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Junior News – 24 November 2023 |
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The DWP published food bank data for the first time in 2023. In its Households below average income (HBAI) statistics, it reported that 3% of all individuals in the UK used a food bank in the financial year ending 2022. Food banks in the United Kingdom have become a crucial safety net for individuals and families facing food insecurity. As of my last knowledge update in January 2022, food banks had been playing a significant role in addressing the growing issue of hunger and poverty. In this 500-word essay, we will explore the evolution, challenges, and importance of food banks in the UK. Food banks are charitable organisations that distribute food to people in need. They operate on a donation-based system, with individuals, businesses, and supermarkets contributing non-perishable items to help those struggling to put food on the table. The concept of food banks in the UK dates back to the late 20th century, but gained significant prominence in the early 21st century. One of the key drivers behind the growth of food banks in the UK has been the increase in food poverty. The rising cost of living, stagnant wages and changes in the welfare system have left many individuals and families unable to afford a sufficient and nutritious diet. In addition to these structural issues, unexpected events such as job loss, illness, or family breakdowns can push people into food poverty. Food banks have emerged as a response to this pressing issue. The Trussell Trust, one of the UK’s largest food bank networks, operates over a thousand food banks across the country. It has been at the forefront of the fight against hunger, providing emergency food parcels to those in need. These parcels typically contain a selection of non-perishable items, such as tinned food, pasta, and cereal. While food banks primarily focus on providing immediate relief, they also offer a point of contact for individuals to access wider support services, including advice on benefits and debt. Critics argue that food banks are a sign of systemic failure, indicating that the welfare state is not adequately supporting its citizens. They contend that food banks should not be necessary in a developed country like the UK. Despite the criticisms, food banks have become an integral part of the social safety net, filling a crucial gap when people are in crisis. Food banks rely on the generosity of the public to function. Individuals and organizations donate both food and funds to ensure that they can meet the rising demand. Supermarkets also play a role in this effort, with many partnering with food banks to collect donations from customers. This collaborative effort demonstrates the willingness of the public to help those in need. The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound impact on the operations of food banks in the UK. The economic fallout from the pandemic led to a surge in demand for food assistance. Many more people found themselves facing financial hardship due to job losses and reduced income. Food banks had to adapt to the increased need while implementing safety measures to protect both volunteers and recipients. The future of food banks in the UK remains uncertain. Ideally, a society should work towards reducing the need for such services by addressing the root causes of food poverty. Nevertheless, as long as there are people in need, food banks will continue to provide a vital lifeline. Their role extends beyond the provision of food, as they also highlight the deeper issues of poverty, inequality, and inadequate social support systems. It is clear that food banks in the United Kingdom have become a crucial resource for those facing food insecurity. While their existence reflects societal challenges and inequalities, they also demonstrate the compassion and solidarity of the public. As the UK addresses the root causes of food poverty, the importance of food banks as a temporary solution should not be underestimated. In an ideal world, they would become a last resort, not a long-term necessity. We are one week in to our two week drive to collect donated advent calendars to support the clients of our local foodbank, Weston Favell Foodbank. Thank you for your support thus far. If you are out shopping this weekend, please consider buying an advent calendar to donate. The collection station is by the door of the Junior School entrance. Thank you for your continued support. Miss Hair |
Upcoming Events |
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Save the Date: Christmas Fayre - Friday 1 December |
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Preparations for our Christmas Fayre are in full swing, with the big day just a week away now on Friday 1 December. We are pleased to share some more information with you, specifically with regard to the Christmas Grotto, the Raffle & Tombola and the Junior School Christmas Games. Please see below:Christmas Grotto: We are delighted that Santa will be making another visit to Northampton High School this year and will be inviting visitors into his Grotto! In an effort to reduce queuing time and allow families to enjoy the entirety of the Fayre, this year’s Grotto will be operated on a pre-booked basis. Slots are available on TryBooking by clicking here. Each slot allows two visitors per session, to enable two siblings to attend together if required, at a cost of £7.50 per child. Each child will receive a lovely gift from Santa. Tickets will be not available on the night of the Fayre, so we do encourage you to book your slots in advance to avoid disappointment.Raffle, Tombola & Junior School Christmas Games: These attractions at the Christmas Fayre will be accepting tokens only, rather than card payments or cash, as we are a ‘cashless’ school. Tokens can be purchased in advance, similar to last year’s Junior School Summer Fayre, and by doing so, we hope this will reduce queuing time and allow you to enjoy these stalls. Attractions taking tokens will be clearly marked to avoid confusion. Tokens can be pre-ordered on TryBooking by clicking here and once ordered, they can be collected from Junior School/Senior School Reception or from the Collection Desk on the night of the Fayre. Tokens will also be available to purchase at the event.Please note that the Christmas Market stalls run by students, parents and staff will take varied forms of payment such as cash, card and PayPal – so please bear that in mind when planning your visit. Our refreshment stations will only accept payment by card.We look forward to seeing you on Friday 1 December for some festive fun! Mr Nash |
