Northgate has a fantastic tradition of putting on charity events at school and supporting both local, regional and national charities. Over the year so far we have supported Children in Need, Dementia Friends, MIND, the Poppy Appeal, NSPCC and Childline, Book Aid, MacMillan Cancer support and Save the Children, raising just short of £3800!
The Social Team, part of our School Council are responsible for organising any charity events and are closely supported by Mr Oldfield, Miss Moore, Miss Hannant and Mr Emmerson. With this year’s Sport Relief they wanted to have fun with sport whilst raising awareness and money at the same time.
It just so happened with the poor weather we had that House matches had to be delayed and so took place during Sport Relief week. It was great to see lots of students getting involved in sport, participating and representing their House Teams as well as crowds of students cheering and supporting them. It meant that some of our fundraising activities carried over into the following week, however that did not dampen our spirits.
The Social Team advertised the events for Sport Relief in PART lesson and on social media.
Members of the Social Team selling some delicious cakes and biscuits.
Throughout Sport Relief week we sold official Sport Relief wristbands and held a very popular bake sale, which raised £124 on its own. Some students even ventured out onto the side lines of the Year 10 + 11 rugby matches and sold some of the biscuits and cakes to the crowds! Students also had the opportunity to take part in ‘Just Dance’, beat the goalie (it’s always great fun to watch some of the teachers take their turn in goal) and zorb sumo – a new event for this year. On the Friday of Sport Relief, students and staff were encouraged to pay a £1 donation to wear a sports top supporting their favourite team, a top commemorating a sporting event eg the Olympics, Rugby World Cup etc or official Sport Relief clothing. There was a vast array of items worn including those supporting football, rugby and American football teams as well as those from sporting events. Many teachers wore their team’s shirts with pride (even if they did get a bit of stick from students who supported other teams!)
A huge thank you to the Social Team leaders, the Social Team and everyone who took part in events throughout the fundraising week. We are pleased to announce that £340.74 was raised for Sport Relief!
As part of our World Book Day celebrations, we held a 24 hour read-a-thon and library sleepover in the Learning Hub with the help of Miss Ling, Mr MacDonald, Mr Mulcahy and Miss Hannant. Pupils were sponsored to read as many books as they could within 24 hours in aid of Read For Good, a charity that sends books and storytellers to children in hospital (the total amount raised will be shared soon).
24 pupils took part in the read-a-thon and had a variety of reasons for signing up – Sam, who read 2 books during the read-a-thon, had some books he wanted to finish and thought it would be a good opportunity to read them, while Hannah, who read 3 books, wanted a chance to read more as she doesn’t read much outside of school. Harriet just wanted to challenge herself and see how many books she could read in a day – she read 5 in total!
Jimmy tells us more about the day…
On Friday 9th of March 24 people came to the Learning Hub at 9am with bags full of books, blankets and bedrolls (also a rather large amount of chocolate and sweets). They were here for a 24 hour read-a-thon.
When we arrived we laid out our sleeping spaces and settled down for a full hour of reading. After the first reading stint we built cosy reading dens and voted for our favourites. The winners were Bethany, Tabitha and Solie. We then read again for another hour in our dens.
Next we played a game of book-themed ‘Would you rather?’ with questions like “would you rather see you favourite book dropped into a wood chipper or drop it down the toilet?” Then it was time for break when we could do whatever we wanted. So obviously I kept reading. About this time I finished my first book.
We kept reading until lunch when a lot of us went to the hall to get a hot meal. I got fish and chips. But I couldn’t finish because I had eaten too much chocolate earlier in the day! When lunch was over we played a game of Pictionary – I played twice and guessed a lot more. Then we read until the end of the school day when we had a break while some people went to drama rehearsals until 17:00. When they got back we played giant Jenga where all the blocks had reading related questions attached such as ‘Which book do you wish had a sequel?’ and ‘Where is your favourite place to read?’
