Nothampton High School
Junior News

Junior News 17 January 2020

Dear Parents,

Welcome back to Northampton High Junior School for a brand new term. The girls have really matured over the winter break, coming back to school with renewed energy and focus.

In class this week, I have learnt about how to test for starch content; the size of the universe; how to make the number 12; world population growth; and I have loved seeing our youngest girls learning about the benefits of outdoor play. It may be cold and wet, but exercise and fresh air are crucial for our wellbeing.

Also key to wellbeing, is exposure to music. This week we have continued to build on our broad educational offer by introducing fully inclusive year group choirs for all girls from Years 1-6. Coming together to sing, learning lyrics and memorising melodies have huge benefits for learning; I am so excited to see our repertoire building and to hear the uplifting sound of singing in our corridors.

Mrs Fordham’s Year 6 class led a powerful assembly this week, sharing their thoughts and experiences about how we can learn from mistakes. We have talked at length with the girls about having a ‘Growth Mindset’ and not being afraid of failure, but it is always powerful when this message comes from the students themselves.

In our weekly staff development session this week we have been discussing the work of Tom Sherrington (@teacherhead) and his analysis of Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction. It is a wonderful book that helps us to look at teaching practices that enable learning to ‘stick.’ It is so important that we as teaching professionals keep learning, so as to be great learning role models for our students.

It is worth mentioning that Tuesday 11 February is UK Safer Internet Day. Please have a look at the following website, as they give a lot of good advice for schools and for parents as to how to stay safe online: https://www.saferinternet.org.uk. It might be worth having a dinnertime conversation with your daughter; are you fully aware of the apps and websites they are currently using, and are you absolutely sure that they are safe and secure?

Finally, I would like to formally introduce Mrs Clare Bing, who has joined our staff team as Nursery Manager, and Mrs. Sonia Ramskill, who has joined our team as a Teaching Assistant. They are already adding huge value to the school.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Chris Bailey
Head of Junior School

Inspection Report for Northampton High School

Following our visit by the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) in November 2019, I am pleased to tell you that the report has now been published. In their three days in school, the inspectors observed lessons and extracurricular activities, conducted interviews with pupils and staff and attended form meetings and assemblies. They also scrutinised data and the results of pre-inspection questionnaires, which were extremely positive. I thank all parents who contributed to these.

The Focused Compliance and Educational Quality Inspection concentrated on compliance with regulations, such as health and safety and the welfare of pupils, and on achievement and personal development. I am delighted to tell you that we met the regulations in all areas and that the report captures the essence of the school in so many ways.

“Pupil questionnaire responses confirm that an overwhelming majority believe that the school encourages them to respect and tolerate each other; this is clearly a strength of the school.”

The inspectors noted that ‘the quality of the pupils’ personal development is excellent’, ‘academic and other successes are excellent’ and that ‘pupils of all ages show extremely positive attitudes to learning’. They were deeply impressed by the girls, and I am too, for each was touched by the inspection in some way and was an ambassador for the school in her own right.

Comments such as ‘pupils develop a strong and deep appreciation of and respect for their own and other cultures and traditions’ and ’pupils throughout the school make excellent contributions to the school and the wider community’ come as no surprise, and the inspectors spoke of the girls’ self-understanding, self-confidence, self-discipline and resilience, too.

“Pupils have excellent communication skills, and collaborative working is a strength of the school.”

I speak on behalf of all staff in saying how proud I am of all of our pupils, and I know that you will be, too. My thanks to them, to you and to all colleagues and governors for securing this hugely positive report and for continuing to work together to make the High School the special place that it is.

For more information, including a link to the press release and full report, please click here.

Mrs Petryszak
Headmistress

Achievements

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

Dog Showing
Holly J – qualified to attend crufts 2020 (Young Handlers Class)

National Dance
Phoebe S – selected for Team England Dance World Cup in Rome

Music
Amelia N – violin grade 2 with distinction

Horse Riding
Ellie J-M – competition
Jessica W – competition

Skiing
Sophie H – competed in race

Swimming
Eliza A – 5m and floating

Taekuondo
Rebecca P – Student of the Year 2019

Assemblies

Class Assemblies are held in the Junior School Hall at 8.35am on a Wednesday. Parents are most welcome to enjoy refreshments from 8.00am in the Community Room. Here are the dates for the Spring Term.

