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Junior News 13 November 2020 |
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Clay is an exciting medium and never fails to intrigue and excite children of all ages. I love to see faces light up when young people are handed a block of stoneware at the beginning of a project, and see the amazement when you simply slice a block with cut-off wire to reveal that flat, smooth clean edge. I am lucky; I started my teaching career in 1994 with Glyn Thomas at Kenton School, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where ceramics was strong and celebrated. Glyn and his team have sent many excellent ceramicists onto higher education, including Stuart Carey, but over the years we have seen how the Arts in schools, particularly traditional crafts, have been in decline. I hear stories of whole ceramics departments shutting down due to the scale, space and running costs needed to sustain courses in universities and colleges; not to mention the expertise needed to manage kilns, pug mills, slab rollers and wheels. Teachers do worry about where clay is going but I know there are schools and colleges in the UK who, like us, have a passion for clay. What is happening to the craft of clay? How many schools are still using potters wheels? If courses are not available what is the point in continuing to teach children these skills? Why? Because children love handling clay. They want to squeeze it and experiment with shape and form. They want to see it ooze between their fingers. They want to give it a good bash on the desk. They are liberated, energised and excited by its possibilities. Read more here. Mrs Beacroft |
Challenge 24: Fundraising Update |
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The Junior School turned purple this week, as we continue to raise money for Pancreatic Cancer UK in support of Mr Bailey. The generosity from our school community has been amazing, and we can’t thank you enough for all of your wonderful support. At time of writing, our current fundraising total stands at a staggering £3,282 – smashing our initial goal by over 3 times! Our #Challenge24 efforts continue to move forward strongly, with our whole school family coming together to think of exciting ways to raise money for the cause, more of which you will read about throughout the newsletter. |
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Next Thursday 19, we are excited to celebrate in school with ‘Purple Day’, with students and staff able to dress in purple clothing for a small donation. To mark the occasion, Director of Sport, Mrs Blake, is taking up her #Challenge24 activity, in which she will be running 24 miles around the school field on Thursday morning! We look forward to bringing you more about that next week! Thank you once again for all of your support, and we look forward to bringing you more updates in our weekly newsletters and on social media as the month progresses. Finally, we have a very special message to share with you from Mr Bailey, and this can be viewed by clicking here. Mr Nash |
Staff news |
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Sue Eggleton has made the difficult decision to retire from the end of November 2020. As many of you know, Sue has been with us for 15 ‘wonderful years’. These are her words, but we know that you would echo them, in saying that having her amongst us has been wonderful, too. We are very grateful for all the time that she has given to the school and know that she has touched the lives of so many students and staff over the years. Sue very much wants to keep in touch and is happy to come in on a voluntary basis to hear readers and/or to visit from time to time. She is geographically close and we will all be happy to see her. There is plenty of time to wish her well, but she wanted you to know her news. |
School coats |
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Please can you remind girls that they should be arriving and leaving school wearing their coats. Several girls have been coming in just wearing shirt sleeves, and some are leaving their coats in school. |
Dates for your diary |
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Achievements |
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Each week in our virtual assembly, girls are invited to share their achievements in activities outside of school. They are listed below for this week:
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Cordelia raises over £1,500 with her #Challenge24 activity! |
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As part of our efforts to raise money for Pancreatic Cancer UK, staff and students alike have been taking part in the charity’s #Challenge24 fundraiser. We have seen lots of marvellous initiatives from our students, staff and parents who have taken up the challenge, from selling 24 jars of homemade preserves and chutneys, to running 24 minutes every day, from learning phrases in 24 languages to making 24 Covid-protection face masks and more. As you will have read above, our fundraising efforts have soared, with one student making a big contribution to this by smashing her goal and raising over £1,500! |
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Cordelia in Year 3 has decided to show her support, with her #Challenge24 involving her bouncing her moon ball 24 times for 24 days, trying to beat her best time each day. Raising £1570 at time of writing, Cordelia’s efforts have certainly not gone without notice, and her fundraising page being shared and supported worldwide, with famous garden expert Monty Don showing his full support, donating and sharing Cordelia’s challenge with his 203k followers on Twitter! This has led to an influx of support and donations from across the globe; which is just reward for Cordelia’s fantastic efforts during the month so far. To follow Cordelia’s challenge, please click here to view her fundraising page. We know a host of our students are undertaking fantastic activities this month as part of the challenge and we would love to hear more about them! We invite you to share stories with us and we would be delighted to share them in future editions of the newsletter. Mrs Wilmot |
Welcome to Northampton High: Mrs Chiano |
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As we mentioned in last week’s newsletter, we are delighted to welcome Mrs Agnes Chiano to Northampton High School as our new Director of Finance and Operations. Earlier this week, Mrs Chiano sat down with our Head Girl, Daria, to introduce herself, talking about her career, aspirations and her thoughts on Northampton High School so far, and we are delighted to share this video with you below. Mr Nash |
