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Friday 15 January 2021 |
Guided Home Learning In Action |
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Junior School Achievements |
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We are delighted to share with you some recent achievements from our Junior School students: Jemima S: ISTD Primary Imperial Classical Ballet – Distinction, ISTD Grade 1 Modern Theatre Dance – Distinction, ISTD Grade 1 Tap – Distinction, Gold Medal – Best Junior Musical Theatre Vocalist in a national competition in the Under 12 category, Bronze Medal – Musical Theatre Solo Voice in a national competition. Phoebe S: ISTD Grade 2 Imperial Classical Ballet – Distinction, First Place in the LAR Performing Arts Music & Drama Festival for Musical Theatre Vocal. Well done girls!
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This week in Nursery... |
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In Nursery, we have been looking at the weather and observing the changes it has brought. We have caught snowflakes and noticed their pretty patterns and shapes. The girls have been intrigued with frozen pots of water and paint in the garden! Needless to say, we have been treated to lots of ‘Anna and Elsa’ songs! We have been thinking about what we need to do to keep warm outside…putting on and zipping up our coats, gloves and scarves. We have been exploring different textures to paint with and found that Christmas tree branches make very good paintbrushes. At home, the girls could practice their cutting skills by snipping at paper to make their own snowflakes. Also, it would be really useful for them to practice putting on and taking off their coats, shoes, wellies and gloves. |
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This week in Pre School... |
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This week in Pre School the girls have been busy sharing stories with us about their experiences of Christmas. We have been participating in a range of different experiences. They have learnt about the season of winter through different provocations and activities. An activity included a range of resources to create their own snow person; the girls created wonderful pictures thinking critically about how they were going to do this. This proved to be an activity popular with the girls. The story this week was ‘Owl Winter Rescue’. The story brought many conversations about how the ice smelt; this was brought to life by doing an experiment to create our own ice, which involved water turning to ice to coincide with what happened in the book, and to develop the girls’ understanding. The girls came to the conclusion that the ice smelt like ice! |
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Some quotes from the girls: ‘I loved making a snowman, using the ribbon to make an Elsa plait’ – Emily. ‘The ice was soooo cold’ – Bonetta. Next week we will be continuing to explore winter with provocations and activities; to extend this when at home or in the garden you could discuss with your daughter about the different weather changes. |
Reception think about materials in Science, and enjoy Art with Year 1 and Year 2 students! |
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Reception recreate 'Three Little Pigs' with wonderful art and stick puppets! |
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Reception class has been busy doing lots of activities linked to the traditional tale ‘The Three Little Pigs’. Students have made stick puppets for a story re-tell, sequenced the story and added captions, made a variety of houses for the three little pigs and described the wolf character. We are delighted with the results and would like to share some with you here: |
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Years 3 and 4 learn a Bollywood dance in PE! |
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Happy Birthday Lily! |
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Today in Year 3, we were delighted to wish a very Happy Birthday to student Lily! The Catering team in school surprised her with a lovely Lockdown birthday cake, which Lily was able to enjoy with her friends in school. Happy Birthday, Lily! |
This week in Year 6... |
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Year 6 have made a fantastic start to the Spring Term and it has been uplifting to see them all responding so well to Guided Home Learning, via Microsoft Teams. Despite its challenges, ‘Lockdown’ has enabled our girls to showcase their amazing strength, determination, and resilience to make the best of every opportunity they have, and we are proud of them all.
This week we have enjoyed exploring the fascinating world of dinosaurs, evolution and inheritance, the changing role of women from the Ancient to Renaissance era, designing cars powered by elastic bands and studying the inspirational artist Chila Kumari Singh Burman. Wishing you a good weekend. Mrs Fordham and Miss Taylor |
School community raises over £8,000 to support Pancreatic Cancer UK! |
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As you will remember, during the month of November, the Northampton High School community came together to raise vital money for charity Pancreatic Cancer UK in support of Mr Bailey. Throughout the month, which was Pancreatic Cancer awareness month, our staff and students undertook a host of exciting activities and challenges as part of the charity’s ‘Challenge 24’ initiative. We saw people run for 24 minutes every day, make and sell 24 jars of homemade preserve, face masks and sweetie bags, and lots more.
Culminating with our ‘Purple Day’ at the end of the month, a day when the school turned purple as the tasks and challenges continued, we were overwhelmed by the fantastic efforts of both staff and students, and the support from our wider community. This week, we were delighted to receive our thank you certificates from the charity. Proudly displayed by Cordelia and Lydia here, who both did fantastic jobs of raising money with their Challenge 24 activities, our fundraising total stands at a whopping £8,144 for Pancreatic Cancer UK, which eclipses our original goal of £1,000 by some distance! Thank you so much again to all who took part in Challenge 24 activities and to those who donated, helping us raise money for this amazing cause. Mrs Wilmot |
Guided Home Learning in Senior School |
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With Guided Home Learning underway once again this week, staff and students are using a plethora of exciting software and technology to gain the best learning experience possible, and we are delighted to share a couple of examples of how this has been put in to action below. http://whiteboard.fi is a resource which has been embraced by students, and the below picture (left) demonstrated work completed by students in a 6.1 Geography class. These graphs were created in just a few minutes, and involved discussion with the class teacher and peers in between.
