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Please click the link below to view Nobel News

• Nobel News 16 October 2015

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The Nobel Venues in Stevenage...

Incorporates extensive facilities used by both The Nobel School and The Stevenage Music School and these are available for hire by individuals, clubs and businesses. We are able to cater for an extensive range of sports and activities. We offer hockey, football, futsal, handball, basketball, cricket, netball, badminton, athletics, tennis, fencing, gymnastics, table tennis, karate, dance and fitness classes. We host many local clubs offering the community the opportunity to get involved and we are always open to new suggestions and ideas. Enquiries from new clubs wishing to hire space are most welcome. [/ut_two_thirds] [ut_one_third_last effect="fadeInDown"] [/ut_one_third_last] [ut_clear]   [ut_two_thirds] [/ut_two_thirds] [ut_one_third_last] We are also able to offer for hire a superb auditorium, large hall with extended seating, conference room and bespoke classrooms, making us ideal for conferences, meetings, presentations, musical recitals, theatrical events and evening classes etc. at very reasonable rates. If you would like to get involved or would like to enquire about hiring space, please call the Lettings Co-ordinator on 01438 735002, or 07725 216633 or alternatively email nobelvenues@nobel.herts.sch.uk [/ut_one_third_last]

Take a look at the clubs on offer at Nobel Venues... [ut_showcase id="3810"]

Please click the link below to view Nobel News

• Nobel News 2 October 2015

Our Sixth Form provides outstanding academic education combined with excellent pastoral careOur Sixth Form provides outstanding academic education combined with excellent pastoral care, personal development opportunities and a fantastic range of wider activities, designed to equip students with the qualifications, skills and attributes for a successful future in higher education, employment and life.

The Nobel School is pleased to annouce the launch of its brand new app. The Nobel School app is the perfect way to keep up to date with what’s happening – wherever you are. The app is free and provides access to the school calendar, events, latest news, contact details and is even used to report absence. We can also message you directly through the app to ensure you get the information you need as soon as possible. Available to download for free on the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Tasks by subject to be completed in preparation for Y12 entry in September 2015 are listed below:

Click the links below to view PDFs

• 2015 Biology AS Summer Task File
• 2015 Business Studies File
• 2015 Chemistry Summer Task File
• 2015 Dance Summer Task File
• 2015 English LangLit Summer Task Overview File
• 2015 English LangLit Summer Task File
• 2015 English Literature Summer Task Overview File
• 2015 English Literature Summer Task File
• 2015 English Reading List Summer Task File
• 2015 Food Tech Summer Task File
• 2015 French Summer Task File
• 2015 HSC Communication Activity (Single) File
• 2015 HSC Communication Case Study (Single and Double) File
• 2015 HSC Summer Holiday Investigation Overview File
• 2015 Maths Summer Task File
• 2015 Media Summer Task File
• 2015 Music Summer Task File
• 2015 Physical Education Summer Task File
• 2015 Physics Summer Task File
• 2015 Psychology Summer Task File
• 2015 Public Services Summer Task File
• 2015 Sociology Summer Task File
• 2015 Spanish Summer Task File
• 2015 Sport BTEC Summer Task File
• 2015 Theatre Studies Summer Task

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Success in ‘A’ Level Achievement 2015

This year’s results were our best ever with 23% of all A levels taken at Nobel graded A or A*, 56% A* -B and 82% A* - C. Progress for A Level and Vocational courses continues to be significantly above average. In addition, the AS result pass rate increased to 93% in 2015, compared to 87% in 2014. These results clearly reflect the ethos of our school. As a Sixth Form, we provide an opportunity for all students to achieve success and this year our students moved onto a range of destinations including some of the UK’s top Universities such as Cambridge. [/ut_one_half] [ut_one_half_last] [ut_probar width="23" info="A or A*"] [ut_probar width="56" info="A* - B"] [ut_probar width="82" info="A* – C"] [ut_probar width="93" info="AS result pass rate"] [/ut_one_half_last]

Application Form for the September 2019 entry

Applications for the Nobel Sixth Form for September 2019 are now open. You can download a PDF of the September 2019 Sixth Form application by clicking the button below. A covering letter and timescales information are including at the beginning of the form. [ut_button color="theme-btn" target="_blank" link="http://thenobelschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/2019-External-Student-Application-Form.pdf" ]Download 2019 Sixth Form application[/ut_button] Should you have any questions concerning present or future admission to The Nobel School Sixth Form please do not hesitate to contact the Admissions Office for The Nobel School Sixth Form via sixthform@nobel.herts.sch.uk

[ut_two_thirds] [ut_parallax_quote cite="Margaret Fuller"] Today a reader, tomorrow a leader. [/ut_parallax_quote] [ut_button color="theme-btn" target="_blank" link="https://uk.accessit.online/thn03/#!dashboard" size="small" title="Online Library" ]Online Library [/ut_button] The library is a bright welcoming place for students and staff to use throughout the day. Our aim is to encourage independent learning and a lifelong love of reading.

