Dear Parents and Carers

Thank you for working with us during the day of industrial action this week. You will be aware that additional days are planned but ask that we do not make any assumptions about those days. We all hope that an agreement may be reached and will carry out a new risk assessment before deciding on a response to further industrial action.

Congratulations

We have to begin by sharing the news that three of our year 13s were successful in their applications to join The University of Cambridge. Rebecca Warner and Aaron Denton both applied to study natural sciences, whilst Lewis Lamb will be studying history and politics. We are all extremely proud of every student in our school but also wish to acknowledge the particular achievement in this instance and congratulate Rebecca, Aaron and Lewis. Furthermore, I ought to thank Mr Ward and Mr Dye, in particular, for their support of all students in their pursuit of different post-18 pathways, including those with the ambition to submit Oxbridge applications through our Spires Programme.

The Human Library

Our Careers Lead, Mr Parker, successfully coordinated our annual Human Library event that took place yesterday morning with our year 9s. Representatives from thirty very different companies were available to our students to share short insights into their world of work. We know that every student’s engagement and motivation is aided by a career goal, meaning there are many reasons to try and open students’ eyes to the vast opportunities that exist regionally, nationally and internationally.

Those of us in our middle age may remember the books that set all this out for us back in the day… The Ladybird ‘People at Work’ series (1962-1983) managed to introduce us to just nineteen careers, including: The Firemen, The Policemen, The Nurse, The Fisherman, The Miner, The Pottery Makers and The Customs Officer.

Our careers programme is designed to try and help students understand that the occupations that now exist are impossible to list, and grow with every new technological or social advancement.

Evacuations

Your children will have made you aware of several evacuations that have taken place in recent days; two of which were deliberate. It is hugely disappointing when these things happen bearing in mind the nuisance caused to the emergency services and the disruption caused to 1,100+ students and staff. We will take some time to share some reminders about this kind of behaviour, whilst acknowledging that the vast majority of students would never contemplate such acts.

Did You Know?

• The universe is c. 13.7 billion years old and the first atoms took 300,000 years to appear.
• Everything we can see, touch and smell is, literally, star dust.
• 99% of the mass of our solar system is contained within the Sun.
• The earth was formed c. 4.5 billion years ago.
• 8 billion years after the formation of the earth, the very first simple organism appeared.
• The first mammals walked on two feet c. 7 million years ago.
• Homo sapiens (me and you) first appeared c. 200,000 years ago.
• Homo sapiens’ oldest known artwork is c.45,000 years old.
• Homo sapiens began farming (instead of wandering) c. 11,000 years ago.
• The English language is just c.1500 years old.

The Big Story Behind Our School’s Curriculum

There is so much ‘stuff’ out there to be learned and enjoyed by us all and during your children’s time at CNS we have thought a great deal about what we should learn, and how it ought to be learned.

You will be aware of our website and how it provides information on the course content for every subject, including our curriculum roadmaps that simplify this information in an attractive and colourful manner (see opposite).

In addition, we have also worked on some visuals (below) and a simple booklet (above and available here) that captures the awe and wonder of the knowledge we seek to introduce over your child’s seven years at CNS.

Please do take a look and see how we try and join all of those subjects back together again to tell a bigger, grander story, of increasing complexity, progress, achievements and hope…

Have a great weekend!

Yours faithfully
Barry Doherty
Headteacher