|
|
Junior News 12 November 2021 |
|
Why does my daughter…? “Adolescence represents an inner emotional upheaval, a struggle between the eternal human wish to cling to the past and the equally powerful wish to get on with the future.” Louise J. Kaplan I am often asked, ‘Why does my daughter…… act irrationally, speak to me this way, make poor choices, drive me up the wall, etc?’ by fraught parents who are experiencing the teenage years with their daughter. Often this is their first encounter of the teenage years since their own teenage experience. More often than not, they have conveniently forgotten the antics that they themselves got up to, or the behaviours that they presented at that stage of their life. Or they remember only the good times, looking back at them as ‘The Glory Days!’. I am not a parent myself, but from what I have seen, it looks terrifying! I have every respect for parents at any stage, but the teenage years particularly. So, whilst I cannot share my own parenting tips, I can perhaps offer a few possible reasons for some behaviours and draw on the last 10 years of my career to offer some insight and reassurance to any of you battling sullen moods, slamming doors or a general refusal to communicate. First and foremost, you are not the only parent to experience this. Almost all teenagers experience a change in personality to some degree during their development. It is also important to mention here that this change is not limited to just teenagers. It can start in children as young as 9 years old, and some psychologists now believe that brain development in young adults is not fully complete until the late 20s or even early 30s. Please click here to read more Miss Kneen |
Sparkle Party Success! |
|
Last Friday afternoon the Junior School was transformed into a glittery, sparkling space. After much anticipation throughout the day, our Early Years department loved their party with dancing and self-decorated sticky cakes. It was then our Junior School girls’ turn; they were treated to hot dogs, pizza, more cakes, as well as lots of photographs at their ‘selfie station’, all washed down with a good dose of dancing and plenty of glow-sticks. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The pupils had a wonderful time and the excitement was palpable. What stands out is the wonderful sense of community as parents and staff worked together to create this fabulous event. A huge thank you to everyone who played their part including parents, staff and the catering and cleaning teams. A special mention to Mrs Ashraf for her organisation and Laura Mealor from Details Event Styling who donated her time and resources to create and donate the selfie station with balloon backdrop. Plans are already emerging for our next event. Watch this space… Mrs Purvey-Tyrer |
GDST Autumn Rally in Croydon - U11 Football |
|
|
|
The Croydon Rally was held on 11 November. We did well against tough opposition, having never played before as a team. In the group stages, we won a game and drew one game losing against some excellent teams. We qualified for the semi-finals of the plate competition versus Blackheath. It was a close match at full time – a 0-0 draw. Then we had three minutes of extra time; after that, the score stayed the same so we went to penalties. We had to take three penalties per team. Our penalty takers were Zoe, Emily, and Ellie H. Thanks to Bethany’s great goalkeeping and some excellent penalties, we won the shoot out 2-1, taking us through to the semi-finals. In the semi-finals, we played a strong Streatham team. We put in 110% effort despite being very tired. At halftime, the score was 0-0. It looked like either team could win. With seconds to go, a Streatham player came running down the pitch and scored in the corner of the goal, knocking the High School out of the competition. We all enjoyed the day and had so much fun we can’t wait for our next Football Rally! |
Achievements |
|
Each week in our assembly, girls are invited to share their achievements in activities outside of school. They are listed below for this week:
Year 1 and 2 achieved certificates for filling up their kindness buckets. Playground Stars:
A big well done to Year 3 for their kindness and thoughtfulness in looking after Annabelle. |
Messages for parents |
|
Dates for your Diary –
Just as a reminder, the GAP Club phone number is 07816 751456; please do keep this number handy, so that you have direct access to the GAP team should you need it. |
Class Assemblies |
|
We are pleased to welcome back parents and grandparents to our Wednesday Class Assemblies, 8.35am-8.55am. Refreshments will be served in the Community Room from 8.15am. We do hope you will be able to join us.
|
Nursery - Kipper Room and Elmer Room |
|
We have been focusing on the colour ‘blue’ this week with lots of activities. These included coloured rice and sand, a creative table with lots of different blue resources, blue paint and our special corner dedicated to the colour blue – which was a starting point for the girls. Their imagination came to life when the blue tunnel became a train and we took a trip to the park. This linked in nicely with learning about different types of transport, where we linked the types of transport to the correct pictures; these have been placed in the blue corner. A wonderful house was created outside in the garden using colourful bricks. The girls showed their independence, their thinking skills and used their teamwork skills following a child’s initial spark! |
|
|
|
|
|
On Thursday our classroom became dedicated to Remembrance Day. The girls created poppies of their own and were able to participate in different activities, creating wonderful pictures using black and red paint. They also made marks in the shape of a poppy in the colourful sand. Instead of the usual minutes’ silence we had a minute of clapping to reflect on the people who are no longer with us and who fought so hard for us, we thought this was best suited to the girls. School photographs were a success with lots of different faces and poses. Well done girls! Please follow the instructions on your daughters’ individual cards to view and order your photographs. What the girls have said: “I want the sports car.” Danaya. |
Nursery - Pre School |
|
This week we have been remembering the brave soldiers, and in doing so the girls have produced some fantastic poppies using a variety of resources, Our story, ‘One Hundred Steps’, was about a special soldier called Sir Tom Moore. We looked on the internet at the type of vehicles they used during the war to link with our theme of transport. At Forest School we participated in a minutes silence while sat around the red leaf tree. |
|
|
|
|
|
What the girls have said: “The soldiers are looking after our Nursery,” said Penelope while playing with the toy soldiers. Next week we will be focusing on trains and boats. |
Reception |
|
This week we have continued our learning about the story ‘Whatever Next’, by sequencing the story and explaining about the characters and what happened to them. Our phonic sounds have been ‘b’ and ‘e’, maybe help your daughter to have a look around your house for objects beginning with these letter sounds. In Maths, we have been finding one or two more or less than a given number, by fishing for objects in the water tray. In our PSHE session, Jigsaw Jenie helped us to understand that being different makes us all special and we enjoyed the book that she left us to read ‘Barry the Fish with Fingers’. |
|
|
|
|
|
On Thursday we watched a video explaining about Remembrance Day and made poppies using watercolours. In our topic work we thought about ‘day’ and ‘night’ and then some of the things that we do at different times of the day. Along with learning some special songs, another very busy week! |
Year 1 |
|
It was humbling to listen to Year 1 spontaneously telling me about their understanding of the poppy symbol and personal stories of their own family experiences. This was followed by a flurry of activity in the workshop as some girls made their own representations of a poppy. I was surprised by just how much excitement individual photographs caused. They loved their moment in the limelight – I think when the proofs are published you are in for a treat! Year 1 were part of the House Singing competition rehearsals for the first time this year. They loved joining with all the members of their house across the Junior School to practise. PREP for the next few weeks will be learning words for our Christmas play. I will be giving out parts at the beginning of next week as rehearsals begin. A busy time!
