expeditions. All the while, exemplifying our school’s values through acts of kindness, comradery and a staggering amount of hard work. Their politeness and good behaviour were attested to by many of the external assessors and Karos Adventure staff, with whom they worked closely in completing the various sections. 

Perhaps the most heart-warming aspect was having the ability, after such a long time, to invite parents and carers back into the building, get the complimentary tea and coffee out, and have a laugh at some photos.    

Finally, a big thank you to all the staff who selflessly gave up their time and the comfort of their homes in order to help facilitate this amazing opportunity for our students, as well as parents for supporting with the extensive preparations.

Duke and Edinburgh and Educational Visits Coordinator

Nathan Mee

On Wednesday 28th September three of our sixth form students, Eloise Kenah, Hannah Clarkson-Webb, and Mayte Ehrenzeller, took part in the mathematical Olympiad for girls. It consists of five challenging problems where they are awarded marks based on their written solutions. Such an amazing opportunity to take part.

Safeguarding Updates for parents:

Safeguarding team at Nottingham Free School:

A reminder to parents that if you have any concerns regarding safeguarding incidents both outside of school or online that you are able to contact the following staff:

Kay Gray - SDSL (kgray@nottinghamfreeschool.co.uk)

Susan Seymour - DDSL (sseymour@nottinghamfreeschool.co.uk)

Jodie Harnan - DSL (jharnan@nottinghamfreeschool.co.uk)

Phil Cleveley - DSL (pcleveley@nottinghamfreeschool.co.uk)

Amanda Doyle - DSL (adoyle@nottinghamfreeschool.co.uk)

Meika Leivars - DSL (mleivars@nottinghamfreeschool.co.uk)

Joel Tomasevic - DSL (jtomasevic@nottinghamfreeschool.co.uk)

 

National Online Safety

The online world is posing an ever-increasing risk to children, and it is important that schools, parents and carers work together to take an active role in teaching children about online dangers. Learning how to act safely when using the internet is an incredibly important part of safeguarding our children.  

We are therefore delighted to announce that Nottingham Free School have shown our commitment to protecting our pupils online by working with National Online Safety- providing resources for all parents and carers.   

The resources include Parents & Carers courses (presented by Myleene Klass), online video resources and weekly guides covering a huge range of topics, including: 

• Online Relationships 
• Fake Profiles & Social Bots 
• Online Bullying 
• Online Grooming 
• Child Sexual Exploitation  
• Sexual Harassment & Violence 
• Sexting 
• Live Streaming 
• Online Identity 
• Screen Addiction  
• Online Challenges 
• Overspending 
• Social Media Platforms 
• Online Gambling 
• Radicalisation, Terrorism & Extremism  
• Age Inappropriate Content 
• Copyright & Ownership  
• Hacking 
• Fake News 
• Online Fraud 
• Online Reputation 
• Personal Data 
• Pornography  
• Targeted Adverts & Pop-Ups 
• The Dark Web 
• Games & Trends 

 

To create your account, please follow https://nationalonlinesafety.com/enrol/nottingham-free-school and complete your details. When you’re set up, you’ll be able to set ‘Parent/Carer’ as your user type.   

You can access National Online Safety online via any device- including via our brand-new smartphone app. To download the app, please go to: 

Click Here for iPhone

Click Here for Google Store

Alternatively, search for ‘National Online Safety’ in the App Store/Google Play Store.  

Answers to frequently asked questions and customer service can be accessed at here.  

We have invested in this support for parents and we would like as many parents as we can to log on and start using the support.  If you have any questions then please email kgray@nottinghamfreeschool.co.uk.

Safeguarding for students

All students have received a safeguarding update during their first week of term.  This covered expectations regarding language, discrimination, expectations regarding sexual harassment and assault and how to access support and expectations regarding Tik Tok.

With regards to Tik Tok, we have advised all students that they are not allowed to set up Tik Tok accounts using the Nottingham Free School name.  We have explained to students that if accounts are set up then parents will be contacted to request that they are removed.  Any accounts that include discriminatory videos will be referred to the police.  We have also explained the importance of not liking discriminatory videos and being connected to them.  

We ask all parents to monitor their child's TikTok accounts and ensure that they are acting safely. 

Students have access to a new bullying email and safeguarding email to report any concerns to .

bullying@nottinghamfreeschool.co.uk

safeguarding@nottinghamfreeschool.co.uk

 

Apps to be aware of:

Apps are being updated on a daily basis and we try to make parents aware of apps that you should keep an eye on.  

Sayat.me - is very similar to ask.fm and is having some unpleasant outcomes.  People can sign up with facebook, twitter or skype.

Whatsmock/Lets Chat - create fake WhatsApp messages between two people.

Wink - teen dating site with lots of older men pretending to be young teens. Group of men sending messages to teen boys pretending to be beautiful blonde 16 year old girl. Asking for videos of then doing things to themselves then asking for £500 blackmail or they will show the video to their friends list. They are showing the video to friends afterwards whether they pay them or not

Qooh.me - allows users to ask other users anonymous questions. Individuals do not have to login to ask questions, so anyone can ask a user anything. There is also no online moderator and adult profiles are mixed in with those of teens and children

Tumblr – share posts/photos etc however, they allow porn content, pro eating disorders and pro self-injury posts.

4Chan – post anonymous content.  Inappropriate content for children

Yubo – a new dating app for under 18’s.

 

If there any apps that you become aware of that you think school should know about please contact kgray@nottinghamfreeschool.co.uk

 

School website support:

Please click on the link which will take you straight to our safeguarding section on the website which provides some further guidance.

We are receiving an increasing number of complaints from parents, neighbours, pedestrians and other road users about the unsafe dropping off and parking at the front of school by some parents. Student safety is of the upmost priority for all of us and as a school community: students, parents and staff, we need to work together to ensure that the road outside school is safe for all to use. Can parents please not drop off or park in the middle of Haydn Road or on the marked area with yellow zig-zags directly outside of the school main entrance.

Thank you for your co-operation.

October Half Term:

In contrast to many of the city schools that adopt a two week break in the autum term, our October half-term break will be one week long, with the last day of school being Friday 21st October, and students returning to school on Monday 31 October.

Tutor Review Day:

On Wednesday 16 November, we will be holding a Tutor Review Day. Students will not be in school on this day, except for a pre-arranged meeting with their parents and tutor.

Home Reports and Parents Evenings:

Post-16 Open Evening:

On Thursday 10 November we will be holding an open evening for Post-16 provision at our Sixth Form. 

The online platform for applications to the Sixth Form will go live from the following day, Friday 11 November.