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Junior News 28 May 2021 |
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Dear Parents, When driving through Norfolk one day, I found myself diverted onto a route comprising some rather narrow twisty roads. For many miles I followed a truck, orange in colour, which bore the slogan ‘Insulation and a Great Deal More’. Once home, curiosity took me to the internet and to the discovery that Encon Insulation and its associates are leading national distributors of a comprehensive range of thermal, acoustic and fire protection products to all sectors of the construction industry. This was of passing interest as one of my nephews is a Fire Engineer. I then began to think that Northampton High School could be said to offer ‘Education and a Great Deal More’! While our primary aim is to deliver a bespoke and inspiring curriculum, for all ages from Nursery to Sixth Form, the importance of extracurricular activities, outstanding pastoral care and socialisation with others in school cannot be overestimated. It has not taken me long to realise that, in normal times, Junior School pupils benefit from an exceptional range of extracurricular opportunities, including clubs, expeditions, competitions and GDST collaborations. Clearly, many of these had to be scaled back due to the pandemic but it is wonderful to see after school clubs, in bubbles, of course, attracting eager participants and to look forward to a time when cross-phase clubs and school trips become the norm again.
I have had great pleasure from visiting the after school clubs on Tuesdays this term and it is obvious from the buzz of conversation and activity in each session that the girls gain skills and confidence from the open-ended tasks on offer, many of which require agile communication, steady cooperation, and a real sense of compromise. From creating spider’s webs in Reception to debating whether ‘snow days’ could be a feature of the past in Year 6, via art, craft, nature and construction clubs in other year groups, I have learnt much about how Northampton High Junior School pupils tackle fresh challenges. I am now looking forward to finding out more about the opportunities in Music and Sport, many of which have been paused until the further lifting of restrictions, and I am wondering whether there might be an appetite for some Scottish Dancing in the autumn!
Talking of Sport, there was great excitement when our Under 11 cricket teams played against Milton Keynes Prep School on Wednesday. They learnt a lot and are now looking forward to further fixtures after half term. Meanwhile, it has been fantastic to see Year 6 pupils thoroughly engrossed in their ‘Poetry in a Week’ project over the last few days and I thoroughly enjoyed watching some informal presentations, following an online poetry workshop with Jo Stokes on Monday. I know the girls have been working hard on their final performances and am sure their families will be impressed when they are invited to view these online. Year 5 has benefited from peripheral involvement in the project; this is another fine example of enrichment within and beyond the curriculum, enabling our pupils to thrive and believe in themselves. We wish you and your families a lovely Bank Holiday weekend and hope you also enjoy the change of routine during the half term break next week. Katie Milne |
Achievements |
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Each week in our virtual assembly, girls are invited to share their achievements in activities outside of school. They are listed below for this week: Phoebe – has qualified, and will be representing England at the Dance World Cup to be held in August of this year for the Junior National Classical Dance category. Rithika – recently attended her Grade 4 Piano exam, which was online this year. She has passed with Distinction with a score of 90/100. |
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Dates for your diary |
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Monday 31 May to Friday 4 June – Half term Please note that Summer uniform is compulsory after May half term. Thursday 10 June – Class photographs Friday 11 June – KS2 Sports Day (unfortunately no spectators are allowed due to our Covid risk assessment) Wednesday 16 June clubs cancelled – there will not be Year 5 Art Club or Year 4 Nature Club on this date Monday 21 June to Friday 25 June – Virtual Arts Festival week Friday 2 July – Welcome Day Friday 9 July – Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 Sports Morning (unfortunately no spectators are allowed due to our Covid risk assessment) Monday 12 July – Friday 16 July – No teacher-led clubs Thursday 15 July – Year 6 Valedictory Event Friday 16 July 12.00 noon – End of term |
Nursery - Kipper Room and Elmer Room |
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This week we have had some very interesting objects in our water tray. Vegetable sticks, cucumber slices, spaghetti and broccoli, to name a few, the girls seemed to be very interested in the way the different foods felt when in the water. We have been expanding the girls’ vocabulary in relation to different textures when playing, such as using the words smooth, tough or squashy. We have also talked about the different shapes we could see in the water tray. “The cucumber is a circle,” Elodie told me. Isabella was also able to point out that the broccoli and asparagus made “the water turn green”. The girls have been using chalks on the easel. Zara has drawn a lot of lines all over the easel to make a lovely picture. As always lots of cakes and cupcakes have been made in the sand and water trays, the vegetables being the secret ingredient. |
