From remembering to top up their sun cream to keeping well hydrated throughout the day, it has been impressive to see such maturity across all year groups.

I had the pleasure of joining Year 6 at Forest School this week, where they ended their session in the most refreshing way, with a well-earned water fight! Spirits were high with laughter echoing through the trees. Despite my best tactic of running laps around the perimeter to avoid being caught, I still left the activity thoroughly soaked!

Meanwhile, Year 4 embraced the chance to truly cool off with a trip to the Snowzone in Milton Keynes. Swapping sun hats for waterproofs, the girls had a brilliant time being 10% braver whilst taking a break from the heat.

A special thank you goes to our wonderful Year 6 pupils, who showed fantastic leadership and care during the Nursery and Preschool Sports Afternoon on Tuesday. Their enthusiasm helped make the event memorable for our youngest learners, and they were rewarded afterwards with strawberries and cream and well-deserved ice lollies on the lawn.

There’s still plenty to look forward to as we approach the end of term, not least our much-anticipated Summer Fayre. Please do keep an eye out for further details and remember to purchase your tokens in advance where possible. We can’t wait to see you there!

Mrs Saunders-Wall
Interim Director of Junior School Liaison

This week in Nursery the girls have been enjoying the glorious sunshine. We have pretended we have been at the seaside making sandcastles and playing with water in various ways.

Our story of the week is “A Hug for Humphrey” which explores kindness amongst Humphrey and his peers. Kindness is something we as a group have been working on, and as teachers, we have been praising this when we have seen it, which has been often.  

At the craft table we have had a variety of bear activities including brown paint, painting teddy bears using circular sponges and apples.

A collage of a bear’s face using a variety of sensory resources.

Sports afternoon was a huge success children participating in many different activities. I think the medals and ice lollies were a big highlight!

This weeks highlight in Preschool was our sports afternoon, where the girls were joined by family members and took part in various sports races. It was lovely to see so many parents and grandparents join us for this special event.

We have continued to look at our topic of changes over time during our PSHE session. We looked at how animals and humans change from young to adults. The girls took great interest in the photos of how people change over time by asking lots of questions and commenting on the physical changes they could see, male facial hair being one of the most asked about and interested the girls the most.

We have also been practicing our phonics skills with the initial letter sound beanbags. The girls took it in turns in small groups to be the teacher, holding up a beanbag for their peers to identify by it’s initial sound.

The girls have found different ways to cool down in the lovely sunshine. We have had spray bottles of water, placed our feet in cool water, played in the water tray and used ice paints to make lots of lovely prints.

Reception have been learning all about a story called ‘Around the World with Max and Lemon’ in which the little girl travels the world to find out if she is unique. The girls have enjoyed talking about what makes them special and unique. They have enjoyed discussing the different countries visited within the story and have found them on a map of the world. They have also worked hard to order the story and write post cards pretending to be Max on her travels.

This term, we’ve been learning some traditional French playground games.

This week, we practised counting in French before heading outside to enjoy the sunshine and play “Poissons et Pêcheurs” – a game where we took turns running under the fishermen’s arms until they lowered them to catch a fish!

As a class, we particularly enjoyed playing Le facteur est-il passé?. After revising the days of the week in French and learning the accompanying song, we headed to the hall and had a great time singing and chasing the ‘mailman’!

In Year 3, we have been learning about snack food and how to order it at a café. We have particularly enjoyed ordering food in French as well as recognising key vocabulary for food items. Students also tested their reading skills recognising ice-cream flavours and creating their own sentences.

This week, we added country names to our vocabulary and practised saying how we travel. We had fun using speaking games like ‘Trapdoor’ to help us build sentences.

Year 5 have been learning about the Francophone world. After exploring different French-speaking countries, they have now started a group project to research one in more detail.

This week, the pupils have gathered information and started planning their presentations, which they will share with the class in a couple of weeks.

