The Nobel Network

29/01/2024

On Tuesday 16 January, Former student and Nobel Network member (Class of 2003), Dr Kat Bailey gave an inspirational presentation to our Year12 students about her careers since leaving Nobel.
Kat has a PhD in Psychology and lectured at the University of Nottingham alongside her many fitness businesses. Whilst at university Kat discovered, pole fitness and aerial sports like trapeze and hoop. She has represented Team GB at the highest levels and won numerous medals including world titles.
From her hobby, Kat developed various business ventures and introduced ‘Bungeefit’ to the UK. Kat’s work has been recognised with several business awards and she now employs a large team delivering aerial sports in the Midlands and beyond Kat demonstrated some aspects of her sports and students (and staff) were able to have a go!
Kat explained about her time at school, her challenges and her diagnosis, at 37 years old, of ADHD (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). Kat explained how her diagnosis has helped her to better understand her approach to everything and her own motivations.
Always wanting to push herself and achieve her childhood dreams, Kat recently was successful in the very competitive selection process to become a Firefighter in the East Midland Fire Service. Mr Howells kindly helped demonstrate some of Kat’s uniform too!
At the end of the Presentation Kat left the students with the clear message that: it is OK to:
• It is OK to not know what you want to do yet;
• being different/being you is fine and adds diversity to the community;
• Changing your mind or direction is healthy;
• Failing is part of the learning process.

The presentation was very well received by students who engaged with this motivational speaker.

15/12/2023

Nobel Network Christmas Tree Challenge:
How many of or own trees can we post. Add your tree in the comments section below!

11/12/2023

Nobel Network supports the school with more speakers:

One of our recent speakers said to students, “Future leaders stand among us today”. We believe that this is true, and it’s why the Nobel Network is working hard to provide inspirational speakers for all of the Speakers@Nobel sessions.
On Friday 8th December, students in year 8 were treated to talks from speakers linked to the Nobel Network, the school’s alumni association.
This time the speakers were:
• Nicholas Eaton – BrilliantIN Recruitment
• Gamma Basra – Head of Computer Graphics (Architecture)
• Steph Moore – Critical Care Nursing
• Rob Fuller - Educational consultant, Former Headteacher.

All of our lovely speakers shared details of the career history, their challenges and the successes and they underlined the message that, ‘It’s not failure that matters, it’s what you do next that makes the difference’. Al of the talks were very well received.
If you feel you might be able to help the Speakers@Nobel programme, please email [email protected]

02/10/2023

Exam Invigilators need

https://thenobelschool.org/jobs/exam-invigilators-bank-staff-variable-hour-contract-2/

We really need to recruit some more people.

We are looking to recruit exam invigilators to join our existing team and work with us during our school’s exam periods, both external and internal exams. Invigilators will be required in November/December, February/March and May/June. Even if you are not…

30/06/2023

New Nobel Oak update:
I know I am rubbish at posting, but this morning as I walked into school, I was taken by the area where we planted the 'New Nobel Oak' in celebration of the school's 60th anniversary.

What a beautiful way to start my day. The tree is going strong.

17/12/2022

Inspire Curriculum:
As I have mentioned times before, we have used network members exclusively in smaller events for the Inspire curriculum since the network started. This term was no different except we had a mix of online speakers and speakers on site at Nobel. With Year 9 options talks currently taking place, its is always great to have alumni available to help motivate and inspire. This time we were joined by:
• Sasha Reed – Civil Servant, Government Economist
• Simon Bull – British Airways Pilot
• Elana Dance – Quantity Surveyor
• Tim Busfield – Data Scientist
• Guy Norton – Civil Servant, Head of Delivery, Trade Negotiations

The students really had an amazing afternoon and asked interesting questions.

17/12/2022

Speakers : general speaker programme open to all.

Jack Davidson Kindly agreed to come into Nobel School on Tuesday 15th November to speak to our students. Jack talked about his journey into becoming a Paramedic for the NHS. He went through his career to date, explaining the route he took through Nobel school to achieve his GCSE’S and A levels before moving onto an apprenticeship after year 13. Jack then explained the process he had to undertake to get into a paramedic degree in Lincoln university and he also talked about the different expereiences he has had being a paramedic for the past 18 months. The students were totally engaged and thoroughly enjoyed the presentation by Jack. His presentation was both very interesting and inspirational to the students which is demonstrated by the number of excellent questions the students asked Jack.
Students thoughts –
”Jack showed us all the steps we would need to put in place early on for picking our GCSE's and picking a range of subjects in case of a change in idea on what we wanted to do as a job. Then he showed his route that he took, like getting apprenticeship at Display Plan, and then went on to go to Lincolnshire Uni where he studied paramedic science. He then became a paramedic where he's been working for the last 18 months. Thanks Jack.“

