Junior News 23 April 2021

Researching the impact of GHL

As we reflect on the impact this incredibly difficult year has had on society generally, we are mindful of our responsibility to learn from the situation to make our school a better place for our pupils. For this reason we have been designing programmes to investigate how students and families across the school community experienced Guided Home Learning (GHL) over the two lockdowns.

Debbie Hill, as Trust Consultant Teacher for Educational Research, has already written in High News about her work, which will also include surveys and interviews of staff members as well as families and pupils. As a formal piece of peer-reviewed research, Mrs Hill will be working with the wider GDST community to develop detailed evidence of the extent to which GHL impacted on progress and innovation in teaching and learning. Her research will continue over the next few months to include focus groups and work with selected students and teachers in school.

At the end of last term, I also ran a shorter research programme with alternate year groups (Years 5,7 and 9) to gather more experiential information about GHL from both students and families. This, less detailed work, will inform our thinking in the coming weeks and will give an insight into the ways we can improve the learning experience of anyone who has to work from home because of the pandemic. It will also help us understand the wellbeing implications of GHL so that we are better able to plan for remote learning if this should be necessary again on a wider scale.

Read more in the latest edition of Headlines (pages 5/6) by clicking here.

Mr Rickman
Deputy Head Academic

Charlotte and Ruby donate wonderful portraits of Mr Bailey

A big thank you to Charlotte and Ruby, in Year 7, for thinking about Mr Bailey and his wonderful contribution to the school.

Charlotte, thank you for asking Ruby to paint several portraits of Mr Bailey and donating some of your pocket money towards this project. Ruby, what a talented artist you are – you have really captured the spirit of Mr Bailey in all of the portraits that you have created, and we look forward to displaying them in the Junior School.

Mrs Fordham
Class 6 Teacher

Achievements

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

Angelie
Was a Finalist at the GDST Dance Competition

Phoebe
Achieved 7 medals in the following dance festivals:

• Leicestershire Spring Dance Festival – 1st place classical ballet solo and 1st place musical theatre solo
• Step Above Dance Festival – 1st place classical ballet solo and 1st place musical theatre solo
• Look For the Rainbow Dance Festival – 1st place classical ballet solo, 2nd place musical theatre solo and 3rd place vocal solo

Dates for your diary

Monday 3 May – Bank Holiday

Monday 31 May to Friday 4 June – Half Term

Summer uniform is compulsory after May half term.

Nursery Kipper Room and Elmer Room

This week in Nursery we have welcomed some new friends to our Nursery family. The girls have spent lots of time exploring the outdoor areas now the weather has started to become more Spring-like.

One of our favourite things has been watering the plants with the watering cans we made from milk bottles. The large bricks have been constructed into very tall towers throughout the week, watching what happens when the towers get too tall and fall down. “Jump up!” Elodie said; “On your tip toes!” Annabel exclaimed when Miss Cooke was helping to make the tower higher.

We also have a shop set up in the role play area. The till and baskets of food have been an exciting new addition. “Pizza, who wants pizza!” Penelope announced.

Nursery Pre School

It was lovely to welcome all the girls back after the Easter break.

They have shared stories about the different ways they have celebrated Easter, some with Easter eggs, some with sweets and others with toy rabbits or sheep. The girls have also shared their excitement about beginning to meet up with friends and family members in gardens and parks.

Our focus story this week has been ‘The Happy Hedgehog Band’. In the story lots of animals come together to make music. The girls made their own instruments using elastic bands, bells, pasta and recycling items, then, as Mrs Mason read the story, the girls held their instrument very still until it was their turn to play. Well done girls for demonstrating fantastic listening and waiting skills.

Continuing with our music theme we made the most of the weather and took our singing session outside on the hill which made ‘The Grand Old Duke of York’ much more fun.

Maybe you could enjoy some music at home and send us some photos to share.

Reception

This week we have been learning about Minibeasts, particularly ones with no legs! How many can you think of? We looked at a famous painting called ‘The Snail’ by Henri Matisse. We then had a go at our own version, by tearing different coloured paper into small pieces, we decided that our finished pictures were much better than the one by Matisse!