6H – Wednesday 22 January

4N – Wednesday 29 January

5N – Wednesday 5 February

5H – Wednesday 26 February

2N – Wednesday 4 March

3N – Wednesday 11 March

Reception – Wednesday 18 March

1N – Wednesday 25 March

 

 

Dates for Diary

Tuesday 21 January – Year 6 trip to Birmingham Think Tank Museum

Tuesday 21 January – Pre-School visit to Richmond Village

Thursday 23 January – Sports Team Photographs

Thursday 6 February – Reception and Year 6 Health Screening

Friday 7 February  – Nursery Stay and Play

w/c Monday 10 February – Year 5 and 6 Play in a week

Tuesday 11 February – UK Safer Internet Day

w/c Monday 17 February – Half Term

Wednesday 26 – Friday 28 February – Year 3 and 4 Burwell Residential

Monday 2 March – Nursery Stay and Play

Thursday 5 March – Year 5 trip to Bletchley Park

Thursday 5 March – World Book Day

Friday 6 March – International Women’s Day

w/c Monday 9 March – Science Week

Looking ahead: Sports Day for KS2 and Senior School is Friday 5 June

Clubs

The following club has been cancelled:

  • Monday 10 February – Creative Board Games Year 5 and 6.

Sports

Spring Term Fixtures

Under 10 and 11 Netball matches

 

Wed 22 January Laxton Prep School U11 A & B Away
Wed 29 January Milton Keynes Prep School U11 A & B Home
Fri 31 January Tour weekend (selected) U10 & 11 Home
Wed 5 February Grove School U11A & B Home
Wed 12 February Winchester House U11 A Away
Wed 26 February Bedford Modern U10 A & B, U11 A & B Away
Wed 4 March Quinton House U11 A & B Away
Wed 11 March Bilton Grange School U10 A & B

U11 A & B

Home
Wed 18 March Broughton Manor U11 A & B Home

Under 8 and 9 Netball Matches

 

Fri 24 January Grove School U8 A & B

U9

Home
Fri 31 January Quinton House U9 A Away
Fri 28 February Bedford Modern U8 A

U9 A

Away
Fri 6 March Grove School U8 A & B

U9

Away
Fri 27 March Broughton Manor U9 A Away

Swimming

 

Mon 27 January Stamford School U9, U10 ,U11 Home
Wed 25 March Kimbolton School U9 ,U10 ,U11 Away

Cross Country

 

Sat 18 January County Round Year 5
Thur 12 March GDST Rally Year 5 & 6

 

 

See all photos

Nursery Kipper Room and Elmer Room

Kipper Room:

With the new year has come a few new friends so we wish them and their families a warm welcome. It has been a very busy week with everything up and running again… ballet, gymnastics, library visits, (very) messy play, singing, stories, inside and outside exploration and so on.

Now that Kipper and Elmer Room numbers are increasing, we have decided to change our Wednesday afternoon visit to Forest School. We will instead be enjoying different outdoor experiences by ourselves and leaving Forest School once again as an adventure for the girls to look forward to once they move through to Elmer Room. This week the girls enjoyed a walk in the school grounds, looking at the bare trees and rotting leaves on the ground and contemplating the changing seasons.
Please ensure that your daughter has an extra layer of warm clothing in their bag.

Thank you for your continued support and here’s to an exciting and adventurous 2020.

Elmer Room:

This week in the Elmer Room, the girls have experienced using their senses with various messy play activities such as a dinosaur swap with mushy peas and a zoo with animals crunching in the cereal: “it crackles”, Yana said. We have started to think about Chinese New Year with our interest table and Chinese restaurant; the girls explored playing with real noodles. At Forest School we made wind sticks and watched them blow in the wind. Looking ahead to next week we will continue to explore our senses.

See all photos

Nursery Pre-School

Highlights:

This week we have been thinking about ‘hearing’. We listened carefully when we visited Forest School and heard: the birds, a police car and the cars. The girls decided the leaves were squelchy and the mud was squishy. We played listening games, guessing what Mrs Browning had in her box and in Music we followed the rhythm. We have enjoyed exploring rice, cooked pasta and the play dough. For our sound of the week ‘c’ we have made crowns, planted cress and eaten cress and carrots.

