Part of this is ensuring our pupils are inspired in the classroom and have opportunities to find their passions. 

This week, the Junior School celebrated Hobbies Morning, hosted by an enthusiastic and well-prepared Year 5, and attended by Year 5 parents and guardians, families and friends. Research highlights the vital role hobbies play in a child’s development, offering far more than just entertainment. I thoroughly enjoyed speaking with every Year 5 pupil about her hobbies, which develop essential life skills such as creativity, and perseverance, and foster a sense of accomplishment, boosting confidence. This was very much in evidence on the day from every girl. 

Our pupils delivered outstanding presentations in assembly and hosted interactive stalls in their classrooms, where both adults and pupils learned about the girls’ chosen hobbies and participated in engaging activities. The hobbies on display ranged from sports including jujitsu, tetrathlon, and riding to arts such as painting, story writing, and baking. Dr Lee, Mr Rickman and I were impressed by the effort and creativity each girl put into her presentation and stall. Pupils from Reception to Year 6 enjoyed the event and it was impressive to see how Year 5s enthusiastically engaged with every visitor. A big thank you to Year 5 and Miss Brandon-Jones for a truly fantastic event.

I hope you enjoy this week’s edition of Junior News where you will learn more about pupils celebrating Lunar New Year and the creative opportunities they have had in Music which is this week’s subject focus. 

Mrs Saunders-Wall
Interim Director of Junior School Liaison

In Nursery this week we have been looking at shapes in our outside environment following our shale work in the classroom. Shale is a fine-grained rock formed from clay or mud that breaks easily into thin layers and flakes. 

The Luna New Year has given the girls the opportunity to learn about different traditions and explore the rich colours associated with the celebrations. The girls enjoyed tasting food that is eaten in China.

In classroom activities, we have been working on hand eye co-ordination by encouraging the girls to complete puzzles and use equipment such as scissors and paint.

This week in Preschool we have continued with the story ‘Red Riding Hood’, looking at some different versions of the story. The girls were able to spot some of these differences including the characters and setting. They showed their curiosity, asking why there were differences even though it was the same story. This led us to discuss the illustrators drawing their pictures slightly differently and the author writing the story differently too.

We have learned about Luna New Year and what that means for people around the world. We joined up with Reception class to celebrate and take part in many activities. These included trying cultural snacks, making some pretend dumplings and sweets, dressing up and dancing to traditional music.

We watched a short video on the zodiac animals and the great race, where we learned this year it will be known as the year of the snake. Because of this we have made snakes with the play dough and printed patterns onto the body of a snake too.

In our Music session this week, we visited the Junior School music room as this space gives us lots of opportunities to move around to music and to investigate all the amazing instruments we have on offer to play.

The class requested that we started the lesson with a familiar song – ‘Bang, bang stop!’ which encourages the pupils to play their instruments in a quiet / loud alternating pattern and Reception class can do this brilliantly.

They love choosing which instrument to explore each week and talking about about how they are handled and played correctly. We thought about how instruments can be used to represent different characters in stories and we acted out and performed a story about a giant who was chasing a little mouse, incorporating loud and slow and fast and short sounds.

An overarching focus for Music in Junior School is to improve the ability to read from notation. This focus has permeated many of our extracurricular activities in recent weeks, including Monday Singing Assembly, Junior Choir and Keyboard Club. We are collectively using sophisticated music vocabulary and terminology to ensure our students are able to identify musical features using sheet music. 

Year 1
In Year 1 music sessions this term, we have been exploring how sounds can be produced in different ways using our voices and instruments. We have loved learning the new songs ‘We’re Detectives’ and ‘Spider Music’ thinking about how sounds change dynamically and in tempo.

Next week, we shall be having a music instrument making session where each member of the class will be creating their own musical instrument thinking about how it is played whether it is plucked, scraped, rattled or tapped and we will then use these instruments as part of a class ensemble activity. We would be grateful for any junk modelling resources that could help with our mini project and these should be sent into school ready for our lesson next Wednesday.

