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Junior News – 23 September 2022 |
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It has been encouraging to observe how positively the girls have engaged with our recently installed inspirational women wall. Our older pupils have written letters to women from our wall and these letters are being sent off to the recipients to share with them the reasons we find them inspiring and excellent role models. The collection of letters are thoughtful and mature, as you would expect from Northampton High School girls and I’m confident the recipients will be touched and encouraged to receive them. Mrs Purvey-Tyrer, in an assembly this term, shone a spotlight on one of our inspirational women who is featured on our wall – Anne Fine. Anne Fine is famous for writing many great children’s stories such as ‘Diary of a Killer Cat’. She has written over 70 titles for children as well as some adult novels and is a Northampton High Alumni. We will continue to celebrate the women featured on our wall and reflect on their influence and characteristics that can inspire the girls. If you haven’t yet had the chance to see it in person I hope you will take the opportunity to during our upcoming open classroom event or parents evenings. I hope you all have a lovely weekend together with your families. As always, thank you for your support and encouragement of the girls – they are all embracing the academic challenges of this new school year with positivity, determination and resilience and making us all very proud. Miss Hair |
Notices: Staffing |
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Miss Scott-Evans has some exciting family news – she is pregnant and expecting her babies in the new year. We are really pleased for her and are looking forward to supporting her at this exciting time. We know you will want to join us in congratulating her. We have launched a recruitment campaign for her maternity leave cover which will conclude at half term. |
Open Classrooms |
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We have our first Open Classroom event of the year on 12 October. These events are opportunities for your child to welcome you into their classroom and show you the work they have produced so far this year. These will be relaxed events and will be once per half term (all dates are on the school calendar for the year). There is no need to book for these events. They will run from the end of the school day (3.30pm) to 4pm but once you are finished looking through your child’s work and celebrating with them you can of course leave. Please note that the following clubs will not run on this date, so if you are attending the event and your child usually attends one of these clubs you will need to inform their class teacher that they will be attending the open classroom event with you or GAP club until 4.15pm instead.
We are looking forward to seeing lots of you on 12 October to celebrate your daughter’s success so far this year. |
Parents Evening |
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We have the first Parents Evenings of the year on 18 and 19 October for children in Reception to Year 6. Next week you will receive a link to a booking form to book your appointments. |
Theatre Trip Opportunity |
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As an additional opportunity for the children, we have taken advantage of group booking prices and booked 27 tickets for the performance of David Walliam’s ‘Demon Dentist’ at Milton Keynes Theatre on Thursday 23 Mar 2023 at 6pm. Tickets are £15 per person, which includes transport there and back. You can either choose to buy one ticket for your daughter or you can choose to book a ticket for yourselves to join us. As we only have 27 tickets these will be assigned on a first come, first served basis. To secure your tickets please click on this link.
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Origami Workshop |
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Next week we are hosting our Origami Workshops run by a professional artist (Origami Est). A lovely opportunity for parents to socialise, relax and learn a new skill and for the girls to enjoy learning a new creative skill too. Tickets are £10 per person which includes tuition, materials and refreshments. There are three workshops to choose from 1.30 to 3pm,3.30 to 5pm and 5.30 to 7pm. To book please do so through Parent Pay or via the card machine at the office. Everyone welcome-friends, family and neighbours! |
Festive Wreath Workshops-Adults Only |
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We have arranged for an excellent florist (Bouquet Chic) to deliver Wreath Making Workshops for any interested parents and members of the community. Why not book a place to enjoy making a festive creation with friendly people and a supportive and talented instructor? Spaces are £65 per person which includes everything you’ll need to make a fantastic, impressive wreath and refreshments during the workshop. These events are on Tuesday 5 December 5.30 to 7pm or Wednesday 6 December 12.15 to 1.45pm. To book please contact the school office junioradmin@nhs.gdst.net.
