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Junior News – 24 June 2022 |
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We have had a week full of celebrations of our budding artists! Year 6 enjoyed an illustration workshop with the author and illustrator David Shelton on Monday in which they learnt about his work, the process of illustration and developed their own style and skills. The girls engaged very well with the session and were full of enthusiasm and productive chatter afterwards which is always a sign a lesson has had a positive impact. On Tuesday evening we welcomed many visitors to school for the Art Exhibition. The Junior School hall was used to exhibit examples of the children’s Art work from across the academic year. It was an array of colour and a showcase of our girls’ talent. From lizards to sunflowers, cushions to Hundertwasser and a variety of offerings in between the girls work was of a high standard that left many visitors shocked that the work was produced by children of their age. We are proud that we have protected the Arts offer here at the High School when many other schools have had to reduce theirs. Our girls develop enviable skills in Art, Drama, Music and Design and Technology as a result of our offer and Tuesday shared a snippet of this. Last night, I joined the large audience to watch the children perform ‘Seussical the Musical’ and what a fantastic performance that was. The cast had worked so hard to hone the performance and their hard work and commitment paid off as the performance was warmly received by the audience. It is such a wonderful experience to perform in a theatre such as ours and for me, the most encouraging part is watching how much the children enjoyed the experience. I have been intrigued to observe and enjoy the Reception children creating self portraits this week. The girls were keen to show me their progress across the year by sharing with me the first portrait they drew in September and they could confidently articulate to me the evidence of their progress. It is wonderful for the children to be gaining this insight into themselves as learners from such a young age. We have also had a busy week with Sport and there is a section below placing our sports offer in the spotlight. I am looking forward to another week ahead of us that will end with the children spending a morning with their teacher from September. This will help prepare them for the transition to the new school year. As always, thank you for your support, contributions and encouragement for our children. Miss Hair |
Reminder: Summer Fayre - 8 July |
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We have had a great response to this event so far with many tickets already sold through ParentPay. If you are yet to do so please book your child a place to join in the fun. There will be an inflatable, craft activities, face painting, an entertainer and snacks – a fun packed session for all of our children to enjoy together. Don’t forget that parents, family members and friends can book places in our adult only zone to enjoy afternoon tea, a chat and some peace whilst we entertain the children. These are also bookable through ParentPay. We look forward to seeing you there! |
Origami Workshop |
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For the super-organised amongst our families you will have read that all Junior School events for next year have been added to the calendar and are on ParentPay now for you to book your child’s places as early as you wish to. Our first event is an origami workshop and as it is the first time we have hosted this type of event we felt it needed a little bit of an explanation. For those who have visited Miss Hair’s office you may have spotted a vase of origami peonies – they get a lot of attention and praise as they look beautiful and appear complicated to make! Whilst I agree they look lovely I have to confess that with a fabulous teacher they are not too complicated to make and the process is very enjoyable. We have arranged for Esther from ‘Origami Est’ to lead a number of workshop sessions on 29 September. Each workshop space will be charged at £15 per person and includes all the resources required, refreshments (including cake!) and of course Esther’s excellent tuition to support you to make a wonderful creation. The first session will be 1.30-3pm and is for adults only. The second session will be 3.30-5pm and is open to children from Year 2 to Year 6. The children will be supported by staff during this session so parents do not need to attend with their children. The final session of the day will be 5.30-7pm and is open to children and their parents/carers from Year 2 to Year 6. This is a unique opportunity to learn something new in a relaxed environment with expert guidance. Places are limited for these workshops so please book early through ParentPay to avoid disappointment. |
One Tree Day Event |
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On Monday 27 June Northampton High School will be celebrating One Tree Day (for more details click here). For the event Years 4 and upwards will be attending Senior School assembly to watch the Junior School Eco team talk to the Senior School. This will be followed at breaktime by a cake sale for Years 4 and upwards, with all proceeds to go to One Tree Day; for each £1 raised one tree will be planted. Mr Earp |
News from our Classrooms: Nursery and Pre School |