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The girls have been very kind and welcomed a new friend this week, including her in their games. In PE we had some different apparatus set up in the hall for the girls to tackle. These included beams, a tunnel, and an ‘A’ frame that the girls enjoyed jumping off. The girls were very confident when jumping off the frame, “Look!” Mikayla shouted, seeming very impressed with herself. Another popular game that the girls liked to play in PE was Hula Hoop rolling. “My turn, Miss King,” Mikayla told me. The girls got very excited when they were chasing after the hoops. We hope the sunshine stays for a while and you all have a lovely half term. |
Nursery - Pre School |
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This week in Pre School we have continued our theme of minibeasts. The girls have created their own version of some lovely butterflies, spiders, and beetles, using a range of different junk modelling materials. They helped Miss Hillery make play dough, which they played with and also used for our play dough disco. This combined following instructions of how to manipulate the play dough with a series of hand and finger exercises, designed to improve fine muscle control which supports the development of writing skills. ‘Superworm’ is our book of the week where the girls have been recognising rhyming words within it. After the successful minibeast hunt last week, we decided it would be nice to continue with a pond hunt. We were lucky to see a range of different creatures including a tadpole, water snail, newt, pond skater, and water beetle. Girls followed the rules to keep safe near the water. Well done! |
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What the girls have said: “A spider!” Hanaa. Looking ahead: Thank you! |
Reception |
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This week the girls were delighted to find that we had four beautiful Painted Lady butterflies, which had emerged from their cocoons. They were very interested to watch the wings open and to see the colours. After linking the learning about habitats and where butterflies would like to live, we decided to take them to Forest School with us and release them to make their new home. Creative activities this week have included making clay minibeasts, finishing artwork inspired by ‘Surprised!’ by Henri Rousseau, completing a pictorial life cycle of a butterfly and making cups of tea in the water tray. |
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In Numeracy, we have been looking carefully at the sign in sums to see if it is an addition or subtraction and counting carefully to find the correct answer. We have sent home a bean seed to see if you can continue to look after it and discuss any changes that happen. Who knows how tall it might grow and what will be at the top of it! Let’s hope for some lovely weather next week so that you can enjoy the outdoors. |
Year 1 |
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This week in English, we have looked at a second alternative version to the story of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’. This story is called ‘The Wolfs’ Story’ and it tells a different side again to this traditional tale. The girls have really enjoyed this story and before we finished it they were busy thinking of predictions for how the story might end. They have also thought carefully about what the wolf from this story might want to say to Little Red Riding Hood and have written her a letter, explaining his side of the events. In Maths, we started a new focus, looking at position and direction. We have been using different shapes and Numicon to help us describe turns and have started to look at describing position. In Science, we have been thinking about the life cycle of plants. We have looked at their journey from seeds to adult plants and what happens during these different stages. In our Art this week, we have looked at Mondrian and created our own designs based on his work, exploring the shapes and colours used by this artist. In Computing this week, we have finished our work on Maze Explorers and programming animations to move in certain directions. |
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What the girls have said: “I liked being a Maze Explorer in Computing.” Rhoda and Shanaya. Looking ahead: Maths – place value to 100 I hope you all have a wonderful half term and enjoy the warmer weather hopefully coming our way. |
Year 2 |
