Every Day at Suthers Counts
The evidence is clear - even a few days of missed school can have a significant impact on a young person's education and future prospects.
Since the pandemic, the Department for Education have seen school absence rates rise. Before COVID-19, the overall absence rate was 4.7%. This jumped to 7.6% in 2021/22 and by 2022/23 had only come down slightly to 7.4%. Census data for this academic year will shortly be published, but although daily data shows that progress is being made, there is still a long way to go! Even more concerning is the rise in persistent absence – this means missing more than 10% of school days. The number of children who are persistently absent in the UK has nearly doubled since the pandemic. Severe absence – meaning missing more than half of school – has more than doubled from 0.8% to 2%.
Recent research by the Department for Education shows just how closely attendance and attainment are linked. Year 11 pupils with near-perfect attendance are almost twice as likely to achieve Grade 5 in English and Maths GCSE, compared to similar pupils attending 90-95% of the time. In other words, missing just 10 extra days a year reduces the likelihood of achieving these grades by around 50%. Furthermore, missing school doesn't just affect exam results and a child’s time in education – it can impact future earnings too. Persistently absent pupils in secondary school could earn £10,000 less at age 28 compared to pupils with near-perfect attendance. For each additional day of absence between Years 7 to 11, the typical pupil could miss out on an average of £750 in future lifetime earnings.
What can you do?
As a parent or carer, you have an important role in making school attendance a priority. Only keep your child off school when they are genuinely too ill to attend. Book medical appointments and holidays outside of school time whenever possible. Please talk to your child's form tutor or Mrs Gentry, our Attendance Officer, if you're having difficulties with attendance. It is important to recognise that children with long-term medical conditions, serious mental health challenges, or special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) may encounter additional obstacles. For those experiencing complex barriers to attendance, please speak to your child's key adult and we will work with both your child and the family, collaborating to provide tailored support that meets their specific needs.
At NOVA, we firmly believe that everyone attends every day. We know that consistent attendance is directly linked to pupil success, both academically and socially. We want to ensure all our pupils have the best possible chance to thrive.
Eggs-cellent Attendance in April!
We're excited to launch our "Eggs-cellent Attendance" initiative! During the first fortnight in April, we're celebrating and rewarding excellent attendance. Students who achieve 100% attendance during the first 10 days upon return to Half Term 5 will be entered into a prize draw to win a selection of Easter themed prizes. Let's continue to strive towards outstanding attendance!
Option 1 Prize Winner: Amelia, well done! Option 2 Prize Winner: Ava, Well Done! Option 3 Prize Winner: Hannah, Well done !
Punctuality: On Time, Ready to Learn
A reminder that the side gate closes promptly at 08:25. Students arriving after this time will be marked as late and will be required to attend a 15-minute breaktime detention. Being on time ensures a smooth start to the day and minimises disruption to learning for everyone.
Let's work together to ensure all students at The Suthers School have the opportunity to succeed. Thank you for your continued support in prioritising attendance.
Please click here for the GCSE timetable
The nervous tension was palpable in the auditorium which demonstrates the commitment of all of the cohort.
The atmosphere in the Refectory was really positive and it was great to see the cohort reflecting on their results alongside their peers.
A big thank you to Year 11 form tutors this morning along with Laura, Wendy, Amelia, Trina, Jono, Matt and Janet for facilitating the event!
Also, thank you to staff who were able to come and join the year group in the Refectory for breakfast!
We spoke about the importance of attending school every day in the run up to the exams as well as making a commitment to attend booster sessions. As you can see, the year group continue to demonstrate a fantastic level of engagement with our booster programme.
As ever, thank you to all staff for your support with the Year 11 achievement agenda. We are in the endgame now.. with everything still to play for!!
Y11 – WE NEED YOU! -
Do you have any old/spare kit, that you will no longer need, when you leave The Suthers School? Miss Berrington would love to utilise and recycle it, and place in it our Spare Kit Wardrobe in the PE Department, for other students to use, when they may have forgotten their kit! This may include The Suthers PE Top, The Suthers Jumper/Rugby Top, The Suthers Leggings or even some old trainers you no longer wear! If you do, please bring this to the PE Office before you leave
Netball –
Our Y9 and Y10’s had their first England Netball tournament of the year! This took place at Toot Hill School, and they faced tough opposition from the start, but managed to play incredibly well. Our defence and midcourt gained some amazing interceptions, as well as out shooters putting up some incredible shots! Well Done, Girls!
Girls Football –
We are exceptionally proud of the Y7,8 and 9 girls who have been taking part in football fixtures after school over the last 2 terms. They have made fantastic progress and working together well as a team. We are exciting for our next game in the u14 quarter final after the Easter break.
Year 7 students embark on an exciting chemistry journey.
Year 7 students have been diving into the fascinating world of chemistry, beginning with the exploration of chemical and physical changes. This marks an exciting stage in their science education as they start to understand the fundamental differences between these two types of changes.
Recently, they’ve explored decomposition reactions, where a single compound breaks down into simpler substances, as you can see in the photos, we heated copper carbonate to produce copper oxide and carbon dioxide.
Building on this knowledge, year 7 students are now moving on to acids, alkalis, and neutralisation. Students are learning to use indicators and understand the pH scale. They’ll also explore how acids and alkalis react to form neutral solutions
We hope students are enjoying the increased practical work, as hands-on experiments are a great way to deepen understanding and spark curiosity about the world around them. By actively participating in experiments they are developing important scientific skills, such as observation, analysis, critical thinking and hopefully developing a passion for science!
