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Junior News – 10 June 2022 |
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Our children benefit hugely from attending an all-through school! Our children, from joining us in the Nursery, have access to all of the facilities that a stand-alone primary school would not be able to offer and, of course, we are particularly fortunate that our facilities are so diverse, specialised, and of a high standard. Our children benefit hugely from their weekly swimming lessons and watching their rapid progress as well as their confidence and enjoyment of being in the water is incredibly rewarding. |
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On Wednesday this week we all enjoyed an assembly led by Mrs Hodgetts-Tate (Head of Science in the Senior School) in which she inspired the children to embrace ‘oopsie daisy moments’ as many great scientists have in the past. The children learnt that Flemming, Einstein and Newton had ‘oopsie daisy moments’ and with their resilience and relentless perseverance they succeeded. The children really enjoyed the challenging content of this assembly, the link with a Senior School member of staff who is passionate about their subject and the relatable message for them to reflect and learn from. I have the pleasure on a Monday morning of being part of the weekly singing assembly in Junior School, and these are led by our Head of Music, Mr Nathan. This is another example of where our children benefit from a highly-skilled professional who can support our children’s enjoyment and development in their specialism with greater impact. The children benefit from the same opportunities in Languages and PE which balances with the knowledge, support and security of their class teacher delivering the rest of the curriculum. In Nursery and Junior School, we offer an environment in which the girls can benefit from the facilities and specialists of our all-through school whilst developing their core skills with the Junior School staff supporting them every step of the way. I enjoy observing and celebrating the impact this well-struck balance has on our children, and also our children’s readiness for transitioning to the next stage of their education is seamless as a result. On a separate topic, I couldn’t resist sharing this image with you this week as a group of children have worked hard, with the support of staff, to create this art installation at the entrance. I hope it makes you smile as much as it does me. A bright and cheery welcome to our warm and nurturing Junior School. Miss Hair |
Reminder: Cinema Event |
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Lots of children will be joining us on Monday next week until 5.30pm to watch ‘Encanto’ at our Junior School cinema event. If you are yet to buy your child’s ticket please do so through Parent Pay for children in Reception to Year 6, and through Nursery for Nursery children by the end of today. We are looking forward to enjoying this event together! |
Reminder: Summer Fayre - 8 July |
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On Friday 8 July, we are delighted to be hosting our Nursery and Junior School Summer Fayre, from 3.30pm until 5pm. Activities include an entertainer, inflatables, crafts and face painting. Parents and family members can buy tickets to our exclusive adult-only zone at this event to enjoy a wonderful afternoon tea together, whilst the children enjoy the Fayre. Tickets for Nursery children and adults can be paid for through Nursery. Tickets for Reception to Year 6 can be paid via Parent Pay. We hope to see you there! |
England vs South Africa Women’s cricket match - Tickets available! |
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One of our parents has kindly arranged for a box to be made available to us as a school at Northampton County Cricket ground on Monday 11 July for the England vs South Africa Women’s cricket match. The match starts at 2pm and we have 21 places available for parents and children. If you would like to join the group with your child then please do contact the Junior School office as soon as possible to reserve your places, as we will issue them on a first come, first served basis. All children will need to be accompanied by an adult and transport to and from the event will need to be arranged. This is a great opportunity for the girls to experience so I am sure it will be popular with you all. |
Cultures Day - 17 June |
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Next Friday 17 June is our school Cultures Day, and in Junior School all children are invited to attend school in their own clothes that represent their culture. Students will benefit from a morning of activities, exploring a culture and learning all about the similarities and differences. We will then share with each other what we have learnt at the end of the morning before enjoying an exciting themed lunch! We look forward to sharing more with you in next week’s Junior News! |
School Post trial – please tell us your views |