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This week we have finished our work on position and direction in Maths. We continued to work on left and right and, later in the week, we explored clockwise and anti-clockwise as well as refreshed quarter and half turns – we did a lot of moving about the classroom and instruction writing to help us. In English, we took on the role of the wolf from ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ and shared his side of the story by writing a letter to Little Red to explain. Would he lie? In Science, we looked at the life cycle of a plant and the different ways seed dispersal can occur to continue the cycle. In Art, we learned about the work of Piet Mondrian and we all enjoyed creating a piece of work in his style using primary colours. In PSHE this week, we talked about compliments and how nice it feels to receive a compliment as well as to give one. We read the story, ‘Have you filled a bucket today?’ and thought about the different things we can do to fill each other’s buckets. |
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What the girls have said: “I liked using the primary colours to create a picture in Art.” Cristina. Looking ahead: Maths – time |
Year 3 |
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This week Year 3 have been continuing with time in Maths and learning to convert am and pm to 24-hour time. Please try to work on this at home too. In English, we have had further discussions about immortality and debated the pros and cons of reading the book, ‘How to Live Forever’. In Science, we collected soil samples to investigate the properties of the soil at school. The girls were delighted to find many minibeasts in their samples. They then wrote recipes for making soil. |
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What the girls have said: “I enjoyed diving under poles in swimming this week.” Cora. Looking ahead: I hope you all have a restful half term and come back refreshed and ready to start the final half term in Year 3. Enjoy your holiday! Mrs Dadge |
Year 4 |
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In Maths, we have been converting from analogue to digital time. In English, we used prepositions to give instructions to Lenny when he was running away and personified verbs to describe a setting. The girls created some lovely phrases for this. In Science, we finished our topic on sound by creating musical instruments that could change in pitch and amplitude. Once again, the girls’ teamwork was fantastic. We finished our Ancient Egypt topic by creating presentations to summarise our learning. |
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What the girls have said: “In PE we practised hurdles and relay for Sports Day. The bigger hurdles were harder than the smaller ones.” Avleen. Looking ahead: English – introducing our new text: Odd and the Frost Giants. Writing in role using noun phrases and relative clauses. Dates for your diary: Thursday 10 June – Class photos. Please make sure your daughter is in her summer uniform with her hair tied back neatly. With very best wishes for a sunny and fun-filled half term break. The girls have been fantastic this term! Mrs Shaw |
Year 5 |
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Wow! What a busy week! Almost too many highlights to count. We started the week with Year 6, doing some brilliant poetry workshops led by Jo Stokes. She spent time with the girls going through different styles of poem and then writing a collaborative poem with us all, linked to our Poetry Week themes. By the end of the day we were exhausted but my goodness, what a way to kick off the week. On Tuesday, the girls started writing their own group poems and then on Wednesday finished them off, practised performing them and then went down to Forest School for… more poetry! Well, that was one of the activities. I have to say I don’t think it rated as highly as our ‘Save the Egg’ challenge, but it was wonderful to see adjectives, rhymes, and figurative language all being put onto whiteboards. And now it’s Thursday afternoon; the girls have just finished making chocolate chip cookies to prove some chemical changes are irreversible and have recorded their poems ready for the Year 5 and 6 Poetry Week performance. What a triumph! I do hope you enjoy watching them and talking to your daughters about the writing process. Have a fabulous half term holiday! |
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What the girls have said: “I really enjoyed doing the cookies and also eating the cookies! My favourite part was mixing the ingredients, and I when I got home I warmed them up and shared them with my Dad. He said they were very nice.” Darcy. “I loved doing weaving and poetry at Forest School, but most of all I loved the protecting the egg thing where we had to protect our eggs when we dropped them – our eggs didn’t crack and I was very happy because I thought it had cracked, but it was just one of the bubbles in the bubble wrap!” Lucy. “This week I really enjoyed writing and performing our poems. My group was all about celebrating diversity and I liked doing it in a group because then you have loads of people to help you with ideas. The class one was fun as well, because you got a kind person and then a grumpy person, and it was like having a conversation.” Aiyana. Dates for your diary: Girls should be wearing summer uniform after half term, including black school shoes. Year 5 girls may wear PE kit on Thursdays and Fridays when they have a PE lessons (except on the Class Photo day) but should be in uniform on days they have after school sports clubs – as there will be time for them to change. |