After Jenga it was time for food. We had sandwiches, biscuits, fruit and squash. After this we were free to relax with our friends or keep reading. Later we ordered pizza from Dominos and rounded off the night of by watching ‘A Monster Calls.’ After that everyone stayed awake for a few more hours before most of us fell asleep.
Overall, we read 34 books and I personally read 4 books over the course of the day. It was really excellent, I loved the reading and the dens and hope we can do it again.
Other pupils commented:
‘The best thing about the read-a-thon is that I read books I wouldn’t usually pick to read.’- Laura, year 8.
‘It was really fun. Can we do it next year?’ Harriet, year 8.
‘The best thing was reading and making friends.’ Kerri, year 7.
World Book Day is an annual celebration of books, reading and the power of words. Around the world schools, libraries and other organisations plan and take part in a variety of ‘booky’ activities and this year Northgate had its biggest celebration yet with a week of activities and competitions.
In the lead up to World Book Day Miss Ling held special assemblies with pupils across the whole school discussing ‘readaxation’- the act of reading to relax – and talking to pupils about how they can ‘read to succeed.’ Miss Ling also shared a few book recommendations based on recently released titles …
Year 7 and 8 recommendations:
Year 9 and 10 recommendations:
*All of these titles are available in the Learning Hub.
The ‘beast from the east’ slightly delayed our big World Book Day events, but we wouldn’t let the snow get in our way and on Thursday 8th March we held our World Book Day fundraiser, raising money for Book Aid International (a charity that provides books and supports libraries in developing countries).
Pupils were invited to donate £1 to dress up as their favourite fictional character with a wide array of characters and books represented. Costumes included Harry Potter, Paper Towns’ Quentin, Sherlock Holmes, Gangsta Granny, Timmy (from the Famous Five series), Katniss Everdeen, Thing 1, Yuki (from the novel Wolf Children) and Twilight’s Alice Cullen. However, the winning costume went to Freya in Year 7 for her fantastic Esio Trot outfit.
Staff also got involved with the P.E. department dressing up as Where’s Wally and our cover team collaborating on Harry Potter costumes that featured Dolores Umbridge, Narcissa Malfoy and Ron Weasley. Other staff costumes included Edgar Allen Poe (complete with raven), Cruella de Ville and James Bond.
At lunch time students were also invited to take part in our ‘Bake Expectations’ competition and bake sale. Students were asked to bake something with a bookish theme and some of the stand out bakes included Fantastic Mr Fox inspired cupcakes and a Homer Simpson shaped cake. However our two winners were Caitlin’s Willy Wonka cake and Ben’s rainbow World Book Day cake that had a variety of book spines around its edge. The winning pupils received a book and trophy as prizes.
We raised a total of £365.57 for Book Aid International- enough to send 182 books to libraries in developing countries!
As well as the events on World Book Day itself, there were also a number of activities students could take part in across the week including two live Q&A’s with authors Mitch Johnson and Jess Butterworth, hosted by our school reading group, the Page Turners. Students used the library twitter account (@ngatelhub) to send their questions and waited in anticipation as the authors responded to them. You can find an archive of both discussions below.
Finally, we held an inter-form competition in the form of a book quiz; students were quizzed about a variety of children’s books and the winners in each year were:
7DNi, 8KT, 9AB and 10HN
A particular well done to 8KT who were the overall school winners with an impressive score of 30/32!
We would like to say thank you and well done to all pupils and staff for their fantastic World Book Day efforts… we’re looking forward to next year’s book week already!
On Tuesday 20th March Mr Carter took four Year 8 and 9 pupils to Nicholas Hammond Academy in Swaffham to take part in the UKMT Team Maths Challenge. The pupils involved were Mitchell Palmer and Oliver Fountain from Year 9 and Barney Smith and Jimmy Cockburn from Year 8.
There were four different challenge they had to complete over the course of the day. The first challenge was the group round where they needed to work together to solve various maths problems. They could work on these individually or together, whichever way they felt best.
