High News 23 November 2018

Monday 26 November
U4 Public Speaking Competition

Tuesday 27 November
Reading to Relax U4H
U5 Elevate Learning Workshop
Parent Presentation by Elevate Education

Wednesday 28 November
Reading to Relax U4S
Artemis ‘Copycats’ Charity Event
Cafe Sci Solar Eclipses Presentation
U5 Consultation Evening
Sixth Form Trip to The Great Gatsby

Thursday 29 November
School Production Rehearsals
U3 Parents’ Evening

Friday 30 November
GCSE Food Trip – Good Food Show
World AIDS Day Charity Event

Monday 26 November
Hockey – U14A vs Midlands Zonal Finals (A)
Hockey – U14A vs Wellingborough School (N)
Badminton – U16A vs Bedford Girls’ School (H)

Wednesday 28 November
Hockey Sevens – U11C vs Akeley Wood School (H)
Hockey Sevens – U11D vs Akeley Wood School (H)
Hockey Sevens – U12A vs Wellingborough School (A)
Hockey Sevens – U12B vs Wellingborough School (A)

Thursday 29 November
Hockey – 2nd XI vs Quinton House School (H)

Friday 30 November
Hockey Sevens – U11A vs GDST Sports Weekend (A)

The Deputy Leader of Northamptonshire County Council, Cecile Irving-Swift kindly gave up some of her valuable time on Monday afternoon to visit school.

Mrs Irving-Swift gave a talk to the Sixth Form Politics Elective before answering questions on a range of topics related to her experience of Politics. It was an inspirational and engaging talk, urging girls to get involved in their communities and local government. The girls then asked questions on council finance, Brexit and female representation in politics, receiving frank and fascinating answers in reply.

It is very much hoped that a group of girls will now visit a council meeting in the New Year as guests of Mrs Irving-Swift to witness local politics in action.

Mr Donaldson
Head of History

U4 have risen to a new challenge set by the Classics department this year: creating their own ‘open homework’ pieces inspired by their recent trip to Bath.

We have been very impressed with the students’ range of responses and the variety of media chosen, which cover film, speech, brochures, paintings, 3D models, short stories as well as iced biscuits and modelled cakes. The depth of their research and engagement with the Aquae Sulis topic has been very impressive.

Well done U4!

Miss Mason
Teacher of Classics

To view more photos from the project, please click here

On 21 October, U4 visited the baths and temple of Aquae Sulis in Bath as part of the Latin curriculum.

Going on this trip really brought to life what we had been learning in the classroom and upon arrival we had a talk from one of the specialists, who told us about some of the statues and translated the Latin inscriptions. In addition to this, we learnt about a few of the artifacts there, which included a strigil, which was used in the spa to scrape oil off the skin.

It was interesting to see some of the original roofing and the bronze head of the statue of Aquae Sulis, the Goddess of healing and sacred waters. My favourite part of the trip was walking around the great bath, standing where the Romans would have been around 1960 years ago and imagining what the spa would have been like. Overall we had a great trip and learnt so much about roman culture.

On behalf of all of U4, I would like to thank Miss Mason, Miss Balchin, Miss Monks and Mr Laubscher who made this trip possible.

Jess 
U4

At this week’s staff meeting, Air Ambulance presented a short piece on the work of the Air Ambulance and the Children’s Air Ambulance, specially equipped for paediatric patients. This is our staff charity this year and we are delighted to be able to support them.

Funding for the Air Ambulance is exclusively from donations like ours, and they recieve no government funding at all. £1800 is spent per mission, which equates to a whopping £3.4mil per year – with a total of 36,852 missions being undertaken since October 2003. Housed in Coventry, our local Air Ambulance team serves Warwickshire & Northamptonshire, and can reach  anywhere around the county in just 12 minutes at 185 miles per hour!

We are proud to be able to support this fantastic charity this academic year, nominated by our staff members and elected as the charity of choice for the current year.

Mrs Wilmot
Director of Marketing & Admissions 

On Friday 7 December at 7pm, we are delighted to host our 140^th Birthday Gala Concert at All Saints’ Church in the heart of Northampton. The concert is a collaboration between pupils and staff of Northampton High with The Orchestra of the Swan, an English professional chamber orchestra of international renown, based in Stratford-Upon-Avon. The Orchestra of the Swan is the Resident Orchestra at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and we have enjoyed a number of collaboration events with this ensemble at Northampton High in the past.

This event promises to be a magical musical celebration, hosted at All Saints’ Church, which was historically the spiritual home of the High School.  Northampton High girls and the Northampton High Community Chamber Choir will be performing alongside Concert Master and violinist, David Le Page, and Rebecca von Lipinski, making for an evening not to be missed!

Tickets are priced at £10 for adults and £5 for concessions (children and seniors) and are limited, so please secure your tickets as soon as you can. Tickets are not required for girls performing in the concert. To book your tickets, please go to: https://www.trybooking.co.uk/GUF

We look forward to spending the evening with you at this finale event of our 140th Birthday Year.

Mr Nash
Marketing and Communications Officer

On Sunday 21 October, five students accompanied by Mrs Hill and Dr Stringer set off for Budapest in Hungary to participate in a week of conferences for the ERASMUS+ Languages programme. Upon arrival, we each met up with a Hungarian family with whom we would be staying for the coming week. Though their English was quite good, we all nevertheless found ourselves trying to learn more about the language, surprised at how much you can pick up in such an immersive environment.