Year 2
In Year 2, we have been thinking about how songs and music can communicate different moods and emotions. We have been thinking how a lullaby would be a suitable piece of music to calm and help someone to sleep, whereas the music by Edvard Grieg – ‘In the hall of the Mountain King’ creates a feeling of excitement and fear. To link with classroom topics, we have enjoyed learning the song ‘Here comes the Dragon’ for Lunar New Year and have been using the pentatonic scale to create and play our own rhythms using crotchets and quaver notes on chime bars.

Year 3
Year 3 have been working hard on improving their reading and writing of simple rhythm notation by clapping and layering rhythms with the emphasis on maintaining a steady pulse and trying to remain in time with each other. We have also been looking at the pentatonic scale using the glockenspiels to memorise melodies and add simple ostinati to create a group performance. As it has been Chinese New Year, we have also taken this opportunity to learn a Chinese song and play a Chinese inspired melody.

Year 4
Year 4 students have been looking at the harmonic minor scale using keyboards in the keys of C and D. We have also added chords alongside these scales, further cementing the character of this curious scale. Students should ensure they practice the techniques between lessons where possible. 

Year 5
Year 5 have continued to work enthusiastically on improving a range of practical skills. They have recently begun working on the songs for the upcoming production. The main focus this term has been learning how to identify the notes on the bass clef using simple mnemonics and using this information to play melodies on the keyboard. The reading of treble clef has also been reinforced and we have begun to tackle simple melodic dictation.

Year 6
Year 6 students have begun learning the songs for the forthcoming production of Peter Pan. This very much aligns with our global focus on reading from notation, as we display the scores on the board during lessons. The songs often split into two or more parts, therefore reading speeds the learning process.

We won 19-4 with some incredible goals. Despite St Mary’s School not having much netball experience they still played really well and scored 4 goals. The Player of the Match was Evette who played very well as did the rest of the team. – Thea 

Mrs Saunders-Wall was incredibly proud of the team for being patient and helpful with their opponents in their first ever game of Netball.

Some conditions were given to the team to even the playing field and the pupils showed a great attitude and determination through the whole game!

This week the Year 5 girls have been focusing on visual design tasks, and creating individual Hobbies Morning displays for their blue boards and their Google Slides presentations.

Miss Brandon-Jones was incredibly proud of her class. They spoke brilliantly in assembly, and then spent the whole morning interacting with pupils, parents and staff.

After the event, they talked about how they had to keep changing their answers, especially when the littlest girls came to visit, so that they could be understood. It was an amazing morning, full of variety and excitement.

If you would like to see more photos, please email junioradmin@nhs.gdst.net to request the Flickr Album link.

On the 24 January, a Book Swap was held. It was organised by the School Council and was a great success. Hopefully, everyone enjoyed the swap and emerged with an exciting new book or two.

Although some were left, they will be going to good causes – our Junior School library or on a stall at the Summer Fair. During the meeting on Monday 27 January, our lovely council members transferred the books to the library.

Thank you to everyone who brought a book for the swap. The whole of the School Council has worked extremely hard to make this happen, and we are very happy with the outcome.

On the behalf of the School Council, we wish you a wonderful reading journey!
Elizabeth and the School Council

We are very excited to share the news of our brand new girls-only toddler group starting this month!

Girls aged 1-3 and their parents, grandparents and guardians are all welcome to come along and delve into a wide variety of toys, crafts and ‘surprise play stations’ created to spark imagination and fun times. Always remember ‘dress to get messy!’.

This toddler group will be held fortnightly on Tuesdays, 9.15am – 10am, a full list of dates and the online booking form can be found on the school website https://www.northamptonhigh.co.uk/admissions/open-events/

Please feel free to share this with any friends who may be interested, and come and join us with your little ones too. Our first session is next week, Tuesday 4 February. The Spring Term sessions are free of charge.