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We started off the week with our stay and play breakfast session to celebrate Father’s Day! It was wonderful to see so many faces. Daddies, a Papa and a couple of Mummies joined us. The atmosphere was wonderful – filled with talking and engagement within the activities on offer. In Nursery we have continued with our theme of summer where the girls have had the opportunity to create their own lollipops using a range of craft resources. We then created our own real life version lollipops using water and juice where the girls observed the changes from water to ice, to keep us cool in the hot weather. |
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Pre-School has continued their topic of caring for the environment and the sea. They visited the library and shared an information book about how we can protect our environment by saving energy. The girls found out about the job solar panels do and they have been challenged to see if they can spot any while they are out and about. Anaya told the group: “I turn off all the lights when I go to bed”, just as it advised in the book. We have been turning off the lights in the room too, to cool down as well as save energy. The girls have been exploring other ways to keep cool in this hot weather; water in spray bottles and trays of ice cubes have been popular. There has also been a theme of ice lolly crafts at the creative table. We have begun transitions, getting the girls ready for the next step in their progression it’s not only a milestone for the girls. It’s a milestone for us seeing them settle so smoothly, celebrating their achievement of the confident, independent children they have become. Mrs Bing, Miss Hillery and the Nursery Team To view more photos please click here |
Reception - Sports Focus |
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In Games the girls have been working on their ball and movement skills. They are doing fantastic work on throwing and catching, along with hitting in cricket and an exciting game of ‘pirates and mermaids’ – poor Isabelle is in mermaid jail in this picture! Mrs Littlewood, Miss Fraser and the PE Team To view more photos please click here |
Year 1 - Sports Focus |
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The girls have been developing their cricket skills: fielding, bowling and batting. Throwing and catching is improving as the girls are working on their hand/eye coordination. Aiming the ball at the wicket has been fun and now some of the girls are working on their ‘windmill’ arms for over-arm bowling. There has also been an excellent display of competitiveness when playing mini games. Mrs Littlewood, Miss Fraser and the PE Team To view more photos please click here |
Year 2 - Sports Focus |
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This term has centered on playing mini games and putting individual batting and fielding skills in to practice in competitive situations. Mrs Littlewood, Miss Fraser and the PE Team To view more photos please click here |
Year 3 - Sports Focus |
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Year 3 had the opportunity to receive expert tuition in the Long Jump by coach Iain Drage from Northampton Athletics Club. They clearly enjoyed this and hopefully they will be inspired to join an athletics club. Cricket skills are also developing nicely – batting in particular. Mrs Littlewood, Miss Fraser and the PE Team To view more photos please click here |
Year 4 - Sports Focus |
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Along with their Swimming, Dance, Cricket and other activities, Year 4 have also had the opportunity to take part in a rounders tournament run by the Sixth Form CSLA team. Three other schools entered the round robin tournament and they clearly enjoyed taking part in this event. Mrs Littlewood, Miss Fraser and the PE Team To view more photos please click here |
Year 5 and Year 6 - Sports Focus |
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Athletics: The Year 5 and 6’s continue to develop their athletics skills during lesson time as well as in additional sessions during lunchtime and after school clubs. We are very fortunate to have Iain Drage from Northampton Athletics Club running specialist Long Jump sessions with them. Three Year 3 pupils have also been asked to attend and have come on in ‘leaps and bounds’. Cricket: Cricket has really taken off and we have seen our teams develop well under the expert guidance from Nick Baker who works for Northampton Cricket Club as the U15 Girls pathway lead. During their after school club the girls have worked on all aspects of the game; from batting and bowling to fielding and communication skills. All of which have been put into practice during the matches we have played during the season. Mrs Littlewood, Miss Fraser and the PE Team To view more photos of Year 5 please click here |
Sports Day - 10 June |
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This year saw the return to normality and Sports Day with spectators. The Junior School certainly rose to the challenge; from the very comprehensive warm up, to attacking the obstacle course, sack and egg and spoon races. Then onto the sprints, again some fantastic running performances by all and finally the ‘relay showcase race’. The best race must have to go to the parents race and thank you to all who stepped up to the challenge. Lets hope we can fit in a parents sprint race next year! PE Department |
GDST Athletics Rally - 13 June |
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This is the biggest ‘team’ the School takes to a rally, with 6 different year groups ranging from Year 5 up to Year 10+ participating in the annual GDST Athletics Rally at Harvey Hadden Athletics Stadium, Nottingham.
