Nothampton High School
High News

Friday 19 November 2021

This blog has been written by the Northampton High School Current Affairs Team at the culmination of COP26 to express our thoughts on its achievements and the likelihood of its success.

COP26 For Dummies (What is it and why is it so important?)

COP stands for Conference of the Parties and they are the governing body of an international agreement; in this case, in the context of the global response to climate change. Other COP’s exist, such as for the Convention on Biological Diversity, another issue of huge environmental importance.

COP26, hosted by the UK in Glasgow this month, has been seen as incredibly important, as countries have been asked to produce their plans to cut carbon emissions by 2030, in order to keep global warming below the 2 degree threshold; this threshold has been identified by scientists as representing more dangerous, potentially runaway, climate change.

In the run up to the conference, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is the UN body responsible for assessing the most reliable science related to climate change, released its sixth impact report, highlighting the urgency of taking immediate action; a press release summarising their findings can be found here.

To read the full blog entry, please click here.

Mr Earp
Head of Humanities Faculty

The week ahead

Monday 22 November
Senior School Assembly
2040 Film Screening
Fixtures: Hockey U15 vs Akeley Wood
Clubs (click here for timetable)

Tuesday 23 November
Fixtures: Hockey U12 vs Akeley Wood
Clubs (click here for timetable)

Wednesday 24 November
Fixtures: Hockey U11 vs MK Prep
Clubs (click here for timetable)

Thursday 25 November
Fixtures: Hockey 1st XI vs Stowe
Year 7 Parents’ Evening (Virtual)
Clubs (click here for timetable)

Friday 26 November
Senior School Assembly
Economics in Action Conference
Fixtures: Hockey U8 & 9 vs Bedford Modern
Clubs (click here for timetable)

Head's Commendations: Friday 19 November


Varnikaa 10S: Varnikaa is helping out at Classics Club, but also randomly appeared throughout Open Morning and, given she only joined in Year 8 and did fast-track Latin, did an absolutely sterling job in ‘selling’ the department and school to parents.

Evie 8H: I’d like to nominate Evie for her kindness and support for two new members of Year 8. She is helpful and positive and doesn’t hesitate to put others before herself, giving up her time to help them find their feet and moving her seating in the class to be near them.

Mahi 12D: Mahi is helping with both Greek Cub and Classics Club in her spare time, and has been to speak to Year 11 about studying Classics at A Level.

Ogohgoh 11N: Ogohgoh wrote a scene for the group’s devised performance that was extremely well researched and included verbatim aspects. The script was a really important step, as her group had hit a barrier and were struggling to create. This gave them all a new focused energy and enthusiasm for their idea. Amazing work and a fantastic team player.

Yilin 4N: Yilin has been working very hard and has learnt all her lines for the school assembly.

Esther 10S: Esther is nominated based on how helpful she is to staff. For example, this week she wrote a profile on GCSE options for the school to use and she also planned my tutor time with a lovely quiz, which I will share with the rest of the tutor team.

Year 10 Drama students visit Leicester Curve theatre

On Tuesday 9 November, our Year 10 Drama students visited the Leicester Curve theatre to watch ‘Who Cares’ by LUNG theatre.

The students were given the chance to understand the world of young carers through a dynamic and immersive verbatim performance. It was amazing to be back at the theatre and we are looking forward to the next show!

Mrs Marriott
Subject Leader Drama

Cathy Walker visits Year 12 Enterprise Team

The Year 12 Enterprise Elective is well underway!

The Year 12 Enterprise group students have been working really hard on developing their idea for a sustainable business and they were delighted to welcome Cathy Walker, Head of Education Development, from Trust HQ who was visiting to view their progress as part of the GDST LEAD Initiative. Cathy gave the girls some fantastic advice on making the best use of their network and boosting their presence on social media.

The girls are planning a big launch for their social enterprise in the next couple of weeks so I don’t want to steal their thunder….but the picture is a little teaser. They will be raising funds for a fantastic local charity ‘Baby Basics’, so watch this space for updates over the coming weeks.

Mrs Tansley
Subject Leader Economics & Business Studies

High Sports

U12 Netball: On 8 November we played a home match against Quinton House. Our team consisted of a mixture of players from the A team and B team and, even though we hadn’t played with each other a lot, we worked productively as a team.

We played really well and managed to bring home the first win of this year! Our Player of the Match was Lyra (chosen by the opposition) for her great work in defence, but we all played fantastically. We used a lot of space around the pitch allowing us to make long crosses into the box and we had lots of shots at goal. 

Luckily, Faith managed to finish one of the amazing passes made by Ava in the middle of the second half, securing our win. The whole team played really well and were very spatially aware and we definitely deserved the victory! Lyra

U15 Hockey: We played some tough teams in our pool at the GDST Rally in Croydon including Sheffield, Oxford, and Wimbledon. We scored 4 goals in total; 2 were scored by Emma, 1 by Jess, and 1 by Hattie. We drew against all the teams but sadly we didn’t qualify for the next round. Well done to all the team as we played our best matches at the rally. Hattie and Grace

U14 Hockey: The U14 team displayed excellent teamwork and resilience against a strong Princethorpe team who have achieved success in national competitions this season. Last week’s training focused on defending short corners and Northampton showed great progress in this area. Despite conceding short corners well into the double figures, we battled hard not to concede any goals! Each player tried their very hardest and never gave up. The final result was a win for Princethorpe.