Christmas Fayre - SIlent Auction now live! |
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Thank you for all of your support ahead of next Friday’s Christmas Fayre. Presents have been wrapped, reindeers have been fed and we can’t wait to welcome you into school for the event next Friday! We would like to take the opportunity to thank you for your bottle donations for this Thursday’s mufti day – we are still gratefully receiving these donations if your daughter hasn’t yet brought in her bottle. Our Silent Auction is now open for bidding, and we have some fantastic prizes up for grabs again this year. |
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A full list and description of each prize can be found below, with popular prizes from last year such as ‘Be the Head for a day’ and ‘Choose the lunch menu for a day’, returning alongside some exciting new prizes such as ‘Junior School no prep for a week passes’. To place a bid, please email k.price@nhs.gdst.net with your bid, name and contact information; winning bidders will be contacted week commencing Monday 4 December. Bidding closes at 7pm next Friday, and there will be the opportunity to place your silent bid at the Fayre. To see a full list of the prizes up for grabs, please click here. Mr Nash |
Parent Class Representatives |
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Following consideration, and then a discussion at the recent parent coffee morning, we will be introducing parent class representatives for the rest of this academic year. We have considered carefully what we are aiming to achieve with the introduction of this addition to our current communication channels. This will be an additional layer open to parents to utilise if they wish to, and will not replace any of our other channels. Parents may wish to utilise the parent class rep to act as a communication ‘bridge’. The summary of information and key reminders may be something parents find helpful. Parents may wish to use the parent class rep as a feedback channel to school. The parent class reps will encourage coordination from the parents in the class for key events and discussion topics, but parents are more than welcome to continue to communicate individually. The ultimate goal is to provide an optional coordinated communication channel between parents of each class and the school, to strengthen further our positive working relationships for the benefit of the pupils. If you would like to volunteer to act as the class parent rep for this academic year for your daughter’s class, please email me directly on e.hair@nhs.gdst.net by the end of next week (1 December). I will aim to coordinate a meeting early in the spring term for this group of parents. Miss Hair |
Christmas Jumper Day |
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Save the Children’s Christmas Jumper day is 2 weeks away! If you don’t have a jumper for your child to wear this year yet then please do consider checking our stock at the uniform swap shop to save you buying a new item from the shops. If you have any jumpers at home that your daughter has now grown out of please consider donating these by passing them to the office. Thank you for your continued support. |
New Event: Christmas Craft Workshop |
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The World Challenge Project |
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In July 2024, 15 Northampton High School A Level students will be participating in The World Challenge Project. We will be going on a two week expedition to Vietnam, where we will be volunteering and trekking as well as learning many new skills and engaging in new experiences. To support this expedition, the World Challenge team will be holding a Christmas movie night in the Senior Hall on 13 December, showing the animated film ‘Grinch’ (2018). The tickets for this event will be £4.50 and food and drinks will be available to purchase including popcorn, sweets and more. Please be aware that we can only take card payments and for this reason, we are offering a snack bag which can be purchased with the film ticket online. The film will start at 3.55pm and finish at 5.20pm, and the late bus will still be available for those who require it. Junior School students will need to be collected from the Junior School reception after the event. Tickets for this event can be purchased here. Thank you in advance for your support. The World Challenge Team |
News from our classrooms: Nursery and Preschool |
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In Nursery this week, we have been saying goodbye to autumn with our last autumn themed story, finally cutting all the Autumn vegetables that have been growing in our outdoor area! At Forest School we played some autumn themed games. Cooking this week was rather messy as the girls drizzled melted chocolate onto their Weetabix biscuits, and somehow managed to get this around their faces! Our Maths focus this week was shapes, and most of the girls are able to identify at least one shape which is fantastic! They have been very keen to play with the shapes in the Tap Tap art resources. |
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We are beginning to get festive in Preschool this week as we have started practising our Christmas songs and making our first Christmas crafts. We have made our names out of play dough by rolling sausage shapes and strengthening our hand muscles. In Phonics, we have been playing a sound game and we had to identify the beginning sound of objects. Outside, the girls had the idea of acting out a story and chose ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, taking it in turns to play each character. The girls have been very creative this week making lots of models and drawings from many different resources. |
Reception |
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This week, the class have started to create their own story based on language from the text ‘Whatever Next’, using pictures as prompts. We thought about our own character; where they would go? how they would get there? what they would do? In Maths, we have been using 5 and 10 frames to find 1 more and 1 less than a given number. We have also been looking for sources of light, the most important one being the sun…. which wasn’t out at the time! In Phonics this week, we have been revising and using some of our sounds to write captions and sentences. Rehearsals for our Christmas play are underway and you may start to hear some songs being sung as they are very catchy tunes! |
