|
|
Alumnae News – May 2023 |
|
Dear Old Girls and Associates, It is my pleasure to welcome you to the 2023 edition of our Alumnae Newsletter. It has been another successful year at Northampton High with excellent A Level and GCSE results as well as an ever-increasing range of extracurricular activities and opportunities for our girls to develop their skills or discover new interests – and to become changemakers and the leaders of the future. At Northampton High, we have been pioneering girls’ education since 1878 and we are excited to celebrate our 145th birthday this year, a milestone in our long and established heritage as experts in girls’ education in the region. Our school mantra, ‘we believe in our girls, and they believe in themselves’ is burning brightly – and we will continue to strive hard to put every Northampton High girl at the heart of our promises and to equip her with the self-belief and skills to realise her potential and go on to lead a life without limits. We are very confident that with the School Leadership Team now firmly in place, we will continue to deliver high-quality teaching, unrivalled opportunities and nurturing care to all our pupils, supporting every one of our girls to be the best they can be. Looking back through early versions of the OGA newsletter, Northampton High has always provided its pupils with many appropriate and varied opportunities for enrichment and very importantly, encouraged them to seize these opportunities so as to ensure they develop the intellectual characteristics that we particularly prize, namely collaboration, curiosity, independence, perseverance and risk-taking.
Of course, opportunities do not stop when a girl leaves Northampton High and I was honoured to have Professor Sasha Roseneil, Northampton High School alumna and finalist for the GDST’s 2022 Alumna of the Year Award, for the first 2023 series of In Conversation With…events, organised by the GDST Alumnae team. Professor Roseneil was appointed the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sussex last year becoming Sussex’s ninth Vice-Chancellor and the university’s first female Vice-Chancellor – and she is a true advocate for inclusivity and equality and an inspirational role model for all of our pupils. It was a real privilege talking with Professor Roseneil and reminiscing about her time at Northampton High and the role the school played in nurturing her interest in research and academia. Hearing from our alumnae and finding out about all that they have achieved is without doubt one of the greatest joys of my job. I would like to take the opportunity to thank all those alumnae who have offered me support over the course of my first year as Head at Northampton High School. The alumnae network encourages lifelong connections between Old Girls, the current school community and past parents and staff – forming a truly inclusive, mutually beneficial and rewarding Northampton High community. This connection can take the form of networking opportunities, social events and active involvement in the future development of our School. You, our alumnae, form an important part of the Northampton High family. We enjoy meeting you, hearing your news as well as your memories of the past. We continue to develop our alumnae programme and hope that we will have the pleasure of hearing from you, or even better seeing you in the year ahead, especially the very important Alumnae Reunion Lunch on Saturday 8 July at 12:30pm – a warm welcome awaits you in Northampton High. I hope you enjoy the Newsletter and I look forward to seeing or hearing from you in the near future. Do follow us on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, to see more of what is going on in school. My best wishes to you all. Yours sincerely, Dr May Lee |
Join us for our summer Alumnae Reunion Lunch |
|
The annual Northampton High Reunion Lunch is a highlight of any year, when alumnae from both the Derngate and Hardingstone school sites get together for a delicious two-course meal and catch up with friends old and new. As in previous years, the Lunch will take place on Saturday 8 July 2023 from 12.30pm to 3pm in the Dining Room at the School’s Hardingstone site (please enter via the Junior School entrance from 12noon). Ticket prices have been set at £15.90 (£15 ticket cost plus processing fee of 75p (5%) and booking fee of 15p per person). The increase in price reflects the increased costs involved with the catering; we trust that this still offers excellent value. To book tickets online, please click here. Alternatively, please send a cheque payable to Old Girls and Associates of NHS with a self-addressed envelope to Alumnae Relations, Northampton High School GDST, Newport Pagnell Road, Hardingstone, Northampton NN4 6UU for the return of a ticket, as proof of purchase. For any queries, please contact alum@nhs.gdst.net. We look forward to seeing many of our alumnae community on Saturday 8 July 2023! |
'In Conversation With' - Alumna Professor Sasha Roseneil |
|
Dr Lee hosted a virtual In Conversation with event with Professor Sasha Roseneil, as mentioned in the Head’s foreword. Should you wish to watch this interesting and insightful interview, please click here. |
Calling all Old Girls! |
|
The committee is looking for new members to join our small team. We meet two or three times a year, mostly to plan the Old Girls’ Lunch; we then arrive early on the morning of the lunch to set up for the event. Anyone local who would like to become part of the team is very welcome, as some members of the committee have decided to step down after many years of service. We would love to hear from you. Please contact Alex Down by email a.down@nhs.gdst.net or by phone 01604 765765. Looking forward to hearing from you. |
Reconnecting |
|
It was wonderful to welcome Mrs Linda Mayne into school to meet with Dr May Lee in the spring term. Mrs Mayne, Headmistress for 18 years before retiring in 2007, saw many key events during her tenure, not least the development of the Hardingstone site and move from the Derngate buildings in 1992.