On Thursday, the U5 German class started their lesson collaborating on the above (right) Jamboard (an interactive whiteboard we can all work on together) and showed excellent knowledge of question words and strategies for tackling reading and listening comprehension activities. We look forward to sharing more exciting examples of Guided Home Learning over the coming weeks. Mr Nash |
Fantasy Stock Market Trading |
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At the end of last term, the 6.1 Business and Economics students were given £1000 each to invest in FTSE100 shares on the stock market. Unfortunately, this wasn’t ‘real’ money (the Department budget doesn’t run to that!) but the girls spent a little bit of lesson time picking their investments. Different methods of selection were used: perhaps a firm the students had read about, perhaps one of their grown ups’ employers, perhaps a completely random selection using a pin! The students used their broader knowledge of the business environment to select a range of companies for investment including Tesco, SSE, Astra Zeneca, Just |
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Eat and Barclays. We have been monitoring the share prices and portfolios and we are pleased to announce that the best performing portfolios belong to Isabelle K (Business) and Grace S (Economics), each making a 17% return on their investment as a result of their astute purchase of Just Eat shares! Well done girls! Mrs Tansley |
Students' articles featured on The Avant Guard website |
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We are so proud of our students who are involved in The Avant Guard. Avant Guard provides news for the entrepreneurs and creative artists of the future, without political, religious or social bias, with articles written by students all across the world. One of the fantastic articles featured has been penned by our Sixth Former, Sophie, and is titled ‘The Downfall of the Toyshop, Where to Next?’ which you can read here. Mr Nash |
Senior school clubs and activities - the cocurricular programme |
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Northampton High School prides itself on developing the whole person, through 360 degrees. This means we try to get to know our pupils for who they are and what they want to go on to achieve. In normal times, our cocurricular programme is one of the keys to enabling students to find their passions and to develop as individuals. Our programme is always hugely varied, encompassing sport, music and the arts, as well as academic enrichment, and a great range of associated interests and activities, from debating to board games clubs. We see no reason why working from home should prevent us from developing just as varied and compelling a range of opportunities for students. From next week, we are pleased to announce that our senior school online cocurriucular programme will be expanding. Clubs and activities will generally take place during the school day in the ‘radically enhanced curriculum’ (REC) period at lunch, as they would in normal circumstances. However, there may be some activities taking place before and after school. Most clubs will be available to a range of year groups, as bubble restrictions do not apply to virtual events. However, some may be restricted to certain year groups because of the content or skills required to be involved. Sixth Form students will be involved in supporting the younger pupils, with a teacher present, and we will aim to include pupils from the junior school where this is appropriate and timing allows. The list below should give an idea of the wider activities that will be running, in no particular order, and does not include the many academic support clinics that will run at both GCSE and A Level as normal. Sports and music clubs are also available too, of course. We will send students the full list and instructions about how to sign up next week. More opportunities will become available as the year goes on and will be published to the students as required. Mr Rickman |
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National Theatre New Views Current Affairs club Modern Languages clubs for younger students Public Speaking club Debating club Backchat Magazine GameDev.club – Coding Whacky games club Photography club |
Anime and manga club Cafetería Zaragoza ‘Ad Break’ bakes Motivation club Book clubs Spanish poetry appreciation Knit and (K)natter L5 online science magazine |
Book Review |
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Echo Mountain by Lauren Wolk 1933. When Ellie and her family lose everything, they flee to Echo Mountain to build a new life. Ellie runs wild, exploring the mountain’s mysteries. But the one she can’t solve is who’s leaving the gifts for her: tiny, beautiful wooden carvings of animals and flowers, dotted around the mountain for her to find. Then Ellie’s father has a terrible accident. Now he lies in a coma, while Ellie shoulders the blame for what happened. When she sets out to find a cure for him, she discovers Cate, the outcast witch, and Larkin, a wild mountain boy. From them she learns about being a healer, being brave – and about how there can be much more to a person than first meets the eye. Miss Buxton |
Betty turns 3! |
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We had a very special birthday to celebrate at Northampton High on Thursday, as our amazing school dog Betty turns 3! We were delighted to welcome Betty into our community during Easter 2018, and she has had a wonderful impact on students and staff alike! It has been amazing watching her grow each day, and we all hope she has a wonderful birthday! Happy Birthday Betty! To celebrate, why don’t we look back on the time Betty met BBC Radio Northampton! Click here to read more. Mr Nash |
Online Safety |
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I am pleased to share this copy of #Ditto which is an online safety publication developed by Northamptonshire’s Online Safety Advisor, Alan McKenzie. It is aimed at school staff and parents, and during this period of Guided Home Learning, I hope it will give some useful hints and tips to keep your children safe. If you have any questions or concerns about online safety and school systems, please get in touch (a.odoherty@nhs.gdst.net). Mrs O’Doherty |
Term Dates 20/21 |
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Term Dates 21/22 |
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Northampton High School |
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