Year 1 Art Focus |
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Year 1 are studying the work of Spanish Catalan artist Joan Miro this half term. We have already learnt that Miro used colour, fun, dreams and nonsense to create his ‘Magical Realist’ paintings. We have begun by makings drawings in our sketchbooks, based on our own lives, in the style of Miro. |
Year 2 Art Focus |
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As part of our ‘Landscapes and Cityscapes’ topic, Year 2 have enjoyed creating work in the style of Claude Monet. We painted using cotton wool buds to create the style of Monet’s distinctive short brushstrokes. We were really proud of the effect we achieved! |
Year 3 Art Focus |
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Year 3 have been looking at the painting ‘The Volcano’ by Nick Rowland. He said, “I am inspired by shapes, colour, trees and nature. I like to push my boundaries with paint and colour and building my pictures up in layers.” The girls have started to use various techniques to build up the layers of their own paintings. Eloise said, “I enjoyed using a straw to blow the paint.” Nellie commented, “It was fun to drop the marble in the paint and then roll it over the paper”. |
Year 4 Art Focus |
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Year 4 have been creating press prints of scenes to represent their memories. The girls have been learning to make grooves in the polystyrene before rolling ink evenly over the design. They had to remember to press down firmly with a clean roller and peel the paper away carefully to create a clear print. |
Year 5 Art Focus |
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The girls in Year 5 have finished their unit on David Hockney, and produced some wonderful painting emulating his famous piece ‘The Bigger Splash’. “I really enjoyed these lessons because some bits were tricky like the chair and the splash, but I got better at painting than I was before.” Olivia “The hardest part about painting this picture was how you had to make the lines so thin because my hands kept shaking.” Zoe “My favourite part was doing the splash because we had to use watered down acrylic paint and sort of flick it and the paint just created the splash.” Holly |
Year 6 Art Focus |
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Year 6 have been designing Greek urns in their Art lessons this term. We have practised working with clay and the techniques needed to make our urns. Last week, we finally got to make them for real and had extra lessons of Art. We wrapped them in plastic bags and sprayed them lightly with water so that they did not dry out in between sessions. It was not an easy task to make the urn shape, but the girls were all very resilient and they persevered. To finish the urns off, some girls added handles and lids before we left them to dry. Once they are dry, they will be put in the kiln before we put the final touches of decoration on with black paint. We will then display them for everyone to admire. |
News from outside of the classroom: Demeter House Spotlight |
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Demeter was the daughter of Cronus and Rhea. She was the goddess of harvest and fertility. Demeter had a husband called Zeus and had eight children. Her children were Despoina, Eubuleus, Plutus, Philomelus, Lacchus, Acheron, Hecate (Orphic) and Persephone, she also gave birth to a horse called Arion. Zeus was husband and brother of Demeter. Demeter was swallowed by her Dad when she was a baby. Demeter had five siblings, Zeus, (which is also her husband) Poseidon, Hades, Hera and Hestia. Demeter lived on the top of Mount Olympus. She was one of the twelve Olympian gods. She was over 100 feet tall and very brave. In Demeter, we are brave and strong and we always try our best. We are very proud to be House and Vice Captains and are looking forward to planning the House event at the end of term. Sakinah S & Poppy P |
News from outside of the classroom: U10A v Broughton Manor Hockey Match Report |
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On Wednesday 15 November, Year 5 played a match against Broughton Manor. We won 2-0 and did a great job of creating space and communicating. Olivia and Thea scored a goal each. A special well done to Constance who played in goal for the team. Overall, Year 5 did a great job and we’re really proud! Elizabeth F-W |
News from outside of the classroom: District Cross Country Event |
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On Wednesday the 22 November, the Cross Country team went to a District Cross Country Event at Courteenhall Estate. Luisa and I, as Cross Country Captains, attended with our team and had lots of support from our teachers Mrs Littlewood and Mrs Wright. I think Northampton High School did a great job and I had a lot of fun cheering on my friends and the other classes. Please find the results below – well done everyone! |
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Year 4 – Ellie, Caoimhe, Pixie, Shanaya and Grace B – the first NHS runner back and 26th overall Year 5 – Eloise C, Thea, Constance and Avani who was the first NHS runner back and 10th overall. Year 6 – Cora, Daisy, Zara – 9th overall and Luisa who was the first NHS runner back and 8th overall. Well done to Avani and Luisa who both qualified for the next round to represent the District at the County Championships which will be held on 20 January at West Glebe, Corby. Mrs Littlewood and Mrs Wright did a very good job of keeping track of us all and Mrs Littlewood did an extremely good job of being our bus driver. I really enjoyed going and competing in this race. Cora S |
Weekly Awards |
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Star Learners of the Week – Penelope J, Inara F, Sophia R-N, Amelia K, Grace A, Isabella B, Annabel P, Zoe Z, Eliza A, Alishba F and Jesleen R Times Tables Rock Star – England Rocks Awards: Eve C – Most Valuable Player External Achievements: Pearl P – awarded a Rainbows Badge for a Remembrance Parade |
Birthdays This Week |
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This week, we wish a very Happy Birthday to the following members of our Junior School family: Agnes R and Robyn F-W |
Christmas Community Session |
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Diversity and Inclusion Calendar 23/24: November |
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Term Dates |
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Northampton High School |
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