Year 6 have been revising key vocabulary to prepare for their upcoming presentations about famous French-speaking people. They have practised describing appearance, hobbies, and where someone is from. Each pupil has been given a person to research, and they will soon be working in pairs to present one of their two people to the class.

On Tuesday, Year 3 went on a brilliant trip to Northampton Museum. We travelled back in time to see lots of cool artefacts from the history of Northampton, before looking at some amazing shoes and taking part in a shoemaking workshop. Here are our thoughts about the day:

“My favourite bit was writing about the Anglo-Saxons.” Inara

“I liked looking at the medieval key.” Robin

“I enjoyed learning about the Great Fire of Northampton.” Jasmine

“I liked looking into the pawnbroker’s shop and hearing the pawnbroker talk to us.” Emily

“The shoe gallery interested us because there were some funny shoes with very high heels.” Anne and Isla

“I liked the shoe gallery because of all the different coloured shoes.” Akira

“I liked holding the different types of shoes and finding out what they were.” Isabelle

“It was really interesting finding out how shoes are made and now I know much more about the tools.” Ella and Grace

“I was fascinated when we heard about how to make shoes.” Aleya

On Monday, Year 5 had a fantastic day conducting a river study at Everdon. We did four activities which were measuring the flow rate of the river, sketching the meander, measuring the depth of the river and stream dipping for invertebrates.

“My favourite activity at Everdon was measuring how fast the river was flowing because you had to time exactly when the ball went in the water and how long it took to get to the 10m mark. Catching the ball with a net… and throwing (not throwing, dropping) the ball in… were the best jobs.” Eve and Olivia

“The best activity was measuring the depth of the river at different points so that we could create a transect diagram. We really liked going in the water because it was fun splashing around with our friends, and getting water in our wellie-boots when we went into the deep bit.” Maya and Orla

“I really liked stream dipping because Emily and I caught 3 fish! One of them was really small, one of them was even smaller and the third one was the biggest. Loads of people got freshwater shrimps, and Annie and Mayura caught an enormous dragonfly lava. It was interesting when we found two very small snail shells, and then a huge one filled with mud. Rhoda, Olivia and I also found a flat worm which looked like a fish but was actually really disgusting.” Caoimhe and Isabella

Do ask your daughter to show you our photos on Google Classroom.

The World Challenge team are fundraising for their expedition to Borneo in 2026, and are hosting an end of year movie night. Junior school pupils are invited to attend on Monday 7 July, with the event finishing in time for the late bus.

Please book using this link and a letter with more details has already been sent out.

Thank you for your support.

The World Challenge Team

This year, we are delighted that Junior School will be taking over the space in the Senior School Foyer with their Art Exhibition.

Their work is always delightful and highly creative. The Art and Textiles exhibitions across all year groups are being prepared by staff. GCSE and A Level students, through their original and sophisticated pieces, have yet again reached exceptionally high standards, so please do come and see for yourself.

Additionally, we are running two informal and fun opportunities for our students to draw or paint live!

‘Draw Your Pet’ – Open to all age groups from Nursery-Year 13. Come and grab some pencils and sit in our beautiful gardens to draw your pet using your chosen photograph.

‘At The Easel’ – Landscape Painting – Open to Year 6-Year 13. – Come and paint your landscape in the grounds or classrooms – there will be easels set up with brushes and paints ready for you to select from. Students can come and discuss their composition and chosen photograph with the Art Department.

There will be prizes awarded to works that particularly impress the judges but the most important point is to enjoy the experience. A warm welcome awaits you with delicious refreshments from our amazing catering team and summer bakes and pastries will be served in the Food Department.

Mrs Beacroft
Head of Creative Arts

We have our Welcome Day next Friday, 27 June. Swap Shop will open in the afternoon and we would be grateful for any school uniform donations please. Current Year 11’s can bring in items of uniform on Wednesday 25 June, our Sixth Form Welcome Day. Thank you.