All the girls have started to do some sewing and we are going to be working on a project over this half term. We have read the book ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ and used props for a story retell.

We have been enjoying the sunny weather and our outside activities and have been learning some new Minibeast songs.

Year 1

This week in Year 1, we had a very exciting Wow Day to introduce our new topic ‘The Secret Garden.’ Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the day and there were so many exciting activities to get through. We started by looking at the traditional tale of ‘The Gingerbread Man,’ acting out and sequencing this well-known story.

We worked collaboratively to create a colourful painting of a secret picture, working hard on our own sections to help make the final masterpiece. We were able to design our own gingerbread person, use our exciting new Potting Shed role play area and take part in lots of other exciting activities, including a fairy garden, puppet show and crafting flowers.

This week we have also been finishing our Maths work on capacity and volume, and in English, we have been looking at the story of ‘The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon.’

What the girls have said:

“I really liked the gingerbread-designing and the nursery rhyme, ‘Hey, Diddle, Diddle’.” Isabella.
“I liked the fairy garden and painting flowers.” Grace.
“I liked designing the gingerbread man.” Emily.
“We loved making the flowers and playing in our new role play area.” Shanaya, Caoimhe and Elouise.
“I liked the hot seating activity when we pretended to be the Spoon.” Eve.

Looking ahead to next week:

Maths – multiplication and division
English – ‘The Three Little Pigs’
Science – plants and what they need to grow

Year 2

This week saw the introduction of our new topic for the Summer Term, ‘The Secret Garden’.

We all enjoyed a fantastic Wow Day which included decorating gingerbread people, puppets and puppet shows, creating a huge piece of artwork together and the opening of the potting shed in the role play area, which was a huge hit amongst all the girls! Following the Wow Day we have been busy completing lots of work. In English, we looked in more detail at the nursery rhyme, ‘Hey Diddle Diddle’ and even learned what happened to the dish and the spoon after they’d run away together.

This led to some excellent writing in the role of the spoon. In Maths, we have continued our work on fractions, exploring halves and quarters, and in Geography we have started to look at our local area.

The sunny weather this week made for an exciting time in Forest School where the girls developed their teamwork skills and enjoyed building some more dens together.

What the girls have said:

“I liked swimming.” Kinara and Eloise R.
“I liked Wow Day and playing with the small world in the sand.” Eloise C.
“I liked decorating the biscuits.” Amber.
“I liked swimming and diving to get the sink rings.” Amelia.

Looking ahead to next week:

English – traditional tales
Maths – fractions
Science – plants

Year 3

This week we have started to write newspaper reports in English about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. We have role played being survivors and reporters and interviewed each other to get quotes for our reports.

In Maths, we have been learning about tenths and starting to understand decimals. Our Science and Humanities lessons have been linked to our English text as we have found out about how volcanoes and igneous rocks are formed.

What the girls have said:

“I enjoyed being a survivor and a reporter in English, finding out about Pompeii after Vesuvius erupted.” Cordelia.
“I enjoyed finding out about igneous rocks in Science and making a PowerPoint.” Eva.
“I liked having our ‘Show and Tell’ session because I like sharing things with my classmates.” Maya.
“I liked learning about tenths in Maths; fractions are now becoming clearer.” Anna.
“I liked hearing the final part of the story ‘Escape from Pompeii’; it was very dramatic.” Poppy.

Looking ahead to next week:

Maths – continuing with work on fractions. Finding equivalent fractions and fractions of amounts
English – writing and editing our newspaper reports about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and working on improving our handwriting to try and get a pen licence
Science – working on our PowerPoints about different rock types. Please can the girls remember to have their headphones in school on Wednesday, so they can watch the videos to help them with their research

Have a good weekend in the sunshine!

Year 4

In Maths, we have written, ordered and compared decimals. In English, we have enjoyed reading about Tutankhamun. We created colour-coded mind maps and then wrote non-chronological reports using the information we had gathered.

In Science, we started learning about how sounds are made and enjoyed the practical activities with rice and drums, tuning forks and rulers. We then walked around the school and completed a ‘sound survey’.