Athletics is an event that caters for all and everyone can find a discipline they prefer; be it running fast, running distances, throwing different objects or jumping for height or distance. It was also the ideal opportunity for the Junior School team to be a part of the Senior School team and in true High School spirit they cheered and supported one another throughout the day. Here are the match reports from the Athletics Captains for the Year 5 and 6 teams. Year 5: At Notts Athletics Club the five Year 5 representatives tried their best which is always what matters most. We started off the day with Emily C doing high jump, her highest jump was 95cm. At the same time, we had Harriet S who was representing NHS in throwing. In this event she came 9th. We had a bit of a break then it was time for Maya J to shine. She was doing sprint but unfortunately came last, but she tried her best. After Maya came Risara S who was doing 600m, she did amazing. Now it was the relays, we all did fantastic! Emily started us off, followed by Maya then Harriet and then me and finally Risara finished, we ended up coming 3rd. I ended off the day by doing long jump, my furthest distance was 2m 81cm. A big thanks to the PE staff especially Mrs Littlewood, Miss Fraser and Mrs Jennings for looking after us. Zoe S – Year 5 Captain Year 6: On Monday, a group of people from Years 5 to 13 went to Nottingham for an athletics event. Everyone did at least 1 activity and then they all did the relay. Year 6 came 4th in the relay. The different activities included high jump, long jump, sprints, long distance running and throwing. Although we didn’t win, we did very well and it was a fun and exciting experience. Mollie M – Year 6 Summer Sports Captain PE Department |
U11 Cricket and Tennis Rally - 22 June |
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The final rally of the year was hosted by ourselves and this year saw 20 schools from across the GDST family come together for the U11 Cricket and Tennis Rally. U11 Tennis: Two Year 6 girls and two Year 5 girls took to the courts to represent the Northampton High School team in tennis. We played some fantastic matches beating Norwich and Brighton and drawing against Newcastle. We lost to Wimbledon and Putney yet thoroughly enjoyed playing against their experienced teams. In our final match to play for 5th/6th position, in the overall tournament, we played Oxford in a very close match. This match ended in a draw and we took the win with the greatest number of points. Finishing 5th out of 12 was a very respectable result and Mollie, Rithika, Harriet and Risara should be extremely proud of themselves. Well done. U11 Cricket: On Wednesday 22nd June a team of Year 5 and Year 6 went to play a cricket tournament against other GDST schools at the Saints Cricket Ground, Birchfield Road, Northampton. The first match we played was against Wimbledon High and we lost 300 runs to 231 runs. We hit the ball hard and got lots of sixes and fours. In that game the player of the match was Safiya. The second match we played against was Brighton, again we lost – 255 runs to 222 runs, but we had lots of fun. The players of the match were Lottie (for batting) and Maya (for bowling). We then qualified to play against another school to win the plate. We played against Nottingham but unfortunately lost 270 runs to 236 runs. In this match we got our team’s highest score of runs! The player of the match was Zoe. I think that we improved our fielding because we didn’t get as many wides and stumped people out. Although the weather was hot we played really well and had a great day. Lottie Farrar – Captain Mrs Blake |
Gym and Dance Extravaganza |
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All year groups from Reception up to Year 6 are finalising their pieces for the Gym and Dance Extravaganza on Wednesday 29 June. The Sports Department will be looking forward to seeing you all at the event. Doors open at 5.20pm ready for 5.30pm start. |
News from our extracurricular offer: GAP Club |
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This week we have been adding to our summer display and created jelly fish and mermaids to go into the sea. The girls have also created some amazing models independently and spent time outside playing ball games and tennis. We also had lots of fun playing Twister and Dobble. Mrs Howell and the GAP Club Team To view more photos please click here |
News from Outside of our Classrooms: Everdon Outdoor Learning Centre Trip |
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On Monday this week, Year 5 had a glorious trip to the Everdon Outdoor Learning Centre. The girls did a range of river study activities, including measuring the flow rate of the river, doing a field study drawing of a meander and creating a line graph to show the depth of the river bed. Their favourite activity by far was stream dipping – the girls managed to catch and identify lots of different creepy crawlies, including damselfly and dragonfly larvae, freshwater shrimps, water beetles and (with enormous whoops of excitement) several fish! Please click here to see lots more photos in our Year 5 folder. Miss Brandon-Jones To view more photos please click here |
