On Monday 16th May 2011 we were invited to an exciting national award ceremony in London to receive our Diana Awards. Mrs Smith kindly nominated us because we raised £628 for Breast Cancer and Motor Neurone Disease charities and we continue to raise money. These are charities that are close to our hearts and have affected our families in some way, as well as many families around the world. We wanted to raise awareness of these charities and help to raise money for research into these illnesses.

We spent the morning getting ready and at 11.45 am we left to go to White Notley Station to catch the train to London with our families; we were all very excited! Once we arrived at Canary Wharf we went for lunch in a posh restaurant and then walked down to the presentation room to wait for the event to begin.

Everybody was shown to their seats and the event began with a speech of what the Award actually was and why it was introduced. Students from other schools began to be called up to the stage to collect their awards. We all listened carefully to what everybody had achieved; some older students had raised money to help build schools and toilet blocks in Ghana, others had started anti-bullying campaigns in their schools to raise awareness. Finally we were called up to receive our award. It was presented by the celebrity actress and singer Sinitta, (as seen on the X-Factor!) which was fantastic. She congratulated us and we all had a photograph together.

After all the awards had been given out there was a buffet in the main hall, giving us an opportunity to talk to other students from other schools. After a long day and as much food as we could eat we began to make our way home.

It was a brilliant day and it gave us ideas of what charity events to get involved with in the future. It was lovely for our hard work to be recognised by others.

Official Photography is now available to purchase through the dedicated prom website (http://prom.notleyhigh.com). All orders must be received by the 22nd of July to enable us to get everything printed in time for results day.

July 4th may well have been Independence Day in America but here at Notley it was the far more important Year 11 Prom!

Our students arrived from 6pm in every mode of transport under the sun - limos, tractors, bikes and fire engines to name but a few. Even Doctor Who and Amy Pond materialised from Metabelis Three in the Tardis to help the occasion.

Our trusty team of geeks are currently ploughing through the 3000+ photos that were taken on the night and getting them ready for our all new Prom Website (http://prom.notleyhigh.com) and for inclusion in the yearbook. In the meantime, we have put together a quick web gallery just to give you a taste of what's to come. Click here to see the gallery.

You can also see the arrival video on our mediaserver by clicking here. The video doesn't have any sound yet as it is still in its raw state. It will be edited for the final discs that all the prom attendees will get on results day, together with all the master shots from the prom.

Thanks to everyone for such a great night and to the students on the media crew who took pictures and mixed the video: Greg Bennett, Charlotte Cass and Louise Rowe

Please note that from Monday 11^th July 2011 the main school campus reception is moving to the Sixth Form block.

This move is a part of our current realignment of services. We anticipate teething problems to be resolved in the two weeks until the end of the summer term so that we come back in September with a fresh and efficient service to all visitors.

The school thanks you in advance for your patience whilst this move is made and new systems bedded in.

For parents, students and friends of Notley High School and Braintree Sixth Form

Earlier this year we consulted with parents/carers and other stakeholders about the school's plans to explore academy status. We are grateful to parents/carers and others who contributed to the consultation and those who attended the consultation meeting we arranged.

During July, the Governing Body met and considered the recommendations of the Academy Steering Group, a working group of governors which was formed to explore the pros and cons of academy status. At this July meeting the Governing Body resolved to convert to academy status with effect from 1 August 2011. Although there are some potential concerns associated with academy conversion, governors were convinced that the associated benefits (not least the improved financial position as an academy) vastly outweighed any potential risks.

In our original consultation we indicated that conversion would be with effect from 1 September 2011. We have brought the date forward to 1 August 2011 as schools which convert before 1 September 2011 will receive improved funding from the Department for Education for the forthcoming academic year, compared with those who convert on or after 1 September 2011.

We would like to assure all parents and friends that, as an academy, we will remain committed to our core principles as a comprehensive and inclusive school and that we will continue to strive for excellence in the education we provide at Notley High School and Braintree Sixth Form. We are proud of what we have achieved so far and we do not anticipate that parents and students will see major changes to how the school runs as an academy rather than a community school. We do, however, believe that our status as an academy will position us best to capitalise on the current government’s educational policies for the benefit of our parents, students and staff in the future.

David Gask                            Simon Thompson
Chair of Governors                  Headteacher