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Junior News 13 March 2020 |
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As a school we are carefully following guidance from Public Health England and colleagues at the GDST, in order to minimise the risk of the Coronavirus disease to our School community. We are making adjustments to our schedule of events running up to the Easter break, and we appreciate your understanding at this time. Further information about measures undertaken and amendments to the calendar will be provided in a letter which I will send to all parents via School Comms. Thank you for your ongoing support and have a good weekend. With best wishes, Mrs Caroline Petryszak |
Message from Mr Bailey |
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Dear Parents, This week has seen a real festival of sport across the whole school, with staff and students contributing to our attempts to help the GDST to virtually travel from the North to the South Pole. Horse riding, skating, swimming, running, walking, star jumping… you name it, the distances have all counted. Well done to all the girls who ran extra laps of our grounds at lunchtime; some classes even worked with the distances as part of their maths learning. The wider message, of course, is about fundraising and also leading a healthier lifestyle. Healthy lifestyle habits start in childhood, so it is vital that we continue to promote exercise and diet as areas of focus here at Northampton High School. This week has also seen the girls taking part in learning related to National Science Week. We have been making balloon hovercrafts, examining tardigrades (eight-legged micro-animals), studying light and eyesight, constructing playdough circuits, designing indoor volcanoes, creating clouds in a bottle and so much more. Driving enthusiasm and knowledge in STEM subjects is such a crucial part of our vision statement here at Northampton High School. On Monday, some of our Year 5 students were lucky enough to visit The Globe theatre to take part in the GDST Shakespeare rally. The girls had an amazing time at this iconic venue, participating in a wide variety of performing arts activities. This kind of event is only made possible by being a part of the GDST group of schools. On Wednesday, in our class assembly, Year 3 shared their experiences from their residential trip to Burwell. Their messages about building independence and collaboration reinforced the many benefits of such trips, and the memories created will stay with them forever. In other assemblies, Year 4 helped us to consider the choices and decisions we can make that can help us stay safe, whilst our singing assembly was full of the joys of springtime. As a staff team, this week we have been discussing best practice in teaching mathematics, identifying ways in which we can provide even more opportunities for problem-solving, reasoning and verbalising understanding of mathematical concepts. If you are interested, there is a wonderful TED talk to watch on this subject called ‘The Five Principles of Extraordinary Math Teaching’ presented by Dan Finkel. It is so important that the girls continue to see the adults in our school community as learners too. Finally, thank you for all your continued support with hygiene. Please could you continue to reinforce the importance of handwashing, as well as how to execute the perfect cough and sneeze! A polite reminder that if your daughter is sick, we require a 48 hour absence period. Have a wonderful weekend, Chris Bailey |
Achievements |
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Each week in assembly, girls are invited to share their achievements in activities outside of school. They are listed below for this week: Go-Karting Hockey Piano Rhythmic Gym Crufts Junior Dog Handling |
Assemblies |
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Class assemblies are held in the Junior School Hall at 8.35am on Wednesdays. Parents are most welcome to enjoy refreshments from 8.00am in the Community Room. Here are the dates for the Spring Term: Reception – Wednesday 18 March POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE 1N – Wednesday 25 March POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE 5N – Wednesday 1 April POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE Looking ahead to the Summer Term: 5H – Wednesday 6 May 5N – Wednesday 13 May 2N – Wednesday 20 May HALF TERM 3N – Wednesday 3 June 1N – Wednesday 10 June 4N – Wednesday 17 June Reception – Wednesday 24 June Year 6 Valedictory Event – Thursday 9 July (in the afternoon) |
Dates for Diary |
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Wednesday 18 March – KS1 day trip to the National Space Centre POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE Thursday 19 March – Music Composition Evening 7pm-9pm POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE Thursday 26 March – Pre-School transition event to Reception Class 9am-10am POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE Thursday 26 March – Easter Disco Reception to Year 6 4pm-5pm Tuesday 31 March – Sports Presentation Evening 4pm-8pm POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE Wednesday 1 April – Whole School Photograph Wednesday 1 April – Parents’ Evening from 6pm POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE Thursday 2 April – Parents’ Evening from 3.50pm POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE Friday 3 April – End of Term Monday 20 April – INSET Day Tuesday 21 April – Start of Summer Term Friday 24 April – Day of Debating Tuesday 28 April – Pre-School Richmond Village 10.30am -11.45am Tuesday 28 April – Nursery Stay and Play 2pm -3.15pm Friday 1 May – Whole School Birthday Assembly Friday 1 May – Whole School Open Morning 8.30am -12pm Friday 8 May – VE Bank Holiday w/c Monday 11 May – Year 6 Osmington Bay Residential Looking ahead: Sports Day for KS2 and Senior School is Friday 5 June |
