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Junior News – 24 March 2023 |
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I confess, I love class assemblies! Now, to be totally transparent with you, I am a general assemblies fan so my proclamation expands beyond that of our popular Wednesday assembly slot. I value the platform it provides to bring the school community together, providing a welcome sense of unity. We appreciate that the school community starts from the individual pupil and the value of each one, and an assembly can allow them to see their part in their own world. Its position in the school day is deliberate and considered. Starting the day with a positive, reaffirming experience frames the day successfully for us all. I consistently leave our assemblies feeling uplifted and motivated, accompanied by a sense of calm and stability and I sense this in our children and staff too. An assemblies potential to nurture a positive school ethos that emphasises care for the self, others and the pursuit of all forms of excellence should not be underestimated. It can powerfully nurture the development of intrapersonal intelligence. In my opinion, what should be demonstrated in an assembly is a reiteration of the value of each individual pupil including their individual thoughts and abilities. There should be a reiteration of the importance of those elements to the community and the secure place of each pupil within the school.
Welcoming our parents to join our class assemblies is a privilege for us as a school and the support and presence of parents is valued highly by us all, but especially by the children themselves. For the children to contribute collaboratively with their class peers, to lead an assembly to an audience of children, staff and parents is a significant opportunity within their personal development and is an affirmation of their value and place within our school community. This week, Year 3 led our assembly on the title of ‘I am…’. The assembly was confidently delivered, with every child in the class contributing. The children had written most of the script themselves and their voices and views were shared proudly with us all. They spoke of the importance of valuing our own qualities, celebrating diversity, raising each other up and also believing in ourselves as champions of ourselves. As the parents, staff and children positively stepped out of the hall to get on with their day, it was a perfect example of how important our assemblies are in our school offer as a Junior School community. They build us up, they reaffirm, and they root us in our values and ethos. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend together before we move into the last week of the spring term. I am looking forward to seeing you all at our parents’ evenings next week on Tuesday and Thursday and also at our Dance Festival on Wednesday. It promises to be a wonderful week of celebration of our children’s achievements. Miss Hair |
Dates for your Diary |
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KS2 Outdoor Learning: Year 6: Monday 27 March Other dates to remember: Easter Craft Workshop: Monday 27 March 3.30-5.00pm Swimming Watching Weeks and Galas: Year 6 Gala: Friday 19 May (10.30am) Swap Shop will be open on: 28 March: 4.00 – 6.00pm |
Petal donation - can you help? |
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We need your help! We are looking to receive any donations of petals from flowers at home, once you have finished with them of course, so we can use them for potion making at Forest School. If you could bring them to the Junior School office, that would be great. Thank you for your continued cooperation |
Eco Team Charity Bake Sale |
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On Wednesday 22 March, the Eco Team held a charity bake sale for the Marine Conservation Society in order to promote environmental work to improve the quality of our oceans. The cake sale was a tremendous success and the Eco Team raised £175 in total, which has been donated to the charity. The Eco Team is also requesting that if anybody has any old clean t-shirts that can be reused into making a tote bag during an Eco Team workshop on Tuesday 28 March, please could they be donated to Reception at the start of the week. Mr Earp |
Northampton High School Dance Festival |
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We are looking forward to hosting our annual Dance Festival before Easter. The event will run from 5:30pm to 7:45pm on Wednesday 29 March 2023, with an interval at approximately 6:30pm.The doors will open at 5:15pm. Junior School pupils will be dismissed to their parents/guardians at the end of the interval from their classrooms. If you haven’t already done so, please book your tickets here. If you would like your daughter to join you to watch the second half of the show, we would ask you to book a ticket for her, as this event will include designated seating. |
GDST Poetry Competition |
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I am pleased to announce that Constance (Year 4) and Shreya (Year 6) have had their poems have been selected to be submitted to the GDST Poetry Competition. The poems were fantastic and I am very proud to submit them to represent our school. Miss Hair |
News from our classrooms: Nursery and Pre School |
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We have celebrated the long awaited arrival of spring in Nursery this week. Our winter display has come down and the girls have been busy creating some more colourful artwork to replace it. Each of the girls have ‘planted’ their own cress seeds and they are eager to find out whose will grow the highest. Phoebe thinks that hers will ‘be a beanstalk!’ We have learnt that plants need both water and light to grow. The girls have also been making hair grow by pushing playdough hair through the character plungers. |