Save the date: Northampton High Eventer's Challenge |
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We are delighted to be hosting our second NSEA/Northampton High School Eventer’s Challenge Qualifier on Sunday 21 February 2021 at the prestigious Dallas Burston Polo Club in Southam, Warwickshire. More information to follow, but definitely a date for the equestrian diaries… Mrs Wilmot |
Clubs |
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Please note there will be no Computer Skills club on Thursday 19 November. |
Nursery Kipper Room and Elmer Room |
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This week in Nursery we have talked about Remembrance Day and how we remember people who have helped us. We have had a go at making and painting our own poppies, using glue and paper on egg boxes, we have also watched a short video. In our maths area we have used jugs, funnels and coloured sand to practice our pouring skills and think about and use positional language and size, such as full and empty. “I have something in mine now,” said Yasmin. We used our best smiles too this week having our photos taken for our grown ups to see. Looking to next week we will be celebrating Diwali with some creative activities and tasting. Just a reminder, library books are changed on a Wednesday from our nursery library, the books are put into quarantine when returned before they go out to others. |
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Nursery Pre School |
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This week in Pre School the girls have been busy taking part in a range of different activities. They have learnt about Remembrance Day through different provocations, these have included different materials representing the colours of red, green and black. Some girls have also displayed cutting and thinking skills to create their own individual poppies. Other girls have used different coloured paint to cover their hands for a sensory experience. Displaying poppy images around the classroom was the starting point for many conversations. We have also had a class discussion about Remembrance Day and held our minute silence. Please ask your daughter about poppies or Remembrance Day, hopefully this will lead to some lovely conversations. The story this week was ‘Who’s in your Family?’ This led to many conversations about everyone’s unique families. If you haven’t already done so, please provide a family photo for you daughter to use on our display. Next week we will be learning about Diwali. If you are celebrating it please share your experiences, we would love to hear them and share them within class. |
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Reception |
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This week we have continued with activities about the story ‘Whatever Next!’ by sequencing the main events and using printing techniques to print baby bear on the moon, also linking to the letter ‘b’. Our number was 7, shape oval and colour orange. We have looked at the solid sphere shape and found out that it can roll really well (all around the classroom). Practical maths activities have been to use ‘more’ and ‘1 or 2 more’ than a given number. Letter sounds have been ‘r’, ‘b’, ‘l’ and ‘j’ (which involved making ‘jjj’ jelly and playing with it to make a ‘Jelly Jungle’ and writing ‘j’ in jam!) We have been learning about the festival Diwali and some of our activities included making Rangoli patterns with coloured rice, dressing up and dancing, trying a special snack and making cards. We enjoyed having our photo taken and making poppies for Remembrance Day. |
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Year 1 |
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Highlights We have really enjoyed listening to and sharing each other’s experiences, traditions and beliefs in school today. In English, we have finished our work on the ‘Naughty Bus’ and have really enjoyed finding out about the adventures of this London Bus. This week, Year 1 had a go at planning their own toy adventure, based on this story and then wrote their story in full in our final lesson of the week. In maths, we have been working really hard, exploring different ways to subtract. We have practised partitioning numbers, looking at fact families and practised counting back to find the answer. In gymnastics, we have been learning and practising different types of rolls. In our RE lesson this week, we have learnt about Diwali and the story of ‘Rama and Sita’. In our history lesson, we have started looking at the Great Fire of London and where and when this event took place. We have also been thinking about our similarities and differences in our PSHE lessons and the whole class has been very reflective and respectful of each other in these discussions. What the girls have said: “I liked playing shark attack in PE, to get the treasure.” Caoimhe Looking ahead: Maths – finding the difference between two numbers |
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Year 2 |
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Highlights: This week in maths we have started looking at column addition. All of us have worked hard practising these using equipment to help us and then writing the calculations in our books carefully. In English, we have focused on recount writing. We have been writing about the tour of the school we had last week with Mr Kevin. We have had to recall the interesting facts he taught us as well as present our writing in a chronological order using time connectives. In RE this week, we learned more about the Hindu festival of Diwali and we made Diva lamps using clay. In art we have been focusing on famous London landmarks, creating traced drawings and bright oil pastel skylines. What the girls have said: “I loved swimming for the first time since having my cast off!” Amelia Looking ahead: English – The Great Fire of London |
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Year 3 |
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Highlights: In maths we have looked at exchanging when subtracting 3-digit numbers from 3-digit numbers. In English we have started our new book The BFG and looked at improving the quality of the verbs and nouns we are using. In science, we have introduced our new topic on Forces and found out about how pushes, pulls and twists can change the speed and direction of an object. In humanities our focus has been on Diwali and the way the festival is celebrated. What the girls have said: “I have enjoyed touch typing on Purple Mash.” Eva Looking ahead: Maths – multiplication and making equal groups Girls came into school on Friday in their Faith Costumes.