What the girls have enjoyed:

During our walk Siena-Louise said that she could hear the wind, Hope heard someone making food, and Eloise heard a bird. Connie loved the cress. Lots of the other girls were happy to try it, many deciding it was not very tasty.

Looking ahead to next week:

  • Our sound of the week is ‘k’.
  • The sense we are looking at is ‘seeing’.
  • We are looking at healthy eating and different foods.
  • On Tuesday we will be visiting Richmond Village with six girls.
  • On Wednesday we have a potter coming to work with the girls and we will all be making leaves for a tree which will be on display in the dining room.
See all photos

 

Reception

Highlights:

The girls have returned to school after the break, eager and ready to learn. They have been enjoying the ‘Toy Shop’ role play and using coins to pay for items. We have focused on the material ‘fabric’ and have done some observational drawings of teddy bears and designed and cut different fabrics to make a princess dress. Our word of the week was ‘look’ for our sentence writing. In Maths we have been combining groups to find a total and investigating different ways of making 12.

What the girls have said:

“I liked counting the ladybird spots and the fruit shop,” Caoimhe.
“I enjoyed drawing my favourite toy,” Shanaya.
“My favourite thing was painting a picture of my Narwhal,” Emily.
“I liked painting a picture of Flopsy,” Isabella.

See all photos

Year 1

Highlights:

Welcome to the Spring Term! Year 1 have been very excited to launch into our new topic ‘Space’. Last week, we had a super exciting ‘Wow Day’ where we created a universe in a bottle, built our own class rockets and looked at the story, ‘Back to Earth with a Bump’. This week, we have been looking at a story ‘The Way Back Home’ and trying to create story maps and role plays using this book. We have been working really hard on practising our number bonds to 10 and then using them to help us work out our number bonds to 20. In Science, we explored light and dark and in History we learnt about Neil Armstrong and his achievements in Space.

What the girls have said:

“I have enjoyed learning the ‘ea’ sound in phonics,” Thea.
“I liked Art when we were making pointillism pictures,” Eloise.
“I liked Computing when we made pictograms using fruit,” Holly H.
“My favourite part was learning about the UK in Geography,” Holly G-S.

Looking ahead to some of next week’s learning:

  • English – we will be continuing our work on ‘The Way Back Home’ and looking at imaginative writing.
  • Maths – addition and subtraction.
  • Geography – identifying cities, towns and villages.
See all photos

Year 2

Highlights:

The girls have loved the start of their new Space topic. Kicking it off last week with our WOW day, we explored the universe and our solar system, we thought about the ten things we would take to space, we made some space pictures, stick puppets, explored our new role play area, built a rocket and even made a universe in a bottle! Since our WOW day, we have learned about Neil Armstrong, created a space scene in Art using collage and printing and stamping techniques and we have learned about different sources of light in Science. In Maths we have continued our work on multiplication and division, exploring related facts.

What the girls have said:

“I enjoyed making our Space scene using the stamps in Art,” Jemima, Angelie, Leilana and Kyla.
“I liked learning about Neil Armstrong,” Sakinah.
“I liked learning about all the different planets,” Maya.
“Swimming lengths in swimming,” Anna.
“I’ve liked the activities in phonics this week,” Asmi.

Looking ahead to some of next week’s learning:

  • English – The Way Back Home by Oliver Jeffers – imaginative writing.
  • Maths – multiplication and division.
  • Humanities – identifying cities, towns and villages.
See all photos

Year 3

Highlights:

This week we have used the expanded method for addition and learnt how to use the column method. In Humanities we have used an atlas to find the counties that border Northamptonshire and drawn how we think Jesus would have looked. In Science we looked at healthy eating and what we need as part of a balanced diet. We have food diaries to complete over the weekend.

What the girls have said:

“I enjoyed drawing the pastel image of what I think Jesus looks like,” Zoe.
“I enjoyed using column addition to add 3-digit numbers,” Ellie.
“I liked learning about Shakespeare and making a poster about his life,” Avleen.
“I liked finding out the names of the counties that border Northamptonshire using an atlas,” Harini.

See all photos
See all photos

Year 4

Highlights:

In Maths this week we have been using written methods for addition and subtraction and checking answers with the inverse operation. In English we read extracts from ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ by C.S. Lewis and used drama and role play to generate ideas for a story set in an imaginary world. We have also learnt how to make ‘lift-the-flap’ and ‘box fold’ pop-ups in DT.