18/07/2022

Nobel Awards Evening Keynote Speech:

At a fantastic evening of celebration which highlighted the achievements of Nobel students in 2022, Pat Younge delivered an inspirational keynote speech.
Pat, Class of 1982, has held major positions at many of the major TV channels in the UK, not least as creative media lead for the BBC and has received Emmy awards in the US for TV production. He continues to be proud of his Stevenage and Nobel roots and a supporter of the view that education is a route to success. His messages of ‘work hard’ and ‘make good choices’ were well received by parents, carers and students alike.
The evening rounded off with the two top awards:
• Governors’ Award for Services to the Community received by Grace Belsham.
• Nobelian of the Year awarded to Daisy Fennelow.

12/07/2022

Supporting families too!

The alumni association was set up to keep former students and staff connected to Nobel and to support current students in making informed career choices. Just occasionally, this support can extend to wider family members and this is one of those occasions.

Nobel Network member, Holly Ingram, has already visited the school to talk to students in classes and has offered to chat to any students who are thinking about careers in maternity services. However, having recently taken up a position as Midwifery Lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), Holly is also the lead on the new ‘Return to Midwifery Practice’ course at ARU. She supports inspirational midwives back into the maternity service. If any parent, carer, or extended family member is contemplating a return to this area of the NHS, Holly is happy to offer advice and support. She is also still on the frontline of Midwifery and values her clinical shifts every week supporting a caseload of women throughout their pregnancy in her local area.

*For anyone who wishes to pursue or return to Midwifery, I am always happy to discuss and provide guidance where I can, please feel free to contact me on [email protected].

23/03/2022

We have a valued colleague and Nobelian of 8 years, whose home, family and friends are suffering the Russian occupation. She is raising money for vital medical supplies and is fully supported by the school staff. Please help if you can.

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/medical-equipment-for-ukraine

Thank you for your support,

Weʼre raising money to buy and send life-saving medical equipment to Ukraine.. Support this JustGiving Crowdfunding Page.

03/03/2022

Former students help inspire Year 8 Students -
Five former students from the Nobel Network gave time on 11 February to work with 25 students from Year 8 on the ‘Inspire Curriculum’. Each alumnus gave a talk about their journey to their current career, talked openly about challenges that they faced and how they overcame these.
There was a wide range of professions and former students which included:
• Elana Dance – Quantity Surveyor (Class of 2016)
• Paul Fry – Journalist (Class of 1975)
• Anna Igglesden – Early Years Education Advisor (Class of 1999)
• Matt Reah – Price Waterhouse Cooper (Class of 2014)
• Dr Wing Chau Tung – Research Institute Manager, University College London (Class of 2000)

Students were able to spend time in small groups chatting and asking questions to each of our guests. Using our video conferencing facilities we were able to include contributions from former students who live too far away to have been involved otherwise. With over 500 members in the Nobel Network, spanning 60 years, we have a wealth of experience to help support current students across all year groups.
The aims for the session were to inspire students, to consider a variety of potential careers, help them understand how people overcome challenges and how to make flexible plans about their futures. This is what some of our young Nobelians thought:
"I enjoyed the meeting on Friday as it gave me an idea about life outside of school and the different challenges I would have to overcome." - Miley
"It was really inspirational." - Jess
"It was really inspiring that we got to talk to someone who is one of very few women in their area of work." - Abi
“I really liked and appreciated how the past student worked in a variety of fields. I think that was really helpful because we got a look into lots of different fields of work.” - Emma
We look forward to supporting many more students in this way in future.

13/12/2021

School History Unveiled:
On Monday 13 December, the children of first Nobel Headteacher, Leslie Rose, unveiled the correspondence between the school and the Nobel Institute. Although the school had been open for a year, in 1962, Leslie Rose requested that the school be granted permission to be called The Nobel School. The Nobel Institute considered this and replied that the school could in fact take its name and its values.

Mr Henson welcomed the family to join him to celebrate the school’s heritage by presenting the mounted letters in a frame in the reception area for all to see. The family, who are all former Nobelians themselves, were taken on a tour of our lovely new school by sixth formers and they also visited the Rose Garden which they sponsor. Mr Henson said, “We are very pleased that two further generations of the Rose family could celebrate with us in this way, particularly in the context of the school’s 60th year.”