U13 Hockey: On Saturday 13 November we played against Princethorpe College. Unfortunately, we lost, with the score ending 3-1, but that didn’t matter as we tried our best. It was a challenging match, but that was what made it fun. Izzy got Player of the Match due to her great skills which helped us score our goal. Tobi

U12 Hockey: On Saturday we played our first home match, against Princethorpe.  We started well with some good passing, but unfortunately, a well-taken goal from our opposition meant we went 1-0 down.  We didn’t give up and our great teamwork resulted in a lovely goal from Eleanor, so at halftime, it was 1-1.  We kept battling and Natalie made some excellent saves to keep us in the game, but a lucky 2nd goal from them resulted in a 2-1 loss for us.  Lily got a well-deserved Player of the Match award; every game we are improving as a team and we will keep working hard to achieve our first win.

U15 Hockey: Well done to the U15A hockey squad who played Kimbolton School on Tuesday. Sadly we lost 3-2 but it was a tough match and we came back in the second half with goals scored by Anna and Emma. There were some great moments played in the game leading up to both goals. This match has helped us take away the things we need to improve and will make us stronger for the next match. Well done to everyone who played. Grace

Sporting Successes: Evie F was selected over the summer for Loughborough Lightning U15 Netball Academy, which is fantastic, and notably she was the youngest selected. More recently, Evie has also been successful in gaining a place in U15 County Netball. Again, a fantastic achievement as she had originally been nominated for the U13 trials but was asked to move up an age group and was 1 of 16 girls to be selected.

Mrs Littlewood
Acting Director of Sport

Creative Arts Spotlight

This week, the Creative Arts Spotlight shines on to Year 7.

This term, Year 7 have been very busy learning to play the ukulele. In just three weeks, students in 7M have learned to play five chords by reading chord boxes, and several different strumming patterns. They have accompanied themselves while singing to songs from a variety of genres including Frere Jaques, Don’t Worry Be Happy, and The Cup Song. The next challenge is to learn to read TAB to play melodies.

Hopefully, by Christmas, they will be able to perform Silent Night and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer as part of a class ensemble with accompanying chords.

Well done everyone!

Miss Smith
Music Teacher

Book of the Week

Game On: The Unstoppable Rise of Women’s Sport by Sue Anstiss 

Sport has an extraordinary, unique capacity to challenge and change society – to bring joy and hope; to improve physical and mental health, reduce loneliness and build self-esteem and happiness. It’s also a multi-billion-pound commercial industry that can transform lives, businesses, nations and regions. Why has half the population been deprived of access to something so culturally powerful?

In recent years, the landscape for women’s sport has finally begun to shift.

We’ve seen significant increases in investment, spectators and media coverage. More women are professional athletes and taking influential roles as board directors, editors, officials and CEOs. Yet still, female athletes don’t get equal funding or opportunities. In many sports, women receive less prize money, lower sponsorship revenues and a tiny fraction of the media coverage.

Drawing on her own experiences, and interviews with high profile Olympic and Paralympic champions, broadcasters, journalists, sports scientists, CEOs, officials and sponsors, Sue Anstiss investigates why women have been excluded from the world of sport for centuries – and why we are now witnessing positive change as never before.

Game On is a celebration of the trailblazing women opening doors for others and a manifesto for women’s sport – a rallying cry to ensure the progress we are currently seeing goes from strength to strength.

Remember, you can reserve all books from the Library via the Oliver link on the Firefly dashboard or email me directly at a.buxton@nhs.gdst.net. You can also find our school online book shop by clicking here.

Miss Buxton
School Librarian

Raise Her Up – Starting Career Conversations

Many young people don’t know what they want to do for a career, and parents are often the ones to initiate conversations around this; parents who themselves come from a very different work experience, and bring their own anxieties about an uncertain future to the table.

The work landscape has changed, and the pandemic has left us with a weakened economy, and the prospect of some tough times to come. Covid has also accelerated some changes that were already emerging in the workplace: flexible working; digital nomads; and the concept of having the same job for life feeling increasingly outdated.

As we frequently tell our students at the GDST, we need to help prepare them for jobs that don’t even necessarily exist yet, through developing transferable skills that will serve them well regardless of the career direction they take.

In this week’s episode of the GDST #RaiseHerUp podcast, we speak to Erica Sosna, a GDST alumna and careers consultant for several large firms, the author of the recently published book ‘The Career Equation’, a 2 x TEDx Speaker and an authority on the subject of careers and the future of work.

In this discussion, Erica offers some context and practical guidance for adults and young people alike on how to think about careers in a way to leave you feeling empowered, motivated, and reassured.

Find the episode here, or download from wherever you get your podcasts.

Mr Nash
Marketing & Communications Officer

Christmas Concert

Flu Vaccination consent

On Wednesday at 4pm, parents of students in Reception class to Year 11 will have received a letter regarding the annual flu vaccination.

Can I please remind parents that you only have 72 hours from the receipt of that letter to register your consent? All the details regarding how to accept are in the letter, and we, unfortunately, cannot accept consent any other way.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Mrs Dunkley
School Nurse

Term Dates 21/22

Term Dates 22/23

Northampton High School
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