Facilities

We have over 12,000 fiction and non-fiction books. Our fiction books are divided into two main areas, Teen Zone which is for key stage 3 and a Key Stage 4/5 section. The online library catalogue is networked throughout the school, enabling access to staff and students. The library subscribes to a number of online databases and journals which can be accessed via our VLE. We also subscribe to a range of national and local newspapers, academic journals and leisure magazines. The library supports all subjects across the curriculum and teachers can book the library for class use throughout the school day. [/ut_two_thirds] [ut_one_third_last] Tweets by @library_nobel [/ut_one_third_last]

Using the library

In year 7 students a have a series of lessons in the autumn term, aiming to give them the necessary skills to use the library for both academic and leisure purposes. Topics include research skills, how to use the subject index, the online library catalogue and the use of non-fiction books. Students also explore fiction genres and how to choose reading books which they will enjoy.  Students are encouraged to use the library to obtain books for Reading at Nobel which takes place twice a week.

Library events

Throughout the school year  we hold events  and activities to encourage reading for pleasure. We hold author talks, writing and poetry workshops. We have taken students to the cinema and to outside book related events. We also run book groups which take part in the North Hertfordshire Schools Book Award and National book awards such as the Carnegie Book Award.  We also hold activities around World Book Day and other special events.

Opening times

Monday-Thursday : 8.15-4.15pm

Friday: 8.15-3.45pm We are open during break, lunch and after school for students to borrow books, read, research and complete homework.

The Nobel School curriculum is inspirational, interconnected and evolutionary. As a community we value highly each subject discipline and seek to instil in all Nobelians an intrinsic love of learning. Our curriculum has 4 key areas of curriculum intent which are specific to The Nobel School as a learning community:

• Long-term learning over short term performance We have a curriculum which clearly identifies what knowledge we want students to take away with a focus on permanent learning rather than just regurgitating at the next assessment so teachers have long term plans that focus on sequences of learning and long term memory support.
• High challenge to support social mobility We have a curriculum that prioritises high challenge content and vocabulary, supporting students in becoming articulate, informed young people who can participate with and compete against the very best in whatever their chosen field is.
• Quality cultural experiences to enhance life We have a curriculum that actively seeks to promote high and popular cultural experiences that will provide Nobelians with a greater appreciation of the world around them, enriching their experience of life (building cultural capital in our community)
• The human angle in every subject Our curriculum focuses on enabling Nobelians to be the people they want to become –good friends, good neighbours, good co-workers and good leaders of the future. To develop the character and resourcefulness necessary to ensure a life lived well.

Our subject experts have developed clearly sequenced and logical units of work based on the following principles:

• Memory is the residue of thought (therefore activities must be carefully considered to ensure students are thinking about subject content).
• Working memory is limited (therefore lessons need to be chunked with new material introduced in incremental stages)
• The vocabulary gap is the disadvantage gap (therefore tier 2 and 3 vocabulary is carefully mapped out before a unit is taught and explicitly taught across all subjects)
• Practice makes permanent (therefore units must have modelling, guided practice and deliberate practice)
• Transition to long-term memory is challenging (therefore units have spaced learning and all do now activities are retrieval practice)
• Feedback is crucial for progress (therefore students receive frequent feedback and teachers adjust whole units and their lessons in response to the data they receive from students).

Our approach to Teaching and Learning is research-informed, so we use the following principles and strategies in our lessons:

• The Learning Cycle: A model for the essential phases of learning: explain, model, scaffold, practice.
• Circulation: Planned and purposeful teacher movement around the classroom throughout the lesson (rather than staying at the front of the room or at the teacher’s desk).
• Do Now: A silent activity that students complete for 5-10 minutes at the start of the lesson. It should need no teacher instruction so students can begin straight away.
• Retrieval Practice: A task that requires students to remember something they learnt in a previous lesson.
• Tier 2 and 3 vocabulary: Expert vocabulary planned into our lessons to ensure our students become articulate, powerful communicators.
• Cold Calling: A questioning approach in which the teacher chooses who will answer (instead of hands up) and this student’s name is not announced until all students have had a chance to think about the question.
• Thinking time: An explicit pause after a question has been asked, to allow all students to think.
• Check for Understanding: Any technique that allows the teacher to measure how well the class have understood a topic. E.g. questioning, mini whiteboards or a short quiz or test
• Warm-strict: A high expectations and scripted approach to students who are apathetic or inactive in lessons. E.g. “I need you to complete this task because I want the best for you. I know you can do this and I will help you get started”.
• Action Feedback: An approach to feedback that focuses on the task that students should complete to improve, rather than looking back and describing what went wrong.
• Scaffolding: Any supporting resources or instructions that partially complete a task that students cannot yet complete without this support. E.g. Sentence starters to help students structure their writing.
• Stop and Jot: A task in which every student must write something, such as their initial ideas about a question or topic. Teachers can combine this with cold calling and ask students what they have written down.
• Teacher modelling: live demonstrations of how to complete work given to students in lessons, to support students to understand the steps they must take to be successful.

