Nower Hill High School

Library Signage

Have you noticed the new signs to help guide you when using the School Library? These have been purchased with Jack Petchey Award money donated by worthy recipients of the award, Thomas Sooriyabandara and Shankaran Peethakaran. Many thanks Shankaran and Tom! (May 2009) Ms Loveridge

Past Jack Petchey Winners

Nower Hill High School Student Receives Jack Petchey Volunteer Prize in June 2009
Jane Wilkinson, Nower Hill High School Co-ordinator, reports:

“One of our Year 11 pupils, Robert Pitt, has recently won an award from the Jack Petchey Foundation for his volunteer services in the Library at Nower Hill. His prize was £200 to be spent at his request in school. He chose to donate half to the library at Nower Hill and half to the library at St Michael’s School in Tanzania.” Congratulations to Robert for his great volunteering work and for his decision to use the prize to help develop library resources at St Michael’s Secondary School.

The winners of the Jack Petchey community awards for the Autumn term 2008 were;

Sarah Mc Intyre 8STF, Milad Hamed 9SLF, Costas Andreou 10MMC, Mathew Seymour 11LYM.

They were nominated by their peers for their community spirit, awareness and service to others. Each received £200 which they will spend on a school area of their choosing. They will also be invited to the Jack Petchey Harrow celebration in June were they will receive a framed certificate and a presentation medallion from the Mayor. Service not self is our school motto striving to achieve this makes Nower Hill such a warm and vibrant community. Congratulations to all the Jack Petchey winners.

Nower Hill Students Speak Out!

Many of the best and brightest students in the borough assembled at Park High School on Tuesday 15th Dec 2009 for the regional final of the prestigious 'Jack Petchey Speak Out Challenge'. This annual competition, which draws thousands of entrants from across London every single year, challenges students to speak about the things that matter most to them. In front of a judging panel that included a former Mayor of Harrow, an MP Tony McNulty, a business person of the year, a champion boxer, two journalists and more, Rakhi Sachdev 10SSD and Gabrielle Dunn 10SBK stepped into the lion's den on behalf of Nower Hill. Both girls performed with passion, skill and style, and held their audience spellbound as they delivered speeches called 'Formidably Fat' and the 'Beauty Pageant'. Having considered their verdicts the judges returned with the tremendous news that Rakhi had finished runner-up. Congratulations to both girls.

New skills help people to gain experiences in life. Back in November, I would have never imagined that I would have had the confidence to speak out in front of more than a hundred people, whilst up against some amazingly self-assured pponents from 10 different schools from the borough of Harrow. Back then, the task would have seemed disturbingly daunting, and I probably would have refused to participate. However, my feelings towards public speaking have now marginally changed.

A number of my peers and I were selected to partake in an all-day workshop led by Jane Sheppard-Miller, and we were put through a series of exercises to instruct us and build our self esteem. Subsequently, five of us got through to the school finals. The winner of the school final was Harry Woulds, and the two reserves were Rhiannon Ball and Emma Odita. We went on as ambassadors for the school to the Regional final.

I believe I speak on behalf of all the students when I say this event was exceptionally overwhelming, and it was even harder to see the standard being set by the excellent competitors up against us. The night was bursting with laughter and sorrow, while each participant shared their stories and speeches with everyone. And as I stood awaiting the verdict to be called, I began to shake my head and I had already given up. The last thing I had expected to hear was: “EMMANUELLA DITA”