On Thursday 20 October 2016, a cast of 24 students from years seven to eleven performed a contemporary version of William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" as part of this years Shakespeare school's festival.
The cast were supported by the year eleven BTEC Performing Arts Students who made props, costumes, theatrical trailers, posters and designed hair and makeup.
On Wednesday 12 May 36 Drama students from years 9, 10 and 11 went to the Home Theatre in Manchester to see 64 squares by Rhum and Clay Theatre Company. The performance really captured the imagination of our students. The mixture of multirole and physical theatre is what our students are currently experiencing in the classroom. We are very much looking forward to our next visit which will to see Wicked on Wednesday 14 December. Letter will be give soon to the cast of 'Romeo and Juliet', Btec Drama students and students on the 'most able' register.
Rehearsals have started for the next Shakespeare festival! The play is Romeo and Juliet, and the crew have decided to put a modern twist to an old classic and are currently working on the larger scenes so that everyone can get involved contribute to the team effort.
Tickets are on sale for £7.00 - £9.00, to get hold of one call 01254 685 500. You can also book tickets online at http://www.thwaitesempiretheatre.co.uk/event/shakespeare-schools-festival/
The production starts at 7PM and will be taking place on the 20th October 2016 at the Thwaites Empire theatre.
We hope to see you there!
Taylor Rayson with her English teacher Mrs Court
Collection of Norden pupils getting their results
Komal Shah (8 GCSE grades A* - C), Jess Rostron (A grade in Drama), Sammy Wong (7 A grades) and Tobi Foster - Haworth (4 A grades)
Beth Walton and Olivia Baker getting the grades to get onto their college courses.
Year 10 students Rebecca North, Marley Harrington and Ashley Alderson won third place in a national dance competition last weekend after beating off competition from all over the UK. They competed in the street dance category and we are hugely proud of them.
On Monday 16th May Mr Shaun Fielding our Behavioural Manager and Miss Mandy Burrows received the Duke of Edinburgh Licensed Organisation plaque from TRH the Countess of Wessex and Hannah Cockcroft MBE Paralympic Gold Medallist and world record holder whilst visiting Buckingham Palace. This was in recognition of their commitment to providing the DofE opportunity to all year 9 students and above within the school.
Friday 18 March was a very exciting day as we held the final of the Junior Bake off competition.
Eleven teams from six different primary schools had battled through the semi-finals and six teams took part in the final. Each finalist was given an embroidered apron before they began - a ‘well done’ for getting this far!
The teams were baking an Easter cake and could bring along any items that they felt would enhance the look of their cake and add to the theme.
After much prepping, measuring, rolling out and baking the cakes were ready to be decorated and they did not disappoint! All manner of items were used to decorate the cakes such as chicks, bunnies, eggs and marshmallows.
The guest judge was award-winning chef Victor Yu from Yu and You restaurant in Alderley Edge. Mr Yu spent time chatting to the bakers, admiring the cake designs and then came the all important taste test.
After a nail biting wait the winners were announced as Hammad Khan, Aisha Nassar and Shifa Kapadia from Roe Lee Park primary school. They were delighted to take the trophy back to their primary school.
Well done everyone – we can’t wait for the 2016/17 competition!
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Eight of our year 8 pupils went to Burnley College with Mr Yaqub and Miss McPhie on Wednesday 30th March to take part in a STEM event. This provided a fantastic opportunity for our pupils to broaden and deepen their knowledge of Science and Computing in fantastic surroundings using the latest technology. Pupils rotated throughout the day through various workshops working on ICT, Animation and Programming and all of them thoroughly enjoyed the day!
Pupils who attended the trip were:
Sophie Towler
Faye Pickup
Kayleigh Blackstock
Alyssa Munro
Abigail Thornley
Paige Tattersall
Leo Jackson
Emma Fawcett
A number of our students recently got involved in the ‘Clean for the Queen’ initiative. They filled many bags with litter from local areas and we are very proud of them.
Miss Daley's 9 set 1 English class are showing off some of their outstanding homework on the return from the half term break!
