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Early Years. A Learning Journey of Discovery at NHSG

A critical time for Mental Health Awareness Week
The last week of this term was Mental Health Awareness Week (MHAW) which provided an important opportunity to tune into our feelings and the feelings of those around us. This year MHAW feels more important than ever. Covid-19 has now had a far reaching impact on people right across the world and it has affected many of the normal coping strategies we use to deal with stress, as well as on the everyday activities that underpins our emotional wellbeing.
To recognise Mental Health Awareness Week in a virtual space, Nurse Wilson and School Counsellor, Miss Stewart, very cleverly coined the concept “Stall in Your Hall(way)”, an adaption of our termly Stall In The Hall event held in School. Using Microsoft Teams as our discussion platform, girls were invited to browse the various channels and contribute to content and conversations along the official theme of kindness. Among the resources available there were anonymous Acts of Kindness surveys, online meditation sessions, Kindness playlists, thought-provoking theory from teachers across a range of subjects (did you know there is a mathematical theory for altruism?) and topical videos.
One such video showed Miss Stewart’s insightful interview with Mr Tippett to obtain his thoughts on the complex and multi-faceted construct of kindness. Mr Tippett touched upon more abstract ways to show kindness, such as helping the environment, which will serve to benefit future generations. It was a poignant reminder as to just how many ways there are to show kindness.
Nurse Wilson and Miss Stewart also hosted a live chat on Wednesday lunchtime, taking questions and talking in detail on what kindness means to them.
We concluded the week by circulating an Acts of Kindness video which was a montage of girls’ submissions on how they have demonstrated kindness recently. Mrs Barnett also shared a video on the MHAW Teams channel to showcase the kind behaviours that Junior School girls had been exhibiting, as well as some uplifting messages they wanted to share with friends.
It was great to see so many girls taking an active role in the exercises and discussions throughout the week and reinforced how important it is to dedicate time to check in and connect with one another.

We’re All In This Together!
The talented Performing Arts pupils of Newcastle High were thrilled to return to the bright lights of the big stage for four staggering shows of High School Musical on Thursday 3rd February - Saturday 5th February. High School Musical (HSM) at Newcastle's Northern Stage was NHSG's first major production since Grease which took place in early January 2020 at school, just before Covid struck. Time away from Musicals made our school community appreciate it all the more and High School Musical, with its fast-paced, feel-good energy, proved to be the perfect choice to get the audience back into the spirit of live entertainment. The story follows two high school students, Troy Bolton, captain of East High School’s basketball team, nicknamed the Wildcats, and Gabriella Montez, a shy top student. Both of them try out for the lead roles in their school’s musical (and quickly fall in love in the process) despite the lack of support from the rest of their classmates, one of them being Sharpay Evans and her brother sidekick Ryan.
Over 75 pupils from different Year Groups in Senior School worked together to produce the spectacular show resulting in two equally brilliant casts: Team Tiger and Team Lion. Families and friends flooded to the Northern Stage for the four performances in Northern Stage's main 450 seat auditorium and had the pleasure of watching the pupils sing and dance to their hearts' content...Something that Zoom could never recreate!
Mrs Dobson, Head of Drama and Director of HSM, had her reservations about this Disney-based musical comedy until she remembered just how catchy the uplifting numbers were and the power they have in bringing everyone together. "On the surface it may seem like an easy, cheesy little show but this has been one of our most challenging musicals to date! Not a day goes by when one of us isn't singing as we walk down the corridor. It may not be Ibsen but it is a tale about friendship and being true to yourself. What's so bad about that?"
We look forward to NHSG's next theatrical triumph with great anticipation.

Learning Without Limits

Welcome Back, Dr Brash!

Resilience Delivers Results for Class of 2021

GCSE Results Day 2021: It’s Written In The Stars For Phoebe
A 12 mile walk yesterday as part of her National Citizenship Scheme programme proved to be just the ticket to keep Phoebe Black’s mind off her GCSE results. This morning however she walked in to school to discover that she had gained a superb set of GCSE results which included nine grade 9s and a grade 8.
Commenting today Phoebe said: “I feel pretty happy with these results and am particularly surprised about my grade in German. Even though this year’s assessment process was long, I actually preferred it to the exam system. It meant that if you knew you hadn’t done well in one of your assessments you had a chance to recover. I felt quite confident therefore about my results and it was not as stressful waiting for the results to come out as it would have been if we had sat exams.”
In addition to Phoebe’s excellent GCSE results, her family have also been celebrating her brother’s A Level results which he collected on Tuesday. Phoebe was looking forward to a little bit of friendly sibling rivalry on whose results were better!
She is also looking forward to greater independence in the Sixth Form at NHSG as she embarks on the next stage of her education, and has opted for A Levels in Physics, Maths, Further Maths and History.
“I chose these subjects because I want to study aeronautical engineering or astrophysics at university. I have always like Space and knew I wanted to do something in Science ever since Year 4. I am thinking about applying to Imperial College London after Sixth Form.”
Phoebe’s top tip for girls taking their GCSEs is: “Reduce the stress by counting down to the tests being over rather than counting down to when the tests are, and remember you will be able to say for some subjects – I will never have to study that again!”