Primary Maths Challenge Victory! |
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A huge well done to our two Year 6 girls who were selected to take part in the Bonus Round in February – 66,500 pupils entered the November Challenge and 2,521 pupils scoring 21 or over were invited to take part in the Bonus Round in February 2020. The eagerly awaited results are now in and we are pleased and very proud to announce that Himaya and Hania are 2 pupils, out of 1,590, who have been awarded badges as recognition of their excellent performance in the final round: Himaya – Gold Badge Hania – Bronze Badge This achievement is even more amazing when you consider that only 195 awards for Gold have been given worldwide and 710 Bronze. Well done girls! |
Swap Shop POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE |
Nursery Kipper Room and Elmer Room |
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For Science Week we watched a rainbow appear when Miss Hewitt added water to the circle of skittles, we also melted ice using warm water in the pipettes to discover dinosaurs. “Let’s use this,” said Yana and she hit the ice with a wooden spoon to speed up the process. We used large magnets to see what materials would stick to them and Miss King showed us what happened when she added food colouring to oil and water. “My turn,” said Marine. At Forest School Mrs Waters brought buckets of dinosaurs and ribbons to make pulleys but some girls chose to take the dinosaurs for walks on the ribbon instead. The balance beam is very popular in Elmer Room so it has been extended and made narrower but the girls are rising to the challenge, moving along it forwards, sideways and some are even walking backwards. “I’m gonna do a big jump off,” said Harper. Our story for this week was ‘Dear Zoo’. We have made the boxes for each animal and thought about the reasons why each one would not be a good pet; this led to discussions about what each animal liked to eat. “The puppy eats puppy food” said Lily. For some animals we were unsure so we had a look on the i-Pad. We did not want to be snakes or lions. We have also made a start on planting in the garden area. Next week we will continue with our theme of animals, thank you to Jasmine’s mum for bringing in photos of Jasmine’s rabbits and an animal magazine. |
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Nursery Pre-School |
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Highlights: We have had an amazing week exploring science experiments. We have made rainbows with Skittles, butter which we ate for snack and whirling tornadoes. We also explored making electric circuits through playdough, dancing spaghetti, our own bubble mixture and are waiting for our flowers to change colour. We found out that not all experiments work as our bag grew but did not explode and we tried again using balloons. What the girls have said: “Look the cream is now butter, it’s yummy.” Evie. Looking ahead to next week:
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Reception |
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Highlights: This week for British Science Week we have been thinking about ‘clever camouflaged creatures’. We have particularly enjoyed learning about the chameleon and linking this to a fictional story and non-fictional fact-finding. What the girls have said: “Finding the camouflaged chameleon, ” Emily and Caoimhe. |
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Year 1 |
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Highlights: This week in Year 1 we have been working very hard! To celebrate Science Week, we had the opportunity to go over to the Senior School science lab and take part in an investigation. The girls were very excited and worked really hard in their investigation. Their challenge was to use weights and think carefully about where they were placing them to see if they could keep their boat from sinking. They have also been working hard in DT this week by using their designs to create their space pizzas and stars. They were very excited about bringing their designs to life and I am sure they enjoyed eating them too! In Maths this week we have been busy comparing heights and lengths and then have been using non-standard units to measure different objects. In RE we have looked at the festival of Holi and in our English work we have been planning our own story based on ‘How to Catch a Star’ which will be writing next week. What the girls have said: “I loved going to the science lab even though my boat sank.” Holly GS. Looking ahead to next week:
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Year 2 |
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Highlights: In Maths this week we have continued our work on fractions and looked at finding quarters of shapes and different quantities. In English we have started reading another book by Oliver Jeffers called ‘How to Catch a Star’. We have thought of our own ways to catch a star and we have thought about how we can change different aspects of the original story for use in our own writing. We have had a busy week in Art and Design cooking up lots of different creations in the kitchen which we hope you have managed to have a sample of. We brought our pizza designs to life at the start of the week and later on in the week we made some tasty star-shaped biscuits! It’s also been British Science week so we enjoyed a trip to the Senor School science labs to carry out a science experiment with Mrs. Hodges-Tate called ‘Tip the Ship’. What the girls have said: “We’ve all absolutely loved making star biscuits and pizzas this week!” Year 2.