Last half term, they used a 'Nando's-style' homework 'menu' to choose their weekly tasks to consolidate learning about poetry from other cultures as well as reflecting on their own. Here are some of their amazing outcomes:
Staff and students at Norden High School, Rishton really got into the World Book Day spirit on Thursday 3rd March, celebrating reading for pleasure in a series of activities centred around the grand prize of visiting 'Gangsta Granny Live' at The Grand Theatre, Blackpool on 28th April. Donations for fancy dress will be donated to local children's charities and a book fair raised money for new books for the Learning Resource Centre.
The pupils took part in the annual 'Enjoy-neering' challenge at Burnley College. The event is focused on STEM subjects with various activities building pupils planning, teamwork, design analysis and development, manufacture and product testing skills. Pupils were involved in building a bridge with a piece of cardboard, sellotape and wooden splints. The boys bridge held a record 19kgs!
Pupils also built a tower using marshmallows and spaghetti, an activity which involved using electronic cars to play football, rat run activity in which a electronic ball controlled by an iPad mimicked a rat and had to be guided though obstacles. Additional activities included building circuits.
The grand finale was to design, build, test and launch a rocket. The design and execution of our boys rocket ensured their victory!
Dillon Moores
Britney Miur
Trinity Griffiths
Haseeb Ali
Chloe Walsh
Jed Hargreaves
Rhianna Reid
Lewis Hammerton
Sophie Towler
Courtney Wilson
Ellesha Lucas
Badrah Ilyas
On the Wednesday 3rd February 2016, 47 Students from years 7 - 11 went to see "Les Miserables" at the Queens Theatre in London.
The group were a mixture of GCSE Drama Students, Btec Performing Arts Students and Able, Gifted and Talented students.
Everyone who attended the trip was a credit to the school and Mr Massey and Miss Bleasdale received comments from members of the audience about the exceptional conduct of everyone involved in the visit.
We are all looking forward to the next Theatre Visit already and wondering what Mr Massey has planned.
On the Wednesday 27th of January 2016 Norden High School Year Nine Performing Arts Students submitted their entry for this years "The Beats" Road safety Drama Devising Competition.
This year's fifteen minute presentation looks at the dangers of not wearing a seatbelt when in a moving vehicle.
The play was devised over a series of lessons and research homework.
Mr Massey is delighted with the outcome and is crossing his fingers for the decision of the judges. Even if the students are not successful in making the final Mr Massey is extremely proud of the maturity and creativity the students that participated in this project.
Monday October 23rd is our Second Super Learning Day - Diversity Day.
Year 8 will be off timetable all day attending workshops on stereotyping, CSE & grooming, personal values, spirituality and religion through the mediums of Drama, technology and Art.
We are looking forward to inviting back a range of external agencies to re-visit our school and continue to send out key messages on SMSC (Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Development)
The performance was purely audience participation and many students were selected to be a part of the p[lay including Rihanna Bardsley and Phillip Norclife who became a part of the storm band by playing percussion instruments in front of an audience of over 120 people.
The students absolutely loved the play and are hoping to put the skills learned to good use in their final exam in April.
On Wednesday 21st October 2015 Norden High School & Sports College drama students performed a 30 minute version of Macbeth as part as a Shakespeare schools festival performance. There were 25 students on the stage with another 11 btec performing arts students behind the scenes including; sound, lighting, costumes, make up and prop makers. The theatre was a sell out and the students were a credit to the school. Rihanna Bardsley and James Ainsworth were outstanding at playing lady Macbeth and Macbeth and were supported by Lewis Nield Ali, Sydney Sanderson and Tamzin Thompson lit up the stage with their excellent characters and the rest of the cast were made from years 7-11 everyone was a credit to the school and we can’t wait to next year’s performance.
Another productive morning in the Food room. Well done Year 11 im so proud of you!
Congratulations to Joe Davidson - star baker of the week for his Halloween inspired biscuits, well done!
Norden staff and students hosted an inter-primary schools' Spelling Bee.
The Year 6 pupils were very confident spellers and did their schools proud.
The winning team was Roe Lee Park Primary school who scooped first prize - well done!
The performance is fast approaching.
Norden's Drama students recently participated in a Drama workshop at the Thwaite's Empire Theatre in Blackburn. The students learned how to 'open up a scene' and how to add 'twang' to their speech.
Tickets for This Wednesday's performance of Macbeth are still available from the website.
Congratulations to Year 10 and 11 who made their own shortcrust pastry quiche tartlets last week.
Wednesday October 14th is our first Super Learning Day - BE SAFE.
