We have had the pleasure of experiencing scholars’ concerts, sports fixtures, class assemblies, learning walks, and even a parents and guardians coffee morning. Above all, we have cherished our many interactions with the wonderful pupils of the Junior School. It truly has been a special time for both of us.

One thing that has stood out to us is the remarkable effort our pupils put into their work, which results in them creating pieces that they are genuinely proud of. This week, Year 2 delivered a wonderful class assembly focusing on the work they created whilst learning about the topic of Lunar New Year. The pupils read a story, sang a lively song about the Chinese Dragon, counted to ten in Mandarin and showcased their work with pride. I was particularly taken by their tiger artwork, each piece unique and special, much like our pupils. What impressed me most, however, was how confidently and clearly they presented, which is no small feat for younger members of the Junior School.

This edition of Junior News focuses on Computing lessons. Learning about computing, online safety, and AI is crucial for young children because it equips them with the skills to navigate an increasingly digital world. As technology becomes more integrated into daily life, understanding how to stay safe online, protect personal information and recognise AI-driven tools helps children make informed decisions. These lessons promote responsible behaviour and prepare our pupils for the future, ensuring they are both safe and capable in a tech-driven society.

We have a number of exciting events to look forward to in the next half term including Mothers’ Day afternoon tea, the Astroturf Grand Opening and the Year 5 and 6 performance of Peter Pan. Please make sure you scroll to the end of this article and put the dates of these unmissable events in your calendar. More information will follow shortly. 

Above all, we wish you a relaxing and peaceful half-term break when we hope you will be able to reconnect with friends and family and reflect on the first few weeks of 2025.

Mrs Saunders-Wall
Interim Director of Junior School Liaison

Nursery provides our girls with their first introductions to school and with this we have to coach them through their daily routine to enable them to transition smoothly through different spaces.  

They learn to modify their behaviour depending on which space they become familiar with being part of a bigger group and start to consider others in their day to day interactions.  

The girls have opportunities to develop their social and emotional skills in all activities. However, they are particularly encouraged to do this in Ballet, Library lessons, Cooking, PE, Forest School and French lessons.

During this final week of term in Preschool we have been focusing on Valentine’s Day and talking about people we love. The girls have drawn pictures of their family members, made cards and taken part in various heart themed crafts.

In our weekly PE session pupils have continued to work on under and over by crawling under and jumping over different pieces of appropriately sized equipment. This has been paired again with our book of the week ‘The Three Billy Goats Gruff’.

The girls have been practicing their writing this week by writing in our special cards, making marks in the foamy paint and painting on the large easel. The girls have also enjoyed swapping their library books and practicing their reading with our special reading books.

At Forest School pupils made a heart decoration out of clay, each decoration was unique and thoroughly thought out by each child.

To encourage a wide choice of songs at singing time we have been using puppets. Each child selects a puppet and comes up with a song which it links too. One child pulled out a star and decided we should all sing our Twinkle Twinkle Christmas star song from our concert.

In Reception Class this week, we have concluded our unit of work with the story of Jack and the Beanstalk.

We have planted our own beans and are looking forward to watching them change and grow. We all thought about what we would like to find at the top of a beanstalk. The class will be taking their beans home for the holiday and we look forward to seeing photographs of the beans growing on Tapestry.

I wonder how tall they will grow?

Over the past few weeks in our Computing session, we have been learning about creating and following instructions in order to solve a problem.

We began by sequencing a set of instructions to make a sandwich, identifying that these instructions had to be carried out in a correct order to be successful.

We then learnt that an ‘algorithm’ is a precise, step-by-step set of instructions used to solve a problem or achieve an objective. We followed an algorithm correctly to complete artwork and other challenges using the Purple Mash software.

As part of Safer Internet Day this week, we also thought about ways we can keep safe when we are using computers – what to do if a message appears on the screen and know how to get help from a trusted adult if we see content that makes us feel sad, uncomfortable worried or frightened.

Year 2 have been learning how to sort information using different types of charts and diagrams. The topic began with creating pictograms to represent the number of people living in different sorts of homes.

Following on from this, the girls generated helpful questions with a yes or no answer and used them to identify characters in a digital version of ‘Guess Who?’. They particularly enjoyed discovering how to use Kami on an existing document such as a PDF file.

Year 3 have spent the last few Computing lessons developing their touch typing skills. They have learned which fingers to use for different groups of keys on a keyboard but it is quite hard to remember! They have been keen to keep practising by playing the games on Purple Mash to improve their speed and accuracy.

The girls know that this important skill will be a great help to them in the future.

This week, our Year 4 students have been on a learning journey into the world of Google Sheets! They have unleashed their creativity by learning to format spreadsheets and create fun images using the fill tool. Our budding mathematicians have not only crafted pie charts and graphs but have also ventured into the realm of simple formulae, making data come to life!

In our English lessons, we’ve taken a unique twist by chatting with none other than the legendary Howard Carter himself, using AI . The children eagerly posed their questions and received fascinating answers from the man who discovered Tutankhamun’s tomb! Using this and their newfound knowledge from our class book, The Story of Tutankhamun, our students have been busy typing up Howard Carter’s biography. They have explored different font styles and sizes, used bold and underlined text, and even inserted images of the great archaeologist himself!

On Tuesday it was Safer Internet Day and we were talking about how people can scam you online. We learned about phishing which is when people take your personal information by getting you to click on a link on a website or chat to you in games.

