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Friday 5 June 2020 |
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As we begin to welcome back our students into Junior School, it has been fantastic to see their smiling faces filling up our classrooms once more. Although it has been great to open our doors to some of our younger students, Guided Home Learning (GHL) is still ongoing and it is great to see the superb work being completed by our students and hearing of their general experiences of life in lockdown; examples of which you will see during this article and throughout the newsletter. As GHL continues, we have asked our students for their feedback and thoughts on how it is working for them, what they have got out of the experience, and more; we are delighted to share with you some of the responses we have received from both students at home, and the thoughts of our Junior students who have come back to school this week, alongside the comments of some of our members of staff. We look forward to sharing more feedback over the coming weeks in School News and on social media. |
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Junior School GHL I felt like I was becoming more responsible for getting on with my work independently. GHL has been very good; there was always something to do and there were plenty of extra challenges. GHL was good because we were able to choose when we started and finished work each day. I liked GHL because my family were able to help me with my work. It was like having two teachers! I like GHL because we could choose what order we did our work in. |
In School It is so lovely seeing my friends again in school. Being at school helps me to concentrate more. I like being back at school because there are so many people who can help me. I like the structure to our day that we get at school. Back at school we have learnt how to socially distance when playing sports! |
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Senior School I love the feeling of responsibility – in a strange way, I think that GHL has helped me prepare for Sixth Form better than I would have usually. It has been nice that we can still keep in touch with the teachers. I have realised as a student how self-motivated I am, especially during these times. I have really enjoyed doing creative and practical work even though we are at home. I’ve been able to spend more time with my family at home, and have been able to get on top of things I previously ‘never had the time’ to do. |
My time during lockdown has made me appreciate my family and what they do for me more! I don’t know what I could do without them! My time in lockdown was quite good as I was always able to find something new and fun to do after my lessons and I really enjoyed learning new things. I’ve been working on my art – it’s been a while since I’ve had enough spare time to draw, but now I’m drawing nearly everyday. I have learnt to make small little teddies in my textile lessons; we have been making monster teddies and now we will be starting fashion! I’m very excited! Sign language has been my new skill. I’m working at it quite slowly but really enjoying it! |
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Guided Home Learning update |
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As Guided Home Learning has developed it seems that we, as teachers and parents, have been on nearly as steep a learning curve as the pupils themselves! For the younger girls in Senior School in particular, the concept of how long a piece of work might last has a huge range of possibilities. Factors that play a part are differing home situations and the way individual teachers have approached the subject matter, not to mention the diverse learning styles of each and every pupil. To help even out some of the bumps, our new approach to Guided Home Learning in Key Stage 3 has reduced lesson times and increased teacher visibility in live learning settings such as video calls, while encouraging an enrichment-based approach to allow pupils who are working faster to broaden their educational experiences. Initial feedback has been positive from girls and parents and guardians, and our approach to monitoring attendance has paid dividends, ensuring work can be taken in efficiently and feedback given promptly. We are confident that the process will become even better in the coming weeks and we are listening carefully to everyone involved as we build up our bank of knowledge and skills as an educational community. Mr Rickman |
Students take part in Inspiring Change Makers Online Summit |
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We were delighted that so many of our students were involved in the recent Inspiring Change Makers Online Summit on Thursday 21 May. We hope your daughter finished the day feeling educated, inspired and empowered. We were delighted that so many parents and family members engaged in the day too. Much of the video content is still available for you and your daughter to view on the Inspiring Change Makers website. With over 40 videos, there is plenty of content you could enjoy, perhaps over a lunch break or at the end of the school day. |
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Natasha Tiwari, one of our speakers, kindly provided a talk specifically for parents. The details are as follows: Empowering your Daughter: Creating a Mental Defence against Depression, Anxiety, Eating Disorders and Addictions In this innovative talk, Natasha Tiwari shares how, as parents, we can secure a foundation of robust mental health, thus creating a sense of immunity for one’s child against threats to his or her mental health. Natasha gives actionable insights from an unique mental health framework on how to empower a child with mindsets and thought patterns, also providing practical advice on what to do if a child is already suffering from challenges to her mental well-being. To view Natasha’s video visit: https://youtu.be/I4gXaZbM-uc Mrs Wilmot |
Northampton High Sport |
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It’s been wonderful teaching PE to U3 and L4 this week. The engagement of the pupils has been fantastic and they have enjoyed the mini tasks and aerobics warm ups. We focused on practicing the wrong sprinting technique to learn about intrinsic feedback and kineasthetic learning. We found that running with your arms folded, behind your back or above your head, causes you to lose balance and inhibits your sprinting. Also you don’t get very far or move very fast when running on your heels! By looking at how not to sprint, the girls have worked out how best to sprint and developed their knowledge of the correct sprinting technique. They also engaged with the feelings of performing a skill incorrectly and noticed that even small changes or adaptations to the technique can really improve the execution of a skill. Here are some examples of the pupils work:
Next week, we will be learning about visual and verbal guidance whilst developing our ‘crouch starts’. I also had the pleasure of delivering my first live workout for the Sixth Form on Thursday afternoon. We did a 25 minute HIIT session with 3 rounds of 5 exercises. It was certainly tough on the legs!! Thank you so much to the girls who participated and I hope we see more of you next week.