Year 7 will be off timetable all day attending workshops on stereotyping, CSE & grooming, relationships & consent, managing feelings and E safety.
We are looking forward to a range of external agencies visiting our school.
Congratulations to Year 11 Y group who have completed the Great British Bake Off Norden style task with their 3 or 4 tiered cakes. Overall 'Star Baker' goes to Julie Ashton with her beautiful blue ombre butterfly cake.
Well done, Miss Bleasdale
Miss Daley, Mrs Richardson and Mrs Montgomery took 19 Y9 and Y10 pupils to Westholme School on Monday evening for a linguistics lecture with Professor David Crystal. During the lecture, he talked about one of his famous books: 'The Story of English in 100 Words.' Outside of Westholme School, we were the most well-attended school to the event and the pupils were an asset to our community; listening intently and hopefully inspiring an interest in their English studies and for future studies. Thank you for a great night! Miss Daley
Attached are some photos from the event and after pupils had their books signed.
This year the Drama department will be performing "Macbeth" at the Thwaite's empire theatre in Blackburn. rehearsals are well and truly underway and the students are very much looking forward to performing on 21st October.
'We had a superb Open Evening on the 17th with a great turnout coming to see all the brilliant things we have to offer here at Norden.'
Please email
or call 01254 885378 to book a place.'
It was great to see new year 7 pupils becoming actively involved in extra curricular activities and attending after school Rugby training. I intend to keep practices on a Wednesday after school and arrange fixtures as soon as possible. The lads seemed to really enjoy themselves and have demonstrated real promise in the sport. Well done and keep up the hard work.
On Thursday 2 July 2015, six Year 9 students visited Burnley College to take part in their Annual Debating competition.
Our students were the youngest there, as all the other competitors were in Year 10, and they were given the toughest team to debate against but this did not deter them and they made it through to the semi-finals!
In our annual Planner Design competition, Olivia Quinn in year 8 Longridge was our winner. Runner up prises were also given to Umar Aslam and Ella Ditchfield also year 8. The choice was difficult as entries were of a great standard, well done!
Our Year 7 students took part in an X Factor-style web chat with some Scientists last week. They got to ask the scientists lots of questions and then had to vote for the Scientist they thought should win £500 towards their project.
Year 10 pupils recently received some training from Ricky Reidy, a motivational speaker who incorporates his 20 years' experience as a professional magician to encourage and inspire young people to believe in themselves and achieve their full potential. He motivated the pupils as well as teaching them revision strategies. Good luck to our Year 10 pupils in their mock exams!
Celebrations for the annual World Book Day took place during week commencing 2 March 2015 culminating with students in Years 7 and 8 dressing up on Friday 6 March as their favourite book character.
Our Year 10 Media students were delighted to be invited to the Sky News HQ in London to spend the day with a TV producer who provided an in-depth account of the various careers available in this part of the Media.
On Wednesday 27 January all students in Year 8 experienced a super learning day with the theme of ‘Diversity in a Modern Britain’.
All the pupils took part in 5 different workshops as follows:
On Monday 12th January and Tuesday 13th January 2015, we held a two day ‘Poetry in Motion’ event for the whole of Year 7. Over the course of the two days, students got to experience a day of outdoor activities at Whitehough Outdoor Education Centre as well as a day in school where they used their experiences from the previous day as a stimulus for creative writing.
For the last month our students in Longridge House have been asking for items donate to the 2BR Christmas Appeal.
Numbers were the name of the game when we held a family numeracy afternoon on
Friday 12 December 2014.
We held a Christmas Fair on Wednesday 3 December which ran from 5.00pm to 7.00pm and had lots of exciting stalls, games and attractions.
Year 10 Media students visited The Bee radio station on Wednesday 3 December to experience a live broadcasting situation.
Boys in Years 10 and 11 have started to attend extra football and revision sessions to boost their academic progress. 
Pupils are really enjoying a new 'Doorstep Club’ which is run by Accrington Stanley Community Trust every Friday evening after school.
Honours Evening 6 November 2014
We were delighted to welcome the class of 2014 back into school on Thursday 6 November for an awards evening.
A selection of photographs from Friday 14 November 2014 when we were pleased to support Children in Need. Students paid £1.00 to come to school either dressed as super heroes or in non-uniform.