What the girls have said:
“I enjoyed it when we did weaving in Art because it made a beautiful pattern and it was really fun.” Shreya.
“I enjoyed doing English and writing about the Egyptian lifestyle. The boys were taught in the temple and the girls learnt things at home.” Tami.
“I enjoyed Science because we were learning about sounds and vibrations and we did experiments. My favourite experiment was when we had these things called tuning forks and we banged it then we put it in a bowl of water and it spat out.” Maya.

Looking ahead to next week:

English – using expanded noun phrases and superlatives to compose a newspaper article and a poster based on our Tutankhamun text
Maths – measurement, money
Science – hearing sounds: amplitude, size of vibrations, the ear drum

Message:

Because it is Forest School on Wednesday 28 April, girls can come to school in their PE kit and remain in kit all morning. Please remember warm layers of clothing for Forest School since it is still cold in the shade. The girls have the opportunity to play with water so even if rain is not forecast, waterproof clothing is strongly recommended. Thank you.

Year 5

It’s Spring! The sun is shining, the birds are singing and the lambs are gambolling around in the field at the end of my garden…and the girls in Year 5 have definitely been showing signs of Spring as well.

My personal highlight of the week has been watching them enjoy the outside, seeing tentative cartwheels, frantic games of tag and role playing during breaks and lunchtimes. Oh, and the daisies! Year 5 love the daisies, and they’ve proved this week that you’re never too old to enjoy making daisy chains or fairy nests.

What the girls have said:

“The new book we started in English is called ‘Kaspar Prince of Cats’ by Michael Morpurgo. We have only read the first two chapters but already there have been some exciting discoveries.

It’s set just after the Victorian times (because you can see that the dresses are quite big) and is about an orphan called Johnny Trott who is a bell boy working at The Savoy hotel in London.

I am really looking forward to finding out what Johnny will do next because his emotions have been really high with happiness but have just dropped to low with devastation!” Lottie.

“I have really enjoyed doing our History project about the Ancient Mayan. I has been fun typing up Google slides about them and putting in pictures of our choice. I have learned that the Ancient Mayans had a religious sport which was a type of football, and they created an alphabet with 800 different letters in it.” Lydia.

“I enjoyed the concept mapping because it was interesting playing around with it. I did mine about animals and it was much easier to link ideas together using the software than just having them on paper. I think it will be quite useful for when you are writing a book.” Emily F

Dates for your diary:

Tuesday 27 April – Swimming
Wednesday 28 April – Enrichment (uniform)
Tuesday 4 May – Computing
Wednesday 5 May – Cricket (PE kit)

Year 6

Year 6 have worked extremely hard this week and have approached all that they have done with continued enthusiasm and resilience.

We have investigated area and perimeter in Maths, the struggle for suffrage in English, explored ultimate questions in Humanities, started making our cushions in DT and proved that light travels in straight lines using a laser, targets and pinhole cameras in Science.

Highlights have included composing songs in Music, athletics in PE and thinking about ways to celebrate Mr Bailey’s life and all that he contributed to life in Junior School during his time at Northampton High School.

What the girls have said:

“My highlight of the week is PE because we did tennis. First we warmed up by doing some racket skills, then we practised hitting over the net. In the end we played a game.” Frankie.
“My highlight of the week was when we were composing our own song in Music and we had to come up with the chorus. I loved it so much that I carried on writing it at home. We could only use three chords to make it. I loved working with my group and I think we made a great team.” Eloise.
“I loved doing Multi-Sports because we were doing athletics and I liked doing the races. In PE, we were doing tennis and bouncing the ball on the racket.” Isla M.
“My highlight of the week was when we were designing our cushions because it was fun to think of all the different designs then pick out one to do on the real cushion. I decided to do three seagulls dancing in the sky and I think that they would look great on a blue background!” Isla H.
“I loved doing our Ultimate Questions (questions that can’t be answered) and trying to find possible answers in Humanities. My Ultimate Question is, ‘What happens when you go to heaven or hell?’ I loved writing about it because I got to express my ideas and I loved the fact that whatever I put down couldn’t be wrong because it is an Ultimate Question.” Elizabeth.
“My favourite part of the week was on Wednesday when I did Multi-Sports Club and we were doing the long jump. I learnt the technique of the jump and I jumped 1.6 metres.” Sienna.
“My highlight of this week was writing a diary entry about a day in Cristabel Pankhurst’s life. I enjoyed this because I had to think about writing in first person and old language.” Sophia.
“My highlight of the week is learning about the Suffragettes in English. We learnt about Suffragettes going in the prison and people forcing food in prisoners’ mouths. We wrote a letter to Holloway Prison with our partner, which was really fun.” Odelia.
“My highlight of the week was swimming. In my group we did some lengths and played a game where you swim to the object.” Sima.

