Nothampton High School
Junior News

Junior News 13 September 2019

Dear Parents

The end of a busy first full week back is here and I have been made to feel exceptionally welcome by the whole community, for which I am so grateful. If you see me on the gate or the door over the coming weeks, please do introduce yourself; I am working hard to learn names!

Rich and varied learning has been taking place across the school this week, from map-reading to Victorian History, from Autumnal Poetry to Local Art studies, from Place Value to Online Safety. We have also experienced a wide range of assemblies this week, including ‘Thinking Differently,’ ‘Singing,’ and an unforgettable ‘Pumpkin Experience’ from the Allotment King himself, Mr. Attwood. Indeed Mr. Attwood’s assembly was a great example of the power of being part of a 2-18 through school; A Level Science delivered in a wholly digestible way for some of our youngest learners. Do please chat with your daughters about the content of these assemblies as they also always touch on important moral issues.

It was lovely to see so many of you at our year group information evenings. I am aware that clear communication is so crucial for the whole community, and face to face sessions such as these are such a good way to deliver teaching and learning messages. As I said last week, we have an open door policy here at the school, and you are always welcome to get in touch with me to share your thoughts about the school; we welcome positive feedback and also constructive suggestions to make our learning environment an even better place.

A communication will be with you today regarding tweaks to the drop off and collection routines that we hope will ensure your daughter is as safe as can be, and also give you an opportunity to have a conversation with the class teacher in a calm environment.

Have a restful weekend, and we look forward to yet another busy week ahead.

Warm wishes
Chris

Chris Bailey
Head of Junior School

 

Achievements

Each week in assembly, girls are invited to share their achievements in activities outside of school. They are listed below for this week:

Tennis
Rose N – came 2nd in doubles tournament

Swimming
Rebecca P – Water Skills 2
Lilybella U – 50 lengths

Feltwork Workshop
Emily M – created a feltwork pig

Music
Niamh P – Piano Grade 2 Merit
Charlotte F – Trombone Grade 1 Merit
Rebecca P – Guitar white strap

LAMDA
Ellie J-M – Distinction

Karting
Evie A – came 1st
Natalie S – came 1st

Village Fete
Sophia P – came 1st in cakes and poems competitions

Assemblies

6N – Wednesday 18 September
4N – Wednesday 2 October
6H – Wednesday 9 October
3N – Wednesday 16 October
2N – Wednesday 13 November
5H – Wednesday 20 November
5N – Wednesday 27 November
1N – Wednesday 4 December

Dates for Diary

Wednesday 25 September – Reception Information Evening, 4pm – 5pm

Friday 27 September – FoNHS Parent Forum

Wednesday 9 October – Junior School Parents’ Evening, 6pm – 8.30pm

Thursday 10 October – Junior School Parents’ Evening, 4pm – 6pm

Friday 18 October – Year 3 to Year 6 Billionaire Boy trip

 

Clubs

All clubs will start next week (week commencing Monday 16 September), with the exception of: Wellbeing Club, run by Miss Scott-Evans for Years 2 to 4 on Mondays – this will start on Monday 23 September.

Music

Brass lessons are now available in school.

For further information please contact Mr Paul Nathan at p.nathan@nhs.gdst.net.

 


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Nursery

Kipper Room: We have been concentrating on helping the new girls to settle into Nursery, spending lots of one to one time with our key workers sharing books or playing with small world toys. Jesleen was particularly interested in playing with the Peppa Pig characters making “Daddy Pig go to bed”. As the girls become more secure we have observed them beginning to self access resources, developing their independence. We have been thinking about ‘ourselves’ and what makes us individual. As Anne looked at her reflection she was able to identify and name all of her facial features. Next week we will be extending this by making faces using dough and painting self portraits.

Elmer Room: Elmer Room highlights have included doing PE in the hall and thinking about all the different ways we can move. Jasmine said she liked to march so we all tried that. We had our first experience of Forest School: on the way Emily announced she was a bird and flapped her arms. The other girls joined in being butterflies and aeroplanes.
However their favourite area this week has most certainly been our new exploration area where lots of creative work has taken place. Lily made a picture which she said looked like a jelly fish.

Looking ahead to next week we will be continuing to learn our new routine and we will be exploring our feelings and labelling them.