KS3

At the Nobel School we recognise that every part of our curriculum has an intrinsic value in itself as well as equipping students to make informed choices at the end of each key stage. We provide a full three year KS3 for our Nobelians so that they are able to experience varied range of subjects across the arts and humanities, engage with technology, develop confidence in another language, discover the sports that they enjoy and be enriched through the opportunities and possibilities that this opens up for them. We follow the National Curriculum for KS3. Teaching hours for individual subjects across all key stages can be seen here.

Year 7

• Students study English, maths, science, history, geography, RE, PSHCE/ SRE, a language, music, drama, art, DT (food, resistant materials & electronics/CADCAM), IT and PE. We follow the Hertfordshire Agreed Syllabus for RE.
• In Year 7 / 8 students who are not secondary ready in terms of their reading ability receive additional reading and grammar lessons and a pared back MFL curriculum that allows them to still study conversational French, German or Spanish.
• Most subjects are taught in mixed ability groups, usually form groups. In languages in the current Year 7, students in one half of the year group study French and those in the other study Spanish. The choice of language is alternated so that next year it will be French and German that are taught. Students continue to study the same language for the whole of KS3
• In Maths, students are taught in mixed ability groups, with extra provision for the highest and lowest attainers.
• In PE students are taught in ability sets across a half year.

Year 8

• Students study English, maths, science, RE, PSHCE & SRE, history, geography, languages, music, drama, art, DT (systems & control, food, and engineering), IT and PE. We follow the Hertfordshire agreed syllabus for RE.
• In Year 7 / 8 students who are not secondary ready in terms of their reading ability receive additional reading and grammar lessons and a pared back MFL curriculum that allows them to still study conversational French, German or Spanish.
• In English, science, languages and PE, students are taught in ability sets across a half year; students may move between sets during the course of a year. In maths, students are taught in mixed ability groups, with extra provision for the highest and lowest attainers.
• In languages in Year 8, students continue with the language that they studied in Year 7.

Year 9

• As in years 7 & 8, students study English, maths, science, RE, PSHCE & SRE history, geography, languages, music, art, DT (food, systems & control and resistant materials), IT and PE. We follow the Hertfordshire agreed syllabus for RE.
• In Year 9 students who are not secondary ready in terms of their reading ability receive additional reading and grammar lessons and a pared back MFL curriculum that allows them to still study conversational French, German or Spanish.
• In English, science, languages and PE, students are taught in ability sets across a half year; students may move between sets during the course of a year. In maths, students are taught in mixed ability groups, with extra provision for the highest and lowest attainers.
• In languages in Year 9, students continue with the language that they have studied in Year 8.
• The year 9 options process involves all stakeholders via interviews with all students and their parents; these are preceded by presentations, assemblies and work in PSHCE and tutor time on making good choices.

KS4 (Years 10 & 11)

• Our KS4 curriculum encourages Nobelians to value everything that they learn across the key stage as well as equipping them to make informed choices about what to study at KS5.
• In order to raise achievement and support student progress, our KS4 curriculum offer is comprised of 5 pathways: Purple, Lilac, Green, Yellow and Blue. Students are placed on a pathway based on their aptitudes and ability, with each pathway allowing students the opportunity to achieve their best grades from a choice of subjects which is both broad and balanced.
• All students study GCSEs in English language, English literature, maths, science & RE). All students study two science GCSEs. The most able students in KS4 are offered the opportunity to study triple science. Citizenship is taught through GCSE RE and PSHE.
• The Yellow pathway, through a reduced number of option choices, provide students with the opportunity to complete the Prince’s Trust Certificate in Personal development and Employability Skills which supports their studies in other subjects.
• There is an extensive and varied offer of GCSE and level 1 & 2 technical/applied courses. For the full range of subjects click here.

KS5 (Years 12 & 13)

• A similar pathways model exists for transition into KS5 to raise achievement and to support progress. A student’s pathway is determined by the APS of their best 6 GCSEs, and their English and maths GCSE results; this is set initially based on target grade data, and then reviewed once after the mocks based on teacher predictions, and a second time after final teacher predictions at the end of the spring term.
• The Year 11 options process involves all stakeholders. There is a Post-16 evening in the autumn term, followed by interviews with all students and their parents at the beginning of the spring term, during which students share their initial choices and future aspirations.
• We offer a full range of A level and level 3 applied/technical courses across the pathways, as well as resit maths and English GCSEs (or a level 2 equivalent) for those who did not achieve them at the end of Year 11. For the full range of subjects click here.
• The extra-curricular offer at KS5 includes the EPQ and Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme.
• All Sixth Form Nobelians also complete a number of volunteering hours across the key stage and experience responsibility and leadership through the Student Leadership Team and mentoring opportunities.

