Our pupils continue to thrive in their studies, demonstrating not only academic diligence but also admirable qualities such as bravery, kindness, and thoughtfulness.

On Thursday, we had the pleasure of welcoming Mrs Lucy Stawt, who will officially begin her role as Head of Junior School in September. It was a wonderful opportunity for our pupils, parents, and staff to meet Mrs Stawt. After Easter, she will join us one day a week to continue getting to know the girls and is looking forward to connecting with parents as well.

A highlight of the week was the Mother’s Day Afternoon Tea on Thursday 21 March, which was a tremendous success, with over 70 guests in attendance. The event celebrated the inspiring women in our pupils’ lives, and everyone enjoyed a selection of delicious treats, from finger sandwiches to cakes and scones, all while engaging in lively conversation. A highlight of the afternoon was the pupils’ delightful musical performances, including a charming rendition of ‘Cockles and Muscles’ and the upbeat ‘Heatwave.’ Their rehearsed and energetic performances left the audience, myself included, beaming with pride. This heartwarming event was a true reflection of the deep affection and gratitude our girls feel for their mothers, grandmothers, and other significant women who shape their lives. A sincere thank you to everyone who joined us in this special celebration. Photos from the event will be shared in next weeks Junior News.

This week also saw the fantastic Spring Art Collective, where we had the pleasure of viewing an impressive array of artwork, from drawings and paintings to prints and sculptures. It was wonderful to see such strong representation from the Junior School, with many students contributing to this creative showcase. Every artist should be incredibly proud of their work.

Looking ahead, we have many exciting events to look forward to, including the Dance Festival on Tuesday 25 March, the Astroturf Grand Opening on Friday, 28 March, and the Year 5 and 6 performance of Peter Pan on Wednesday, 2 April. There are many more wonderful occasions on the horizon, and we are very much looking forward to them.

Mrs Saunders-Wall
Interim Director of Junior School Liaison

This week in Nursery we have focussed on the ‘Billy Goats Gruff’ which has helped us with our maths, literacy and language.  The girls have made their own puppets, acted out the story using small world props as well as during role play.  

On Wednesday we took a trip to the church, inside we watched a video about Easter and also explored the church looking for different things, including the pews, font, pulpit and stained glass windows.

This week Preschool has been full of crafts, painting and mark making. The girls have had the chance to paint observational pictures of Daffodils and they all took their own unique approach to this.

We had our very exciting trip to the local church where the girls followed and listened to instructions extremely well. They walked very nicely holding hands with their partner. We talked about road safety and why it was important to look for cars when crossing the road. Once we arrived at the church we were given a treasure hunt of pictures and we had to find the matching items in the church. The Vicar also showed us some of the clothing she wears during her services. We learnt that she wears different colours throughout the year. Lastly the girls watched a short video about the Easter story; which was made with Lego and told in a way that was age appropriate for our girls.

In PE we have continued to practise controlling a ball and making it move to where we want it to go. We even got time to play ‘hot potato’ with a ball as this was a favourite game from last week.

We went on a wonderful walk to the church and on the way spotted flowers beginning to bloom, as well as buds and leaves sprouting. Our visit to the church was to learn all about the Easter story. The girls participated in a church treasure hunt, looking for different objects or structures within the church building such as stained glass windows, the pulpit and a hymn book. The Vicar explained that different chasubles are worn at different times of year within the Christian calendar.

We began by evaluating a range of dips including hummus, guacamole, salsa and raita. We then went on to explore which dippers would work best and tried dipping crackers, breadsticks, carrot, cucumber, pepper, nachos and pitta bread into natural yogurt.

Next week we will be designing our own dips and end the term making and testing them.

Using animals as inspiration for the design, they set to work creating a template, cutting fabric, stitching the body together and adding embellishments.

They have shown fantastic concentration and perseverance and the results are excellent!

Year 3 have shown great enthusiasm for their DT topic about Indian food. Research based activities focused on finding out where some of our food comes from and naming the main ingredients in a range of Indian dishes.

The practical work began with mixing and tasting a selection of spices before following instructions carefully to make a very tasty potato curry. After that, the girls made their own roti (flatbread) and finally they created a delicious dessert called coconut barfi.

