Sidegate Lane, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP4 3DL www.northgatesixthform.co.uk | Tel: 01473 210123 E-mail: [email protected]| northgatesixthform | @northgatesixthform Ambassador Handover NEWSLETTER April 2018 NORTHGATE SIXTH FORM CENTRE WELCOME This term has seen the Year 12 ambassadors take over from their Year 13 predecessors as part of our successful rolling scheme. You may have met our ambassadors at interview but they have also been busy helping Year 11 with revision advice, visiting other centres and giving presentations. Harry will soon be off to university as will Asha next year (both pictured above). The National Citizen Service (NCS) offers thousands of 15-17 year-olds the chance to take part in exhilarating challenges and build skills for work and life during the school holidays. NCS looks good on your UCAS personal statement You learn the skills employers value Learn to budget and live for yourself Meet incredible people Get your voice heard! To find out more please go to their website www.ncsyes.co.uk
This term has seen the Year 12 ambassadors take over from their Year 13 predecessors as part of our successful rolling scheme.
You may have met our ambassadors at interview but they have also been busy helping Year 11 with revision advice, visiting other centres and giving presentations.
Harry will soon be off to university as will Asha next year (both pictured above).
The National Citizen Service (NCS) offers thousands of 15-17 year-olds the chance to take part in exhilarating challenges and build skills for work and life during the school holidays. NCS looks good on your
UCAS personal statement
You learn the skills employers value Learn to budget and live
for yourself Meet incredible people Get your voice heard!
To find out more please go to their website www.ncsyes.co.uk
On Tuesday 6th – Friday 9th March, the Geography department took 26 students from Northgate Sixth Form for a spectacular visit to Iceland. Based in the capital, Reykjavik, we were able to explore a country whose geothermal energy, glacial landscapes and stunning relief provided the back drop for amazing photographs and an outstanding opportunity to learn.
Our tour began at Krisuvik, a geothermal field where water and sulphurous steam is vented at over 100 degrees Celsius, heated by magma underneath Iceland.
A visit to the Eyjafjallajokull (Ey-er-fyet-ya-yer-kul) volcano, infamous for the 2010 ash cloud that grounded flights and stranded passengers all over Europe, awaited us on day two.
In the afternoon of day two, we travelled south to the village of Vik, with its black sandy beach, where fascinating basalt columns cascade up the cliff, caused by lava meeting sea water during an eruption.
It was waterfalls galore as
Geography Iceland Fieldtrip 2018
students visited three breath-taking fluvial landforms at Seljalandsfoss, Skogarfoss and Gullfoss. Many were brave enough to stand on the metal viewing platform at Skogarfoss, looking directly down over the 62 metre high waterfall, providing fantastic photographic opportunities with its glacial meltwater, rainbows and steep gorge which used to form part of the southern coast of Iceland.
Gullfoss is perhaps one of the most renown tourist hotspots in Iceland and our students certainly will remember the temperature there with a wind chill factor of minus 15 degrees Celsius!
Other highlights included visiting a hydro-electric power station and the Strokkur geyser, a 3 metre vent in the surrounding rock which ejects boiling water and gasses 30 metres into the air. Here we had lots of fun trying to predict the exact moment that the geyser would vent, so that the perfect video could be taken. Equally, standing on Solheimajokull glacier gave us an insight into the visual impact of global warming and a chance to see how glacial and physical process occur. We must also mention the Secret Lagoon – a thermally-heated pool where temperatures ranged from 40-60 degrees where students and staff enjoyed a relaxing hour, taking in the surroundings and the heat.
During the autumn term local visiting Artist, Maggie Davis, came into Northgate High School to run a workshop with the Textile Department for Years 10 and 12.
Maggie is a fully qualified, local ex-teacher of Art and Textiles of 35 years. Now a freelance designer with a vast skill set and knowledge, her studio is based in Little Bealings in Suffolk. Maggie finds inspiration in nature but her textile work tends to be abstract. At present she explores the raw quality of the natural materials and works with surface embellishment including hand stitching.
Maggie spent two lessons with the Year 10 and 12 students working on mark making techniques using landscape imagery. Their drawings were then build into fabric samples using fraying and free machine embroidery. The workshop encouraged the students to think of new ways of drawing and to improve their
On Tuesday 7th November 2017, 50 students across year 12 and 13 took part in the Senior Maths Challenge. They did extremely well gaining 15 Bronze, 15 Silver and 5 Gold certificates. Of these, Joshua Davey was Best in School and was 1 of around 1000 students nationwide who was invited to take part in the British Mathematical Olympiad Round 1 – which lasts three and a half hours and contains six complex and involved mathematical problems.
We also had 5 students making it through to the Senior Kangaroo.
From October to December we had 4 teams of students taking part in the National Cipher Challenge. This is an online challenge set by the University of Southampton where teams submit answers to codes they need to crack. They have 1 week to crack the codes and gain marks for accuracy and speed. The codes get harder week by week and become VERY challenging.
Around 990 teams entered this competition and our 4 teams did well finishing in the top 25%, with two of the teams finishing in the top 10%. No prizes this year, but next year?…
confidence in practical skills. This is all part of the new AQA Textile Design coursework and exam the department have started delivering this year.
It has been a very productive start to the new term and to the new courses for GCSE and A Level with positive responses from students.
After several enquiries from applicants and their parents regarding using public transport to get to Northgate we thought that the Suffolk On Board website link might be useful to you. It has a Post-16 journey planner where all you need to do is select Northgate, put in your home postcode and select a date and time that would be practical for a normal study day. The planner will then find the most efficient route for your journey. Students must arrive to register by 8.45am and the day finishes at 3.10pm. The Sixth Form block is open from 8am – 6pm each day for students that wish to use the study facilities.
wide range of extra-curricular activities for students to be able to participate in. In order for students to be aware of the multiple opportunities available, Northgate arranges a Fresher’s Fair.
The Endeavour Card is a smart card for 16-19 year olds for whom travel may be a barrier to get to work, training or education.The Endeavour card enables you to get at least 25% discount off full price adult fares on participating bus services. You can apply for this card free of charge online.
Further details can be found at: endeavour.suffolkonboard.com
Northgate Sixth Form offers some exciting opportunities to start or
continue playing an instrument. The Music department are very supporting and enthusiastic on any level of music. The music rooms being a separate space for anyone to practice or have fun from lessons.
While studying at Northgate Sixth
Form, you not only experience excellent teaching, but are also given many opportunities to broaden your cultural horizons.
There are many opportunities that
enhanced my cultural experiences, including numerous theatre trips and an amazing trip to Iceland.
Studying at Northgate has allowed for many
opportunities to widen my knowledge of the arts with many theatre trips of different genres at your disposal.
In the lead up to the DofE Silver expeditions, it’s all systems go! Students are currently completing their training sessions every Wednesday in order to be ready for every aspect of their Duke of Edinburgh expeditions which take place in July. Training sessions include First Aid (including CPR using our inflatable Annie dolls), map reading, route planning and camp craft.
This year, the Silver award includes a 3-day practice expedition in the coastal region of North Norfolk! Here
Duke of Edinburgh Silver Award
participants will be required to be self-sufficient within a team, putting into practice all of the skills learnt in their training sessions. Once the skills have been honed on the practice, it is then onto the qualifier expedition in the Peak District
where students will need to show-off their newly developed skills to an official DofE assessor.