Year 6 |
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The Year 5 and 6 ’Poetry Extravaganza’ It is always a pleasure to work creatively with the pupils at Northampton High School – their focus, drive, and determination, coupled with their ability to think outside of the box, guarantees that the work they produce is of the highest standard, and this week has proved to be no exception. Following on from an inspirational workshop, delivered by the writer, Jo Stokes, the pupils in Years 5 and 6 have explored four issues that are close to their hearts, themes that are often discussed within the classroom setting and, we are sure, across the dinner table at home. From saving the planet, examining the power of girls, celebrating diversity, and surviving the Covid-19 pandemic, the pupils have had meaningful and insightful discussions about these important issues and encapsulated their thoughts and feelings in a number of thought-provoking poems, delivered with such conviction that they could not be ignored! |
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As said by Samuel Coleridge, “Poetry is the best words in the best order”, and Year 5 and 6 have certainly proved this! We are Survivors (Clerihew) Like a battle with a beast. Like being trapped in a box, A Celebration of Diversity (Cinquain) Together Finally, we would like to say a big thank you to all of Year 6 for their lead role in this exciting project and to Year 5 in their supporting role, Mr Nash for putting together our film (which you can find by clicking here) and Mr Rose for his technical expertise! We hope that you all enjoy watching the film and looking at the photos on Flickr. We wish you all an enjoyable half term break. Karen Fordham & Nicola Taylor |
School Bunting Project |
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In order to bring our school community back together after being separated for so much of the last year, the Student Senior Leadership Team (SSLT) have launched a project to help demonstrate our spirit within the school. We are asking each student and staff member – all the way from Reception to 6.2 – to create a triangle of bunting, showing their experience of the last year in any form they like – whether that be a drawing of their family, collage of pictures or even knitting or crocheting to show a new skill that they have learnt. Each Form Tutor will distribute the templates to their Forms; please would all students and staff members return their finished flag by Monday 14 June, so that we can piece them together before the end of the summer term. We can’t wait to see your designs! Jodie W |
Summer Term Extracurricular Timetable |
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We are delighted that we are able to expand our offering of extracurricular clubs after half term. Although different year groups will be attending the club together, we will ensure we follow the NGB guidance and the GDST risk assessment are adhered to on return to play, and keep our bubbles separate. We look forward to seeing you there. Mrs Blake |
Northampton High opens doors to the Pauline Quirke Academy of Performing Arts |
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The popular Pauline Quirke Academy of Performing Arts (PQA) will open at its new venue – Northampton High School – this weekend. Having run a host of performing arts activities virtually throughout the lockdowns, PQA moves to its new home of Northampton High tomorrow for weekly Saturday school sessions. We are delighted to welcome PQA and its students to our site. Mrs Wilmot |
Swap Shop |
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For those of you who may be having a clear-out of old uniform over the half term break, we would like to reiterate that we are happy to accept redundant items of uniform to sell in our Swap Shop. We would appreciate you washing and labeling the items (labels available from Reception) and please do not send in any sports kit or blazers displaying the old school logo, as we cannot sell these items. In addition, we will endeavour to find any items you require if you email us the size via the school office. Students can take the item home to try on and return the next day or make payment by BACS. Thank you in advance. The Swap Shop Team |
Medication and medical conditions |
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Further to our message earlier this term, may we please ask that any medication held by the school for students, or carried by students, is regularly checked for expiry dates. Should you wish to provide new medication for students in school, please send this for my attention. Equally, should you wish to discuss your daughter’s medical condition or need to update us of any changes, please contact me on k.dunkley@nhs.gdst.net. Many thanks for your support. Mrs Dunkley |
Term Dates 20/21 |
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Term Dates 21/22 |
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Term Dates 22/23 |
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Northampton High School |
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