1st February 2021 — Entrepreneurial Year 7 Northcote pupil, Thady Lillingston aged 11, has invented a new card game called Fame or Forfeit. After becoming popular amongst his family and friends, Fame or Forfeit was chosen by Thady’s grandfather William Beckett, who previously produced the cult Cluedo-inspired classic, Foul Play, for wider production. It hit the shelves just in time for Lockdown 3, providing families an entertaining family activity to play after a busy day of online school and work.

The game is simple to set up, only requires pen, paper, a lemon and a bottle of ketchup and up to six players can take part. It involves a series of challenges and promises hours of fun and a much-needed break from screens and electronic devices.

Fame or Forfeit is one of the few games created from a child’s perspective, but it’s aimed at children of all ages, its packaging can be customised to say “Dad’s Game” or “Granny’s Game” making it the perfect gift for children and adults alike.

Thady Lillingston commented, “I love my new game and so do all my friends, so if you want to make each other do silly challenges like drink ketchup or spell your name backwards in 15 seconds, you should definitely play. It’s great!”

Rupert Hawkins, Thady’s tutor confirmed its appeal “I was lucky enough to be one of the first people to play the game and it’s a lot of fun. I’m so impressed. Well done Thady!”

Clive Smith-Langridge, Headmaster of Northcote Lodge added “I’m so impressed with Thady’s entrepreneurial spirit “

To find out more about Fame or Forfeit, visit www.thadys.com

9th November 2020 — On a misty Friday morning, the Northcote Lodge community showed how much we can help others by donating 1260 tins to Wandsworth and Lambeth food banks. Tins from spaghetti hoops, through tuna, to French onion soup and even kitten food, were kindly donated by the boys and their families. The tins were added to a line for each house to add a little competition to the charitable spirit. The final results were:

1st place: Raleigh

2nd place: Drake

3rd and 4th place: Grenville and Sidney - amazingly Grenville and Sidney had the same total, but Grenville’s sardine cans were a little longer so pushed their line a bit farther!

The biggest can of the day was donated by Zameer and his family, who helped Raleigh to their victory!

A huge thank you must go to Mr Knight, Deputy Head, for organising the event, as well as to our house captains for arriving early to help set out the house lines. There were many other house volunteers from Form 5 who lent a hand and showed their great house values.

While the air of competition was fun, the most important thing was the school’s collective donation, which will make a huge difference at the moment with many people struggling financially.

Kindness is perhaps the most important value in our Northcote Way and we showed that the Northcote family has it in can-loads this week!

13th March 2020 — Every year Northcote Lodge joins schools around the world to highlight the importance and the benefits of reading during Book Week, which culminates with a themed dress up day and plenty of fun activities. This year was no exception.

Starting with a drip of tiny early-bird Oompa Loompas, the school was soon awash with ballooning blueberries, madcap grandmas, and wicked witches bedecked in mice. We enjoyed Dahl-themed assemblies with Heads of Year, learning about Dahl’s writing methods (highly regimented and idiosyncratic), the fascinating origins of the BFG’s gobblefunk, and the myriad stories Dahl has penned for children and adults alike. English lessons celebrated many corners of Dahl’s literary contribution and sparked a rush to the library for more reading. Throughout the day, some lucky boys found golden tickets tucked inside their exercise books (celebration ensued!), which could be exchanged for a Dahl book all of their own.

Lunchtime brought quizzes, Mrs Twit’s bird pie, Matilda’s chocolate cake, and a reading marathon in the library. We never knew we had such dramatically inclined teachers! Boys were enrapt by the super - and often rib-tickling - reading that stretched across the whole lunch break. Many boys also posted their own neologisms in the library post box; we can’t wait to read all their newly invented words!

To finish in raucous rebellion as Roald would surely want, we enjoyed a lively Matilda sing-a-long in the gym. Dancing, laughing, and belting our way through ‘Revolting Children’ seemed an appropriately fizzwhizzing end to a brilliantly fun day.

6th February 2020 — At the start of the Hilary term, the boys at Northcote Lodge were delighted to find a wonderful surprise awaiting them on their return to school: a brand-new Computing and Digital Learning space. The suite is a beautifully designed space with wooden floors and desks with plenty of charging stations and large, comfy rugs. It boasts 18 iMACs, seamlessly linked with the boys' iPADs, and digital learning activities; a large display with an Apple TV for boys to screen mirror; a full set of Bluetooth headphones, and good ethernet and Wi-Fi connectivity. More equipment, including robots and green screens, is arriving soon.

The open plan digital learning space is not only loved by all for its looks but is appreciated for providing enhanced user experiences, facilitating a variety of learning styles and accommodating flexible areas of Computing and Digital Learning such as Digital Literacy, Computer Science & Robotics, Digital Design & Media. The boys' input at the planning stage was critical to the creation of a functional space. They are proud of the achievement and taking great care of the equipment.

A group of Digital Leaders and tech enthusiasts across all year groups devoted some of their break time to set up and test the new equipment. With the help of regular IT Help Desk support in the new room, boys also enjoy interacting with and learning from the school's IT technicians.

3rd February 2020 — Each year the boys of Northcote Lodge vote for their Charity of the Year alongside alongside NAEF, the charity supported by the Northwood Schools' group as a whole. Along with the community of staff and parents, boys raise funds and support these charities throughout the academic year.

in 2019/20, the Northcote Lodge Charity of the Year is The Felix Project, a London based charitable organisation whose purpose is to reduce food waste and hunger.

Isabella White from the Felix Project visited Northcote Lodge recently to deliver an assembly about the work they do to reduce food poverty in London, helped by their invaluable volunteers. She shared some terrifying statistics on the amount of food waste in the UK and London and on the number of hungry and malnourished families there are around us. We were saddened to hear that there are so many young children going to school hungry: 400,000 children in London are at risk of missing the next meal. Two million tonnes of good, edible food surplus is generated every year by the food industry in this country and the Felix Project collects fresh, nutritious food that cannot be sold. and delivers this surplus food to charities and schools so they can provide healthy meals and help the most vulnerable in society. The boys learned that every £1 we raise will go towards providing 2.5 meals.

Leading by example, Headmaster Clive Smith-Langridge, offered his services for the day, working as a delivery driver collecting food from supermarkets and taking it to various schools in North London. Afterwards, Clive went back to the depot to help with sorting food. Clive described the experience as both humbling and enriching - and also quite an insight into how delivery drivers are treated by some people!

Whilst boys are not able to volunteer in quite the same way, the school will be doing all it can to show them the impact they can make and the great work of the charity.

23rd January 2020 — Rayhaan Kufuor, a Shell boy (Year 4) at Northcote Lodge, was lucky enough to be one of the four young actors who played Tiny Tim in the Old Vic's recent production of ‘A Christmas Carol’, which played to packed audiences over the Christmas period.

Rayhaan and his fellow Tims took turns performing the role and enjoyed the experience enormously. When asked what he had liked most, he said: “I have loved meeting all the actors and I was really excited for the audience to see all the ghosts, as that’s my favourite part of the play!”

We wish Rayhaan every success in any future thespian activities and look forward to seeing him in one of Northcote's own productions soon. We shouldn't have too long to wait as drama is an important part of the Northcote Lodge curriculum and boys perform in at least one major performance a year.

Congratulations Rayhaan!