In March, The Suthers School were proud to present their fourth annual school musical: The Little Shop of Horrors. The story follows a meek florist’s assistant, Seymore Krelburn, who stumbles across a strange and interesting plant that he names ‘Audrey II’ after his colleague and secret love. However, everything isn’t as it seems and soon the plant begins to talk and starts demanding that Seymore feeds it BLOOD! Over time, Seymore discovers that the plans is out for world domination, one human victim at a time!
This challenging and hilarious musical was staged by students from all year groups, some who have performed in all of our productions and others who took to the stage for the very first time, and we’re pleased to say that it was an overwhelming success. Our students performed to full houses over three nights and received lots of glowing feedback from our audiences, with one audience member sharing that ‘it was fantastic, just when I think that The Suthers productions couldn’t get any better, they do!’
Congratulations to everyone involved and remember, ‘Don’t feed the plants!’
All Year 8 students had the opportunity to take part in a workshop provided by Lush to create their own bath bomb and learn about the company, throughout the day they then visited various staff and subject for further sessions.
Art - stickers were created in the style of Lush
Photography - stage and take photographs of Lush products using their policy and guidelines
Science - understanding PH of bath water and reactions
Enterprise and marketing - logo design and marketing of the bath bomb they created
We are so glad we could host this drop down day again this year, thank you to all parents who donated towards this, your support is very much appreciated.
We will be celebrating World Art Day again this year. We will be holding this event on 24th April.
There will be a prize for best dressed staff member and student. If anyone would like any help with their outfit please feel free to come to the art department on Wednesday 2nd April after school and we can create a head piece / socks or help in any way.
Can't wait to see your outfits and the array of artists and artwork.
From after the Easter break (term starting Tuesday 22nd April) all season tickets for Tuxford Academy (services X37 & 40) and The Suthers School (55 & 85) will need to be purchased through our new App, myTrip.
Once you have downloaded the free myTrip app you will need to create an account. You will then be presented with a list of operators across the country who use myTrip and you will need to find and select Marshalls of Sutton on Trent in order to purchase tickets for our services. Daily and weekly tickets will still be available to purchase either by cash or contactless.
When you have selected Marshalls, you will need to select the relevant school, then you will be presented with a list of tickets which you can purchase, including weekly and termly options, please ensure that you choose the correct ticket for the service your child will be using, if in doubt please call us (01636 821138 opt.2) to clarify your correct choice.
There are options for you to be able to ‘gift’ tickets so that you can purchase tickets on your phone and then send them to your child to avoid the need to have bank details stored on their phone. Payments can be made in the App using Apple Pay, Google Pay, or you can add your credit/debit card details.
If you are buying the ticket for somebody else, when you reach the checkout stage, you will need to check the “it’s a gift for someone else” option. You will then be asked for the recipients email address, your child will also need to download the myTrip App with their own email address so they can receive and activate the ticket. More information can be found on this subject here: How do I gift a ticket?/How do I buy a ticket for someone else to use? : myTrip Support
Please note that we will not be able to refund part-used tickets, for example if your child is doing their exams in the summer term we recommend that you do not purchase a termly ticket for that term.
These tickets are replacing the QR code passes we have been using as they are more secure, passengers must be aware that they cannot use a screenshot of the ticket as the actual ticket is animated, in addition to this the act of taking a screenshot will invalidate the ticket and could potentially lead to the user being banned from myTrip as part of their security settings.
For more information on the new system please visit Support : myTrip Support
Thank you.
World Book Day
On Thursday 6th March, we celebrated World Book Day. Staff and Pupils were invited to come to school dressed as a well-known book character. We had activities in the Fern making bookmarks, designing the best book covers, best outfit and naming all the titles of the Wimpy kid and Dork diaries books, prizes were awarded. The fancy dress winner was Ethan Nightingale as the Bookworm. We also had a cake stall which raised a total of £188.75 to be used to purchased more new books for the Fern. Thank you to everyone that took part.
Many thanks
April
Easter Fundraiser
Today, 3rd April, we held our annual Easter Raffle and Cake Sale to raise money for our fantastic library and the DT department. Holding events like this enable us to purchase the most up to date books for our students. We raised a fantastic total of £366.60.
We would like to say a huge thank you to our local branches of Sainsburys, Lincoln Co-op and Welcome Break for their generous donations of Easter Eggs and of course any staff who have donated and contributed. It has been great to see our students involved and generate some serious excitement.
A huge well done to the following, who were the winners of our raffle: Raisa, Mrs Cunningham, Mr Goffe, Natasha, Mrs Walsh, Marianna, Isla, Charlie, Layton, Mrs Beresford, Mrs Luckhurst
We look forward to our next one.
On the 29th March, one of our lovely office staff members embarked on an Ultra Challenge, completing a massive 29.5K walking challenge in the lovely city of Bath, Miss Luckhurst participates in these challenges often raising money for Parkinsons UK, she completed the challenge in 6 hours and 45 Minutes, Well done!
During the month of May a few members of staff will be joining Ms Allen in the '5k a day in May' to raise money for Cancer Research, this will be a combination of running and walking. 
On Saturday 5th July, Mrs Chewings will be walking 14.6 miles round the Gower Peninsula in South Wales for the Macmillan Mighty Hike event. Having had a number of family members pass away because they had cancer, I have seen the effect it has - having a service like Macmillan to support and guide you through the processes involved in diagnosis, treatment, recovery and bereavement is something that cannot be underestimated. Training is going well, with lots of walks in my local country park - almost 100 miles completed across February and March! The Easter break will give me plenty of opportunity to boost that total, and hopefully pick up some more sponsorship!
As a school we have managed to raise an outstanding amount for various charities over year, and we would like to thank our wonderful community for your generosity and on going support.
The Suthers School
Train to teach with the Nottinghamshire Torch SCITT