The second challenge was the cross number (a bit like a crossword but with numbers instead). Pupils were split into two pairs with one pair only receiving the clues for the down answers and the other pair receiving just the clues to the across answers. Their aim was to complete the cross number without communicating with the other pair even though a number of the clues needed solutions that only the other pair could work out. Oliver said. “I enjoyed the cross number the most because it included strategy and tactics as well as mathematical skill.”
Examples of the challenges faced by our competitors.
The third challenge was the shuttle round where they were again working in pairs. The first pair had to solve a mathematical problem and then give their answer to the other pair as they needed that number to complete their question. This was repeated until four questions were answered.
Northgate’s Team Maths Challenge quartet.
The final challenge was the relay where the pairs were separated to different areas of the room. One pair had to solve a question and get it marked before they were given the next question which they had to take to the other pair to complete. This continued until the time was up.
The boys were amazing all day and a real credit to the school. They demonstrated excellent teamwork and problem solving skills all day and out of the 19 schools that took part they came in a very respectable 6th place! Congratulations to Oliver, Mitchell, Barney and Jimmy and thank you to Mr Carter and Mrs Smith who organised the trip.
We are pleased to introduce our April bulletin. In the bulletin this month you will find out all sorts of information and updates including links to recent blogs, upcoming events, charity corner, photos, tweets, merit update, House competition update, what the Team Councils and School Council have been up to and more.
We hope that you are able to take some time to have a look at all the goings on at Northgate from the last month and enjoy seeing what we’ve been up to.
Miss Theobald (School Council Coordinator) + Northgate School Council.
Over the past few months, Northgate has been fortunate to have the support of Dereham Mayor, Hilary Bushell with a number of special events. She wanted to give an insight into the link she has created with the school and wrote the following for us:
‘In November I was privileged to be asked to attend the Remembrance Service at the School. This was a truly wonderful experience to be able to join the students and members of the Royal British Legion and witness the respectful way in which the whole of the service was held. The readings and music performed by the students were inspiring. I was given the honour of placing a Remembrance Cross on behalf of Dereham Town Council, and therefore for the residents of the town.
At the beginning of December, I joined members of the Students Council who were monitoring the traffic on Quebec Road, and ensuring that students crossed the road safely. During my visit I was shown round various aspects of the school and was very impressed with how the students were reacting to their learning. I was made welcome in all the classes that I visited. It certainly gave me an insight into the daily running of such a large school. It was on this visit that I was welcomed to an assembly in which drama students gave an exciting and interesting show of some of the many topics they had been studying. I loved the drums!!!!! One very important and lasting image that I will carry forward from this day is that when I walked into two of the senior classes all the Students stood when I entered. WELL DONE. This is a true mark of showing respect to a visitor, and more importantly a lady. Thank you.
On another meeting which I had to attend I had the pleasure of liaising with Mr. A. Mason, giving me the opportunity of making further ties with Northgate School. It has proved to be a very ground-breaking move. So we go on with an even closer unity.
The Students Council were keen on becoming involved in my event of commemorating the Suffragette movement and the 100 years since all men and women over the age of 30 received the votes. The students asked me to give a brief introduction as to what happened over the 60 years of intensive negotiating in Parliament which led to the vote being achieved. It was met with great enthusiasm and it was agreed that they would join me, former mayors of Dereham, George Freeman and a member of the Police Force in celebrating such an epic event. Some of us tried to dress up looking a little more like people from the 1918’s rather than the 2018’s. The press came to take photos for the EDP and Dereham Times. That’s TV Norfolk also came and interviewed and recorded the event. The Students proudly walked through the Market Place supporting their placards showing details of meetings being held in the Assembly Rooms during the 1st world war in support of the Suffragette movement. We were also joined by Mr. R. Groom, a Mason as one of the suffragette meetings were held in the Masonic Hall, a rare occurrence in start of the 20th century.
