ACADEMIC

ACADEMIC HIGHLIGHTS

At the heart of NLCS is the highly academic curriculum, and despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, the quality of our offering to students has not diminished. This year has shown that NLCS is an adaptable and resilient institution, and we are so proud of staff and students who have continued to excel in all areas of academic challenge.

Biology Workshops Chemistry Cambridge CHEMISTRY

Students from Years 10, 11 and 12 participated in the C3L6 Chemistry Challenge, a competition run by Cambridge University, to stretch and challenge students with a passion for chemistry. Thaleesha (Yr 12) achieved the highest award only given to the top 0.7% of participants; this is an outstanding achievement. This award comes with an exciting invitation to attend a special Cambridge Summer School, an offer extended only to the top achieving pupils in the country. In addition, Jenny (Yr 11) achieved an Au award, and Shreya (Yr 10) was awarded a Cu award and was only one mark off an Ag award, which is incredible for a student in Year 10.

SUMMER FESTIVAL

Students took part in an incredible variety of activities on the theme of ‘Communication’. They designed and built model tension structures, created Sustainable Art and discussed their ideas in STEAM and humanities symposia. Presentations by students included those on holograms, wearable tech, nanomedicine, animation in Japan, freedom of the press, the power of language and more. We had talks on topics from British Sign Language and the print revolution to blasphemy and the Opium Wars. On the final day, Year 12 students organised a Festival Fair allowing younger students to understand the vibrancy of the NLCS Enrichment programme and take part in activities, ranging from communication in medicine and designing escape rooms, through to a feminist Zine Workshop.

BIOLOGY

Our Biology Department was awarded the 2020 Prince’s Teaching Institute (PTI) Subject Leadership Mark. Launched in 2007, the Schools Programme recognises and rewards school departments that develop inspirational ideas and activities and commit to increasing the challenge of their subject provision.

Year 13 Symposium CLASSICS

Three students were awarded prizes in the ARLT Latin Reading Competition. The students spent several weeks practising reading aloud prescribed passages of Latin, which were recorded and sent directly to the judges. Irene (Yr 9) was awarded 1st prize, and Lina (Yr 9) was ‘Highly Commended’ in the Junior section for their for readings of a story from the Cambridge Latin Course about a fatal riot in Alexandria (‘tumultus II’). Tara (Yr10) read the scene in Virgil’s Aeneid II which describes the tragic and brutal death of Priam, king of Troy, for which she was ‘Highly Commended’ in the Intermediate section. Congratulations also to Shivani, the only student in Year 8 to submit an entry to the competition.

ENGINEERING & DESIGN TECHNOLOGY

Year 7 and 8 students responded to the Design Ventura Mini Challenge run in collaboration with the Design Museum. The brief of ‘improving everyday life’ saw students establish usercentred design problems and respond to them. Niyara (Yr 7) was selected by Design Ventura as a winner for her ecofriendly Ocean Jewellery design.

STEAM

With the support of our Chemistry, Physics and Engineering, Design & Technology departments, Amelie & Masha in Year 11 made the top 7 finalists for The UK Junior Water Prize this year. The competition, organised by the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management, aims to solve environmental challenges linked to water. Participants had to identify an issue and undertake research and experiments to find a practical and innovative solution. Their ‘AquaFibre’ was designed as a filtration system to catch microfibres, with an aluminium plate charged at a high voltage to attract the fibres for cleaning.

ACADEMIC HIGHLIGHTS

MODERN FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Stella, in Year 11, won first place in the intermediate category of this year’s British Council Mandarin Speaking Competition. This nationwide competition provides an excellent opportunity for students to practise and improve their Mandarin Chinese language skills, develop vocabulary and pronunciation, and raise their confidence to converse in a second language. Stella was selected from 800 students from 67 competing schools around the UK. ENGLISH

The English department led a joint online project with Sacred Heart Language College for aspiring writers from Year 8. The students worked independently to produce a book of writing in response to the pandemic. As inspiration, they were given a document of stimulus material on five topics intrinsic to all we have been experiencing globally: community, hope, solitude, travel and innovation. The result is a magazine full of personally felt and effectively executed pieces, with each piece demonstrating a considerable level of thought and sensitivity.

NO.1 SCHOOL IN THE UK FOR THE IB

NLCS was ranked No.1 in the UK for the International Baccalaureate (IB) by The Sunday Times. This comprehensive survey of schools’ academic performance is the benchmark for academic excellence throughout the UK. NLCS has offered the IB programme as an alternative to A levels since 2004, and since then, we have had a consistent record of success, ranking NLCS as one of the highest-achieving IB schools not only in the UK but in the world.

STUDENT PUBLICATIONS

Despite the challenges faced by the pandemic, we have continued to witness the full range of publications being produced, all of which are led by the students. Across the year, just under 50 individual publications have been created, available for all year groups.

You can read all our publications HERE

FIGHT FOR THE VOICELESS, ISSUE 2

2020

SENIOR SOCIETIES SPEAKER PROGRAMME

One of the pillars of an NLCS education is the rich vein of academic enrichment available to our students inside and outside the classroom. Our Senior Societies enrich this provision throughout the year with our lecture series, organised by the student leaders of each society.

Our Keynote address was delivered by journalist Helen Pluckrose who spoke about social justice, arguing that control of language was a detriment to free discourse. Her lecture provided students with the opportunity to reflect on the sweeping political changes across the past few years, but also challenge previously held paradigms.

Other speakers this year included: ■ Afro-Caribbean Society – Funke Alafiatayo; a dentist, filmmaker and poet who has won an

International Emmy for her work. ■ Richard Taylor from the Damilola Taylor Trust. Over 20 years since his son, Damilola, was murdered by a gang of youths in Peckham, the charity seeks to provide young people with opportunities to play, learn and live their lives free from fear and violence. ■ Jewish Society - Mala Tribich MBE. Mala is a holocaust survivor who was living in Poland at the time the war broke out. A deeply moving and passionate lecture, that narrated horrors beyond our imagination. ■ Alexandra Shulman CBE, the former Editor-in-Chief of British Vogue. Alexandra spoke about her 25-year reign at Vogue, discussing some of the publication’s most iconic issues, including the 1997 cover in memoriam of Diana, Princess of Wales. ■ History Society - Dr Tristram Hunt, Director of the V&A and former Labour Party Shadow

Secretary of State for Education. Dr Hunt discussed Britain’s imperial past and the artwork that has made up the British museums that we know today. ■ Science Café - Dr Chong, a Clinician Scientist and Consultant Clinical Oncologist who works at the Institute of Cancer Research.

NICHOLSON LECTURES

Our series of specialist lectures continued with talks on topics as diverse as the BLM Movement and its relationship with the National Theatre through to an analysis of Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony.

All talks were recorded and can now be viewed online. Talks this year have included: ■ Miss Gibbs, The Black Lives Matter

Movement and its Relationship with the

National Theatre ■ Mrs Wells, Is Globalisation in Retreat? ■ Dr Browning, ‘Caught in a Cholinergic

Chemical Crossfire: Chemical Warfare in

Nature’ ■ Mr McMillan, ‘Slugs, Snails, and Puppy Dogs’ Tails. What are men really made of?’ ■ Ms Byrom, ‘Girls on Film. Representations of Women in Sci-Fi and Horror’ ■ Miss May, ‘Queens of Crime and the ‘Yellow Peril’. Feminism and fear of the ‘other’ in the Golden Age Murder Mystery’.