As you will know, today we should have been hosting one of the most anticipated events in the school calendar – Sports Day! For obvious reasons this has not been possible this year, but we didn’t want to let the year pass without holding an event of some kind. So, as you will see below, we are delighted to bring you our first ever Virtual Sports Day! We are really excited to host this unprecedented event, and look forward to sharing more details with you next week. Mrs Blake |
Virtual Sports Day 2020 |
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Students host charity House Quiz to raise money for Black Lives Matter movement |
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On Thursday afternoon, each House hosted a quiz on Zoom, organised not only to get together with other girls from the House but also to raise money for Black Lives Matter, a movement which has been reignited by the death of George Floyd in the USA. Each House has provided a link to donate to this cause, and to online petitions. We realise the incredibly fortunate position that we are all in and therefore we wanted to give back to others. The quiz was a huge success, and we hope we can repeat it again before the summer term ends, getting even more girls together! |
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We are planning to arrange as many House events as we can before the end of this school year – despite the current circumstances – to continue the strong House spirit at the High School. Anna G, 6.1 |
Fireside Talk with Philip Pullman |
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We are delighted to offer our students the opportunity to participate in a unique event hosted by the University of Buckingham – a fireside chat with writer, Philip Pullman. This event takes place between 6-7pm on Wednesday 10 June, and if any students would like to tune in, all they have to do is click on the link below. If you would like to submit questions, University of Buckingham’s Vice-Chancellor, Sir Anthony Seldon, will pose them to Philip Pullman and will also mention the school and the first name of the student. The University is expecting an audience of at least 5,000! |
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The University of Buckingham organises many exciting events. If you would like to learn more about this full series of summer term talks, please do let me know. Mrs Cantwell |
Creative Arts Spotlight |
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As Guided Home Learning continues this term, we are delighted to bring you more and more fantastic submissions from our students in the world of Art. The level of work being produced during these unprecedented times is outstanding, and we love being able to share new pieces of work with you each week. The first gallery below features work from Ava in U4, who produced these wonderful pencil drawings just before the half term break: |
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The next submission is a beautiful drawing from Sahitya in L4. In this piece, Sahitya has drawn a dew droplet on a leaf and has captured the likeness perfectly – she has worked really hard since lockdown began and has been really committed.
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Sonia in U3 is our next featured artist, and we are delighted to share a range of different types of work submitted, including a super nature collage, some drawings and a lovely poem decorated with an attractive border. |
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Ashmita in U4 is up next, who has been working on these lovely studies with sensitive use of media – well done Ashmita!
And last but by no means least we have this superb work in progress piece by Abigail in U3. Abigail has been working on the still life task, and is progressing well with this drawing of fruit.
Thank you to all of our wonderful students for these amazing submissions. We love sharing these with you every week and look forward to showing you more examples of Guided Home Learning next week. As always, you can view full size versions of the artwork featured in School News by clicking here. Mrs Beacroft |
Sew-along - an update! |
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A group of 15 people signed up to join our weekly summer Sew-along sessions, featuring a healthy mix of Junior and Senior School students, parents and staff. Our first session was a huge success, and we look forward to sharing our progress with you over the coming weeks. Miss Lycett
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L4 design Canopic Jars |
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L4 have been continuing their studying of the Egyptian Gods by researching and designing Canopic Jars. We have been very pleased to see the creativity and detail of their work, and are delighted to share these images with you. Miss Monks |
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Northampton High School |
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