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As mentioned in High News on Friday 27 May, we have been running a trial this week with School Post; the trial will run next week too, ending on Friday 17 June. This trial is in response to parent feedback regarding the collation of School Post messages. During this trial period, School Post messages are being sent on an individual basis, which allows the recipient to see the subject of the message in the subject field on email; when the messages are collated, the subject field shows simply ‘New messages’. As the messages are not collated, parents will potentially be receiving multiple messages from the school each day. Whilst ‘communication’ is a hot topic in all schools, with some parents feeling they don’t get enough and others feeling there is too much, we are keen to get as good a balance as possible. It is worth mentioning that should you log into Firefly (to which all parents have login details), you can see each School Post message relating to your child individually. You can also search the messages easily by keyword too. We are keen to ensure we deliver school information in a way that best meets the preferences of our parents. Therefore, we would request that parents respond to this short survey as a ‘straw poll’. This will help us to deliver future information in line with parental preference. Many thanks for your support. Mrs WilmotDirector of Marketing and Admissions |
0-5 Community Sessions |
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This week we launched our sessions for all local families with children aged 0 to 5 years old. We are currently offering three sessions a week: Monday, Wednesday and Friday 9.15-10.15am. Each session costs £6 per child which includes refreshments and a staff-led themed session. Fridays are based in our Forest School area, Wednesdays offer a variety of play opportunities and Mondays are creative in focus. There’s no need to book but places are limited to keep the groups small; spaces can be reserved by emailing the Junior School office. Payment is taken on the day via debit or credit card. Please find above some photos from the session in Forest School today which was enjoyed by our visitors in the sunshine of the morning! |
Junior Sports |
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Sports Day for Reception, Year 1 and Year 2: Weather permitting, this event will be taking place on Thursday 7 July. We can’t wait for a day of sporting fun! Athletics Coaching: This week, Year 3 loved receiving coaching from Northampton Athletics Coach Iain Drage, a specialist long jump coach. The girls really enjoyed the session and have come on leaps and bounds – literally! |
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Meet the Bus Drivers - Russ |
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Each week, we look forward to introducing you to one of our school minibus drivers. They will talk a little bit about themselves, and what they enjoy most about working at Northampton High. This week, we are delighted to talk to Russ, who drives the Milton Keynes West route. Tell us a little bit about your career: I joined the Royal Navy after leaving school, and served for 24 years. I then joined Photo-Me as a Photo Booth Engineer, where I spent 20 years. |
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What do you like to do in your spare time: I tend to fill my time doing DIY, gardening, watching sport or listening to music. I also enjoy taking photos of animals. What is your best memory of being at school: Playing an enormous amount of football! This carried on throughout my Naval career. I played my final ‘competitive’ game at the age of 39. What do you enjoy most about working at Northampton High: Being part of a close team, and meeting the pupils and parents on a daily basis. To find out more about our school transport offer, please click here. Mr Nash |
News from our Classrooms: Nursery and Pre School |
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Over this coming term, the theme running through Nursery is ‘summer’, and Pre School is caring for the environment and the sea. The Nursery children have been looking at summer colours, creating paintings using bright colours, linking colours by asking ‘what does the colour remind you of?’ Yellow reminds some of the sunshine, others of the banana ice cream that they enjoy over the holiday. The Nursery children joined Mrs Farrar at the Stay and Grow music session on Monday. We sang songs and used the instruments to find the beat. One of the songs was based on the story from the ‘Hungry Caterpillar’, they then had an opportunity to make caterpillars and to play with the activities around the hall. The PE session was linked and we thought about having a picnic, moving our bodies on the mats and equipment in ways that remind us of summer – such as rolling along like a sausage roll, crawling like a crab, and flying like an aeroplane. The Pre School story of the week is ‘There Was An Old Woman Who Swallowed The Sea’. The children have read the story and listened to the CD of the story. In song time, we sang ‘If you’re happy and you know it’, they then became the animals from the song, thinking about how each animal moved. Mrs Bing looked very funny being a squid. The sound of the week is ‘s’; the children have found lots of words that begin with the sound ‘s’, linking to under the sea. In French, the girls have been learning the days of the week, linking to ordering the days in English. The Pre School children have begun the transition visits to Reception. On the first session the girls joined with the Reception class, exploring the classroom and meeting Mrs Farrar and Mrs Howell. Can we please remind you to apply sun cream to your child before they come into school. Please also supply a named sun cream to be re-applied through the day. Mrs Bing and the Nursery Team To view more photos please click here |