Pre-School

Highlights: we are very proud at the way the girls have all settled into Pre-School.They have been very busy making observational drawings of themselves, ordering babies and counting using pasta. The girls have also enjoyed Ballet, Music, PE and visiting the library.

What the girls have said:
“I like playing with the animals.” Srishti
“I like being outside.” Hope
“I like climbing.” Alexa

Looking ahead to some of next week’s learning:

  • Exploring ice.
  • Talking about what we use our hands for and making X-ray hand prints.
  • Learning new songs.
See all photos

 

Reception

Highlights: This week we have been investigating the circle shape, the colour green and the character ‘Kipper’. The girls have been painting concentric circles, printing circle shapes and mixing colours to make green. They have enjoyed the outside area, especially the large sand pit.
All the girls have settled very well into their new class and routines, positively engaging with all of the activities.

What the girls have said:
“I liked the Number Puppy story.” Isabella
“I enjoyed doing the picture of Kipper.” Elouise
“I got to paint Mrs Shaw’s hand yellow…and I did the other all blue.” Emily and Caoimhe

Looking ahead to some of next week’s learning:

  • The number 2 formation, the colour yellow and the rectangle shape.
  • More book characters.
  • Name writing.
  • The sense ‘seeing’.
See all photos

Year 1

Highlights: This has been an exciting week in Year 1. We were introduced to our new topic ‘The Victorians’ in our Wow Day on Friday. We learnt some interesting facts about the Victorians, explored what their toys would have been like and even made some of our own. We used the role play area to try on some typical clothes and use different items that would have existed in a Victorian house.

What the girls have said:
“I liked learning that some Victorians went to the toilet outside.” Holly.
“We liked going to use the computer room in the big school.” Holly and Evette.

Looking ahead to next week’s learning:

  • English – We will continue to look at ‘Queen Victoria’s Knickers’ and will be thinking about sequencing the story and describing our favourite parts.
  • Maths – We will be looking at place value, counting, reading and writing numbers and finding one more and one less.
  • Other Subjects – In History we will be comparing Victorian Schools to modern schools and in Science we will be thinking about our body and our senses.
See all photos

Year 2

Highlights: We started off our Year 2 journey by finding out what our topic would be this term. In our Wow Day, we began by asking questions that we are hoping to find the answers to throughout the term. We found out lots of information about Queen Victoria and her reign and compiled a fact sheet about her. We explored the home corner role play area which shows many things that would have been present in a Victorian house. We even got to dress up and make some of our own Victorian Toys.

What the girls have said:
“I liked reading the story, Queen Victoria’s Knickers!” Maya.
“I enjoyed sorting the photos of different things into past and present.” Varnikha.
“I love learning about the Victorians!” Fatima.

Looking ahead to next week’s learning:

  • English – We will continue to explore the story of ‘Queen Victoria’s knickers’.
  • Maths – Place value and continuing with number representation.
  • Other Subjects – We will be looking at Victorian schools and what it was like to go to school as a Victorian child. We will be looking at Lowry in Art and learning how to mix colours.
See all photos

Year 3

Highlights: This week we have been consolidating work on number bonds from Year 2 and finding missing numbers that make 100. In Humanities we found out about India and used atlases and ipads to find physical and human features of the country. In English we have enjoyed sharing ‘Tuesday’ by David Wiesner. Our work included inventing characters for the flying toads and re-telling the story orally and in written form.

What girls have said:
“I have enjoyed doing the multiplication drills in 2 minutes and trying to improve each day.” Avleen.
“I enjoyed Mathletics in Computing.” Ellie.
“I liked talking about ways we can keep healthy in PSHE.” Shreya.

Looking Ahead:

  • Maths – we will be revising adding and subtracting of 1 and 2- digit numbers and looking at the place value with 3- and 4- digit numbers.
  • Science – we will be looking further at how light reflects and helps us to see.
  • English – we are going to write our own sequels – ‘Pigs Might Fly,’ and focus on including similes in our description.
See all photos

Year 4

Highlights: This week we have begun learning about place value and the girls have been working hard to read and write 4- and 5- digit numbers. We have also started to use the ‘greater than’ and ‘less than’ signs to compare numbers. In English we have focused on writing imaginative similes to describe ourselves and begun reading the class book ‘The Thieves of Ostia’ by Caroline Lawrence. The girls have also enjoyed creating electrical circuits in Science.