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To do this they exercised their fine motor skills to place the playdough in the plunger and then their upper body strength to push it out to make the ‘hair’. In phonics, we played a potion mixing game to match initial letter sounds and the girls made some instrumental sounds with shakers that they created themselves, deciding whether they wanted a light sound, using black eyed beans or a deeper sound, using dry pasta. In Pre School this week, we have been looking at other bird’s habitats after the chicks left us last week. As spring is now in the air, we have been listening to different bird calls as we take walks through the school grounds and when we have been outside playing. We have also seen nests high up in the trees. The girls, without any prompting, have collected sticks outside and built their own nests, both high up and low down. As they have done this we have talked about why birds need to have their nests high up. Extending this further we have been out collecting fallen sticks, bringing them back to Nursery and then making nests with clay and sticks in our rooms. The girls have enjoyed manipulating the clay and have shown long periods of concentration when creating their nests. We have had a little move around in Pre School and made our home corner larger which has encouraged a much busier area, helping the girls with their personal and social skills which are so important for the next step in their learning at the High School and beyond. As always, our careful planning has meant we have subtly been working on the girls’ mathematic and phonetic skills as they play, and we are so proud of how far each girl has developed from their starting points in Pre School. |
News from our classrooms: Reception |
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This week we have continued with our rhyming words and have been looking at the series of books ‘Oi frog’. We have been looking for the rhyming words and then finding out which part of the words are the same, e.g. ‘og’ in dog, fog and jog. The girls have been investigating using clay and how to manipulate it from a sphere into a pinch pot. In Maths, we have been looking at positional language and left and right. We enjoyed cooking on Thursday and produced tasty savoury cheese scones! |
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One of the highlights of the week was the trip to the farm (more details further down the newsletter), with further highlights being the ballet exams and this week’s Open Forest School! |
Year 1 RE Focus |
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Year 1 have been learning about Christianity and how Christians believe that Jesus is special. The girls have been acting out the arrival of Jesus on Palm Sunday and who they think is special to them. |
Year 2 RE Focus |
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The girls have been learning all about the importance of prayer in the Muslim religion. By looking at the different prayer positions and learning a song about the 5 daily prayers, the girls have understood why, and when Muslims pray. |
Year 3 RE Focus |
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Year 3 have been looking in depth at the Easter story. The girls have been asking questions such as ‘if Jesus knew he was going to die then why did he not run away?’ ‘what do Christians believe to be ‘good’ about Good Friday?’ and ‘how does this make Jesus special?’ We used coloured wool to create a question web to give each other compliments, explaining why each of us are special in our own way. |
Year 4 RE Focus |
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This term we have been learning to understand how Jesus’ life, death and resurrection teaches Christians about forgiveness. This week, we have discussed different scenarios and whether we should forgive each action. As a class, we read the start of ‘The Parable of the Lost Son’ and tried to predict the ending. Finally, the girls were given the end of the story to reflect on how this differed from their own ending. |
Year 5 RE Focus |
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This week, the Year 5 girls have been studying the Christian story of Easter and questioning whether God meant Jesus to die. We have looked in detail at the early events of Holy Week, Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday, and will be continuing on to Good Friday and Easter Sunday. The girls enjoyed thinking about the historical context of these events and acting out scenes in order to support their understanding. |
Year 6 RE Focus |
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In RE, Year 6 have been reading and interpreting sections of the Bible, to understand what Christians believe happens after death. We have completed some wonderful storyboards based on the ‘Parable of the Sheep and the Goats’. |
High Sports: U11 Netball |
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On Wednesday 22 March, Northampton High School’s U11 Netball Team played a home match against Quinton House. We started off the game with a worryingly, going 3-0 behind, but we powered through, trying our absolute hardest and we managed to get the score to 3-3. Quinton were a great team and they moved the score to 4-3. Finally, after a long and tiring game, the official score was 4-4, with 2 shots by Risara and 2 shots by Zoe. The Player of the Match for our team was Risara, as she worked super hard and always tried her best, scoring some amazing goals in the process. We were all proud that we drew and hopefully next time, we will take the win! Harriet S |
News from outside of our classrooms: Reception Trip to West Lodge Farm |
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Reception were very excited to be going on a trip to West Lodge Farm. After singing chicken songs in the minibus and lots of chatter, we eagerly arrived and were met by farmer Charlotte who was to be our farm guide. She told us all of the health and safety rules of the farm and then started the tour. Our first stop was the piggery, where we saw some very large sow pigs and piglets, but no boar. We went on to stroke the goats and then into the petting area where a lovely rabbit called Cottontail, and a guinea pig called Wilma, were out for us to stroke and feed grass to. The girls and the animals were very calm, and we left this area with many very much wanting a pet rabbit. |