Reception |
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It was lovely to see the class return from a week away from school with smiles and enthusiasm! Inspired by the story ‘Katie and the Sunflowers’ and after looking at images of the famous painting ‘Sunflowers’ by Van Gough, the girls had a go at some observational drawings of sunflowers, with some fabulous results. In Maths this week, we have been learning about how to double a number using dice, dominoes and our fingers. Please continue this at home by asking ‘What is double 2?’ etc. In Literacy, we have started to look at the story ‘Handa’s Surprise’, discussing a different country and different types of houses. This linked with then watching a video about different types of houses and naming them. When you are ‘out and about’ can you see flats, terraced houses, detached, semi-detached, caravans, houseboats, castles… to name a few! Our role play has changed to be ‘Travel Agents’, encouraging some lovely conversations about where to go and how to travel there. Globes, atlases and passports have also been introduced and are proving to be very interesting, leading to some great questions! Mrs Farrar & Mrs Shaw To view more photos please click here |
Year 1 - Computing Focus |
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This term Year 1 have been very excited to use their new Chromebooks. They are now getting much quicker at logging on, as they become more familiar with the layout of the keyboard. In our Computing lessons, we have been completing some Coding tasks on Purple Mash. The girls have been programmers, writing instructions to get objects to move around the screen and disappear when they are clicked. They have then had to problem-solve by working out what is wrong in an algorithm and then try to rewrite it to make it work correctly. To view more photos please click here |
Year 2 - Computing Focus |
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Year 2 have been making great use of their new Chromebooks during Maths and Science lessons this term. They have been completing tasks on Mathletics to extend their Mathematical knowledge. In Science, they have been learning how to carry out research using the search engine, Kiddle. They have then been learning how to present information in an interesting way using a combination of pictures and text to produce a poster. We are now looking at different ways to present a story; such as a concept map, e-book, quiz, song and movie. Mrs Dadge To view more photos please click here |
Year 3 - Computing Focus |
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The girls have fully embraced having access to their own device in school this term. As well as taking care of their device with both handling and ensuring it is on charge correctly, their independence and confidence in using their Chromebooks has grown significantly; crucial in an ever-evolving world of technology. In our lessons we have spent a lot of time getting familiar with the Google Classroom platform. We have worked on shared documents together to create information slides as well as practising how to access set work and ‘handing’ it in. We have also explored our email accounts further. All this practise puts the girls in great stead as they continue their learning journey through school, and the use of their devices, both in lessons and independently, increases across all subjects. Miss Scott-Evans To view more photos please click here |
Year 4 - Computing Focus |
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This week we started a new topic called ‘Effective Searching’. We were learning how to structure search queries to locate specific information and to understand that it is important not to rely solely on one search engine if we want really accurate answers. In the coming weeks we will be using search to answer a series of questions and analysing the contents of a web page for clues about the credibility of the information. Learning to interpret the results is as important as learning how to phrase the questions. Mrs Shaw & Mrs Smith To view more photos please click here |
Year 5 - Computing Focus |
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The girls are very excited about their new Computing unit; they are making use of Purple Mash software in order to design and create their own computer game using 3D modelling. I’ll be honest, I think this is one of those units where the girls will be teaching me a thing or two! I can do the designing and the building and the evaluating… it’s just playing their games without being eaten by monsters or burned alive that turns out is really, really tricky! Miss Brandon-Jones To view more photos please click here |
Year 6 - Computing Focus |
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Year 6 have enjoyed creating text adventure games based on well-known stories. They were set the challenge of adding images, including a choice of story routes and linking pages to produce an interactive game. Great fun was had testing each other’s games, offering constructive feedback and making improvements! Mrs Fordham & Miss Taylor To view more photos please click here |
News from our extracurricular offer: GAP Club |