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Year 3 |
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Highlights: This week we enjoyed delivering our class assembly about our residential trip to Burwell House. In Maths, we have continued recording data, this time in tables and we also made bar charts and pictograms using computer programs. We have also been tallying the laps we have run around the school grounds to add to the school total for Sports Relief. In Science we went up to the Senior School lab and harvested tardigrades, then looked at them under a microscope. We even found a microscopic worm! This week in English we have been creating mysterious story openings using atmospheric vocabulary. What the girls have said: “I enjoyed lunch on Wednesday because the food was tasty. It was burger and chips!” Tami. Looking ahead to next week:
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Year 4 |
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Highlights: In Maths this week we have been adding and subtracting fractions using bar model diagrams to support our working out. In English we have written our own cinquain poems and performed some of our own poetry to the class as part of a group. We also enjoyed looking for and learning about tardigrades in Senior School with Mrs Hodgetts-Tate. What the girls have said: “I liked using the microscopes in Senior School to look at the moss pigs. A moss pig is a creature that curls up when there isn’t enough water and it unwraps when it gets water.” Darcy. Looking ahead to next week:
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Year 5 |
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Highlights: This week in Maths we practised measuring length, mass and volume. In English we wrote another re-count with a different audience in mind and focused on starting each paragraph with a time or place adverbial phrase. We had a very special Science lesson this week in the Senior School with Mrs Hodgetts-Tate. She talked to us about careers in Science and then we combined engineering and being an astronaut and created our own hovercrafts. What the girls have said: “On Monday we went to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London. The bus ride was a bit tiring but it was definitely worth it! In the morning we had a tour of the Globe and we got to stand on the stage and say some words from ‘Twelfth Night’… our guide told us that lots of actors dream of standing where we were. We also did lots of activities during the day – we played a character status game using playing cards, we did some acting, singing and Tudor dancing. At lunchtime two girls went outside and were filmed saying lines from the play for the GDST. It was an amazing day and our teachers were really proud of us all!” Isla, Lois and Sienna. “I liked the Science lesson in Senior School on Thursday. We built hovercrafts using a CD, a fruit shoot bottle top, a balloon and Blutac. We blew the balloon up and put it on the bottle top then opened the lid. The air from the balloon came out of the bottom and it moved around the table.” Odelia. Looking ahead to next week:
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Year 6 |
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Week 9 – Busy, busy busy! Next week we look forward to continuing to learn more about the inspirational Suffragettes, regional geography in France, investigating refraction and white light in Science and much more. We also look forward to continuing rehearsals for our House Singing Event at the end of term! Have a good weekend! Student Voices “At Condover Hall we had lots of fun and we improved our netball skills. We got to do lots of activities like treetops and trapezes.” “In Maths we have been learning about ratio and scale factors. We learnt that the ratio symbol is : and that scale factors are about enlarging shapes.” “In English we learnt about the Suffragettes which means the woman’s right to vote. We learnt about Bryant and May’s matchbox factory and how the girls that worked went on strike because they were treated very badly.” “In Science we have been making periscopes – it was great fun spying on Mr Loveday’s Humanities lesson!” “Learning about the Suffragettes in English has been fascinating and I now really appreciate what they sacrificed for us!” “I believe deeply in equality!” “Keeping fit for Sports Relief has been great fun this week and I have really enjoyed doing something for a good cause! As a school we are trying to combine the distance we cover in games to get from the North to the South Pole!” “In Enrichment we have started to create e-portfolios using Google sites – it is great fun and quite challenging, thinking about how to represent ourselves digitally and show others what makes me me!” “I have really enjoyed learning about ratio and scale factors in Maths – before I thought this topic was really difficult but now I feel much more confident!” Sport Reports “On Wednesday the U11Bs played against Bilton Grange. Despite losing we were really good at getting the ball into the D zone but unfortunately, we just couldn’t score the goals. Well done everyone that played!” Sapphire. |
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GAP Club |
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Highlights: This week in GAP Club we have continued to make the most of the lighter evenings by going outside at the beginning of each session. The girls have begun to use papiermache to create animals ready for the farm and added blossom and apples to the seasonal Winnie the Pooh display. Mrs Long celebrated a special birthday this week, all the girls helped to create a special card and enjoyed having an ABBA party to celebrate. What the girls enjoyed: Looking ahead to next week:
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Open Day - Friday 1 May 2020 |
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Term Dates |
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Northampton High School |
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