Enrichment activities & SMSC

• • Students have access to a wide range of enrichment and extension activities offered through extra-curricular activities. These include lunchtime & after school clubs, house activities, sporting activities & competitions and residential & day visits. For details of the full extra-curricular offer, click here. These contribute to the highly effective promotion of SMSC across the school.
• We encourage all students and their families to complete super curriculum activities designed to enhance and extend classroom learning. Further details about our super curriculum offer can be found here.

For further information on our curriculum offer, please contact Naomi Rose, Deputy Headteacher, via naomi.rose@nobel.herts.sch.uk

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As a School we agree to:

• Teach and encourage students to follow the school rules and treat others with respect and consideration
• Operate fairly the school system of consequences and not tolerate any disruption or bullying
• Encourage students to seek success through the school rewards system
• Maintain and develop an atmosphere of good relationships and hard work
• Check attendance and punctuality and inform parents as soon as possible of unexplained absence
• Encourage students to attend regularly through the rewards system
• Check that uniform and equipment are correct and work with students and parents if there are any concerns
• Ensure uniform is readily available, reasonably priced and is only changed if necessary
• Plan, prepare and teach effective lessons
• Give appropriate work, homework and targets with regular checks and marking
• Enforce the rules on completing homework
• Encourage students to record all homework and coursework with deadlines in their planner
• Let parents know about successes and achievements
• Provide regular information through student planners, newsletters, reports and other special communications
• Respond professionally to any contact from parents

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As a Parent / Carer I agree to:

• Teach my child to accept staff authority, follow the school rules and be polite and courteous
• Encourage my child to be successful in the school rewards system
• Support the school when dealing with broken rules, disruptive behaviour or other action in the school system of consequences
• Ensure as far as possible my child attends every day and arrives on time
• Provide the proper uniform and correct equipment
• Inform the school as soon as possible of absences or other concerns
• Avoid taking any holiday during school time
• Support my child’s learning at home and at school
• Encourage and help in the completion of homework
• Use the student planner to check on completion of work
• Celebrate hard work and effort
• Let the school know about successes and achievements as well as concerns or family difficulties that could affect my child
• Co-operate with the school to sort out any difficulties that do arise
• Attend parents’ evenings and attend other school events where possible

As a Student I agree to:

Expectations and Behaviour

• Follow staff instructions and accept their authority
• Follow school rules and expectations
• Be polite and courteous and treat others as I would wish to be treated
• Respect other people’s rights
• Aim for success in the school rewards system

Getting to School

• Attend school every day and arrive on time
• Make sure I bring the correct equipment and wear the proper uniform in a tidy way
• Behave in an orderly way going to and from the school and uphold the school reputation

Working and Learning

• Work and learn to the best of my ability at all times
• Complete coursework and homework fully and on time
• Behave properly in lessons and not disturb other students’ learning
• Use my planner as a guide and get it checked regularly
• Make sure my homework is always written into my planner

Support and Care

• Let my teachers and parents know about successes and achievements and any worries I may have
• Let staff know if I feel bullied or threatened in any way
• Make sure information from school is passed to my parents as quickly as possible
• Support and encourage other students

Achieving Success

• Make the best possible use of my opportunities at The Nobel School
• Accept responsibility, co-operate and encourage others to do the same
• Celebrate my success and the success of others

[ut_parallax_quote cite="Nobel School"] Honest. Respect. Achievement.[/ut_parallax_quote]

On Friday 3 July we (that is Joe Cooper, Cameron Draper, Nundon Vaghadia and myself) attended the Glider Challenge at MBDA in Stevenage, along with Mrs Townhill and Mr James. Shortly after we had arrived at MBDA we were given a name tag and asked to sit down at the table labelled "Nobel". It was here where we were told a little bit about MBDA and also the plan for the day. After our introduction we were given a tour of MBDA's missile testing facilities. I was fascinated by the ginormous machine they used to simulate a missile's journey. We were then given 3 interactive lectures (aerodynamics, materials and business) to help us understand what we needed for our gliders. (more…)

On Wednesday 17 June we visited Lessiter’s, a chocolate factory in Knebworth. When we arrived we were kindly greeted by Nina who took us through the health and safety protocols in the factory and the legal requirements that are followed by the family run company in order to maintain the highest levels of hygiene. We then had the great opportunity to have a tour around the factory where we were able to see the chocolate being made at different stages of production, from the moulding of the chocolate, to the packaging of the chocolate that is then stored, ready to be delivered to retailers such as Waitrose and Thorntons. (more…)