Dear parents/carers,
It’s been a short, sunny and successful week at NAC!
Our Year 12 Performing Arts students gave a great performance in their Unit 3 Group piece workshop last Friday, which was a great achievement considering it is a very challenging unit. Congratulations to all those who took part and thank you to Mrs Bellamy for making it happen.
This week marks the start of the wider exam season for years 11 & 13. We have had three exams so far, including a whole cohort year 11 Science exam, and things have gone really smoothly. It has been great to see students at the pre-exam workshops, taking advantage of their exam breakfast to ensure they are full of energy and ready to write loads. It really is a huge team effort to get everything in place to give all our students the best chance of success, so a huge thank you to our Exams and Premises teams; our teachers and of course our students – everybody plays their part.
Tuesday saw Year 11’s final assembly which was really poignant, as the last five years feel like they have gone by so quickly and now all of a sudden we are nearly at the end of Year 11 – I am sure it feels like that for their parents/carers too. They were treated to a fantastic montage of video messages from their current and past teachers passing on their good wishes and exam tips. Year 11 have said how much they appreciated it and it has been lovely to see them thanking the staff who took part. We are all behind Year 11 as they move into this final phase of year 11 and can’t wait for their Leavers Assembly, Prom, seeing them on Results Day opening their envelopes and then welcoming them back to Sixth Form.
On Wednesday we welcomed over 150 year 2s from our primary schools who took part in an athletics event. Yet again the supporting members of staff couldn’t speak highly enough of our young leaders and the way they interacted with and supported their students. This event was run solely by our year 7 sports leaders and it was fantastic to see how confident and enthusiastic they were.
Our Eco Council ran a cookery competition this week for our students. Those who signed up were each given a bag of vegetables, donated from School Farm CSA in Dartington, from which they had to create either vegetarian or vegan dishes whilst at home over the bank holiday. On Tuesday their creations were judged by our teacher panel on their taste, presentation and concept. Year 7 student, EC-L, won the judge’s votes with his cheese and leek gratin. ZF came a very close second with his three-course meal that included an avocado frosted beetroot and carrot chocolate cake and ES-C wrapped her vegetables in spring green leaf parcels to win third place. It was great to see students from Year 7/8 and 10 exercise creativity in the kitchen and appreciation of the humble vegetable. They should all be congratulated on their hard work, aspiration and expertise.
Some dates for your diary:
We have our outdoor Summer Concert (hopefully outside in the sunshine) on the 23rd May where you will be treated to a range of musical pieces from our Arts students.
Our whole college production of the musical ‘Annie’ takes place on the 11th – 13th July, with matinee performances for the local primary schools on the 5th and 8th July. Further details on both events to follow.
The tills in the Cafe DCA and Green Tree Restaurant are having some significant software issues at the moment, which we are trying to resolve as quickly as possible. As a consequence, it is taking more time than usual for money that is put onto your child/ren’s card to appear on it. Please could we ask that you bear that in mind when topping up their account, leaving as much time as possible (24-48hrs) to allow the tills to update. Thank you.
Lastly, a request for your help please. Do you have any unwanted items of uniform at home that you would be willing to donate? We would be very grateful for any unwanted uniform donations that we can put towards starting a second-hand uniform community shop to support families in our community, as well as students within college. Any item of the college uniform or PE kit would be really appreciated. If you are able to help, please drop any uniform to reception for the attention of Mrs Buchanan. Many thanks in advance for your support with this.
Have a lovely weekend.
Mrs Grashoff
Headteacher