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Harvest Festival Food Bank Collection |
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From 10 to 21 October we will be inviting our children, staff and parents to bring in food donations for our collection for a local food bank. The food bank we are supporting is Weston Favell which is run by the Emmanuel church and associated with the Trussell Trust. Below is a list of the food donations that would be most appreciated: Tinned vegetables Thank you in advance for your support. |
Cinema Event |
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On Thursday 20 October we have our first cinema event of the academic year. This event will run from 3.30 to 5.15pm and is available to all pupils from Nursery to Year 6. We will be showing three film options for the girls to choose from:
To book your child a place for £3 please do so through Parent Pay. |
Class Assemblies |
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Class assembly dates for this academic year are on the school calendar but as a reminder please see the list below for the upcoming dates: Year 3 – 28 September Parents are invited and encouraged to join us from 8.20am for refreshments before the assembly at 8.35am. The assemblies will finish by 8.55am. |
News from our classrooms: Nursery and Pre School |
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This week in Nursery, the girls have continued to explore and discover both in the Nursery rooms and outside area, where the wheelie boards have created great fun! They have been practicing their cutting skills with coloured spaghetti, baking fairy cakes and recreating their homes with building blocks. Our number of the week has been number 3 and we have complimented our learning with ‘The Three Little Pigs’ story. In music time, the girls have used shakers at different tempos and listened to the different sounds. We have also used our listening ears in our Forest based learning, where we listened out for the natural and man made sounds around us. Independence is a point that has been prominent in Pre School this week where the girls have engaged in many activities, adult led or by free choice and have demonstrated just how much they are developing. Their ability to put their hand up and wait their turn during group discussions, having the confidence to speak out loud in front of a group is a massive achievement. Self-serving their own lunch but having the ability to share so that everybody is able to have some shows just how thoughtful they are and much more! Cutting seems to be an area where many of the girls thrive, often self selecting the scissors to create different objects, cutting the play dough or following different lines. This showed their impressive cutting techniques.
Many of the girls, on their own accord, are developing the very important steps for writing with a selection of engaging pre-writing activities including making letters with the ribbons, using the tweezers to pick up small objects, chalking in the garden and manipulating the play dough. Many of them are trying to independently write their own name and being very proud of their accomplishments and so they should. We are very proud of you girls, well done! The Wow Tree has become a word that is mentioned numerous amounts of times during the day where the girls have the opportunity to provide those all important wow moments to get a leaf on the tree. This could be from being helpful to a friend or an excellent piece of work. Please share your wow moments from home with us and write on the leaf your daughters wow moments. The Nursery Team |
Reception |
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It has been so lovely to see the class settle into their new routines, happily engaging with all the activities on offer. The girls are enjoying the outside learning space as well as the indoor space. They have been busy in the creative workshop and making afternoon tea in the water tray. We have been thinking about one of our senses ‘eyes’ and have made a whole class eye colour chart, played ‘Kim’s Game’, used binoculars and magnifying glasses and went on a ‘Scavenger Hunt’ during our outdoor learning afternoon. In Phonics we have focussed on four letter sounds, formation of the letter and hearing the sound in words. In Maths we have been thinking about matching and sorting, so if you want any help pairing up socks then ask your daughter! Many thanks for helping your daughter with the prep tasks. Please remember that it is any one task a week to be completed at home and then photo or video evidence put on Tapestry. Mrs Farrar and Mrs Shaw |
Year 1 - Humanities Focus |
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Year 1 are learning all about Toys this half term. This week we had a very special visitor who showed us some very old toys. Some of them were toys Miss Brandon-Jones played with when she was a girl, some were her Daddy’s and some were her Grandma’s. We were allowed to play with some of the toys, but we had to be very careful. These stone bricks are over 100 years old! |
Year 2 - Humanities Focus |
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In Year 2 we have been studying ‘What a Wonderful World’. We have learnt the location of countries, continents and oceans of the world. The girls have developed their global awareness by looking in detail at the position of the seven continents and five oceans of the world as well as researching facts about them. In this week’s lesson the girls listened to facts and then decided which continent it belonged to. They then created their own journeys across the world. |