The first day, we met the Portuguese, Latvian, German and Hungarian students and teachers at the school, prior to setting out for the museum of the 1956 Revolution and a tour of the local town hall, followed by a traditional horse show and ride in a cart before a delicious dinner of schnitzel. Tuesday was a public holiday, so we spent the day with our host families touring Budapest – a city easily comparable to Paris in its beautiful architecture. This gave us the opportunity to discover more in relation to not only the language but also the culture, really bringing ourselves out of our comfort zones.

The next two days were taken up with conferences at the Hungarian school, having lectures about the digital world and interacting with other foreign students to widen our understanding of the workplace and skills needed, followed by evenings spent with our hosts. Also included in our busy programme was a hop-on – hop-off bus tour, a visit to a chocolate museum and a guided tour of their magnificent Parliament.

One of the highlights of the trip was our visit to Prezi HQ, where we discovered their innovative work environment and modern viewpoints. On the last evening, we attended a ball hosted by the school where we danced until after eleven. Needless to say, the five o’clock start the next day for our flight was not welcome!

On behalf of all the girls, I would like to thank Mrs Hill for arranging and orchestrating this amazing trip, as well as Mrs Wilmot and Dr Stringer for accompanying us. We cannot wait to share everything that we have learnt!

Ruby
U5

In the first week of October half term, 5 girls accompanied by Mrs Hill, Dr Stringer and Mrs Wilmot went to Budapest in order to launch our ERASMUS+ project.

The project involves four other schools in Europe and five students from each school attending the conference. The four schools we are partnered with are in Hungary, Latvia, Portugal and Germany, and we stayed with host families and had a chance to experience Hungarian culture and lifestyles. We arrived in Budapest on Sunday eager to meet our host families and departed to our temporary homes, settling in quickly. The following day we all met back at school and shared our stories of the previous night. As soon as everyone arrived we left for a day of sightseeing. First we went to the 1956 Museum and learnt about the events of the revolution, before exploring small towns in Budapest learning more about its history. The next day was a national holiday and we had the chance to spend the day with our host families.

On Wednesday the conference officially started. The theme of our two year project is “Creativity and Digital Competences for the World of Work in the 21st century”. The day started off with speeches by teachers and officials from Hungary and each school also gave a presentation about their school in either English or German. In the afternoon we had a talk from entrepreneurs about starting your own business and making a pitch. We went home contemplating what we had learnt in the past few hours. The conference continued the next day when employers and employees from Hungarian businesses spoke on a panel about the qualities needed for the world of work. Afterwards we spoke individually with the panelists, and got the chance to ask any questions we had.

On Thursday afternoon we went on a tour around Budapest visiting iconic landmarks such as the Citadella and Heroes Square. On the final day we went on a tour of Prezi HQ and spoke to an employee who told us his story and how he ended up moving from the US to Budapest. In the afternoon we went to the chocolate museum and toured around the beautiful Parliament building. On our final evening, all the Erasmus students were invited to a ball hosted by the Hungarian school. The ball was lovely and we really enjoyed dancing with all the others. The next day we left our homes early in the morning to catch our flight back. It was sad saying goodbye to our host families and all the other Erasmus students whom we got to know very well.

The trip was an amazing opportunity and all the girls really enjoyed it. We are looking forward to sharing with all the other Erasmus ambassadors what we learned on the trip and also the younger students we plan to work with. We are already planning the 2020 conference which we are looking forward to hosting here in Northampton.

Shruthi
U5

We are looking forward to a busy weekend of fixtures, headlined by the U14 team away at Bath for the GDST weekend. We then have U12 A&B, U13 A&B, U15 and 1^st XI all playing matches tomorrow morning against Ratcliffe College.

Please remember if there is a hard frost on Saturday morning and pitches are unplayable our cancellation procedure has changed. Please check SOCS where cancellations will be posted, and we will also put an update on our twitter feed @NHS_Sport, if you are still unsure you can always contact the member of sports staff on duty on the departmental mobile phone which is 07947564565.

Mrs Hackett
Director of Sport

Hockey

On Wednesday 21 November, the U13 A team Hockey played against Winchester House. At the start of the match our defence was very strong but eventually weakened, and at half time the score was 3-0 to Winchester House.

With an inspiring team talk we then began the second half. Winchester House scored another 3 goals and then Ariana Hay scored a very skilled goal. The end result was 12-1 to Winchester House. Well fought and well played to all the girls, with a special mention to Arianna Hay who was player of the match.

Isabella
U13 Hockey Captain

On the 21 November, the U13B/U12A Hockey team played  against Winchester House. The girls had a storming match winning 4-0! With the half time score at 2-0 we knew we had to look up before we passed and not panic when we had the ball.

We had a lot more shots on goal in the second half, and the goals were scored by Ruby Curtis-Free, Alessandra Jahina, Grace Moulton and Arianna Hay. The player of the match was Alessandra. Overall we had a great match and look forward to our next on Saturday – wish us luck!

Grace
U13B/U12A Hockey Captain

Swimming

Everybody at Northampton High School would like to wish our School Swimming captain Ezri Mannion the very best of luck, as she represents the Cadets this Saturday in their National Swim Finals.

Good luck Ezri!

Miss Fraser
Teacher of PE

Becoming by Michelle Obama – In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America – the first African-American to serve in that role – she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare.

In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her – from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it – in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations – and whose story inspires us to do the same.

Miss Buxton
School Librarian