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The next exciting experience was the chance to bottle feed a lamb, and it was a rather big and strong lamb who appeared to be very hungry! After washing our hands, we queued up for the barrel ride. There were lots of squeals of delight as it sped off around the circuit and through some water! After our picnic we had the chance to explore the rest of the animals and we saw ponies, cows, chickens, geese, turkeys and lots more! Our visit ended with watching the sheep race. Three different breeds, enticed by food in a bucket, named Henry, Sally and Lucy ambled around the track to lots of cheering, with Lucy putting in a last minute burst to win! The trip was full of first hand experiences, new vocabulary and lots of fun with friends. The class were impeccably behaved and were a pleasure to take. It was lovely to see so much obvious excitement, enthusiasm and learning taking place. |
News from outside of our classrooms: Year 5 Trip to Bletchley Park |
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Year 5 had a lot of fun at Bletchley Park, learning about the amazing people who worked there during World War 2. These brilliant minds were working to decipher German codes so the allied forces could find out what the enemy was going to do. We found out that there weren’t just codebreakers at Bletchley Park – it was like an entire village, that needed maintenance staff, cooks, cleaners and security. ‘I really liked seeing how the Bombe Machine worked and all the different things you had to do to get it running.’ Angelie B ‘We enjoyed looking at (and touching!) an Enigma Machine that was worth £300,000! We also liked learning about codebreaking and how hard it was for the people who were deciphering messages in WW2.’ Sakinah S and Poppy P ‘Our favourite bit was when we went into the huts and looked at all the different offices that people worked in; it was interesting to see the equipment they would have used.’ Maya R & Daisy S |
News from outside of our classrooms: Year 4 Ceramics Workshop |
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We were delighted to welcome Year 4 to the Senior School Art Department this week as we begin our annual Year 4 Ceramics Workshops. In the past, Junior School pupils have made sculptures including cats and owls, and this year we are focusing on African masks. Mrs Sanderson, our new technician, ordered in beautiful, earthy terracotta clay especially for this project. Pupils were busy cutting out the face shapes and extending decorations to include carved out sections and added beads, brows, lips and noses. We were very impressed with how much confidence Year 4 showed in their handling of the large slabs and their ability to use slipping and scoring techniques to ensure their mask was strong and safe for loading into the kiln. Next week, we shall be refining the decorative areas and tidying up sections, before we select underglazes such as red iron oxide, to paint onto the dry work, ready for firing to 1000 degrees. We had so much fun and our new ceramicists are now ready for building up their amazing sculpting skills! Mrs M Beacroft, Mrs A Sanderson and Mrs N Smith |
News from outside of our classrooms: Wildlife, Eco and Gardening Club |
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We continue to work towards our RHS Level 3 award, growing a range of fruits and vegetables and being able to demonstrate different sowing, planting and care methods. We have also begun to work towards the Woodland Trust School awards, examining recycling and our carbon footprint. In the words of Cordelia, Year 5: ‘In Gardening Club recently we have done a survey about recycling, examining what we can do to help the environment. We have also learnt about cloning and we are attempting to clone a plant (a geranium) by taking cuttings. We have planted lots of different seeds recently (peas, broad beans, cucumbers and tomatoes.) |
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Unfortunately, our tomatoes have not been a success as the windowsill in Science is too cold. However, we can see some shoots coming through in our other plants! We are currently working towards the Level 3 RHS Gardening award; to do this we need to show we can successfully plant and grow a range of plants, flowers and vegetables.’ |
News from outside of our classrooms: Year 3 Dobbies Trip |
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As part of their Science lessons learning all about plants, Year 3 took a walk over the road to Dobbies Garden Centre. The horticultural team there talked to the girls about what plants need to grow and then showed us how to plant sunflower, sweet peas and tomato plants. The girls were able to take the plants home and are now competing to see who can grow the tallest sunflower! |
Awards for this week |
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Star Learners of the Week – Millicent S, Pixie R, Leah W, Eliza A, Anna H, Annabelle R, Harini S, Jessica W Linguist of the Week – Avelyn C External Achievements: Amelia C-L – achieved a Level 4 in Swimming
Penelope J – achieved a Level 2 in Trampolining Pearl P – awarded a Family Tree and Book Lover Rainbow Badges Siena-Louise D B – achieved a Grade 4 in Gymnastics
Evie I – awarded Taekwondo Student of the Year Aurelia M – attended a Gymnastics Competition Rayna N – attended a Gymnastics Competition Iman S – attended a Gymnastics Competition Millicent S – attended a Gymnastics Competition, was awarded Gymnast of the term and achieved a Rainbow Gold Award Grace B – came 1st in a 50m backstroke, 2nd in front crawl, 3rd in backstroke and 3rd in breaststroke at a Swimming Gala and came 5th in a Tennis Competition Eve C – awarded Gymnast of the Week Caoimhe H-T – awarded Star of the Week in Irish Dancing Lydia C – awarded 1st in Vault in a Gymnastics competition Zoe S – competed in an Athletics Tournament |
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: Millicent S, Amelie N, Eloise R |
Turning 'can we?' into 'we can!' - Open Morning, Friday 28 April |
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We look forward to welcoming so many lovely families to our upcoming Open Morning on Friday 28 April. The event promises to be a superb showcase of life at Northampton High School. If you would like to come along, please do feel most welcome, and should you have family, friends, or neighbours keen to visit us, please encourage them to book their place here and join us! Mr Nash |
Community Sessions |
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Term Dates |
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Northampton High School |
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