NewsletterHalf Term 1 Parent Newsletter

Dear Parents and Carers, 

I hope this newsletter finds you well and your child is looking forward to a well earned half term break. 

As the first half term comes to an end, I am extremely proud of our whole school attendance of 96.4%. This strong attendance is the direct result of our Attendance Team, Tutors, Heads of Year and many more staff working in partnership with families, to ensure children are accessing school whenever possible. 

I will also reflect on the enormous success of the very first Nottingham Free School Awards Evening held on Monday 14 October. We were delighted to take this opportunity to celebrate the academic and personal achievements of children from all year groups. Each child receiving an award on the evening had embodied our school's Ethos of Excellence framework. 

There were many more things to celebrate from the half-term:

• Well done to Year 11 and Year 13 students for a very strong start to the school year 
• Our new SEND hub and Sensory Room
• Student Leaders engaging with our first offical Training Day and displaying our REACH characteristics each and every day
• Amazing educational visits to Nottingham Lace Market and Hornsea (GCSE Geography), London Art Gallaries (GCSE Art) and even the local Aldi (ASDAN course)!

This list could go on and on. I hope you find our Half Term Newsletter useful and interesting. 

I will finish by wishing your child a peaceful half term and we all look forward to reconnecting with them on Monday 4 November. 

Yours faithfully, 

Dr J Simpson

• We recognise that students are much more focused on their attendance and focused on attending every day.
• Students are much more confident in knowing how many days absent they have had this half term and as a result our whole school attendance is 96.4%. 
• We will continue to share with parents their child's current attendance, the number of days absent and the spells of absence and a letter will be sent to all parents after half term to share this data.  
• Whenever there are circumstances beyond your control that affect your child's attendance, we will always be here to support and guide you.  Please contact nmills@nottinghamfreeschool.co.uk or your child's tutor if you need support. 

• Congratulations to Year 7 who have settled really well.  They are truly embracing the Work Hard Be Kind motto and have impressed so many staff this half term.  Thank you to all the year 7 parents who have supported their child this half term and in turn us as a school.
• To the other year groups, thank you for working hard this half term.  It has most certainly been a long half term but students have shown courage and resilience in their lessons and have been the best version of themselves. 
• Please can I ask that parents check pencil cases over the half term and ensure that stationery is stocked up in preparation for Monday 4 November.  

Mrs K Gray 

• We have seen an increase in the number of students feeling anxious this half term.  Thank you to all parents who have been in touch with us to seek support. 
• Over the half term, if your child is struggling a reminder that the following support services are still available in the holidays:
• Kooth - https://www.kooth.com/
• B U Notts - https://www.beusupport.co.uk/

Year 11 Central Venue League 

• The year 11 football team had success over the last half term in the city competition. Playing across two nights they managed two wins, two draws and a loss. With a lack of substitutes and some usual faces unable to play they showed true resilience within all games and maintained our usual high standards. 

Year 8 Central Venue League  

• The year 8 football team traveled to Emmanuel school on two nights to compete in the city tournament with hope of progressing to the next league in the spring term. They haven't played with each other regularly, however they were exceptional in their attitude and performance in all games. A special mention goes to Noah Thorley who scored a hat-trick in the first game and Miss Leivars who came to support her year group in the evening!

Mr Coppack

In order to support conversations at home we wanted to let you know what your students will be covering next half term.

Y7

• Puberty and relationships

Y8

• Mental Health, self-harm and suicidal thoughts
• Healthy Relationships

Y9

• First Aid
• Mental Health
• Eating Disorders
• Internet Safety
• FGM HBV and forced marriage

Y10

• Religion Philosophy and Ethics this half term: Christian Beliefs and Teachings

Y11

• Religion Philosophy and Ethics this half term: Wealth and Poverty

Educate Against Hate

The Educate Against The group have been meeting weekly to discuss strategies to support younger students with issues. The group are preparing to launch their supportive programme during anti-bullying week after half term and have prepared a PPT to share with all students. To support anti-bullying week we are asking students to wear odd socks on Tuesday 12th November.

Equation Workshops

We have been very lucky to have equation delivering fully funded workshops to our KS3 cohort. Equation is a Nottingham-based specialist charity that works with the whole community to reduce the impact of domestic abuse, sexual violence and gender inequality. Y7 have had a workshop on healthy and unhealthy relationships and & Y8 have had a workshop on Respect not fear. Equation will continue to support our PSHE programme over the year.

Mrs Wilken and Mrs Inglis

The Year 11 Netball team beat all opposition they faced in the Central Venue League qualifying rounds (bar West Bridgford School), to progress to the CVL Finals.

Every single game of the final was played through an absolute downpour! Our 1st adversaries were Carlton Academy. We made light work of that one by beating them 10-2. Following that was the only team to beat us in the previous rounds (West Bridgford), who again, held us to a 6-10 defeat. 3rd up was Carlton Le Willows, whom we held-off to keep a clean sheet: 4-0 victory. Our final game was against Christ the King. After a close 1st half, the girls got a half time talk that Brian Clough would have been proud of, resulting in a 7-4 win.

The girls received silver medals for their 3 weeks of incredible endeavours. As far as the celebrations went, that silver medal may as well have been gold as they were only beaten by the team that won and the girls know what calibre of Netball they play.

Well done, squad!

Miss Singleton

• Well done to all of the Year 11, 12 and 13 students who took part in the UKMT Senior Maths Challenge.  10 bronze awards, and 4 silver awards gained, a fantastic achievement!

• We have just had our first half term of PD enrich lessons. Year 7, 8 and 9 will change activities again in January.

Mrs Inglis and Mrs Wilken

Our next charity project is the reverse advent calendar. We will ask tutor groups to bring in food bank items in the run up to the Christmas break. These can include dried food items, household/human cleaning products, sanitary products and baby related items such as nappies and wipes. We will be taking donations to The Trussell Trust food bank in Daybrook at the end of term.

Mrs Inglis and Mrs Wilken

• We are delighted to announce that Nottingham Free School has invested in GCSEPod, the award-winning digital content and revision provider used by over 1,700 schools worldwide. 
• Your child now has access to GCSEPod’s library of over 6,500 ‘Pods’ (3-5 minute knowledge videos, to support learning)
• As well as videos, your child has access to Student Learning Activities to apply their knowledge 
• We recommend that you talk about GCSEPod with your son or daughter
• Please visit www.gcsepod.com/parents for support on how it works.
• Your child has already been registered with GCSEPod, so all they need to do is log in via the “sign in with office 365” button.
• If you have any questions, please email me at: pecoppack@nottinghamfreeschool.co.uk 

Many thanks, 

Mr Coppack

• This term has seen the launch of Sparx Maths at Nottingham Free School. This is a wonderful website designed to support students with their maths learning and help them make additional progress in the subject. The roll-out has been a massive success with over 2,800 hours and over 115,000 questions answered collectively so far! 2,800 hours is approximately...
• 1,300 movies or
• 84,000 back-to-back bags of microwavable rice..
• and
• Usain Bolt could run 105,000km in that time*! (*at World Record pace.. provided he never rested.. so very unrealistic!)

A big well done to all the students who have been routinely finishing their homework and engaging with additional Sparx tasks, and a big thank you to all parents, careers, and tutors who have been supporting along the way.

Can we get to 20,000 hours by the end of the school year?

Please follow this link for a handy parent guide on how your child uses Sparx maths for homework: 

https://sparxmaths.com/parents/

Mr Mallard - Second in Maths