Many classes have begun their rehearsals for the Dance Festival, and the girls have been gleefully dancing their way down the halls, humming their favourite musical tunes. On Wednesday, Year 4 delivered a fantastic class assembly, and I would like to express my sincere thanks to their families for the wonderful turnout in support. A special thanks to Mrs. Smith for organising such an inspiring presentation, reminding us all to remain positive in the face of adversity. Something our pupils consistently demonstrate with pride. Lastly, a big well done to the pupils who showed excellent public speaking skills and a true enthusiasm for their learning.

Elsewhere in the school, it’s been an exciting week for all year groups. Preschool started the week with a splash, diving into their swimming lessons, while Reception tested their strength and bravery on the wall bars. Year 1 had fun experimenting with new hairstyles, and Year 2 displayed their creativity with some stunning willow plate drawings in art. Year 3 enjoyed a fantastic Forest School session, exploring the science of sound. Year 5 has been busy preparing for next week’s Hobbies Morning, and Year 6 presented their innovative playground designs in a lively house competition, which I had the pleasure of judging. Artemis emerged as the well-deserved winners.

This week’s Junior News focuses on Science, a subject that’s especially close to my heart as a sports scientist. Science is key to understanding the world, ourselves, and the technology that shapes our future. It also plays an essential role in advancing environmental sustainability. As our pupils engage in their science lessons, I am confident we are inspiring the next generation of scientists who will go on to change the world.

Looking ahead, we have a number of exciting events on the horizon, including trip information evenings, scholars concerts, class assemblies, the Dance Festival, class trips, the Astroturf Grand Opening, and a special Mother’s Day Afternoon Tea. For more details on these events, please refer to The Week Ahead section of the newsletter.

I hope you enjoy this edition of Junior News.

Mrs Saunders-Wall
Interim Director of Junior School Liaison

A range of physical activity is important to all children, however as technology is used more and more promoting a more sedentary life style, it has never been more important in Early Years than it is now.

Early Years children need ample physical activity and movement opportunities to support their physical, cognitive and emotional development.

In Nursery we ensure the children have access to a variety of different activities across the week which help them develop their physical skills.

This week we have really focussed on risk taking and ensuring that the children can jump off a low height and land safely. The girls have been practicing different ways of moving in ballet, jumping in muddy puddles on the way to Forest School, jumped from a range of heights onto crash mats in PE and became masters of negotiating space using bikes in the outside space.

This week in Preschool we have started to focus on a different fairy tale story, ‘Red Riding Hood’. The girls have shown their knowledge of this book by recalling what happens. Being able to recall parts of a story, setting and characters is a difficult literacy skill, so well done girls.

In French we looked at how the story is written and made comparisons between the English version.

We have started to learn about Luna New Year and how it is celebrated. The girls played in the water tray which was filled with beans and the 12 zodiac animals. We looked at each animal and watched a video about how the animals competed against each other in a race. Where they came in the race decided when they would become the zodiac animal of the year. We found out that this new year will be the year of the snake.

Continuing along the theme of Luna New Year we made some bubble blowing moon’s and practised our cutting skills, cutting out some twirling snakes. We even had a go at writing some Chinese numbers which are represented by symbols.

Within our ‘Understanding of The World’ sessions, Reception have been learning all about different materials. The girls have thoroughly enjoyed using the Recycling Centre to sort the box of materials into their catergories, whilst discussing the properties of each item.

In PE, the girls have been exploring different large equipment including the benches, beam, vault, wall bars and slopes. We have focused on building our core strength and developing our balance and co-ordination whilst using the larger apparatus.

Finally, we have learnt what the word ‘perseverance’ means and have been amazing at showing this throughout all of our lessons as well as our independent learning this week.

They enjoyed a ‘sound walk’ identifying lots of sounds around school including Mr Rickman tapping on his keyboard! They have also listened to each section of the BBC National orchestra of Wales and identified how sound is created.

We look forward to learning about high and low sounds and sounds we like and dislike.

Year 2 are thoroughly enjoying our current science topic, ‘Animals, including Humans’. We have been learning about the different types of animals: mammals, reptiles, birds, fish and amphibians.

Robyn asked whether frogs were reptiles as well as amphibians. This sparked a great discussion and so we researched a little further about the differences between them. Did you know what reptiles have thick, scaly skin, compared to amphibians which have thin skin to allow them to breathe in water!