We did an activity, and we had to find out whether it was a scam or not, and if we finished, we made up our own scams and tried to get them past our friends… but we were all too clever!

We learned a good way to remember the rules. SCAM stands for:
S = seems too good to be true
C = contact you did not expect
A = asking for personal information
M = money or trade

Dia, Aggie and Mayura

Year 6 have been planning and writing text adventures using 2Connect and 2Create a Story.

They have learned to think of different scenarios for their stories and the reader can select from options to change the outcome of well known fairy stories. Beware because the heroine does not always come out on top! They have used graphics and some animations to enhance their stories.

The girls have enjoyed creating their stories and will soon be evaluating each others when we share them on Purple Mash.

It was fun and I liked playing the example games – Zoe

I liked making our own adventures and that they had different endings – Cristina

U11A
The U11A team played an intense game against Nottingham High. We showed great resilience and determination throughout the match. Amber made some fabulous interceptions and Thea scored many goals. The Player of the Match went Thea and the score was a draw 10-10. 

U11B
The U11B team had a win with a score of 4-3. We had some great movement from Eloise R and Sophia who got us closer to the D, where Leah did some amazing shooting. Evie was Player of the Match and well done to everyone that played, you did an amazing job!

The tournament was held at Towcester Hockey Club. Caoimhe was playing for Towcester and Millicent for Northampton Saints, so rivals on the pitch.

Both girls played amazingly in goal and both made some great saves, helping both their teams qualify for the County finals to be held in Nottingham on 30 March.

Good luck to both teams and well done both girls for being definitely 10% braver playing in goal. 

Aspiring Maddie Hinch’s in the making!

Eve, Year 5, also played well on the pitch.

On Monday 10 February Years 6, 8 and 10 swam against Thornton College in a Gala held at Northampton High School.

Representing Year 6 was Avani, Eloise C, Elizabeth, Leah and myself, Evette. We dominated this gala taking 1st and 2nd place in every race!

Here are our results:

25M Backstroke
1st place – Leah
2nd place Eloise C

25M Freestyle
1st place – Evette
2nd place – Leah

25M Breaststroke
1st place – Avani
2nd place – Elizabeth

25M Butterfly
1st  place – Evette
2nd place – Avani

We also competed as a team in two 25M relays. The first was the 25M freestyle relay with Elizabeth, Eloise C, Leah and myself taking a comfortable 1st place.  

The second relay was a 25M medley with Eloise on backstroke putting us in a solid lead, Avani on breaststroke building our position, myself on butterfly increasing our lead to almost 10M and Elizabeth gaining even more ground to a fantastic 1st place by 15M. What a great race!

We had a brilliant time and worked well as a team. The other years also had an excellent Gala taking many 1st and 2nd places as well. 

Overall NHS won with 103 points and Thornton College took 2nd place with 81 points.

Evette, Year 6 Swimming Captain

There was a hard fought battle during the day as the classes kept changing their positions on the leader board. The final victors were Year 5!

In the whole competition, for the average score, we came 71st out of 3,623 schools. Well done girls!

There were the following awards given within our school:
1^st student overall Emily (Y5)
2^nd student overall Ivana (Y4)
3^rd student overall Eve (Y5)

The top 3 players in each year group were:

Year 3 Jasmine, Aleya and Inara
Year 4 Ivana, Zara and Senuli
Year 5 Emily, Eve and Caoimhe
Year 6 Zoe, Cristina and Eloise R

On 7 February Year 4 and Year 6 visited Milton Keynes Theatre to see Horrible Histories – Awful Egyptians.

I found the play enjoyable because of the twists and turns in it. I found the most interesting character hard to choose, because they all had very different personalities throughout the play. I felt like Ramesses II changed in some parts of the play. He was lighthearted during some of the songs, but when acting, his personality changed completely; he was more of a formidable character, with the presence of an almighty pharaoh. The other characters (the teacher and the child) were more cheerful and weren’t like Ramesses II at all.

I thought the play was not only adventurous and exciting, but it was also quite factual. I didn’t know that scarab beetles were supposed to make your heart lighter in the afterlife. I thought this fact, referring to mythology, was very interesting.

I preferred the part after the interval, because it was hair-raising when 3D effects where incorporated in the play. I found it so exciting when something seemed to jump out of the screen and I feel like these 3D effects were the highlights of the show!

I also found it very impressive that the animation timings were perfect – as soon as the teacher touched the screen, the animation of Ramesses’ statue shook. When the animation of the statue fell, I found it was very interesting that the teacher picked up a prop that was the same item pictured in the animation.

Overall, I found the play very intriguing, and the second half hooked me, due to the fact that it was so ominous!

Anushka, Year 6

We are very excited to share the news of our brand new girls-only toddler group starting this month!

Girls aged 1-3 and their parents, grandparents and guardians are all welcome to come along and delve into a wide variety of toys, crafts and ‘surprise play stations’ created to spark imagination and fun times. Always remember ‘dress to get messy!’.

This toddler group will be held fortnightly on Tuesdays, 9.15am – 10am, a full list of dates and the online booking form can be found on the school website https://www.northamptonhigh.co.uk/admissions/open-events/

Please feel free to share this with any friends who may be interested, and come and join us with your little ones too. Our next session is, Tuesday 25 February. The Spring Term sessions are free of charge.