High News 8 December 2017

Tuesday 12 December

Staff Charity Fun Run

Monday 11 December

GDST Day of Dance U18 U4, L5, U5, L6, U6

On 4 December, eight girls from the GDST were lucky to attend the BT Sport Action Woman awards evening. This took place at the BT Studio at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.  It was an inspirational evening where we were able to meet many incredible sports people. We took a tour around the BT Sport studios before the main event, and it was inspiring to learn about how so many different people are able to work together to be able to bring us the entertainment that we see on television. We then went on to meet Clare Balding, Judy Murray and Sam Smith, before being taken to the filming studio where the main event was being filmed. All of the athletes present were highly celebrated role models and it was amazing to be able to meet sports personalities such as Johanna Konte, Frank Lampard and Tammy Beaumont. Footballer Jodie Taylor was presented with the Action Woman of the Year Award, and the evening came to a close on a high. Thank you to all the staff and chaperones that made this evening possible, it really was brilliant!!

Kirstin Vogel

The Chemistry department gave their inaugural Element-al Christmas Chemis-tree extravaganza this week in the Senior Hall. With a large crowd enjoying the mince pies and hospitality, the stage was set for some explosions, bangs and colourful displays. Mrs Hodgetts-Tate began with the famous woosh bottle, burning propanol to make water with a fantastic whooshing flame. Another 14 experiments all related to Mrs Hodgetts-Tate’s family Christmas followed, including Mr Turney making iron using the Thermit at 2000 degrees C, turning red wine into various other drinks, blowing up a custard powder tin and exploding a mix of hydrogen and oxygen gasses. Luckily there were three Year 13 expert chemists, Ella, Beth and Lara on hand to explain the chemistry behind each experiment to the audience.

A big thank you must go to the estates team for their help setting up, Ella Ashton, Bethany Saunders and Lara Pieczka for their fantastic theory knowledge and finally a huge thank you to Mr Turney, whose expertise and dedication made the event possible.

We hope to see even more students and parents there next year.

Merry Christmas from Mrs Hodgetts-Tate.

Northampton High’s very own Artemis Strictly Come Dancing event took to the stage last Friday to raise funds for The Lullaby Trust.

The judging panel comprising Dr Stringer, Ms Heimfeld, Miss Kneen and Mrs Tansley were ready and raring to go with their silver scoring paddles, keen to award at least one sev-en in the style of Len Goodman.

The show opened with Mrs Langhorn elegantly twirling an umbrella and leaping across the stage to the sound of Singing in the Rain. She was followed by a high-energy performance by sister act Shefali and Avani. Mr Attwood, donning his pumpkin hat, and his Year 8 pupils went for a traditional rendition of the party classic, The Hockey Cockey.

Miss Orveon and Miss Chapman went with a Charleston-inspired version of Fat Sam’s Grand Slam and Miss Mason and Miss Robinson went for Let’s Get Ready to Rhumble with PJ and Duncan-style attitude.

The overall winners were the Sixth Form girls who performed an expertly choreographed Bollywood number that had taken many hours of practice.

Well done to all involved and, as the experts say, ‘just keep dancing’!

An impressive range of entries for the Staff Christmas Tree Competition are on display in School this week.

The Creative Arts faculty opted for cone shaped felt tree with a star made of wire and Vogue magazine covers.

The Science faculty created a piece which was entitled ‘5KG solids, liquids and gases’, with science themed objects balanced on circular shelves.

The PE faculty created human Christmas trees by arranging the Breakfast Club girls into gymnastics poses, including a human pyramid, shoulder stands and the splits.

The ‘Faculty of Knitting’ produced a knitted triangular tree with knitted decorations and a big yellow star.

The Modern Foreign Languages faculty used French and Spanish wine bottle corks with German Glühwein, Lebkuchen and Stollen to build a mini tree.

The Mathematics faculty made a tree using green cardboard boxes with formulas on red notes and all of the boxes adding up to the number below them.

The Humanities faculty wrote a poem of remembrance to accompany their silver birch style Christmas tree, which was decorated with scissors, pens, and other items listed in the poem.

We await the announcement of the winning tree with bated breath.

Build your Christmas spirit by helping The Salvation Army to spread some Christmas cheer and transform the lives of less fortunate children. This Christmas we are collecting any unwanted toys that are in good enough condition to give to a child who may not otherwise receive a present. We will be collecting the gifts in the Junior and Senior School foyers from Monday 4 December until Tuesday 12 December. Christmas is as much about giving as it is receiving so please give generously. Thank you in advance for your support.

Bethany Saunders, Head Girl Team

The PE department were delighted to welcome Hollie Pearne-Webb into school on Monday 4 December. Hollie is a member of Great Britain’s Women’s Hockey Team and scored the winning goal in the 2016 Rio Olympic final, which resulted in the team securing the gold medal. All the Senior School and Year 6 girls enjoyed her assembly in which she told us how perseverance and hard work had been vital in her preparation, and ultimate selection, for the squad. Hollie spent the day with us and delivered four coaching sessions to girls from Year 5 to Lower Fifth. Each girl who participated came away with a bag and a water bottle, which Hollie was happy to sign. The On Target group, Sports Captains and Sports Scholarship girls were able to speak to Hollie during a lunchtime Q&A session to discover the highs and lows of elite performance.