Special thanks go to Mrs Shah for organising and leading the cooking sessions.

In Design Technology, our talented pupils have been busy designing their very own pop-up books, inspired by traditional fairy tales. They have explored various pop-up techniques, including mouth folds, spring pops, window flaps, and linear pulls. Each page will be a delightful surprise, showcasing their innovative ideas!

Meanwhile, our budding artists have been hard at work on their stunning Egyptian portraits. They have put their hearts into designing unique headdresses and necklaces, celebrating the rich culture and history of ancient Egypt. We simply cannot wait to showcase these masterpieces in the summer term’s art exhibition!

Year 5 have enjoyed learning about Abstract Art this term, and have created some wonderful pieces in the syle of different artists.

“My favourite painting has been the Joan Miro because, to be honest, doing the splashes and the lines made it look really similar to the original but also totally our own.” Grace

“I really enjoyed doing a piece of work based on ‘The Ten Largest’ by Hilma af Klint. It was a real challenge using the oil pastels because we had to blend them really well and get the perfect colour for the background.” Orla

“I liked doing a Kandinsky painting because we got to experiment with different shapes and colours and think about how they went together. I really liked seeing the mixes and I love how mine turned out.” Caoimhe

Year 6 have been learning lots of different types of embroidery stitches.

They have designed a wall hanging which incorporates different textures and stitches. Eventually the project will culminate in the class using a sewing machine to complete their piece.

At Forest School this week some of the girls made jewellery out of elderwood, which may be part of their costumes for Peter Pan. They had to show great resilience to cut the wood, hollow it out and thread it onto wool.

Last Monday, the Year 5 girls went to Bletchley Park and had an amazing day finding out about the World War II codebreakers.

“I liked seeing how the Enigma machine worked because there were so many different combinations they could code information. During our Codes & Ciphers worshop, it was fun (but difficult at the same time) trying to work out different codes and what some morse code was saying.” Eve

“I really liked going into the huts and seeing rooms the actual codebreakers used to be in. I thought they would have been slightly bigger, but in the olden days they didn’t need as much stuff or as much space. I also liked finding out that they weren’t allowed to talk to anyone about what they were doing, not even people in the other huts.” Olivia

“I liked the guided tour because we got to dress up as different people. It taught of what it would have been like to arrive at Bletchley Park and find out about the different people who were involved in codebreaking.” Aggie

Last week some very excited Year 1s and 2s visited the Legoland Discovery Centre in Birmingham.

As part of our jam-packed day we rode the Knight’s Quest ride, visited ‘Miniland’ a detailled model city of Birmingham and experienced the 4D cinema.

The highlight though was taking part in an engineering workshop to learn how wind can be utilised to move vehicles. In this, the girls had to create a lego sail car in groups which they then raced.

It was a fantastic day filled with discovery and fun!

Students in Junior and Senior School took their RAD Ballet exam on Monday 17 March in our beautiful ballet studio.

We had smiling faces and lots of pointed toes and certainly each group enjoyed themselves immensely.

Congratulations to all who took part, I was very proud of how you all danced so beautifully.

Thank you for all your hard work.

Miss Sinead

In Science, Year 2 have been learning about habitats.

This week at Forest School, we looked in the pond (a ‘micro habitat’) to see what we could find. We sadly did not find any frog spawn (we concluded that it might be a little to early in the spring) but we did find plenty of other minibeasts!

On Monday the 17 March we participated in a Swimming Gala against Bedford Girls School.

There were three teams, Year 6A with Leah, Elizabeth, Eloise C and myself. The Year 6B Team with Annabel, Thea, Hesali and Avani and Flora, Orla, Mayu, Eve and Olivia made up the Year 5 team. 

Team 6A came very close with 26 points, but Bedford beat us by 2 points with 28.

Team 6B did really well scoring 24 points but unfortunately Bedford scored 30 points.

And finally Year 5 had tough competition scoring 18 points and Bedford scoring 36 points. 

Overall we scored 68 points and Bedford 94 points. Bedford were a tough team to swim against and although they won overall, all of us swam really well, put in a lot of effort and believed in ourselves.

Evette B, Swimming Captain 

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 March. The Spring Term sessions are free of charge.