The Wind Band played in George Yard on Wednesday 30th May.  A wide variety of pieces were played to a very high standard to a supportive audience. 

My thanks go to all of the members of the band for a fantastic performance. 

We have uploaded a few pictures from the performance here.

Mrs Hanna 

The DVDs from the Notley High School & Braintree Sixth Form Dance Show 2012 are now ready for collection from Miss Auston. Sorry about the delay - there were a few technical hicoughs including but not limited to Mr Rowe's PC going to join the great computer in the sky!

If you would like to order one of the DVDs they are still available priced £9.

Well that's it - after (nearly) 5 years the class of 2012 have finally left the building. 

Following their last ever assembly and an address by Mr Thompson and Mr Williams it was off to the canteen for shirt signing, final goodbyes and not a few tears. And the girls were quite upset too!

We would like to wish all our Year 11s good luck in their forthcoming GCSEs and we'll see you at the prom in July by which time your stress levels should have returned to normal.

PS The pictures will be on the website soon. 

PPS Mr Rowe would like to thank the vuvuzela player without whom he would still have two eardrums.

Congratulations go to Omar Ally in 10T for his outstanding performance at the Jack Petchey Speak Out Challenge regional final at Honywood School on Thursday 24^th May.

Omar, along with 15 other students form across schools in North Essex, performed a speech to a packed audience on a subject of his own choice. Omar’s speech on “Inspiration” was eloquent and sophisticated and was delivered with passion. It was a truly “inspirational” performance.  

The Jack Petchey "Speak Out" Challenge is a programme run by the Speakers Trust and funded by the Jack Petchey Foundation.  The Trust believes that good communication skills and personal confidence are key to active involvement in community life and our ability to make a difference.

Well done Omar!

The Parent Portal has now been updated. We are trying to give parents/carers a greater insight into student performance and to provide more live information. The Portal now includes attendance, school reports, rewards and behaviour comments among a host of other information. Towards the end of the summer term we will be taking parental feedback on the upgrades.

The original Parent Portal log-in will allow you to access the site. Simply select the Parent Portal icon on the home page of the website and follow the instructions. Pressing the icon will also allow you to request your password if you have mislaid it.

Mark Fuller

Network Manager

Please find the updated Year 10 and Year 11 Half Term and Saturday revision sessions planned for 2012, attached in the link below.

Mr Brooks Newmark, MP for Braintree,  visited the Speech and Language Centre on Friday to meet with the staff and students.

He was interested to find out what it was like to have Speech and Language difficulties, and how the Enhanced Provision helps students to overcome these difficulties.

The students interviewed him about his job as a Member of Parliament and then explained what happens in the Speech and Language Centre.

Kelvin Corney gave a presentation and Callum Devenny provided refreshments, made by the students. 

Year 11 Art GCSE Exhibition – Private View, Tuesday 29th May 6-8pm.

The annual GCSE Art Exhibition, in the library of the Notley building at Notley High School & Braintree Sixth Form, will showcase the work of our Fine Art and Art Graphics students. There will be the opportunity to see current Year 11 GCSE coursework and sketchbooks. All year 10 and 11 Fine Art and Art Graphics students and those considering taking Fine Art or Art Graphics at GCSE, are invited to attend the Private View.

On Tuesday 15th, Wednesday 16th and Thursday 17th May, Year 7 students each received a one hour fire safety presentation in their tutor groups. Firemen from a local fire station came in to educate Year 7 students on the dangers of fire, as well as
hoax calling the fire service. Students were shown a video and had to discuss different scenarios. In groups, they also discussed the consequences and repercussions of lighting fires.

Many thanks to Peter Shipton and Trevor Cox for delivering the sessions.

The photos taken from one of the sessions are available here.

A group of twenty Year 11 and 12s took part in their Silver Duke of Edinburgh Practice Expedition last weekend. The students travelled to the North Downs in Sussex for their trek and all completed the three day, two night trip. To complete the challenge all the students had to work in teams of between four and seven. Within this team, they had to navigate for at least seven hours a day, and be completely self-sufficient. All of the Year 11 students have already completed their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh's Award, so they knew what to expect from the trip, although the weather did prove to be a challenge. The Year 12s adapted well to their new surroundings and all worked well in teams, mixing with people they did not know. Even though the weather was wet and miserable, all the students worked well together, proved to be resilient and had a great experience.

More to follow in the next newsletter.

Miss Bonny and Mr Burge

Duke of Edinburgh Co-ordinators

On Friday 4th May we had a visit from 19 students and 2 staff from IES Foramontanos, Cantabria. The students spent three hours with Year 10 students, shadowing them in lessons and having lunch. This was a great opportunity for all involved to practice their language skills and by the end of the day, email addresses had been exchanged in order to stay in touch. Thank you to all the Year 10 students who took part and to the staff who helped with the organisation of the day.

Features include Paralympian Visit, Foreign Languages Spelling Bee Competition, French Visit, Duke of Edinburgh Practice Weekend and much much more!

Download your copy at: http://notleyhigh.com/newsletters?download=372%3Anewsletter-323

Year 9 and 10 parents/carers placements for Spanish students.  As part of the Comenius Programme, Braintree will be hosting 32 Spanish students from 15th to 25th June. They will be exploring the local area and spending 2 days at Alec Hunter Humanities College. The students urgently need  accommodation with local families to develop their English skills and experience British family life first hand. In return for accommodation, food and picking up and dropping off around Braintree you will be paid 300 Euros per student at the exchange rate at the time (currently this would be £251). It may be possible to take two students if you have the necessary space.

If you are interested please could you contact Mr Birley at Alec Hunter Humanities College by email or phone. hamish.birley@alechunter.essex.sch.uk Tel No: 01376 321813

On the 30th April and 1st May 2012, able and talented Year 9 English students visited The Guardian News and Media Education Centre in London.

Students were escorted through the building to the Education Centre to then make the front page to their own newspaper. 

They started off by learning the skills and researching recent stories in the news from news agents around the world.

Once they had chosen their two main stories and three ‘news in brief’ stories the students then started writing their main articles.

They were taught about the 5 w’s of journalism and the news pyramid in which the main information is given at the beginning.

Once their articles were finished, they became their own sub-editors by checking grammar, spelling and even coming up with their own headlines.

Lastly they added photos and made last minute finishing touches (like skylines) before printing out their front page.

The co-ordinator of the task then reviewed their articles, pointing out good aspects of them whilst the students were able to observe the work of their peers.

Grace Hellier, who was on the trip, stated that: “I thought the trip was really fun and I have learnt lots more about how the news works. I was also amazed by the building and was able to sit in their really cool chairs!”Another had said that “the trip was very educational and has definitely persuaded me to consider a career in journalism.”

Overall, the students had a fantastic time and can’t wait to get back to their English lessons to learn more

By Emily Warwick and Grace Hellier, 9O