This week we have started to think about life-cycles and children have produced some excellent work to show the life cycle of a human. We then compared this to the life cycle of a duck, looking at their similarities and differences.

Excellent work girls!

This week Year 3 have learnt about the connection between the loudness of a sound and the size of the vibrations which created it.

They had a great time plucking the strings on a guitar, bending a ruler whilst it was held down on a desk and using a beater to make grains of rice ‘jump’ on top of a drum. They found that hitting the drum hard made the rice jump up the greatest distance!

They worked really hard on trying to explain their results in writing.

This term, our incredible Year 4 students have dived into the fascinating world of states of matter! They’ve been exploring the three states—solids, liquids, and gases—while discovering the unique behaviour of molecules in each.

Through a series of hands-on experiments, our budding scientists have investigated which fizzy drink contains the most gas and tested different substances to see which one melts ice the quickest!

Their teamwork and scientific enquiry skills have shone brightly as they strategised on how to create a fair test.

“Last week in Science we tested different materials to see the hardness and smoothness of each because we needed a good surface for a food van at a festival. It was great working in small groups because we had more people to help do the different jobs and come up with ideas.” Eve

“I really enjoyed it because we were working in a group and we all got to go round and test the different materials. It surprised me that the wood wasn’t as strong as some of the other materials.” Grace

“Everyone thought that the granite was the best surface, but then we all tried to lift it up and it soooo heavy! So if we put it in a food van it wouldn’t work because the van would tip over or sink into the mud!” Orla

This began using simple models to describe scientific ideas. In practice, this meant working in groups to demonstrate that light travels in straight lines.

The first activity involved using a long piece of string to represent light travelling from a light source, hitting an object and being reflected into someone’s eye so that they could see it.

The second activity required skill and patience to line up the small holes in pieces of card, whilst leaving gaps between the cards, so that an object could be seen by looking through them.

U10A
On the 15 January the Under 10A and U10B teams took on Spratton Hall School.

In their first match of the season, the U10A team faced a tough opponent in Spratton Hall School, ultimately losing 14-5. Despite the result, the team showed resilience and determination throughout the match.

Spratton dominated possession early on, but the team worked hard to create space, with both Rhoda and Eve moving well into open areas to receive passes and create attacking opportunities. However, the defensive pressure from Spratton proved difficult to break down.

Olivia was a standout performer earning Player of the Match honors. She was exceptional in intercepting the ball, reading the game well, and positioning herself effectively. Olivia also played a key role in the team’s offensive efforts, scoring several goals and providing a much-needed spark in attack.

Although the team faced a challenging start to the season, there were many positives to build on. 

U10B
The U10B team was very excited to play their first fixture of the season and after a difficult start, with Spratton keeping possession for most of the first quarter, the girls started finding their feet. Strong passing from Flora and some great movement from Dia meant that we were able to get the ball to our shooters a bit quicker. Good support play from Maya and Amariah allowed us to continue building as the match progressed. 

Unfortunately we lost 11-0 but well done to everyone that, despite experiencing a challenging afternoon, never gave up and continued to work hard for the duration of the match. Congratulations to Dia, Player of the Match and well played to all of the team.

U11A
On Wednesday 15 January U11A played Netball against Spratton Hall School. For our first Netball match as a team we have showed great teamwork and perseverance. We moved into space and had strong flat passes to each other, which was amazing! The Player of the Match went to Hesali. Unfortunately we lost with the score of 20-8 but we didn’t give up and we did lots of intercepting the ball.
Eloise C 

U8A
Year 3 had their first netball match ever on Friday 17 January.

The girls had focused on learning positions and rules in their games lessons and took this into their first game. Players stayed onside mostly and the team even managed to score a goal.

Unfortunately, Bedford Greenacre had mastered marking in front of players and moving making it difficult for us to move the ball down court. Next lesson we’ll look at moving into space to receive passes.

The final score was 4-1 but Mrs Saunders-Wall was very impressed with our first game of netball and we can’t wait for the rest of the season. 

U9A
Our U9 team secured a fantastic 4-1 win in their match against Bedford Greenacre today.

The team demonstrated excellent teamwork and skill throughout. Siena-Louise and Dulcie were our amazing goal scorers and Dulcie was voted Player of the Match.

A fantastic effort from all the girls and an exciting match to play. 

Please email junioradmin@nhs.gdst.net if you have any questions or would like to arrange a trial session.