Looking ahead to next week:

Next week we particularly look forward to our Streetlaw workshop, where we will be learning about the criminal justice system in England and Wales and how it works. This interactive workshop will involve pupils taking part in the mock trial of the infamous Goldilocks, from ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears!’

Virtual Open Events - Tues 4 & Weds 5 May 2021

Royal Mail 'Heroes' Stamp Competition

I am delighted to offer pupils from Reception to Year 6 the opportunity to enter the Royal Mail ‘Heroes’ Stamp Competition.

This is only the third time in its history that The Royal Mail have launched such a competition. Please see details in the accompanying letter, which outlines how data will be used.

The link to the stamp template will be shared with classes next week. More details can be found on the Royal Mail website or by clicking here and we are launching this in lessons at school so the girls can ask questions about how to create their designs.

Mrs Beacroft
Head of Creative Arts Faculty

GDST Lockdown Dance Competition

During the Easter break the GDST Lockdown Dance Competition Finalists were revealed on a Zoom call, hosted by the organiser Mrs Williamson-Jones (Sutton High School) and judged by Kira (a dancer, choreographer and teacher based at Pineapple Studios, London).

The competition was extremely popular with over 250 entries from across the GDST Schools.  The age categories consisted of Y3/4, Y5/6, KS3 and KS4 upwards. Northampton High School was represented by the following pupils who performed some amazing pieces.

Y3/4 – Angelie B, Zoe S, Shreya S, Tami S, Ellie J-E, Harini S

Y5/6 – Sophia B, Anya R

KS3 – Holly H, Carolina F-L, Ques-Li DB

KS4 upwards – Hannah S, Kathryn L

We are delighted to announce that Angelie B (Y3) placed in the top 5 for her age group with an energetic Bollywood performance. Hannah S placed top 5 with her beautiful contemporary piece and Ques-Li D-B won the entire KS3 competition, which is absolutely amazing, with a stunning contemporary piece.

We are very proud of all the entries on behalf of Northampton High and we are super excited about the future of our creative dancers. Well done all!

Mrs Blake
Director of Sport

GDST Talks set for the Summer Term

Over the course of this academic year, we have been delighted to collaborate with our fellow GDST schools to bring our parents the ‘GDST Talks’ series. We have been able to welcome many distinguished talkers into school virtually to speak on a variety of important topics, and it has been great to be joined by so many of our community for these events.

We are now able to share the details of our next two GDST Talks for the Summer Term – our final events of the year:

‘Helping your daughter to navigate friendships’
with Andrew Hampton Thursday 29 April at 6pm

‘Managing the transition from primary to secondary school’
with Grace Barrett Thursday 6 May at 6pm

For more information on both of these upcoming talks, and to book your free tickets, head over to our website by clicking here.

Mr Nash
Marketing & Communications Officer

Staff attend a paediatric First Aid course

This week, myself and various other members of the Junior School team were delighted to attend a paediatric First Aid course.

Provided by Daisy First Aid, the course taught and spoke on many vital areas such as emergency First Aid techniques, CPR, febrile convulsions, how to deal with bumps and bleeds, and choking to name just a few.

Following Covid regulations, Hannah from Daisy First Aid brought in a training device to allow us to practice how to deal with choking, along with manikins for CPR and bandages to wrap our pretend wounds.

This CPD session was fantastic, and we thank Daisy First Aid for their time as we dedicate ourselves to ensure the continued safety of all children within school.

Mrs Bing
Nursery Manager

Term Dates 20/21

Term Dates 21/22

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