Awards for this week |
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Ballet Dancer of the week – Anne A Musician of the week – Shreya Linguist of the week – Saanvi Star Learners of the week – Ella, Zehra, Amari, Rosie, Shanaya, Evette, Amber, Angelie, Grace P, Zoe, Sophia B, Mollie. Congratulations to all the girls who were awarded a Sports Day certificate. Each week, girls are invited to share their achievements in activities outside of school. They are listed below for this week: Millicent – awarded a drawing badge at Rainbows. Playground Helpers – Evie and Zara made a wonderful job of shed duty today. Thank you girls. To view photos please click here |
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: Caoimhe, Naavya, Eloise A, Jessica W, Esme. |
Upcoming events and key dates |
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Uniform Swap Shop – open every Friday 3.15-3.45pm 28 June – Year 3 Trip – National Space Centre There will be no Construction Club on Wednesday 29 June for Reception class, due to the Gym and Dance Extravaganza. Class assemblies for this term – we warmly invite parents to attend their daughters’ assembly starting at 8.35-8.50am, with refreshments with the Head of School from 8.20am: Wednesday 29 June 2022: Reception |
GDST Alumna of the Year Award Nominees - Sasha Roseneil nominated! |
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We are incredibly proud that Northampton High School alum Professor Sasha Roseneil features in the shortlist for this year’s GDST Alumna of the Year award. Sasha is a true advocate for inclusivity and equality and an inspirational role model for all of our pupils. A world-renowned interdisciplinary social scientist, a group analyst and psychoanalytic psychotherapist and a distinguished university leader, Sasha is truly a powerful advocate for women and girls through her work. Everyone at Northampton High congratulates Sasha on this amazing achievement. To find out more information about the award and to register your vote, please click here. Good luck Sasha, we are all rooting for you! Mr Nash |
Hayfever season |
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Hayfever season is affecting a lot of students at the moment, please may I encourage parents to give their daughters hayfever medication prior to coming to school if they are struggling. There are lots of effective over the counter medications available currently. If medicines need to be taken during the school day please complete a consent form available via Reception. If you have any questions, please do get in touch. Mrs Dunkley |
Summer Reception and Charity Auction’ at Althorp House – Wednesday 6 July |
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We have received communication from Mr. James Saunders Watson (Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant for Northamptonshire) and members of the Northamptonshire Committee of ABF The Soldier’s Charity that parents of Northampton High School are warmly invited to attend the ‘Summer Reception and Charity Auction’ in the Stable’s Courtyard at Althorp House. The evening will commence at 18:00 for drinks and canapés, with music provided by students from Northampton High School, with an option to stay on for the Charity Auction as well (19:30-20:30). As this is a charity event there is a charge of £30 per person, if you would like to attend please email nhsadmin@nhs.gdst.net no later than 14:00 on Thursday 23 June, and we will confirm details of how to make payment directly with the ABF The Soldier’s Charity. Due to security arrangements at Althorp Estate, this is a strictly ticket only event with confirmations required well in advance of the event. If you would like any further information, please do get in touch. Mr Hume |
Reunion Lunch - Saturday 9 July 2022 |
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Tickets for our Summer Reunion Lunch are on sale now! Taking place on Saturday 9 July, the Lunch is a highlight of any year, where alumnae from both the Derngate and Hardingstone sites get together for a delicious two-course meal and to catch up with friends old and new. For more information and to book your tickets, please click here. We are also delighted to share with you the latest edition of our Alumnae Newsletter. To take a read, please click here. Mrs Wilmot |
Community Nursery Sessions |
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Our community sessions for 0-5 year olds have continued to grow in popularity this week! Our visitors have enjoyed a selection of engaging activities delivered in our excellent facilities. Miss Hair is busy confirming the offer from September and it looks set to grow, so watch this space! To join one of our sessions before the Summer holiday please email junioradmin@nhs.gdst.net to express your interest. More information can be found on the flyer below. We hope to see you at a session soon! |
Community Nursery Sessions |
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Term Dates |
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Northampton High School |
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