Year 3 - Humanities Focus |
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In Year 3 we have been learning about timelines in our History lessons. We are studying the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age and we have learned that all of this happened before historical records were created. This time period is known as prehistoric, and the years are marked AD. Once historical records began, the years were marked as BC. We used this information and our knowledge of numbers to order different events chronologically on a timeline. We also created a prehistory timeline to order the different time periods we are studying. |
Year 4 - Humanities Focus |
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Year 4 have been studying the unit ‘Somewhere to Settle.’ The girls have headed back in time to find out how the towns and cities of the UK first developed. They have learnt about the needs and requirements early settlers had when choosing a place to build a home and have used this to help them choose the best settlement for their new home. In RE, the girls have learnt about the story of Buddha and worked together in pairs to sequence the events of the story. |
Year 5 - Humanities Focus |
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Year 5 started their new Geography unit by revising their understanding of human and physical characteristics. The girls had a really interesting lesson, researching their chosen city and then creating a fact file to share information. |
Year 6 Humanities Focus |
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Year 6 really enjoyed taking their History lesson outside. We created a giant timeline on the playground using ribbon, with one footstep representing one century to help us visualise just how long ago the Ancient Greece era really was. We also compared it to the Ancient Egypt and the Roman eras. We used the vocabulary ‘circa’ to talk about approximate dates and also gained a better understanding of the terms BC and AD in History. |
News from our extracurricular offer: GAP Club |
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The GAP Team would like to welcome everyone back after the summer holidays and we hope you all had a lovely break. We will be focusing this half term on the topic of ‘Autumn’ and have planned lots of activities for the girls this half term to explore this topic area. We are looking forward to supporting their development and celebrating their achievements. Mrs Howell and the GAP Club Team |
News from outside of our classrooms: Year 6 Leadership Team |
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Introducing to you the Year 6 Leadership Team of 2022-2023 After an application process I’m pleased to share with you the Year 6 leadership team for this academic year:
Learning Ambassadors Preesha Sports Captains Hockey – Zoe S |
Our Dance Offer |
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Dance has always been a big part of Northampton High School from our Nursery students to our senior school enrichment programme. Dance is an art form that enhances the wellbeing of our students plus promoting a healthy form of exercise. We teach a wide range of subjects including RAD Ballet and ISTD syllabus classes in Modern and Tap working towards examinations in these disciplines. This is offered at all levels and age groups across the school. We also introduced Musical Theatre this year which combines a mix of dancing, acting and singing working on a variety of Musicals and popular films with a musical theatre theme, such as West Side Story, Mamma Mia, Joseph etc. This has become a very popular club with some fabulous voices emerging. Dance also forms part of our enrichment programme for Senior School and Ballet is offered to our Nursery and Reception students as part of their curriculum. We have a wonderful community session where young students ages 2-5 years, come into the school from the community to experience dance classes in our Junior School Hall. The themes each week take us on a journey of storytelling and musical adventure with some lovely Disney music they can dance and sing to. The sessions are aimed at introducing what is on offer at Northampton High School for all ages in such a beautiful location with our Dance experts. Whatever the talents and preferences of your child, we encourage and nurture them as young dancers to achieve to the best of their potential whilst developing their love and enjoyment of dance and music. We believe it is vital that young dancers not only work hard but also have fun whilst they are learning. For more information please contact me on s.jones@nhs.gdst.net Miss Sinead Jones |
Awards for this week |
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Star Learners of the week – Grace R, Rosie B, Zara B, Amari, Aggie, Mayura, Avani, Cristina, Annabel P, Luisa, Cordelia, Sri, Scarlett, Risara Each week girls are invited to share their achievements in activities outside of school. They are listed below for this week: Marine – achieved gymnast of the week |
Birthdays for this week |
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This week, we wish a very Happy Birthday to the following members of our Junior School family: Artemisia, Avelyn C, Aliza, Daisy S, Luna |
Community Sessions |
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Term Dates |
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Northampton High School |
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