What the girls have said:

“I liked doing my freeze frames with my group in English. It gave me lots of ideas for a story,” Darcy.
“My highlight of the week was Maths because I liked doing adding and subtracting,” Rithika.
“I liked Computing because we were writing about ourselves and learning to use Word Online,” Vivienne.

Looking ahead to some of next week’s learning:

  • English – we will be creating and describing characters who could live in an imaginary world.
  • Maths – we will be using written methods for multiplication and division.
  • Humanities – we will be using our research skills to find out about Buddhism.
See all photos
See all photos

Year 5

Highlights:

This week in English we continued evaluating the figurative language in The Highwayman, writing some amazing similes and metaphors ourselves. In Maths we learnt how to add and subtract decimals, including money. In Science girls have been separating materials, including solutions and suspensions, using different scientific processes – filtration, evaporation, magnetic attraction and sieving.

What the girls have said:

“In Science we did an experiment separating different materials. I liked being in a group because there were more ideas than just one person would have,” Emily K.
“This week I liked Enrichment because we were seeing what life would be life during WW2. Me and my group talked about the clothing and food rationing, entertainment, the jobs women had and evacuation, that means when the bombs were coming to London, the children were sent to the countryside to be safe,” Elizabeth.

Looking ahead to some of next week’s learning: 

  • English – Narrative Poetry: The Highwayman – writing a diary entry.
  • Science – what is the difference between a reversible and an irreversible change to a material?
  • Maths – subtracting numbers using formal methods and exploring number patterns.
See all photos
See all photos

Year 6

Week 2 – Welcome back Year 6
Yet again we cannot believe another week has passed and just how much we have managed to explore and discover in Year 6 this week, from starch testing in Science to travelling the globe in Humanities; analysing and presenting data in Maths and producing high level descriptive writing in English. In particular, a huge ‘well done’ goes to 6N for their assembly on turning failure into success through creating a positive mindset and to all the girls for gathering together a huge array of props and costume ideas for the performance of Scheherazade, on Thursday 13 February.
We look forward to seeing 6H’s assembly next week as well as going to The Think Tank on Tuesday.  Girls should be in school uniform for this trip and bring a packed lunch and drink. We will be leaving school by 8.15am so an early start is required for this day. We are hoping to return by 3.30pm but as we cannot guarantee this, those who go on the bus may wish to make other arrangements, just in case, or book a place on the late bus.
On Thursday, Sports photos will be taking place (apologies for our impromptu dress rehearsal this week!) so girls will need to come in their kit on that day and can remain in it for the rest of the day.
Wishing you all a restful weekend.

Karen Fordham and James Loveday

Student voices:
“In Maths we were learning about collective data in pie charts and analyzing data and problem-solving!”
“In English we have been looking at scenes from ‘The Hobbit’ and have written about the trolls and dragons. We watched the scene several times to take notes and then wrote a detailed description.”
“In Computing we have been doing ‘i-stop motion’; we had to make frames of us scrunching up paper. We had a lot of fun and can’t wait to do more!”
“In Science we were testing whether foods had starch in them. We mushed up the foods using a pestle and mortar and poured them into a test tray. Then we added 2-3 drops of iodine (a yellow liquid) and if it turned purple, black or blue it had starch! It was really fun!”
“In Art we have been working on cushion designs. We have nearly finished them and they look really good.”

See all photos

GAP Club

Highlights:

Happy New Year!
It has been lovely to see everyone back after our Christmas break. In GAP Club we have been busy creating our new ski chalet role play complete with skis, a fireplace and its very own sleigh. The girls have also created mini sleighs for the penguins, fir trees and polar bears for the interactive display. We have begun creating a display behind the ski chalet and designed mittens.

What the girls have enjoyed:
“Making the sleighs.” Emily, Reception.
“I like this area, it is big and has lots of space. I like the open fire, penguins and maps because when I’m older I want to be an explorer,” Arty, Year 2.
“Mittens, because I put glitter on them,” Keziah, Year 2.

Looking ahead:

  • The girls will be participating in more wintry activities and having a special chocolate treat to keep warm.
See all photos

Join Our Team

We have a number of exciting vacancies available here at Northampton High School.

Please click the below link to view, and feel free to contact us if you would like further details.

Mrs Gates
HR Officer

Vacancies

Term Dates

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