|
|
|
|
|
|
What the girls have said: “I loved learning how to do taking away in Maths.” Zara. Looking ahead: Finding syllables in words and writing a rap |
Year 2 |
|
This week we have been learning how to use columns to subtract numbers using an exchange. In English, we have been sequencing the story ‘Jim and the Beanstalk’ and thinking about how Jim and the giant were feeling at different times. In Science, we investigated how to change the distance a car travelled across the floor. |
|
|
|
|
|
What the girls have said: “I have liked practising the words and songs for the Christmas play.” Emily. Looking ahead: Please help your daughter to learn her song and play words, it is easier for the girls to act and move around the stage when they are not having to hold their scripts. We will be sending more song words home for PREP next week. Mrs Dadge |
Year 3 |
|
This week in Maths, we have continued to build our knowledge around the column method for addition and subtraction exploring the use of 3-digit numbers. In English, we have looked at the skill of inference. We have been making inferences about the book characters based on information we have read in the text. We also tried some dictation this week. On Wednesday we had a lovely morning at Forest School. The girls started the session with a miniature scavenger hunt, they were then given the choice to explore lots of different activities including leaf printing and clay modelling. In Science, we learned more about light focusing on reflection. We investigated lots of different materials to find one that was the most reflective.
|
|
|
|
|
|
What the girls have said: “I enjoyed Science testing.” Kinara. Looking ahead: |
Year 4 |
|
In Maths we looked at metric conversions and started to use them in addition and subtraction problems. In English we completed our diary entries and read to the end of the Iron Man. We had lots of lively discussions about the surprising turn of events and about the fantastic figurative language used by Ted Hughes. In Humanities we looked at the invasion of Britain by the Romans and imagined the events as a three-part film producing a DVD cover for The Invasion Part III. Rehearsals have begun in earnest for the Christmas performance. We need everyone in school for the dress rehearsal on Monday 13 December and the performance on Tuesday 14 December. Do let us know if your daughter will not be available so that we can re-allocate parts. Please could we ask that all girls have the required writing equipment in school every day. This includes a glue stick and a blue handwriting pen. The equipment list can be found on Firefly in the Information for Parents section. They will ALL need an apron for Art next week. An apron should be left in school all term. Thank you. |
|
|
|
|
|
What the girls have said: Looking ahead to next week: Dates for your diary: Wednesday 17 November – 4H Assembly
|
Year 5 |
|
Year 5 have had another busy week, and it has been lovely to share so many activities with visitors to the school, both adults and children. Our English text, ;Robot Girl;, is keeping the girls guessing and we had a whale of a time discussing idioms. |
|
|
|
|
|
What the girls said: “I really liked doing the structure activities in groups yesterday because it was really fun looking at others and trying to compete against them. It was challenging because we didn’t have a lot of thing that would hold very well so we had to make different shapes that would actually stand.” Harriet. Dates for your Diary: Monday 15 November – Sports Team Photos (all Y5 girls need their PE kit) |
Year 6 |
|
It has been another busy week in Year 6! We have learned about square and cube numbers in Maths, represented the components of blood using common foodstuffs in Science, made an information booklet to demonstrate our map skills in Humanities and developed our descriptive writing about a tiger in English. |
|
|
|
|
|
Highlights of the week: “My highlight was making ‘blood’ in Science using golden syrup as plasma, beans coloured in red as red blood cells, marshmallows as white blood cells and sprinkles as platelets.” Esme. Next week we will be analysing a classic poem in our English lessons, beginning our work on fractions in Maths, investigating the effect of exercise on the body in Science and finding out about biomes in Humanities. |
GAP Club |
|
This week in GAP Club the girls have been thinking and taking part in activities for Remembrance Day. The girls have used different media including tissue paper, paper plates, and watercolours to create poppies. The girls have also created henna patterns on biscuits using Mrs Shah’s homemade piping bags. |
|
|
|
|
|
What the girls have said: “I enjoyed making the tissue paper poppies.” Anna Year 4. |
Term Dates 21/22 |
|
|
Term Dates 22/23 |
|
|
|
Northampton High School |
|