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It has been lovely to see everyone back in Gap Club after half term. We have been busy using watercolours this week. We have used them to make a water wash to go on the background of our new summer display. In between showers we have been able to spend some time outside. We were delighted to see our flower pots were still looking bright and colourful. You can now see the pebble project at the front of the school that we helped to create. We feel very proud and hope everyone enjoys it. Mrs Howell and the GAP Club Team To view more photos please click here |
News from Outside of our Classrooms: Forest School |
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Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 all enjoy a Forest School session every week, with Years 3 to 6 also visiting each term. This past term has brought sunshine, rain, frost and snow (sometimes all in one session!) but the weather doesn’t dampen our spirits and the students thoroughly enjoy spending time in the woodland area. The girls have been challenged to use their observational skills and perseverance with scavenger hunts: searching for natural objects that match various colour shades using paint charts, hunting for items that fitted the description of ‘fluffy’, ‘spiky’ and ‘rough’; and a ‘Nature Alphabet’ – trying to find objects that start with each letter. Of course, the letter Z was always going to be tricky, but the girls’ ingenuity with zig zag sticks was very impressive! There have been minibeast hunts, potion-making, obstacle courses, clay snails and much more. In addition to planned activities, the children gain so much simply from spending time in nature, including climbing trees, building dens and playing in the mud kitchen. One of the recent highlights was observing the girls make use of the cable drums that were kindly donated by a parent. It has been fantastic to see how something so simple can inspire such creativity and foster teamwork. The cable drums started off life as tables, but with a bit of imagination and a bamboo pole or two, they became wheels, cars and then trains! It was such great fun having a ride on these, even the teachers couldn’t resist joining in. We are very fortunate to have such a wonderful Forest School in our grounds enabling opportunities for developing confidence, self-esteem, risk-taking and using initiative all through hands-on experiences in a natural setting. |
Awards for this week |
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Due to Sports Day today there has been no Celebration and Achievement Assembly. Certificates will be given out on Monday. Playground Helper – Caoimhe took responsibility and picked up and tidied away the toys that were left on the playground. Thank you very much. Congratulations are also in order for the winners of our Junior School Music Exhibition Award for September 2022: Angelie, Aurelia, Shreya, Tami, Maya and Risara! Well done! |
Birthdays for this week |
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This week we wish a very happy Birthday to the following members of our Junior School family: Iman, Ellie J-M, Cristina, Varnikha, Sophia B and Rayna |
Upcoming events and key dates |
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Uniform Swap Shop – open every Friday 3.15-3.45pm Swimming watch weeks for parents to watch the swimming lesson – Dates and times: Reception – Tuesday 21 June 13 June – 3.30pm-5.30pm Cinema Event Class assemblies for this term – we warmly invite parents to attend their daughters’ assembly starting at 8.35-8.50am, with refreshments with the Head of School from 8.20am: Wednesday 15 June 2022: 1N |
Creative Arts Season |
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We are delighted to invite you to attend our annual Arts Festival on Tuesday 21 June, from 6.00pm-8.00pm. There will be a programme of performances and exhibitions taking place throughout the school celebrating the talents of students in Art, Drama, Fashion & Textiles, Food and Music. The evening will include exciting collaborations within the creative and performing arts. Please let us know if you will be attending, by completing the form by Monday 13 June. Mrs Beacroft |
Northampton High Presents: Seussical the Musical |
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We are delighted to invite you and your family to our Senior School’s performance of Seussical The Musical, on Thursday 23 June 2022 at 7pm. The performance is suitable for all ages, so please bring along family and friends. We hope you will be able to attend what promises to be an exciting and fun-filled performance. We would be grateful if you would complete the form to let us know whether you would like to come along, and the anticipated number of family and friends that you would like to bring along by Friday 17 June. Mrs Marriott |
Daddy & Daughter Breakfast |
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Community Nursery Sessions |
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Join our team! |
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At Northampton High School, we currently have a number of exciting employment opportunities available as we look to grow our team, with vacancies available to join our team of mini bus drivers, our site supervisor team and more. If you are interested in joining the Northampton High School family we would love to hear from you! For more information and to apply, please click here. Mr Nash
Marketing & Communications Manager |
Term Dates |
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Northampton High School |
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