A great day for hockey at NHS!

Miss Hurst

The Senior School will be holding a Charity Quiz Fundraiser event on Friday 19 January 2018. The event will begin at 6.00pm, hosted in the Senior School hall. Tickets will cost £10 per adult and £6 for students.

To enter as a team you will need a maximum of 8 people per table. The entry fee will include pizza and hot dogs during the interval, and a Peroni beer or canned drink of your choice. On the night, there will be a raffle taking place and a licensed bar. The evening is likely to finish by 9.00pm.

All of the funds raised from the evening will go towards the whole School charity, Plan International UK: Because I am a girl.

Plan International UK is a children’s charity that strives to advance children’s rights and equality for girls all over the world. 58 million girls have been reached through their global ‘Because I am a Girl’ campaign and 93,000 children in 50 countries are currently being sponsored through Plan International UK. As a school we are currently sponsoring Monique Boni Dassogui, a 12 year old girl from Benin, West Africa. Our sponsorship has enabled Monique to attend a primary school which takes her less than 30 minutes to reach. As a result of our sponsorship, we have not only benefited the life of Monique, but also the area of PU Nord by investing in projects for the whole community that include:

• Provision of medicines and supplies
• Activities to raise awareness on the health of children below 5 years of age
• Training for adolescents on reproductive health
• Provision of play and arts materials for schools
• Capacity building and support to women’s self-help groups

Please order tickets by Friday 12 January at the latest. To place an order for the tickets, please email b.saunders@nhs.gdst.net. We look forward to seeing you there.

Bethany Saunders, Head Girl Team

Christmas Dinner Menu – Wednesday 13 December 2017

Chilled Orange Juice
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Roast Breast of Turkey served with Pigs in Blankets, Sage and Onion Stuffing Balls, Thyme Flavoured Roast Potatoes, Roasted Parsnips, Glazed Batons of Carrots, Button Brussel Sprouts, Minted Peas, Cranberry Sauce and Fresh Gravy
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Vegetarian Option: Oven Roasted Mediterranean Vegetable, Feta Cheese and Sundried Tomato Filo Pastry Parcel served with Thyme Flavoured Roast Potatoes, Roasted Parsnips, Glazed Batons of Carrots, Button Brussel Sprouts, Minted Peas and Fresh Gravy
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Chocolate Yule Log served with Seasonal Fresh Winter Berries and Whipped Cream or Steamed Traditional Christmas Pudding served with Fresh Custard
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Warmed Mince Pie
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After Dinner Mints and Chocolates

Mrs McCue, Catering and Hospitality Manager

Christmas Special Offer – One month trial for only £15 as a one off payment, open to all over 16s. This great offer is available to purchase from Friday 1 December until Friday 15 December, giving you membership until 23 December – that’s less than £1 per day!

Please look for the special offer rate on our website: http://www.northamptonhigh.co.uk/sports-centre/ or contact the Sports Centre on 01604 547884 or sportscentre@nhs.gdst.net.

Mr Robinson-Smith
Fitness Centre Manager

Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World by Rachel Ignotofsky

Women in Science highlights the contributions of fifty notable women to the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, from both the ancient and modern worlds.

The extraordinary women profiled include well-known figures like the physicist and chemist Marie Curie, as well as lesser-known pioneers such as Katherine Johnson, the African-American mathematician who calculated the trajectory of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon.

Women in Science celebrates the achievements of the intrepid women who have paved the way for the next generation of female engineers, biologists, mathematicians, doctors, astronauts, physicists and beyond.

Miss Buxton, Librarian

What an exciting week for sport at Northampton High. We started with an inspiring assembly from Hollie Pearne-Webb about her hockey and the Rio Olympics and how, despite a gruelling training schedule, she has managed to balance her academic studies to ensure that she is able to achieve on all fronts.

Kirstin Vogel and myself were very lucky to follow this up by attending the BT Sport Action Woman Awards live from the BT Studios on Monday evening; an amazing experience and chance to be surrounded by and chat informally to some very famous people from the world of sport.

On Wednesday our CSLA girls taught girls from Year 3 and 4 for the first time and they are starting to prepare for more of this next term. This has been a superb term for sport and I would like to congratulate everyone who has represented the school in the huge range of events that have taken place. We are looking forward to our last event of the term on Monday which is the GDST Day of Dance at the Pineapple Studios. I am sure it is going to be one to remember.

Mrs Hackett, Director of Sport

Netball

The U14 Northampton High netball team played a match on Monday 4 December against Thornton College. We had a strong start resulting in us leading convincingly after the first quarter, however, in the second quarter we slipped away a bit, only winning by one goal. In the last two quarters we got it together and dominated the play, resulting in an end score of 29-18 to us. This match was a good warm up for the netball season next term where we have lots of fixtures, including the Regional Netball Finals in Nottingham on 27 January. It was also a chance for us to try lots of different combinations ready for netball season. Well done to Lily King who got player of the match and to everyone else who all played very well.

Lily King