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Year 4 |
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Highlights: In maths we recapped our understanding of measuring lengths in mm, cm, m and km and then added and subtracted lengths to solve problems. We have really enjoyed the ‘Barvember’ bar modelling challenges too. In English we planned and wrote explanations of our inventions. In science we learnt about appliances and electrical safety. What the girls have said: “I enjoyed making Christmas decorations at Forest School out of wood. We drilled holes in the wood and drew faces.” Maya Looking ahead: English – analysing our new text FArTHER Please note there will be no Computer skills club on Thursday 19 November. Thank you. |
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Year 5 |
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Highlights: We have been very lucky to have some wonderful presentations this week. The girls had a great afternoon on Wednesday finding out about the First World War and then doing some creative writing based on their feelings and understanding of what life might have been like for a soldier in the trenches. Then, on Friday morning, two of the girls talked to us about Diwali. Rianna told us the story and Rithika shared Hindu traditions with us. The girls listened really carefully and asked some very thoughtful questions in the Q&A session that followed. In our English lessons this week we completed our unit on ‘Robot Girl’ by writing our very own Science Fiction stories. The girls worked hard to plan, write, edit and then share their stories. In Maths and Geography it’s been all about time. We have being looking at tables, two-way tables and timetables… and finding out just how much work we need to do on telling the time! We learned about time zones in Geography and identified hemispheres and lines of longitude and latitude. What the girls have said: “I liked the lesson about Remembrance Day because it is a good day to remember the people who died so that we can be free. We watched a BBC lesson which showed us some of the things that the soldiers used in the war and we had to think about emotion words. After doing each activity we had to write a line of our Haiku poem.” Vivienne “This morning I did a presentation on Diwali which I found really fun to share with 5N. Rithika and I did two separate PowerPoints but we emailed and messaged each other about it during the week so that we were ready. My bit was about the story of Diwali and how it happened. The most interesting questions, that someone asked afterwards, were why Hindus don’t eat cows? and when did Hinduism start? I enjoyed presenting and answering the questions.” Rianna Looking ahead: English – starting our new unit on ‘Hidden Figures’ by Margot Lee Shetterly Dates for your diary: Tuesday 17 November – computing |
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Year 6 |
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I really enjoyed creating my, ‘Save the Tiger’, poster. It was really fun, but kind of sad to see that the number of tigers is going down and they are in danger of becoming extinct. We had to use persuasive writing to persuade our readers to take action. Lois I really enjoyed doing geography and making little definition booklets about mapping including longitude and latitude. It has really helped me to understand the definitions. Florence My favourite part of the week was when we started designing a game using coding in Computing. My game is all about trying to spot the difference in the dance moves. I used a timer to make my game more exciting. Sienna Another busy week has flown past and the girls have continued to make enthusiastic contributions to all areas of school life. In particular, they have enjoyed designing and creating their Leadership Boards and we cannot wait to share the finished results with you via Twitter. This week they have identified special numbers in maths and solved problems using BIDMAS. In English they have considered the plight of endangered species throughout the world through the inspiration of our new text, ‘Can we Save the Tiger?’ In geography they have continued to explore the key skills needed to become a geographer. Science has involved the study of the classification of plants and the girls were able to make connections between native species, their habitats and adaptations through outdoor learning. Highlights of the week: “My highlight of the week was making a ‘yes no’ key in Science. We had 7 assorted sweets and we drew and made questions up to identify them.” Sophia “My highlight was in French when we played, ‘Beat the Teacher’ about things you would find in a town and the children won.” Frankie “My highlight of the week was PE because we got to learn a new dance. The dance was an African dance and we pictured that we were in the middle of a clock.” Odelia Next week we look forward to visiting Forest School on Wednesday and completing our 24 Challenge in aid of Pancreatic Cancer UK on Thursday. |
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Term Dates 20/21 |
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Term Dates 21/22 |
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Northampton High School |
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