The school welcomed a visit from Dame Rt Hon Andrea Leadsom into school in March 2023, with Junior School pupils leading a tour of the building and members of the Sixth Form’s Student Senior Leadership Team hosting a Q&A session on parliamentary life. Over 300 guests were wowed by March’s Dance Festival with a show for all ages. This year’s showpiece event was themed ‘Through the decades’, and our students put on an amazing collaborative event that involved our youngest school students in Reception to Sixth Formers. |
|
|
|
The performance, expertly directed and choreographed by Mrs Blake and her team, certainly catered for all tastes. There really was something for everybody during the two-hour show, with dances from genres such as musical theatre, tap, Irish dance, Indian dance and classical ballet for the capacity crowd. We now look ahead to our Arts Season in the summer term, including the musical ‘Wizard of Oz’ and the Creative Arts Festival in June. It gives us such pleasure to be able to invite families into school again to share our students’ talents and achievements. After a long Covid-period of closure, it is so rewarding and heartening to engage with our wider school community more regularly. Lots to look forward to! To keep up to date with news in school, please click here and read our weekly editions of High News and Junior News here. |
Co-curricular programme |
|
Under the Reach banner, the school offers three scholarship strands. These are, Reach, for academic excellence, Flair for excellence in a specific field, such as sport, music, arts etc. and Spirit, for excellence in attributes and activities prized by the school, for example, environmental or community work. These Scholarships are to be awarded each year in a prestigious new Speech Day, which will serve as an end-of-year celebration of school life. This year’s Speech Day will be held on Wednesday 12 July, and families and guests will be invited to celebrate pupil achievement and successes. |
|
Existing Scholarships have now been incorporated into the new programme and have been (re)awarded in assemblies. The new Speech Day will celebrate the current year’s achievement and endeavour. Subject and character awards will be awarded by subject leaders and heads of year, while scholarships, assessment, High School, GDST and special awards for the current year will also be given. The focus has been changed to include younger pupils in the recognition of excellence and endeavour, to inspire and motivate. This year Mandy Hickson, a former Royal Air Force pilot, will be the guest speaker offering a unique approach to nurturing young people’s hopes and aspirations, encouraging students to achieve their dreams and ambitions. Another component of Reach programme is the Reach Lecture Series, which includes a striking array of topics for students in Year 9 to Year 13 to enjoy. Dr Lee’s initial talk on Elon Musk and mind control certainly set the tone for an inspirational term of lectures to come! |
Results and Destinations |
|
We were very pleased for students of both GCSE and A Level for their excellent achievements in the summer 2022 examinations. You can read more about the A Level and GCSE results, as well as last year’s university destinations in the Annual Review document, which also gives an insight to the faculty highlights over the past year. There were many individual stories of success: both superlative academic achievements, as well as triumphs over adversity in our most recent set of results. It is important to mention how impressive their achievements are in the light of the severe disruption to student learning on account of measures taken to limit the spread of COVID-19. |
Going digital for sustainability |
|
Northampton High has fostered a commitment to the environment for a number of years, which includes being an ‘Eco School’ and achieving the Green Flag Award from Keep Britain Tidy. The most recent addition to the trophy cabinet is the EduCCate Bronze Award, which has been designed to help build schools’ confidence and capacity to deliver high impact solution focused climate change education. Schools who undertake the EduCCate Global Awards program are committed to being a leader in their community, and to fueling climate action. What makes this even more impressive is that Northampton High are the first of the Girls’ Day School Trust’s (GDST) 25 schools to achieve this distinction, which Head, Dr May Lee, proudly explains, “We are so proud of our Eco Team’s hard work, raising eco-awareness amongst pupils and making our school more environmentally friendly. Being the very first GDST School to achieve the EduCCate Global Bronze Award shows that at Northampton High, we are bold and fearless in cultivating eco-champions and warriors to make a real difference. The award demonstrates our school’s commitment in empowering pupils to take control of sustainable action and develop the skills needed to steer our ever-changing society in a greener direction. Indeed, Mr Earp, who has ably led the Eco Team – comprising pupils aged 7 to 18 – should be justifiably proud of his great work – together, they are an inspiration and we feel heartened and positive about the future of our planet”. Northampton High School is ahead of the curve in addressing the climate change education challenge that was repeatedly echoed at and following COP26. For example, Larry Flanagan, General Secretary, Educational Institute of Scotland and President, ETUCE, European Region of Education International has said: “We have to ensure that the teachers have the knowledge they need to deliver effective climate education and not assume that that knowledge is there already… the world has moved on… we need to make sure teachers have the knowledge and then the professional development to take that knowledge into the pedagogical approaches in the classroom to engage young people in the classroom in”. The school is working towards GDST’s sustainability goals, and as such, looks to make changes in every area of school life, including replacing all lighting to low-energy LED alternatives, implementing Energy Switch Off Week, reducing use of paper and communications online where practicable. |
Can we meet online? |
|
In order to reduce reliance on paper and postage, we invite all members of our community to utilise email as a means of communication, where possible. If you have an email address you can share with us, please let us know via alum@nhs.gdst.net, providing your full name, any previous names, and years at Northampton High. This will help us to meet our sustainability goals while optimising our communications with you. |
|
Northampton High School |
|