What the girls have said:
“I enjoyed the Maths lesson about place value because it was nice and challenging and there were lots of extension activities.” Phoebe.
“I really enjoyed doing paintings of leaves in Art because I love painting and I think my leaf was really good.” Lydia.
“I loved all the lessons, especially Art and Science. In Science, we had to make a light bulb light-up, a motor turn and a buzzer buzz.” Florence.

Looking ahead to some of next week’s learning:

  • English – We will be looking at examples of poems containing similes and creating some imaginative poems of our own about the weather.
  • Maths – We will be working on rounding numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000.
  • Geography – We are looking forward to developing our map-reading skills on our walk around Wootton next week.
See all photos

Year 5

Highlights: This week we started our English Narrative unit on ‘The Iron Man’ by Ted Hughes and we have been using atlases and globes in Geography to find out about countries around the world. In Science we revised MRS GREN in order to determine whether something was living and then looked at how organisms are classified by characteristics.

What the girls have said:
“I really enjoyed sharing my Summer Project with the rest of the class. I think the best bit was when I told them I went for a sleepover and I did art for 7 days each week.” Alice.
“I liked Humanities because I learned about France. I also liked Enrichment because we linked it to Roald Dahl Day and I liked putting dreams together and thinking about what it would make. We also thought about a personal dream and mine was to get really far in singing.” Elizabeth.
“I liked it when we read The Iron Man. I thought he was silly when he jumped off the cliff.” Evie.
“I liked watching all of the presentations because it was fun learning what everyone had done over the summer.” Lily.

Looking ahead to some of next week’s learning:

  • English – we will be looking further at figurative language in ‘The Iron Man’ and starting sessions in the Senior School Library.
  • Maths – we will be continuing to explore place value, comparing numbers with up to 3 decimal places.
  • Geography – we will be using Google Maps to locate where we live.
  • Science – we will be looking closely at the anatomy of a flower and discussing pollination.
See all photos

Year 6

A Year 6 report on their first week back!

We are happy to report that Year 6 have started school with a positive growth mindset and boundless enthusiasm, and we look forward to sharing their successes with you as the year unfolds – Karen Fordham and James Loveday.

“On the first day back we wrote our 6N Code of Conduct which included “Don’t provoke others” and “Do your prep on time”.

“In Science we liked doing the bubble map on how to classify living things.”

“In Maths we read millions numbers, place value and knowing what the digits are worth.”

“In English we have been studying poems about Autumn. We really enjoyed analysing the poems and looking for good language and vocabulary.”

“In Sports yesterday, we practiced our throwing and catching skills. The teachers asked us to do small challenges to see our accuracy.”

“We liked the ‘Traffic Light’ game because red was stop, amber was crouch down and green was go. It was so much fun!”

“In Humanities we did a warm up that involved choosing a few things to make our island nation successful e.g. having an army, inventing money, schools and Tescos etc…”

“We had fun exploring and looking for books in the library. Also it was fun sketching the library. All of us liked how there was a non-fiction part and a fiction part.”

Next week we look forward to broadening our understanding of millions through problem solving, further exploring the use of powerful language to create effective Autumn poems, and classifying a selection of sweets in Science!

See all photos

GAP Club

Highlights: We have had a fun-filled week back at GAP Club. The girls have been taking patients in the new Veterinary Clinic which we have officially named ‘Paws Are Here To Help Vets’.
The girls have painted with dabbers, made magical animal masks and created wooden spoon puppets.

What the girls have said:
“Being a vet and wrapping and wrapping until the bandage runs out. When I grow up I want to be a vet.” Holly, Year 1.
“I enjoyed making unicorn masks.” Anna, Year 6.

Looking ahead to next week:

  • Please be aware that from Monday you will need to access GAP Club via the black gate on the right of the building and then follow the building round to the left.
See all photos

Term Dates

Northampton High School
Newport Pagnell Road, Hardingstone Northampton NN4 6UU
T: 01604 765765 nhsadmin@nhs.Gdst.Net