The Students really made the people of Dereham look – they marched with their placards held high, and were truly immaculately turned out. Well Done Northgate High School.
During one of my visits to the school, I joined an assembly which was dealing with safety issues on road awareness. The Assembly was given a wonderful presentation on the thoughts and problems that had arisen during the Students Council initiative of road crossing. It was so enlightening to hear young people speaking so eloquently to their peers about such important issues. I was able to present Safety Certificates to students who had achieved outstanding merit within this important topic.
During my visits to Northgate School I have always been well taken care of and guided in the right direction by a very admirable Head Boy, Will, and Head Girl, Rosie, Deputy Head Boy Adam, and Deputy Head Girl Emily , supported by Mr. C. Macdonald, and Mr A. Mason.
I feel I have been very privileged to have been welcomed into the life of such a great school, and the union that has been forged will continue long into the future.
There are many more things coming in the future which we will share, and I know this will continue long after my year of Mayor.’
Overall, we read 34 books and I personally read 4 books over the course of the day. It was really excellent, I loved the reading and the dens and hope we can do it again.
World Book Day is an annual celebration of books, reading and the power of words. Around the world schools, libraries and other organisations plan and take part in a variety of ‘booky’ activities and this year Northgate had its biggest celebration yet with a week of activities and competitions.
Pupils were invited to donate £1 to dress up as their favourite fictional character with a wide array of characters and books represented. Costumes included Harry Potter, Paper Towns’ Quentin, Sherlock Holmes, Gangsta Granny, Timmy (from the Famous Five series), Katniss Everdeen, Thing 1, Yuki (from the novel Wolf Children) and Twilight’s Alice Cullen. However, the winning costume went to Freya in Year 7 for her fantastic Esio Trot outfit.
Staff also got involved with the P.E. department dressing up as Where’s Wally and our cover team collaborating on Harry Potter costumes that featured Dolores Umbridge, Narcissa Malfoy and Ron Weasley. Other staff costumes included Edgar Allen Poe (complete with raven), Cruella de Ville and James Bond.
At the beginning of December, I joined members of the Students Council who were monitoring the traffic on Quebec Road, and ensuring that students crossed the road safely. During my visit I was shown round various aspects of the school and was very impressed with how the students were reacting to their learning. I was made welcome in all the classes that I visited. It certainly gave me an insight into the daily running of such a large school. It was on this visit that I was welcomed to an assembly in which drama students gave an exciting and interesting show of some of the many topics they had been studying. I loved the drums!!!!! One very important and lasting image that I will carry forward from this day is that when I walked into two of the senior classes all the Students stood when I entered. WELL DONE. This is a true mark of showing respect to a visitor, and more importantly a lady. Thank you. 
The Students Council were keen on becoming involved in my event of commemorating the Suffragette movement and the 100 years since all men and women over the age of 30 received the votes. The students asked me to give a brief introduction as to what happened over the 60 years of intensive negotiating in Parliament which led to the vote being achieved. It was met with great enthusiasm and it was agreed that they would join me, former mayors of Dereham, George Freeman and a member of the Police Force in celebrating such an epic event. Some of us tried to dress up looking a little more like people from the 1918’s rather than the 2018’s. The press came to take photos for the EDP and Dereham Times. That’s TV Norfolk also came and interviewed and recorded the event. The Students proudly walked through the Market Place supporting their placards showing details of meetings being held in the Assembly Rooms during the 1st world war in support of the Suffragette movement. We were also joined by Mr. R. Groom, a Mason as one of the suffragette meetings were held in the Masonic Hall, a rare occurrence in start of the 20th century. 
During my visits to Northgate School I have always been well taken care of and guided in the right direction by a very admirable Head Boy, Will, and Head Girl, Rosie, Deputy Head Boy Adam, and Deputy Head Girl Emily , supported by Mr. C. Macdonald, and Mr A. Mason.